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For the week of February 15, 2025 / 17 Shevat 5785
Yitro
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 18:1 – 20:23
Haftarah: Isaiah 6:1 – 7:6; 9:5-6 (English Isaiah 6:1 – 7:6; 9:6-7)
Originally posted the week of February 18, 2017 / 22 Shevat 5777 (updated)
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Shemot/Exodus 20:8-11)
I was in Vancouver, Canada, some years ago to participate in an event. Over three days, thousands of people gathered at one of the city’s largest venues to hear speakers on a variety of biblical topics. My ministry was one of over two hundred with displays, small and large. Weeks before the event, I was discussing with one of my daughters what I might do to encourage people to interact with my display. She suggested I make a simple sign with the words, “Ask me a Bible question!” This indeed led to some very interesting discussions.
One interaction didn’t go so well, however. In the name of asking me a question, the person chose to harshly lecture me on the Sabbath. In the end, they questioned my eternal future with God because I wouldn’t fully subscribe to their perspective, which is too bad since this is a critical and often neglected issue.
So, as briefly as I can, I will share what I believe to be a sound biblical perspective on the Sabbath. First, in whatever way we may derive universal moral principles from the Ten Commandments (of which the Sabbath command is a part), it is primarily a cornerstone of the covenant given by God to the people of Israel through Moses at Mt. Sinai. As the special ten, they represented the whole of the covenant, which includes many other directives covering every aspect of Israelite society. This is why the tablets of the Ten Commandments were to be included in the Ark of the Covenant, stored in the Most Holy Place within the Tabernacle and later the Temple.
Unlike the earlier covenant God made with Israel through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which was unconditional and eternal, the Sinai Covenant through Moses was conditional and temporary. As a covenant, it was broken by the people of Israel by their repeatedly turning to other gods. God’s response to the breaking of the Sinai Covenant was the New Covenant promised through the prophet Jeremiah (see Jeremiah 31:31-33) and instituted by the Messiah (see Luke 22:20).
The New Covenant internalizes much of the Sinai Covenant’s essence and permanently establishes a right relationship with God. As a system of law, therefore, the Sinai Covenant is no longer in effect. Therefore, the Ten Commandments as representative of the Sinai Covenant aren’t binding. This doesn’t mean that the principles they represent are to be neglected necessarily, since biblically speaking, they are clearly eternal, universal principles, like so many of the other directives contained in the Sinai Covenant. However, applying the Sabbath beyond the confines of ancient Israel isn’t straightforward. As the early followers of Yeshua began to teach God’s Truth to non-Jews, while they taught principles based on Old Covenant Scripture, including the Ten Commandments, they warned against the imposition of Sabbath law (e.g., Galatians 2:16; Colossians 4:10). Why is that?
Unlike the other nine and many other directives revealed by God through Moses, Sabbath keeping includes more than the moral and spiritual components of other commands. By regulating the workweek, Sabbath also addresses society in general. Not only would it be impossible for people outside the Jewish world to effectively observe Sabbath by demanding the cessation of work, it would also cause an unnecessary clash with the pagan world of that day.
Does that mean, therefore, that Sabbath has no place whatsoever among Yeshua’s followers? For much of history, Sabbath has been central to the lives of believers. It is thought that the Sabbath was changed from the seventh day (Saturday) to the first (Sunday) due to Yeshua’s resurrection and the early believers meeting on that day. Actually, there is very little evidence of what occurred and why. Nevertheless, for most of the past two thousand years, believing communities have almost always determined that some sort of Sabbath-keeping was to be implemented. In my opinion, they were right to do so because even though Sabbath keeping was not to be imposed upon believers from among the nations, it is clearly an important principle of Scripture stemming back to the giving of the Sinai Covenant. While the Sabbath, as expressed in the Ten Commandments, is specific to Israel under the Sinai Covenant, it is rooted in creation (Bereshit/Genesis 2:1-3) and also reveals God’s perspective on the need for rest. The need for rest is not just about self, but also for those under our care, even including animals. Therefore, why would we not seek to implement such a principle that obviously expresses God’s understanding of life, work, and rest?
By not imposing their particular implementation of Sabbath, the early Jewish believers gave non-Jewish communities the opportunity to develop culturally appropriate expressions of Sabbath over time, which is precisely what they did. They did, that is, until more recently when it has just about been forgotten altogether.
While we are not mandated to impose Sabbath keeping upon one another, we would be well advised to seek God and the Scriptures to appropriately apply the Sabbath within our communities today. This includes speaking into the society at large, encouraging civil governments to return to the godly rhythm of rest exemplified by the Creator himself.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of February 8, 2025 / 10 Shevat 5785
B’shallach
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 13:17 – 17:16
Haftarah: Shoftim/Judges 4:4 – 5:31
When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat. (Shemot/ Exodus 16:15)
As I was looking over this week’s parsha (weekly Torah reading portion), the story of the manna caught my eye, which led me to check out its Hebrew background. The very popular Strong’s concordance of the Bible[1], includes a suggested definition for the supposed root of the word “manna” as: “literally, a whatness (so to speak).”[2]
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, “whatness” is “the quality of something that makes it what it is and different from other things.”[3] Take trees, for example. A tree’s whatness is its unique combination of attributes that makes it distinct from other things, such as a root system, trunk, branches, leaves or needles, and perhaps especially its woodiness. Strong’s use of “whatness” for the manna is especially interesting because it’s in a category all its own. It cannot be grouped together with anything else in existence. Therefore, its “whatness” is found solely in its relation to itself. In other words, it is what it is.
When the people of Israel first encountered the manna, they were dumbfounded. They had never seen anything like it. That’s because there wasn’t anything like it. Eventually, they would discover it didn’t behave like anything else in all creation. If they took too much for their family between the first and fifth days of the week, it would go bad. And yet, on the sixth day, they were to take double the daily amount since none would appear on Shabbat, the seventh day. This would continue for forty years until they entered the Promised Land when it abruptly stopped. As far as we know, manna is the only food substance to have ever existed that provided everything needed, in addition to water, for a human’s daily nourishment. None of this would have been known to the Israelites on the first day they encountered it. But they knew it was something most special. They looked at it. They touched it. They tasted it. And all they could say was something like, “What?”
Many theologically minded people like the concept of “mystery” to describe the unknowns of God and life. Regarding the manna, its whatness, that which makes it what it is, might be described as a mystery. Indeed, much of what makes manna manna is beyond our understanding, but that should not be a barrier to truly experiencing it to its fullest extent. And that goes for both those who literally partook of it and the rest of us who encounter it in Scripture.
The manna didn’t only sustain the people of Israel for forty years in a most inhospitable environment; it demonstrated God’s provision and was designed to teach the people to rely on God’s Word. As we read:
And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD (D’varim/Deuteronomy 8:3).
To understand the essence of the manna was not to be found in its unknowns but in its knowns, its profound and complex whatness. I wonder how often we miss God’s own whatness because we can’t figure him out or understand what’s happening. But should we allow our inability to understand God and life to get in the way of our fully experiencing him? Perhaps you are in a situation right now that makes you want to say, “What?” If so, may God help you see it for what it is so that it can accomplish what God wants in and through you.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
[1] “A concordance is a comprehensive index of the words used in a text or a body of texts. Ordinarily it will not only index but also cite all passages in which a given word occurs” (https://guides.library.queensu.ca/english/concordances-quotations).
[2] https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h4478/nasb20/wlc/0-1/
[3] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/whatness
For the week of February 1, 2025 / 3 Shevat 5785
Bo
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 10:1 – 13:16
Haftarah: Jeremiah 46:13-28
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived. (Shemot/Exodus 10:21-23)
People like to explain away the unusual happenings in the Bible. Some of these happenings are easier to explain as natural occurrences than others. Among the ten plagues, take the locust infestation, for example. While such infestations happen, it was the timing that was unusual. On the other hand, the fly infestation was a little more unusual as it only affected the Egyptians, though I imagine natural causes can be involved when one community doesn’t attract flies. The darkness, however, is another story. How could Egypt be thrown into such utter darkness to the extent that the people couldn’t see each other while the people of Israel had light?
I wish we knew more about the nature of this darkness. From the Torah’s description, it sounds as if it was at ground level, something like a dust storm or dense fog. It’s probably better that we don’t know its exact nature because that would distract us from an important life lesson, which is when the leaders of a community resist the clear directives of God, the result is a penetrating darkness that encompasses all of society. When leaders insist on doing their own thing in their own way for their own benefit, their people begin to behave like a crowd of blind people trying to escape a burning building.
When a community is built on lies, everything it produces is tainted and destructive. And because of the all-encompassing darkness, the permeating negatives can’t be identified, resulting in further harm. It’s not until light is restored that our misguided ways can be seen for what they are. Tragically, the longer we live in darkness, the more resistant we become to the light.
Israel’s having light while Egypt was thrown into darkness reminds us that those who truly know the God of Israel needn’t be affected by the pervading darkness. And yet, the nature of the darkness can be intimidating. Out of concern for those groping in the dark, we may tone down the brightness of God’s light to avoid harsh reactions. More and more, our communities’ ideals distract people from life’s realities, encouraging them to treat their fantasies as if they are real. We point out a weakness in someone’s life philosophy, and they get angry at us. Instead of thanking us for illuminating their issues, they blame us for making them uncomfortable. So, instead of turning up the light, we tone it down to preserve our relationships. But can a valid, meaningful relationship exist in the dark?
Remember, the Messiah said,
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:14-16).
Unlike the Israelites in Egypt, whom God protected as part of his process of rescuing them, we haven’t been called to simply sit in our lighted rooms. Instead, we have been called to head out into the dark as light bearers. It’s time to dispel the darkness.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of January 25, 2025 / 25 Tevet 5785
Va-era
Torah: Shemot / Exodus 6:2 – 9:35
Haftarah: Ezekiel 28:25 – 29:21
Originally posted the week of December 28, 2013 / 25 Tevet 5774 (revised)
You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. (Shemot / Exodus 7:2-4)
When we study the Bible, we should not let our knowing how the stories end get in the way of our learning the lessons God wants to teach us. Knowing how stories end provides an overall perspective and encourages us to face similar challenges. At the same time, we need to remember that the characters in these stories didn’t know how things would turn out, just as we can’t see how our circumstances will unfold. To learn how to navigate life effectively, we should pay close attention to how Bible characters navigated theirs.
In the case of Moses, we know how things turned out. The people of Israel left Egypt after years of harsh servitude due to the signs and wonders God performed at Moses’ hand. But this didn’t happen in a moment. Pharaoh was far from accommodating. It took much arm twisting, so to speak, on God’s part to secure the release of his people. Have you ever thought about what this must have been like from Moses’ perspective?
Moses’ primary role was that of a messenger. He was to tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, that the God of the Israelites demanded their release. As long as he could secure an audience with the king, his task was straightforward: deliver a message—except for one thing. God made it clear from the beginning that Pharaoh wouldn’t listen. This is where we have to stop for a second and not jump to the end of the story. Moses knew before performing his assigned task that he would get a negative response, yet he did it anyway. But didn’t God encourage him by informing him it would all work out in the end? Yes, but let’s be honest. How many of us would be sufficiently motivated by that kind of information? It apparently worked for Moses because the inevitable negativity didn’t stop him. And that’s the point. Even though Moses knew how Pharaoh would respond, he confronted him anyway, just as God directed.
One way to respond to this is to think, “Better Moses than me!” This is what we may call “the viewing-of Bible-characters-as-heroes” approach. We read the exploits of these men and women and are wowed by their seemingly super-human abilities. We cheer their exploits and perhaps take comfort in our being on the same team as them. But this completely misses the point! These people are to be our examples. While we are not all given the same tasks or scopes of influence, people like Moses demonstrate to us what it is like when the reality of God works in and through human beings. Through the Bible, God wants to teach us what it means to know and follow him.
One of the challenges I face—I know I am not alone in this—is the fear of negative reactions. Many years ago, soon after my wife and I were married, just before our senior year in college, I got a summer job selling (or tried to sell) encyclopedias door-to-door in Toronto. I lasted two weeks. I actually sold a set my last door! During those two weeks, I struggled so much with both the anticipation and experience of rejection. What made it all the more difficult was my observing how the successful salespeople didn’t let the reactions of potential customers get to them. Temperament aside, it appears that they really believed (and rightly so!) that if they didn’t get overwhelmed by rejection, potential rejection, I should say, and keep to their task, they would be successful. For some reason, I couldn’t fully grasp that and quit.
Whether or not I did the right thing by quitting, I mention this as an illustration of how crippling the fear of rejection can be. Becoming successful at selling encyclopedias was not a priority to me at the time, and I eventually landed a far more suitable job, not to mention that God met all our needs. Still, I guess like most people, I have faced the challenge of negative reactions many times since then. I share this here, wondering how many of you are debilitated by this same fear.
It’s wonderful when God tells us that things will work out in the end, but sometimes, he doesn’t. We don’t know how much of a difference this made for Moses. All we know is that he did what God told him to do despite anticipating rejection. Rejection can be a scary thing, but does it need to get in our way?
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of January 18, 2025 / 18 Tevet 5785
Shemot
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 1:1 – 6:1
Haftarah: Isaiah 27:6 – 28:13; 29:22-23
Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves. (Shemot/Exodus 1:8-14)
I remember years ago, reading John Eldredge’s book, Epic, in which he suggested that our love for story is due to our being in a story – God’s story. I have thought a lot about that since then, and I couldn’t agree more. Over the years, I have grown in my understanding that Scripture is given to us within a framework of a grand, complex story. Despite being a collection of a wide variety of writings written by multiple authors over a period of centuries, an epic tale unfolds within its pages. I became convinced that the better we grasp the big picture of the Bible’s story, the better we’ll understand its details and find our place in God’s plan. You may be aware that I have a seminar where I unpack this. Please contact me, if you are interested.
More recently, I realized that not only is Scripture revealed within a storied framework, but so is life itself. Our existence as participants in God’s creation is a storied one. Contrary to popular philosophies, we are not random particles meaninglessly bouncing off each other, but human beings made in God’s image on purpose and for a purpose, each one of us, in some way, contributing to God’s epic.
One of the things I love about life is when unusual so-called coincidences happen. You know what I mean, I am sure. It’s being far from home and surprisingly bumping into an old friend. It’s sitting next to a stranger on an airplane and you or they or both have a life-altering experience as a result. It’s going to a friend’s house to say goodbye to their out-of-town cousin, not knowing I was going to meet God that day (this is a key component of my own story. If you don’t know it, check it out here). Moments like these remind us that there is more going on than mere happenstance. Of course, not all such occurrences are positive, but whatever is going on, it’s still a story.
While I love getting a peek into my life’s story, most of the time, it doesn’t look like there’s much of a story going on at all. This week’s parsha (weekly Torah reading portion) helps me with that.
The book of Bereshit (Genesis) closes with Israel finding safety and provision in Egypt due to the strange and difficult circumstances surrounding Joseph and his brothers. What a story that was! Israel prospers in Egypt. But at some point, the Egyptian rulership changes and begins to oppress the Israelites. Eventually, with God’s call of Moses, great drama will return with the ten plagues, the Passover, the Red Sea, and so on. But until then, I wouldn’t blame the Israelites for losing sight of the divine saga they were part of. The reader gets to see what was happening behind the scenes with the birth of Moses, which should encourage us that God is working even when we are unaware of it.
Now, Israel’s suffering as slaves didn’t make them any less part of a story, let alone God’s story, but as they endured their painful existence day by day, I wouldn’t blame them for not being aware of it. Many Israelites were born slaves and died slaves. Not too much plot development there. Our own circumstances may not be as dire as that, but much of the time, our daily lives don’t feel like much of a story, let alone an epic one. But it is.
Knowing we are part of God’s epic story doesn’t make every moment of our lives exciting and meaningful. But knowing we are part of something way bigger than ourselves and our immediate circumstances helps us gain perspective. In fact, the supposedly futile aspects of our lives may not be as futile as we think. You never know when the Author’s next plot twist is about to happen.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of December 28, 2024 / 25 Kislev 5785
Miketz & Hanukkah
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 41:1 – 44:17; B’midbar/Numbers 7:24-35
Haftarah: Zechariah 2:14 – 4:7 (English: 2:10 – 4:7)
Originally posted the week of December 28, 2019 / 30 Kislev 5780
My favorite movie clip for Hanukkah is from Lord of the Rings. Frodo, the unlikely hero of this popular epic is becoming more and more overwhelmed by the evil power of the ring he is seeking to destroy. At this point he is about to be captured or killed by one of the Dark Lord’s emissaries, thus bringing his quest to a most disastrous end. At the last moment Frodo’s loyal companion, Sam, rescues him. But Frodo, having temporarily lost his senses, is ready to stab his friend. Note: The movie clip is available below.
Frodo: I can’t do this, Sam.
Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo; the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end… because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was, when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding on to, Sam?
Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.
“There is some good in the world…and it’s worth fighting for.” What a noble statement. But as I was getting ready to repost this for Hanukkah, I realized that there is an assumption behind Sam’s words. In order for there to be a good worth fighting for, there needs to be such a thing as good.
Good, as Sam understands it, is not about our side versus their side. Sam’s statement isn’t one of staying true to their team or their cause. The undergirding worldview of this humble character (in the mind of the author, of course) is there is such a thing as objective good and objective evil.
What is obvious in Lord of the Rings is quite fuzzy in our day. Many doubt that such objectivity exists while others who may suspect it does resist making any conclusive determinations about it. Good has become a matter of personal preference.
This version of good is actually an expression of the lure of the misguided influence that Tolkien exposes in his popular trilogy. Self, self-seeking, tribal loyalty for its own sake, blind commitment to ideology, groupthink, are all forms of the Shadow, the evil influence overtaking the world of Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings and overtaking our world today.
Thankfully, there is objective good, because the good and only God created the universe. Good isn’t good simply because God says so, but rather because he designed it that way.
The Maccabees were not fighting for a personal cause. They, as many were doing in their day, could have easily gone along with the crowd, keeping with the times in which they lived, one of progress and tolerance. But the Maccabees knew what was at stake—God’s plan for Israel—that would eventually culminate with the restoration of the entire creation—was in jeopardy and they were not going to just let it happen. Instead they knew that, in spite of the increasing shadow overtaking Israel, they would resist; they would fight. With God’s help, they won the miraculous victory we commemorate this week.
What was true for the Maccabees is no less true for us today: there is good in the world and it’s worth fighting for!
For the week of December 21, 2024 / 20 Kislev 5785
Vayeshev
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 37:1 – 40:23
Haftarah: Amos 2:6 – 3:8
Originally posted the week of December 9, 2017 / 21 Kislev 5778
Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. (Bereshit/Genesis 37:5)
While the story of Jacob’s son Joseph is one of the more comprehensive Bible stories, his personality is often overly simplified to be the God-favored victim of his brothers’ murderous hatred. Staying faithful to God through it all, God uses his terrible circumstances to save the day. The message to us is equally simple: trust God and he will take care of us no matter what. Nice thought. It certainly contains dependable truth. The problem is this story, including Joseph’s part, isn’t that straightforward. Neither is real life. Within the complexity of Joseph’s character, we can find real hope for our own complicated lives.
Was Joseph a passive victim? No one should blame him for being his father’s favorite. That wasn’t fair to his brothers, of course. But life isn’t fair. God also favored him by giving him dreams. I am aware favored persons can be the object of other people’s ire. But that’s not really Joseph’s story. Without excusing what his brothers did, Joseph was not passive. Joseph had a bit of a mouth. When we are first introduced to him, we are told he had brought a bad report of his brothers to their father. Not given the details of that, we don’t know what he said or how he said it. He may have been completely in the right. But when trouble ensued later on, most people would wonder if they could have done things differently.
It’s the sharing of the dreams, however, that is of greatest concern. The bad report may have been necessary. But did he have to tell his brothers and father about the dreams? Didn’t he know he would further infuriate his brothers? Even if he was clued out about the meaning of the first dream, he knew how his brothers took it (and correctly so) as a prediction of his eventual prominence in the family. Therefore, he knew exactly how they would understand the second similar dream. He may have been purposely trying to put them in their place. Joseph most likely figured his being favored by his father and God would protect him from his brothers’ wrath. If so, he figured wrong.
The Bible doesn’t tell us what was going on in Joseph’s mind through his ordeal. What we do know is after all was said and done, he was able to be gracious to his brothers in spite of what they did to him. His perspective he expresses as “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Bereshit/Genesis 50:20) is an unusually healthy balanced understanding of the interplay between human activity and God’s sovereignty. It’s easy to say, but Joseph’s freedom from bitterness and demonstration of generosity towards those who aggressively hated him is extraordinary.
Still, that was his state at the end of a very long and arduous personal journey. What about all the time in between, especially as he finds himself enslaved in Egypt, followed by unjust imprisonment in a vile dungeon? Shall we assume he took it all in stride as he made up songs about ruling over his family one day? That’s possible, but not probable. It’s reasonable to assume he wondered about his big mouth. Did he really have to talk up his dreams? Too late now, of course. But what if he had kept his big mouth shut?
Perhaps he didn’t give much thought to his contribution to his dismal situation. That would make him even more remarkable than most people think. Most of us spend considerable amount of time with our could’ve/would’ve/should’ves. We obsess over the possibility that we are the ones who got us into our messes. Others blame shift, of course, refusing to take any responsibility for their lives. But that’s a different story for another time. Here I want to address those of us who get stuck over ourselves.
Whether or not Joseph blamed himself partly or completely for his situation, it is clear it didn’t cripple him. Dreams, something that got him in trouble earlier in life, would be key to his release and promotion in Egypt later on. Also, whether as a slave, prison foreman, or Prime Minister; his leadership skills, which may have helped precipitate his tense relationship with his brothers when a teenager, were fully expressed. How many people, when their abilities get them into trouble, out of fear vow to “never do that again”? Some may even think they are being responsible by avoiding the potential damage their God-given abilities may cause. Somehow Joseph didn’t fall into that trap.
Perhaps the way Joseph dealt with the relationship of his brothers’ evil to God’s sovereignty is a clue to how he coped with his own role in the story. Consciously or unconsciously, Joseph’s trust in God set him free to fully function in the role God assigned to him. He knew God was bigger than the outside forces of his life. Obviously, he also learned that God was bigger than his own internal forces as well.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of December 14, 2024 / 13 Kislev 5785
Vayishlach
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 32:4-36:43 (English: 32:3 – 36:43)
Haftarah: Hoshea/Hosea 11:7-12:12 (English 11:7 – 12:11)
Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” (Bereshit/Genesis 32:29; English: 32:28)
Each year, when looking over the parsha (Torah reading portion) for this week, I have a hard time not commenting on this verse. I think it is the most astounding verse in the entire Bible. At one level it makes no sense. Not only is the idea of prevailing against God far-fetched in a general sense, but neither is it logical within its immediate context. The mysterious wrestler, who turns out to be God in human form, dislocates Jacob’s hip with a touch. It is clear that he could have completely obliterated Jacob. But instead of simply commending Jacob’s tenacity, he demands to be let go, as if he needed his permission. When Jacob refuses to do so unless the wrestler blesses him, God supposedly gives in and speaks the astounding words above.
There is no doubt in my mind that God remained in control of the situation. It’s reasonable then to conclude that he only made it look like Jacob prevailed over God, not that he actually did. But there’s a problem with this conclusion. The passage clearly says otherwise. Perhaps some scholars attempt to resolve this tension by claiming there’s an issue with the biblical text. However, the conceptual tension the reader faces appears to be deliberate. Of course, no one can prevail against God, but Jacob did anyway. And if there’s an unstated level of hypothetical reality where God only made it appear that Jacob prevailed over him, we miss the point. The point is that this story acts as an invitation to you and me to wrestle with God as Jacob did.
And not just Jacob. Almost every other exemplary Bible character also wrestled with God. I don’t know if they all prevailed, however. Joseph wrestles with God in managing his interpretive gift, throwing him into slavery in preparation for ruling in Egypt. God invites Moses to wrestle with him at the burning bush as part of his call to confront Pharoah. David wrestles with God in the process of his transition from shepherd to royal court musician to warrior to king. Solomon wrestles with stewarding his riches and fame, possessing great wisdom, yet facing severe temptation. Elijah wrestles with God amidst his prophetic call and threats upon his life. Yeshua, the greatest wrestler of them all “offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (Hebrews 5:7).
This is what being Israel is all about: “striving with God and men and prevailing.” What these Bible characters embody individually also marks Israel as a nation. Beginning with Jacob (though this wrestling factor actually began with Abraham), whether we’ve been aware of it or not, the Jewish people have been thrown into the wrestling ring with God. And against all odds, we have prevailed. It hasn’t always looked like it. And like Jacob and his limp, we don’t always emerge from our struggles unscathed. We’ve suffered extreme loss, we’ve been traumatized, and many have lost faith, but we wrestle. Like Jacob, we haven’t always known that it was God with whom we were wrestling. But through the centuries, time and time again, he has snuck up on us for an all-night wrestling match. And we’re still here. We are Israel. Not only have we survived, but we have prevailed in so many ways, not the least that we have returned to our ancient homeland after 2000 years.
Tragically, for many Christians, not only do they fail to see God’s ongoing engagement with the Jewish people, but they have also tamed the wrestling God. Instead of engaging him on his terms, many have reduced him to some sort of fluffy, therapeutic formula for personal benefit. This god never rocks the boat, doesn’t correct behavior, nor stretches us beyond our perceived capabilities. This god pats us on the head and tells us how wonderful we are. He invites us to avoid conflict and controversy, suffering, and rejection.
It’s time to cast off this false god and get into the ring. Jacob shows us that we can not only survive wrestling with God, but we can become better people for it. That is, if we stick it out long enough, not letting go until he blesses us.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of December 7, 2024 / 6 Kislev 5785
Vayetzei
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 28:10 – 32:3
Prophets: Hoshea/Hosea 12:13 – 14:10 (English: 12:12 – 14:9)
I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol; I shall redeem them from Death. (Hoshea/Hosea 13:14)
Many years ago, I met a psychologist who, upon learning I was Jewish, made an interesting comment about God. He said in the books of the Hebrew prophets God was portrayed at times like a Jewish mother, talking to one of her adult children: “Why don’t you even call me! Go away, I hate you! Don’t talk to me. Come back; come back; I love you, I love you! So, when are you going to visit?” For the record, not all Jewish mothers are like that. My wife isn’t, but my mother, may she rest in peace, was.
But what about God? Was my new friend correct? Does God ever display an extreme, neurotic-like, perhaps contradictory, overwhelming, hard-to-understand love? Let’s look at this week’s Haftarah (a passage from the Prophets that accompanies the weekly Torah portion)—taken from the Book of Hoshea (English: Hosea) 12:13-14:10 in the Hebrew; 12:12 – 14:9 in most English translations. This was likely chosen because it includes a reference to this week’s Torah portion, including Jacob fleeing his brother’s vengeance by going to Mesopotamia.
Also included in this Haftarah are extreme words of judgment against Israel. That’s certainly a common theme throughout biblical prophetic literature. Here are a couple of examples:
Therefore they shall be like the morning mist or like the dew that goes early away, like the chaff that swirls from the threshing floor or like smoke from a window (13:3).
I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs; I will tear open their breast, and there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild beast would rip them open (13:8).
This section is so highly negative on Israel; the English Standard Version, which I am using here, uses the subheading “The Lord’s Relentless Judgment on Israel.” One dictionary definition of “relentless” is “showing or promising no abatement of severity, intensity, strength, or pace.” This sums up how many people characterize God’s take on rebellious Israel in the Hebrew Scriptures. Having done so much for them, these rebellious ingrates are worthy of nothing less than everlasting rejection. But like my friend’s characterization, there’s much more to God’s heart towards his chosen ones. A little further down, we also read:
I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon. They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow; they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine; their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon (14:4-8; English 14:4-7).
Can you see why my friend characterized God in the way he did? I wouldn’t blame someone who claimed the extreme difference between judgment and acceptance is so great as to be irreconcilable. My friend characterized God in the way that many Bible readers, not to mention the editors of the ESV, have great trouble doing.
What we see here is an outworking of what I like to call God’s dilemma. His covenantal relationship with the Jewish people is a complex one. Foundational to it are his unconditional promises given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was this commitment that led to his rescue of their descendants many years later when they were enslaved in Egypt. His redemption of the nation at the hand of Moses led to an additional covenantal arrangement at Mt. Sinai that created a dynamic of blessings and curses based on the stipulations of that covenant. Israel’s humanity, shared with all nations, undermined their ability to meet God’s standards, setting them up for the kind of harsh judgment described by Hoshea. Yet, God’s dilemma was that he was at the same time obliged to uphold the original covenant he made with the forefathers even as he was required to enact judgment.
The tension of required punishment amidst an eternal commitment resulted in an almost neurotic expression of both anger and heartfelt yearning, which may not be that far from a stereotypical Jewish mother’s heart with its expectations and demands mixed with unshakable eternal love.
Tragically, instead of grasping the complex, hard-to-understand nature of God’s covenantal love, many attempt to smooth it out by choosing one of the two extremes. Either God is angry and vengeful, or he is absolutely accepting no matter what. We might think that either there is nothing we can do to ever satisfy him or there’s nothing we can do that will undermine his love. We wonder how God could be both absolutely demanding and loving at the same time.
I can’t explain how it works, but God has provided something in Scripture through which we can embrace the unexplainable—Israel. Certainly, it’s only by knowing God through the Messiah that his complex love can be known, but in order to grasp the complexity of that love, he has provided Israel as the example through which to demonstrate to the whole world a most truly effective and dependable love.
Now, of course, God is not a Jewish mother. But could it be that God instilled in the mothers of Israel, some of them at least, consciously or unconsciously, a concept of high demand and expectation mingled with everlasting love? But not being God, this tension has often led to great disappointment and broken relationships. The tension of high demand and committed love can tear a heart apart, even God’s, which is exactly what it cost him—through the Messiah—on behalf of us all.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of November 30, 2024 / 20 Heshvan 5785
Toledot
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 25:19 – 28:9
Haftarah: 1 Shmuel/1 Samuel 20:18-42
Note: The following is a revised version of an article I wrote some time ago that is most relevant to this week’s Torah reading.
And Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. And the LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.” (Bereshit/Genesis 25:21-23)
In the classic film, “Fiddler on the Roof”—based on the stories of famed Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem—the main character, Tevye the Milkman, upon hearing from the local constable of an upcoming pogrom in their small Russian village, complains to God, saying: “Dear God, did you have to send me news like that today of all days? I know, I know, we are the chosen people. But once in a while, can’t you choose someone else?”
This vividly expresses typical Jewish angst over what amounts to be the biblical and theological concept of chosenness. For Jewish people, this is no mere concept. From generation to generation we have heard the stories of the patriarchs and Moses, of David and Esther—that there is something special about being part of the people of Israel. But often, these ancient tales appear to be nothing more than a backstory for so much rejection and suffering. The result is, at times, a deep-seated ambivalence of the kind expressed by Tevye. If this is what it means to be chosen, then “once in a while, can’t you choose someone else?”
The story of the Jewish people hasn’t changed much in thousands of years. No people group has ever been through the kinds of persecution, exile, and attempted genocides that have haunted us since our earliest days. The ugly specter of antisemitism, the Holocaust, and the ongoing threats upon the modern State of Israel have greatly heightened since October 7, 2023. A similar spirit possessed Pharaoh, Haman, and Hitler. The agendas of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome were not all that different from the great powers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Yet we are still here. And, while grateful for our continued place in the world, many of us are confused about our true identity, especially over what it means to be chosen, if we are chosen at all.
Many Jewish people (and a lot of Christians) would be surprised to learn that the New Covenant Writings (the New Testament) effectively resolves this confusion. Paul, so misunderstood in the Jewish world (and in much of the Church for that matter), had a grasp of this issue in a way that Tevye did not. When Paul asks, “Then what advantage has the Jew?” (Romans 3:1), there is no confusion or angst in his answer. But before we look at that, Tevye’s response to Paul’s question, echoed in the hearts of so many Jews, Christians, and others, is just about “none.” For many Jewish people, the negatives outweigh whatever positives there may be. And for many Christians, if there had at one time been an advantage, not anymore. According to them, Tevye’s prayer has been answered since chosenness has been transferred to a new Israel, namely the Church.
But that’s not Paul’s understanding. His answer to “What advantage has the Jew?” is: “Much in every way” (Romans 3:2). He then begins to unpack what that means, starting with the Jewish people’s being entrusted with the Scriptures. Note he is not talking about a metaphorical spiritual concept of Israel as some sort of generic people of God but an actual ethnic group, the Jewish people. He would have more to say about the advantage of being chosen, but he first deals with the implications of the Jewish majority’s current spiritual state to demonstrate that any unfaithfulness toward God on their part in no way undermines God’s commitment to them. He comes back to listing various benefits of chosenness in chapter nine:
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Torah (ESV:the law), the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Messiah (ESV: the Christ), who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 9:4-5)
I don’t have time here to fully delve into Paul’s—and God’s—understanding that Israel in Romans, chapters 9–11, is ethnic Israel, the Jewish people. I address this in my booklet God Did Not Reject His People: The Identity of Israel in Paul’s Letter to the Romans, Chapter 11. What I want to discuss here is how the issue of chosenness has been undermined in people’s minds through ongoing painful circumstances.
Tevye was willing to give up his people’s chosenness if it meant no longer facing the trouble that had become all too common in their history. On one hand, who can blame him? On the other hand (If you know Fiddler on the Roof, you know I sound like Tevye now), coming to such a conclusion must mean he had lost touch with the advantages Paul describes.
The Jewish advantage is due to our being chosen by God to be a blessing to the nations (see Bereshit/Genesis 12:3; Galatians 3:8). The curse under which the whole creation groans was doomed from the moment God pronounced it (see Bereshit/Genesis 3:15; Romans 8:19-22). The purpose of choosing the Jewish people was to confront that curse. From the time of Abraham until now that process has been a painful one. Going against the grain entails suffering. The patriarchs understood that, as did Moses and every faithful follower of the true God ever since. While no one bore the brunt of chosenness to the extent that the Messiah did, it is not as if his suffering lessened its heavy burden. In fact, it opened the door for the nations to experience that which at one time was the exclusive calling of Israel.
The Jewish advantage of being set apart to rescue creation from the curse’s effects is now shared by all who trust in Yeshua. But that doesn’t mean the people of Israel no longer carry that burden. They may be unaware of it, like the fictional Tevye and the genuine sentiment he expresses, yet still, because of God’s commitment to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that burden remains.
It’s a burden, for sure, but a great advantage nonetheless. Despite the hardships of which Tevye had become weary, God continues to work out his purposes through the people of Israel. Whether conscious of it or not, God’s faithfulness to his word is evidenced by the endurance of the Jewish people and the existence of the modern state of Israel.
I wonder how much of the angst and confusion Tevye expressed is due to the Church’s tendency throughout the centuries to refuse to affirm the Jewish advantage as described by Paul. Robbing the Jewish people of their God-given advantage not only undermines biblical truth but breaks the bridge of Jewish restoration upon which God so desires to walk. Followers of the Messiah, both Jews and Gentiles, have the responsibility to reflect the unchanging nature of the Scriptures to which they claim to adhere, including the place of ethnic Israel in God’s salvation plan.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of November 23, 2024 / 22 Heshvan 5785
Chayei Sarah
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 23:1 – 25:18
Haftarah: 1 Melachim /1 Kings 1:1-31
Originally posted the week of October 30, 2021 / 24 Heshvan 5782
Abraham gave all he had to Isaac. (Bereshit/Genesis 25:5)
Abraham lived about thirty-eight more years after Sarah died. During that time, he married a woman named Keturah and had several more children through her. This shows that Abraham and Sarah’s inability to have children was due to something to do with Sarah. This was already evident by Abraham’s first son Ishmael whom he had through Hagar, Sarah’s servant, at Sarah’s behest.
