King David, Lesson 1

NOTE: This message was delivered on the Shabbat of March 30, 2013 at Kehilat Sh’ma Yisra’el. It is the first installment in an ongoing Messianic character study of King David. You may also listen to it, if you wish.

Shabbat Shalom.

Beginning today, with this message, and over the course of the next few times I am asked to fill in for Rabbi Erez, we are going to be going through a close study I’ve pulled together focusing on the life of King David.

Why, of all the figures in the Tenakh and the Ha’Brit Ha’Chadasha, did I choose to focus on King David? There are many reasons.

First, and perhaps most important, is that Messiah Yeshua is descended from the line of David. Also important is the key role David played in the early formation of Yisra’el; although he was the second anointed King of Yisra’el, he was the first to hold power over what came to be known as the Unified Kingdom of Yisra’el. He played a key role in rescuing Yisra’el from a moment in its history where its continued existence was in doubt. And third, because of the sometimes largely unexplored ways in which David is a shadow of the promised Messiah.

You see, when teaching of Mashiach, even the rabbis of traditional Judaism speak of Him in two ways. The Babylonian Talmud—and only the Babylonian Talmud—speaks of Mashiach bin Yosef, Messiah, son of Joseph, and both the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud speak of Mashiach bin Dovid—Messiah, son of David.

So we have these two natures of Messiah written about by the Talmudic scholars. And every year, when we go through the Torah cycle, we can celebrate Yeshua as he first appeared, as Messiah son of Yosef, the suffering servant, the Messiah who would come to suffer and die for His people.

Yet there is this other nature, Messiah, son of David, which is written about far more frequently by the Talmudic sages. It’s the nature in which the rabbis of Yeshua’s time expected Messiah to appear in their day. And yet, because David’s story takes place beyond the life of Moshe, it is outside of those first five books and we are poorer for the less-frequent study of the man who was Yeshua’s great-grandfather several times removed.

Trust me, as we dig deep into the life of King David, we will find a rich storehouse of insight into our Messiah, for David, like Moshe before him, was a type of messiah. So my prayer for this study is that we come through it, over time, not only with a better understanding of David and his role in the history of Yisra’el, but an enriched understanding of our Messiah and savior, Yeshua.

This being understood at the outset, I have to beg your forgiveness when I reveal that, in today’s message, we will study very little of the life of David himself. But for a reason.

You see, to truly understand and appreciate King David for who he was and what he meant to the history of Yisra’el, we must first understand the history and context into which he appeared. So before we begin our attempt to understand David, let us first turn our attention to what came between the end of Moshe’s life, when he turns the leadership of Yisra’el over to Yehoshua, and the time of David first coming to the attention of the L-RD.

If you’ll recall, the book of D’varim, popularly known in English as Deuteronomy, is a recounting of the Torah by Moshe to the people of Yisra’el, as he is about to reach the end of his days and turn the stewardship of the people of God over to Yehoshua—known as Joshua in English. While the book of D’varim shows that HaShem anticipated many things about the future of His chosen people, I want to focus in on one specific thing he anticipates.

Keep in mind, forty years earlier, at Sinai, when God spoke His truth, His Torah, His instructions before the people of Yisra’el, He had communicated to them that the people of Yisra’el were to be unique from all other nations. The original plan—God’s original plan—and the agreement that was made there at Sinai, called for everyone to hear from God directly, and obey him. We read this in:

Sh’mot (Exodus) 19:5-8
Now if you will pay careful attention to what I say and keep my covenant, then you will be my own treasure from among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you will be a kingdom of cohanim for me, a nation set apart.’ These are the words you are to speak to the people of Isra’el.” Moshe came, summoned the leaders of the people and presented them with all these words which Adonai had ordered him to say. All the people answered as one, “Everything Adonai has said, we will do.” Moshe reported the words of the people to Adonai.

Now, this all sounds terrific. These are the initial terms of the covenant between HaShem and Yisra’el. It’s very much like a contract. Both parties must enter in willingly. And what is outlined here in the terms of the agreement are what each side must do to uphold the agreement.

What is required of the people of Yisra’el? To pay careful attention to what HaShem says and to keep His covenant. The reward that God will provide in exchange is also spelled out: “You will be my own treasure from among all people, and you will be a kingdom of cohanim, a nation set apart.” A more familiar rendering of this verse would say, “You shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” God would make them that. All that was required of them was to pay attention to God and to keep His covenant.

But let’s be careful here. These are just the terms of the covenant, not the actual agreement itself. The people of Yisra’el, though, are so eager to obey God, so eager to see that promise fulfilled, that they jump ahead of the process and say… “Everything the L-RD has said, we will do!” They agree to the terms of the agreement, before knowing what’s in it. Even a first-year law student will tell you, that’s not an agreement. Not yet.

Even so, God honors their eagerness and proceeds to speak His instructions to them. And, as a nation, every man, woman, and child heard directly from the L-RD that day as He spoke what we now call The Ten Commands. These Ten Commands are a good summary of the Torah, but they are not the six hundred and thirteen commands; not yet, anyway. All the L-RD actually gives are the Ten Commands at that moment in time, which is fine, because they’ve already agreed to do what? To pay attention to God—in other words, to hear His voice—and to keep His covenant—in other words, to follow His instructions. That’s all that was required of them, and this is the first moment of that.

And how did we respond, upon hearing God speak to us directly? We read this in:

Sh’mot (Exodus) 20:18-20 (15-17)
All the people experienced the thunder, the lightning, the sound of the shofar, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled. Standing at a distance, they said to Moshe, “You, speak with us; and we will listen. But don’t let God speak with us, or we will die.” Moshe answered the people, “Don’t be afraid, because God has come only to test you and make you fear him, so that you won’t commit sins.”

Fear, however, was our response. In many ways, it remains our response to this day! When we encounter God, if it’s a moment of praise and worship, we certainly can get swept up in joy and thanksgiving. But what I’m talking about is this sort of encounter with God. When the Holy One of Yisra’el begins to instruct us, and show us our sin, and our eyes are opened to just how far short we fall of His perfect standard of righteousness, well… we respond all too often with fear.

This is why, whenever angels appear to the heroes of the faith, what is the first thing they say. “Peace! Shalom! Do not fear! Do not be afraid!” Even if we are stout of heart, we are much like the prophet, Yishayahu, known as Isaiah, who says in Isaiah 6:5, “Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I come from a people of unclean lips!” When we encounter God in all his holiness, our first instinct, tragically, is to draw back.

And that’s what we did that day. We heard from the holy God, and as our sin was made obvious before us, we cried out, “Moses, you speak to us and we will listen! But don’t let God speak to us anymore, or we will die.”

That’s when one of the most tragic verses of Exodus is written, as we continue on in chapter twenty, where we read:

Sh’mot (Exodus) 20:18(21)
So the people stood at a distance, but Moshe approached the thick darkness where God was.

And see, here’s the thing: in that moment, what did we do? We changed something vitally important. We changed the terms of the covenant. We changed the terms of the agreement. The original agreement was, we would listen to God and obey His instructions. It was not that we would listen to Moshe.

What we did was ask for a mediator between God and us. Someone who could be the go-between. Perhaps even soften the blow. But is that what God wanted originally? No. He wanted to be our God. To speak His instructions to each of us directly. For us to hear His voice and obey His instructions. That was the original agreement. Those were the terms for which the reward was, becoming a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Now, God is a promise keeper. He kept His promise to Yisra’el and, by extension, to all of us. But when one party alters the terms of a contract, what is the next thing that happens? There is a counter-offer made. And yet, in Sh’mot (Exodus), there is no record of God’s response.

Yet in D’varim (Deuteronomy), there is. Moses reveals what was hidden that day. Because that entire generation that stood at a distance from God when He was inviting us to draw near, perished in the wilderness… all but Joshua and Caleb. Every other person over the age of bar and bat mitzvah perished during the forty years that followed, and now, in D’varim, Moses stands before a new generation of Yisra’el, a generation about to enter the land promised to them from Abraham on down to Moshe. A generation that will enter the land without him.

So Moshe reveals God’s response, at last, to the people’s request on that day at Sinai, as we read in:

D’varim (Deuteronomy) 18:15-19
Adonai will raise up for you a prophet like me from among yourselves, from your own kinsmen. You are to pay attention to him, just as when you were assembled at Horev and requested Adonai your God, ‘Don’t let me hear the voice of Adonai my God any more, or let me see this great fire ever again; if I do, I will die!’ On that occasion Adonai said to me, ‘They are right in what they are saying. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kinsmen. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I order him. Whoever doesn’t listen to my words, which he will speak in my name, will have to account for himself to me.

So this is God’s response. Not to appoint Moshe as their go-between, as they requested. Because, as good an intercessor as he was, what was Moshe’s biggest failing? He was mortal. He wouldn’t always be with them. Someday, like all of us, Moshe would die.

So HaShem renewed His messianic promise, His promise to provide a “prophet like Moshe” from among them. God promises to put His words in Messiah’s mouth, and Messiah will tell us everything we need to know, every instruction from HaShem. Then we are to listen to Him as we would listen to HaShem.

And from that point on, the words “royal priesthood and holy nation” were not mentioned again until Messiah came, until they were written by Yeshua’s talmidim, Peter, in:

1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, the King’s cohanim, a holy nation, a people for God to possess! Why? In order for you to declare the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Why were those words silent until Messiah’s appearing? Because it was only with His appearing that we were once again given a way to hear from God directly. That promise was delayed because we asked for a mediator, and God gave us not the mediator that we asked for in Moses, but the mediator we actually needed, one whose instructions and whose ability to deliver them to us would have no end.

By now, you might be thinking to yourself, well Craig, that’s all fine and well and good… but I thought you were going to teach us today about King David, or at least some of the events leading up to King David, and so far this had been a Torah commentary on Sh’mot and D’varim, which we get when we go through the Torah cycle anyway.

Patience. It’s coming.

So this sets the stage for us. Moshe has revealed this big secret to this new generation of Yisra’el who are about to enter the promised land without him but with God. But there’s another missing piece.

You see, back during the original setting of terms, it was not in God’s design for Yisra’el to have a king, like the other nations had. We were to be ruled solely by the L-RD, and we would have been able to do this successfully, like no other nation, because we would have been hearing from Him directly. But instead of drawing near, we stood at a distance because we were afraid.

So what’s another fallout of changing those terms? Well, without Moses as our mediator between God and ourselves, we were also without a ruler. And although it was not intended in the original design, without God acting as the ruler of our hearts, He knew another desire would eventually overwhelm us as well, and it was this, as we read in:

D’varim (Deuteronomy) 17:14-15
When you have entered the land Adonai your God is giving you, have taken possession of it and are living there, you may say, ‘I want to have a king over me, like all the other nations around me.’ In that event, you must appoint as king the one whom Adonai your God will choose. He must be one of your kinsmen, this king you appoint over you—you are forbidden to appoint a foreigner over you who is not your kinsman.

The passage then continues on to outline the expectations for a king, and what an earthly king must do and how he must act to fulfill the role of earthly king in the land of Yisra’el. And from this, many have concluded that God commanded Yisra’el to appoint a king over them. Yet I suspect this is one of the most misread and misunderstood of all of God’s commands. I’ve read messages where scholars both Jewish and Christian alike stumble over it and assume God wanted His people to appoint a king over them.

But that was not the case; not at all. The verse reads, “When you have entered the land … you MAY say.” Not “You WILL say,” or “you MUST say” or even “You SHOULD say,” but, simply, “you may say.”

That’s the point. He’s not commanding, he’s permitting. In essence, God is saying, “I know that eventually you’re going to want to appoint a king over you. And while it’s not My first choice, since you’re going to do it anyway…because you chose not to hear My voice directly… here’s how you should do it. If you’re deadset on appointing a king over you, at least listen to Me and obey Me by doing it this way.

God isn’t saying, “My intent is, was, and always has been for you to appoint an earthly king over you.” No, His original intent was that He, HaShem, would be their sole ruler, that they would be called out, separate, and unlike the other nations, because they would individually live under the direct instructions of HaShem, hearing from Him moment to moment, and obeying at all times.

Now, on the polar opposite side of things, those who don’t study the Tenakh closely assume that, following D’varim, Yisra’el enters the land and appoints a king over them at the first possible opportunity. This is also mistaken.

First and foremost, Yisra’el must enter and take the land Adonai has given them. This is no small task, and the battle for possession of the Promised Land is a major focus of the book of Yehoshua—popularly known as Joshua.

Even after the victories won by Yehoshua, however, the Land remained fragmented and at conflict with its neighbors. When Yehoshua’s time passed, we entered a period in Israeli history known as the time of the judges.

During this time, Yisra’el is not yet a nation that has settled all parts of the land God had promised them. Conflicts with other people groups, such as the Amalekites and the P’lish’tim keep Yisra’el from truly settling into the land God had promised them. Also, following the death of Yehoshua, there was no one, strong, obvious choice to replace him as the leader of Yisra’el.

Complicating this was the fact that the people had not drawn near to HaShem, and could not hear His voice, so without a central figure like Moshe and Yehoshua, what happens instead is that the L-RD lifts up these regional military leaders who also make rulings in disputes as a judge would.

While this position might sound like a king, it is not a king. In fact, the Torah does not use melekh in reference to these judges, but a different word entirely: shoftim.

Many judges are highlighted in this time in Yisra’el’s history. Among them are Devorah, Shimshon (known popularly as Samson), Gideon, Abimelech, and Eli, to name a few of the more recognizable ones.

In my research, I found great uncertainty as to the amount of time that passed during which Yisra’el was under the leadership of various judges. Some sources claim as few as three hundred years went by between the time of Yehoshua’s death to the time of Sh’mu’el, while other sources claim it was more than five hundred years. Without getting lost in the weeds on such issues, let’s just say that it was somewhere in that range of three hundred to five hundred years. Certainly not at the first opportunity.

The last of the biblical judges is a man who served also as a prophet of HaShem, Sh’mu’el. Sh’mu’el has a rich and meaningful story of his own, and while I would love to go into detail about his early years, for the purposes of this study I will simply encourage you to read the first seven chapters of 1 Sh’mu’el on your own.