That Abraham didn’t have a fertility issue seems to contradict Paul’s statement in the New Covenant Writings, where he writes, “He [Abraham] did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb” (Romans 4:19). This is saying, however, that Abraham reasonably understood himself and Sarah as beyond the age of having children. That the issue all along appears to have been with Sarah is besides the point. As a couple who couldn’t have children, Abraham trusted in God to overcome their infertility in order to fulfill his promise to them.
Abraham accepted God’s particularity regarding his plans and purposes. We see this demonstrated through the dispersion of his inheritance. Abraham and Keturah had six sons. It appears that he also had other children through various concubines (I don’t know if I will ever get used to the idea of concubines in the ancient biblical world). While he provided for all his sons while he was alive, his inheritance went to Isaac alone (see Bereshit/Genesis 25:1-6).
Perhaps you might think this is unfair, but Abraham was following God’s lead. After the birth of Ishmael, God determined that the one to carry on the promise was to be the child born to barren Sarah as we read in Bereshit/Genesis 17:18-19:
And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
The inheritance given to Isaac was not mainly about money or livestock, etc. It was the legacy of the promise of blessing unto the nations (see Bereshit/Genesis 12:3). In God’s providence, he deemed that he would develop through Isaac alone a particular people through whom he would reveal himself to the world and by whom the Messiah and Savior would come.
God’s particularity is a core part of God’s creation design. He made a world where things work in a particular way. To ignore the set principles of the universe is to invite unnecessary trouble. Discovering those principles is not a simple matter. But when the Creator God reveals his truth or gives a direction, we are well-advised to follow his lead.
The particularity of Isaac may seem unfair, but God knows what he is doing. What set Abraham apart is that he was willing to do life God’s way. Careful adherence to God’s direction is the only way to lasting blessing. Abraham’s life models God-inspired effective living for us all.
We might think it is unfair that things work the way they do rather than the way we want them to. Some insist that anything but giving people identical opportunities along with guaranteed outcomes is unfair. Perhaps it is unfair. While we must do what we can to enact justice, protecting the vulnerable and providing for the needy, God made a world of diversity. Humans possess a great variety of strengths, weaknesses, and abilities. Surely some inequality is due to injustice and sin, yet to attempt to create absolute equality at every level undermines the great variety that God instilled into his creation.
A key aspect of that variety is God’s particularity in the development of his rescue operation in and through the people of Israel and as fulfilled in the Messiah. It is humbling to accept that some things are just the way they are. Abraham was wise to accept that. We would be too.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of November 16, 2024 / 15 Heshvan 5785
Vayera
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 18:1 – 22:24
Haftarah: 2 Melachim/2 Kings 4:1-37
And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. (Bereshit/Genesis 22:7-8)
Traditionally entitled “The Akedah,” the Binding of Isaac is such a wonderful story—that is, once you know the ending. Reading the story from the beginning, however, as I have noted on past occasions, is intensely traumatic. What kind of God is this, who demands of his beloved servant Abraham to commit human sacrifice? What kind of father binds his son to a pile of wood and raises a knife to plunge into his heart? Even after providing the substitute, what did this do to Isaac’s psyche? How did his sons, Jacob and Esau, process hearing what God told their grandfather to do to their father?
From where we are sitting, thousands of years later, we sentimentalize this story, celebrate Abraham’s extraordinary faith, and theologize over the substitutionary act. But to truly appreciate what’s going on here, we need to personally and intimately wade into the story’s dynamics. We are too quick to jump to the end and take comfort in that God didn’t really mean for Abraham to kill his son. Abraham didn’t know that. The New Covenant Writings claim that he anticipated God would do something. We read:
By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. (Hebrews 11:17–19)
Abraham knew God would do something, but he didn’t know what or how. I would like to ponder that here.
Abraham obeyed God, living with the tension of knowing he was trustworthy and capable of doing the impossible while not being clued in on the what or the how. Yet, step by step, he moved forward in obeying God anyway.
I don’t know about you, but I like details. I like to know where I am going and why. I know our plans don’t always work out as expected, but I still prefer to have as much information as possible. You should hear me pray! Often, when I face a problem and lay it out before the Lord, I tend to provide him with a multiple-choice list: “O God, do you want me to do this, that, or the other thing?” I am sure he appreciates my giving him options to choose from! Don’t worry. I am aware of what I am doing. I know I tend to try to solve my problems on my own instead of simply offering them to him. Of course, we should be working out problems as needed and able. And, sometimes, we struggle with choosing between reasonable options. There’s nothing wrong with praying accordingly. But other times, we don’t know what to do and need God to come through for us. Abraham’s journey to Moriah with Isaac was like that.
Step by step, day by day, more unknowns than knowns, with the knowns being as strange as strange can be. And yet, he kept on keeping on, trusting God knew what he was doing. Abraham even told Isaac, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son” (Bereshit/Genesis 22:8). True words indeed, even though he had no idea how God would provide. And provide he did. It wasn’t until the last second that God stayed Abraham’s hand. He was working all along, preparing the ram for a substitute. But from Abraham’s perspective, the provision was a surprise.
We don’t know about surprises until they happen. That’s what makes them a surprise. Until then, we live without being conscious of them. That’s fun when it’s a special gift or event, but another matter when we go through challenging times. I wonder how many of us resist such challenges because we don’t have enough details. Abraham knew there was more going on than what he was aware of. But he did it because God, the God of surprising provision, called him to.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of November 9, 2024 / 8 Heshvan 5785
Lech Lecha
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 12:1 – 17:27
Haftarah: Isa 40:27-41:16
Originally posted the week of October 28, 2023 / 13 Heshvan 5784 (updated)
On that day the LORD made a covenant with Avram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land…” (Bereshit/Genesis 15:18)
Important note: Having been providing TorahBytes for many years—in fact, based on the Jewish calendar, it’s twenty-seven years this week—as part of my preparation, I glance back at previous messages. I do this mainly to avoid unnecessary repetition and look for potential repostings. When reposting, I try to choose one that’s several years old, thus increasing the likelihood that current users haven’t encountered it before or, if they have, forgotten it. I am making an exception with this message, however. It’s from last year, but most worthy of repeating. More than that! It’s essential that I do. Not only is it foundational for understanding the whole Bible, but also for knowing how to effectively navigate the times we are in.
The October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack on Israel was not only the worst day for Jewish people since the Holocaust, it changed the world in more ways than what most people realize as a demonically inspired threat upon Western civilization was unleashed. Whether or not the events of the past few weeks have deterred that threat for now or not is yet to be seen. Regardless, to claim to value Scripture but ignore God’s ongoing faithfulness to the Jewish people undermines its effectiveness.
The following is a slightly edited version of last year’s post.
It is no exaggeration to say that we may be on the brink of a catastrophe hitherto unknown in history. I hope I am wrong—that the current crisis in Israel will calm down, but not until the demonic evil unleashed by Hamas on October 7 is destroyed. I have no illusions; however, if, by God’s grace that happens, it will manifest again soon and probably worse.
Serious readers of Scripture have no reason to be unaware of the dynamics at play, including why so much fuss is made over one of the smallest countries on the planet. Yet, not only are most people unaware of such things, but they have also reduced the truth of the Bible to a detached spirituality of the inner life while failing to grasp its global implications and all-encompassing importance. Core to this misguided spirituality is the disregard for the centrality of the people of Israel and the land of Israel in God’s plan.
This week’s parsha (weekly Torah-reading portion) is foundational in this regard. It begins with Avram, whose name is later changed to Avraham (you can figure out the English versions of his name yourself, I am sure). The God of all creation, who made everything “very good” (Bereshit/Genesis 1:31), determined to one day rid the universe of the curse he imposed on the earth due to our first parents’ rebellion against him (see Bereshit/Genesis 3:17-19). Described as the bruising or crushing of the serpent’s head (see Bereshit/Genesis 3:15), we are given no details on how this plan was to be worked out until this parsha. If Avram ventured to the alien land God would show him; he would make him a great nation and bless the entire world as a result (see Bereshit/Genesis 12:1-3). One of Avram’s most famous descendants would call the promise of blessing the nations, “the good news” or “the Gospel” (see Galatians 3:8).
The agreement, contract, or covenant (they all mean the same, by the way) that God established with Avram included an aspect that Bible readers have tragically ignored. People often called the covenant made with Avram unconditional, but it did have one condition—a condition he fulfilled. He had to go to a specified location. It wasn’t until he arrived there that God said, “To your offspring I will give this land” (Bereshit/Genesis 12:7). The land, therefore, was a crucial aspect of God’s covenant with Avram, which was later passed on to his son Isaac (see Bereshit/Genesis 26:2-5) and grandson Jacob (see Bereshit/Genesis 28:13-14).
But did you know how essential the land promise to Avram was? As we also read in this week’s parsha, sometime later, God says to him: “Fear not, Avram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great” (Bereshit/Genesis 15:1). Avram’s trusting response to God’s telling him that, despite his ongoing childlessness, his descendants will be like the stars of the sky, is an appropriate high point for many Bible believers as it demonstrates the importance of faith.
Following that interchange, God has Avram perform a covenant ritual whereby he was to cut up some animals (see Bereshit/Genesis 15:7-20). Apparently, this was a traditional covenant-making ceremony. The Hebrew for “make a covenant” is actually “cut a covenant,” probably taken from the cutting up of the animals. The two parties would walk together between the pieces to declare that if either fails to live up to their covenantal obligations, may they become like the cut up pieces. But note that Avram doesn’t walk between the pieces. Instead, he sees the unusual site of a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passing through them. Commentators consider this an indication that God was taking the full covenantal obligation on himself, so that if either party would break the covenant, God alone would suffer the consequences. We see this happen in the person of the Messiah, of course. But neglecting the context of this prevents us from seeing an key aspect of God’s commitment to the people of Israel. God’s self-imposed covenantal obligations to the people is not only about the people. Here’s what God says when he reiterates the covenant to Avram:
To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites (Bereshit/Genesis 15:18-21).
God’s covenant with Avram includes the land, guaranteed! Should Avram or his descendants (those through Isaac and Jacob) fail in their covenantal obligations, God himself would bear the punishment. Do you know what this means? Yeshua’s death doesn’t only ensure your reconciliation with God by faith, but also upholds Israel’s right to their God-given land.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version, except that “Abram” is changed to “Avram.”
For the week of November 2, 2024 / 1 Heshvan 5785
Noach
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 6:9 – 11:32
Haftarah: Isaiah 66:1-24
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” (Bereshit/Genesis 9:1)
I like to think of the story of Noah and the flood as God’s reboot, a system refresh. Seeing that human beings, whom he made in his image, had become deeply corrupted, we read, “And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” (Bereshit/Genesis 6:6). And yet, he did not wholly give up on his creation project, including on human beings. I imagine he could have completely obliterated Planet Earth, but he didn’t. Instead, his commitment to his original plan led him to restart what he had initiated “in the beginning” (see Bereshit/Genesis 1:1).
There is reason to believe that the post-flood world was different in some ways from the Earth’s original design, including permitting humans to eat animals (see Bereshit/Genesis 9:3) and significantly reduced lifespans. But for the most part, God’s creation project was moving ahead as planned. Central to that plan is the essential role he gave to human beings. As creatures made in his image, men and women, despite our corrupt nature, we were to continue to represent him on Earth. God, the ultimate king of the universe, determined that we should rule Planet Earth under his direction (see Bereshit/Genesis 1:26, 28).
This unique leadership role underlies God’s very first directive: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Bereshit/Genesis 1:26). As humans were to rule over the entire planet, it was necessary to reproduce accordingly. Note that the issues arising from Adam and Eve’s disobedience in no way undermined this foundational command as it is repeated to Noah (see Bereshit/Genesis 9:1, 7)—a command that has never been rescinded or modified in any way.
As a father of ten (now adult) children, I am aware of how controversial and emotional the topic of human reproduction can be. I don’t have the space here for a deep dive into all the concerns and reactions people may have. But let me offer this: I believe that at the core of this issue is the inability or unwillingness to view ourselves from God’s perspective. I am painting this as personal on purpose. Much of the negativity in our society towards God’s unchanged directive to be fruitful and multiply can be found in the mirror. I don’t mean you are the problem necessarily; it’s that we human beings have such a low view of ourselves that, given the choice, we don’t want too many of us around.
Most of us don’t believe what I attempted to explain in last week’s message, You Are God’s Great Idea. Even those with a positive self-image don’t realize how great an idea we are. Zero population advocates and other extreme environmentalists don’t only warn us of the existential threats plaguing our planet today; they insist that we are the problem. I admit that we cause great problems. The Bible agrees but also clearly asserts that we are the solution.
Some may react to such a statement, insisting God is the only solution to the Earth’s problems. That’s true, but how does he do it? God is determined to work out his purposes for Planet Earth through his image bearers, human beings. Not only do we see this in his reiterating his reproduction directive, but in his taking on human form as the Messiah to eventually bring about the new creation. But doesn’t the actions of the Messiah prove the failure of human beings to fulfill our God-given mission? Not if I read the Bible correctly. The Messiah’s actions equip those loyal to him to join him in fulfilling God’s purpose for humankind. He doesn’t replace or distract from our being God’s image bearers but rather enables us to become everything we were made to be.
Once we, as human beings, understand who we really are and what we are called to do, I suspect that our perspective on reproduction would become overwhelmingly positive. Combine that with God’s promise of provision according to our needs (see Matthew 6:25-34), how many more children might we welcome into the world?
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of October 26, 2024 / 24 Tishri 5785
Bereshit
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 1:1 – 6:8
Haftarah: Isaiah 42:5 – 43:11
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Bereshit/Genesis 1:26-27)
Did you know that you are God’s great idea? That’s something my wife likes to remind our kids (and others) on their birthday. That’s very different from my mom telling me on more than one occasion that I was an accident. Perhaps you have heard worse. But no matter what you have heard, my wife is right. Each and every human being is here by design, God’s design. Are we born into a broken world, inheriting the same brokenness as every other human since Adam and Eve? Sure. Do some find themselves having to face greater levels of brokenness than others? Certainly. But does that change that each of us has been equally endowed with God’s image to represent him and his purposes in the world? Absolutely not.
It is one thing to know that you are God’s great idea. It’s another to discover how that great idea is to be lived out. It hasn’t been easy for me to shed my mother’s negative perspective. The words we hear and the experiences of our early years make indelible imprints upon us. I am so grateful to God for rescuing me when he did (see My Story), but that didn’t automatically change how I thought about myself or all the patterns of thinking I developed as a child.
God has done all sorts of things in the past decades to free me of my misguided thoughts, including using my wife, to remind me that I, too, am God’s great idea. Yet, all the good reminders in the world will make no difference unless we accept a most fundamental principle of life, as found in this week’s parsha (weekly Torah portion). Indeed, our being made in God’s image is the basis of our identity, value, and purpose. Just as idols are representations of false gods, so human beings, as made in God’s image, are his representatives. We might think that this alone should remedy just about any false notion we have about ourselves, but there is something more basic than this.
Intrinsic to God’s design of human beings is our distinctiveness as male and female. Not only are males and females purposely different from one another, this difference is essential to our being made in God’s image. That throughout the ages, the relationship between males and females has been fraught with innumerable challenges doesn’t undermine the importance of the sexes in representing God in the world. However, despite how essential our male-female differences are, there is still something even more basic that we need to be aware of before we can discover who we really are.
As objects of God’s purposeful design, the only way to resolve identity confusion is through the God who made us. And yet, many of us believe that we possess within us all we need to fix our problems. We are convinced that self-discovery and self-assertion can free us from every life obstacle as we embrace our brokenness as that which defines us. This venture establishes the self as the standard of who we are. It assumes we have what it takes to determine the nature of our design and how best to fulfill our purpose. But how do we know what is good or bad for us? Is it those things that make us comfortable, popular, or rich? If we had been self-created, we might have the tools to make us what we should be, but we are not. We are God-created, made in his image for his purposes. Only our Designer holds the key to all we are meant to be.
The truth about ourselves can only be discovered outside of ourselves. The journey within will only lead us further astray. That doesn’t mean we should ignore ourselves. Taking responsibility for our brokenness and the many ways it manifests is crucial to finding freedom in God. But here too, the only way to effectively determine what’s wrong with us is by accepting the Designer’s assessments and solutions.
I shudder to think what it would have been like to give into my desires and self-perceptions, allowing my feelings to define me while demanding that others affirm my self-assessment. What a hellhole that would have been! I am so grateful that by God’s power, I was able to accept myself as a sinner in need of God’s forgiveness through the Messiah. Only then was I ready to hear that I am God’s great idea!
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of October 19, 2024 / 17 Tishri 5785
Sukkot
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 33:12 – 34:26; B’midbar/Numbers 29:26-34
Haftarah: Ezekiel 38:18 – 39:16
Originally posted the week of October 15, 2022 / 20 Tishri 5783 (updated)
A special word first. I cannot reference the Festival of Sukkot without taking a moment to acknowledge how it will forever be associated with the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023. Not only was it a Shabbat (English: Sabbath), but it was also “Shemini Atzeret,” the special extra eighth day observed at the conclusion of Sukkot (see Vayikra/Leviticus 23:36). In Israel, it coincides with Simchat Torah (English: Rejoicing of the Torah), the traditional celebration of God’s gift of his Word to Israel. Outside Israel, Simchat Torah occurs the following day. As discussed below, Sukkot is a time to reckon with both our vulnerability and God’s wonders. As we remember October 7 and the ongoing crisis since then, including the hostages, dead and alive, still held by cruel terrorists, it’s a challenge to rejoice, be it over God’s wonders or his day-to-day provision. But, let us not give the enemy a double victory. Let us grieve, let us acknowledge our trauma, but let’s not allow them to rob us of the ability to see the hand of God at work in the midst of it all. All through history, evil forces have prevailed for a time, but eventually, they all meet their end. Am Yisrael Chai! The people of Israel live!
And he said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.” (Shemot/Exodus 34:10)
The festival of Sukkot (English: Booths or Tabernacles) begins this year the evening of October 16 and lasts eight days. The readings this week are special for the festival. Outside the Land of Israel, due to ancient issues with the calendar, it continues for one more day[1]. Sukkot is a harvest thanksgiving festival that includes two special features. First, the people were directed to “take…the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and…rejoice before the LORD” (Vayikra/Leviticus 23:40). Traditionally these four things are willow, palm, and myrtle branches, plus a lemon-like fruit called an etrog (English: citron). Second, the people were to build temporary dwellings called sukkot (one sukkah, many sukkot). They were to live in these sukkot for seven days. This was to remind the people that their ancestors lived in similar accommodations the years they were in the wilderness (see Vayikra/Leviticus 23:43).
It is interesting how this festival of rejoicing is to occur while living in sukkot. Calling the people to leave their permanent homes for a week to connect with the years of wilderness wanderings is powerful. Think of how effective it is for parents to tell their children stories of God’s miraculous provision and protection while sitting in a flimsy hut far more exposed to the elements than their normal residences. But more than simply providing a tangible backdrop, the environment places the people into a state of vulnerability, so that they could better relate to the vulnerability of their ancestors.
Within the context of getting in touch with their forebears’ state of vulnerability the people would more than just remember that God took care of them, but also how he did. As we read in this week’s Torah reading, God protected and provided them by doing “marvels.” The Hebrew word for marvels is “pala’,” which is often translated as “miracles.” The word carries the sense of “special” or “out of the ordinary.” God had promised Israel he would do extraordinary things, marvels, never experienced before to cause others to realize how awesome he really is.
God does more than take care of his people. He does so in marvelous ways. For Israel in the wilderness, it was through a physical manifestation of his presence in the form of a pillar of cloud and fire, which both guided them and protected them from the elements. He also gave them manna for their daily bread, which miraculously appeared on the ground every day except the Sabbath (he doubled the amount the day before). He sent quail to give them meat, he cleansed undrinkable water on one occasion, and caused water to emerge from rocks twice.
Note, however, that we can list God’s marvels yet not be impacted. Somehow we can tell these and other marvelous Bible stories and they remain just that – stories. Stories that happened to a people in such a different time and place, they may as well be fairy tales. This is why he sent Israel back outside into a wilderness-like environment. Perhaps there, in a place of vulnerability, we can feel the need for him in a way our more secure permanent houses don’t allow us to. For it’s in the place of vulnerability that we realize how much we need God.
The extraordinary nature of God’s marvels is most often due to the state of our vulnerability. The greater the need, the greater the marvelous nature of his provision. The more vulnerable we are, the more extraordinary is his power in and through our lives. But if we don’t allow ourselves to be in places of vulnerability, we might have a general sense of God’s presence and goodness but fail to experience his marvels. I wonder what we may be missing.
[1] The duration of the festival is a bit complicated. It would be more accurate to say that Sukkot lasts seven days plus one. The people were to celebrate with the specified growing things and live in the sukkah for seven days. The first day was to be treated as a sabbath (the first two days are sabbaths outside Israel). God also directed that an additional eighth day, known as “Shemini Atzeret” (Eighth Day of Assembly) was also to be observed. Traditionally, a special ceremony to mark the restarting of the annual Torah reading cycle, known as “Simchat Torah” (Rejoicing over the Torah), is observed during Shemini Atzeret (in the diaspora, it is observed on the extra ninth day).
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of October 12, 2024 / 10 Tishri 5785
“The Scapegoat” by William Holman Hunt, 1854–1856Yom Kippur
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 16:1-34; B’midbar/Numbers 29:7-11
Haftarah: Isaiah 57:14 – 58:14
And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness. (Vayikra/Leviticus 16:21-22)
It’s been a year since October 7, the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Hamas terrorists breached the Gaza security fence and slaughtered about 1200 men, women, and children, including babies, wounded around 5000, and took over 230 Israelis and others hostage, with about 100 still being held. If that wasn’t bad enough, this unthinkable atrocity unleashed not a wave of sympathy for Israel and the Jewish people but rather a tsunami of worldwide Jew hatred.
The Jews have been the eternal scapegoat of just about anything and everything that has gone wrong in the world. Scapegoating is when an individual or group is blamed for problems they did not cause. The concept of scapegoating is derived from the Hebrew Scriptures but has nothing to do with wrongly blaming the Jewish people or any other people group.
How the term scapegoat historically came to us is worth investigating. The Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) Torah portion includes a ritual performed in the days of the Mishkan (English: Tabernacle) and the later Temple. Two goats were to be taken. One was chosen by lot as a sin offering; the other became known as the scapegoat. I say “became known as” because the term scapegoat resulted from ancient English translations (e.g., Wycliffe, Tyndale, and the King James Version). The Hebrew word translated as scapegoat is “la-aza-zel.” Many modern translations, including my “go-to,” the English Standard Version, no longer use the term scapegoat but “to Azazel” instead as if it refers to some sort of demonic entity. The problem is, as we read in what I quoted at the beginning, the cohen (English: priest) was to send the second goat off to wander in the wilderness. There is no mention of giving it up to any particular entity. This more reasonably fits with the idea of scapegoat, but not in the way you might think.
The reason why the older English translations chose the word scapegoat to describe the second goat was not because this goat was a scapegoat in the popular sense, that of taking blame. But rather, this was the “escape-goat,” as in the one that would be led away to be lost in the wilderness. While it is true the sins of the nation were placed upon this goat, scapegoat in the Torah context refers to its carrying away the sins, not taking the blame for them. How ironic, then, that the very people who were given a scapegoat (in the biblical sense) to carry away their sins would become the scapegoat (in the modern sense) for the sins of the nations.
And yet, the two uses of scapegoat are related. Scapegoating in the modern sense reflects our inability to accept the true nature of negative situations or circumstances. It could be due to an unwillingness to accept responsibility, so we blame shift. Or we are unwilling to do what is necessary to engage the actual dynamics of evil. Perhaps we are afraid of being personally indicted in the process or we may find ourselves having to change our perspective of long-held beliefs. Whatever the reason, we find resolve in victimizing others through blame, a scapegoat, regardless of the damage we may cause them.
Through the Yom Kippur ritual, God acknowledged that human beings could not bear their individual and societal wrongs on their own. His loving mercy provided a way to release us from such a crushing burden. The need to repeat the ritual year by year reflects the reality that it didn’t permanently solve the problem. That would wait until the coming of the true scapegoat, the Messiah, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Note: I am aware that goats and lambs are not the same, but I think you get the point.
Tragically, much of the world hasn’t discovered the wonderous relief of the forgiveness of sin that has been offered to us through the messianic scapegoat. Unable to cope, they seek others, most often the Jewish people, God’s Chosen Ones, upon whom to lay the burden of sin. They don’t realize that when they do so it’s ultimately God they are blaming.
Ironically, God wants to take the burden of sin onto himself through the Messiah. But for that to happen, we need to stop blame-shifting and take personal responsibility for our sins. As we read in the New Covenant Writings:
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8-9).
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
Ha’azinu/Shuva
For the week of October 5, 2024 / 3 Tishri 5785
Torah: Deuteronomy/D’varim 32:1-52
Haftarah: Hosea 14:2-10 (English 14:1-8); Micah 7:18-20; Joel 2:15-17
Originally posted the week of September 23, 2017 / 3 Tishri 5778
When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. For the LORD’s portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance. (D’varim/Deuteronomy 32:8-9)
Near the end of Moses’s life, God directed him to teach the people a song. This is no simple folk song, but rather a complex prophetic lyric designed to confront them as they will inevitably one day stray from God and his ways. Contained within these inspired words is a reference to God’s providence in the establishment of peoples and their God-allotted regions. Nationhood and defined territorial boundaries are not the outcome of human will alone, but primarily emerge come out of the purposeful oversight of the Almighty.
That much is clear in the verses above, but they include a curious statement about the relationship between borders and, according to this Bible version, “the number of the sons of Israel.” I make mention of this particular version because the text here is controversial. A quick glance over other English translations shows that another common rendering of this phrase is along the lines of “the number of the sons of God” (see ESV, etc.). Exactly what is meant by “sons of God” isn’t certain. It could be another way to refer to the sons of Israel, a generic reference to people of God, or to heavenly beings such angels. The reason for the difference is in the manuscripts. The most common Hebrew manuscript is called the Masoretic Text (MT). Some English versions rely heavily on it, and only seldom prefer readings from other manuscripts. The MT reads, “sons of Israel.” The alternate reading, “sons of God” is from the oldest Greek translation of the Hebrew called the Septuagint (LXX). While it may seem to be more reasonable to prefer the MT over the LXX, since it is written in the original Hebrew, many scholars believe that the Hebrew manuscripts that were used by the LXX translators were older and thus closer to the original than the copies upon which the MT relies.
Textual Criticism is the study of ancient manuscripts to determine what the original writings were. It might come as a surprise to some of you that this sort of thing is necessary at all. We might prefer to believe that exact copy after exact copy was passed on from generation to generation, but that isn’t the case. But note that in spite of differences like the one we are looking at here, there is far more agreement between manuscripts than not. Remarkably and thankfully, no discrepancy threatens any major element of Scripture. Whether the text reads “sons of Israel” or “sons of God” certainly doesn’t greatly affect the Bible’s teaching either in this passage or others.
What’s most interesting to me is that many English versions prefer “sons of God” even though most other versions rely on the MT. While I hope the translation committees followed this route due to a high standard of scholarship, there may be something else is going on. If indeed the correct reading is “when He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel,” then we are made to understand that the makeup of world geography is intimately linked to the people of Israel. I am concerned that the real reason to prefer the LXX over the MT here is a resistance on the part of Christian scholarship to accept the centrality of Israel in the outworking of world history.
Few biblical scholars deny the place of ancient Israel in the development of God’s plans and purposes particularly with regard to salvation. But there is a tendency to cast off literal Israel in favor of a supposed New Israel, a generic people of God as were. But if the MT reading is correct, then the very framework of nations and borders is somehow dependent on the people of Israel. By disregarding the ongoing nature of Israel in God’s economy, Christians unknowingly contribute to the disintegration of legitimate nationhood through misguided globalization in the name of unity, Christian or otherwise.
But as I mentioned, the Bible’s central teachings are unaffected by the relatively few discrepancies in the various manuscripts. This verse is no exception. Whatever may be intended in this statement concerning the connection between national boundaries and the sons of Israel or sons of God, Scripture is abundantly clear about the foundational and ongoing place of literal Israel. For there is nothing controversial about what follows. As verse nine reads: “For the LORD’s portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.” The use of Jacob reminds us that references to Israel in Scripture is not code for “the Church” or a post-Jewish generic “sons of God,” but that God has special regard and connection to the real, actual, physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To deny that is to deny the essence of the Bible.
Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible 1995
For the week of September 28, 2024 / 25 Elul 5784
Nitzavim & Vayeilech
Torah: D’varim/Deuteronomy 29:9 – 31:1-30
Haftarah: Isaiah 61:10 – 63:9
For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. (Isaiah 62:1)
Have you ever found yourself unable to stop talking? There are many reasons for that. Some people like the sound of their voice. Some have no respect for others. But then there are times when something is so vital that silence is not an option. That’s what was happening with the prophet Isaiah here. Though taking a closer look at the passage, it might not be Isaiah who was the one who couldn’t keep quiet, but rather God himself.
God’s concern for Jerusalem is such that he can’t stop talking about it. It might seem strange to think about God this way. But let’s not miss the point. God is so concerned for Jerusalem that he will speak about it until his heart’s desire for this city is completely fulfilled.
Tragically, God’s insistence in addressing this issue hasn’t prevented people from trying to shut him up. And that includes those who claim allegiance to him. Of course, they would never admit to this, all the while subtly and not-so-subtly denying or deflecting his words.
They may redefine Zion from being an actual place, the hill from which Jerusalem was derived. They claim it should be taken metaphorically as a generic, immaterial “people of God” sort of thing. They don’t realize the damage they do when they twist the very real David’s City into a spiritual transnational collective. Spiritualization of real things can feel so bright when it, in fact, undermines God’s grand plan for all creation. Similarly, focusing solely on how the messianic good news transforms individuals not only neglects God’s grand global narrative, it robs those same individuals of the fullness of God’s design for their lives.
Others, refusing to spiritualize literal promises to a literal people, limit God’s concern to the ancient past. Either Jerusalem had a sufficient taste of its destiny at some point, perhaps in Solomon’s day, or it lost its claim to God’s promises due to disobedience. Both of these perspectives misrepresent the passage. No matter how glorious Jerusalem was in Solomon’s day, it in no way measured up to what is described here. And as for the effects of disobedience, to think that Israel’s failures annul God’s promises is to betray great ignorance of Scripture. God is absolutely determined to bring Jerusalem to a glorious future.
God will not be silenced! He will fulfill every word of this prophecy. The world will behold a Jerusalem fully right with God as it does his will in every way in the earth. It will be fully delivered by God from all its troubles. However its reputation has been affected by its own poor judgments through the centuries, God’s delight in this city will be evident to all.
Because this matters to God so much, he calls others to join him in his cry:
On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest, and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth (Isaiah 62:6-7).
The redemption of Jerusalem through the Messiah is central to all that God is doing in and through his creation. To claim to follow the Messiah but neglect God’s heart for the Holy City is to be callous toward him.
If you are a follower of the Messiah, have you stopped to think that perhaps what’s important to God should be important to you? There is so much confusion over the place of Israel in God’s plan, and yet God’s passion regarding Jerusalem’s future is clear. If he won’t stay silent on this, why would you?
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of September 21, 2024 / 18 Elul 5784
Ki Tavo
Torah: D’varim/Deuteronomy 26:1 – 29:8 (English 26:1 – 29:9)
Haftarah: Isaiah 60:1-22
Originally posted the week of September 1, 2018 / 21 Elul 5778
Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, “Keep silence and hear, O Israel: this day you have become the people of the LORD your God. You shall therefore obey the voice of the LORD your God, keeping his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today.” (D’varim/Deuteronomy 27:9-10)
Why do Moses and the priests say to the people of Israel: “This day you have become the people of the LORD your God”? Were they not already God’s people? Didn’t God direct Moses and his brother, Aaron, almost forty years earlier to tell Pharaoh, King of Egypt, to let his people go (e.g. Shemot/Exodus 5:1)? God’s considering Israel as his people was based on an already established relationship, rooted in their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That’s why God said to Moses when he first spoke to him at the burning bush: “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Shemot/Exodus 3:8-9).
Much had transpired since that time. This week’s parsha (Torah reading portion) takes place about forty years later. The bulk of the generation who had been slaves in Egypt have died by now. They died, not simply due to natural causes, but God’s judgement upon their faithlessness when first faced with the prospect of taking the Promised Land (see B’midbar/Number 13-14). Could it be that due to the previous generation’s obstinance, Israel’s peoplehood status was lost, and that it was not restored until Moses and the priests made this pronouncement? Could it be that they are not only being given a second chance to take the Land, but also in terms of their divine chosenness?
It is difficult to overstate how farfetched such a conclusion is. From God’s promises to the forefathers to his continued involvement with Israel in spite of their attitude and behavior throughout their wilderness wanderings, God couldn’t make it any clearer that he was absolutely committed to them. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be reading about their getting ready to enter the Land again.
If their status as God’s people isn’t in question, then what’s with this kind of wording? Could you imagine, my taking one of my adult sons aside and saying, “Today you have become my son”? Or maybe you can. Relationship is a complex thing, whether it be of a very personal nature as in me and each of my children or on a broader scale as in a leader and his or her community. My children will always be my children, but they may or may not grow up to embrace their heritage and their destiny. That’s up to them. That which establishes the parent-child relationship is one thing, that which fully expresses it is another.
This generation of Israel was different than the one before. Tragically, their parents didn’t reflect the reality of who they were as God’s people and suffered as a result. Their status as God’s chosen was no different from the next generation, but their children embraced who they were in a way they (the previous generation) did not. The reality of this difference would be evident in the days and years ahead.
Relationship with God must not be taken for granted. Remember, the ones who survived the ten plagues, celebrated the first Passover, crossed the sea, ate the manna, received the Torah, and on and on, failed to trust God when it was time to enter the land of promise. Peoplehood in and of itself doesn’t guarantee embracing it. This is why the next generation needed to hear this affirmation. The true essence of their peoplehood was not solely based on their past, but upon the reality of who they were at that moment, a moment that needed to continue from that day onward.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of September 14, 2024 / 11 Elul 5784
Ki Teitzei
Torah: D’varim/Deuteronomy 21:10 – 25:19
Haftarah: Isaiah 54:1-10
Originally posted the week of September 2, 2006 / 9 Elul 5766 (edited)
You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother’s, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it. (D’varim/Deuteronomy 22:1-3)
I can remember very clearly when I was young learning a very important principle regarding personal property. It was “finders keepers, losers weepers.” This was very easy-to-remember. Just in case you are not familiar with this saying, it means if you found something someone lost, it was yours to keep. Of course, if I did happen upon something of significant value, I was expected to look around to see if the possible owner might be nearby. But if not, whatever it might be, it became rightfully mine.
As one who claims to respect the authority of Scripture, the verses I quoted at the beginning challenge (or should I say contradict?) this principle. God calls us to return lost things to their original owner even if we don’t know who the person is or if they live far away. Moreover, we are to take care of the thing found until the person comes looking for it.
Godly directives such as these should lead us to ask certain questions. Does this apply to things of small value? For example, if I find twenty-five cents in a vacant parking lot, should I take it home and wait for someone to claim it? What about perishable items? Perhaps in that same vacant lot late at night after the grocery store is closed, a bunch of ripe bananas is found. Would it be wrong for a homeless, hungry person to eat them? Looking again at these verses, they are referring to items of substantial and lasting value, not things of little value or perishables.
Another question has to do with how long we should hold on to something before the original owner loses his claim to it. The passage does not speak of a time limit. Perhaps if it were an animal, then it should never be slaughtered, but would it be okay in the meantime to milk it, if it were a milking animal, or to shear its wool if it were a sheep, or to use its services if it were a work animal? I don’t know. And if the item were a cloak—which today might be a coat, jacket, or sweater—should it be put away in a closet forever just in case the owner comes to claim it? Again, I don’t know.
What I do know is that we need to take our responsibility toward the care of other people’s things seriously. There is more to biblical property rights than the prohibition regarding stealing. My losing something does not cancel my ownership of an item. I also have an obligation to others to ensure that I do my part in returning lost items to their original owner. How we deal with some of the implications of these directives must at least start with accepting our God-given responsibilities.
Whether it is this or another directive, we need to allow the Bible to confront and contradict our long-held life principles. It may even confront and contradict what we thought God was saying to us more recently. If we want to walk in God’s ways, we need to hear what he is saying about all of life and live accordingly.
All scriptures, English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible
For the week of of September 7, 2024 / 4 Elul 5784
Shoftim
Torah: Devarim/Deuteronomy 16:18 – 21:9
Haftarah: Isaiah 51:12 – 52:12
Originally posted the week of August 26, 2017 / 4 Elul 5777
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7)
This week’s Haftarah (excerpt from the Hebrew prophets) includes what might be the prophetic high mark in all Scripture (if I am exaggerating, then I should only correct myself by saying “one of”). The great prophet Isaiah makes this proclamation after much of ancient Israel had been overrun and scattered by the brutal Assyrians, while the remaining region known as the Kingdom of Judah, where he lived, had barely escaped the same fate. Moreover, God had revealed to Isaiah that it was only a matter of time before Judah would be exiled by the next great world power, Babylon. Yet like much of the Bible’s prophetic literature gloom and doom is tempered with words of hope.
And a good deal of the last third of Isaiah’s book contains some of the Scripture’s brightest light and this one verse I quoted is the brightest (or one of the brightest) of them all. The picture painted here is one of relief and excitement due to a messenger’s appearing upon the hills surrounding Jerusalem as he announces good news of peace and deliverance.
The core of this hopeful expectation is found in the promise of the eventual reign of Israel’s God. This is what makes this proclamation so climactic. For it is God’s being established as king – first and foremost over Israel and then extended to the entire creation – that is the supreme goal of Scripture. But doesn’t the Bible teach that God was, is, and will always be king? Yes and no. Ultimately that is always true. The traditional Jewish way to address God in prayer as “Lord God, King of the universe” is certainly correct. But in another sense, God’s rule over the earth is dependent upon the submission of human beings. From the beginning, God desired that people do his will on earth as it is in heaven. Our failure to do so undermines his reign.
Through the Scriptures we see this played out in the story of Israel. The spotlight of divine revelation shone on this particular people to demonstrate to the whole world how God’s reign was to be lived out. Or not, as was the case. And in case I need to remind you, any nation would have similarly failed, for this is the state of human nature. But in the genius of God, through his commitment to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he made a way to establish his rule on earth in spite of human dysfunctionality. And that’s good news!
And that’s the good news first proclaimed by messengers in around Jerusalem two thousand years ago. The Middle English word, “gospel,” based on the Old English, “godspel” (meaning “good tale”), is the translation of the Greek word “euangelion,” the term used in the Greek New Covenant Writings (New Testament). Euangelion is the word that was used to translate the Hebrew for “good news” in this verse. Therefore, the good news expressed through the proclamation of the coming of the Messiah is summed up in: “Your God reigns.” The early Jewish followers of Yeshua, therefore, were announcing that through his coming the long-anticipated reign of God over Israel (and the whole world) had come.
The power of the Greek word euangelion is made even greater by its use outside the Jewish community. This is the word commonly used to describe proclamations about Caesar, the Lord and King of the Roman Empire. To proclaim the Good News of the Jewish Messiah, was to announce the reign of the earth’s true king. In other words: Yeshua is King and Caesar is not. The subversive nature of Gospel proclamation is in full keeping with the essence of Isaiah’s’ prophesy – through the Messiah the reign of the God of Israel has come.
Knowing Yeshua is not simply a personal, private spiritual experience designed to comfort adherents by giving them a ticket to heaven. It is about welcoming the rule of God into our lives, allowing him to be Lord in every way. And that’s not just something that lives inside a tiny spiritual vault called our hearts. It’s a reality that is to affect every part of us and to be lived out in every aspect of life, because our God reigns. That’s good news!
All scriptures, English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible
For the week of August 31, 2024 / 27 Av 5784
Re’eh
Torah: D’varim/Deuteronomy 11:26 – 16:17
Haftarah: Isaiah 54:11 – 55:5
Originally posted the week of August 15, 2020 / 25 Av 5780
See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known. (D’varim/Deuteronomy 11:26-28)
The welfare of ancient Israel was intimately tied to their adherence to the covenant established by God through Moses. Faithful adherence would result in blessing, the Torah term for possessing the potential for life, reproductive life. They would have large, healthy and thriving families over multiple generations; their animals would abundantly reproduce; and they would live in safety and security. Conversely, the consequences for disregarding Torah were curses, the removal of life, including illness, desolation, fear, and being overcome by their enemies resulting in eventual exile.
God never intended obedience and disobedience to be understood in absolute terms as if the tiniest infraction would be deemed as breaking covenant and thus inviting disaster. The God of Torah is merciful and patient, ready and willing to forgive when wrongdoers humble themselves. The grave disobedience that results in cursing is defined as “to go after other gods that you have not known” (D’varim/Deuteronomy 11:28). Breaking covenant was expressed by rejecting the one true God in favor of the false gods of idolatry.
The God of Israel’s prohibition against false gods was both personal and impersonal. It was personal in the sense that he alone was their savior. Not only did he establish them as a people through their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he became their redeemer by rescuing them from the bondage of slavery in Egypt. Therefor Israel owed their existence and their freedom to this God alone. To engage other gods would be a personal act of disloyalty.
The prohibition against false gods was also impersonal in that there are issues in engaging other gods that apply to all people and not only due to the kind of covenant relationship that Israel had with God. Whatever was true universally for all people regarding other gods would also apply to Israel in addition to that which uniquely applied to them due to the covenant.
The first universal principle would be that other gods are not gods. God-ness, so to speak, was erroneously ascribed to concepts and entities by people. To worship false gods was to create false reality. Not only does the worship of false gods misrepresent the truth of the God of Israel as being the only god, it misrepresents truth in general. People may enjoy or find some other perceived benefit in living in a false version of the world, but that has never gone well for them.
The second universal principle regarding other gods is that whether they be represented via a sculpted image, such as an idol; or a personalized force of nature, such as Thor the supposed god of thunder; or the de-religiousized gods of today, be they sex or success, they all are derived from the creation instead of from outside of it. Every other god is humanly based as the product of analyzing nature or imagination or both. The God of Israel precedes and dwells outside of creation. His word has been given to the world via the people of Israel from the outside in.
The myriad of false gods from time immemorial operate from the inside out. If only we can figure it out, we can make the world a better place. We somehow think we can find identity, meaning, success, and lasting joy within the creation. It can’t be done. Every attempt to accomplish salvation from inside creation not only fails but invites disaster. As beings made in the image of one who resides outside of creation we need outside help.
The warning to Israel is a warning to all. Life is not found in ourselves or the world around us. Life is only found in the creator God, the redeemer of Israel. Not only has he communicated his word into the created order through Moses and the Prophets, he embodies his word in the person of his Son, Yeshua the Messiah. Like the covenant of old, Yeshua came from the outside in to rescue those who put their trust in him. Once we discover the outside-in reality of the creator through Yeshua, then we are equipped to live life within the creation as we were truly meant to.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of August 24, 2024 / 20 Av 5784
Ekev
Torah D’varim/Deuteronomy 7:12 – 11:25
Haftarah: Isaiah 49:14 – 51:3
Note: Due to the nature of this week’s message I recommend listening to the audio version. – Alan
Beware lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.” (D’varim/Deuteronomy 8:17)
The 2004 Pixar film, “The Incredibles” is one of my favorites. I love stories of people struggling with their particular giftings. Perhaps they are unaware of their abilities, or they are aware, but can’t or won’t express them. In some cases, they may see their ability in a negative light, not knowing that what they perceive as a curse is actually a blessing.
The Incredibles, as you may be aware, is a comic-book-style animated film of a family of superheroes, who are coping with a government crackdown on such folks due to liability issues. The film’s villain, Syndrome, has a double-pronged plot to destroy any remaining superheroes and later to sell off his technology, providing superhero-like enhancements to the general population. His goal is: “When everyone’s super, no one will be” (see clip here). In his twisted, bitter mind, he conceives that if no one has greater abilities than anyone else, he will resolve his own feelings of inferiority and rejection.
Ironically, what Syndrome doesn’t understand is that, comic-book superpowers aside, everyone is already super. While I am pretty sure you cannot fly, run at superspeed, make yourself invisible, or stretch your limbs infinitely, you have been endowed with power from God, enabling you to do all sorts of things you would never be able to do on your own.
I am not here referring to extraordinary talents such as those on display at the recent Summer Olympic Games in Paris. Or those musical and artistic capabilities that relatively few have been given. I have learned how even extremely talented and successful people can look on with envy on those who appear to be more talented and successful than they are.
But let’s forget comparison for a moment. Let’s simply try to grasp the wonder of what it means to be a human being. Not one of us chose to be born. We didn’t create our heredity. Perhaps we worked hard at developing our innate characteristics, but even our ability and the opportunities to develop ourselves aren’t self-derived.
Everything that makes us who and what we are comes from outside of us. That is why God, through Moses, warns us so sternly: Beware lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth” (D’varim/Deuteronomy 8:17). To assert that our human abilities are derived from ourselves is to deceive ourselves and misrepresent the One who gave us all life. In other words, to fail to acknowledge that even the most basic of human abilities comes from God is to live a lie.
Once we realize that every human ability is a gift from God, then we can also begin to appreciate the miracle that human life is, including every ability we have. And if every ability is a gift of the supernatural God—that makes us all super!
Everyone being super, contrary to Syndrome’s assertion in the Incredibles, doesn’t undermine our superpowers, so to speak. Syndrome was caught in a web of rejection and envy, blinding him from the beauty of the vast array of superpowers bestowed upon humanity by our creative and benevolent Heavenly Father.
I am aware that most of us don’t feel super. We struggle with a great many limitations and are objects of deep suffering at times. Some are beset by the kinds of circumstances similar to the fictional Syndrome. But that doesn’t mean we must be like him.
In order not to fall into Syndrome’s trap, we need a better grasp of what’s wrong with us. According to Scripture, “sin,” is the principle of evil at play behind the brokenness of our human nature. While that brokenness may obscure our superpowers, it doesn’t obliterate them. In fact, it’s often the human propensity to overcome sin that is most super.
Through the Messiah, God has provided an opportunity for us to connect with our supernaturally derived abilities. He didn’t do so like a comic-book superhero, however. Instead, Yeshua became just like us and demonstrated the fullness of what it means to be human. This included taking on the full brunt of our brokenness, in order to enable us to be superheroes in a broken world.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
Va-etchannan
For the week of August 17, 2024 / 13 Av 5784
Torah: D’varim/Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11
Haftarah: Isaiah 40:1-26
Originally posted the week of July 28, 2018 / 16 Av 5778 (revised)
Note: I am posting this earlier than usual this week, as we approach the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the month Av. This day is remembered as the occasion of the most devastating events in Jewish history, including the destruction of both Temples (see this Wikipedia article for more information including the list of tragedies). This year is especially grievous given the anticipation of a devastating Iranian attack on Israel. Whatever happens, may the following TorahBytes message speak to the hearts of Jewish people everywhere and to all who love Israel’s God.—Alan Gilman
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. (Isaiah 40:1-2)
One cannot overstate the drama of Isaiah’s comfort call. The contrast of these words with what comes before is so great that scholars tend to assume that they are authored by a different speaker/writer. The contrast of tone isn’t the only reason for the common scholarly determination of more than one “Isaiah,” but I don’t find such a conclusion compelling. What we really have is the start of a sequel or a new act.
Act One had ended with the stage gone dark. All hope is lost because Israel had spiraled down an apparent point of no return. The narrative closed with a most cynical tale of King Hezekiah, one of the greatest of all Jewish kings, receiving God’s message from Isaiah that even though he successfully overcame the Assyrian siege and was miraculously cured of a lethal illness, Babylon, the empire to succeed Assyria, will vanquish his dynasty and take the people into exile. If that’s not bad enough, the hitherto noble king, comforts himself with the news that this won’t happen until he is long dead.
Act Two begins with a brilliant explosion of good news: “Comfort, comfort my people,” says Israel’s God—judgment has run its course, warfare has ended; sin is forgiven. The Hebrew word for “comfort” is “nacham” and has two meanings, depending on how it is used. Either way, it denotes change. It could mean “to relent,” a change of intention—one plan of action replacing another. The meaning in this context, however, is “to comfort” or “to be comforted”—an emotional change, where one feels a certain way, usually bad, and is consoled, shifting their outlook on life.
Against the backdrop of despair and cynicism is the promise of comfort. The diagnosis was devastating, the sickness far worse than imagined. Under normal circumstances, such a road leads to nothing but complete destruction. But not in this case—not as far as God’s people are concerned. The God of unconditional covenant love always has a positive future in mind for his precious people in spite of relatively short-term hardship.
Israel’s desperate plight at the end of Act One typifies our own day in many ways. In spite of previously unknown levels of affluence and the exceptional quality of life experienced by so many, societal and personal darkness pervades. From old and new terminal illnesses to political instability to grand-scale people displacement, to increasing violence, and the threat of nuclear annihilation, one little spark can set the entire world ablaze. We are becoming unglued as a cloud of meaninglessness and hopelessness saturates the global psyche. What’s the point of being human anyway?
God’s word to Israel was that the day was coming when their suffering would cease, creation would be renewed, and peace would reign forever. The Jewish people’s incessant angst and anguish would finally and forever be transformed, when chaos turns to order, destruction to rebuilding, sickness to health, death to life. Therefore, be comforted. The darkness will not last forever. Light will not only return but will never fade again.
These words of comfort are not for Israel alone. God’s heart for the Jewish people as expressed at this stage in their history is a reflection of his desire for all peoples. Every human being has a story like Israel, albeit with a different cast of characters and unique sub-plots. Yet, whatever our heritage, the human story is the same: tragically dark and often hopeless, especially if we are honest. Yet, like Israel, your story needn’t end there. With God, there’s a second Act for you too.
You may have thought that your story ends with Act One. You may think there’s nothing beyond the darkness of your life. Or, like Hezekiah, you comfort yourself with short-term vision, making the best of your situation. “It could be worse,” you say. Yet you know if you would look beyond yourself, you couldn’t handle the state of the world.
But the story isn’t over. God will come through. He has proven that through the resurrection of the Messiah. You may already believe this even though you have a hard time being comforted. It might be that you are still stuck at the end of Act One, thinking in spite of your claim to faith, darkness has the final word after all.
Excuse me while I flick off and on the lights. Intermission is over! There’s more to your story, because there is more to God’s story. Not only does he win in the end, he invites you to be part of it. Perhaps that’s your problem. All the while you have been sitting in the audience when you are cast as a star in the show. You don’t only get to be part of the grand conclusion, you have an essential role to play.
I understand why you are sitting there. Life has been so painful and so confusing. You have tried to comfort yourself to no avail. But that’s the problem. Right now, God wants to heal and restore you. And he will if you cooperate with him. You will be comforted, once you allow him to comfort you on his terms.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
D’varim
Torah: D’varim/Deuteronomy 1:1 – 3:22
Haftarah: Isaiah 1:1-27
Originally posted the week of August 2, 2014 / 6 Av 5774 (revised)
See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them. (D’varim/Deuteronomy 1:8)
When reading the Bible, it doesn’t take too long to discover that its predominant context is the people of Israel in the Land of Israel. That context doesn’t simply function as a backdrop for the Bible’s overall story; it’s a crucial aspect of it. God’s endeavor to eradicate evil and its effects upon his creation is based on the outworking of a plan. This plan begins with his calling Abraham to leave his homeland and settle in what was then known as the Land of Canaan (see B’reshit/Genesis 12:1-3). Almost as soon as he arrived, God said to him, “To your offspring I will give this land” (B’reshit/Genesis 12:7). Not only is this promise unconditional, it is also eternal. Soon afterward God added: “For all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever” (B’reshit/Genesis 13:15; see also 17:8). Even though Abraham had many sons besides Isaac (see B’reshit/Genesis 16 & 25:1-6), the promise was passed on to Isaac alone (B’reshit/Genesis 26:3-4). Of Isaac’s two sons, only to Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel (see B’reshit/Genesis 32:28), was the promise of the land given (see B’reshit/Genesis 35:12).
Later, under the covenant God gave to Israel through Moses at Mt. Sinai, Israel’s remaining in the Land was contingent upon their faithfulness to that covenant. Eventually, due to their relentless pursuit of other gods, God sent prophets to warn them that, unless they changed their ways, foreign domination and exile would result. Through the Assyrians and Babylonians, that’s exactly what happened.
But while retention of the Land was an expressed condition of the Sinai covenant, Israel’s claim to the Land was based, as I have already explained, on God’s unconditional, eternal promise to their forefathers. The tension between Israel’s lack of worthiness and God’s unconditional faithfulness through his promise is resolved through the New Covenant (see Jeremiah 31:31-33) as instituted by the Messiah (see Luke 22:20).
Much Christian understanding of the New Covenant assumes that the issue of Israel’s claim to the Land becomes irrelevant. It is thought that the multi-national scope of the community of faith precludes Israel’s nationalistic aspirations. The inclusion of non-Jews as part of the family of God is taken to imply the superiority of a homogenized, generic, spiritual community. Yet knowing that some continuity with God’s ancient plan as outlined in the Hebrew Scriptures must be retained, this quasi-national organization brands itself as “new” or “true” Israel. Detaching what is supposedly higher spiritual values from the lower natural ones, concern over the literal Promised Land, especially with its ancient attachments to the natural descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is viewed as an archaic throwback to a below-standard epoch.
There are many problems with this approach to Israel and the Land, most importantly that nothing of this sort can be found in the Bible, the New Testament included. If such a redefinition was crucial to the understanding of God’s explicit commitment to Israel through the forefathers, why is it not clearly expounded upon anywhere in Scripture? The Hebrew prophets fully expected that the natural descendants of the people whom they addressed (unfaithful Israel) would one day be fully restored to the Land and to God. Take what God says through Amos for example: “I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them” (Amos 9:15; see also Isaiah 54:7; Jeremiah 30:3; Ezekiel 37:21). Nothing about the coming of the Messiah or the writings of his followers detracts from this expectation. To spiritualize the prophetic literature by twisting its explicit intent undermines the Bible, since so much of its overall message is based on God’s faithfulness to the people of Israel.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of August 3, 2024 / 28 Tammuz 5784
Mattot & Masei
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 30:2 – 36:13 (English 30:1 – 36:13)
Haftarah: Jeremiah 2:4-28, 3:4
Originally posted the week of July 26, 2014 / 28 Tammuz 5774
Special note: As of this week, we are about ten months into Israel’s war with Hamas and their allies. It is also ten years since the 2014 Gaza War. At that time, I posted the following TorahBytes message, which is as relevant now as it was then, including the article and video I mention. Links to each are still active. – Alan Gilman
When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places. (B’midbar/Numbers 33:51-52)
Over the past few weeks I, like many others, have been caught up with the tragic situation between Israel and Gaza. The amount of articles and videos is overwhelming. As you may know, if the issue includes Israel, we end up with an inordinate amount of emotionally charged attention and opinions.
Every now and then I happen upon an article or report that, in my opinion, is set apart from the others by how the author avoids narrow definitions and simplistic conclusions. “Why the Arab World Is Lost in an Emotional Nakba, and How We Keep It There” by Richard Landes looks at the conflict from a worldview perspective. Whether or not Landes’s evaluation is correct, he is right that the problem at hand is fundamentally ideological. How people see the world controls how they live life. Failure to accept that will undermine any attempt to resolve conflict, whether it be interpersonal or international.
But this is not the way many people in the West look at life, instead preferring simplistic superficial analysis and quick thoughtless solutions. A great example of this as it relates to the current crisis is a three-and-half-minute animation entitled “This Land Is Mine” by Nina Paley. This is a satirical retelling of the history of the region by showing each people group being killing off by the next people group as their cartoon representatives seamlessly lip synch the song “This Land Is Mine” from the 1960 film, “Exodus.”
The appeal of Paley’s animation, apart from its humor, is its simplicity. But it’s a simplicity not rooted in a deep understanding of the issues. Instead it’s stripped of any historical context whatsoever. The bigger picture that might inform and affect the behaviors of the people involved is either neglected or deemed irrelevant. There is no consideration whatsoever for the various factions’ history, values, and aspirations. All the viewer is offered is a story of meaningless killing with the implied resolution being if only the fighting stopped, everything would be okay. A cry of “why can’t we all get along!” may sound good, but is devoid of any sense of justice.
What does this have to do with this week’s parsha (Torah portion)? Everything. First, so much of the Bible is taken up with issues pertaining to the region in question. The backdrop of a great deal of what is going on in Scripture can be termed “Mid-East crisis.” By the Bible’s twelfth chapter who has claim to the Land of Israel is already a key theme. While so many people are quick to derive personal spiritual lessons from the stories of Scripture, most of the context of both Old and New Testaments is the geo-political issues of the region. Yet many readers of Scripture treat this context in the same way as Paley’s animation. The bigger story becomes irrelevant in our attempt to distill the meaning we wish to derive.
The verses I quoted from this week’s parsha demonstrate what the conflict in the region is really all about. When God called the people of Israel to take the Land, they were not only to drive out its inhabitants, but also to destroy the objects of their religions. They were not simply a migrant people looking for territory and annihilating anybody who stood in their way. The goal was to establish a godly community of truth and righteousness. At the same time displacing the previous inhabitants was not indiscriminate, but was rather God-ordained judgment on peoples whose evil behavior had become irreversible (see Bereshit/Genesis 15:16).
I am not proposing that the modern State of Israel should follow the same directions today that God gave through Moses over three thousand years ago. I don’t believe that the Bible supports that at all. Still, through this we are reminded that all conflict is fundamentally ideological. This is why Landes’s article is so helpful. He understands that the two sides are conflicting on how they see the world. Paley’s animation provides another way of looking at the world, but skirts the real issues and insults the peoples involved by belittling their concerns.
The Bible is God’s revelation of the way the world really is and calls us to make that truth known in the name of the Messiah. The players in the current conflict are caught up in this ideological battle whether they know it or not. The only way we will ever find lasting resolutions to this and every other conflict is by gaining a better understanding of God’s perspective through his written Word.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of July 27, 2024 / 21 Tammuz 5784
Pinchas
Torah: B’midbar Num 25:10 – 30:1 (English: 25:10 – 29:40)
Haftarah: Jeremiah 1:1 – 2:3
Originally posted the week of July 11, 2015 / 24 Tammuz 5775
But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. (Jeremiah 1:17)
We are in a culture war. That’s nothing new. A biblical case can be made that we have always been in one. When God pronounced judgement in the Garden of Eden following our first parents’ disobedience, he said to the Tempter, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Bereshit/Genesis 3:15). This verse, the first messianic prophecy, looks forward to the Messiah’s eventual defeat of the Evil One, but there is something else here that is often overlooked, the enmity God placed between the serpent and the woman. When Adam and Eve sinned, God didn’t give the human race completely over to evil, but instead caused there to be a great struggle between the forces of good and the forces of evil. This clash is a key theme of the biblical story, what we might call the culture war.
In Scripture, the culture war finds two main expressions. The first is in the development of the nation of Israel as they are called out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. Under the Old Covenant Israel functioned more or less in isolation. Particular laws were given them to keep them separate from other cultures. They were not to concern themselves with the affairs of the outside world, except to prevent its influence. Eventually, through the latter prophets, God began to build an expectation within the nation that one day his reign would extend beyond their borders to encompass the entire world. How that would come about was not made clear until the Messiah’s coming and the establishment of the New Covenant.
Which brings us to Scripture’s second main expression of the culture war. Beginning with Yeshua’s early Jewish followers, it was time for the reign of God to be proclaimed everywhere. The new mandate for God’s people would no longer be one of preservation and purity of the nation but the call to the reconciliation and transformation of all peoples.
A major difference between these two expressions is found in the tools given us to fight this war. Under the Old Covenant, Israel was to enforce its cultural isolation through corporal punishment of its own members who put the nation’s integrity at risk and by the sword against the threat of foreign enemies. Under the New Covenant, we are given words. As Paul writes:
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 strongholds. We demolish arguments and every arrogance that raises itself up against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey the Messiah (2 Corinthians 10:3-5; CJB)
Sometimes I think the opponents of God’s Word understand this better than those who are called to proclaim it as they boldly assert their viewpoints without apology. The cultural changes we are seeing happening around us today are the result of a concerted effort that will not back down. In addition, its proponents have been very effective at shutting down dissent through intimidation, creating a great lack of confidence among God’s people.
In this week’s Haftarah portion, we read that when Jeremiah was called by God, he was solemnly warned against giving in to intimidation. The Hebrew word “chatat” refers to being emotionally shattered, resulting in a loss of confidence. Thus our translation uses the English “dismayed,” which is what happens when we give in to intimidation. In effect, God told him that giving in to intimidation would create an even greater sense of intimidation. If we don’t have confidence in God and his Word, he will not give us the courage we need to stand against those who oppose him and his followers.
How do we learn to not be intimidated by the opposition? First, we need to know what God is really saying. It’s not good enough to spout traditional values without knowing God-given truth as taught by Scripture. Second, we ourselves need to be people of integrity, living according to what we claim to believe. Hypocrites have no foundation on which to stand. And finally, we need to speak God’s Truth boldly and clearly. We don’t have to give in to fear. As we stand confidently upon the rock of God’s word, we will discover how secure it really is.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise indicated
For the week of July 20, 2024 / 14 Tammuz 5784
Balak
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 19:1 – 25:9
Haftarah: Micah 5:6-6:8 (English: Micah 5:7 – 6:8)
Revised version of “The God-Led Life,” (posted the week of June 30, 2018 / 17 Tammuz 5778)
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8)
This statement by the Hebrew prophet Micah is one of the most concise and balanced prescriptions for life and living. It is most instructive in times like these when we are faced with concerns over large-scale societal and systemic issues. When held in balance, these three directives equip us to effect positive change. Conversely, the neglect of any one of the three is potentially destructive. Neglect, not overemphasis, because keeping each in mind even to a small extent mitigates against the extremes that emerge when neglecting any one of the others.
The Hebrew word for justice is mishpat. It refers to the bringing about of what is right. The world is full of what needs to be righted. The Hebrew, asah mishpat, instructs us that this is the activity aspect of the triad. Making things right is something we need to purposely work at. To do justice demands being aware of injustice, devising practical strategies to confront it, and finding ways to make it last. That’s a heavy task, especially since the forces of injustice are not passive, nor do they play fair.
Once the concern for justice captures our hearts, it can blind us, however, to the other essentials of life. Thus, connecting it with the other two is brilliant. Too often the purveyors of justice leave much damage in their wake, forgetting that while Scripture instructs us to do justice, it is not to overwhelm our affections. Therefore, at the very same time, we must also love kindness. The word for kindness here is hesed, which is far more than simply being nice. The biblical concept of hesed is steeped in committed relationship to God and to others. Depending on the context, hesed can mean “covenant love” or “loyal love.” It’s the type of kindness often shown to a relative or long-time friend, a generous heart toward someone because of the bonds of committed relationship. But God through Micah is not reminding us to simply show loyal love to family and friends. It’s that the love normally reserved for those we hold dear is the love we are to extend to those we perceive as unjust.
When adjoined to doing justice, hesed allows for needed change, while at the same time avoiding hurting people in the process. Making things right can be painful, but true committed love greatly reduces potential harm to individuals and communities. When focusing on what we think is right, it is far too easy to forget that on every side of every issue is a fellow human being. It is loyal love for God and others that helps us keep everyone’s best interest in mind even when they wrong us.
We might think that these first two are sufficient to balance each other. Too much justice and we unnecessarily hurt people. Too much kindness allows injustice to flourish. What more do we need? What we still need is the third directive: v’hatznei-a lekhet im eloheikha, “and to walk humbly with your God,” which is a way to express a life that continually and personally relies on him. Without that, what we have is what is termed principle-based living. Principle-based living can be appealing but is deceptively misguided. Tragically, the Bible is often abused by treating it as an instruction manual. Passages are read in order to reduce them to moral lessons that we try to apply to contemporary situations. Because God is continually referenced, we don’t realize when we disregard him. God didn’t inspire the Bible and then remove himself from human affairs while he watches history unfold from afar. God doesn’t expect us to figure out life on our own. How do we know whether or not our sense of urgency and allocation of resources match those of God’s? The Bible provides us with life’s foundations and general priorities, but not the specifics. Wisdom, the ability to implement scriptural truth, is not drawn from study and intelligence alone, no matter how well informed we may be. Rather it stems from a life that keeps in close step with avinu malkeinu, our Father and our King.
Doing justice and loving kindness, without the intimate God-dynamic, however noble and well-intentioned, remains self-focused. The greatest of virtues driven by our own agendas eventually become idols, gods of our own making. No wonder so many endeavors done in God’s name have defamed him. But if we allow him to initiate what we give ourselves to and correct our course as needed; if we look to him to fill us with genuine love for others as we remember his faithful love for us; then we will become the embodiment of his intentions, accomplishing his purposes in his time and in his way.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of July 13, 2024/ 7 Tammuz 5784
Chukkat
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 19:1 – 22:1
Haftarah: Shoftim/Judges 11:1-33
Updated message originally posted the week of June 23, 2007 / 7 Tammuz 5767
originally entitled, “You Don’t Have To Do Stupid Things”
And Yiftah (English: Jephthah) made a vow to the LORD and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the LORD‘s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” (Shoftim / Judges 11:30-31)
The biblical book of Shoftim (English: Judges) includes some “interesting” stories and characters. It underscores for us the interpretive principle of prescriptive vs. descriptive passages. Prescriptive passages provide general directives or life principles, such as “Honor your mother and your father” or “To give is better than to receive.” Descriptive passages are those that describe an incident or provide dialogue without necessarily encouraging the reader to follow suit. This isn’t always straightforward, allowing us to ponder these passages as we seek God to speak to us through them.
The Book of Shoftim (English: Judges), is especially challenging in this regard. Several of its characters the apparent heroes of the stories, engage in disturbing behaviors. Since these characters often appear to be divinely inspired to save the day, so to speak, the reader may be inclined to think that these behaviors are acceptable.
When this passage was chosen to be part of the annual cycle of readings, it was decided to stop at the point when the hero wins the day, leaving out the disturbing part. Maybe the conclusion was just too embarrassing or too difficult to handle. Yiftah promised God that if God would give him victory in battle, then, upon his return home, he would sacrifice whatever came out of the door of his house to meet him. That much we learn from this week’s passage. But what is not included is what it was that met him upon his return. I don’t know what Yiftah was thinking when he made his promise in the first place. Did he assume he would be met by one of his goats or sheep? As it turned out, it was his daughter! So what does he do? Does he say to himself, “Oy veh! Am I meshuge (English: crazy person)! Forgive me O Lord for making such a rash vow!”? No, instead he tells his daughter how bad he feels having to follow through with his promise.
I could see some spiritually-minded people attempting to justify Yiftah’s actions. After all, it was God to whom he made this promise. Of course his daughter’s death was tragic, but “God is God,” they might say, ignoring what God himself thinks about human sacrifice and murder. While we should keep our promises even when it is extremely difficult, it is never too late to stop ourselves from doing stupid things.
An important aspect about descriptive passages, even though they are not prescriptive, is that we can still to learn from them. The story of Yiftah and his daughter shows us how a person could be chosen and inspired by God to do great things, yet still say and do some of the most ridiculous and destructive things in the entire Bible.
What should we learn from this? Are we to learn that if we are really spiritual, then we can get away with murder, both literally and figuratively, or should we stop and realize that being spiritual doesn’t automatically prevent anyone from doing stupid things? I suggest that as soon as we realize that we have gone down a foolish road—no matter how we got there or how far down that road we might be—it is never too late to change course.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of July 6, 2024 / 30 Sivan 5784
Korach/Rosh Chodesh
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 16:1 – 18:32; Numbers 28:9-15
Haftarah: Isaiah 66:1-24
Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. (Isaiah 66:1-2)
This week’s parsha (weekly Torah reading) records yet another time when Moses’ leadership was challenged. We saw this two weeks ago when his sister and brother confronted him, and now here, a group led by Korach takes him on again. This time, the issue is the special status given to Moses’ tribe, Levi, as stewards and servants of the mishkan (English: tabernacle). As in the previous affair, God supports Moses. It might be better to say that God supported himself because the special positions of Moses and the Levites were his choice. It’s relatively easy to claim God is behind one’s position; it’s another to see him come through in practical ways as he does in both these occasions.
This week’s Haftarah (accompanying reading from the Prophets) is special for Rosh Chodesh (the new month). From time to time Rosh Chodesh coincides with Shabbat. The month of Tammuz begins at the end of Shabbat this week. Coincidently, the content of the Haftarah from the prophet Isaiah speaks directly to what’s happening in our Torah reading.
Who is it that God regards? Who is it that he is with? Is it the strong, the wise, the spiritually powerful, the successful? Isn’t that what most of us think whether we admit it or not? Moses certainly had some significant qualifications. Did not God do great acts of power at his word? Yet, I wonder what Moses was like in the day-to-day that he would be challenged the way he was. Many leaders make great efforts to prevent such challenges from happening. Not Moses. It’s in the context of the challenge from Miriam and Aaron where we read, “Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth” (B’midbar/Numbers 12:3).
There is a great deal of misunderstanding over what meekness or humility really is as if it’s about being a pushover, someone who is easily manipulated. However, when we read the Isaiah passage with the incident of Korach and company we discover a vivid illustration of true humility. First, we see what humility is not. Korach and the others were jealous and self-motivated. They sought to take matters into their own hands for their own purposes. On the other hand, Moses, the humble one, didn’t defend himself, but continually deferred to God to act on his behalf.
True humility places one in a very vulnerable situation. Instead of hiding behind structures and people, they remain open to engaging others as they find their security in God. The proud and self-sufficient may reference God and his word but, in reality, depend on self and others to accomplish their goals.
Moses grasped what Isaiah said many centuries after he lived. The all-encompassing God, who cannot be contained by human beings, will never be controlled by them. It is foolish to think we can ever truly set the agenda for our or others’ lives. Yet, as great as God is, he has regard for those humble like Moses.