The turning point of interest to us, however, is that as Eli’s time came to an end, none of his sons followed in his ways of serving the L-RD and Eli instead trained Sh’mu’el to lead Yisra’el. When Sh’mu’el grow older, it became obvious even his sons were not going to follow in a path of serving the L-RD, as we read in:

1 Sh’mu’el 8:3-9
However, his [Sh’mu’el’s] sons did not follow his way of life; they turned off it to pursue riches, so that they would take bribes to distort justice. All the leaders of Isra’el gathered themselves together, approached Sh’mu’el in Ramah and said to him, “Look, you have grown old, and your sons are not following your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” Sh’mu’el was not pleased to hear them say, “Give us a king to judge us”; so he prayed to Adonai. Adonai said to Sh’mu’el, “Listen to the people, to everything they say to you; for it is not you they are rejecting; they are rejecting me; they don’t want me to be king over them. They are doing to you exactly what they have been doing to me, from the day I brought them out of Egypt until today, by abandoning me and serving other gods. So do what they say, but give them a sober warning, telling them what kinds of rulings their king will make.”

Can you imagine any words that might be more heartbreaking for God to speak than that? And they are made all the more heartbreaking when we realize that we were part of that. Each of us, at one time or another, has gone our own stubborn, independent way, choosing not to listen to HaShem, not to allow Messiah Y’shua to be our melekh, our King. At some point or another, each of us would rather have simply “fit in” with the world around us, rather than being “called out.”

In consoling Sh’mu’el, we see that God is longing for His people to acknowledge Him and let Him take control of things once again. He does not want to appoint an earthly king over His people and yet He, as God, is willing to give the people what they ask for. And He even has Sh’mu’el warn them about this, as we read on in:

Sh’mu’el 8:10-22a
Sh’mu’el reported everything Adonai had said to the people asking him for a king. He said, “Here is the kind of rulings your king will make: he will draft your sons and assign them to take care of his chariots, be his horsemen and be bodyguards running ahead of his chariots. He will appoint them to serve him as officers in charge of a thousand or of fifty, plowing his fields, gathering his harvest, and making his weapons and the equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters and have them be perfume-makers, cooks and bakers. He will expropriate your fields, vineyards and olive groves—the very best of them!—and hand them over to his servants. He will take the ten-percent tax of your crops and vineyards and give it to his officers and servants. He will take your male and female servants, your best young men and your donkeys, and make them work for him. He will take the ten-percent tax of your flocks, and you will become his servants. When that happens, you will cry out on account of your king, whom you yourselves chose. But when that happens, Adonai will not answer you!” However, the people refused to listen to what Sh’mu’el told them, and they said, “No! We want a king over us, so that we can be like all the nations, with our king to judge us, lead us and fight our battles.” Sh’mu’el heard everything the people said and repeated them for Adonai to hear. Adonai said to Sh’mu’el, “Do what they ask, and set up a king for them.”

So the L-RD grants the people’s request and brings to Sh’mu’el a man from the tribe of Binyamin, named Sha’ul in Hebrew, popularly rendered in English as Saul. At first, it seems as though God has selected Sha’ul, but even as early as his being named as king over Yisra’el, there are signs of trouble from Sha’ul.

After again warning the people that wanting to appoint a king over them may not be a good thing, Sh’mu’el calls for the tribes to reveal the man HaShem has chosen as king, and we read this in:

1 Sh’mu’el 10:20-24
So Sh’mu’el had all the tribes come forward, and the tribe of Binyamin was chosen. He had the tribe of Binyamin come forward by families, and the family of the Matri was chosen, and Sha’ul the son of Kish was chosen. But when they looked for him, he couldn’t be found. They asked Adonai, “Has the man come here?” Adonai answered, “There he is, hiding, in among the equipment.” They ran and brought him from there, and when he stood among the people he was head and shoulders taller than anyone around. Sh’mu’el said to all the people, “Do you see the man Adonai has chosen, that there is no one like him among all the people?” Then all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”

Imagine the embarrassment. Sh’mu’el calls for Sha’ul… and he’s not there, but in hiding. Hiding from the very prophet of HaShem who had anointed him king. In this way, Sha’ul is a perfect reflection of the people. Just as the people stood at a distance from God at Sinai when He spoke to them directly, Sha’ul stands at a distance from his own coronation.

Despite this, we are told than when he is found and dragged before Sh’mu’el, that while standing among the people he stood “head and shoulders” above them.

This is God showing them their choice. He has given them a man who is bigger and more intimidating than anyone else. Surely, he looks like the sort of man who would be named a king.

If his hesitancy to show himself on the day of his presentation as king over Yisra’el is troubling, what happens later is even more disturbing. Here’s what we read in:

1 Sh’mu’el 15:2-3
“Here is what Adonai-Tzva’ot says: ‘I remember what ‘Amalek did to Isra’el, how they fought against Isra’el when they were coming up from Egypt. Now go and attack ‘Amalek, and completely destroy everything they have. Don’t spare them, but kill men and women, children and babies, cows and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”

In the battle that follows, Sha’ul veers from these orders in several ways. We are told he warns the Keni to leave the area, lest they be put to the sword along with the Amalekites. He takes Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and allows him to live. He also takes the best—and even the second-best—among the Amalekites’ sheep and cattle and spares their lives as well.

All of these are ways in which King Sha’ul disobeys God’s instructions and does things a different way—his own way. This causes God to speak to Sh’mu’el and tell him, “I regret setting up Sha’ul as king, because he has turned back from following me and hasn’t obeyed my orders.”

When Sh’mu’el confronts Sha’ul, he attempts to deceive the prophet, first saying that he did everything that the L-RD had ordered him. When Sh’mu’el points out the sounds of extra livestock, Sha’ul makes it worse by compounding his deception, claiming he took them to make of them an offering to God.

Sh’mu’el, however, knows better. He shares what God has shown him, pointing out that Sha’ul took the spoils of the Amalkites when he was instructed not to do so. Sha’ul, now on the defensive, tries to shift the blame onto those under his command, claiming it was the people, not him, who spared the livestock for a sacrifice, though he admits to bringing Agag with him instead of putting him to the sword. Sh’mu’el responds in:

1 Sh’mu’el 15:22-23
“Does Adonai take as much pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying what Adonai says? Surely obeying is better than sacrifice, and heeding orders than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of sorcery, stubbornness like the crime of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of Adonai, he too has rejected you as king.”

And then he delivered the harshest words of all, in:

1 Sh’mu’el 15:28-29
Sh’mu’el said to him, “Adonai has torn the kingdom of Isra’el away from you today and given it to a fellow countryman of yours who is better than you. Moreover, the Eternal One of Isra’el will not lie or change his mind, because he isn’t a mere human being subject to changing his mind.”

With these words, the legitimate kingship of Sha’ul has come to an end. Although he would go on to rule Yisra’el for forty years, his anointing has been taken from him. And what was the reason? Because he refused to follow and do everything that HaShem had commanded him. Sha’ul, in his arrogance, set aside the instructions he received from the L-RD and substituted God’s sense of right and wrong for his own morality.

Certainly, this is something we can relate to. Many of us today, as almost a reflex action, look at certain circumstances or tragedies in the world, mistakenly attribute those things to God, and loudly declare, “Well, I could never believe in a God who would allow” this or that to happen. And certainly, Sha’ul’s instructions from the L-RD were extreme.

But we must remember, Sha’ul was the king of Yisra’el, not a farmer or a shepherd. As the head of state, God offered directions, such as his command to destroy all of the Amalekites, that He would never offer to a believer today who is not a head of state. So Sha’ul’s calling was unique.

Yet, just as he hid himself at the time Sh’mu’el was to anoint him as King, just as we all stood at a distance when God was inviting us to draw near and hear from Him directly, Sha’ul retreats from obeying the L-RD completely and instead does what seems right to him.

This message reverberates throughout these early chapters of I Sh’mu’el. Many times, when Sh’mu’el or his son Yohanatan are considering various options, they set out a plan before their human advisors and are told, “Do what seems right to you.”

Yet doing what seems right to ourselves and obeying the L-RD’s instructions are not always one and the same thing. It’s a lesson that cost Sha’ul his anointing and kingship.

And so, at this time, this is where Yisra’el stands. Surrounded by her enemies, ruled by a king whose anointing has been taken from him because of his refusal to obey the L-RD, the people of Yisra’el are in a perilous position, their success in taking the land promised to Abraham possibly never more in doubt. And yet, did God’s success in fulfilling his promise depend solely on King Sha’ul?

Of course not. As Queen Esther would be told centuries later, the words of her uncle, Mordekhai, could just as easily be spoken to King Sha’ul here. As we read in:

Esther 4:13b-14a
“Don’t suppose that merely because you happen to be in the royal palace you will escape any more than the other Jews. For if you fail to speak up now, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from a different direction;”

King Sha’ul is proof of that, for us. He failed to obey HaShem, and now the scene is set for help to come to Yisra’el from a different direction.

And the next time I have the opportunity to speak, we will see how that happens as we continue in our study of the life of King David.

Shabbat Shalom.

Third Sermon at Sh’ma Yisra’el: Surrender and Life in Its Fullest Measure

Sermon VaYigash: Surrender and Life in Its Fullest Measure

Shabbat shalom.

Our parasha for today is VaYigash, a Hebrew word that means, “and he drew near.” It covers Genesis 44:18 through 47:27.

When Rabbi Erez invited me to speak this week on this parasha, I was pleased to be given the opportunity. First, because it is a portion I’ve taught on before, two or three years ago, before I moved here to Sh’ma Y’israel. And second, because it is a portion of Torah that I felt I could teach on better than I had the first time.

The most important theme I drew from the Torah portion this week is that of surrender. Now, in the eyes of the world, surrender can only mean one thing: defeat. An inability to overcome the odds against you and succeed in spite of them. In essence, and put in the simplest way possible, surrender in our culture means giving up, losing, ceasing all struggles and accepting one’s fate.

The question this week’s Torah reading forces us to examine is, is surrender always a bad thing? What I’d like to suggest is that the quality of life that follows surrender depends upon the nature of who one is surrendering to.

If you are surrendering to one who is merciful and generous in victory, one can expect a life of ample provision and cheerful service. If you are surrendering to one who is, by contrast, harsh and without concern for the well-being of his newly-won subjects, then life can become quite difficult.

The first surrender we witness in this week’s Torah reading is that of the sons of Israel to Yosef. Now, to this point, Yosef’s brothers have not recognized him for who he is and Yosef himself has not yet revealed his own identity. So when Judah steps forward to speak with Yosef and surrender to the court of Pharaoh, Judah has no reason to expect a tender response. This potential for fear is reflected in Judah’s words, when he acknowledges that Yosef could have easily decided to have him and all his brothers killed if he wished.

Now, in the text of the Torah, Judah is both complimentary and immediately submissive in his surrender. However, some sources of Jewish tradition suggest this was not immediately the case.

I’d like to share part of such a tradition preserved for us in the Aramaic targum known as Neofiti B’resheet. For those of you who are unfamiliar, allow me a moment to explain. The targumim were a set of spoken paraphrases, explanations, and expansions of the Jewish scriptures that a rabbi would give in the common language of the listeners, which during the time of this practice was often, but not exclusively, Aramaic. This become necessary near the end of the last century before the Common Era, as Aramaic grew in usage among the people of Israel. These renderings were at times very loose translations because the rabbis of that day felt it was more important to get the meaning and common understanding of the Torah across to the listener, rather than preserving an exact, word-for-word representation.

For example, if the Torah verse said, “A star shall rise out of Ya’akov,” and the rabbis agreed that the intent of the verse was a reference to Messiah, in the Aramaic targum, they would translate that verse very directly as, “Mashiach will rise out of Ya’akov,” so that the true meaning and intent of the verse was preserved in the translation, even if the exact phrasings were not.

Also, as is the case with this week’s portion, sometimes a targum would preserve an entire midrash, an interpretive teaching that helps shed light on the understanding of the text that the rabbis of that era held to. So, while the Aramaic targums are not as reliable as the Torah itself, they are useful for capturing a snapshot of how the Torah was being taught in the century leading up to the birth of Yeshua. This, in turn, helps us understand the Torah in the light of the first-century Judaism that was commonly understood by Yeshua and his Talmidim.

Does that help? Good.

Now, returning to our portion, in the Targum Neofiti, a midrash expanding on Judah’s confrontation with Yosef is preserved, and it suggests Judah was not immediately submissive. Remember, Yosef has just ordered them to surrender Binyamin, the last living son of Ya’akov and his favorite wife, Rachel… as far as Ya’akov knew, because he believed Yosef to be dead. It reads, in part, like this:

Targum Neofiti – B’resheet 44:18
And Judah approached him, raging in words and contrite in tongue. He roared like a lion and said, “I beseech, my lord, let your servant now speak a word; and, my lord, let not your anger be enkindled against your servant. Did you not say to us from the first time we came to you, “From before the L-RD I fear’? And now your judgments have turned to become like to the judgments of Pharoah, your master.” … Perhaps it has not been said to you, and perhaps it has not been heard by you, what my two brothers, Simeon and Levi, did in the fortress of Shechem, that they entered into it and killed every male in it, because within it they defiled our sister Dinah, who is not of the number of the tribes and who has no portion and inheritance in the division of the land. How much more for the sake of Binyamin, our brother…?”

The passage goes on with Judah basically threatening to kill every male in Egypt, starting with Yosef and ending with Pharaoh, if Yosef does not relent. Eventually, toward the end of the passage, Judah calms down and becomes more contrite as the Torah narrative resumes.

Why would the targum preserve this tradition? To show that Judah is not a person to meekly surrender; to further illustrate how passionate he is about not wanting to bring on his father the grief of losing his beloved Binyamin.

Now, whether this tradition about Judah is accurate or not, we know what the Torah says happens next. Judah finally lays out the truth before Yosef; that the demand they leave Binyamin behind because of the apparent theft of an object belonging to the court, which Yosef had had planted there to bring matters to a head—to abandon Binyamin to Yosef would mean the death of their father Israel.