The person whom God regards, the one to whom he draws near and communicates, is the one whose heart remains open to him in all things and at all times, always ready to hear his correction and direction, knowing that he alone is Master of the Universe.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of June 29, 2024 / 23 Sivan 5784
Sh’lach
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 13:1 – 15:41
Haftarah: Joshua 2:1-24
If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.” Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel. (B’midbar Numbers 14:8-10)
This week’s parsha (weekly Torah portion) is so crucial in at least two ways. First, it recounts a most tragic turn of events in the early history of ancient Israel. Generations were anticipating the moment when the promise of acquiring the land of Canaan would be realized. As foretold to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob hundreds of years earlier, God’s announcement to Moses at the burning bush was not simply one of deliverance from slavery in Egypt, but also of acquiring the Land (see Shemot/Exodus 3:8). After years of oppression, the people of Israel were witnesses to great acts of God’s power through his securing their release from Egypt, the powerful experience of receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai, and his protection and provision during the two years of wilderness living. Yet, despite all that they had experienced, when the time came to enter the land, the people could not or would not connect all that God had done for them with what he would do for them going forward. Their unwillingness to embrace the next stage of their history resulted in their remaining in the wilderness until that whole generation died out. God’s plans and purposes for Israel as a nation were not thwarted, but the current generation sorrowfully missed a great opportunity.
It’s also crucial for what this demonstrates. Lack of trust in God results in harm to ourselves and to our communities. Highly destructive paths await those who allow fear to cause them to reject God’s specific direction in their lives. How this story reflects the negative results of lack of faith is obvious, but there is something else lurking here that we would do well to note.
The people reacted extremely negatively upon receiving the report of ten of the twelve men who were appointed to scout out the land. However, Joshua and Caleb, the two scouts who believed God would give them success, tried to encourage them. Their encouragement was based on their experience of God. Why wouldn’t they try to help the others to think positively on this matter? Wouldn’t you? But then, look at how the majority reacted: “Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones.” They wanted to kill them.
The people’s murderous desire reflects the depth of their fear. Perhaps they believed that Joshua and Caleb had sufficient clout in the community that their minority opinion would win out, an option that the majority could in no way tolerate.
Think about it. Have you ever been so afraid that you found people’s encouragement threatening? I am sure most of us have experienced situations when the encouragement of others helped us to do something that we were afraid of. And I suspect that we have appreciated most, if not all, of those times: “Try it, you’ll like it!” “Jump in, you’ll get used to it!” “Make the call, you won’t regret it!” But perhaps there have been other times when you didn’t appreciate such encouragement. Note that I am not referring to situations where people encourage us to do wrong. This is about confronting a great fear of something that we should do, but we are so afraid that we can’t handle people’s encouragement.
When this happens, it’s like a living nightmare. You want everything to stop. Perhaps you wouldn’t actually kill anyone, but the desire to shut out undesirable forces, no matter how well-meaning, can be overwhelming, not to mention, destructive.
Let’s face it, from time-to-time God takes us into situations that are not just intimidating—the kind of thing that makes us feel apprehensive or nervous—but full-out terrifying. And yet, they are God’s best for us. From confronting issues from our past to venturing on something greatly unfamiliar, or how about being called to something that previously resulted in great failure? Make your own list.
It can take a lot of courage to do God’s will sometimes. But, may I encourage you to acknowledge the source of your fear and look to God to enable you to overcome it before you cause irreparable damage to yourself or others.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of June 22, 2024 / 16 Sivan 5784
Beha’alotcha
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 8:1 – 12:16
Haftarah: Zechariah 2:14 – 4:7
Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the LORD heard it. (B’midbar/Numbers 12:1-2)
Do you notice anything strange about Moses’ siblings Miriam and Aaron’s confronting Moses here? Actually, we don’t know if they confronted him directly or not. All we know is that they were outspokenly critical of him. But that’s not the strange part, however. Read it over again. Do you see it yet? The passage states that the issue Miriam and Aaron had with Moses was that he married a Cushite woman. But that’s not what they said, be it to Moses directly and/or anyone else (at least not as far as the passage is concerned). According to the passage, what they said had to do with an apparently different matter. Instead of addressing the marriage issue, they made a big deal over whether or not God uniquely spoke through Moses. Now, it’s not as if Moses’ unique position in the community was not a serious matter. Right or wrong, it would be surprising if this wasn’t something that several Israelites might question from time to time. Complaints over leadership privileges wouldn’t be strange. What’s strange in the passage is that Miriam and Aaron are clearly concerned about one thing, while what they address is a completely different matter altogether. Search the entire passage (12:1-16). Nothing is ever said about Moses’ Cushite wife again.
That we are told they were critical of Moses about one thing but then addressed a completely different subject is an example of what scholars love to sink their teeth into. Some may deduce that this must be the result of two different and unrelated stories that somehow got stuck together. No wonder it makes no sense, since there are two different issues being addressed here. But wait! Perhaps this isn’t so strange. Think about it. People motivated by one concern, while saying something completely different with no reference whatsoever to their real concern. This isn’t strange; it’s normal!
How often have you been the object of someone’s anger, but you can tell (perhaps) that what they are saying isn’t what’s really bothering them? Should we also include ourselves as possible perpetrators of this phenomenon while we’re at it? Instead of the Torah clumsily and inappropriately connecting two different stories, what we have here is a brilliant example of a common human dysfunction.
There’s a good chance that the reason why Miriam and Aaron didn’t address the real issue was because they didn’t think they could do anything about it. Perhaps they thought they could get a lot more leverage by asserting their own spirituality. Yet, evading the family issue not only challenged Moses’ relationship to God but also his essential role in the community, which in turn disrupted the community for a time, not to mention resulting in Miriam getting sick.
We don’t know what Miriam and Aaron’s problem with this was exactly. But that’s part of what is ingeniously instructive about this passage. When people aren’t willing to be honest about a concern, be it between individuals or within the broader society, it causes all sorts of unnecessary confusion and damage. Maybe Miriam and Aaron simply didn’t like the woman. The mention of her being Cushite may be a clue that they had an ethnic or racial concern. But their refusal to say so may indicate they knew it would not have gotten them anywhere. So, they had to find something else.
Note that from Moses’ and his wife’s perspectives, God took care of the situation. That should encourage us when we are the object of this sort of thing. And it’s also a warning when we are tempted to act out in this way. If we can’t be honest about our concerns, we should keep them between ourselves and God.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of June 15, 2024 / 9 Sivan 5784
Naso
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 4:21 – 7:89
Shoftim/Judges 13:2-25
You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain. Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks (Hebrew: Shavuot) to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you. (D’varim/Deuteronomy 16:9-10)
I don’t know about you, but I am still amazed at wireless technology. On a recent walk with my wife, I mentioned how photocopies used to look like photocopies (low-quality duplicates), but now from our devices we can print documents wirelessly that look as original as the original. And what about wireless earbuds? Incredible! I get such a nice feeling when I put them in my ears and hear the pleasant voice say, “Connected.”
We live in a world of connections. We begin life connected to an entire family tree, whether or not we ever fully grasp those connections. Moreover, living life requires the connection of relationships, including family, friends, co-workers, and more. Then, like the earbuds, society depends on all sorts of connected systems.
This week, beginning Tuesday evening, June 11, Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks) begins. You may know it by its Greek-based name, Pentecost. If so, you might be saying to yourself (thinking you are talking to me): “But Pentecost was about a month ago.” We’ll deal with that later.
For now, I want to explain how Shavuot is a feast of connection. Of the three major Torah feasts, Pesach: (English: Passover) and Sukkot (English: Tabernacles or Booths), Shavuot is the only one that doesn’t explicitly commemorate a historical event. It does, but not explicitly. During Pesach, we remember God’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Sukkot commemorates Israel’s years in the wilderness. Shavuot also lacks the kind of specialized customs that Pesach and Sukkot have, Pesach has the Seder and eating matza for a week, Sukkot has living in temporary dwellings and rejoicing while holding specified growing things. Shavuot’s customs as observed today were developed in post-biblical times.
However, there is an explicit and unique feature of Shavuot that is easily missed—connection. God, through Moses, set the date of Shavuot by directing the people of Israel to count seven weeks from Pesach, which is why Shavuot is called the Feast of Weeks. Its alternate name, “Pentecost” is from the number fifty as it was to occur the day after the counting of seven weeks or forty-nine days. Based on this, as acknowledged by Jewish tradition, the timing of Shavuot places it at the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. Therefore, the purposeful counting established a strong connection between the rescue from Egypt and the giving of God’s Word, the Torah. This demonstrates that Israel’s freedom from Egypt was not so that they could do whatever they wanted, but rather to serve the God who rescued them.
But then why in Acts chapter two of the New Covenant Writings does the Ruach HaKodesh (English: the Holy Spirit) come at Shavuot? What’s that connection all about? The key is in understanding one of the core aspects of the New Covenant as prophesied hundreds of years earlier through Jeremiah:
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law (Hebrew: Torah) within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people (Jeremiah 31:33).
Shavuot commemorates the calling of the people of Israel through the giving of the Torah. But as the overall biblical story unfolds, we discover that on our own, we were unable to live up to that call. That is, until that very special Shavuot when through the Ruach HaKodesh, God enabled us to truly be his people from the inside out, thus connecting the people of Israel to himself by his Spirit.
That same special Shavuot also marks a great development of God’s plans and purposes for the world by not only connecting the people of Israel to himself as never before—but by opening the way for people of all nations to truly know him through the Jewish Messiah. And yet most non-Jewish Yeshua followers are not aware that the Pentecost of Acts 2 is the biblical Feast of Shavuot. It doesn’t help that the connection between the Christian celebration of Pentecost occurs at a different time from Shavuot. Why is that? It’s because the Christian Church in the fourth century purposely broke the connection between Yeshua and the Jewish people. I wonder how many other God-given connections we’re missing out on?
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of June 8, 2024 / 2 Sivan 5784
B’midbar
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 1:1 – 4:20
Haftarah: Hos 2:1-22 (English: 1:10 – 2:20)
Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” (Hosea 2:1; English: 1:10)
This week’s parsha (weekly Torah reading portion) is the beginning of B’midbar, the book of Numbers, which chronicles Israel’s almost forty years of wilderness wanderings. Such a duration was due to the people’s refusal to trust God when they were intimidated by the prospect of taking the land of Canaan. Throughout the book, we see the consequences of their lack of faith.
It is tragic when Bible readers fail to see themselves in the lives of the Israelites. Israel in the Bible functions as a prototypical people group. Scripture is to act like a mirror. Readers are supposed to see themselves in the lives of the people of Israel. Looking down on them for their tendency to mistrust God and stubbornly go their own way reflects great hypocrisy. Who would have done differently? Israel’s failure to live up to God’s standards was designed to show the whole world its need of God. Distancing ourselves from the ancient Israelites cuts us off from valuable scriptural lessons God longs for us to learn.
Core to those lessons is the essence of God’s faithfulness to his people. This week’s Haftarah (selected reading from the Prophets) is from Hoshea (English: Hosea). Few biblical books reflect the theme of God’s faithfulness as Hoshea does. God had called Hoshea to marry a wayward woman to demonstrate this. Throughout his book, as with the other prophets, we read very harsh words of judgment upon Israel. So much so that I could understand why some think God completely rejected them. But to come to such a conclusion, you need to be most selective in your reading. You would need to ignore what Hoshea says in what I quoted at the start:
Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God” (Hosea 2:1; English: 1:10).
God’s commitment to Israel is so misunderstood that when Peter references this in his first letter, many assume he is speaking about Gentile believers rather than Messianic Jews:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Peter 2:9-10).
Confusion over God’s faithfulness is fueled by a misunderstanding regarding God’s unconditional covenant with Israel. Disobedience on Israel’s part in no way undermines God’s covenantal commitment to them. Individuals, even generations, may experience harsh judgment, but that doesn’t nullify God’s commitment to them. This then leaves the door open for individuals to return. Never in Israel’s history was anyone to regard the nation’s spiritual condition as an indication of God’s general posture toward them. On the contrary, reconciliation to God was always possible on the basis of God’s faithfulness to Israel. Not that his faithfulness was ever to be taken for granted. Reconciliation always requires repentance. And repentance requires an honest acceptance of our own inadequacy before God.
What holds true for Israel is available to all through Israel’s Messiah. Through his death and resurrection, people of all nationalities can be embraced by God’s faithfulness. He is ready to accept anyone who humbly comes to him through Yeshua.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of June 1, 2024 / 24 Iyar 5784
Bechukotai
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 26:3 – 27:34
Haftarah: Jeremiah 16:19 – 17:14
Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. (Jeremiah 17:5)
This week’s parsha (weekly Torah reading portion) includes one of the sections of the Torah that contrasts the benefits of obedience with the consequences of disobedience. The Haftarah (supplemental reading from the Hebrew Prophets) taken from Jeremiah sums up the latter this way: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD” (Jeremiah 17:5). The Hebrew word translated “trust” here is batach and contains the idea of finding security or confidence in someone or something. God through Jeremiah warns against finding security or confidence in human beings.
But aren’t we supposed to trust others? Shouldn’t little children learn to trust their parents? Picture a parent in a swimming pool coaxing their child to jump in: “Don’t worry Jonny! Mommy will catch you.” Through this simple, if not frightening, act of trust, children learn that others, especially adults, can be trusted. And that’s what most of us learn to do. Could you imagine the alternative? “Did you know that human beings designed and built that bridge? I wouldn’t try going over it if I were you!” Or “I am not taking those pills. I think my doctor wants to kill me!”
Sure, these are extreme, fanciful examples, but perhaps you have been seriously let down by others. I often wonder what happened to that person I gave wrong directions to. I honestly didn’t do it on purpose. But what if they think I did? Maybe you have been the victim of intentional misinformation or other ways we humans can purposely let each other down.
This may be more complicated than I first thought. Jeremiah provides a serious warning against finding security in people. Yet, I am sure that he knows that most of the time most people can be trusted. We should note, however, that he was living in a very dark time in Israel’s history, where human selfishness likely saturated the society. Perhaps not too different from today. Be that as it may, what he says doesn’t sound time-limited, but more of a generalized statement.
It comes down to how in the course of a day, we normally trust people (I don’t think that someone who holds a door open for me is going to then trip me). But, at the same time, humans are not ultimately dependable. Perhaps that is what God is communicating through his prophet. According to Jeremiah, the person who is cursed here is one “whose heart turns away from the Lord.” Someone whose heart is entuned to God can effectively navigate the world in which they live. Their confidence isn’t ultimately in others, but in the Master of the Universe. He is their ultimate guide, protector, and provider. Their interactions with others exist within the security of a loving heavenly Father.
Even the best-intentioned and most capable human beings are not completely dependable. A wise, informed person learns how to engage such a world. But if humans are the ultimate source of security we have or if we treat them as such, we are in big trouble. To be cursed is to be sapped of life, which is exactly what happens when human beings take the place of God in our lives. Again, that doesn’t mean we are not to trust others at all. In fact, it is only when we find security in God that our relationship with our fellow human beings can truly flourish.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of May 25, 2024 / 17 Iyar 5784
Be-Har
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 25:1 – 26:2
Haftarah: Jeremiah 32:6-27
Originally posted the week of May 16, 2015 / 27 Iyar 5775 (revised)
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Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the LORD. (Vayikra/Leviticus 25:2)
Everyone who believes that the entire Bible is God’s inspired and authoritative written Word faces the challenge of working out how to apply it to our lives today. It’s not as if the Scriptures are simply a collection of general spiritual sayings or a compilation of moral tales. While it includes such content, the Bible is much more than that. Almost all of Scripture was originally intended for a particular people at a particular time. From its stories, laws, prophetic utterances, and letters, and so on, we seek to deduce truths about God and life in an effort to determine how those truths apply today.
In both Jewish and Christian communities there is much controversy in particular over the section of Scripture called the Torah, the five books of Moses. Orthodox Jews claim to fully observe it but do so through the filter of rabbinic tradition. That includes making up for the impossibility of fulfilling key commands – including the offering of sacrifice – due to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem about two thousand years ago. Non-orthodox Jews tend to see Torah as ever evolving as they accommodate it to changing times. Christians, on the other hand, have tended to relate to Torah in one of two ways. Some claim that it has been rendered obsolete by the New Covenant, having been superseded by the teachings of Yeshua and his followers. Others insist it continues to be binding except for its ceremonial aspects, which have found their completion in the Messiah.
It seems to me that the root of the confusion has more to do with what Torah really is, both then and now. Contrary to much Jewish and Christian thought, the Torah and the Sinai covenant given through Moses are not one and the same even though the Sinai covenant is often called, “Torah.” The Sinai covenant was designed as the constitution for the nation of Israel. With the giving of the New Covenant through Yeshua (see Jeremiah 31:31-33; compare Luke 22:20) and the destruction of the Temple, the Sinai covenant was rendered obsolete along with the particular elements given to maintain it, such as the sacrifices.
But there was more to the Sinai covenant than its constitutional function. God used the giving of this covenant to reveal, first to Israel and then to the whole world, his ways regarding every aspect of life, including business, sexuality, justice, and so on. The establishment of the New Covenant in no way abolishes God’s eternal ways or his “Torah.” In fact under the New Covenant, Torah is internalized. For God says through Jeremiah: “I will put my Torah (English: law) within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” Discerning what of Torah was temporary, being limited to the Sinai Covenant, and what is ongoing until now is not always an easy task, but well worth the effort.
Sadly however, it seems that we often regard God’s directives as oppressive restrictions that get in the way of things we want to do. It’s too bad we are slow to see that our reluctance to embrace God’s will is due to the forces of evil that continue to get the upper hand in our lives. God’s ways as revealed throughout the whole Bible, and understood correctly, are always life giving. Take Sabbath laws for example. Under the New Covenant, it is clear that Sabbath laws were not to be imposed upon non-Jewish believers (see Galatians 4:10; compare Acts 15:19-20). But does that mean all believers must disregard God’s weekly rhythm and embrace the 365-day/year, 7-day/week, 24-hour/day lifestyle so prevalent today? It’s not that long ago that countries with strong biblical roots took weekly days off – real days off – when most businesses were closed and a majority of people attended worship services, taking time to rest and be with family. Perhaps we would do well to consider Sabbath again.
Or take the sabbatical year as mentioned in the verse I quoted at the beginning. Covenantally, like the weekly Sabbath, we have no justification to enforce such a custom, but should that stop us from considering its possible benefits? Is the sabbatical year strictly a ritual for the sake of the Sinai covenant only, or are there benefits in allowing farmland to take a rest one year in seven?
The sabbatical year is but one of many reminders in Torah that in our responsibility to be stewards of the planet (see Bereshit/Genesis 1:26) we must avoid exploiting our resources. It is so tempting to try to extract as much as we can for ourselves in the moment. But if we do that, we will create a disastrous situation for future generations that could have easily been avoided. God, who himself rested on the seventh day and was refreshed (see Shemot/Exodus 31:17), designed his creation to require rest as well. Whether it’s you personally or your sphere of work, maybe it’s about time you gave it a rest.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of May 18, 2024 / 10 Iyar 5784
Emor
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 21:1-24:23
Haftarah: Ezekiel 44:15-31
Revised version of “Perfect Offerings,” originally posted the week of 20 Iyar 5758 / May 16, 1998
And when anyone offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering from the herd or from the flock, to be accepted it must be perfect; there shall be no blemish in it. (Vayikra/Leviticus 22:21)
Offerings to the God of Israel were to be without defect. Certainly one of the reasons for this was that the people were not to bring their leftovers and undesirables to him. For a sacrifice to be meaningful and acceptable, it had to be valuable. But apart from value, the perfect nature of these offerings has much to teach us about God, his creation, the Messiah, and ourselves.
First, by insisting that these animals have no blemishes, deformities, or disease, we are reminded that God himself has no defects, weaknesses or faults. We tend to create religion and spirituality that accommodates our own imperfect nature. But God calls us to something much higher. God is perfect. So what we offer to him must be of a fitting quality. To offer him anything less is to lower him to our level.
Next, we are reminded that the world was created perfectly. The imperfections and blemishes of life are a result of human rebellion against the Creator. By bringing some of the best of our possessions, we are confronted with an ideal that once was and will be again. Having to reject the defective, emphasizes the nature of the perfect. A day is coming when the creation will be renewed; the curse upon it will be no more.
For generations the people Israel had to carefully examine the offerings they brought as they were to be of only the highest quality. Little did they know that they were acting out what God himself would one day do himself. For what the animals could not accomplish, God did through the perfect offering of his Son, the Messiah, whom Peter refers to as “a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:19).
Yeshua lived the only perfect and sinless life ever, preparing him to provide the way for imperfect people like us to be fully accepted by God. We read in the New Covenant book of Hebrews:
For if sprinkling ceremonially unclean persons with the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer restores their outward purity; then how much more the blood of the Messiah, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself to God as a sacrifice without blemish, will purify our conscience from works that lead to death, so that we can serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:13-14; Complete Jewish Bible).
On our own, because of our imperfections, we cannot approach God and serve him in the way he intends; we are disqualified. But if we trust in Yeshua and his perfect offering on our behalf, we are made acceptable to God, blemishes and all.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of May 4, 2024 / 26 Nisan 5784
Aharei Mot
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 16:1-18:30
Haftarah: 1 Sh’muel/1 Samuel 20:18-42
Originally posted the week of May 4, 2019 / 29 Nisan 5779
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. (Vayikra/Leviticus 17:11)
This statement by God through Moses clarifies the sacrificial system’s operative dynamic. Or, in other words, that which makes sacrifice work. Within God’s design of creation, a creature’s life was in its blood. Whether this be metaphorical or literal, I can’t say for sure, though I suspect it’s both. The blood on the altar represents the giving up of the life of the sacrificed animal.
So, it’s not so much the physical presence of blood that makes atonement. The word for atonement, “kaphar,” means “to cover.” And while blood is an effective covering; it’s the life which the blood represents that is doing the covering. That which needs to be covered is our souls. What is missed in English, however, is that the word “life” in the phrase “the life of the flesh is in the blood” and the word for “soul” here is the same Hebrew word “nephesh.” If we more precisely reflect the Hebrew word in both cases, we would better understand that the Jewish sacrificial system established that it was the giving of the offered animal’s life that provided cover for human life.
Why covering? Our first parents were created by God to have intimate unobstructed fellowship with him. When they turned to the creation over against the creator by heeding the voice of the serpent over against God’s word, they were overwhelmed with shame, attempted to cover themselves with leaves and hide. They knew they were no longer fit to be in God’s presence in this condition. Their being cast out of the garden reflected the resulting distance between them and God. Every additional misdeed done by them or their ancestors (including us) is a manifestation of the twisted nature they introduced to humankind. It would require the tragic ongoing loss of life to allow for any semblance of fellowship with God by covering the shame of human sinfulness.
For the nation of Israel, all the sacrificial system could do was maintain the tentative presence of God in their midst. It was a needed, albeit temporary, solution to the sin problem that did more to remind the people of Israel of the problem than to resolve it. As we read in the New Covenant book of Hebrews:
For since the law (Torah) has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Hebrews 10:1-4).
The stopgap measure of the ancient sacrificial system prepared Israel and the world for the life that would not only cover human shame but release us from it forever. The shed blood of the Messiah is the giving of his sinless life, not only for Israel, but for anyone who avails himself or herself its power. It’s the giving of his life on our behalf that reestablishes intimate relationship with God. It’s no wonder that within forty years of his death the sacrificial system would be no more. The Messiah’s lifeblood is now freely available to all.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of April 27, 2024 / 19 Nisan 5784
Pesach
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 33:12 – 34:26; B’midbar/Numbers 28:19-25
Haftarah: Ezekiel 36:37 – 37:14
For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth? (Shemot/Exodus 33:16)
This week’s parsha (Torah reading portion) is a special mid-Pesach Shabbat Torah reading. It covers the time following Israel’s worship of the golden calf and Moses’ breaking the original tablets of the Ten Commandments. Due to Moses’ intercession, God relents of destroying the people for their sin and reaffirms the covenant. That the parsha is chosen for the week of Pesach is curious, since there is no mention of leaving Egypt and associated events. However, God’s renewal of the covenant as documented here demonstrates that the rescue of Israel from slavery is part of something much bigger and enduring. Commemorating Pesach is to remember God’s commitment to Israel for the long haul.
The parsha also includes Moses’ seeking God for clarity over his continued presence with the people going forward. Through his conversation with God, he expresses that which sets Israel apart from all other nations. It’s not the extraordinary events that recently took place even though the exodus from Egypt is one of the most well-known stories of history. It’s not the giving of the Torah and the rest of the Bible even though it’s a unique heavenly gift that has blessed the world for centuries. What makes Israel distinct is God’s presence with them. In fact, it’s God’s presence from which everything else worthy of note in Israel’s history stems.
God himself sought out a people, beginning with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, through whom to bring blessing to the rest of the world. And from those earliest days, he engaged Israel personally. They were not always aware of his presence. Long periods would go by when they may have felt that he had abandoned them. But even then, God’s attention was on them to oversee the workings of their lives to further his purposes both in and through them.
Some may want to reduce Israel’s story as one in which superior religious thought developed over time. Amid great struggles, special men and women rose to the fore as they developed extraordinary ways of living life. The Bible stories and the people involved can therefore be regarded as prototypical object lessons from which later generations could glean wisdom. According to this perspective, whether or not these stories actually happened to real people in real-life situations is secondary to the lessons we can learn from them.
Learning lessons from Bible stories is a good thing, but to downplay their historicity greatly undermines their intended power. For, if the people and events are nothing more than highly developed prototypical stories to enlighten readers, what does this tells us about Moses’ claim about what made Israel special? In order to establish the importance of Moses’s claim, an actual God needed to be literally present with real people. Otherwise, Moses’ words are nonsense.
But they were not nonsense. Moses really did encounter the Creator God, who spoke and made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He really did tell Moses what to say to Pharoah, striking Egypt with plagues due to Pharoah’s obstinance. He really did appear to Israel in the form of a pillar of cloud and fire and led them through the sea to freedom. He really did provide them with food and drink in the wilderness and really did give his Torah to Moses. God’s presence was really with Israel. It was (and still is) his personal attention that sets Israel, and all who trust in him through Israel’s Messiah, apart.
What makes God’s people different is that God is personally present with us. He never intended to leave us with a set of principles or ideas that we simply rehash and aspire to. He has indeed given us his Word, but never with the intention that we would figure it out on our own. That same Word calls us to be aware of his presence as we fix our attention on him and continually rely on him.
All scriptures, English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible
For the week of April 20, 2024 / 12 Nisan 5784
Metzora
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 14:1 – 15:33
Haftarah: Malachi 3:4-24 (English: 3:4 – 4:6)
Previously posted the week of April 16, 2016 / 8 Nisan 5776
Thus you shall keep the people of Israel separate from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness by defiling my tabernacle that is in their midst. (Vayikra / Leviticus 15:31)
This is perhaps one of the most important statements in the Torah that helps us to understand the implications of the New Covenant. Vayikra (the Book of Leviticus) contains detailed instructions regarding how the community of Israel was to deal with spiritual uncleanness.
The term unclean in Hebrew is “tamei.” It does not mean unclean in the sense of being dirty but rather refers to defilement with regard to spiritual purity. When someone or something is tamei, they are unfit to be in God’s presence or to be used in God’s service. Not only did the defiled person risk death by attempting to be in God’s presence, their defilement also defiled God’s dwelling.
Let me explain. God’s plan and purpose for creating the people of Israel were to make himself known to the world through them. God instructed them through Moses to construct a tent-like structure called the Mishkan (English: Tabernacle), which would later become a permanent structure called the Temple (the Hebrew word for Temple is simply “bayit,” meaning “house”). Whether it be the Mishkan or the Temple, they represented God’s dwelling place. The various inner sections of these structures, while providing, in one sense, access to God, they vividly illustrated the barriers that existed between us and him.
Much of the sacrificial system was to deal with this issue of defilement. On one hand it allowed people to engage God by undergoing ritual cleansing, but at the same time, it continually reminded them how they, as an example of the condition of all nations before God, were unfit to intimately engage him.
Many of the things that defiled a person, which in turn threatened the purity of God’s dwelling, were unintentional, including certain diseases, bodily emissions, and childbirth. While immorality was also defiling, it was necessary to learn that human defilement was fundamentally involuntary. Being unfit to approach God was an aspect of our natural human state.
The Torah’s teaching on defilement, therefore, describes our predicament before God. Even though Israel was called to be God’s people, human nature as derived from our first parents is unable to engage our Creator as he originally intended.
It is this predicament that the Messiah came to resolve. He, who in his nature was completely undefiled, took upon himself our defilement so that we can approach God freely and fully. The New Covenant book of Hebrews details how Yeshua purified God’s heavenly dwelling of which the earthly Mishkan and Temple were models. Our defilement defiled God’s dwelling place and kept us alienated from him. But the sacrificial blood of the Messiah the Son of God removed the effects of our defilement, making all who trust in him eternally pure, and thus absolutely fit to be in God’s presence and be in a state whereby we can freely serve him.
It is no wonder then that not long after Yeshua’s coming the Temple was destroyed. There is no longer any need to go through the motions of purification or to be reminded of our defilement since Yeshua has purified us once and for all.
All scriptures, English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible
For the week of April 13, 2024 / 5 Nisan 5784
Tazria
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 12:1 – 13:59
Haftarah: 2 M’lachim/2 Kings 4:42 – 5:19
Originally posted the week of April 6, 2019 / 1 Nisan 5779
Then he shall examine the disease on the seventh day. If the disease has spread in the garment, in the warp or the woof, or in the skin, whatever be the use of the skin, the disease is a persistent leprous disease; it is unclean. And he shall burn the garment, or the warp or the woof, the wool or the linen, or any article made of skin that is diseased, for it is a persistent leprous disease. It shall be burned in the fire. (Vayikra/Leviticus 13:51-52)
As I have studied Torah for most of my life, I have come to see that there is far more to its teachings than the particular details it describes. Don’t get me wrong! The details are extremely important, but the details point beyond themselves to something much greater. I don’t mean that in some esoteric way as if the Bible is a code book of mysteries to be solved (in spite of what some may think!). It’s more straightforward than that. As we absorb its content over time, we are drawn into God’s understanding of the world in which we live. This worldview is not simply one possible way to look at life, but the only truly effective way. The God of Israel – the one who both designed and implemented the creation – is the only one who truly understands how best to negotiate the complexities of living. Through the Scriptures he has revealed that understanding.
Take for example the section of Torah we are in currently. God through Moses establishes strict guidelines with regard to certain infections. Note what’s missing. There is a great lack of spiritualization here. There’s nothing to suggest that people whose bodies or houses were afflicted were to blame in any way. While there was what to do in response, there was no reason to be ashamed of such things. Lack of shame encourages people to not hide their problems but bring them out into the open where they can be dealt with.
Not everything that looks problematic is serious. It was necessary for the general population and the leadership to learn the difference between those things that needed to be cut out and destroyed and others that could be left alone. A culture trained by God in this way would learn to approach all of life in a similar fashion. One doesn’t have to be a psychologist to know that negative human behavior can be as infectious as the examples given us in Torah.
In the New Covenant Writings, Paul provides an illustration of this (see 1 Corinthians 5:6-8). The faith community of the city of Corinth had allowed arrogance and malice to fester. He likened these negative influences to the way leaven pervades dough. Once the fermentation process gets in, it can’t be removed. It affects the entire batch. He therefore calls for a whole new lump of dough.
The problem with Paul’s illustration is when it comes to fermented dough, it’s permanent. If this was really about dough, then “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened” (1 Corinthians 5:7), would require throwing out the infected batch and starting with a new one. There’s no way he intends an exact parallel for the Corinthians. He isn’t saying that their community was beyond the point of no return; that they would need to start with a whole new group of people. What he is saying is that the transformative process required to resolve their metaphorical infection was drastic and would, therefore, require a resolve on the part of this community to take their situation seriously. They would have to do whatever was necessary to experience renewal. Thankfully, Paul’s extreme language emphasizes the potential of God’s transformative power available to them (and to us!) through Yeshua the Messiah.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of April 6, 2024 / 27 Adar II 5784
Shemini
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 9:1 – 11:47; Shemot/Exodus 12:1-20
Haftarah: 2 Shmuel/2 Samuel 6:1 – 7:17
Replaced by: Ezekiel 45:16-46
Note: This following message was intended to be based on this week’s Haftarah (selection from the Hebrew Prophets). From time to time, the regularly scheduled Haftarah is preempted by a special selection due to that particular Shabbat’s proximity to a festival or other special occasion (see this article for more information). This is something I am usually aware of when preparing my weekly TorahBytes message. However, for some reason, I failed to notice the special reading and prepared the following based on the regularly scheduled one. I decided to post what I wrote anyway. Perhaps you will catch the irony. —Alan Gilman
And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you.” But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD: Would you build me a house to dwell in?’” (2 Shmuel/2 Samuel 7:3-5)
After King David’s throne was secure, having unified the tribes of Israel and having brought peace to the land, he had it in his heart to build a permanent house for God. According to Torah, God’s dwelling was to be in the form of the mishkan (English: tabernacle), the complex, semi-portable, national center for sacrifice. After erecting and dismantling the mishkan as needed during the years of Israel’s wanderings, it eventually came to rest in Shiloh about forty-five kilometers (thirty miles) north of Jerusalem. In the days of Eli, the cohen ha-gadol (English: the high priest), the central furnishing of the mishkan, the ark of the covenant, was captured by the Philistines. Many years later, after David became king, he brought it to Jerusalem where it was housed in a tent.
It troubled David that he himself dwelt in a permanent dwelling, while the ark of God dwelt in a tent. The ark signified the presence of God among the people of Israel. To David, God’s appointed earthly king had more dignified housing than the heavenly king of all kings. So, he brought his concern to the prophet Nathan. From their interaction and what follows, it’s clear that Nathan understood David wasn’t simply sharing a concern but also had a specific plan in mind: to build a permanent house for God. To Nathan, this was a great idea, and he told David so.
Nathan was correct to assume that God was with David and apparently viewed David’s grand building project in line with all he understood about both David and God. It must have been gratifying to David to get the prophet’s green light to proceed.
But sometime later (the wording sounds as if it wasn’t that much later), God speaks to Nathan, contradicting what Nathan had earlier said to David. David was not to build him a house. It would be his son who would do it instead. This in no way undermines what David envisioned. Far from it! According to First Chronicles, the plans for the temple were given to David by God. We read, “All this he made clear to me in writing from the hand of the Lord, all the work to be done according to the plan” (1 Chronicles 28:19). David was indeed inspired to build a permanent dwelling for God. It’s understandable that this being the case, both David and the prophet assumed that David would oversee the project, that is, until God said otherwise.
I cannot tell you how impressed I am by Nathan! Acknowledged as a prophet of God, he green lights David’s temple project, but then has to go back and say that he got it wrong. He not only received the message of correction; he also delivered it.
God did reveal more to Nathan than a simple correction of something like, “Yes, but not you and not now.” God gave Nathan a good deal of detail regarding his plans for David’s dynasty, the nature of which would have likely cushioned any sense of negativity that was included. But still, Nathan was open to God’s correcting what he had said to King David and was willing to tell him so.
How many of us would do as Nathan did? You might think, “If God would speak to me as clearly as he spoke to Nathan, of course I would!” Do you really think your openness to correction, especially after you’ve gone on record with regard to a matter, is based on how clearly God speaks to you? In any way that we might discover we have misrepresented God’s will—be it an interpretation of Scripture or how we might understand its implications in our lives or the lives of others—would we be as quick as Nathan to say so?
How often are we too embarrassed to admit that we’ve been wrong? And if we are not correctable in small things, do we think that we will be correctable in divine things? Nathan’s correctability should inspire us to consider what’s at stake here. For those of us who claim to know the God of Truth, we must commit ourselves to that truth at all costs. What’s the alternative?
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of March 30, 2024 / 20 Adar II 5784
Tzav
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 6:1 – 8:36 (English: 6:8 – 8:36)
Haftarah: Ezekiel 36:16-38
Originally posted the week of March 30, 2019 / 23 Adar II 5779
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And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. (Ezekiel 36:23)
The story of the Bible is the story of God’s rescue operation of the creation. According to the earliest chapters of the Bible, from the moment God cursed the world in response to our first parents’ rebellion, he determined to put a complete end to evil (see Bereshit/Genesis 3:15). Much of the rest of Scripture is the unfolding of that promise. The intricate interplay of the whole Bible is summed up by Paul when he calls God’s promise of blessing to Abraham, the “gospel,” meaning “good news” (Galatians 3:8; cf. Bereshit/Genesis 12:3). The good news is that the curse would be undone through Abraham’s descendants.
Yeshua followers are quick to point out that the realization of the promise to Abraham is wrapped up in the Messiah. That is certainly true. Yeshua’s death and resurrection provide forgiveness and eternal life to all who repent and put their trust in him. However, Yeshua’s part of the story of God, essential as it is, is not the whole story. In fact, we cannot fully appreciate Yeshua and what he has done unless we see him in the context of the whole Bible.
To understand Yeshua in the context of the Bible is to come to grips with the centrality of Israel in the plan of God. To start with, Yeshua isn’t portrayed in Scripture simply as the savior from heaven. He is that, but he is first and foremost the promised Messiah of Israel. He couldn’t be the savior of all if he wasn’t the Jewish Messiah. That’s just the beginning. There’s far more to Israel’s role in God’s rescue plan than Yeshua’s Jewish messianic pedigree.
Tragically, Israel’s role has been obscured by deep-seated prejudice towards the Jewish people through the centuries. Ignoring Paul’s warning to the non-Jewish believers in Rome to not be arrogant towards the Jewish people (see Romans 11:17-24), the church did just that. Paul must have sensed that there was a growing “new kid on the block” mentality emerging from the increasing number of Gentile believers in his day. He knew that the outworking of God’s promise to bless the nations that they were experiencing could easily be misinterpreted as a shift of God’s heart – that Israel was “out” and the Church, its non-Jewish component in particular, was “in.” His olive-tree metaphor in Romans chapter eleven is a masterful three-dimensional picture of the complexity of the multi-ethnic makeup of the New Covenant community of faith. The inclusion of non-Jews into God’s family was not to be regarded as a replacement of his earlier commitment to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And yet, that’s exactly what happened.
This anti-Jewish lens filters out the fulness of Scripture. Take this week’s Haftarah portion, for example. When you read Ezekiel’s words, do you hear God’s faithfulness to Israel or his disgust? Israel failed to live up to the standard of being God’s holy people as established at Mt. Sinai through Moses (see Shemot/Exodus 19:5-6). But many have failed to understand that Israel was made an example to demonstrate to the world everyone’s need of God. That should evoke awe and gratefulness, not disdain.
Why then does God himself seem to be so negative on Israel? Isn’t that what’s going on in this week’s Haftarah? He says through the prophet Ezekiel: “It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel” (Ezekiel 36:32). Words like these may appear to reflect God’s supposed rejection of his ancient covenant people. But keep on reading:
Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by. And they will say, “This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.” Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the LORD; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it. (Ezekiel 36:33-36)
God’s response to Israel’s failure is not rejection but restoration – a restoration that’s not only spiritual but physical as it includes a glorious transformation in their ancient homeland. Any version of God’s rescue operation that fails to include God’s ongoing plans and purposes for the Jewish people misrepresents his mission, his word, and himself.
What God began through the faithful remnant of Jewish followers of Yeshua sent out two thousand years ago will culminate in the renewal of the entire creation. When Israel is finally and fully restored, both the people and the land, the curse over the earth will be completely broken and God’s rule and reign will be established forever. God is not finished with Israel; the best is yet to come.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of March 23, 2024 / 13 Adar II 5784
Image taken from Haman and Mordecai by Paul Alexander Leroy 1884. WikimediaVayikra & Zachor
Vayikra/Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26 (English 1 – 6:7); D’varim/Deuteronomy 25:17-19
Haftarah: 1 Samuel 15:2-34
And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage to him, Haman was filled with fury. But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone. So, as they had made known to him the people of Mordecai, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus. (Esther 3:5-6)
The Festival of Purim begins this year on the evening of March 23. The title of this week’s message is a fitting summary of the meaning of Purim. I borrowed it from the book of the same name by Dr. Timothy P. Jackson, currently Professor Emeritus of Theological Ethics at the Chandler School of Theology, Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Jackson’s book is not about Purim per se, but an analysis of the dynamics of antisemitism. Yet, a central element of the Purim story, the extreme reaction to Mordecai’s unwillingness to bow down to Haman, is according to Jackson—and I agree with him—the essence of what antisemitism is all about.
When people attempt to identify the earliest forms of antisemitism, they might look at the conflicts between Isaac and Ishmael or Jacob and Esau, but these in no way typify the venomous Jew hatred of the later Christian era, when the Jews, as a people, were ascribed the most negative of traits, including that of being God’s enemies. Other conflicts such as Israel’s oppression under Pharaoh as slaves in Egypt or their devastation and exile under the empires of Assyria and Babylon were far more like normal nation-building of megalomaniac kings. Antisemitism targets Jews for being Jews with little conscious ideological or political motivations.
The events of Purim may, in fact, be the prototype of antisemitism. After the Persian king promoted Haman, Mordecai, who was Jewish, was the only one who would not bow down before him. The reason was likely that Haman was an Agagite, descended from the Amalekites, ancient enemies of Israel. That Haman was enraged is not surprising; it’s what his rage led him to do that was a new kind of evil. Haman went to the king and said:
There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king’s laws, so that it is not to the king’s profit to tolerate them (Esther 3:8).
What motivated Haman’s murderous rage against all Jews was Mordecai’s literal stand against showing deference to him, but that’s not what he told the king. His annihilation plan was forged by depicting the Jewish people as different, a difference that should not be tolerated. The King was quick to comply. We read:
Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with instruction to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods (Esther 3:13).
The one Jewish man Mordecai’s unwillingness to bow unleashed a murderous onslaught on his whole people, justified by their being different and the false claim of disobeying the King’s laws. They weren’t actually disobeying the law, only Mordecai did. One law against one man, Haman. Yet, note how easy it was for the political machine and the entirety of society to be taken up with Haman’s offense.
Jackson explains that people who study antisemitism can’t seem to find any reasonable motivations behind it. The more it is studied, the less sense it makes. Most evil behavior has some justification no matter how misguided, while antisemitism appears to be simply insane. Jackson disagrees. He claims that antisemitism is driven by a rejection of “moral monotheism.” If I understand him correctly moral monotheism asserts that there is only one God who imposes his clear moral and just guidelines upon all. This makes all individuals ultimately answerable to God not human authority. Understanding this, Mordecai was able to stand against one of the most powerful empires of all time, something that anti-God powers, both seen and unseen, will not tolerate.
Mordecai symbolizes the special role to which God has called the Jewish people (and all who trust in the Jewish Messiah). Whether we are aware of it or not, we find ourselves at odds with the prevailing ungodly powers as they oppose the God of Israel and all he stands for. In the end, however, as demonstrated by the story of Purim, God always prevails. We are well advised to follow Mordecai’s example.
All scriptures, English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible
For the week of March 16, 2024 / 6 Adar II 5784
Pekudei
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 38:21 – 40:38
Haftarah: 1 Kings 7:40-50
Originally posted the week of February 1, 2014 / 1 Adar 5774 (revised)
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. (Shemot/Exodus 40:34)
A major component of the Torah is the instructions God gave Moses for the building of the Mishkan (English: Tabernacle), the large and elaborate, yet mobile structure designed for the offering of sacrifice. It was the precursor of the permanent Temple first built many centuries later under King Solomon, David’s son.
In the 1989 film “Field of Dreams,” Kevin Costner plays Ray Kinsella, a novice farmer who hears a voice, saying “If you build it, he will come.” He believes that if he tears down his corn field and builds a baseball diamond, then a disgraced player from the distant past by the name of Shoeless Joe will come back. Ray does it, and not only does Shoeless Joe return but several other ball players as well. However, neither Joe nor any of these players is the one of whom the voice spoke. I won’t tell you who it is in case you haven’t seen the film. The point is Ray built “it,” and “he” did come.
While not a direct quote, God basically told Moses, “If you build it, I will come!” Field of Dreams is a fantasy. The Mishkan is real. It was essential that Moses followed God’s instructions carefully, because God wanted to live there. Moses built it (meaning it was built under his supervision) and God really came (see Shemot / Exodus 40:16-38).
We learn from the construction details of the Mishkan that God is very particular about where he lives. God is not into “it’s the thought that counts” or “as long as your heart is in the right place.” In fact, the Bible teaches that no one’s heart is in the right place (e.g. Jeremiah 17:9). That’s why we need to come to God on his terms alone. If the people of Israel didn’t follow God’s instructions, he would not dwell in the Mishkan. But they did, and he did.
One of the things that makes the design of the Mishkan so special is that it is patterned after God’s heavenly dwelling (see Hebrews 8 – 9). Exactly how the earthly version parallels the heavenly one, I don’t know; but it does. One way may be how the various items inside the Mishkan, especially the two-room sanctuary, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place express God’s truth. The Ark of the Covenant speaks of the presence, mercy, and loyalty of God; the lampstand, his light; the table of bread, his provision; the incense altar, prayer. It would be difficult to overemphasize the importance of these items. They are not simply ritualistic elements but speak of how life is really meant to be lived, the most important of all being our need for the very presence of God, which is the main purpose of the Mishkan: If you build it, he will come.
The Mishkan shows us that God came, but. We see this through the existence of a curtain that divided the two special rooms. Only the cohanim (English: the priests) could serve in the Holy Place, which they did on a daily basis. But the Most Holy Place, which represented the presence of God, could not be accessed except once a year on Yom Kippur (English: Day of Atonement), and then only by the Cohen HaGadol (English: the High Priest). This arrangement was designed intentionally to demonstrate to the people of Israel that full access to God was not available. If you build it, he will come; but don’t get too close!
Could you imagine having someone living with you who stayed behind closed doors all the time? Your very existence and identity is wrapped up in that person, but you could never get near to them. It’s not that the person doesn’t want to see you or have relationship with you. It’s that there’s actually something about you that is keeping the other person from getting close.
The people of Israel needed to learn that their sin, like the curtain, erected a barrier between them and God. Sin is that principle of life that twists human nature into something substandard, lacking the spiritual and moral qualities God requires. The sacrificial system addressed the sin problem, but never resolved it. Not resolved until the sacrifice of all sacrifices, that is. When Yeshua died, the dividing curtain tore in two (see Matthew 27:51). It’s as if his sacrificial death kicked down the door that kept us from God. The Mishkan reminds us that God’s desire is to dwell with his people. Now with the coming of Yeshua, he is both with us and accessible.
All scriptures, English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible
For the week of March 9, 2024 / 29 Adar 5784
Vayakhel & Shekalim
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 35:1 – 38:20; 30:11-16
Haftarah: 2 Kings 12:1-17 (English: 11:21 – 12:16)
Originally posted the week of March 5, 2016 / 25 Adar 5776 (revised)
Moses said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “This is the thing that the LORD has commanded. Take from among you a contribution to the LORD. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the LORD’s contribution…” (Shemot/Exodus 35:4-5)
I was brought up with an unhealthy relationship to money. It was the subject that my parents seemed to constantly bicker about. My father taught me that “money made the world go round,” something he firmly believed. As I grew up I regularly was told that we couldn’t do this and we couldn’t do that, because of the money. Not long after my parents divorced in my mid-teens, my mother and I were on welfare. We had a nice enough place to live and we didn’t starve, but the thought of not having enough was always with us, and it got to me. Our poverty was likely a key aspect in the panic attacks that eventually led me to know Yeshua.
Coming to know the Messiah and reading the Bible radically transformed my thinking in many areas, including money. The most mind-blowing concept was that I was no longer alone with regard to material provision. According to Yeshua, I had a Heavenly Father who was committed to taking care of my needs (see Matthew 6:25-34). So, instead of every future hope of mine being stamped with a big and bold red “CAN’T” on it, I had a funding resource beyond my wildest dreams. I am not saying that I expected God to give me whatever I wanted, but as I have sought him for everything from education to marriage (which would eventually include 10 kids!), houses, cars, travel, and so on, he has provided for me and my family in so many surprising ways.
I am so grateful that the first community of believers I was involved with after coming to faith highly valued the Messiah’s teaching on God’s provision. Unlike some groups, their understanding regarding the relationship between faith and finances led them to rarely, if ever, talk about money. The idea was that since God promised to provide for our needs, then it would be dishonoring to him to ask people to give. This approach was firmly rooted in people such as George Müller, who was famous for founding orphanages and schools in England in the 19th century. As far we know, Müller never made a private or public request for funds, except to God alone in prayer. His story and the example of my community at the time led me to believe that this was the only way to be a genuine person of faith. To ask anyone for money was regarded as putting my trust in people, not God, thus undermining Yeshua’s teaching on God’s generosity toward his children.
As I mentioned, I have innumerable examples of God’s provision, but my commitment to keep my needs to myself at times became more than I could handle. Years ago, we sought to establish a ministry. We were affiliated with a group of believers but were basically on our own in terms of support. When little by way of finances came in, I had a difficult time of it. I regret to say that this was one of the factors for leaving the work I was doing. Based on my conviction, I concluded that I was at fault for not trusting God.
That was about thirty-two years ago. When I considered stepping back into fulltime Bible teaching ministry in 2012, I wondered how I was going to handle the trust factor. It’s only been since then that I have been challenged to rethink how fund raising is supposed to work. It has taken a long time to accept that the George Müller method was not actually biblical after all. The Bible doesn’t teach it’s wrong to ask for money. Look at this week’s Torah portion, for example. God instructed Moses to ask for contributions for the building of the Mishkan (English: Tabernacle). While there are right and wrong ways to raise funds, being open and honest about the need to fund ministry is godly.
I have come to realize that my difficulty with asking people to fund my ministry is not derived from the Bible, but rather due to deep-seated values that I somehow inherited that makes me feel ashamed for being a “charity case.” But why should it be acceptable to trade money for temporal goods, but shameful to invite people to invest in something that will bring eternal benefits? People fund all sorts of legitimate (and not-so legitimate) activities. What’s wrong with funding the work of God’s Kingdom? We have no problem with someone hawking their wares at the side of the road. Why then are we put out when someone seeks raise money for ministry? You can always say, “No.”
All scriptures, English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible
For the week of March 2, 2024 / 22 Adar 5784
Ki Tissa
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 30:11 – 34:35
Haftarah: 1 Melachim/1 Kings 18:1-39
Originally posted the week of February 27, 2016 / 18 Adar 5776
And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. (1 Melachim/1 Kings 18:21)
This week’s Haftarah (selection from the Prophets) was likely chosen because of the Torah’s reference to the sin of the golden calf when Israel became impatient waiting for Moses to return from meeting with God on Mt. Sinai. While he was in the presence of God receiving revelation for the nation, they were worshiping cow statues in God’s name.
The idolatrous situation in Elijah’s day was different. While there may have been elements of syncretism (the blending of true and false spiritualities) as in the earlier episode, the latter situation was one in which the people flipped flopped from faith in the Lord to Baal and back again as they desired. In this case, there was no confusion as to the identity of these two deities (or supposed deity as in the case of Baal) or the requirements each demanded. When and why one or the other would be approached would have depended upon the particular needs of the person at the given time.
Elijah challenged the people to stop flip-flopping. Note that he didn’t appeal to culture, preferences, or benefits. He didn’t even use the appeal most common in Scripture, that of the Lord’s deliverance from Egypt. Instead, he urged them to follow the one who is truly God. He left no room for syncretism. It was either one or the other, not both. The people’s reaction at the end of the story, after seeing which of the two responded in power, agrees with Elijah’s exclusive view of God. Only one divine being can be supreme, and therefore, only one God should be served. Whatever the other represented, real or not, had no claim on the people’s loyalty.
Israel had been experiencing a drought for three years ever since Elijah said it would be so. Since the Lord didn’t send the rain (or was blamed for holding it back), Baal, the storm god, was their next best choice for help. The people’s silence in the face of Elijah’s challenge exposes their uncertainty. That a god of power existed they had no doubt. But who was the true and only God? Of that they were so unsure, they didn’t know what to say. Their inability to discern spiritual truth had left them shifting back and forth between allegiances.
The difficulty in relating a story like this to our day is that we don’t tend to give our false gods personal names, such as Baal. But just because we don’t have personal names for education, money, technology, health, religion, sex, power, and fame doesn’t mean we don’t flip flop back and forth between relying on these lesser powers and the only true God. These and other areas of life are tools, not gods. But when we serve them instead of the Master of the Universe, we become enslaved to them. Then when we try to retain a right relationship to the Master of the Universe we become more and more confused, not knowing what to say when we are confronted on our duplicity.
The only way to stop flip-flopping is to stop. We need to remember that every aspect of life is under God’s rule. Whatever your need is, whatever your situation, the God of Elijah, the Father of our Messiah Yeshua is supreme. Don’t give yourself to lesser powers anymore, but rather submit to the one and only God. Don’t let impatience drive you to give yourself over to lesser powers. He will come through for you in time.
All scriptures, English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible
For the week of February 24, 2024 / 15 Adar 5784
Tetzaveh
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 27:20 – 30:10
Haftarah: Ezekiel 43:10-27
Originally posted the week of February 16, 2019 / 11 Adar 5779
You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn. In the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the LORD. It shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of Israel. (Shemot/Exodus 27:20-21)
One of the most recognizable symbols of the Jewish people is the menorah, the seven-branched candelabra, intended for exclusive use within the Mishkan (English: Tabernacle) and later the Temple. It’s ironic that it became so recognizable, given its location, a hidden room into which only the cohanim (English: priests) were allowed to enter. The reason why we know what it looked like is because it is included in the depiction of the siege of Jerusalem on the first century Arch of Titus in Rome. Where the menorah ended up, we may never know. In spite of theories claiming items such as the Ark of the Covenant being in safekeeping somewhere, as far as we know all the Mishkan/Temple’s furnishings, including the menorah, are lost for good.
The menorah had a most practical purpose. It was the only light available within the ha-kodesh (English: the Holy Place). Without it, it was pitch black in there. Without it, the cohanim couldn’t fulfill their duties. The carrying away of the menorah by the Romans, like the destruction of the Temple, seemed to indicate the extinguishing of Israel’s light.
The centuries that followed were dark ones for the Jewish people. Yet, even without the menorah and the priestly service, the scattered nation never lost hope of the return of the divine light. Some may claim that the light never went out because the fire of hope in the hearts of the people never stopped burning.
The eternal light of God cannot be snuffed out. The menorah had more than a practical function. It was a symbol of the illuminating presence of God. Israel was chosen by God to be people of light, the bearers of truth for the world. God’s revelation of himself and his ways allowed Israel to clearly see the world as it is in contrast to the other nations having to grope about, trying to figure life out in the darkness of alienation from God. The time would come when the light would not shine upon Israel alone but would flood the world with its brilliance.
And that time came.
It’s no coincidence that within a generation of the Messiah’s coming, the menorah would be carried off into the center of one of the greatest empires of all time. This was not to show that the light of God shifted from Jerusalem to Rome, but that the light of God would no longer be hidden away in the Temple.
Israel’s light was never extinguished, for eleven Jewish men were commissioned by the Messiah to bring that light to the nations. Since then, each follower of Yeshua is called to bear that same light, wherever we may go.
For that to happen, each of us needs to be a menorah so to speak. In the same way that the menorah needed to be continually tended, so we need to tend to the Messiah’s light in us. Tragically, too many take his light for granted, thinking he will do what he will do in and through us, with or without our attention. But it doesn’t work that way. Like the priests of old, we need to make sure his light keeps burning bright. Yeshua’s warning not to hide our light under a basket (see Matthew 5:15) is an intentionally ridiculous image to emphasize how ludicrous it is when we do just that.
Have you ever thought of how we hide our light away? Perhaps others have reacted to you, because of your faith in Yeshua? Hopefully it was for a good reason – the Lord’s light was exposing evil in their lives. What did you when that happened? Did you apologize and dim it down? Or did you let the light do its job? Perhaps you don’t even bother shining in certain situations. You leave it at home, only turning it up during a personal prayer time or when you are with other believers. It can get tiring shining your light in one place and not another. It’s on when you’re in your car listening to music, off at the coffee shop or at work, and back on again at gatherings. I don’t think that’s how to tend the light. No wonder it’s getting so dark in some places.
It’s time to tend the light. We need to give attention to Yeshua’s presence in our lives so that he shines brightly through us. We can’t fabricate it. We can only tend it. We can only tend what we have. If you don’t have it, ask God for it. And once he sets you ablaze, keep it burning.
All scriptures, English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible
For the week of July 1, 2023 / 12 Tammuz 5783 Hukat-BalakTorah: B’midbar/Numbers 19:1 – 25:9Haftarah: Micah 5:6 – 6:8Originally posted the week of July 13, 2019 / 10 Tammuz 5779 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze […]
For the week of June 24, 2023 / 5 Tammuz 5783KorahTorah: B’midbar/Numbers 16:1 – 18:32Prophets: 1 Shmuel/1 Samuel 11:14-12:22 So the LORD said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father’s house with you shall bear iniquity connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity connected with your […]
For the week of June 17, 2023/ 28 Sivan 5783 Sh’lachTorah: B’midbar/Numbers 13:1 – 15:41Haftarah: Joshua 2:1-24Revised version of “The Ultimate Sacrifice,” originally posted the week of March 17, 2018 / 1 Nisan 5778 But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the LORD, and […]
For the week of June 10, 2023 / 21 Sivan 5783 Beha’alotchaTorah: B’midbar/Numbers 8:1 – 12:16Haftarah: Zechariah 2:14 – 4:7 (English: 2:10 – 4:7)Originally posted the week of June 13, 2020 / 21 Sivan 5780 At the command of the LORD the people of Israel set out, and at the command of the LORD they […]
For the week of June 3, 2023 / 14 Sivan 5783
Nasso
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 4:21 – 7:89
Haftarah: Shoftim/Judges 13:2-25
The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, the LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” (B’midbar/Numbers 6:22-27)
You may be aware of the recent three-week initiative to pray for Israel. At the beginning of this time, my wife and I, both Jewish believers, were in a small prayer group (the others aren’t Jewish). We were praying for Israel. We have rarely been in the presence of such precious prayers. One of the people had it on his heart to pray the priestly blessing from B’midbar/Numbers chapter six, which is part of this week’s parsha (weekly Torah portion), over the Jewish people.
You may or may not be aware how common it is for Christian leaders to recite this blessing, usually at the end of a service, over their congregations. The words are wonderful. The sentiment is great. It is certainly a blessing! You might remember the musical rendition of these ancient words around the beginning of COVID. It warmed my heart to hear God’s word through Moses sung over and over again in a multitude of languages by the peoples of the world amidst the fear that had gripped so many.
Let me try to unpack why I was so touched by the blessing being prayed over our people that Sunday evening. First, in my experience, most people who call themselves Christians see themselves as the new or true Israel. Whatever their personal feelings might be toward Jewish people, there is a tendency to view us as having been God’s chosen people at one time, but with the coming of the Messiah, that identity was transferred to the community of Yeshua followers, the “Church” in other words. This idea is technically termed, “supersessionism,” or more popularly “replacement theology.” Yet, even among those Christians who claim to reject such an idea and accept God’s ongoing faithfulness to the Jewish people, there is still a tendency to directly apply elements of Scripture that were particularly given to the people Israel to themselves. In many cases, perhaps most, I believe this is legitimate, at least to some extent. Let me explain.
Through the Jewish Messiah, the peoples of the nations have the opportunity to have a personal relationship with the one true God, the God of Israel. While there are ongoing distinctives between Jews and Gentiles, the way that non-Jews learn the truth of God and life is via sacred writings that are fundamentally Jewish. All people, Jews and Gentiles, learn about trusting God through Abraham’s willingness to follow God into the unknown. We learn to pray through David’s psalms. We understand God’s faithfulness through his commitment to the people of Israel. And on it goes.
While it is, as I said, legitimate for non-Jews to apply Scriptural truth to themselves, it is tragic that it is often done without ever acknowledging its original context or how it has come about that Jewish Scriptures can become God’s Word for all or the Jewish Messiah can be anyone’s Messiah. The result is the replacement theology I referred to earlier that regards the Church as the new or true Israel even among those who deny such an idea.
With all this in mind, let’s return to the Sunday evening prayer time. Against the backdrop of layers and layers of historic misrepresentation of and arrogance toward Jewish people; a precious and powerful blessing which has been appropriated by the Church unto itself for two thousand years was being returned to its rightful place as this precious man prayed for God’s favor to once more be poured out upon Israel.
You might think, “So what?” What difference does such a sentiment make? It’s because this gesture functions as a symbol of what I believe is the general change of direction that must occur among our non-Jewish fellow Messiah followers. One day we might realize the untold damage the Church has done both to itself and to the Jewish people for not heeding Paul’s words from Romans, chapter eleven, “do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you” (Romans 11:18).
It is time for the Church worldwide of every tradition to acknowledge, not only the primacy of Israel in the plans and purposes of God, but his ongoing faithfulness to Israel despite our spiritual condition. Great blessing has come to the Gentiles through, not only the Jewish Messiah, but through those early Jewish believers, who broke through unimaginable barriers to bring God’s blessing to the nations.
God’s heart of love and concern for the Jewish people has never changed. Therefore, let those among the nations who have been richly blessed by the God of Israel in the name of the Jewish Messiah rise up and declare to the people of Israel, “the Lord bless you and keep you!”
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of May 27, 2023 / 7 Sivan 5783
Shavuot
Torah: D’varim/Deuteronomy 14:22 – 16:17
Haftarah: Habakkuk 3:1-19
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation (Habakkuk 3:18)
This coming Shabbat (English: Sabbath) coincides with the festival of Shavuot (English: Weeks/Pentecost). As far as I know, no one knows for sure the exact reasons why the various Haftarah readings (portions from the Hebrew Prophets) were chosen to accompany the weekly Torah readings. Often, it is obvious due to content elements of each. This week’s reading from Habakkuk is not so obvious. Clearly, the Torah portion was chosen because it includes Shavuot, but why read the last chapter of Habakkuk? One source speculates that the description in Habakkuk of God’s dramatic exploits are reminiscent of the events at Sinai. But you might wonder, what does Sinai have to do with Shavuot? While there is nothing explicitly said in the Bible as to Shavuot’s connection to a historical event as is the case of Pesach (English: Passover), which commemorates the exodus, and Sukkot (English: Booths) which commemorates the wilderness wanderings, traditionally, Shavuot became associated with the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. As Shavuot occurred fifty days after Pesach, this association is reasonable.
I would like to propose what I think is a more profound connection between Habakkuk and Shavuot. My thoughts also see a connection with the Torah but is based on the Shavuot’s primary function as a harvest festival. Here is Habakkuk 3:17-18:
Though the fig tree should not blossom,nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive failand the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the foldand there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD;I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
Habakkuk praised the God of Israel despite the prospect of no harvest. For many of us today it is difficult to comprehend how a failing harvest necessarily meant starvation. This is a disaster of great proportions. The book of Habakkuk features the prophet’s anguish over God’s showing him the impending doom coming upon his people at the hands of the Babylonians. Through a most painful process, he resolved to rejoice in God.
Shavuot was designed to give thanks to God for the harvest, but what do we do when there is no harvest? Our tendency is to despair, to be angry, to lash out at God perhaps. Habakkuk wasn’t blind to the terrible prospects ahead. Far from it! He felt the anguish of the coming suffering deeply. Yet he would not give up on acknowledging God for who he is.
It is fitting to remember these things at the same time we remember the giving of the Torah. The Torah constituted Israel as a nation before God based on his rescuing them from slavery in Egypt. It declared that he was Israel’s God and Israel was his people. After much consternation, Habakkuk determined that he would not allow dreaded circumstances to get in the way of his commitment to God. He came to accept that the coming devastation was the just punishment for his people’s ongoing waywardness. God had been patient for a long time, but now, the results of misguided living were coming to fruition. Habakkuk would not blame God for the evil of his people. God was still good. God was still right. God was still worthy of praise. Even though occasions such as Shavuot are designed to be occasions to rejoice over God’s provision, he no less deserves praise when he pours out much deserved punishment.
For all sorts of reasons, some deserved, some not, we go through great hardships at times. How often have we reacted to such painful circumstances by doubting or even rejecting God? It’s no easy thing to come to the place that Habakkuk did, but with God’s help we can. To do so, we need to be willing to see the difficulties of life for what they really are, including our part in bringing them about and God’s ongoing faithfulness through it all.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of May 20, 2023 / 29 Iyar 5783
B’midbar
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 1:1 – 4:20
Haftarah: 1 Shmuel/ 1 Samuel 20:18-42
Originally posted the week of May 15, 2010 / 2 Sivan 5770
Revised version from the book Torah Light: Insights from the Books of Moses
Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the people of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the people of Israel. The Levites shall be mine, for all the firstborn are mine. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I consecrated for my own all the firstborn in Israel, both of man and of beast. They shall be mine: I am the LORD. (B’midbar/Numbers 3:12–13)
The Levites (Hebrew, levi-im), the descendants of Jacob’s son Levi, fulfilled a special function among their people. Instead of being given territory within the Land of Israel like the other tribes, they were to be special religious servants. A subset of the Levites were the priests (Hebrew, cohanim), the descendants of Moses’s brother Aaron, who offered the sacrifices. The rest of the Levites assisted the priests in their duties and fulfilled other religious tasks throughout the nation. The Levites belonged to God in a way the rest of the people did not, for their daily concerns were consumed with the service of God rather than normal human endeavors.
The setting aside of the Levites was not simply because there was a need for religious ministers. Rather, they stood in the place of all the firstborn males who survived the Exodus. God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt by striking the Egyptians with ten plagues. The final plague was the killing of the firstborn males, both human and animal. To protect the people of Israel from this, God told them to sacrifice a lamb and apply its blood to the doorframes of their houses. When the Angel of Death came to strike down the firstborn males, he passed over the houses upon which the blood was applied. This is why the festival commemorating this event is called Passover (see Sh’mot/Exodus 11:1–12:13).
But how does this relate to the Levites? The tenth plague was not limited to the striking down of the Egyptian firstborn only, but rather all the firstborn of the land of Egypt regardless of nationality. The stubborn disobedience of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, brought general destruction upon his land. There were certain plagues in which the people of Israel experienced special protection, but not all of them. With regard to the tenth plague, if any Israelite home did not follow God’s instructions, their firstborn males would have perished as well. Therefore, the preservation of the Israelite firstborn males was due to God’s special grace upon them. Thus, the firstborn males of Israel were indebted to God to a much greater degree than the rest of the nation. While the whole nation was indebted to God for their freedom, the firstborn males were also indebted to him for their very lives.
The preservation of the firstborn males and their special relationship to God was to be remembered throughout future generations. Instead of the actual firstborn males of the whole nation being called into religious service, God determined that the Levites should stand in their place. Their service to God, therefore, represented God’s unique ownership of the firstborn males.
Just as the Levites were God’s special possession, so are all followers of the Messiah. Like Egypt of old, God’s judgment is coming upon the whole earth. Due to our stubborn refusal to obey God according to his standards, God condemns everyone to eternal destruction unless we apply the blood of Yeshua’s sacrifice to our lives. Like it did over the firstborn males, God’s judgment will pass over us if we follow his instructions and entrust ourselves to Yeshua the Messiah.
Like the firstborn males, if we believe in Yeshua, we are indebted to him, not just for our freedom, but for our very lives. Therefore, like the Levites, we are owned by God. We no longer have the freedom to live however we wish, pursuing our own goals and desires. Rather, as his special possession, we are set apart to serve his interests alone.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of May 13, 2023 / 22 Iyar 5783
Behar & Bechukotai
Torah: Vayikra/ Leviticus 25:1 – 27:34
Haftarah: Jeremiah 16:19 – 17:14
Updated version of message posted the week of June 4, 2016 / 27 Iyar 5776
But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. (Vayikra/Leviticus 26:40-42)
Here in the last weekly portion of the third book of Moses, we read of the conditions under which God would restore the people of Israel to a right relationship with himself and return them to their land. The covenantal reference in the verses quoted above is key to understand God’s unique arrangement with Israel.
This week’s parsha (weekly Torah reading portion) describes the blessings of obedience and the consequences of disobedience under the covenantal arrangement established through Moses by God at Mt. Sinai. As long as Israel adhered to God’s commands, they as a nation would thrive. But should they reject God’s ways, breaking this covenant, they would experience terrible circumstances, culminating in oppression by their enemies and removal from their land.
Should this occur, which indeed it did, God made provision within the Sinai covenant for restoration to himself and to the land. But note that this provision is not based on the Sinai covenant, but on the earlier one made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Israel’s existence as a people, including their habitation and their role among the nations of the world, was established, not by Sinai through Moses, but through God’s unconditional promise to Abraham (see Bereshit/Genesis 12:1-3) and passed down to Isaac and Jacob. The Sinai covenant with its conditions of blessings came about as a result of God’s deliverance of Israel from their oppression in Egypt, a deliverance also rooted in his earlier covenant with the patriarchs. This is what we read in Shemot (the Book of Exodus):
During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. (Shemot/Exodus 2:23-24)
The earlier covenant is the driving force behind all of God’s dealings with Israel. So that even if Sinai resulted in failure, which it did, the covenantal foundation would survive. That’s why God’s judgment upon Israel could never be his final word to them. Even after rejecting God by turning to other gods and suffering the threatened consequences, there would always remain a right of appeal to unconditional promises that predate Moses.
This is also why a new covenant would one day be necessary. Jeremiah in chapter thirty-one of his book looked beyond the day when these words of judgment would be fulfilled towards a new covenantal arrangement that would finally resolve the sin problem that continually beset Israel under the Sinai covenant (see Jeremiah 31:31-33). That God’s affirmation of his ongoing faithfulness to Israel is based on their being the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is eloquently stated immediately following:
Thus says the LORD,
who gives the sun for light by day
and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
the LORD of hosts is his name:
“If this fixed order departs
from before me, declares the LORD,
then shall the offspring of Israel cease
from being a nation before me forever.”Thus says the LORD:
“If the heavens above can be measured,
and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,
then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel
for all that they have done,
declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 31:35-37)
The establishment of the New Covenant on the foundation of the patriarchs provides hope for Israel’s full eventual restoration. It’s in Romans 11:28 that we read despite Israel’s behavior, “they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.” More than that! Knowing that the New Covenant is rooted in unconditional promises to Israel assures all its participants, Jew or Gentile, of God’s ongoing faithfulness to them.