Judah then offers up his own life in place of Binyamin’s, demonstrating a selflessness that has not been present before this in the actions of the sons of Israel. He is surrendering himself to an uncertain fate, and in doing this, Judah, in the eyes of Yosef, is also demonstrating repentance; he is showing by his actions that he regrets being the cause of his father losing one of his sons, and does not want to be the cause of him losing another.

Remember, through all this, Judah has no idea he’s speaking to his brother Yosef. So this surrender tells Yosef a lot.

It tells him his brothers regret their past actions which took Yosef out of their lives. It tells him they are not treating Yosef’s closest brother, Binyamin, with the same kind of jealousy with which they treated Yosef, because they are now willing to give up their own lives to preserve the lives of Binyamin and their father Ya’akov.

And it tells him that they are not doing this for show, because at this point they know Yosef only as Zephaneth-Paneah, second in authority in all of Egypt only to Pharaoh himself. Since they do not recognize him as Yosef, the surrender is more meaningful, because they have no assurance of mercy.

Yosef’s response also confirms our suspicions of how time and The L-RD have healed his wounds as well. Yosef no longer holds any bitterness toward his brothers, because no one could hold bitterness in their heart and live before God and man as Yosef did. In this week’s reading, that suspicion is confirmed by Yosef’s actions; in response to the surrender of his brothers to the power and authority he holds over them, Yosef meets his brothers with mercy and forgiveness. We read this in the Torah, in:

Genesis 45:1b-8a
So no one else was with him when Yosef revealed to his brothers who he was. He [Yosef] wept aloud, and the Egyptians heard, and Pharoah’s household heard. Yosef said to his brothers, “I am Yosef! Is it true that my father is still alive?” But his brothers couldn’t answer him, they were so dumbfounded at seeing him. Yosef said to his brothers, “Please! Come closer.” And they came closer. He said, “I am Yosef, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But don’t be sad that you sold me into slavery here or be angry with yourselves, because it was God who sent me ahead of you to preserve life … God sent me ahead of you to ensure that you will have descendants on earth and to save your lives in a great deliverance. So it was not you who sent me here, but God.”

Imagine the shock and relief that must have gone through the sons of Israel! For well over twenty years, they had lived with the regret that comes from the foolish actions of their youth. They had carried the shame so heavily that they could never bring themselves to share the truth of their actions with their father.

Instead, they had maintained the lie of Yosef’s death. And now, after years of not being sure if he was alive or dead themselves, before them stands the very brother they had thought they’d rid themselves of forever. Yosef is not only alive, but is second in authority to the most powerful ruler in the entire region, the Pharaoh of Egypt.

Furthermore, when Yosef reveals himself, he does not meet them with accusations of betrayal, rage, and bitterness, but instead is humbling himself before them, asking them not to be upset, because ultimately it was God who had wanted Yosef in Egypt, to preserve the lives of Ya’akov and his sons.

Consider for a moment just how powerful a portrait of Messiah that Yosef now is. Yosef had been figuratively put to death, while Yeshua was literally put to death. For a time, Yosef was concealed among the nations; similarly, Yeshua has also been concealed among the nations.

When Yosef stands before his brothers, they fail to recognize him until he reveals himself to them. And in the same way, many of us today have Yeshua standing before us through the teachings of both the Torah and the Ha’Brit Ha’Chadasha, and yet can so easily fall short of recognizing Him for Who He truly is.

Zechariah 12:10, 13:1
“and I will pour out on the house of David and on those living in Yerushalayim a spirit of grace and prayer; and they will look to me, whom they have pierced. They will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son; they will be in bitterness on his behalf like the bitterness for a firstborn son. When that day comes, a spring will be opened up for the house of David and the people living in Yerushalayim to cleanse them from sin and impurity.”

Just as with Yosef and his brothers, when Yeshua reveals Himself, both to us and to the Jewish nation as a whole, we mourn that we did not recognize him sooner. We grieve for all we have done to him. Yet, as the passage indicates, a fountain for cleansing from all sin and impurity has been provided, and that fountain is His Ruach HaKodesh, his Holy Spirit.

We can draw confidence in Yeshua’s forgiveness of us by the shadow of messiah cast by Yosef in this Torah portion. Although his brothers never fully forgave themselves, and therefore never trusted in Yosef’s forgiveness of them, what do Yosef’s actions reveal? He moves his entire family to Egypt, arranging with Pharaoh to have them stay not just anywhere, but on the best, most fertile land Egypt at that time had to offer, the land of Goshen.

In the same way, Messiah is preparing a place for us to dwell with him, as He says in:

Yochanan 14:2-3
“In my Father’s house are many places to live. If there weren’t, I would have told you; because I am going there to prepare a place for you. Since I am going and preparing a place for you, I will return to take you with me; so that where I am, you may be also.”

Just as Yosef met his brothers with forgiveness and restoration, so Yeshua meets us. Just as Yosef prepared a place for his family, so that they could all be together, so Yeshua is doing the same for us. For as long as we draw breath, we have time and opportunity for Yeshua to uncover His face and make Himself known to us.

Now, that is often the main emphasis of this parasha; the story of Yosef revealing himself to his brothers. It’s powerful. It’s moving. It’s a clear picture of Messiah in the Torah.

But before I wrap up, I want to draw your attention to the last chapter. After Yosef is restored to his family, the Torah relates how he went on to govern Egypt for Pharaoh.

We are told that at first the people came to Yosef and bought grain with money; when they ran out of money, they begged Yosef for mercy and Yosef agreed to accept their livestock in exchange for grain. When their livestock ran out, Yosef accepted their land as payment, and when they had nothing left, he made them servants of Pharaoh, purchasing their loyalty at a price.

At first glance, such behavior does not seem very Messiah-like, and it does not seem to fit in with Yosef as a shadow of the Messiah. After all, these people are starving, and Yosef seems only interested in accumulating assets for Pharoah.

Yet, on the contrary, I believe the Torah is giving us a very clear picture of the Messianic kingdom. Like Yeshua, Yosef’s mission is to do what? To build the kingdom. What Yosef does is that he gives people a choice; surrender all they have and live, or hold on to their possessions and perish.

Ironically, once they have surrendered all they have, and have put Pharaoh in his place as their ruler, they receive all they have surrendered back to them, with Pharaoh keeping only a fifth of their produce as a direct asset for the kingdom.

If one saw this purely on the human level, it would seem like the act of a ruthless man in pursuit of the things of this world; a man gathering money, livestock, land and the loyalty of the people because he had them over a barrel, their only other option being death by starvation.

And yet remember the words of Yosef to his brothers.

“It was God who sent me ahead of you to preserve life … God sent me ahead of you to ensure that you will have descendants on earth and to save your lives in a great deliverance.”

Consider how much that is reflective of Messiah’s purpose, as we find this in the words of:

Yochanan 10:10
The thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, life in its fullest measure.

The shadow of Yosef echoes here in the words of Messiah Yeshua, just as the words of Messiah Yeshua are seen in Yosef’s actions in this week’s Torah portion. Yosef was sent into Egypt to preserve life. Yes, that includes the life of Ya’akov and the rest of his family, but the last chapter of this parasha makes clear that it also includes all life in Egypt and the surrounding territory.

The kingdom of Pharaoh expanded greatly under Yosef’s influence, because he worked to build and strengthen and expand his master’s kingdom. In the same way, Yeshua has done likewise, raising knowledge of the God of Y’srael from the borders of Y’israel out to the entire world.

And while many assume that the “grace of God” is free or at least cheap, this week’s Torah portion reminds and corrects us on that false assumption. Too often, we look at our lives and what we have and grudgingly, if at all, hand a tithe back to the community we’re a part of. But what this passage illustrates is that we don’t “owe God a tenth” anymore than the Egyptians “owed Pharaoh a fifth.”

Because, like those in Egypt, we were bought by God. Not just ten percent of ourselves, not just a fifth of ourselves… we give up all we have and become the sole property of haShem. All we have, all we are, all we ever will be… belongs to haShem.

We read this in:

Genesis 47:23
Then Yosef said to the people, “As of today I have acquired you and your land for Pharoah. Here is seed to sew your land.”

This is a very accurate and telling picture of how things would be in the time in the desert, as well as how things would be in the land of Y’srael, how they ought to be in our Messianic communities, and how things will be in the World to Come. In the world as God desires us to live in it, no one goes hungry… and everyone belongs completely to the L-RD.

This sentiment is reflected in the teachings of the Talmidim of Yeshua. As Rav Sha’ul writes in:

1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Or don’t you know that your body is a temple for the Ruach HaKodesh who lives inside you, whom you received from God? The fact is, you don’t belong to yourselves; for you were bought at a price. So use your bodies to glorify God.

This is the second instance of surrender in this week’s Torah portion. And again it shows that when we surrender to the right people … to God, who is merciful and kind, generous and full of forgiveness … surrender doesn’t have to be a death-knell of defeat.

When we surrender ourselves to HaShem, and the living Torah, Messish Yeshua, it means nothing less than life to us… life in its fullest measure, and life in the World to Come.

Shabbat shalom.

Second Sermon at Sh’ma Yisra’el: Blessing and Cursing

Sermon Re’eh: Blessing and Cursing

Shabbat Shalom.

When Rabbi Erez invited me to offer a message this week, the first place I turned was this week’s parashah reading from Devarim 11:26 to 16:17, known by the Hebrew word “re’eh,” which translates to “see.” It’s a rich reading with many ways to go in terms of teaching, but what caught my attention straight out of the gate is the initial theme of blessings and curses.

We all love to talk about blessings. Blessings are nice. They promise peace, safety, wealth, prosperity, and most importantly, the blessing, contentment and shalom of our God. Blessings are perhaps the most pleasant part of the Torah, the Tenahk and the B’rit haDasha. And we’ll study something of blessings today, for sure.

However, we must also consider the reality of curses. This is the more uncomfortable side of this topic. Curses are not pleasant; they promise turmoil, destruction, danger, poverty, suffering and, most importantly, a separation from the blessings and favor and shalom of our God. Some folks like to pretend curses don’t exist, or at least that they don’t exist for those who believe in God, and trust in Messiah Yeshua.

But is that so? Or are we under a misunderstanding that could prove toxic to a sound understanding of ADONAI our God?

Let’s begin with the opening verses of this week’s Torah reading. We read this in:

Devarim 11:26-28
“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—the blessing, if you listen to the mitzvot of ADONAI your God that I am giving you today; and the curse, if you don’t listen to the mitzvot of ADONAI your God, but turn aside from the way I am ordering you today and follow other gods that you have not known.

In this passage, ADONAI speaks clearly of the existence of both His blessing and His curses. Notice he doesn’t play favorites with these terms, either. He doesn’t say the blessings are for Yisra’el alone and the curses for the nations alone. No, he promises both blessings and curses on the same equitable basis, with the same measuring stick. His blessings are the promise to those who listen and follow through on the mitzvot—the teachings and instructions—He has offered. His curses are the promise to those who do not listen or follow through on His teachings and instructions.

I hope I can suggest that sometimes we as believers have misunderstood both God’s blessings and God’s curses. It’s not that we intend to misunderstand these things; it’s merely that we have been handed down so many ideas about these concepts that go beyond Torah and beyond Messiah’s teachings.

Let me tell you a personal story as an illustration of this.

Back when I first became part of a Messianic community … we’re talking at least twelve years ago … I underwent a time of transition. I still had many friends in the big mega-church I had attended previously, and because they were friends, they’d let me know they hoped to see me at service some weekend. Of course, that meant service and their congregation, not at my new one.

One weekend, after attending both Erev Shabbat and Shabbat morning services with my Messianic community, I decided to visit some of my old friends from my previous congregation, and went to their Saturday evening service where several of us often met to hang out afterward.

That week, one of the praise songs that their worship team performed was the Fred Hammond classic, “Blessed.” The chorus may be familiar to some of you. It reads as follows:

Fred Hammond, Blessed
We’re blessed in the city
We’re blessed in the field
We’re blessed when we come and when we go
We cast down every stronghold
Sickness and poverty must cease
For the devil is defeated
We are blessed

Now, the first part of that chorus is actually taken from:

Devarim 28:3, 6
You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

For most people, the song itself would be message enough, but that Saturday night, something odd happened. After the Hammond song was performed, a member of the praise and worship team insisted he had a message to share with the congregation, and he was allowed to speak.

What he shared is something that, prior to becoming part of a Messianic community, I would have put my “Amen” to without a second thought. That night, with about six months of Messianic community teaching and experience under my belt, I picked up on something in what he shared that I would have missed before.

He said, “The song we’ve been singing comes from Deuteronomy, where Moses is speaking to the children of Israel and letting them know all the blessings that will fall on them if they obey God, and all the curses that will fall on them if they do not. Well, I just want to praise the L-RD tonight, because we’re not like the Jews! As Christians, it doesn’t matter what we do, it doesn’t matter how we act, we are blessed no matter what! We are blessed through the blood of Jesus and nothing we do can change that!”

Did you catch that?

Many of the believers gathered there that night put their “Amen!” to that guy’s enthusiastic message. A few months earlier, I would have joined them and thought nothing more about it.

But that night, it stood out to me like a neon sign. This is how replacement theology affects us and seeps into our understanding, almost without our awareness.

Whenever we as believers in Messiah think, “God acted this way for his chosen people, but He will apply a different standard of righteousness to us because we know His Messiah,” then we’ve fallen into a trap. We’ve stumbled into an error that can cause deep offense.

Why?

Because this is not the nature of God.

ADONAI does not create one set of teachings and instructions for one group, and another set for another group, and another for another, and so on. The LORD is the fair and equitable judge. When it comes to blessing and cursing, God’s standards are the same: He blesses those who listen to and follow through on his instructions, and he curses those who do not.

That well-intentioned but misguided believer who said those words about twelve years ago would have been well-advised to read more of the context of that passage the Fred Hammond song was based on.

There is a preface to those verses that is important to grasp, and we can read it in:

Devarim 28:1-2, 15
If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God: … However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:

So you see, even in that passage, the connection is made between blessings and curses, and obedience to God’s teachings and instructions.

And certainly, as Messianics, we can appreciate that these words God is speaking through Moses to the nation of Isra’el, while having a broader application to all God-fearers, are special promises made to those about to enter the Land of Promise, those who sought to dwell in that land in a way that would honor and please the One who brought them there.

And so, even in that passage lifted by Fred Hammond into the chorus of his song, if you read on, there are parallel curses for the disobedient, as we read in:

Devarim 28:16, 19
You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.

Now, some people might ask, “But isn’t our salvation dependent upon Yeshua alone?”

Our salvation, yes.

But the discussion here is not about salvation in the sense that modern Christianity discusses it; the discussion is about the nature of God’s blessings and curses. That’s a slightly different topic.

So let’s discuss the Jewish concept of blessings for a moment. What is a blessing? Well, on our level, a blessing is an expression of our gratitude and joy for all God as given us. I recently was watching Shalom TV, and on their program From the Aleph-Bet, the instructor, Rabbi Mark S. Golub, offered this insight into blessings that I’d like to share. He said:

Rabbi Mark S. Golub
“The Jewish tradition teaches that we should be looking for opportunities to say blessings. Why? The Jewish tradition understands that one of the biggest mistakes people make is that we tend to take life for granted. That often the joy of life, the wonder of life, the awe of life is just sort of forgotten … We live in a land of plenty and often the plenty we have is not only overlooked, it never seems to never be enough. We take for granted all that we have.”

So, from this modern perspective, perhaps we can demystify the concept of blessings a little bit. Blessings are expressions of gratitude, of joy, wonder and awe. They are expressions of thankfulness.

Now, let’s apply that understanding to the blessings of ADONAI.

What might make the LORD happy? Joyful? Thankful? Grateful? For these are the forebears of blessings.

It’s no mystery. The Torah tells us itself what stirs these emotions in ADONAI our God. What brings God joy, happiness, thankfulness and gratitude is when we willingly set aside our own will, our own opinions, our own way of doing things, and follow only His teachings and His instructions. As we read in this week’s parashah:

Devarim 13:1
Everything I am commanding you, you are to take care to do. Do not add to it or subtract from it.

And would not the heart of God be filled with greater joy in us if we all could but obey this one verse more perfectly? Take care to do everything I am commanding you. Oh, and by the way: don’t add to it, and don’t subtract anything from it.

How many of you who are parents can relate to this? When your children actually do as you ask them to, isn’t that one of the happiest moments of your day? Doesn’t it fill you with joy and spur you on to bless God? Of course it does. And if parents feel that way about their children’s obedience, how much more does the LORD feel that about our obedience?

And yet, both today and even at the time Moses spoke these words, we keep falling short of that simple instruction. And we know this because God, through Moses, continues on in:

Devarim 12:8-9
You will not do things the way we do them here today, where everyone does whatever in his own opinion seems right; because you haven’t yet arrived at the rest and inheritance which ADONAI your God is giving you.

This is a constant tripping point for many a well-intentioned believer. Ask most anyone if they love to obey God, and they’ll say something like, “Absolutely,” or at least, “Yes, and I try my best to do so.”

Yet in the same breath, each of us can identify areas in our lives where we’re not doing that, or at least not always. Why would we do that? We say we want to follow the LORD, and yet so often, when we’re in the moment, we instead do what is right in our own opinion. And this is not what the LORD wishes of us or expects from us.

For those Moses was speaking to, there were some specific instructions on what they were to do when they entered the Land of the Promise. We read from this week’s parashah in:

Devarim 12:1-3
Here are the laws and rulings you are to observe and obey in the land ADONAI, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess as long as you live on the earth. You must destroy all the places where the nations you are dispossessing served their gods, whether on high mountains, on hills, or under some leafy tree. Break down their altars, smash their standing stones to pieces, burn up their sacred poles completely and cut down the carved images of their gods. Exterminate their name from that place.

This, of course, is a simple instruction. And very specific to that time and place. After all, if a group of us decided to go tear down a neighboring place of worship today, we’d be felons. But the transferrable concept to our experience today is this: we are not called by God to blend into society and worship as they do, when they do, or how they do. We are, instead, to follow the LORD’s instructions.

This, for example, is why we meet on a Shabbat morning instead of on Sunday. Many in the Christian world worship on Sunday, and there’s never a bad day to worship the LORD, but what did God instruct us? To remember the Shabbat and keep it holy. Not the first day of the week. Not Wednesday nights and Royal Rangers. No, we are to remember the Shabbat, the seventh day. And we know Saturday is the proper day because the practice of God’s chosen people has never changed the day of worship he declared. Only by trying to fit in with the rest of the world have some of us lost our way and begun worshipping on a day that God did not instruct us to worship Him on.

Again, there’s never a bad day to worship the LORD; but his instruction to us was to set aside the seventh day and honor it as a special time when all normal work is set aside, and we spend special time with our Creator and King.

A famous rabbi once shared this insight: “It’s not hard to obey God’s mitzvot. What’s hard is living in a world surrounded by those who do not.”

Why do many believers worship God on Sunday instead of the Shabbat he commanded? For most of us who have done that, it was never about disobeying God. It was about following the example set forth by those around us. Others around us worshipped on Sunday. The church we attended worshipped on Sunday. It’s just the example set for us, by those around us.

So, while God always rejoices in those who love Him and praise him, he rejoices even more when we do it on the occasions He instructed us to.

Parents, think of it this way: a young child runs up to you, eyes wide, smiling, and they say, “Mommy! Daddy! Look what I can do!” And they then proceed to show you something new they learned, like how to ride a bike without training wheels.
Now, you’ll be proud of their achievement regardless. That’s the nature of parenthood.

But you’re even more proud when they show you how they can ride a bike without training wheels outside, in the driveway, rather than if they show you on a bike with muddy tires driven all across the kitchen floor you just mopped. Right? As Ecclesiastes reminds us, “There is a time for every event under heaven.”

Another handy illustration is eating only clean foods. Some people claim, “Oh, it’s so hard to know what’s clean and what isn’t.” But this week’s Torah portion includes verses that actually make it very clear, as we read in:

Devarim 14: 3, 6-11, 19-20
You are not to eat anything disgusting. Any animal that has a separate hoof that is completely divided and also chews the cud, these animals you may eat. But you are not to eat those that only chew the cud or only have a divided hoof. For example, the camel, the hare, and the coney are unclean for you because they chew the cud but don’t have a separate hoof; while the pig is unclean for you because, although it has a separate hoof, it doesn’t chew the cud. You are not to eat meat from these or touch their carcasses. Of all that lives in the water, you may eat these: anything in the water that has fins and scales, these you may eat. But whatever lacks fins and scales you are not to eat; it is unclean for you. You may eat any clean bird. All winged swarming creatures are unclean for you; they may not be eaten; but all clean flying creatures you may eat.

Now, I removed from that reading a few verses that gave long lists of examples, primarily to make it easier to understand God’s instruction, though if you want to see those lists of examples, you can go back to the passage later today and puzzle over some of them. I say puzzle because those lists contain some ancient animals whose names are not easily recognized today, though in fairness, most of them can still be understood.

The point is this: many of us who did not grow up in Jewish homes, and even some of us who did, may have eaten many of these things before coming into a greater understanding of what God asks of us in the Torah.

And it is on these dietary commands that many of us can slip up and begin to rely on our own opinion, rather than God’s instruction. Some things I’ve heard people say to rationalize the consumption of pork products, for example, include:
“Oh, well, that was before refrigeration. Pork spoils faster than any other meat.”

Let me tell you something, folks: in the desert, any meat not processed quickly will spoil pretty quickly. Another was:
“Oh, that list is outdated. If God had Moses writing his Torah today, there’s a lot of things He’d add on and a lot of things he’d take off.”

So… what you’re really saying is that God’s instructions are not true, but actually outdated, old-fashioned, and irrelevant? That God’s teachings change over time? That’s dangerous territory, theologically speaking. But one of my favorite rationalizations is:

“Oh, God wouldn’t be so petty as to care about what we eat or drink, so as a Spirit-filled believer, I can make my own judgments.”

The trouble with that is, anyone truly led by the Ruach of ADONAI would never be led to disobey the Torah of ADONAI. If you’re feeling led that way, you may be feeling led by a spirit, but it’s not the spirit of God.

Also, consider this: what was the very first command God gave to Adam in Gan Eden?

B’resheet 2:16-17
ADONAI, God, gave the person this order: “You may eat freely from every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You are not to eat from it, because on the day that you eat from it, it will become certain that you will die.”

What kind of command is this? It’s a dietary command! The first rebellion against God’s instructions came as a result of disobeying a dietary command! Whenever we listen to this type of reasoning, we are merely hearing an echo of the serpent, who asked Havah, “Did God really say that?” In other words, is God so petty as to care about what we eat and what we drink?

The answer, of course, is that is does care, and it’s not a petty concern. Calling it a petty concern is our own opinion.

Then there are those who wish to act as apologists for God’s commands that may be hard to understand. They’ll claim that following his clean and unclean dietary laws will bless us with a long life, just as disobeying it will curse us with a shortened life.

But that’s not the answer either. There is no evidence that Jewish people who eat a kosher diet from birth to death live, on average, any longer than anyone else, or suffer from fewer afflictions.

Let’s not add to God’s instructions! There’s only one reason to avoid unclean animals as food, and only one reason to consume those animals God has declared as clean for human consumption.

It’s a very simple reason: We obey because he asked us to.

That’s it. That’s all.

You see, dietary commands don’t have death penalties behind them when we violate them. Violating them simply makes us unclean, and there are solutions to uncleanness spelled out in the Torah.

But dietary commands play an important role: they establish a basis, in the small, easy-to-obey things in life, by which to judge our willingness to accept God’s sovereignty—His authority, His power to declare this right and that wrong, in our lives.

If we can obey Him in the little things, he can trust us with greater things.

If we can listen and follow through on his simplest instructions—such as what to eat, or what day to set aside as holy—then our obedience stirs up in Him the joy that causes Him to bless. The more we obey, the greater His joy. The greater His joy, the more abundant His blessings.

Now, someone will surely object that the idea of blessing and cursing is ancient and superstitious, bringing to mind as it can, for some, images of old women pointing crooked fingers at you and giving you the evil eye.

Yet, to the contrary, the concept of blessing and cursing was such an important part of Messiah’s teaching, there is an entire parable dedicated to it. We read this in:

Matthew 25:31-46
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, accompanied by all the angels, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. The “sheep” he will place at his right hand and the “goats” at his left.

Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take your inheritance, the Kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you have me something to drink, I was a stranger and you made me your guest, I needed clothes and you provided them, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”

Then the people who have done what God wants will reply, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and make you our guest, or needing clothes and provide them? When did we see you sick or in prison, and visit you?”

Then the King will say to them, “Yes! I tell you that whenever you did these things for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did them for me!”

Then he will also speak to those on his left, saying, “Get away from me, you who are cursed! Go off into the fire prepared for the Adversary and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, a stranger and you did not welcome me, needing clothes and you did not give them to me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.”

Then they, too, will reply, “Lord, when did we see you hungry, thirsty, a stranger, needing clothes, sick or in prison, and not take care of you?”

And he will answer them, “Yes! I tell you that whenever you refused to do it for the least important of these people, you refused to do it for me! They will go off to eternal punishment, but those who have done what God wants will go to eternal life.”

This parable features a style of Jewish reasoning called:

kol v’chomer
Arguing from the lesser to prove the greater.

That’s present in this parable of Yeshua. The message is, the details, the little things, matter to God. He wants us to not just hear a sermon, recite an Amen here and there, and then go about our week after the Shabbat is over.

What gives God joy, what makes him willing to bless or curse, is the extent to which we allow how we live our lives to be changed by His instructions and teachings. The extent to which we agree with him, rather than arguing with him.

As I shared earlier, the compulsion to pronounce blessings is a deep part of Jewish identity and thinking, and should be ours as well. The proof that this was historically true can even be found in the festivals of ADONAI and in the ways in which His temple was used.

The festival of Sukkot is coming up in a few months, and another name for that festival is, the Festival of Nations. Why? Because the purpose of the festival was to bless all the nations of the world, not just Yisra’el. What other nation prays for blessings upon both friends and enemies? Yet that is exactly what was done in the Temple historically on Sukkot.

Despite this, blessing others is not always met with kindness and blessing being returned to you. For example, we read in:

B’midbar Rabbah 21
The Sages have said: ‘In place of my love they hate me, and I pray (for them), (Tehilim 109): You find that during the Festival, Israel offers You seventy oxen for the seventy nations. Israel says: Master of the Universe! Behold, we offer You seventy oxen in their behalf, and they should have loved us…instead–’in the place of my love they hate me.’

And in further explanation:

Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Levi said
‘If the nations of the world would have known the value of the Temple for them, they would have surrounded it with fortresses in order to protect it. For it was of greater value for them than for Israel.

Indeed, blessing others can often become something that causes them to hate you. I was watching a true-crime show on TV in which all but one member of a family was murdered. At first, police suspected the daughter, because she survived, but in the end, it was the best friend of the son who confessed. When asked for a reason for his crime, he didn’t respond, but a journal of his was revealing. He wrote that he often fantasized about what it would be like to murder a happy family, because happy people angered him.

For all these reasons and more, I think it’s important to understand blessing and cursing for what they are: on God’s level, they express his joy when we do everything the way He asked us to, rather than relying on our own opinion, and his curses show the opposite.

On our level, however, I think we would do well to adopt into our own practice the habit of looking for opportunities to pronounce blessings. It is too easy in this life to pronounce curses over what we don’t have, which shows ingratitude for God.

Instead, let us leap at every opportunity we can find to thank God for all that he has given us, all that we often, but should not, take for granted. May we constantly be found grateful to our Creator for all ADONAI has given us, no matter how great or how small.

Shabbat Shalom.

First Sermon at Sh’ma Yisrael: Yonah

Shabbat Shalom.

When Rabbi Erez first invited me to teach today, my initial instinct was to teach from this week’s Torah portion. I’ve taught on this passage, Pinchas, once or twice before, so I could easily have come up with a message that allowed me to rely on studies I’ve done in the past.