All scriptures, English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible
For the week of May 6, 2023 / 15 Iyar 5783
Emor
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 21:1-24:23
Haftarah: Ezekiel 44:15-31
Originally posted the week of May 5, 2018 / 20 Iyar 5778 (updated)
Thus Moses declared to the people of Israel the appointed feasts of the LORD. (Vayikra/Leviticus 23:44)
According to Wikipedia, “Cultural appropriation is the inappropriate or unacknowledged adoption of an element or elements of one culture or identity by members of another culture or identity.” When cultural appropriation first came to my attention some time ago, I thought the strong objection to it was a bit strange, not because I don’t understand the concern, but because I am so used to it – sort of!
As a Jewish believer in the Messiah, whose spiritual relationships are mainly among non-Jews, I encounter cultural appropriation constantly. In fact, Christianity is and has always been an exercise in cultural appropriation. Generally, Jews and Christians are not aware of this, however, since most Christian cultural expression wouldn’t be recognized as Jewish. The fact is there is almost nothing within Christianity’s core beliefs that isn’t derived from the Jewish world. Some are more obvious than others. The primary document for Christians is the Bible, both Old and New Testaments written almost exclusively by Jews and focused on activities happening to or done by Jewish people. Even as global outreach developed, its development and implementation was in Jewish hands. The God of the Christians is the God of Israel. The religious and theological concepts adhered to by Christians are all Jewish in origin, such as sin, righteousness, sacrifice, and holiness. Then there’s the very center of all core concepts, the Messiah. While the Jewish and Christian worlds have traditionally been divided over the Messiah’s identity, Christianity is founded on the conviction that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Jewish Messiah. Using Greek-oriented instead of Hebrew-oriented terminology obscures the cultural connection. That many Jews and Christians aren’t conscious that Christ and Messiah, for example, are synonyms doesn’t negate the Jewish nature of the messianic concept.
Other key Jewish components of Christianity are not as obvious. Most people don’t realize that baptism was originally a Jewish custom that was done as part of the conversion process as well as when an estranged Jewish person wanted to return to God. The development of the church as the place of community teaching and prayer was based on the synagogue. Communion, also called the Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper, is taken from Passover. The hope of the resurrection of the body was an exclusively Jewish concept. We could go on.
The early Jewish believers went out of their way to allow the Good News about the Messiah to function freely and fully in a non-Jewish context. Through God-given wisdom they freed the core of biblical faith from Jewish cultural control, allowing the nations to work out the essentials of biblical spirituality within their own contexts. What I don’t think the early believers envisioned is how far from a Jewish frame of reference the Church would go.
Many non-Jewish believers over the past hundred years or so have sought to re-contextualize Christianity within a Jewish frame of reference. Some correctly understand that the freedom to adapt biblical teaching within foreign cultures, while helpful in many ways, can tend to skew biblical truth, especially when cut off from its Jewish roots. At the same time, however, the passion to restore biblical faith to its ancient roots can go overboard. This is where appropriate cultural adaptation can become misappropriation. This happens in two ways: first, by confusing Jewish culture with biblical truth. Not everything that is Jewish is necessarily biblical. Much of Jewish culture found in the world today is recent in origin. While we don’t know the tunes of King David’s psalms, we are fairly certain that they were not anything close to what is thought of as Jewish music today. Similarly, Jewish foods are normally adaptations of local fare throughout the world where Jewish people have lived. Apart from the limits of kosher laws, there is nothing intrinsically biblical about the vast majority of Jewish cuisine.
The second type of misappropriation is in regard to actual biblical material. For example, take the feasts as listed in this week’s parsha (weekly Torah portion). It is tragic that this key component of the Books of Moses, like most of the Hebrew Scriptures, has been virtually ignored by Christians. There is so much to learn from the feasts as they teach us about God’s character and activities. Yet it is easy to go from a healthy renewed focus on Scripture to a misguided emphasis on cultural expression. Much of Jewish festival observance today is based on tradition, not Bible. Tradition isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is culturally bound to the people who developed it. People don’t often possess the level of sensitivity necessary to adapt cultural forms. That doesn’t mean it should never be done. Perhaps what needs to be done, be it non-Jewish Christians in relation to Jewish people or between other cultural groups is to truly get to know the people whose culture it is before we treat it as our own.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of April 29, 2023 / 8 Iyar 5783
Achrei Mot & Kedoshim
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 16:1 – 20:27
Haftarah: Amos 9:7-15
I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,” says the LORD your God. (Amos 9:14-15)
Tuesday evening this week is Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel Independence Day. This year marks seventy-five years since the establishment of the modern state of Israel. It may or may not surprise you that in my experience the vast majority of people in the world who claim strong adherence to the Bible see no relation whatsoever between Scripture and the reemergence of Israel as a geopolitical entity. No better time than a seventy-fifth anniversary to demonstrate otherwise.
First, let me say that anything I list as support for a biblical basis for God’s ongoing faithfulness to the Jewish people, including our return to our ancient homeland, does not justify everything Israel has done prior to or during the past seventy-five years. But tell me, why do I even need to say this? Don’t we know that everyone and everything in this world is a mixed bag? Of all people, those of us who value Scripture should know that God uses broken vessels. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David all had issues. But if anything, their issues demonstrate God’s faithfulness both to them as individuals and to Israel as a nation. And yet, for some reason, the majority of the Church has tended to regard Israel’s sins as unpardonable despite innumerable promises to the contrary. This week’s Haftarah (weekly reading portion from the Prophets) is but one example that clearly establishes a commitment on God’s part to preserve Israel and fulfill its glorious destiny. Yet this doesn’t stop a majority of Christians from reading the Church into these promises, while, at the same time, leaving the judgment parts with Israel.
There are at least two factors at work here. The first is anti-Jewish sentiment. As the church went from an exclusively Jewish movement to a an exclusively non-Jewish one, non-Jewish leaders brought their ingrained disdain for Jewish people with them. As a result, they happily affirmed scriptural critique of Israel, while deflecting God’s messages of love, concern, assurance, and restoration solely to themselves. The second factor is the misapplication of the concept of ingrafting that Paul expounds in Romans, chapter eleven. The inclusion of the nations in the Gospel is something that Paul calls in another place a mystery (see Ephesians 3:1-6). No one expected God’s blessings to be extended to non-Israelites through the Messiah. But instead of receiving this undeserved grace with humility, they quickly developed a “new kid on the block” attitude, an attitude Paul strongly warned against (see Romans 11:18).
The Jewish people have endured great suffering due to the Church’s unwillingness to grasp the scriptural complexity of God’s commitment to Israel. I will try to summarize. God gave unconditional promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which include an objective of extending his blessing to all nations. This would eventually be realized through the coming of the Messiah, who, as King of the Jews, accomplishes God’s purposes within Israel, God’s blessings coming to the nations, and the restoration of the creation. Messiah’s coming emerged out of God’s faithfulness to Israel to resolve once and for all their alienation from God due to their ongoing disobedience. No one anticipated how this would fulfill God’s promise to Abraham to bless the nations, while also working to restore Israel to himself and to their land.
For some reason, many Christians are fine with a god (note the lowercase “g”), who is willing to receive outsiders but doesn’t have it in him to preserve and restore his own covenant people. I am aware of the parables spoken to certain Jewish leaders warning them of being cast out while Gentiles will be let in. At an individual level that’s true. But it is wrong to paint this as Jews vs. Gentiles. Instead, it’s between the arrogant and the humble, whoever, wherever, and whenever they may be. This is why Paul would write: “For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree” (Romans 11:24).
“Their own olive tree.” Does it bother you that God’s inspired word calls it Israel’s tree? You can redefine Israel all you like by turning the olive tree into “the Church,” but I hope it isn’t too long before you see how silly that is. I don’t mean to offend anyone. It’s just that the biblical promises to my people have been misappropriated by most of the Church for far too long.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of April 22, 2023 / 1 Iyar 5783
Tazria & Metzora
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 12:1 – 15:33; B’midbar/Numbers 28:9-15
Haftarah: Isaiah 66:1-24
For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your offspring and your name remain. (Isaiah 66:22)
This week’s Haftarah (reading portion from Hebrew Prophets) is the second of two references made by Isaiah to “the new heavens and the new earth” that God will create (the first being Isaiah 65:17). The renewal of the entirety of creation is central to the overall story of the Bible. From the beginning, God had determined that he would not allow the cursed state of affairs resulting from our first parents’ disobedience, to be permanent. From the first hint of restoration based on the eventual destruction of the serpent and all it represented (see Bereshit/Genesis 3:15) to the promise to Abraham of world-wide blessing (see Bereshit/Genesis 12:1-3; compare Galatians 3:8) to various other prophecies to Israel and their implications for the nations, summing it all up in terms of universal renewal should be of no surprise.
Contrary to popular misconception, the expectation of the new heavens and new earth was never to be understood as God’s intent to destroy the material realm. Far from it! God was and is committed to his creation project. What is to be destroyed will be all the evil forces that have worked to undermine the essential goodness of God’s plan. A day is coming when the universe will be set right fully and forever.
To deny God’s intentions for the material realm distracts from an accurate biblical understanding of the world in which we live. Biblically minded people may be surprised, if not offended, to be told that our tendency to degrade the creation by denying the God-given goodness of the material realm has contributed to the growing tendency of much of today’s culture to embrace nonsense.
We live in a world of design, God’s design. Despite its cursed state, the creation is based on divinely intentioned principles. Denial of those principles is a denial of reality, nonsense in other words. C.S. Lewis, in his book The Problem of Pain, eloquently explains that the only thing that God can’t do is nonsense. The universe we live in has material and non-material aspects to it. Nonsense doesn’t exist, nor can it.
Yet, that doesn’t stop human beings from pretending that it does. I attribute this phenomenon to the wonderful God-given gift of imagination. Imagination is a key dynamic involved in creativity. It is imagination that enables us to problem solve, to explore possibilities, and to expound the complexities of life and the universe in extraordinary ways. What imagination on its own cannot do is determine what is good and right. When imagination is untethered from the realities of our universe, untold destruction is the result.
Asserting “anything is possible” or “you can be anything you want to be” are helpful when facing legitimate injustice or badly perceived obstacles. All sorts of beneficial innovations have been discovered and effectively implemented due to such optimistic attitudes. Accepting our inability to fly was reasonable until someone allowed their imagination to develop flying machines. But to imagine we can fly without such a device is outside the realm of God-established reality. To believe we could would be nonsense. Any attempt to do so would result in destruction.
Nonsense has beset the human family from the time Adam and Eve accepted the serpent’s claim that God was lying to them. Whether we ascribe power to idols or believe being rich will make us happy or that being popular will give us self-esteem or pretending we were born in the wrong body, nonsense has always set us in a destructive direction.
The establishment of the new heavens and the new earth will mark the time when nonsense will be shown for what it really is. No longer will reality be ignored as God unveils the full essence of his design forever. Until then, we have the opportunity and responsibility to reflect the creation’s destiny through navigating our broken world via the truth of God’s Word under the forgiveness of the Messiah and the power of the Ruach HaKodesh (English: the Holy Spirit). Imagine that!
For the week of April 15, 2023 / 24 Nissan 5783
Shemini
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 9:1 – 11:47
Haftarah: 2 Samuel 6:1 – 7:17
Originally posted the week of April 22, 2017 / 26 Nissan 5777
Speak to the people of Israel, saying, These are the living things that you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth. (Vayikra/Leviticus 11:2)
One of the essential features of the covenant God gave the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai is the directives concerning what kinds of meat were permissible to eat. Only animals which met certain criteria from the various categories of mammals, birds, fish, and insects were allowed to be consumed. Why exactly only mammals that chew their cud and have split hooves or fish that have both fins and scales could be eaten is not explained.
This hasn’t stopped people from trying to guess. Is there something about the design of these animals in contrast to those who didn’t meet the specified criteria that represented something about God or life? Perhaps, but since this is not explicitly stated, then it’s pure speculation, of which I am leery. Are these animals heathier to eat than others? The English words used to describe the categories of permitted vs. not permitted are “clean” and “unclean.” To the contemporary reader this may imply “healthy” and “unhealthy,” which these foods might be, but that’s not how clean and unclean function in the Torah. These terms have to do with being ritually fit for service. Encountering something unclean, be it food or anything else, renders one ceremonially unfit to engage the ancient sacrificial system.
One possibility may have to do with the way awareness of clean and unclean foods would help create a general sensitivity with regard to what is acceptable and what is not. As we see in our own day, discerning right from wrong is not natural. We need to be taught the difference. Having to always be careful about what goes into our mouths may train us to be careful about other aspects of life as well.
Whatever the reasons for these directives, one of the outcomes of this strict culinary lifestyle is that it creates a closed community. God’s forbidding the eating of certain foods made it impossible for the people to socialize with the surrounding cultures, since they followed no such diet. It’s understandable that since Israel’s neighbors heartily consumed unclean cuisine, that Israel would regard foreigners themselves as unclean.
It is commonly asserted that with the coming of Yeshua, the Torah food laws where discarded. Certainly these directives are implicated by the Messiah’s instituting of the New Covenant, but not in the way usually assumed. The oft quoted passage, Mark 7:19, is more of a criticism of the misguided religious obsession of ritual over heart, than a statement about the new status of pork, etc.
But that doesn’t mean that God intended to preserve the food laws into the New Covenant period. Peter learned this when God prepared him to make his first official visit to a Gentile home as an emissary of the Messiah.
Those who think the food laws still apply like to point out that Peter’s vision in which God told him to eat unclean animals was not mainly about the animals, but rather the Jewish mindset toward Gentiles as expressed in his comment: “God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean” (Acts 10:28). While his vision is indeed first and foremost about people, the food issue is certainly implied, since there is no way to fully interact with foreign cultures without sharing what they eat.
This doesn’t mean that Jewish believers or anyone else may not retain scruples over food. Not only do the New Covenant Writings mention this, but they encourage us to be sensitive toward the scruples of others for love’s sake (see Romans 14:1 – 15:13). But if we are called unto a foreign culture, we need to be ready to enjoy all sorts of fare that we may not prefer.
One more thing. While it is clear that the early Jewish followers of Yeshua were not mandated to impose food laws upon the Gentiles (see Acts 15), thus extending freedom to believers regarding what they eat, it is conceivable that being exposed to passages such as this week’s parsha (weekly Torah portion) may alert other cultures that perhaps not everything we want to put in our mouths is good for us. I know this opens a can of worms for some. But just because we are allowed to eat worms, doesn’t mean we should.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
Pesach
For the week of April 8, 2023 / 17 Nisan 5783
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 13:1-16; B’midbar/Numbers 28:19-25
Haftarah: Ezekiel 36:37-37:14
Originally posted the week of April 11, 2020 / 17 Nisan 5780 (revised)
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You shall tell your son on that day: It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt. (Shemot/Exodus 13:8)
Pesach (English: Passover) begins this year the evening of Wednesday, April 5. One of the reasons for this annual commemoration of Israel’s freedom from slavery in Egypt is to retain connection from generation to generation, “l’dor vador” as it is said in Hebrew. The ritual aspects of the retelling of the exodus were designed by God to not only remind subsequent generations of this wonderful, foundational story from our history, but to intimately bind our descendants to the original event to the extent that they see themselves as actually there when it happened. Every year when celebrating Pesach, we are to say to our children: “It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.”
But isn’t this statement for the originals only? Would it not be more correct for the children of the released Hebrew slaves to say, “It is because of what the Lord did for my parents when they came out of Egypt”? Understanding oneself as connected to a historical event through one’s ancestors isn’t identical to being there, of course. That’s technically correct, but technicalities of this sort obscure the depth of meaning found in the intense identification the statement demands.
Even technically, we are far more connected to our history than we normally think. However genetics actually work, the experiences of the past indelibly stamp themselves on our psyches. To some extent, we carry the past with us and pass it on to our children whether we or they are conscious of it. For subsequent generations to benefit from the events of the past, be they good or bad, it’s better to be not only conscious of those events but consciously understand them properly.
From the days of Moses and the departure from Egypt every Jewish person was to regard themselves as a freed slave. To lose that would be to lose the core of our identity and begin to become something that we are not.
Retaining connection to this story is not for the Jewish people alone. When Yeshua leveraged his last Pesach celebration to function as the key reference through which his followers would remember him and his sacrifice, he opened the door for everyone, Jewish or otherwise, to realize the commonality of all peoples. Israel’s oppression in tyrannical Egypt functions as a picture of the oppression of all people to evil. Yeshua’s giving of himself as the supreme Passover Lamb provides freedom to all who trust in him. Just like the Angel of Death passed over those Jewish homes that applied the Passover lamb’s blood to their doorframes in faith, so God’s judgement passes over anyone, Jewish or not, who figuratively places the Messiah’s blood over themselves by trusting in him.
As we tell the story of our deliverance that we inherited from those who have gone before, their story becomes our story. This is especially important given what we have all gone through these past three years due to lockdowns, masking, social distancing, travel restrictions, and other mandates. The physical and psychological divisions among us eclipsed our shared humanity. Pesach, as understood through a messianic lens, reminds us that the God of Israel is the God of deliverance for all. And if we make his deliverance ours, as demonstrated by the exodus and offered to all people through the Messiah Yeshua, we will have the opportunity to tell our children, “This is what the Lord did for me.”
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise indicated
For the week of April 1, 2023 / 10 Nisan 5783
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Zav
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 6:1-8:36 (English 6:8 – 8:36)
Haftarah: Malachi 3:4-24 (English: 3:4 – 4:6)
And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. (Malachi 3:24 [English 4:6])
As is my custom, I prepare TorahBytes each week by looking at both the weekly Torah and Haftarah (excerpt from the Prophets) portions. In more recent years, I also tend to look back at my previous messages based on these portions. The last time I commented on the portion from the end of Malachi, was the week of April 4, 2020. The first set of significant COVID measures, including lockdowns and social distancing, began in most places a couple of weeks prior. Here are a few excerpts from that message:
We are in sobering times. Most of us alive today have never seen a global pandemic nor have had to endure such drastic measures. Time will tell whether or not the restrictions imposed upon us are justified…We don’t know what the world will be like when this is over…People’s value systems will be transformed…Are we prepared? Are we prepared to face death? Are we prepared to face life?…The pressures of coping with COVID-19 personally and relationally are driving us individually and societally to a tipping point.
At that time, I asserted that the generational division had already been in place long before this crisis undermined our societal foundations, making dealing with COVID far more difficult than it would have been had the family unit been stronger. But something else was also going on unrelated to COVID: an all-out attack on the past.
The present can certainly be helpful in shining light on the past. Yet, it’s one thing to experience regret for our personal or communal wrongs. But it’s quite another to mercilessly attack it. We have become too quick to condemn the actions of the past based on our supposed enlightened perspective. God’s warning through Malachi speaks powerfully to the current moment. He said that unless the hearts of the fathers turn toward the children and vice versa, God would “come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” In other words, the survival of society depends on the healing of the generation gap.
Not only has the generation gap widened in the past few years, the very nature of the gap has changed. What began as a difference of opinion between adults and young people amidst the turbulent 1960s, is now a violent disdain for the actions of generations of the distant past. What had been a critique of cultural values has become a rage over long-ago events to the extent that their very memories are being wiped out of existence.
What is perhaps the most insidious aspect of this so-called social justice movement is the practical denial that the current generation are the descendants of our forebears. When we condemn them, we don’t realize how much we condemn ourselves. Assuming that the current generation possesses sufficient moral superiority, qualifying them to sit in judgment over the past, exposes a complete lack of self-awareness. Today’s social justice warrior types forget that we share the same humanity, in all its glory and brokenness, as those who came before. So, instead of owning the inheritance of past wrongs and working toward a better future, all that is gained is a sense of pride in one’s self-proclaimed moral superiority. To be so out of touch with one’s own nature can only lead to greater trouble. It’s only by recognizing that we are made of the same stuff as our ancestors can we find any resolution to the pain we feel for the social ills that have plagued humanity from the beginning. It’s when we see ourselves in the faces of the past that we can effectively address the ills of the present. But when we distance ourselves from our ancestors, we distance ourselves from ourselves.
This is why we need to heed the prophetic call to turn our hearts to our fathers. This may be our literal fathers or our historical and cultural ones. A thought: I wonder how many people who are enraged over great social ills of the distant past are also enraged at their own dads. These may be related. Be that as it may, the warning through Malachi is as relevant today as it was when it was first delivered. If the generational divide is not healed, we are in big trouble.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise indicated
For the week of March 25, 2023 / 3 Nisan 5783
Vayikra
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26
Haftarah: Isaiah 43:21 – 44:23
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And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar, as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD. (Vayikra/Leviticus 1:9)
Do you have a favorite smell? I have heard it said that our sense of smell supplies one of the strongest memories human beings possess. Whether we believe in aromatherapy or not, it is difficult to deny how various fragrances can have a profound effect upon us. Some fragrances may spark our appetite, while other may excite us, clear our minds, or help us relax.
As we begin Vayikra, Leviticus, the third book of the Torah, for another year, we regularly read about God’s emotive response to certain offerings. This is termed, according to the translation I’m using here, the English Standard Version, as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. This gives the impression of some sort of pleasure response on God’s part. Before I address what may be going on here specifically, I want to discuss more generally what Scripture means when it refers to God’s having what appears to be very humanlike experiences.
Many theologians assert that such references are a type of metaphor (figure of speech) called personification or anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism is when nonhuman creatures or objects are portrayed in human-like ways. Examples commonly found in books and movies, include talking animals, toys, or cars. Personification is when the actions of a nonhuman creature or object are described in humanlike ways. This is so, when weather “threatens” or pain “shouts.” Most examples like this when pertaining to God would be categorized as personification, such as when he regretted making Saul king (see Shmuel/Samuel 15:11) or one day exulting over his people with singing (see Zephaniah 3:17).
It is important to understand how these and many other examples of God’s having or expressing humanlike attributes or emotions represent what he is experiencing. Through history many have undermined the power and meaning of such metaphors by asserting that God can’t be affected by human behavior. They conclude that these metaphors are used for our sakes alone in order to confront our beliefs and behaviors, while God himself is absolutely unmoved. If God can be affected by his creation, how would he then retain control?
Philosophically, I see the problem. But the Bible doesn’t attempt to fully satisfy our desire for an exhaustive philosophical system. Instead, it provides what we need to know in order to live effective, godly lives. That includes, in God’s wisdom, all sorts of descriptions of himself that are humanlike.
Isn’t that God’s way of coming down to our level, so that we can understand that which is completely beyond our comprehension? To some extent, yes. However, when God reveals himself in these ways, what’s the point if they don’t represent reality? When the second Psalm tells us God laughs at the conspirators (see Psalm 2:4), if he isn’t really laughing, what then is he doing? If God is as unmoved as some say he is, then it seems to me what we are left with is nothing more than a mechanical universe, while created by God, is simply behaving according to design. God isn’t involved, even though he is ultimately responsible for creation’s impersonal reactions.
But is that the reality the Bible reflects? Is not God personally involved in human affairs? Does he not communicate to and through people? Is it not more reasonable to accept that God actually experiences the emotions as told us through Scripture? I suggest that our human experiences are a real though comparably feeble reflection of what God is experiencing. Our emotions, therefore, are a taste of what God is truly feeling.
Once we accept that God is experiencing something very real in response to properly instituted offerings, we are able to look more carefully at the expression “pleasing aroma.” The word translated as “pleasing” (nee-kho-akh) is derived from the word “noo-akh,” meaning “to rest” or “to settle down.” This is why some translations prefer “soothing aroma.” It’s not just that God likes these offerings, it’s that they sooth him, the picture being one of God’s being agitated by sinful behavior but calmed by the act of sacrifice. Of course, we know from other parts of Scripture that it wasn’t the offering itself that made the difference, but the heart of the person making the offering.
And so it was with such a heart that Messiah himself not only gave himself but did so as an example to us all. As we read in the New Covenant Writings, “Conduct yourselves in love, just as the Messiah loved us, and gave himself for us, as a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2; New Testament for Everyone). The great universal effect accomplished by the Messiah’s sacrifice is to be reflected in the healing aroma of our lives.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise indicated
For the week of March 18, 2023 / 25 Adar 5783
Vayakhel & Pekudei
Torah: Ex 35:1 – 40:38; & Ex 12:1-20
Haftarah: Ezekiel 45:16-46
Originally posted the week of March 9, 2019 / 2 Adar II 5779
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Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. (Shemot/Exodus 40:34)
After many chapters containing intricate details of every aspect of the Mishkan (English: Tabernacle), it was finally finished. It must have been really something for a nation of former slaves to have completed their first building project that was for themselves. It was for God, of course. But it was also, in a very real sense, their own. Located in the center of their community, Israel now had a tangible expression of their unique peoplehood and faith.
However satisfying the Mishkan was or impressive it was to see, nothing can compare to what happened next. The pillar of cloud and fire, which was a physical manifestation of God himself, filled it. In some real way God himself took up residence in his house. The “everywhere” God localized his presence in the midst of the people of Israel.
What would the Mishkan be without God inside it? Since it was built under his direction and according to his instructions, it was a legitimate place of true worship. The cohanim (English: priests), who were responsible for the sacrifices and the maintenance of the inner buildings, and Levi’im (English: Levites), who assisted them, were sanctioned by God through Moses. As long as they were faithful to the Mishkan’s Torah regulations, their activities would be pleasing to God and of benefit to the people. The understanding of God reflected by the Mishkan and its proceedings would proclaim the truth of God, his word, and his people.
So, what difference did his localized presence make? It might surprise you if I don’t say “everything.” It’s not “everything” due to its legitimacy and the benefits I briefly tried to describe. But it is still a really big difference. The presence of God within the Mishkan allowed the people to go beyond good and true concepts of God to encountering him personally.
This personal dynamic is key to genuinely experiencing God. I wonder how much well-intentioned believers are content with a life that is more akin to the Mishkan without God’s presence. Most things in our lives appear to be in order. We believe the right things. We go through all the right motions. We avoid bad stuff (at least most of the time). But, if we are honest, God remains a concept; there’s no personal dynamic. God is around certainly, but he isn’t right here, not to mention inside us.
I know there’s lots of controversy about what the New Covenant Writings refer to as being filled with the Holy Spirit. Much of that controversy is wrapped up in people’s attempt to explain and formulize the personal dynamic of God’s presence in the life of the believer. Forget the controversy for a second. Is our experience of God supposed to be like the Mishkan without God? The New Covenant refers to us as the Temple of the Holy Spirit both corporately (1 Corinthians 3:16) and individually (1 Corinthians 6:19), because we are to be like the Mishkan with God inside.
If God isn’t in you the way he wants to be, let me offer some suggestions as to why. First, you may not truly believe in Yeshua. You may know that already, you may be lying to yourself, or others have deceived you into thinking that you are a true believer when you are not. If that’s the case, that can easily change right now. Turn from your sin and call out to God in Yeshua’s name. Second, the Bible speaks about grieving (Ephesian 4:30) the Holy Spirit. You may have come to believe in Yeshua, but your lifestyle is creating all sorts of barriers to truly experiencing him the way you should. The solution to that is the same as the first. Stop the bad behavior and turn to Yeshua. Let him direct you from there. Finally, you may have been conditioned against the work of God in your life. The Bible also speaks about quenching the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19). You have been taught to be suspicious of emotions, impressions, inklings, voices, and visions – these and other ways that God makes himself known to us personally. This one is more difficult that the other two, since it so insidious. Some people have been taught that many of the things that God is doing in your life is of the devil. Can’t do much about that until you have a major paradigm shift (completely new way of looking at life). Good news though – nothing is impossible for God. He can show you what’s right. But for that to happen, you’re going to have to let him in.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
Ki Tissa
For the week of March 11, 2023 / 18 Adar 5783
Torah: Shemot / Exodus 30:11 – 34:35
Haftarah: Ezekiel 36:16-38
Originally posted the week of February 15, 2014 / 15 Adar 5774 (revised)
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When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” (Shemot/Exodus 32:1)
Years ago, I was talking to someone and said to them that I suffered from a lack of faith. That’s quite a confession for someone who calls himself a “believer,” seeing that biblically, belief and faith are the same thing, as is trust. Whatever the correct terminology, I was seeking to sum up my life struggles by acknowledging unbelief. My friend said “No, your trouble is lack of patience.” I think they were right. It’s not that I have never struggled with faith; it’s that my impatience has caused me unnecessary trouble time and time again.
I hate waiting! I can’t remember a time when I felt differently. Whether I am suffering, dreading a potential problem, or even anticipating something fun and exciting, I find the waiting process awful. I remember the first time I met someone who found more pleasure in the anticipation of an event than in the event itself, it was like meeting a visitor from another planet. How can anyone enjoy anticipation, when it makes me sick! It took me a while before I realized that I had a problem, a big problem.
The people of Israel camping out at Mt. Sinai vividly demonstrate for us how serious a lack of patience can be. Moses was away for over a month meeting with God. Even though Moses, a person who had proved to be so trustworthy, said he was coming back, they couldn’t handle what they took to be a delay in his return. I don’t blame them for how they felt. Of course I don’t, I can so relate! Being in a hostile environment, journeying into the unknown, having no clue when their leader would return, they were likely overwhelmed by their uncertainty and the waiting.
Patience is the ability to endure the pain of waiting, an ability they certainly lacked. But that’s not where they went wrong. Their sin was not in the pain of waiting, but in their turning to other gods. Their real problem was their lack of faith, which was exposed by their impatience.
The distinction between patience and faith is an important one. I wonder how many people are like me, especially in thinking that we are struggling with faith, not patience. Properly understanding this distinction can help us overcome this problem.
Those of us who suffer from the pain of waiting need to come to grips with the fact that so much of life is a process. Seeds are planted a long time before the plants produce fruit. Babies and other living creatures need a period of gestation before being born, hatched, etc. Maturity takes time. Projects require design and development. None of these common processes are due to sin. God invented process. Getting used to the reality of process over time is a first step in learning to be patient, to not get offended when we experience delay, short- or long-term.
Where my friend may not have been quite correct by saying that my problem was lack of patience, not lack of faith, is that they didn’t acknowledge how faith and patience are connected. While it has been helpful for me to realize that I have difficulty waiting, at the root of this is a lingering doubt over God’s general inclination toward me. For if we realize that God is in control of our lives, that he truly loves us, and his intentions toward us are always good, then when we experience delay, when we need to wait, when we cannot immediately see how our problems will be resolved, we can take comfort in God. Impatience, therefore, serves the purpose at times to reveal foundational flaws in our basic relationship to God.
Some people are afraid to pray for patience, thinking that God will bring them into the kind of difficult situations that require it. Whether or not we need to pray such a prayer, God will bring us into those situations anyway. We, like the people of Israel, will find ourselves where waiting a moment longer seems to be the most impossible thing ever. Whether our problem is lack of faith or patience, the solution is always the same. Don’t give up on God, because he has promised to be with us through the often-painful process of waiting.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of February 25, 2023 / 4 Adar 5783
For illustration purposes only. Not intended to provide exact representation of the Ark.Terumah
For the week of February 25, 2023 / 4 Adar 5783
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 25:1 – 27:19
Haftarah: 1 Melachim/1 Kings 5:26 – 6:13 (English: 5:12 – 6:13)
Originally posted the week of March 4, 2017 / 6 Adar 5777
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You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the Most Holy Place. (Shemot/Exodus 26:34)
As part of the building of the Mishkan (English: Tabernacle) and its furnishings, God directed Moses to build a “kapporet,” an ornate cover to be placed on top of the “aron ha-b’rit” (English: the Ark of the Covenant). The aron ha-b’rit was an elegant box that contained the tablets of the Ten Commandments, a jar with a portion of manna, and Aaron’s rod that had budded. It resided in the Mishkan’s inner sanctum called the “kodesh ha-k’dashim” (English: the Most Holy Place), and it represented the very presence of God within the community of Israel.
When the “Cohen Ha-Gadol” (English: the High Priest) entered the kodesh ha-k’dashim once a year at Yom Kippur (English: the Day of Atonement), the kapporet was the focus of his attention, for he was to apply the blood of the festival’s special sacrifices before it and over it (see Vayikra/Leviticus 16:11-4). The purpose of this ritual was to provide purification for the inner sanctum from the people’s uncleanness, transgressions, and sins.
The kapporet was a lid made of pure gold overshadowed by the wings of golden “k’ruvim” (English: cherubim). The Scriptures tell us little about these creatures. We are introduced to them when Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden of Eden and God placed them to guard the tree of life. It is possible, therefore, that their being symbolically part of the kapporet was to remind Israel that the way to everlasting life remained blocked during the days of the Mishkan and its successor, the Temple.
Many English Bible versions translate kapporet as “mercy seat.” This goes back to one of the earliest English Bible translators, William Tyndale, whose 16th century translation became the core of the King James Bible and much of subsequent English translation tradition. It appears that Tyndale’s rendering of kapporet as mercy seat is based on Paul’s use of the Greek equivalent “hilastērion” in his letter to the Romans as he refers to the Messiah Yeshua, “whom God hath made a seat of mercy through faith in his blood” (Romans 3:26; Tyndale’s version). Hilastērion is the word for kapporet used by the Septuagint, the early Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, that was common in Paul’s day. While hilastērion had a different usage in Greek outside the Bible, Paul must have had its biblical use in mind, a connection that Tyndale choose to make abundantly clear.
Regrettably, in my opinion, the translators of the King James Bible and many other later English translations chose not to preserve this connection. Instead most go with the pagan Greek meaning, “propitiation,” which is the idea of appeasing an angry god. Ironically, the King James and many other English translations that use “propitiation” in Romans retain Tyndale’s “mercy seat” in Exodus even though the reason for translating the kapporet as “mercy seat” is because Tyndale was drawing from Paul’s allusion in Romans to the place of God’s presence and mercy where cleansing occurs.
You may not be aware of the great controversy among scholars over the meaning of Paul’s use of hilastērion. This is part of a discussion about how Yeshua’s suffering and death provides forgiveness and acceptance to those who trust in him. But however it works, let us not miss the power of Paul’s allusion. Through Yeshua’s giving of his life, he has become our kapporet – the place of mercy. What was once hidden and inaccessible has become available to all. If we put our trust in him, God purifies us once and for all, making us fit to freely enter his presence.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of February 18, 2023 / 27 Shevat 5783
Mishpatim
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 21:1 – 24:18; 30:11-16
Haftarah: 2 Melachim/2 Kings 12:1-17
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When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. (Shemot/Exodus 21:22-25)
The other day, I was copied on an email conversation between some Christian leaders on a prolife issue. It contained a brief comment about the religious Jewish view of abortion being similar to theirs, which would be protection for all human beings from conception to natural death. Realizing that the Jewish view is far more nuanced than this, I wanted to send them a clarification. Just to be sure I was articulating the religious Jewish view correctly I double checked some online resources, one of which is the article Abortion and Judaism on the “My Jewish Learning” website.
Note that I have referred to the religious Jewish view. Most Jewish people would not consider themselves strictly religious and would, generally speaking, view such an issue in a similar manner to the majority view in the culture. As for religious Jews, a key aspect of their perspective on the subject is that the fetus doesn’t become a person until the first breath. That doesn’t mean the fetus is of no value until then, but it is viewed in a lessor way than fully born individuals.
Part of this discussion involves the fact that there are not many explicit references in Hebrew Scripture addressing this issue. Be that as it may, I assert that King David establishes the womb as a sacred place that should be protected when he writes: “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13).