However, as I began to study the passage, I realized that the part I really felt a tug toward began in last week’s portion, and concludes at the beginning of this week’s portion. It brings to mind a topic that seems basic, but becomes a little more mysterious when studied closely. Exploring that theme led me eventually to the book of Jonah, primarily, more so than this week’s portion.

So let’s begin our journey today where I began my own study for the week, in the book B’midbar, a Hebrew word that means, “In the wilderness.” And I think we can all agree that’s a more appropriate name for this section of Torah than “Numbers.”

Anyway, let’s begin our study at B’midbar / Numbers, chapter twenty-five, verse one:

B’midbar 25:1-13
Isra’el stayed at Sheetim, and there the people began whoring with the women of Mo’av. These women invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, where the people ate and bowed down to their gods. With Isra’el thus joined to Ba’al-P’or, the anger of ADONAI blazed up against Isra’el.

ADONAI said to Moshe, “Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them facing the sun before ADONAI, so that the raging fury of ADONAI will turn away from Isra’el.” Moshe siad to the judges of Isra’el, “Each of you is to put to death those in his tribe who have joined themselves to Ba’al P’or.”

Just then, in the sight of Moshe and the whole community of Isra’el, as they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting, a man from Isra’el came by, bringing to his family a woman from Midyan. When Pinchas the son of El’azer, the son of Aharon the cohen, saw it, he got up in the middle of the crowd, took a spear in his hand, and pursued the man from Isra’el right into the inner part of the tent, where he thrust his spear through both of them—the man from Isra’el and the woman through her stomach. Thus was the plague among the people of Isra’el stopped; nevertheless, twenty-four thousand died in the plague.

ADONAI said to Moshe, “Pinchas the son of El’azer, the son of Aharon the cohen, has deflected my anger from the people of Isra’el by being as zealous as I am, so that I didn’t destroy them in my own zeal. Therefore say, ‘I am giving him my covenant of shalom, making a covenant with him and his descendants after him that the office of cohen will be theirs forever.’ This is because he was zealous on behalf of his God and made atonement for the people of Isra’el.”

Now, that’s a hefty bit of Torah, isn’t it? There are many things one could discuss based on these thirteen verses alone. But what resonated with me during my study this week was the type of atonement that took place between Pinchas and ADONAI, and these extreme actions of Pinchas that God honors as an act of righteousness.

Certainly, the specific sin that Pinchas is responding to is as brazen as they come. Here, the community of Isra’el present in the wilderness has entered into the most basic of sins forbidden in the Torah: they had joined in the worship of other gods. To make matters worse, they had entered into sexual sin with the women of Mo’av as well, thus defiling both their bodies and their spirits.

In the context of last week’s portion, we know that this is a tactic used by Balak, on the advice of the prophet Bil’am. We learned that part of the reason God refused to be manipulated by Bil’am into allowing Isra’el to be cursed is that He found “no perversity among them.” Thus comes the temptation of the women of Mo’av, with their sins of the flesh and spirit.

And it works. The children of Isra’el fall into sins of the flesh and sins of the spirit, going so far as to bow down and worship other gods, the gods of the Mo’avites. This compromises somewhat the children of Isra’el.

That alone, dayienu, would have been enough. Through Moshe, God begins to pronounce a significant punishment. He is in the middle of ordering the chiefs of the people to be hanged in the sun, and for all who joined in the idolatry of the women of Mo’av to be put to death.

Try to imagine the scene. Leaders of Israel and many others are being put to death. Moshe is speaking God’s judgment against them. Families are weeping as they are torn apart. Righteous members of the community who did not join in the idolatry and other sins are watching their own brothers, fathers, and other family members who did join in, as they are led away to be put to the sword. Torah tells us that as Moshe is saying all this, the people of Isra’el are sitting in front of the Tent of Meeting, the very place where God’s presence dwelled with them, and they are weeping in sorrow.

And then.

And then along comes an Isra’elite, apparently oblivious to all that is going on around him, and he has with him a woman of Mo’av, one of the very women who helped tempt Isra’el into this moment of judgment, punishment, and sorrow.

Does he look at all this going on around him and change his mind? Send this woman of Mo’av on her way? No. He takes her to the Mishkan, the Tent of Meeting where the presence of HaShem dwells, and the implication is that he begins to repeat with her there the very same sins of the spirit and the flesh that started all this.

Now, some might ask, the Tent of Meeting? Really? Wouldn’t it be his own tent? And certainly that would be bad enough. But as Rabbi Erez pointed out to me this week, in the entire Tanach the Hebrew word Ha’kubah (The Tent/Canopy) is used only here. It is thought by most to refer to some type of canopy at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. This seems to fit the usage of the tent, the context flowing with the previous reference to the Tent of Meeting, rather than his tent. The single usage of the word appears to be due to the fact that it is derived—in grisly fashion—from kevah (stomach).

This is absolutely too much for Pinchas. He is a descendant of Aharon the cohen, the priest, and he has learned to be zealous for God. He has a fearful respect for God and His commands. And in this one instance, in this one situation, he takes an action that, today, seems brutal to us, perhaps, with our modern sensibilities. He runs a spear through the both of them, as they are engaged in the acts of their sin.

This is not the sort of action that would be deemed acceptable today. Yet these were unique circumstances. Remember the context. ADONAI Himself had taken the people out of slavery in Egypt. He had kept them alive during a lengthy sojourn in the desert, where He supernaturally provided for every need. That generation enjoyed a special closeness with God difficult for us to even comprehend today. And yet did this produce a generation of the most faithful men and women who had ever lived? Sadly, for most of those present in that generation, it did not.

So it takes a unique brazenness, even hard-heartedness, to walk through the middle of a community so specially provided for by God, in the middle of a process of repentance and atonement, in the middle of a scene where family members are grieving as their loved ones are being put to the sword, and to then start doing the exact same thing all his fellow community members are being punished for doing.

In this unique and singular case, Pinchas’ act brings an end to all the blood-letting, the plague and judgment going on around them all. Any other time, his action would most likely be considered a violation of the command not to murder. But this one time, it is seen as an act of atonement.

So, what is atonement, exactly?

A popular saw among Bible teachers is that if you break the English word up into three words, you get “at-one-ment” and they then go on to explain that atonement is the process of becoming at-one with ADONAI. But we get more than simple English word games if we explore the Hebrew word.

We know that the festival Yom Kippur means “Day of Atonement,” and that kippur is a Hebrew word that connects back to the word kaphar. Kaphar means “to cover over” in Hebrew. It is used to describe the pitch in Noah’s ark that made it water-tight during the flood; it’s also used to describe the cover of the ark of the covenant.

Hebrew scholar Jeff A. Benner, author of the book “The Living Words,” writes of the word kaphar:
“If an offense has been made, the one that has been offended can act as though the offense is covered over and unseen. We express this idea through the word of forgiveness. Atonement is an outward action that covers over the error.”

Now, this sort of passage is why some people allege that God as portrayed in the Torah is an angry God of judgment, while God as portrayed through Messiah Y’shua in the B’rit HaDashah is a loving God of forgiveness. Of course, most of us here know that this is not the case. God is unchanging, and in both the Tenakh and the Brit HaDasha, ADONAI always represents himself as both loving and forgiving, as well as holy, righteous, and able to deliver punishment to those who dwell in their sin. ADONAI does not change.

Yet due to the complex nature of HaShem, sometimes He is hard to understand. And if we think struggling to understand the complexity and mystery of HaShem is something new to our generation, it is not.

Which brings us to the book of the Tanakh I really want to discuss today: the book of the prophet Yonah.

Part of the reason I enjoy the book of Yonah so much and wanted to teach on it today is that I believe there are great messages in this book that are often overlooked. Too often, the story of Yonah is written off as a bit of a Jewish fairy tale, a legend with no basis in the history of the Jewish people, and a book that is often best left to Torah Tots story times. Its simple morality message of “there is no place you can run away from God” is often the only insight drawn from this prophet. And in doing so, I think many of us are missing out on quite a bit that is relevant to us and to our understanding of HaShem.

So let’s start our study of Yonah today by reading the first few verses. The book of Yonah begins like this:

Yonah 1:1-3a
The word of ADONAI came to Yonah, the son of Amitai: “Set out for the great city of Ninveh, and proclaim to it that their wickedness has come to my attention.”

But Yonah, in order to get away from ADONAI, prepared to escape to Tarshish.

Now, the first thing we’ll notice is that the narrative begins immediately, with Yonah being given a mission by HaShem. He’s told to set out for Ninveh and proclaim God’s judgment against them.

We’re not told, really, who Yonah was, other than the son of Amitai. We’re not really informed in the Yonah narrative about why he’s fleeing from God’s command to him. These things just take place and we sort of figure out as we go that Yonah is a prophet. The reason for his flight from God’s command is left mostly behind a veil of mystery.

Yet can we gather some clues that might help contextualize this story? We can.

Louis Ginzberg, a conservative Talmudic rabbi who lived from 1873 to 1953, wrote a seminal work that gathers and summarizes some of the traditions and folklore of the Hebrew people, called Legends of the Jews. From volume four of that work, on pages 246-247, we are given this insight into who Yonah was:

Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, vol. 4
Among the many thousands of disciples whom Elisha gathered about him during his sixty years and more of activity, the most prominent was the prophet Jonah. While the master was still alive, Jonah was charged with the important mission of anointing Jehu king. The next task laid upon him was to proclaim their destruction to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This doom did not come to pass, because they repented of their wrong-doing, and G-d had mercy upon them. Among the Israelites Jonah was, therefore, known as “the false prophet.” When he was sent to Nineveh to prophesy the downfall of the city, he reflected, “I know to a certainty that the heathen will do penance, the threatened punishment will not be executed, and among the heathen, too, I shall gain the reputation of being a false prophet.”

This insight, based on an ancient Hebrew midrash, is helpful to our efforts to understand the prophet Yonah and why he would attempt to flee from HaShem’s command. We are told he was one of the most prominent disciples of Elisha, that he was involved in appointing Yehu king, and most importantly… that he was tasked with prophesying destruction toward the city of Yerushalayim, and when that city repented, the destruction was held off by ADONAI and did not come to pass.

However, we also see the root of the potential problem here. Among the Israelites, we are told, Yonah had acquired a nickname: the false prophet.

Now, it might be hard for us to understand the seriousness of this nickname today. After all, we live in a time where secular prophets like Jeanne Dixon have been accurate maybe ten percent of the time, and are lauded as geniuses. We look at the French poet and self-appointed seer, Nostradamus, whose quatrains can only be force-fitted to be accurate after something major has occurred, and our entire culture fears his accuracy.

But we in the early part of the twenty-first century don’t understand the prophetic office, or prophetic accuracy, the way the Hebrew people of Yonah’s day did. Prophets of those times were held to a much higher standard. To be considered a true prophet of ADONAI, one must be accurate every single time. We read this, in part, from:

Deuteronomy 18:20-22
“‘But if a prophet presumptuously speaks a word in my name which I didn’t order him to say, or if he speaks in the name of other gods, then that prophet must die.’ You may be wondering, ‘How are we to know if a word has not been spoken from Adonai?’ When a prophet speaks in the name of ADONAI, and the prediction does not come true—that is, the word is not fulfilled—then ADONAI did not speak that word. The prophet who said it spoke presumptuously; you have nothing to fear from him.

So, there are the stakes, laid out for us in the words of the Torah itself. If a prophet speaks presumptuously in the name of HaShem, or in the name of false gods, he must be put to death, and one of the signs that HaShem did not speak through such a prophet is that the prediction did not come true, the word was not fulfilled.

One hundred percent accuracy. No exceptions. No guesses. Only speaking exactly what HaShem tells you to say, when He tells you to say it. No second chances. Speak falsely once, and you’re subject to a death penalty.

That’s a high standard. But it’s understandable, as well, because by this Biblical standard, prophets were representatives of HaShem. If there were false words found in their mouths, that would reflect on God. And is there ever a false word that flows from the mouth of God? Of course not.

By this high standard, all the secular so-called prophets of our time would never have lasted very long.

And this is why this label of “false prophet,” if the Hebrew tradition about Yonah is accurate, would be such a source of concern. It doesn’t take many people calling you a false prophet before someone’s going to act on that. It is reasonable to surmise that under such circumstances and background, the prophet Yonah could very well have been in fear of his life, and perhaps was even no longer welcomed in the Land.

With this insight, it becomes more understandable why Yonah might be hesitant. After all, this isn’t the first time he’s been asked to declare a day of destruction against an entire city. It’s happened before, and the people repented and the city was spared.

Keep in mind that in the ancient world, in Yonah’s time, there was really only two places for someone like Yonah to be. He could dwell in the Land of his people, or he could dwell among the nations. If indeed there is evil speech—lashon hara—circulating about Yonah in the Land of Isra’el, then one of those options, in his mind, has already been eliminated. If he is being called a false prophet, this is no casual insult or nickname; it’s the shadow of death hanging over him.

And so, all Yonah has left to him is to live among the nations.

And then, as the book of Yonah opens, God calls for him to give a repeat performance, this time against a city among the nations. In Yonah’s mind, the fear for his own life was likely great. He’d been called to prophesy against Yerushalayim, the city repented and was spared, and as a result he’s called a false prophet in the Land of Isra’el.

Now, if he follows God’s command, he fears the same thing will happen; the people will repent, and even the nations will offer no refuge for him. And Yonah’s struggle, many have observed, is against the seemingly contradictory character qualities of God. Namely, that he had been told by God to speak of destruction against at least one city and perhaps another, and yet labeled a false prophet when God holds off that destruction in favor of showing His mercy. How can both things be true?

You see, just like us today, even a prophet like Yonah sometimes had a hard time understanding the mysteries of HaShem. He struggled with the same questions. How can he be considered a prophet, if the destruction HaShem instructs him to foretell doesn’t come to pass? That is the fuel to this fire of evil speech against Yonah. Tied into it is this idea that God is not like a man who changes His mind with the wind, yet He is a compassionate and forgiving God as well. These seem, to our mind, to be contradictions. Therefore, they seem mysterious.

Let’s read deeper into the Yonah narrative. As we all know, he hops a boat to Tarshish, but a storm comes up and threatens to kill all on board. Yonah tells those he is with to toss him into the sea, and the storm will pass. They are reluctant to do so, but eventually feel they have no choice, and ask God not to hold the blood of Yonah against them.

Then comes the huge fish. The breed of fish is not named as a whale, even though that is often assumed. Some Hebrew traditions hold that it may have even been Leviatan, the great creature of the deep. Whatever it might have been, however, is not of great importance to our purposes. The point is that Yonah is swallowed and spends three days and three nights in the belly of this large fish.

And the second chapter of Yonah demonstrates what that time in the belly of the fish brings out in him. Let’s read the prayer he prays as he rests in the belly of the large fish, starting in:

Yonah 2:3-10
Out of my distress I called to ADONAI,
and he answered me;
from the belly of Sh’ol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
For you threw me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas;
and the flood enveloped me;
all your surging waves passed over me.
I thought, “I have been banished from your sight,”
But I will again look at your holy temple.
The water surrounded me,
threatened my life,
the deep closed over me,
seaweed twined around my head.
I was going down to the bottoms of the mountains,
to a land whose bars would close me in forever;
but you brought me up alive from the pit,
ADONAI my God!
As my life was ebbing away,
I remembered ADONAI;
and my prayer came in to you,
into your holy temple.
“Those who worship vain idols
give up their source of mercy;
but I, speaking my thanks aloud,
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed, I will pay.
Salvation comes from ADONAI.

Now, consider for a moment how that last line would be read in Hebrew. It reads, “Yeshuatah La’ADONAI.” Salvation comes from HaShem. Or, Yeshua comes from the LORD.

Yeshua, the Messiah, the salvation of Isra’el, comes from the LORD. Yeshuatah La’ADONAI. That is the final confession of Yonah in the belly of the big fish. Yeshua comes from the LORD. That is the confession that regains Yonah his freedom, his second chance to obey HaShem’s command.

Now, this is where some rabbinic traditions get a little, shall we say, poetic? There are traditions that suggest that Yonah lived in complete comfort in the belly of this big fish, using its eyes as windows into the sea, to observe all of God’s undersea wonders, and that a huge diamond shed light on the entire area.

Of course, we know such things could never be, and are certainly not suggested by the text. Nor would they lead to such a prayer of humility. Nor would they lead to Yonah’s change of heart.

Yonah’s prayer affirms God’s goodness amid Yonah’s own rebellion. It compares his surroundings in the big fish to she’ol, which is often translated as “the pit,” “the grave,” or even “the abode of death.”

And if we imagine for a moment the possibility of Yonah living inside a large fish for three days, we can paint a portrait of how he must have looked on the shores of Ninveh after being spewed up by the fish.

As a result of the digestive juices, most of his clothes were probably in tatters. It’s possible Yonah suffered bites, acidic burns and other wounds. His hair would have at least have been disheveled, if not burned away. I mean, Yonah was very likely half-digested. He probably hadn’t eaten in all that time, and it’s likely he smelled pretty bad, too.

While God did spare his life, Yonah did not show up on the shores of Ninveh in a smart three-piece tuxedo, a perfect haircut, and a smile on his face, looking like the modern-day concept of an evangelist. This is a man who, by admission in his own prayer, has almost literally been to the abode of death and back again.

So when Yonah, looking this way, starts to march around Ninveh shouting, “In forty days, Ninveh will be overthrown!” in Yonah 3:4b, it’s no small wonder that we’re told he’d barely finished his first day of prophesying against Ninveh before the people of that great city believed God. The message was coming from someone who looked at least half-dead himself!

All the people of Ninveh then begin to wear sackcloth and ashes and repent from their wickedness. Now, that’s a nice, tidy little phrase, but I think we miss the extent of it with our modern, Western ears and preconceived notions. This was not just an, “Oops, I sinned. Sorry, God” moment. Not at all.

In his book, Legends of the Jews, on page 251 of volume four, Ginzberg writes of the Ninveh repentance these words:

Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews
The penance of the Ninevites did not stop at fasting and praying. Their deeds showed that they had determined to lead a better life. If a man had usurped another’s property, he sought to make amends for his iniquity; some went so far as to destroy their palaces in order to be able to give back a single brick to the rightful owner. Of their own accord others appeared before the courts of justice, and confessed their secret crimes and sins, known to none beside themselves, and declared themselves ready to submit to well-merited punishment, though it be death that was decreed against them.

Now, the words of the King of Ninveh are problematic to some in Yonah 3:9, where, after ordering all this repentance, we read this quote from the King:

Yonah 3:9
“Who knows? Maybe God will change his mind, relent, and turn from his fierce anger; and then we won’t perish.”

It’s stated very similarly in the Masoretic text and translated that way. Yet the way it’s worded trips people up. We know elsewhere that God has revealed about himself that He “isn’t like a man, who changes His mind.”

Yet it’s an imperfect translation that stops us.

Back in the days just before the days of Messiah Yeshua, as the Aramaic language grew in popular use in Isra’el, the rabbis of that day decided to translate the Tenakh into Aramaic, so God’s message could be more widely understood by all.

These efforts gave rise to what is known as the Aramaic Targums. These were very liberal translations because the scribes in charge of the translation knew that some concepts easily understood in Hebrew wouldn’t carry over to the new tongue and culture, so they made efforts to expand on the text, adding in extra insights and explanations, and sometimes going so far as to add in contextual information, Hebrew traditions and folklore that were not part of the Torah text, but helped capture their understanding of Torah at that time.

For example, the passage in Numbers that says, “a star shall rise out of Jacob” would drop the poetic expression in this Aramaic rendering. If the rabbis of that time believed “star” to be a reference to Messiah, they’d simply render the verse, “Messiah shall rise out of Jacob.”

So while the Aramaic Targums are not a hundred percent reliable as literal translations of the text, they are useful for understanding the Hebrew Tenakh, as it was popularly understood in the days of Yeshua and His talmidim.

Thus, there is help for us, to be found in an Aramaic Targum of the book of Yonah. The Targum renders the King of Ninveh’s words quite differently. Instead of suggesting God changes him mind, it reads:

Targum Jonah 3:9
“Whoever knows that there are sins on his conscience, let him repent of them and we will be pitied before the Lord.”

So, under this Targum rendering, God does not change His mind; He shows pity. That is more consistent with our understanding of HaShem.

And this gets to the heart of the whole conflict Yonah faced.

Was the charge against Yonah accurate? Was he truly a false prophet, simply because he may have prophesied the destruction of Yerushalayim and it did not come to pass? Was he truly a false prophet, because he prophesied the destruction of Ninveh and it did not come to pass?

Of course not.

His prophecy was true because had those in Ninveh not turned completely away from their wickedness, God certainly would have carried out his destruction of Ninveh. It is not accurate to call Yonah a false prophet, simply because a city he said would be destroyed was not immediately destroyed. He would only be a false prophet if he said the city would be destroyed, and then the city was not destroyed even though they did not repent.

This is another key to understanding these dueling aspects of God. He will do what he says, but He will also show mercy and forgiveness when repentance is genuine. God’s pity, His mercy, does not make Yonah a false prophet.

However, that does not mean all is well with Yonah. There’s trouble brewing, and a deeper message to this book of Yonah. Let’s start reading again in:

Yonah 3:10-4:2
When God saw by their deeds that they had turned from their evil way, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

But this was very displeasing to Yonah, and he became angry. He prayed to ADONAI, “Now, ADONAI, didn’t I say this would happen, when I was still in my own country? That’s why I tried to get away to Tarshish ahead of time! I know you were a God who is mericful and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in grace, and that you relent from inflicting punishment.”

Before we continue, don’t those words sound familiar? Where have we heard them before? Well, of course, in:

Exodus 34:6-7
And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

So it’s clear that Yonah knew his Torah. He’s quoting Exodus here, even as he’s expressing his frustration and anger toward God.

And I must say, one of the wonderful aspects of the Hebrew prophets, I think, is that even when they are upset, they do not speak falsely about God. Can you imagine, even in your anger, what it would be like if you constantly told yourself the truth of who God was and is? If we never allowed ourselves, as we can so often be tempted to do, to place blame and condemnation for our own action on God, how much better off we might be.

It’s a quality we see in the book of Job, and it’s a quality we see when Yonah’s in the belly of the fish, and we see it again even here. So let’s continue reading:

Yonah 4:3-4
Therefore, ADONAI, please, just take my life away from me; it’s better for me to be dead than alive!” ADONAI asked, “Is it right for you to be so angry?”

Now, to my ears at least, that’s always seemed a little extreme.

“God, you’re too merciful! You’re too forgiving! Just kill me now!”

Yet, funny as it may seem out of context, Yonah’s facing, for him, a serious issue. He’s called upon Yonah to prophesy the destruction of a city in the Land of Isra’el, only to have the city spared and to be referred to as a false prophet; and now the same thing has happened in the nations. For Yonah, there is nowhere left to turn.

For, you see, part of what we see in Yonah is not ridiculously suicidal despair over God’s mercy. What we see is something that probably hits close to home for many of us: Jonah has allowed the impressions of other people to matter more to him than God’s impression of him.

Yonah has been obedient. He’s been a truthful prophet. But because the people see him differently, he despairs. You see, my theory is this: Yonah had so lost his perspective that he was more interested in achieving a specific end result than he was in seeing God’s purposes fulfilled.

The opinions of others mattered to Yonah so much that he’d rather see a city full of people destroyed, than to see them repent. In essence, Yonah’s failing is that he wanted to be right. He wanted to be right more than he wanted God to be worshipped.

So we get the castor-bean plant episode where God raises up a vine overnight to provide Yonah shade, and then kills the same plant the next day. God’s purpose is to remind Yonah of His sovereignty. But Yonah expresses again that he feels he’d be better off dead than alive, which elicits this response from God in:

Yonah 4:9-11
God asked Yonah, “Is it right for you to be so angry about the castor-bean plant?” He answered, “Yes, it’s right for me to be so angry that I could die!” ADONAI said, “You’re concerned over the castor-bean plant, which cost you no effort; you didn’t make it grow; it came up in a night and perished in a night. So shouldn’t I be concerned about the great city of Ninveh, in which there are more than 120,000 people who don’t know their right hand from their left, not to mention all the animals?”

The simplicity of the message of Yonah can be misleading. While it’s easy to write off as a children’s lesson about being forgiving, there is much more here.

One intriguing aspect is a story that has, by many rabbis, been attributed to be connected to Yonah.

In I Kings 17, we read about how the prophet Elijah visited a widow and her son and how the son died after eating a meal provided by the prophet. Elijah then takes the boy up to the attic, prays for G-d’s mercy, and the life of the boy is restored. Although the text of I Kings does not name this son of a widow by name, rabbinic tradition holds that his was, in fact, Yonah, who would become a disciple of Elijah and, later, his successor, Elisha.

While we cannot be completely sure this tradition is true, since the boy is not named in the biblical text itself, it certainly lends more background to how Yonah reacts to the merciful actions of ADONAI.

If true, his life has been a pattern of brushes with death and restoration by God. One would imagine Yonah would appreciate more than most God’s abundant mercy, and yet because he has become more concerned with the opinion of others than the opinion of God, he despairs over God’s mercy… mercy he himself has benefitted from both in the text of Yonah, and possibly in other ways suggested by Jewish tradition.

When explaining the purpose of the book of Yonah, the Jewish Encyclopedia has this to say:

Jewish Encyclopedia
[Jonah, as] J. Wellhausen has best expressed it, is directed “against the impatience of the Jewish believers, who are fretting because, notwithstanding all predictions, the antitheocratic world-empire has not yet been destroyed;—because ADONAI is still postponing His judgment of the heathen, giving them further time for repentance. ADONAI, it is hinted, is hoping that they will turn from their sins in the eleventh hour; and He has compassion for the innocent ones, who would perish with the guilty.”

Ultimately, isn’t this a struggle we’ve all felt at one time or another? We rejoice when God saves us, and then despair when we observe the evil of others. It becomes easy to forget that we, too, were once in the crosshairs of His wrath.

And to procure atonement, it would be wise to take a lesson from the Ninvehites. Repentance is not lip-service toward regret for doing wrong, or for being caught at doing wrong. It’s not just words. Words of repentance must be accompanied by actions. We should seek to make whole those whom we’ve harmed, rather than offer mere words of apology.

And we must put our old ways behind us. As it says in the Mishnah in:

TA’AN 16A
“He that confesses his sin and still clings to it is likened to a man that holds in his hand a defiling object; though he bathes in all the waters of the world he is not cleansed; but the moment he casts the defiling object from him a single bath will cleanse him, as it is said (Prov. 28:13): He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”

Therefore, perhaps, returning now to where we began in this week’s parashah with the actions of Pinchas, perhaps we can better understand what drove him to such extreme actions. To allow in the wilderness community even one member to continue in the very sins the rest of them were repenting for would have nullified and made void all the deaths that were being carried out. Torah tells us that Pinchas’ actions spared lives that day; yet even with his actions, twenty-four thousand Hebrews still died.

That can lead some folks to think God is capricious, that he delights in the taking of life. May that never be said of HaShem! We must remember that no single verse, no single chapter, no single book of the Tenakh or the B’rit HaDasha exists in a vacuum. We must strive to take in all that God has revealed to us in all of His Word.

So the next time someone suggests to you that stories like the tale of Pinchas paint HaShem as cruel and unconcerned with the deaths of others, remind them of the book of Yonah, where, thanks to the genuine repentance of the people, and despite the anguish His mercy caused Yonah, God spared an entire city because of the innocent lives, the great number of the people, and even the innocent animals that would have perished alongside the wicked.

Ninveh was no Sodom; it was no Gomorrah. Had they not repented, that city could have joined them in their destruction. Yet the book of Yonah shows that God will show His mercy, rather than His judgment, to all who walk away from wickedness with a pure heart toward ADONAI.

May all of us, like Jonah, cry out, Yeshuatah La’ADONAI. Salvation comes from our God. Yeshua, the Messiah, comes from our God!

Shabbat Shalom.