There does appear to be one passage in the Torah, the one I quoted at the beginning, that does explicitly address the value of the preborn. Here is a situation where a pregnant woman is apparently hit by accident due to some men fighting. It’s a fascinating passage with regard to personal liability when a bystander, in this case a women, is potentially harmed in a scuffle. We won’t go into all the details involving her, but instead simply focus on the ramifications for the preborn. As you may see in the article I referred to earlier, the rabbinic interpretation of this passage is that the “life for life” penalty is deemed not to apply to the children, but may only result in a monetary fine upon the one committing the infraction.
That conclusion is not reasonable given what is described in the passage. While it may not say who exactly is suffering harm, there is no reason to assume it is exclusively the mother. Note that at this point the children are no longer in the womb. Their welfare is as observable as the other parties involved. It is clear then that should the mother and/or children be harmed in this situation, the perpetrator, even if unintentionally, causes death, is to be charged with murder.
That the children are already born may seem to support the rabbinic idea that personhood is only ascribed to humans upon birth. However, I find the personhood concept irrelevant. The passage itself establishes the value of the children in this situation. Unlike our day, it would have been most difficult to determine if mortal injury came to the fetus. It would only be after birth that such a determination could be made. That capital punishment was the penalty when a child died due to harm done to him or her prior to birth demonstrates the God of Israel’s high value on the preborn.
Certainly, there are differences between preborn and born children. This has been well articulated through the acronym SLED, which stands for Size, Level of Development, Environment, and Degree of Dependency. I would add that the baby’s breathing on his or her own along with the cutting of the umbilical cord is a significant major developmental transition. Yet. we have no clear statement in Scripture that this is when personhood is established. But even if it did, do not preborn humans deserve the care and protection the rest of us deserve? Isn’t this what we learn from this passage? To ignore what God is saying here, devalues us all.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of February 11, 2023/ 20 Shevat 5783
Yitro
Torah: Shemot / Exodus 18:1 – 20:23
Haftarah: Isaiah 6:1 – 7:6; 9:5 (English: Isaiah 6:1 – 7:6; 9:6)
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:1-5)
I have heard it said that Isaiah’s vision of God, even though it is found in the sixth chapter of his book, must have occurred before he began his prophetic work. That’s understandable, since it is here that Isaiah receives his marching orders, therefore serving as an introduction. Another clue that suggests this took place before he ever spoke to the people on God’s behalf is his reaction. First, it devastated him: “Woe is me! For I am lost”, which is not something we would expect from a faithful servant of God. Second, he confessed to having “unclean lips” just like the rest of his people. What kind of prophet of God has unclean lips? My proposal: a genuine one.
Let me explain. While it is possible that Isaiah’s vision is out of sequence, is it necessary that his dramatic experience had to have come first before he took up his prophetic vocation? That says more about our assumptions of how God works than our grappling with what is actually going on here.
I am aware of the many biblical accounts of people to whom God appeared and/or spoke to before they began their divine task. But there are also people to whom God appeared and/or spoke to well into their ministry. So why can’t it be that Isaiah is an example of the latter? Our assumption may dictate otherwise due to, as I already mentioned, the nature of the vision and Isaiah’s level of interaction. It is reasonable to regard these as foundational to both his personal spiritual state and the scope of his mission, but that doesn’t mean he could not have experienced this midstream. Must we assume that God wouldn’t address foundational issues in our lives?
Why do we assume that Isaiah must have had all this in place prior to the beginning of his work? Many people hearing or reading this are engaged in some sort of work for God. Others too may do so sometime in the future. Do we believe that we are so completely spiritual and that the scope of our ministry is or will be so perfectly defined that we will never require adjustment? But we are not Isaiah, we might say. We cannot compare our callings to his. Really? Are we truly that different from him? Isaiah, as were all the significant biblical characters, was a human being just like us, serving the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as we are called to do. Does it sound that far fetched that this great prophet of God might discover that he is not as spiritual as he thought he was and that he may not have yet fully grasped the scope of his calling?
Isaiah wasn’t alone in his need to grow in his faith and work. All through Abraham’s life God expanded his understanding of what was being promised to him and how it was to work out. It took Jacob years to become a true believer. Moses had a lot to learn before he was ready to assume his leadership role and even then, the challenges that he faced forced him to draw closer and closer to God. David’s whole life was one of getting to know God better. Some of his personal weaknesses did not rise to the surface until after God used him in very significant ways.
God uses imperfect people. He doesn’t perfect us prior to his using us. When God calls us to a task, he doesn’t usually give us all the details. Let us not then assume that whatever understanding we currently have of God, our relationship to him, or the nature of the work to which he calls us, is complete.
God may not appear or speak to us in the same manner as he did with Isaiah. But let us be careful not to let our assumptions about God and how he deals with us prevent him from accomplishing all he wants to do in and through us.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of February 4, 2023 / 13 Shevat 5783
B’shalach
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 13:17 – 17:16
Haftarah: Shoftim/Judges 4:4 – 5:31
Revised version of message posted the week of July 2, 2011 / 30 Sivan 5771
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Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying, “I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.” (Shemot/Exodus 15:1)
The Bible has several examples of songs that were written to commemorate significant events in the lives of the people. The main purpose of singing such songs was to help the community remember the character and power of God. The retelling of an event’s details helps us to get in touch with very specific elements of God’s character and power. It is one thing to proclaim that God is good and strong in general terms; it’s another to recount specific good things he did and exactly how he did them. While it is good to be aware of God’s characteristics in an abstract way, we connect with those abstract realities more effectively when we have actual examples to remember.
Retelling events through song has several other advantages over merely speaking or reading about them. The process of writing the song provides the opportunity for the writer or writers to carefully ponder the details of the event and their significance to others. This results in more than the cold recalling of facts, but also allows for the retention of the meaning of the event for generations to come. Songs are a lot easier to remember and have the tendency to get passed on to future generations. The poetic nature of songs, especially well-written ones, give future generations the opportunity to not only relive the original event, but ponder its significance all over again, while reflecting upon how past lessons can be applied to the present. Due to the nature of song, some of this happens unconsciously.
In most cultures throughout history song has held a very important place. Our own day is no exception. In fact, there may have never been a time when song has been as prevalent as it is today. But when I think of the content of most songs, very few are of the nature of those which we find in Scripture. Most contemporary songs (and there are exceptions) are about feelings and desires of the moment. These songs are highly emotional and subjective. This is not to say that there is no place for this kind of song – the Psalms include examples of such, though the perspective of the Psalms is very different from most contemporary songs. The tendency of much of today’s songs reveals the current state of most people, which is obsessed with self and the pursuit of pleasure. This tendency has spilled over into much of what may be considered as spiritually minded songs as well.
Another difference between songs in the Bible and songwriting today is the influence of commercialism and social media. If making money isn’t our motive, then at least we want to garner as much attention as possible. The result is that our songwriting motive has become more about self and popularity than God and our and future generation’s need to remember who he is and what he has done.
But wouldn’t it be wonderful if we began to write and sing songs simply about the great works of God as they are happening in our lives today? Have you, your family, or community gone through some significant event the recounting of which would benefit generations to come? Perhaps you or your loved ones have survived an ordeal of some kind? Did God see you through financial hardship, serious illness or accident? Maybe you are part of a congregation that almost dissolved but has seen a remarkable rejuvenation. Maybe your community is recuperating from a natural disaster. Maybe something terrible has happened to you or your loved ones, and there are some important lessons that should never be forgotten. Whatever it might be, it deserves a song. It might be sad or happy or both, but it needs to be sung.
Since it is always important to be true to one’s own words, I recently recorded and posted to YouTube an updated version of a simple song I wrote in my first year as a believer. You can view it here:
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of January 28, 2023 / 6 Shevat 5783
Bo
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 10:1 – 13:16
Haftarah: Jeremiah 46:13-28
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Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.” (Shemot/Exodus 10:1-2)
I have been told on more than one occasion that I am too negative. You may think the glass is half-full, while I may not even see a glass! That’s an exaggeration, I hope. But I would be careful about drinking that water, since it might be poison. One of my roles at a high-tech firm some years ago was quality control. I don’t know if that was a good idea for someone like me. Not that I wasn’t good at it. I may have been too good as I would find all sorts of problems that the designers never dreamed of. I was a natural. Is it my fault that when I walk into a room, I immediately notice the one picture frame that’s a bit off? Not to mention wondering what that squeaky noise is. And do I smell something burning?
This doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the positive. I love it when things work well. Perhaps it’s possible that the reason why I am so sensitive to the negative is because I love the good so much. Where I need to be most careful is in relating to people in the process. I need to choose when, how, and with whom to mention negatives. Sometimes negatives should be overlooked for the sake of relationships and various life priorities. But it may not surprise you to learn that I am concerned that overlooking the negative for some greater good is happening far too often in our day, as we are, in my opinion, not taking the negatives seriously enough.
God called Moses to confront a great negative. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, enslaved the people of Israel in order to prevent them from ever joining forces with an enemy army. God sent Moses and his brother Aaron to demand Israel’s release. Pharaoh’s refusal to heed God’s word resulted in another negative – a set of negatives – the ten plagues. The Hebrew words for plague, are better translated as “strike.” God pummeled Egypt over and over again until Pharaoh gave way. Even then, after Israel headed out, he attempted to bring them back, resulting in his army drowning in the sea. So much negative.
A previous job I had was that of a business college instructor. As I was starting out, I was informed by one of the veteran instructors that she preferred to correct students’ papers in green ink, since the traditional red was deemed to be too negative. At the time, as the new guy, I went along with it. But looking back, we weren’t highlighting the correct answers but pointing out the errors. We did that to show the students where they needed to improve in order to give them the best chance of succeeding in the workplace. I, like anyone else, don’t find pleasure in having my mistakes highlighted, but there’s a time to unambiguously point out mistakes.
Pharaoh was making a huge mistake. People were unjustly suffering due to his selfish motives. He could have simply acquiesced to God’s demand and saved himself and his people from needless suffering, but he didn’t. According to the design of the world which God made, Pharaoh’s arrogance was destined to lead to terrible consequences unless he changed course. Welcome to Planet Earth, Pharaoh.
Welcome to Planet Earth, everyone! How much longer can society pursue its current course before God’s judgment is poured out? Pharaoh and company went years and years thinking they could get away with treating their fellow human beings as a commodity. But it was only a matter of time before God would say, “Enough is enough.” The same is true for our day. We mistake God’s patience for either his non-existence or his disinterest. Worse, many in the name of faith in Messiah, put a positive spin on his intentions, ascribing to God love for humans not that different from that of a child for his puppy. God indeed yearns for us to know his goodness for all eternity. He longs to rescue us from our misguided and selfish behavior. Yet, he will only wait so long before millions will finally and permanently suffer the consequences.
Am I being too negative? Then I guess a physician diagnosing cancer is also too negative. It is not positive spin on my part (I wouldn’t do that!) to say the cancer diagnosis is an expression of goodness despite its negativity. Heeding the negative appropriately is the pathway to an enduring positive outcome. Unless we begin to see the negatives for what they are, we will not experience the positives in the way God desires for us.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of January 21, 2023 / 28 Tevet 5783
Va-era
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 6:2 – 9:35
Haftarah: Ezekiel 28:25 – 29:21
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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and will cut off from you man and beast, and the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. Then they will know that I am the LORD. “Because you said, ‘The Nile is mine, and I made it,’ therefore, behold, I am against you and against your streams, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Cush. (Ezekiel 29:8-10)
This week’s haftarah (excerpt from the Hebrew prophets) was most likely selected due to its references to Egypt and, particularly, Pharaoh, Egypt’s king. Both are concerned with God’s judgment on Pharaoh and his land even though the circumstances addressed by Ezekiel are very different from those faced by Moses. In Moses’ day, Israel had witnessed God’s heavy hand of judgment upon Pharaoh for refusing to heed God’s demand to let his people go. Centuries later Ezekiel prophesied an even greater devastation upon Egypt. It isn’t clear if the “desolation and waste” mentioned in the verses I quoted occurred around that time or if it is yet in the future. That doesn’t concern me as much as the reason stated by God for his harsh judgment.
Pharaoh’s arrogance in Ezekiel’s day is captured by God’s rebuke of Pharaoh’s saying, “The Nile is mine, and I made it.” The Nile River played a most essential role in Egypt. The country’s agriculture and economy were dependent on the Nile. The Land of Israel had relatively little fresh water and was thus utterly dependent on rain for survival. If sufficient rain didn’t fall at the right time of year, drought and famine would be the result. The Nile, on the other hand, functioned as a reliable, continual water source for Egypt despite its being surrounded by desert.
The presence of such a water resource would naturally lead the Egyptians to have a great sense of security. They were aware of their special possession especially in contrast to the intense water needs of their neighbors. It is understandable that such a culture would regard themselves as specially favored by their gods. One might think that the events of Moses’ time would have cured them of such a perspective but evidently not. In fact, not only would Egypt take pride in their gods, Pharaoh also eventually regarded himself in divine terms, identifying, or more correctly, overidentifying with his gods to the extent that he took credit for creating the Nile. I would expect most moderns to react to such a claim as rooted in a misguided worldview of foolish superstitions. However it was that Pharaoh came to assert such a claim, God deemed it worthy of devastating consequences.
How did Pharaoh come to think of himself in this way? Did he really and truly believe he made the Nile? Perhaps it was common in his culture to regard the king as the incarnation of a deity. Perhaps there are countries today that still think this way, but could you imagine in Canada where I live, for example, having a special ceremony where a priest or holy man waves his hand over our Prime Minister to transform him from a normal human being like the rest of us into the personification of some god or other? From that point on, whatever he says is the god’s word, while everyone else must obey or be killed. When he walks by, his people must bow in deference as he proclaims, “The maple syrup is mine, and I made it!”
I trust you’re chuckling. But think again. While world leaders generally don’t speak in such deified terms, they and those who support them are increasingly regarding themselves as the great benefactors of their people. I cannot remember how many times in the past three years our Prime Minister has said that it is his responsibility to keep Canadians safe, warming the hearts of an apparent majority of the population. Without getting into the technicalities of our parliamentary system, when did that become his responsibility? When a country’s leader begins to assume the role of ultimate parent, assuming he or she has the authority and power to determine what constitutes safe and healthy behavior, it isn’t long before they have taken the role of God.
This kind of arrogance, with or without replicating Pharaoh’s type of wording, is becoming more and more common among all sorts of authorities in traditional democracies. As God himself is neglected by a growing number of people, human authority naturally takes his place. Such a course will not end well.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of January 14, 2023 / 21 Tevet 5783
Shemot
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 1:1 – 6:1
Haftarah: Isaiah 27:6 – 28:13, 29:22-23
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So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves. (Shemot/Exodus 1:13-14)
The embryonic nation of Israel was preserved via God’s providence by migrating to Egypt through the unusual and painful circumstances that led to Joseph’s rise to prominence there. For some time, not sure exactly how long, the growing nation prospered in their temporary home. Eventually, an Egyptian king arose who became suspicious of them. He was concerned Israel would one day ally themselves with Egypt’s enemies, leading to Egypt’s demise. In an attempt to undermine such a possibility, the king imposed an oppressive policy to enslave Israel. As this failed to weaken the growing Hebrew nation, life for Israel got a lot worse before it got better, as the king decreed the murder of the Hebrew baby boys at birth.
From what we can tell, Israel suffered a long time, hundreds of years in fact, as slaves in Egypt before God sent Moses and his brother to rescue them. That this was foretold to Abraham (see Bereshit/Genesis 15:12-16) is little consolation for what must have been an unbearable situation. Later biblical history informs us that the vast majority of Israel’s suffering was due to its failure to live up to its covenantal obligations. There are several occasions when repentance brought almost immediate relief. But that’s not the case here. There is no indication whatsoever that Israel’s suffering was due to anything on their part, good or bad, except for their simply being there, a situation that had been originally determined by God for their welfare.
As I was preparing this message, I struggled to find meaning through Israel’s centuries-long oppression in Egypt. I was on the brink of deeming this period as utterly futile. I hate futility. I get very unsettled when I lose grasp of meaning. I don’t think I am alone. Even materialistic naturalists (those who believe the universe came into existence through nothing more than energy and matter plus chance), who reject that there is any objective meaning to life, can’t seem to live like that and so seek to find meaning anyway they can. Then, there’s the typical, “Everything is for a reason,” line that seems to make people feel better even if the mysterious reason is beyond comprehension.
In the case of Israel in Egypt, I do believe there is a futility aspect to it at least for the individuals who lived through it. There were innumerable Israelites, who were born into, lived through, and died in that most oppressive state. Perhaps the expectation of returning one day to the Promised Land provided some relief. We don’t know. We also don’t know how faith in the God of their fathers encouraged them day by day. If the behavior of the wilderness generation later on is any clue to the depths of their faith, then it was pretty shallow. I will come back to the futility in a moment.
From a big-picture viewpoint, Israel’s experience in Egypt wasn’t futile. God used their hardships there as a pressure cooker to develop Israel as a nation. Note that Israel didn’t come into being through the normal processes experienced by other people groups, but rather by God’s particular design. The Promised Land, likely due to its geographical peculiarities as a land bridge connecting Africa, Asia, and Europe, was home to a wide variety of people groups and influences. It’s possible that the clan that arose from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, would not have been able to become the substantial nation it did without the Egypt years. Also, if the political establishment in Egypt would have remained friendly to Israel, they may have been absorbed into the Egyptian people and would have not wanted to leave. The antagonism they experienced served to ensure their distinctiveness and their acquiring the Promised Land. Moreover, Israel’s experience in Egypt serves to illustrate the oppression all people are under. This sets up the great redemption God desires for all people through the Messiah.
All that might satisfy our yearning for meaning. It makes us feel better when reading about their hardships to see that there was a grand purpose behind it all. But what about them? They wouldn’t have been aware of any of this. The best they could have done was endure. In fact, some may have preferred an early death rather than continuing to go through such painful futility.
And that might be exactly how you are feeling right now. Like the Israelites, we may not know the grand purposes we are serving. Moreover, I am not convinced that everything that happens is for some precise intentional reason. And yet, we do know that according to the New Covenant Writings, based on stories like Israel in Egypt, that God uses everything for the good of his people (see Romans 8:28). This may not completely alleviate the pain we feel when confronted by apparent futility, but, if we let it, it will help see us through.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of December 24, 2022 / 30 Kislev 5783
Miketz/Rosh Hodesh/Hanukkah
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 41:1 – 44:17; B’midbar/Numbers 28:9-15; 7:42-53
Haftarah: Zechariah 2:14 – 4:7 (English 2:10 – 4:7); Isaiah 66:1-24; 1 Samuel 20:18-42
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Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. (Zechariah 4:6)
In the days leading to Hanukkah, the Hellenistic (Greek) authorities, among other things, forbade the study of Torah. Will we see the Bible banned in our day? We might, but that’s not necessary, due to how much it has been shamed.
Over time we have been told that the biblical world is so different from ours that it’s become more and more difficult to see how what the Bible teaches can be relevant to today’s world. Many have become convinced that it was written at a time when misogynistic, “homophobian” racists walked the earth, and therefore the issues the Bible addresses have nothing to do with our supposedly far more enlightened world. We sit in judgement over the real and imagined sins of the past, while we congratulate ourselves for our superior morality. What then does the Bible have to teach us? We may seek to mine the Bible for encouragement and hope—we want to bolster our faith after all—but when it comes to life’s particulars: marriage and family, sexuality, business, politics, leisure, entertainment, what constitutes legitimate congregational life, and so on, many of us have left the Bible—the whole Bible—far, far behind.
Sure, we’re diehard fans of Yeshua (Jesus), but have become detached from the very written word that defined his person, his life, and his mission—a mission that has been extended to his followers, the God-given mandate to disciple the nations—a mandate entrusted to us by the Most High to instruct the world in his good and life-infused ways. Yet, when we get into the nitty gritty of Scripture, especially when it comes to Yeshua’s own Bible, the Hebrew Scriptures, the same Scriptures Paul said were not only breathed out by God but are also “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” that God’s people may be “complete, equipped for every good work”—when it comes to the fulness of those Scriptures, many of us have become what we might call “neo-Marcionites.”
Marcionism was an ancient gnostic heresy that, not only claimed that the Old Testament god was different from the New Testament god, but that the Old Testament is archaic and oppressive; replaced by a new and improved Covenant, a version of which neither Paul nor Yeshua would recognize. Instead of standing confident in his written Word, his entire written Word, we are often apologetic and ashamed of God’s ancient but enduring truth that is as relevant today as it was when it was first written.
But it needn’t stay this way. Like the Maccabees, we need to say, “enough is enough.” We need to take up the spiritual sword of God’s word. We need to ask God to teach us how to effectively wield it in our day. But first, we need to ask him to pierce our own hearts with it afresh, allowing ourselves to be taught by him—without shame and without fear—as he fills us with his words of life to, not only nourish ourselves, but to enable us to provide light to an ever increasingly dark world.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of December 17, 2022 / 23 Kislev 5783
Vayeshev
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 37:1 – 40:23
Haftarah: Amos 2:6 – 3:8
Updated version of message posted the week of December 21, 2019 / 23 Kislev 5780
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Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. (Bereshit/Genesis 37:5-8)
Sometimes I ponder the circumstances that led to two of my most important life experiences: my coming to know the Messiah and connecting with the young lady who would become my wife. What this has to do with Joseph and this week’s parsha will become clear eventually. So many unusual twists and turns brought me to hear about Yeshua for the first time in September 1976, including my parents’ breakup, and my own issues with my father, which opened me to accept my mother’s desire to move to Florida from Montreal in tenth grade. But when the better life we sought didn’t pan out, we returned six months later. The instability of that time fueled by my own distraction led to my repeating my senior year of high school, which gave me a new circle of friends. One such friend would later have a boyfriend from California, who upon visiting Montreal shared Yeshua with me.
All this helped set up my sort-of first-time meeting with my bride to be, Robin. I say “sort-of” because as children, we both had been in the same Yiddish school class, three days each week following public school. After my coming to know the Lord, I happened to be in a Bible study where her name was mentioned in a prayer request – that’s how I found out that she too was a new believer. A few months later her name came up again when I overheard her being invited to an event I was involved in, which led to our meeting as believers for the first time.
I could use these details to talk about the working of God’s guiding hand in our lives. So many of the circumstances of what led to my crucial life changes were out of my control. Life can feel like the living out of a script at times. But this is not my point here; nor is it what I want to demonstrate from Joseph’s life. In each of my examples, there is one influence I left out: me. On the morning of the afternoon I received Yeshua, I was sitting in my room wondering what to do that day. I had become friends with another friend’s cousin who had been visiting from out of town and was returning home later that afternoon. The friend was part of the new circle I mentioned earlier. I had already said “good-bye” to the cousin, but on a whim I decided to phone to see if I could hang out with him one more time before he left for the airport. I could have easily dismissed the thought of calling, not wanting to intrude. But I didn’t. So, I called. I went over, not knowing I would soon interact with the person from California who would share with me the message that would completely transform my life forever.
As for the day I met Robin, what I had overheard was two girls hovering around the phone (which was on the wall in those days), discussing their attempt to coax her to come to the event that night. She had told them she was too tired. I don’t remember how I discovered it was she with whom they had been talking. But when I did, I asked them to get her back on the phone. She, being intrigued by the possibility of meeting another Jewish believer, came after all. We quickly developed a friendship that would become a lot more than that over the next few years (we’ll leave those details for another time).
I don’t bring up my involvement in relation to these events to take any credit. Obviously, each of these are way too complex for that, but what would have happened if I hadn’t phoned the cousin or asked the girls to call Robin back? We’ll never know, of course. Just like we’ll never know what would have happened if Joseph hadn’t told his dreams to his brothers.
I am conflicted about Joseph. Was he a purely innocent victim to his brothers’ murderous jealousy fueled by his father’s nearsighted favoritism? Or was he a spoiled younger brother taking advantage of his father’s favor? Perhaps he was overly naïve, clueless to how his brothers would react to his dreams. His story doesn’t include the level of commentary necessary to draw firm conclusions. All we know is that he freely spoke about his dreams. Unlike my stories, however, Joseph’s involvement led to some extremely painful experiences. But in the end the fledgling nation of Israel and the whole region of the world in which they lived were rescued through his superior administrative ability working within the Egyptian government. All this came about through the remarkable twists and turns spurred by his sharing of his dreams.
I wonder how much life we are missing out on due to our lack of engagement. Are we paying sufficient attention to what’s going on around us? How many of us are far too tentative, much too passive, and too hesitant in responding to life’s circumstances. We don’t speak up or get involved because we are too cautious. We can’t necessarily set up the events of our lives, but unless we engage the opportunities placed before us, we will never fully live.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of December 10, 2022 / 16 Kislev 5783
Vayishlach
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 32:4 – 36:43 (English: 32:3 – 36:43)
Haftarah: Hosea 11:7 – 12:12
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And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two female servants. And he put the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. (Bereshit/Genesis 33:1-3)
Jacob was terrified of his brother Esau. And not for no reason. About twenty years before, instigated by their mother, Jacob tricked their father Isaac into giving the blessing of the firstborn to him instead of his older twin. By customary rights, Esau should have been the one to carry forth the bulk of the inheritance, which in this case, would have included the promises of God first given to their grandfather Abraham.
Some people might get hung up by the fact that God had already foretold that Jacob would take the primary place in the family (see Bereshit/Genesis 25:23). But God’s plans for the two boys in no way justifies the underhanded method employed by Jacob and Rebekah. We also may think it strange that something of such importance not only would be handled this way, but couldn’t Isaac simply have nullified the stolen blessing? Perhaps, but he didn’t. Whether we can appreciate the cultural values of their day or not, what happened happened. And what happened understandably infuriated Esau to the extent that he vowed to kill his brother.
Again, at his mother’s urging, Jacob did what many of us would have done in similar circumstances; he ran away. Perhaps if he would have given thought to the meaning of the blessing, he may have risked staying, trusting that God would work it out. The problem is he didn’t believe in God yet. This is clear by his response to God’s words to him in Bethel on his way to Mesopotamia. Notice the “if”: “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God” (Bereshit/Genesis 28:20-21). Not only didn’t Jacob yet have a personal relationship with the God of his father and grandfather, he also hadn’t fully grasped the fulness of the blessing he stole.
Jacob went off to Haran in Mesopotamia with some sense that he would one day return to the land of his birth. However, it isn’t clear whether he would have, or if he only did so due to how unmanageable the situation with his uncle Laban had become. Be that as it may, as he struggled with this, God spoke to him again, telling him to return home (see Bereshit/Genesis 31:13). Without the insight of Scripture, we might assume that he was spiritualizing his leaving yet another difficult situation. But this indeed was God’s direction. To Jacob’s credit, he did it despite what lay ahead.
As he headed back home, he faced his greatest fear, Esau, but did so in his usual manner of trying to manipulate the situation in order to try to appease his brother. He even put his own family at risk so as to better protect himself.
Then, it was time. Jacob had struggled with others his whole life. Now he was to undergo a struggle like none other as God wrestles with him all night. True to form Jacob doesn’t give up, a tenacity that God commends. Jacob as a result is given a new name to redefine his life along with a limp to remind him of that night. He emerges transformed. Hours earlier he was overwhelmed by fear, doing what he always had done, as he attempted to manipulate the situation to his advantage. Now, he was different as he went to meet his brother, limping as he did so, and discovered that his brother’s anger had abated.
I imagine he may have discovered his brother’s changed attitude regardless. However, we don’t know how Jacob’s anxiety may have irritated the situation. What we do know is that he was a completely changed man able to move forward in what God had for him without the controlling fear.
I don’t know how God wants to work such dramatic change in you and me, but, as followers of the Messiah, he will. A key New Covenant promise is that he would put his Torah in the hearts of his people (see Jeremiah 31:33). Core to the working of the Messiah in our lives is his transformative work of placing God’s ways, perspective, and desires into the center of our beings. He may or may not do so through a dramatic encounter such as what Jacob experienced that night but do it he will.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
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For the week of July 23, 2022 / 24 Tammuz 5782 PinchasTorah: B’midbar/Numbers 25:10-30:1 (English: 25:10 – 29:40)Haftarah: Jeremiah 1:1 – 2:3Updated version of message from the week of June 29, 2013 / 21 Tammuz 5773 Download Audio [Right click link to download] These were those listed by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who listed the […]
For the week of July 16, 2022 / 17 Tammuz 5782 BalakTorah: B’midbar/Numbers 22:2 – 25:9Haftarah: Micah 5:6 – 6:8 (English 5:7 – 6:8)Revised version of message posted the week of July 8, 2017 / 14 Tammuz 5777 Download Audio [Right click link to download] How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can […]
For the week of July 9, 2022 / 10 Tammuz 5782 ChukatTorah: B’midbar/Numbers 19:1 – 22:1Haftarah: Shoftim/Judges 11:1-33Originally posted the week of June 27, 2015 / 10 Tammuz 5775 Download Audio [Right click link to download] Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: […]
For the week of July 2, 2022 / 3 Tammuz 5782 KorachTorah: B’midbar/Numbers 16:1 – 18:32Haftarah: 1 Shmuel/1 Samuel 11:14 – 12:22Revised version of message originally posted the week of June 16, 2018 / 3 Tammuz 5778 Download Audio [Right click link to download] They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to […]
For the week of June 25, 2022 / 26 Sivan 5782 Sh’lach L’khaTorah: B’midbar/Numbers 13:1 – 15:41Haftarah: Joshua 2:1-24 Download Audio [Right click link to download] The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you […]
For the week of June 18, 2022 / 19 Sivan 5782 Beha’alotchaTorah: B’midbar/Numbers 8:1 – 12:16Haftarah: Zechariah 2:14 – 4:7 (English: 2:10 – 4:7) Download Audio [Right click link to download] Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and say to him, When you set up the lamps, the seven lamps shall give […]
NasoFor the week of June 11, 2022 / 12 Sivan 5782Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 4:21 – 7:89Haftarah: Shoftim/Judges 13:2-25Originally posted the week of June 17, 2000 / 14 Sivan 5760 (revised) But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive children. (B’midbar/Numbers 5:28) Download Audio [Right click link […]
For the week of June 4, 2022 / 5 Sivan 5782 B’midbarTorah: B’midbar/Numbers 1:1 – 4:20Haftarah: Hosea 2:1-22 (English: 1:10-2:20)Originally posted the week of June 11, 2016 / 5 Sivan 5776 (revised) Download Audio [Right click link to download] Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by clans, by fathers’ houses, […]
For the week of May 28, 2022 / 27 Iyar 5782 BechukotaiTorah: Vayikra/Leviticus 26:3 – 27:34Haftarah: Jeremiah 16:19 – 17:14 Download Audio [Right click link to download] I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. (Vayikra/Leviticus 26:6) What a wonderful thought! Especially that this is a promise […]
BeharTorah: Vayikra/Leviticus 25:1 – 26:2Haftarah: Jeremiah 32:6-27Originally posted the week of May 20, 2000 / 15 Iyar 5760;Revised version as appearing in the book “Torah Light” Download Audio [Right click link to download] And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for […]
For the week of May 14, 2022 / 13 Iyar 5782 EmorTorah: Vayikra/Leviticus 21:1 – 24:23Haftarah: Ezekiel 44:15-31 Download Audio [Right click link to download] You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. You shall count fifty days to the […]
For the week of May 7, 2022 / 6 Iyar 5782 KedoshimTorah: Vayikra/Leviticus 19:1 – 20:27Haftarah: Amos 9:7-15 Download Audio [Right click link to download] When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted. It shall be eaten the same day you offer it […]
For the week of April 30, 2022 / 29 Nisan 5782 Achrei MotTorah: Vayikra/Leviticus 16:1 – 18:30Haftarah: 1 Samuel 20:18-42 Download Audio [Right click link to download] Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, and the land became […]
For the week of April 23, 2022 / 22 Nisan 5782 Pesach 8Torah: D’varim/Deuteronomy 14:22 – 16:17; B’midbar/Numbers 28:19-25Haftarah: Isaiah 10:32 – 12:6Originally posted the week of April 11, 2015 / 22 Nisan 5775 (updated) Download Audio [Right click link to download] You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it […]
For the week of April 16, 2022 / 15 Nisan 5782 Pesach 1Torah: Shemot/Exodus 12:21-51; B’midbar/Numbers 28:16-25Haftarah: Joshua 5:2-6:1Originally posted the week of March 31, 2018 / 15 Nisan 5778 (updated) Download Audio [Right click link to download] When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing […]
For the week of April 09, 2022 / 8 Nisan 5782 MetzoraTorah reading: Vayikra/Leviticus 14:1 – 15:33Haftarah: Malachi 3:4-24 (English: 3:4 – 4:6)Originally posted the week of April 5, 2014 / 5 Nisan 5774 (revised) Download Audio [Right click link to download] Thus you shall keep the people of Israel separate from their uncleanness, lest they […]
For the week of April 2, 2022 / 1 Nisan 5782 Tazria & Rosh HodeshTorah: Vayikra/Leviticus 12:1 – 13:59; B’midbar/Numbers 28:9-15; Shemot/Exodus 12:1-20Haftarah: Ezekiel 45:16-46; Isaiah 66:1 & 24Originally posted the week of April 2, 2011 / 27 Adar 2 5771 Download Audio [Right click link to download] And when the days of her purifying are […]
For the week of March 26, 2022 / 23 Adar II 5782 SheminiTorah: Vayikra/Leviticus 9:1 – 11:47 & D’varim/Deuteronomy 25:17-19 Haftarah: Ezekiel 36:16-38Originally posted the week of March 30, 2019 / 23 Adar II 5779 Download Audio [Right click link to download] And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned […]
For the week of March 19, 2022 / 16 Adar 5782 TzavTorah: Vayikra/Leviticus 6:1 – 8:36 (English 6:8 – 8:36)Haftarah: Jeremiah 7:21 – 8:3; 9:22-23 (English 7:21 – 8:3; 9:23-24) Download Audio [Right click link to download] Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast […]
For the week of March 12, 2022 / 9 Adar II 5782 Vayikra & ZakhorTorah: Vayikra/Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26; D’varim 25:17-19Haftarah: 1 Samuel 15:2-34 Download Audio [Right click link to download] The LORD called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When […]
For the week of March 5, 2022 / 2 Adar II 5782
Pekudei
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 38:21 – 40:38
Haftarah: 1 Kings 7:40-50
Edited version of message posted the week of March 1, 2014 / 29 Adar 5774
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Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. (Shemot / Exodus 40:34; ESV)
The manifest presence of God is a key component of biblical truth. According to the Bible, God is not simply a philosophical concept. He is an independent, self-defined, self-aware, active, responsive relational being with personality. As a relational being, while invisible, he isn’t cut off from human beings. Rather, he has made himself known and accessible to people. While God has revealed himself in implicit, more subtle ways, through such things as creation, which acts as material evidence for his existence and his creativity, he also has done so in more explicit, dramatic ways, through prophetic utterance and his manifest presence.
The Bible itself is the product of prophetic utterance. The most obvious examples of this are the recorded words of the prophets themselves as they spoke God’s actual words to their hearers in their day. Knowledge of God and his will is not determined by divination and fortune telling, but by God’s intimate communication through people. This also applies to the entire Bible in that its authors wrote under the authority of God’s inspiration.