Review: Kosher Jesus by Shmuley Boteach

First of all, I must say that it was with gladness that I greeted the news that America’s most famous rabbi, Shmuley Boteach, had written a book about the central figure in Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth. Now, he is hardly the first rabbi to perform such a task, but R. Boteach is certainly one of the most prominent in the present day to do so.

My hope for R. Boteach’s KOSHER JESUS is this: that the book gain enough popularity among Jewish readers to make the person known as Jesus a kosher topic of discussion among the Hebrew people. Too often, there have been instances where rifts develop among Jewish families and other relatives, simply for bringing up the name of Christianity’s central figure. If his book can merely accomplish the task of making Jesus safe for discussion in Jewish families, R. Boteach has performed a powerful mitzvah through his authorship.

It should be noted that the intended audience of KOSHER JESUS is not primarily Christians. His audience for this tome is Jewish, in a very intentional manner. As such, he develops theories and ideas about Jesus that many in Christianity will take issue with. That should be expected.

Due to the nature of this book, before I discuss KOSHER JESUS, I think a mention of my own background is necessary. For over a dozen years, I have attended Messianic Jewish communities, including several years of intense theological study as part of an informal Messianic Yeshiva. Prior to joining the Messianic movement, I was a goyim (of the nations) Christian, so I do not personally have any Jewish heritage. My ancestors were Irish. So, this is the perspective I bring to my reading and review of KOSHER JESUS.

Now, to the review at hand.

First, R. Boteach writes in a very fluid and accessible style. His prose reads quickly and one seldom gets bogged down in pretentious scholarly vocabulary and presentation.

In other words, his book was written for a popular audience, and so that a wide swath of readers could pick it up and understand his ideas. This approach doesn’t do as well for him in the early going of the book, where he is developing his main suppositions on who Jesus of Nazareth was historically, in his first-century Jewish context.

Too often, it appears as though R. Boteach is merely asserting his own theories without the benefit of research and scholarly support. A plethora of end notes, however, indicate otherwise.

His greatest weakness, perhaps, is relying too heavily on the more scholarly-oriented work of Hyam Maccoby. KOSHER JESUS reads as though he has expected his audience to have read and become as familiar with Mr. Maccoby’s work as he is. This is unfortunate, because R. Boteach leaves readers not familiar with Maccoby’s books a little adrift at times.

In developing his portrait of a Jewish Jesus, R. Boteach leans on a familiar saw summed up succinctly in the words of this short poem:

“Blame it all
On Paul.”

In sum, R. Boteach’s theory is that the historical Jesus was a military Jewish rebel more concerned with political overthrow of Israel’s Roman occupiers; a man who was a Pharisee, freedom fighter, and a fierce Israeli patriot.

While R. Boteach’s Jesus seems new, his arguments are familiar: that Paul was primarily responsible for the development of a Christianity that embraced hostility toward Judiasm, and that later editors attempted to write the true nature of the historical Jesus out of the New Covenant writings.

Once he gets past these sticky points of contention, Boteach becomes incredibly articulate in outlining the Jewish identity of Jesus, stripping away the pagan trappings that have attached themselves to him over the centuries. He makes excellent points about how Jesus might have viewed Rome, regarded Jewish customs, and interacted among his fellow Jewish citizens.

What he builds is a portrait of a Jesus that Jewish people could indeed proudly embrace as a hero of their people.

His work, however, is not without some weaknesses.

The first thematic weakness of KOSHER JESUS is that R. Boteach relies far too heavily on traditional Christian interpretation of the New Covenant writings, assuming that those centuries-held teachings are not only a reflection of historical Christianity (they are, by and large), but also the proper and accurate way to interpret them (not so, in some cases).

Furthermore, many of his contentions and drawn from the non-canonical “Gospel of Peter.” Since most people, even outside of Christianity, will understand that Christians do not draw their theology from The Gospel of Peter, his over-reliance on it here also weakens his arguments.

As one example, R. Boteach asserts in his text that both Peter and Paul “ate pork.”

He bases his assertion on popularly misunderstood portions of Acts 10 and 15, as well as Mark 7, which are passages Christians have historically pointed to as allowing for the consumption of meats declared unclean by God in Leviticus.

Yet any careful study of these passages show that the discussions in any of these passages was not about clean or unclean foods at all.

So much of what R. Boteach posits about Paul rests on this misunderstanding, it weakens his argument once one realizes these were not the issues at play in those passages.

While R. Boteach’s work in KOSHER JESUS has done much to liberate the Jewish Jesus from his anti-Semitic Christian trappings, he does so at the expense of most of the New Covenant writings, as well as most of Jesus’s disciples, who likewise were completely Jewish and not always what Christianity makes them out to be. But one can only expect to accomplish so much in about 300 pages.

The second primary thematic weakness in R. Boteach’s work is that he often slips up, painting Jesus not merely as a Jewish man, but as a 21st Century Orthodox Rabbi, in some instances. While it is true that Jesus was a first century Jew, and some of the core teachings of modern Judaism come from first-century Pharisaic Judaism, it is a misstep to equate first-century Pharisaic Judaism with 21st-century Orthodox Judaism.

While considerably closer to the mark than mainstream Christianity’s popular conception of Jesus, there is still a vast cultural gulf between the 2,000 years that separate Jesus of Nazareth and Shmuley Boteach. They might not always see eye-to-eye.

In the final analysis, while KOSHER JESUS may rub mainstream Christians the wrong way, this book was not for them. It is a work of a dedicated and popular Orthodox Rabbi, and its purpose is to paint a portrait of the first-century Jewish Jesus that modern Jews can reclaim and embrace as a cultural hero, without having to view him as divine, which is anathema to Judaism.

As an aside, I will say the book could have easily done without the chapter containing Shmuley’s ad-hominem attack that Christian churches are “too obsessed” with “anti-gay” messages. This is another unfortunate example of R. Boteach painting all of Christianity with too broad a brush.

There are many Christian churches who agree that while homosexuality is a sin, it’s certainly just one among many. In my pre-Messianic days, I almost never came across any church that was obsessed with “anti-gay” sermons; if it was mentioned once or twice a year, that was notable. I suspect not much has changed in the dozen or so years since I embraced the Messianic movement.

As a Messianic believer and reader, I do in the end possess some differences with R. Boteach on his conclusions about the fitness of Jesus (we prefer his Hebrew-Aramaic name, Yeshua) as the promised Messiah.

Yet despite such differences on Jesus’ messiahship, it might surprise R. Boteach to know how often I found myself agreeing with him. KOSHER JESUS helps unclutter the portrait Jesus from his Greco-Roman Christian trappings to reach a more accurate first-century Jewish understanding of Yeshua.

Although I’m not convinced Yeshua was a first-century military rebel leader, largely unconcerned with spiritual matters, what I find refreshing is that R. Boteach has, at minimum, found a way to make acceptable a discussion of who Jesus was.

While our conclusions are and likely will remain somewhat different on key issues, his book has helped to popularize some teachings that hopefully will make an ongoing, respectful, non-proslytizing dialog more possible and palatable than it has been since any time in perhaps 1900 of the last 2000 years.

As a Messianic believer in Yeshua, I have spent the past dozen years learning the Jewish nature of Yeshua. Because of this, KOSHER JESUS is a welcome contribution to the discussion.

A faithful Jewish cantor once told me, “Here in America, you say there are Christians, and there are Messianics. But in Israel, there is no difference.”

On the broadest possible spectrum, I can understand that lack of distinction. However, were I to write a book adding the Messianic perspective on Yeshua to this conversation, I suspect R. Boteach might be surprised by how often I agree with him, and on the much greater number of issues upon which I differ with mainstream Christianity.

KOSHER JESUS is not a book written for Christians; yet if Christians can resist attacking it because of the points they disagree with, and see it for what it is, I suspect it could serve as a path toward a more deeply respectful dialog between Christians and Jews. As a Messianic, I would only hope we are welcomed to the table for such a civil discussion, as well. Perhaps as moderators.

Sermon: Listening to God

Shabbat Shalom

This week’s parashah brings us to the final portion of the book of B’midbar, the book we call Numbers. The portion is called Masei, a Hebrew word that translates to “Journeys of.” And in chapter thirty-three, the L-RD through Moses recounts all the journeys of His people through the wilderness, from the first day of the exodus until that moment. It’s a long chapter, but has a very familiar structure. Each account of a step in their journey reads like this:

Numbers 33:6
They moved on from Sukkot and camped at Etam, by the edge of the desert.

The moved, and then they camped. That’s the pattern. They moved and camped, moved and camped. Yet how did they determine when to move and where to camp? Was it on a whim? No, if we look back throughout the Torah, each move of the people of Israel was given by God to Moses, and their obedience followed.

Now, there have been many incidents during this journey that we’ve read about by studying along with Stan this year in our journey through the Torah. We read about the people’s complaints about the manna, about their need for water, about the Korah rebellion and about external threats posed by figures such as King Balak and the rebellious prophet, Balaam.

As much rebellion and discontent with God as has been expressed over this period in the desert, one thing has remained constant. When God told them to move, they moved; and when God told them to camp, they camped.

It may not seem like a lot. Certainly, one could wish for greater obedience, fewer troubles, less rebellion. But we should not be too quick to skim over or dismiss this passage in our reading this week, because it reveals a pattern that answers a somewhat universal question.

One thing many of us who are believers struggle with is, “How do I listen to God? How can I know I’m hearing him?”

It’s a simple question on the surface, but can become far more complex in application. But the basic clue to the ultimate solution to this is revealed in some of the last words of B’midbar. We read this in:

Numbers 36:13
These are the teachings and rulings which THE LORD gave through Moses to the people of Israel in the Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho.

These are the teachings and rulings. Let’s notice that phrase. Some translations will render it as “These are the laws and regulations.” It is perhaps more helpful, to today’s Western audience, to use words like teaching, instruction and similar words. Yet this is a relatively modern phenomenon, brought about by our culture, our time, our biases.

But in earlier times, and certainly in the time of Yeshua, the concept of laws or commands did not carry with it our modern negative connotations. Laws were seen by the people to be a good thing; a protection against chaos, against lawlessness, against crime and selfish acts dominating and dictating the acts of others.

This was true even in the time of Moses, for as we read in:

Deuteronomy 4:8
And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?

We can intuit from this passage that not only were the laws of God considered a good and positive thing, but they themselves were a witness to the nations. The laws and rulings of man might be petty and unfair, but the laws of God were set apart from the laws of the world because they were not petty or unfair. As the Torah tells us over and over again, God had one set of laws, one set of teachings, one set of instructions that were for everyone, including, “the stranger living among you.” God’s sense of justice applied equally to all; this was not the case in other parts of the world at that time. Even today, many nations have one set of penalties for natives of their land, and another set of penalties for those who are not natives.

Is it possible for us to adopt that mindset today? Can we still see the goodness and protection in the laws of God, or are our minds so polluted by the corruption of the world around us that we must rename His laws as “instructions” or “teachings” in order to avoid having them seem automatically onerous and unfair?

Whatever we choose to call them – laws, teachings, instructions – however, misses the main point. The main point is that when God speaks, when He tells us something, our obedience should follow. That is the pattern of the heroes of faith throughout the Torah. Let’s take a look at a few examples. Noah is one of the heroes mentioned in book of Hebrews’ Faith Hall of Fame.

Genesis 6:13-14
God said to Noah, “The end of all living beings has come before me, for because of them the earth is filled with violence. I will destroy them along with the Earth. Make for yourself an ark of gofer-wood…

Would Noah’s name have been included if God had said, “Make for yourself an ark of gofer-wood,” and he had ignored God’s instructions? Of course not.

Let’s look at Abram. We read in:

Genesis 12:1
Now THE LORD said to Abram, “Get yourself out of your country, away from your kinsmen and away from your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.”

In this example as well, the pattern for listening to God is established. God speaks, lets us know what He wants, gives us instructions and then…

We just stand there rejoicing that God spoke to us? Well, maybe, for a time, but then…

We go around and tell all our friends, “God spoke to me! God spoke to me!” Umm… maybe… but then…

We pray again and again and again, just to make sure we really understood all the finer nuances…

No. What sets apart the obedient from the rest? They obey. They go and do “everything The LORD commanded them.”

We continue to see this pattern of God commanding, offering instructions, and obedience following. Let’s read:

Genesis 35:1
God said to Jacob, “Get up, go up to Beit-El and live there, and make there an alter to God, who appeared to you when you fled Esau your brother.”

And this pattern continues beyond the patriarchs. Here is how, after introducing himself to Moses, God instructs him at the burning bush:

Exodus 3:10
“Therefore, now, come; and I will send you to Pharoah; so that you can lead my people, the descendants of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Now. Come. Come now.

Not next week. Not a couple years down the line. Now. This is part of the nature of listening to God. When he has something for us to do, he doesn’t offer up a bunch of lead-time. He doesn’t tell us what’s coming three to five years down the road. He simply says, “Now, come,” and it is our obligation to follow and do.

And I think part of the reason why is that God knows our hearts. He knows that even among the obedient, if he offers us the luxury of time to think instead of obey, we’ll find a way out, a reason to put off obedience.

Consider the example of the prophet Samuel from:

1 Samuel 16:1
The LORD said to Samuel, “How much longer are you going to go on grieving for Saul, now that I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, because I have chosen myself a king from among his sons”

One of the wonderful things about listening to God is this: he’s never at a loss. He’s never unsure. He knows the answers to all our, “Now what?” and “What’s next?” questions. Often, what holds us back is our own willingness to hear what He has to say, or own readiness to obey “all that the LORD has commanded.”

And we’re not alone in that. God knew what he wanted when he said this in:

Jonah 1:1 -2
The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amitai: “Set out for the great city of Ninevah, and proclaim to it that their wickedness has come to my attention.”

And we all remember how obedient Jonah was at first, right? He ran the other way and found out there is nowhere you can run that God cannot find out. And when he was finally expelled from the belly of that big fish, done with his rebellion of the moment, what did God say?

Jonah 3:1-2
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Set out for the great city of Ninevah, and proclaim to it the message I will give you.”