But God not only reveals himself through words, but also through observable phenomena, whereby he, who is normally invisible and nonphysical, makes himself known in some sort of physical way. The Torah mentions such occurrences, including the burning bush (see Shemot / Exodus 3:2-6) and thunder at Mt. Sinai (see Shemot / Exodus 19:19). God even manifests himself in human form on more than one occasion. He comes in this way to Abraham to announce Isaac’s birth, to warn him about the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (see Bereshit / Genesis 18), and in his life-transforming wrestling match with Jacob (see Bereshit / Genesis 32:22-32). That God would come in a similar fashion in the Messiah should not surprise us.
During Israel’s forty years of wilderness wanderings, God’s manifest presence guided and protected them through a pillar of fire and cloud. When the Mishkan (English: Tabernacle), the center of Israel’s worship, the mobile precursor to the permanent Temple built many years later, was completed, the cloud covered it and the kavod (English: glory) of God filled it. Kavod is one of the ways the Torah refers to God’s manifest presence. Where God was to be worshipped, his presence was really there. Note that this didn’t occur until every detail of the Mishkan’s construction as given by God through Moses was fully completed. It was only then that God’s presence filled the Mishkan.
The filling of the Mishkan foreshadows a much greater event when God’s manifest presence would fill individuals as foretold by the Hebrew prophet Joel:
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit (Joel 3:1-2; English: 2:28-29).
Joel speaks of a day when we could experience God from the inside out due to the indwelling of his very presence through his Spirit. But as in the construction of the Mishkan, every God-ordained detail needed to be completed first. People could not be filled with God’s Spirit until we were made ready.
But we can be ready right now. For the Messiah has done everything necessary in order that we can be filled with the glory of God. The forgiveness of sins through Yeshua’s sacrificial death and the newness of life through his resurrection are all we need to be so filled. All we need to do now is turn to God and put our trust in Yeshua and what he has done for us.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of February 26, 2022 / 25 Adar 5782
Vayakhel & Shekalim
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 35:1 – 38:20; 30:11-16
Haftarah: 2 Kings 12:1-17 (English: 11:21 – 12:16)
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And he has inspired him to teach (Shemot/Exodus 35:34)
One of the most important concepts in the Bible is inspiration. Inspiration is the foundation of the dependability of Scripture as an accurate record of God’s communication. The New Covenant Writings, primarily in reference to the Hebrew Scriptures, express this as follows:
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (1 Peter 1:20-21)
The English word “inspiration” attempts to capture the idea that Scripture was breathed out by God or that the writers were carried along by God’s Spirit. Either way, the origins of the biblical writings are not found in the human authors but in God. There is no sense that God overrode the consciousness of the writers. Exceptions include, the Ten Commandments, which are particularly unique in that they were handwritten by God himself (see Shemot/Exodus 31:18; D’varim/Deuteronomy 9:10). There are some sections of Scripture that are dictated by God. Much of what Moses taught may have been like that. Also, when the prophets declare, “Thus says the Lord!”, they may have been repeating God’s word verbatim, though there are hints that God gave them something more akin to an impression that they then put into their own words. There are other large sections, such as the Psalms, which arise out of individuals’ own prayers and struggles with God and life but are no less inspired. Then, of course, much of Scripture is narration, describing situations or summarizing events, but are no less “breathed out by God.”
I find the dynamic of inspiration fascinating. That the origins of what Scripture teaches is expressed through a great variety of writing styles demonstrates a remarkable cooperation between God as the ultimate author and the people he chose to record his Word. We see this reflected in this week’s parsha (weekly Torah reading portion). Here, God chose lead craftsmen to equip others in the development of the Mishkan (English: Tabernacle), Israel’s beautiful and intricate, semi-portable, worship center. We read that God filled Bezalel “with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft” (Shemot/Exodus 35:30-33). In the following verse, the Hebrew reads, “he put in his heart to teach” (Shemot/Exodus 35:34). The English Standard Version represents this as “he has inspired him to teach.”
Inspiration is God putting his ideas into people’s hearts. While the inspiration of Scripture is unique in that Scripture is our only authority for faith and life, God continues to put into the hearts of people his influence, moving upon them to fulfil his will in the world. I don’t understand how he does it, but he does.
What has God put into your heart?
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise indicated
For the week of January 29, 2022 / 27 Shevat 5782
Mishpatim
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 21:1 – 24:18
Haftarah: Jeremiah 34:8-22; 33:25-26
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The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to make a proclamation of liberty to them (Jeremiah 34:8)
This week, I would like to address “my home and native land,” to borrow a line from the Canadian national anthem. But first, let me set up the biblical background to the serious situation we find ourselves in today. The Haftarah reading from the prophet Jeremiah has to do with his confronting of King Zedekiah. These readings from the Hebrew prophets are generally chosen based on some connection to the weekly Torah portion. The current portion includes specific instructions about the limited terms of service for Hebrew slaves. They were to only serve six years and be released in the seventh. In Jeremiah’s day, the king made a decree in keeping with these Torah directives only to rescind them soon afterward. This resulted in God’s giving Jeremiah a harsh message of judgement to deliver to the king.
It’s with a sense of caution that I now seek to connect this story to contemporary Canada. Covenant with God is nothing to take lightly. But what does that have to do with Canada? Emblazoned on our coat of arms are the Latin words, “a mari usque ad mare” (“from sea to sea’) taken from Psalm 72:8 (“May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth”). Applying this verse to the fledgling nation was suggested by Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley of New Brunswick. The Psalm originally refers to King Solomon and is his prayer for the establishment of his rule according to borders delineated by God. Tilly was most likely thinking of the eventual expansion of Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Be that as it may, the adopting of “a mari usque ad mare” as the official Canadian motto establishes a connection of our country to the Bible.
These same words, but more fully and in English, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea” (KJV), are also etched into the front of the large clock tower in the center-front of our houses of parliament. On the other two sides of the same tower are the verses: “Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son!” (Psalm 72:1; KJV) and “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he” (Proverbs 29:18, KJV). From what I understand, these Scriptures were not officially mandated by the government of the day but were inscribed by the builders anyway. When they were unveiled, they weren’t removed. Despite contrary sentiments, our parliamentary houses have declared these truths since 1927 when the tower was inaugurated.
This connection to God’s written word eventually found itself woven into the foundation of our legal system in 1982, when our current constitution became law. The introductory sentence of the Canadian constitution reads, “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law”.
I am aware that this reference to God is generic, but from this country’s earliest days, there was no question that “God” was the God of the Bible. And since this God is the only God anyway, it is he who is referenced no matter how anyone may try to interpret it.
As for the “rule of law,” whether or not people are aware of it, it is a principle of governance deeply rooted in the Bible.
Samuel Tilley may have been dreaming about a railway system that would one day be the backbone of an ongoing British presence from sea to sea despite American aspirations, yet he drew Canada into an accidental covenant with the God of Israel.
To deny, ignore, or reinterpret, these biblical connections is to undermine the foundations of our country. Even without these accidents of history, God through the Messiah is the true sovereign over all nations. But when a country acknowledges these truths only to later neglect them creates a most precarious situation. It is one thing to dwell in the darkness, it is another to have embraced the light only to close one’s eyes to it.
The very fabric of this great nation is at risk of completely unravelling unless there is a turning back to the biblical truths upon which it once stood. That begins with each and every Canadian upon whose hearts God’s Word is engraved.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise indicated
For the week of January 22, 2022 / 20 Shevat 5782
Yitro
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 18:1 – 20:23 (English: 18:1 – 20:26)
Haftarah: Isaiah 6:1-7:6; 9:5
Originally posted the week of February 15, 2020 / 20 Shevat 5780
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You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. (Shemot/Exodus 19:4)
This has to be one of the more beautiful metaphors in the entire Bible. Israel, oppressed from generations under Egyptian taskmasters, helpless to alleviate their plight, cry out to the God of their ancestors for deliverance. The years go by and things go from bad to worse. Then the day comes; God to the rescue! Despite all odds, the Master of the Universe swoops down seemingly out of nowhere and miraculously carries the nation on his back to freedom.
Beautiful metaphor indeed, but that’s not what happened. Miraculous, yes. However it was much more of a process and a difficult one at that. From Moses’ first being given the exodus mandate to getting support from the Hebrew elders to Pharaoh’s stubborn refusal to the ten plagues, culminating in the death of Egypt’s firstborn and their departure. Not completely free of their oppressors, they are then pursued by the Egyptian army that drowned in the parting of the Red Sea, while Israel made it safely to the other side. While this finally disconnected the liberated slaves from Egypt for good, the difficult process continued as they were learning to trust God for his miraculous provision and care in an uninhabitable wilderness on their way to Mt. Sinai and the Promised Land.
What is this about eagles’ wings then? I could imagine scholars musing over how such an image is nothing more than a mythic version of the exodus put into God’s mouth centuries after the fact. I am very aware how after a period of time the sting of hardship fades from memory and we just remember the good parts – and then the good parts are remembered so much better than they actually were. The problem with this train of thought is that the painful details weren’t forgotten. They have been well-documented and preserved from then until now.
How then could such an expression as “I bore you on eagles’ wings” be appropriate? Perhaps we picture riding on eagles differently from the Israelites of old. They wouldn’t share our Hollywood-influenced view of such an experience. In my mind I see the film version of Lord of the Rings, where near the end of this epic, Gandalf rescues Frodo and Sam with gigantic eagles that scoop them up with their talons, carrying them to safety as they blissfully soar through the sky. The Israelites, on the other hand, likely have related to “eagles’ wings” differently. Whether they pictured normal-sized eagles which would not be accustomed to carrying such loads or gigantic ones that are more the stuff of nightmares than what we see in Lord of the Rings, the image evoked may not have been a nice one. Instead, it might have included the precarious nature of the process they had to endure.
A more likely possibility is that the eagles’ wing picture of God’s rescue reflects the outcome and purpose of the exodus, not the process. This metaphor evokes an image of God’s intense and personal activity in bringing the people to Mt. Sinai where he would reveal his will to them, constitute them as a nation, and send them on a mission to establish themselves in the Promised Land. While the process was difficult, the outcome was never in question. He did whatever it took to accomplish his will. While the process was never forgotten, the impossibility and success of the exodus makes being carried through the sky an apt image after all.
No wonder many years later the prophet Isaiah would recall such a picture to encourage his generation of Israelites that their divine rescue was coming: “but they who wait (meaning “hope”) for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:1). In this case the people themselves become eagle-like as the power of God fills them with his powerful presence. But remember eagle-like doesn’t automatically mean easy or simple. Yet, however difficult the process may be, God will get you to where you need to go.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of January 15, 2022 / 13 Shevat 5782
Beshalach
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 13:17 – 17:16
Haftarah: Shoftim/Judges 4:4 – 5:31
Updated version of message originally posted the week of January 23, 2016 / 13 Shevat 5776
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The LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.” (Shemot/Exodus 14:15)
The people of Israel were between a rock and a hard place, metaphorically speaking. They were actually between an impassible body of water and the Egyptian army keen on dragging them back to Egypt. An interesting interchange ensues between Moses and God. Well, actually, it’s not an interchange. The people freak out, thinking that they are about to be slaughtered, Moses reassures them, but then God tells Moses what to do, contradicting him in the process. Let’s look at this more closely.
Moses said to the people: “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent” (Shemot/Exodus 14:13-14). Based on everything Moses knew about God up to that moment—his character, his power, and his methodology—this sounds so right. Moses knew how fundamentally misguided the people’s freak-out was. God didn’t bring them to this point only to abandon them. Moses knew that he was leading them to Sinai and on to the Promised Land. So, this couldn’t be the end. How God would rescue them, he didn’t know, but after all that had happened with the ten plagues and a reasonable analysis of the situation, Moses concluded that all Israel had to do was to do nothing, except stand. God would take care of the situation all by himself.
But with all due respect to Moses, he was wrong. They were not just to stand there; they were to “go forward.” I know Moses was also told: “Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground” (Shemot/Exodus 14:16), but the people were not to wait for the sea to part first, but rather they were to march toward the sea.
God was calling the people to readjust their orientation to the situation. He had called them to journey in a certain direction, which required getting to the other side of the water. But instead, they were frozen by fear. They needed to refocus and get with God’s program again.
Note that God was not calling them into the water before it parted. He might call people to do that from time to time, but not in this case. They simply had to move in its direction. He also didn’t order them to turn around and confront the enemy nipping at their heels. The day would come when Israel would engage in battle, but not now. In this situation they had to go forward.
I remember a situation I was in where I was called to go forward. It was nowhere near drastic as what the Israelites were facing. But for me at the time the dynamic was similar. I was at a large leaders’ conference, a pretty intense time of seeking God. I was privileged to be part of the core group tasked with discerning direction for the various meetings. I was new to such things and probably a little too excited about it all. In one of the core group meetings, I felt a real burden over something, but once I finally had a chance to speak out, I got the impression (right or wrong) that I was out of line. I felt absolutely terrible and embarrassed. I went to my hotel room, not wanting to show my face in public again (I am being only a little overdramatic!). As I called out to the Lord in my fear and confusion, I had the clear sense that I needed to go forward. That meant joining the others to face whatever might happen, whatever others might think of me, whatever reprimand I might receive, whatever. I had no guaranty of how God would deal with the scary elements ahead of me. I simply had to face them. And as I did, nothing I feared came to pass. My sea had parted as I went forward.
I am concerned that too many of us are frozen in place right now. We’ve have been disoriented by fear of sickness and death along with constantly changing restrictions. Waiting for it all to be over is not God’s will. What is God’s will for you right now, I can’t say. But I do know he wants you to keep moving forward in whatever direction he is calling you to.
We were not to be distracted by the threats and obstacles of life before and we are not to be distracted by them now. Perhaps we were too comfortable with the way things were before the current crisis. We are not used to our lives being so constricted. But God hasn’t changed. With him, there is always a way forward. We just need to find out what that is.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of December 25, 2021 / 21 Tevet 5782
Shemot
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 1:1-6:1
Haftarah: Isaiah 27:6 – 28:13; 29:22-23
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So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” (Shemot/Exodus 1:18)
The Bible teaches that godly people should respect authority as we read here:
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment (Romans 13:1-2).
If this is so, then what’s with the midwives in this week’s parsha (weekly Torah reading portion)? To appreciate what’s going on here, let’s look at more of the context than my brief quote at the beginning:
Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. (Shemot/Exodus 1:15-21)
The Hebrew midwives clearly disobeyed the governing authority in this case. The king’s edict was clear. They were to murder the male babies, but they didn’t. Not only did they not follow the law, they concocted a cover up, claiming the Hebrew women gave birth before they got there.
Disobeying government? Lying to the authorities? How terrible. Since when does the end justify the means? Who would defend such a thing? God would. He blessed the midwives for what they did. And why did they do what they did? They feared God. Because they put God ahead of human authority, they not only saved lives, God favored them.
Then what’s with Romans 13? Is this a case of some sort of superior New Testament morality? I myself would not normally assume such a thing, since the person who wrote Romans, also wrote:
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
New Covenant morality and spirituality is built upon a strong Hebrew Scripture foundation. There are some developments that occur due to the coming of the Messiah, but general morality doesn’t change. Even if it did, it would be very difficult to contradict the clear positive assessment of the midwives’ actions.
Which brings us back to Romans 13. Does the injunction to “be subject to the governing authorities” contradict the actions taken by the midwives? Not if you read further in the chapter. First, God-given jurisdiction of governing authority is defined as “God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:4). But what is the obligation of people to government, when government goes beyond its God-given duties? Note the subtle: “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed” (Romans 13:7). While there is respect and honor due to government, what are we to do when its policies contravene those of God himself? Are we to respect and honor government over God? The midwives certainly didn’t think so.
What the midwives did is reflected well elsewhere in the New Covenant Writings: “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor” (1 Peter 2:7). Yes, submit to governing authorities, but fear God. The midwives understood correctly that God and his ways must come first. As long as government doesn’t contravene God’s directives, go along.
Some think that the only time to ignore government is when a life is immediately at risk. That normally should be the case. But what do we do when human authority dictates harm in other ways, prevents us from speaking truth, or demands we uphold falsehood? Thankfully this kind of government overreach is historically rare. But when government attempts to take God’s place, it’s time to listen to the midwives.
For the week of December 18, 2021 / 14 Tevet 5782
Vayechi
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 47:28-50:26
Haftarah: 1 Melachim/1 Kings 2:1-12
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But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. (Bereshit/Genesis 50:19-21)
What I attempt to share here is quite personal and sensitive. So, forgive its cryptic nature. I trust it’s clear enough to effectively communicate this important lesson from the life of Joseph.
I was trying to get perspective after a difficult week. A few days before, I got the shocking news that I was being released from a volunteer position that I absolutely loved. My performance was not in question. It seemed that there may have been some issues between me and leadership, but I was not given the whole story. I was rejected, I couldn’t figure out why, and there was nothing I could do about it.
As I took some focused time to pray about this, my mind turned to the story of Joseph and his words, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Bereshit/Genesis 50:20). These are some of the most profound words in all of Scripture. That a human being could endure the amount of suffering that he did from his own family without resentment overwhelms me. His brothers were so jealous of him, they wanted to kill him. As it turned out, they sold him into slavery instead, which eventually resulted in his spending many years in an Egyptian dungeon after being falsely accused by his master’s wife. Even though it became obvious that God used his painful circumstance for good, few people would be immune to extreme bitterness. Yet somehow Joseph rose above it all. Not that he didn’t see his brothers’ wrong for the evil that it was, but at the same time he accepted God’s higher purpose.
“You meant it for evil; God meant it for good.” One set of circumstances; two intentions. Like two sides of the same coin.
The image of turning over a coin to see the other side came to me some time before. It happened while I was mulling over another rejection; probably the most painful, I have ever experienced. Another firing, this time directly related to my faith in Yeshua. Through the years I would often relive the experience. I can’t tell you the number of dreams I have had where I would find myself pleasantly back in that situation, broken relationships restored. Innumerable times I have wondered that if only this or that would have or would not have happened, then perhaps things would have worked out differently.
It was during one of those times that the coin flipped. It was probably thirty years after the event. All of a sudden, I realized how God used that painful event for my good, my best actually. I finally saw the other side of the most bitter coin that I have ever carried.
With that in mind I was trying to process the situation I mentioned at the start. Thinking of “you meant it for evil; God meant it for good,” I decided to go through my life and think of all my past unpleasant events (I’ve had several) and note how God used them for good. Some I had already previously processed. Still, it’s encouraging to remember how God works through painful circumstances, and I needed encouragement that day.
As I started my memory journey, I was not prepared for another coin to flip. I asked God to show me the other side of the coin of my father’s leaving me and my mother when I was fourteen. I had never taken the time to think that through in this way. I simply assumed that I needed God to heal the father-wound that I have carried around almost my entire life. But then the coin flipped! I was hoping to get insight on my latest disappointment, but instead I got clarity on something far more foundational.
Without getting into the details, I realized that my father’s leaving was also for my good. While I saw him for some months after his leaving. It wasn’t long before he was completely out of my life. As I prayed, I realized that a close relationship with him would have not been good for me, especially in regard to my development as a young man.
Have you been carrying a coin of pain and bitterness? Perhaps it’s time to flip it over and see what’s on the other side.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of December 11, 2021 / 7 Tevet 5782
Vayigash
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 44:18 – 47:27
Haftarah: Ezekiel 37:15-28
Originally posted the week of December 15, 2018 / 7 Tevet 5779
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And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. (Bereshit/Genesis 45:2)
Sometime in my late teens I stopped crying. I don’t mean that up until then I was crying nonstop. It was as if I had lost the ability to cry. All children cry. It’s our automatic, God-given survival device. As we get older, most of us learn to control the tears and express our needs and disappointments in other ways. In many cultures, males are often discouraged from crying at all. “Big boys don’t cry,” we’re told; so they stop, but that’s not why I did. My parents didn’t teach me such a thing. I remember seeing my father cry on more than one occasion, and there was no shame in that. Despite that, I distinctly remember by the time I was eighteen years old, I could feel an incessant need to cry lodged in my throat. It was awful.
My life was awful. My father had abandoned me and my mother a few years before. By this time, my mother was not well enough to work, forcing us to turn to government assistance. I had no direction in life, I was very superstitious, I thought success was measured by degrees of pleasure, and I was becoming more and more afraid of dying.
Everything about my life was out of sorts. I had no clear vision of what it should be or could be. Wrapped in a shroud of confusion and fear, I was stuck just like the lump in my throat. Then a few days before my nineteenth birthday, my life was transformed by my first encounter with the truth of Yeshua as Messiah. As I reached out to God that day, I had no idea I was embarking on a truly Great Adventure. Yet, still no tears, just smiles.
In those early months, I experienced a happiness I never dreamt of. I was ecstatic, and people could see it all over me. The next few months were exhilarating even though there were also new tensions and relationship strains due to the unusual path I was on. Still no tears.
A year after coming to faith, I left home for biblical studies. Leaving home brought with it renewed anxiety as I began to face some of my entrenched insecurities and fears. As I woke up one morning in my dorm room, I was fiercely struggling with I don’t really know what. I was not doing well and didn’t know what to do. I was alone since I didn’t have an early morning class that day. My roommate had a small (for those days) stereo and a few Gospel albums. I didn’t listen to a lot of music back then, as music had been one of my gods during my Bad Old Days. I don’t know why I put the album on. Then something happened as the singing started. The faucet finally opened. I was shocked as for the first time in I don’t know how long, I cried and cried. It felt so good! And while the lump would return from time to time, eventually so would the tears as God has allowed me to express myself in this way.
It’s hard to say for sure what it was about that moment that released all that pent-up emotion. I can guess, because I have had similar experiences since. It hasn’t always been with a song, but when I get a glimpse of the essence of life’s reality, it’s as if in that moment I see things as they really are, that amidst the confusion and chaos of life – my life – God really is my security, and everything will be okay after all. When that truth hits me, I am undone as all the tension of the insecurity I feel from the instability and pressures around me is released in an emotional torrent.
Perhaps that is something akin to what Joseph experienced when he was finally reconciled with his brothers. We can’t overestimate the emotional turmoil he must have carried all those years. We shouldn’t assume his rise to power in Egypt completely soothed the confusion, anger, and sadness he carried for so long. The emotions must have built to volcanic proportions during the process of revealing himself. For his own reasons, he shrewdly dealt with them as they travelled back and forth to Egypt for food all the while not knowing he was their brother. Then when he deemed the time was right, all that pent-up emotion flowed so freely that everyone around knew he was weeping.
I am aware that there are many people, men included, who cry like freely flowing fountains. You probably have no trouble relating to Joseph. You might be crying right now. Then there’s the others. Maybe you have an incessant lump in your throat as I had. Perhaps you have buried your emotions for so long that you can’t feel them anymore. I don’t know what it will take to release all you have been carrying inside. I just wanted to tell you: it’s alright to cry.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of December 4, 2021 / 30 Kislev 5782
Miketz / Hanukkah
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 41:1 – 44:17; B’midbar/Numbers 28:9-15; 7:42-53
Haftarah: Zechariah 2:14 – 4:7 (English 2:10 – 4:7); Isaiah 66:1-24; 1 Samuel 20:18-42
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And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.” (Bereshit/Genesis 41:38-40)
It’s Hanukkah this week! Hanukkah commemorates the triumph of the small Jewish army over the powerful Seleucids in the year 165 BC under the tyrannical reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus sought to consolidate his rule by imposing Greek culture and religion upon his diverse and expansive region, including the land of Israel. The temple in Jerusalem was desecrated by pagan worship, including the presence of a statue of Zeus and the sacrificing of a pig on the altar. The recapturing and cleansing of the temple along with the rededication of the altar was marked by a festival modelled after Sukkot (English: Tabernacles or Booths). Battles against the Seleucids continued until independence for Israel was re-established for the first time since the Babylonian captivity.
A key component of the circumstances that led to the first Hanukkah is that Antiochus’s assimilation plan had been fairly successful in Israel. In First Maccabees, the primary historical source for Hanukkah, we read,
In those days certain renegades came out from Israel and misled many, saying, ‘Let us go and make a covenant with the Gentiles around us, for since we separated from them many disasters have come upon us.’ This proposal pleased them, and some of the people eagerly went to the king, who authorized them to observe the ordinances of the Gentiles. So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, according to Gentile custom, and removed the marks of circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant. They joined with the Gentiles and sold themselves to do evil. (1 Maccabees 1:11-15 [Jubilee Bible 2000]).
It is difficult to know exactly what “for since we separated from them many disasters have come upon us.” is referring to, but it is likely a general critique, or should I say, rejection, of God’s choosing of the Jewish people. God established the people of Israel as a distinct nation. To ensure that distinction, he deemed it necessary to make them different from other nations.
It’s hard to be different. It creates suspicion. It makes interaction awkward, if not impossible. And, at times, it results in severe persecution and conflict. Eventually, a significant portion of the people couldn’t take it anymore. And so, they not only embraced the prevailing culture of their day, they also submitted to a medical procedure to hide their circumcision. All so that they would no longer be considered a separate people.
It is interesting that Hanukkah occurs in the midst of the story of Joseph in the weekly Torah readings. Much of Joseph’s suffering was due to his being different. It began with his father’s preferential treatment, followed by God’s unusual dream impartation. His brother’s hatred of him for these things thrust him into slavery and years of imprisonment. Yet, through it all, Joseph remained faithful to God, which kept him from the bitterness that would have undermined his calling.
The renegades, as they are called in First Maccabees, didn’t follow Joseph’s example. They lost sight of who they really were and were willing to give it all up. I in no way want to belittle their suffering. I don’t know what I would have done in their situation. But one thing I do know. They were not seeing the whole picture. Unlike Joseph, the only thing they took into account was their suffering. The “many disasters” had indeed happened to Israel, but they had neglected to remember their calling to be a blessing to the whole world (see Genesis 12:3; Galatians 3:28). The failure to retain their higher purpose made them susceptible to assimilation. As a result, they could no longer see how deceptive the lure of the prevailing culture was. The short-term benefits may have seemed appealing, but the long-term results would be disastrous.
It’s only when we keep the big picture of God’s plan in mind that we can endure the difficulties along the way.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise indicated
For the week of November 27, 2021 / 23 Kislev 5782
Vayeshev
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 37:1 – 40:23
Haftarah: Amos 2:6 – 3:8
And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. (Bereshit/Genesis 39:20-21)
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In my message two weeks ago (Say the Words), I shared one of my concerns about how I was first introduced to trusting in Yeshua as Messiah. At the time, it was framed as just say the words and my life would change. As it turned out, that’s what happened, though I have realized that there was much more going on than simply reciting a formula.
There was another aspect of that day’s interaction that I have struggled with. Before I continue, let me be clear that, again, there was far more right about what happened that day than these two questionable items. The second issue is I was promised that if I said those words, I would be happy for the rest of my life. The person who told me about Yeshua that day, whom I just met, had no idea the depths of depression and anxiety in which I was trapped. So, such an offer was most enticing.
Honestly, I wasn’t disappointed. Almost immediately after asking God to forgive my sins and inviting Yeshua into my life, I went on an emotional high that I had never had before and haven’t had since. I therefore assumed that this is what my newfound faith was going to be like forever.
I didn’t start reading the Bible for myself until about two weeks after praying to receive Yeshua. Even then, in my euphoria, I didn’t notice that the Bible doesn’t make such a promise. Rather, the actual truth is more along the lines of: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Tehillim/Psalms 46:1). I eventually learned that God’s security in the midst of life-threating disaster is far more meaningful and helpful than the superficiality of a permanent residence on cloud nine.
I wonder if Jacob’s son Joseph went through a similar shift in things as I. I am not claiming for one moment that our lives are in direct parallel. The only point of connection between my story and his is we both share an original misinformed positive expectation. Joseph, like myself, underestimated the positive. All he had was a glimpse of his eventual leadership role in relation to his family. He didn’t know that would be only one aspect of his role in saving the entire region from starvation as Prime Minister of Egypt. While there’s no comparison between my impact and Joseph’s, I too underestimated the positive as God’s faithfulness has proven itself in my life over and over again.
Joseph and I don’t only share misinformed positive outlooks, we didn’t foresee the hardships either. Here too, I in no way compare my life challenges to Joseph’s. But that takes nothing away from the lesson to be learned.
All through Scripture we see people of God go through exceedingly difficult times. Sometimes due to their own foolishness, other times simply because they are doing exactly what God wanted them to do. Joseph was a victim of his brothers’ jealousy, not that he did much to alleviate that. But through it all, God was accomplishing his purpose in and through him. Torah doesn’t comment on how Joseph managed to not break under unjust circumstances. But he didn’t. God sustained him all those years as he prepared him to become the leader he was destined to be.
People love to quote Yeshua’s promise of abundant life (see John 10:10), but fail, as in my experience years ago, to mention that he also said, “In the world you will have tribulation (a fancy word for trouble)” (John 16:33). That’s not the last word, of course. The Messiah continues in that same verse: “But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
I may have been surprised to learn that I wasn’t going to be happy all the time. Instead, I received something much better. Knowing that God is with us in trouble, working to fulfill his purposes, is the greatest stabilizing force in the universe.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of November 20, 2021 / 16 Kislev 5782
Vayishlach
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 32:4 – 36:43
Haftarah: Hosea 11:7 – 12:12 (English 11:7 – 12:11)
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Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” (Bereshit / Genesis 32:26-28)
This is one of the most, if not the most, profound moments in the entire Bible. How could anyone strive with God and prevail? But Jacob did, and it resulted, not only in he himself becoming known as “Israel,” the one who strives with God, but his people as well. The Chosen People of God would continue this striving (and sometimes prevailing) from then until now.
For many striving with God appears to be contrary to what a life of faith should be. We have images of serene saints disconnected from their passions and cares, humbly and unquestioningly receiving divine directions, submissively doing his bidding no matter how difficult it might be. We may have such images, but they are not derived from the Bible. Instead, Scripture paints a picture of struggle, doubt, fear, hope, failure, and lots of questions.
Our failure to grasp the struggle we are called to often results in a false version of contentment. Contentment is a good thing when it comes to our possessions and other worldly markers of success. But, on the other hand, we are not to be content. The Messiah himself taught his disciples to pray, saying: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). We are to pray that the world would coming into alignment with God’s will. This demands we not accept things the way they are, but rather to seek God for radical change. This necessitates a holy discontentment.
Holy discontentment doesn’t automatically direct us to constructive solutions. Too often our solutions are worse than the problems. This is why we are called to pray for change before we seek to implement it. Only God’s will in God’s way will extend his kingdom on earth.
Prayer as our response to holy discontentment should not take us back to those images of pious serenity. Instead, we should remember Jacob. I am aware that he was not concerned about what was wrong with the world. In his case, he was overwhelmed with terror as he anticipated encountering his brother. He was worried about what Esau might do to him after being ripped off by Jacob twenty or so years before. Still, his approach to God illustrates for us the struggle in prayer that God values.
Too often prayer is a thought-toss to the sky, slighted dusted with the hope that perhaps God Almighty may deem us worthy of his attention and, if we are lucky, things will go our way. I know most people would never think of prayer exactly like that, but I wonder. How many, like Jacob, won’t let go of God until he blesses them, despite being injured in the process?
Jacob isn’t alone in such an earnest approach to God. When Hannah prays for a son, who ended up being the great prophet Samuel, we read “she was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly” (1 Samuel 1:10). King David prays prayers such as “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Tehillim/Psalms 13:1). Jeremiah cries out: “Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” (Jeremiah 8:23; English 9:1). The Messiah himself “offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (Hebrews 5:7). Some think this is a reference to his anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane, but it is more likely a description of his general posture in prayer.
Is this intensity in prayer necessary? Doesn’t God know the desires of our hearts, not to mention his awareness of his own plans and purposes. If we think about it enough, we may be tempted to conclude that prayer shouldn’t be necessary, let alone require the effort we see in these examples. However, I don’t think it is an issue of necessity. Jacob and the others weren’t concerned about the theology of prayer. They were only concerned about two things, their need and the only one who could meet that need. Their intensity was a result of their desperation connecting with an understanding of God’s power and generosity.
This cannot be put on. Such intensity can’t be faked. But, at the same time, taking these and other biblical examples seriously can encourage us to get honest about our deepest needs and our lack of faith with regard to God’s response to our prayers. I wonder what would happen if we gave ourselves permission to strive with him, to hold on to him until he blesses us (see Bereshit/Genesis 32:26).
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
For the week of November 13, 2021 / 9 Kislev 5782
Vayetzei
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 28:10-32:3 (English 28:10 – 32:2)
Haftarah: Hosea 12:13-14:10 (English 12:12 – 14:9)
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Take with you words and return to the LORD; say to him, “Take away all iniquity” (Micah 14:3; English: 14:2)
There’s something that has always bothered me about the day I came to know Yeshua as the Messiah (check out my faith story here). Over forty-five years later, I am still impressed by the compelling godly presentation given to me by this person whom I just met that afternoon. God used an hour and a half intense conversation to completely transform my life. Still, there was something about what I was asked to do I have wondered about since then. This is the first time I am seriously working through it.
After providing a convincing case for the validity of the Bible, especially the Hebrew Scriptures, sharing the prophecies about the Messiah, and explaining the need for forgiveness as provided by Yeshua’s death, I was invited to say a prayer. The prayer was to include my admitting I had sinned against God, acknowledging that Yeshua (we called him “Jesus” back then) died for my sins and that he had risen from the dead. Then I was to ask Yeshua to take over my life (or something like that). Based on everything I was told that day, I felt I had everything to gain and nothing to lose. So, I prayed the prayer. I remember how I had a sense that something special had happened, though I was not fully prepared for the wonderful transformation I was going to experience over the next few days and weeks.
However, despite the great positive change I experienced that day, you may be surprised to learn that I have wondered how legitimate it is to ask someone to pray a prayer that he or she has next to no real grasp of. While I accepted the possibility of my being a sinner as it was explained to me (breaking a commandment of God is a sin; people who sin are sinners), did I actually believe that when I said this prayer? I knew next to nothing about Yeshua before that day, yet I was praying to ask him into my life. Did I mean it? How could I? It was all completely new to me.
Despite whatever level of understanding I had in the moment, the words given to me to say were true. They were true about me; they were true about God. There’s something about the power of words apart from our full understanding of them.
Up until now, I have assumed that for our words to be legitimate, they have to be authentic. To be authentic, I have to honestly mean them, which necessarily includes fully understanding them. But is that really the case? From when our children were very young, we taught them to apologize to each other. The offending party needed to say, “Please forgive me for” – and then name the offense. Then the offended party was to say, “I forgive you.” I am well aware that neither party had a full grasp of the interchange, including the probability that they were just mouthing the words. But apart from learning the importance of apologizing, forgiving, and being forgiven, the words of regret and forgiveness effectively served to preserve relationship. Another example is in the promises we make. We often have little grasp of the implications of those promises, but they carry weight regardless. Further, kind words, such as compliments, have a strong positive effect on people, regardless of how sincere they may be.
You might think, “But God sees through our insincerity. What good is parroting what someone else tells us to say especially when God knows all?” I would agree in the case of complete hypocrisy. But how much sincerity and understanding is necessary before God responds to our words? Apparently, not much. This brings to mind the oft-mentioned parable of the prodigal son (see Luke 15:11-32). What did it take to provoke his father’s generous response? After not caring about his father at all and exploiting his resources, the son’s return was more about himself and his own suffering than a true change of heart. And yet, as soon as the father saw his wayward son approaching, he ran to him and enthusiastically restored him to the household with great celebration.
So, as we read in this week’s Haftarah (reading portion from the Hebrew prophets), it doesn’t take much to return to the Lord. Restoration to God just starts with a simple prayer. He will take over from there.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version