This nature of listening to God is something that carries over into the New Covenant writings, the gospel accounts. Yeshua calls his talmidim in very much the same way in which the LORD called various patriarchs, prophets and other heroes of the faith. We read this, for example, in:

Luke 5:27-28
Later Yeshua went out and saw a tax-collector named Levi sitting in his tax-collection booth; he said to him, “Follow me!” He got up, left everything, and followed Him.

And it is obedience in following him, that sort of unhesitant obedience, that is the key element of actually listening to God, just as Levi did here.

How important is our ability to listen and obey God? One could make the point that without it, we have no relationship with God, as Yeshua warns in:

Luke 6:46-49
Why do you call me, “Lord! Lord!” but do not do what I say? Everyone who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them – I will show you what he is like: he is like someone building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on bedrock. When a flood came, the torrent beat against that house but couldn’t shake it, because it was constructed well. And whoever hears my words but doesn’t act on them is like someone who built his house on ground without any foundation. As soon as the river struck it, it collapsed and that house became a horrendous wreck.”

So if we believe God, are we going to blow him off? Are we going to ignore what he tells us? Are we going to argue with Him over whether He’s right or wrong?

Too often, that’s what we try to do. And it can manifest itself in ways that are both noticeable and subtle. Think back to when you first were introduced to the Messianic movement, to the concept that commands even as seemingly minor as avoiding unclean foods like pork, were concepts still relevant in the lives of those who follow Messiah Yeshua?

Some of us were willing to obey sooner than others, but because it was a new teaching, I think most of us who come from a Christian background had to at least go through that, “Say what?” moment. Our obedience increases as our understanding grows.

But at some point, we all reach that part of our journey where we fully understand what God’s asking of us. We can no longer say, “Oh, we didn’t know.” At some point, we know. And when we reach that point, it’s time to decide … are we going to obey? Or are we going to continue arguing with God?

There are rewards for obedience. Those of us who listen to God and do what he says gain an intimacy with Him that goes as deep as a family bond, as Yeshua confirms in:

Luke 8:21
But he gave them this answer: “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s message and act on it!”

And see, more than any outward show of words, it is our choices, our actions, our decision either to obey or rebel that determines whether we will receive the benefits of such a relationship with God.

We can fill out lives with the trappings of religion. We can wear kippahs and tallits, we can show up at every service, every mo’edim, every event sponsored by our community here at Kehilat Sar Shalom. We can even drop our weekly offerings into the offering box, show up for Feed My Starving Children and help out in the kitchen.

But if we’re not obedient to “all that the LORD has commanded” us, it’s all dross. If we obey God, if we listen and do as He says, all those things are wonderful. Without our obedience, without our listening and doing, none of the rest will mean much.

This is the point Yeshua is making when he said this in:

Matthew 7:21
Not everyone who says to me, “LORD! LORD!” will enter the kingdom of heaven, only those who do what my Father in heaven wants.

Notice the smallest word in that verse is probably the most important one: do. Those who do what my Father in heaven wants. That do represents our obedience. And to be obedient, we must first listen. We listen, and then we do.

Yeshua expounds on this in greater detail in this parable in:

Matthew 21:28-31
“There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered.

This underlines an important point: while our words our important, they are only meaningful when backed up by our obedience. And when our obedience and our words are at odds, it is our obedience that God credits to us as righteousness.

Listening to God is not easy to do.

Sometimes it’s not easy because, deep down, we know what God is going to ask of us, and whatever it is, we don’t want to give it up.

And that doesn’t have to even be about a sin. Sometimes what you’re holding on to is merely comfortable and familiar. Not bad in and of itself. But if the choice is to hold onto that, or follow a more challenging call of God, guess which one becomes the better choice?

The better choice is always the one that involves listening to and obeying the LORD.

Andie and I have some current experience in this area. I have been part of the community here at Kehilat Sar Shalom for twelve Passover Sedars, about eleven years and counting.

In that time, I’ve spent a season learning what the Messianic movement is all about, getting familiar with the basics of our faith. I also spent a season in Wisconsin where I was living a distance away and sometimes only made it back for the Passover Seder itself and nothing more.

But more recently, I’ve spent time helping out. From helping with our Bar/Bat kids, to helping out Stan in the office and down at Beth Yeshua, to helping out with getting Out of Zion off the ground. My wife has spent a few less years here than I have, but has helped out in areas like the praise and worship team, the dance team, she was invaluable in a number of areas down at Beth Yeshua, and has even helped out in the nursery.

It’s been an enjoyable and fulfilling time in our lives, and the training we’ve received here, the teaching Stan does week in and week out, have been a blessing.

There are many ways in which staying here at Kehilat Sar Shalom would continue to be wonderful, continue to be a blessing.

But in listening to God over the last year, in our prayer lives, we began to hear a new call. As connected and comfortable as we feel here as part of this community, God has other plans for us. It’s time for us to begin a new season of our lives.

That is why we will be moving, in the latter half of August, to the Portland, Oregon area. There are a number of benefits to this move in terms of the weather and our health, and there are a number of challenges, such as leaving behind the friends and extended family members we’ve found here.

And we’ve had some people say to us that it feels sudden and they wonder why this is happening so quickly.

But whether we’re talking about Andie and I moving to Oregon, or a call on your own life, one thing I’ve found in my study is that God still calls people today, just as he did in days of old. He calls us now. He calls us to go, to follow Him. He calls for and expects us to listen, go, and do. To obey. That is the definition of knowing you’re in the will of God. That is how you know that you’re listening.

Because nothing He asks of us will ever violate that pattern. It’s how we all know, no matter what he calls any of us to, that we are in relationship with him, experiencing that intimacy as deep as family, that we are in His love.

For, as Yeshua said in:

John 15:10
If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

As always, Yeshua is our example for each and every one of us. So let us follow Him, each according to the call He has placed in each of our lives individually.

Shabbat Shalom.

The problem of “the prosperity gospel”

Today, I dropped by Dr. Michael L. Brown’s Facebook page, Ask Dr. Brown, and the question of the day had to do with what is “right or wrong” with the so-called prosperity gospel. So I decided to post my thoughts here, as well.

Personally, I find almost nothing that is “right” with the prosperity Gospel, because it is so tied up with the presumptuousness of Replacement theology. And there is much about it that is wrong. I’ll try to be brief.

The prosperity gospel is no gospel at all, because it reduces relationship with the living God of the universe to a “what have you done for me lately,” materialistic “devotion in exchange for a payoff in this life” exchange. This is not what Messiah Yeshua preached.

His parable of the rich man and Lazerus makes it clear that those who receive wealth and comfort in this life, and fail to share it with others, will not receive good things in the world to come.

It’s underlined by his Olivet sermon, in which he teaches “the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.”

Not to mention the fact that the prosperity gospel fails to wrestle seriously with the problem of suffering in this present age, dismissing all such things as “the just results of sin.”

Tell that to a survivor of the Holocaust, or a family who has lost their child to a serial killer’s rampage.

The prosperity gospel is truly no gospel at all, because its “good news” is the lie that relationship with God in this life promises nothing greater or more meaningful than … material reward in this life.

Meaningless! Insincere. Unserious. And untrue.

There’s no “good news” to be found there.

Sermon: Peter’s vision

Here is the text of my most recent sermon, delivered in late May at Kehilat Sar Shalom. It’s a message I’d prepared last fall and had in reserve for a while. Enjoy!

Shabbat Shalom.

You know, there are certain passages in the New Covenant writings that present challenges to us as Messianic believers. If we are not careful in our study, they can cause us to question whether what we believe is actually correct. Yet with the prompting of the Holy Spirit, careful study, and some effort to read these writings through first-century Messianic Jewish eyes, there is always an answer to be found.

One such case is the case of Peter’s vision, detailed initially in Acts chapter 10. As this passage has been historically taught, we have come to view it as one of the key moments in which God repealed all the kosher laws, the rules about which animals were either clean or unclean as food for us. It is why so many congregations hold bacon-and-egg breakfasts, pig roasts, and serve Easter ham at gatherings even today.

And whenever any of us finds the Messianic movement and begins to consider observing God’s regulations for what is clean and permissible as food, and what is unclean and ought not be eaten as food, this is one of the first passages we are pointed to by our well-intentioned friends who don’t want to see us “going back under the law.”

But is that what Peter’s vision in Acts 10 is all about? Let’s take a closer look, and see if the traditional arguments of the last sixteen hundred years or so actually hold water.

In Acts 10, there is an important preface that many who study this issue overlook; yet it is critical for understanding the events in this chapter properly. So let’s read what precedes Peter’s vision in:

ACTS 10:1-6
At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius!” Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?” he asked. The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the [Jewish] poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”

Now, for our purposes here today, I don’t want to spend too much time on Cornelius and God’s selection of him, other than to point out that Cornelius was not a practicing and faithful traditional Jew. He was not a proselyte convert to Judaism, although it is believed he had studied and had, like Ruth, embraced the Jewish people as his people and the Jewish God as his God. This is demonstrated by his compassion and charitable acts on behalf of the Jewish poor, as mentioned in the passage.

But the point is, he had not undergone circumcision, or full conversion to Judaism, at the time this angel appears to him and promises to bring Peter to him. This all happens without Peter’s knowledge, and then what follows next is Peter’s vision. Let’s read on:

ACTS 10:9-16
About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

Now, certainly it is understandable how this passage might be taken out of context and thought to be a vision concerning the dietary kosher laws. All sorts of animals, both clean and unclean, are part of Peter’s vision, and a voice does instruct Peter to kill and eat three times. It’s certainly a forgivable misunderstanding.

But we must not make the mistake of taking any part of the Bible out of context; whenever we do, bad theology is the result. Wrong thinking about God is where we end up. So let’s challenge ourselves to go against centuries of teaching to the contrary; let’s forget what we may have heard taught elsewhere and examine what the Scriptures really say here. This is not the end of the story.
Now, if anyone other than God was ever going to know the meaning of this vision given to Peter, it would have to be Peter, right? After all, he’s the one God was communicating with.

Initially, Peter is indeed puzzled over the meaning of this vision. Surely the same thoughts we have today must have been going through his head. Could God really be undoing centuries of Torah tradition on what is good for food and what isn’t? Remember, each of the three times this vision was given to Peter, he replied that he had never let any unclean meat touch his lips. This means Peter was indeed devout; he was a Torah-keeper even as a disciple and emissary of Yeshua Himself!

As Peter is puzzling over the meaning of his vision, though, let’s notice that immediately there’s a knock at the door; messengers from Cornelius arrive and ask Peter to come with them, explaining in:

ACTS 10:22
The men replied, “We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to have you come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.”

So after inviting the men to stay for the night, they set out in the morning for Cornelius’ house and Peter goes in to meet with him. Let’s read this next bit carefully, as we skip down to:

ACTS 10:27-29A
Talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection.

This will be the crux of how we should properly interpret Peter’s vision. Right here, in verse twenty-eight, Peter himself explains the interpretation of his vision. He says, “But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.”

Where did God show Peter this great message? Just a few verses earlier! Peter is telling us that this is what that vision about clean and unclean animals was all about! You see, if God had not tapped Peter on the shoulder like this, he very likely would have refused to come to the house of Cornelius.

Why? Peter himself tells us why right here. “It is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him.”

You see, by the very act of visiting Cornelius, Peter was, by the standard Jewish custom of his day, making himself ritually unclean – unfit to visit the Jerusalem Temple and in need of a cleansing – a mikveh – to regain his ritual purity.

Even though Cornelius was a God-fearer whose actions spoke of his love for the Jewish people and their God, he was not yet a convert; he was not yet circumcised; and therefore, he was a source of uncleanness, in the first-century Jewish mindset.

I’d like to read you a passage I found in Stern’s Jewish New Testament Commentary that addresses this issue.

STERN, JEWISH NT COMMENTARY, PP. 257
Would God, who established his covenant with the Jewish people and gave them an eternal Torah at Mount Sinai, and who is Himself unchangeable, change his Torah to make unclean animals kosher? This is the apparent meaning, and many Christian commentators assert that this is in fact the meaning. But they ignore the plain statement a few verses later which at last resolves Kefa’s (Peter’s) puzzlement, “God has shown me not to call any person unclean or impure. So the vision is about persons and not about food. God has not abrogated the Jewish dietary laws. Yeshua said, “Don’t think that I have come to do away with the Torah.”

So we have Peter’s own testimony that his vision was not about food at all, but about the inclusion of Gentiles into the first-century congregations of Yeshua. If this is the proper way of understanding Peter’s vision, then there must be some divine confirmation, right?

And are we given any? Certainly. Because as chapter ten continues, Peter begins sharing the good news about Yeshua the Messiah with Cornelius and all of his household, and an amazing, unheard-of thing happens. We read this in:

ACTS 10:44-46
While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.

Does God pour out his Ru’ach haKodesh – his Holy Spirit – on people He does not bless or accept? Of course not! So a person must believe one of two things here. Either Cornelius and his household faked the gifts of the Ru’ach so ingeniously that they fooled Peter and the other emissaries of Yeshua, or God was indeed speaking to Peter about Gentile inclusion into the communities of Yeshua, and the vision was indeed not at all about food.

Peter’s actions with the household of Cornelius is soon brought under criticism, as we read in:

ACTS 11:2-3
So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

Now carefully notice the objection here. No one is saying that Peter ate pork. No one is suggesting he had a ham sandwich and lobster bisque. The criticism is focused not on what Peter ate, but who he ate it with! He ate with uncircumcised men! The accusation was about his ritual purity because of who he ate with, not what he ate! If what he had eaten had been at issue, it would have been mentioned. The fact that it’s not further underlines the point that this whole episode was not about food, but Gentile inclusion.

Peter goes on to recount everything that happened in detail, and at the end of this, he concludes this way in:

ACTS 11:15-18
“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?” When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”

Now, this is great news! When understood properly, it all fits together much more coherently. If Peter’s vision had been about making pulled-pork barbecue sandwiches OK to eat, it would seem out of place in the text of Acts. Properly understood as being a symbolic vision about Gentile inclusion in the first-century communities of Yeshua, the thematic unity of the text is restored.

Now this is where some of us, before we became Messianic, would have begun to get uncomfortable. And it is where, even now, those who know us but do not yet embrace a Messianic understanding, begin to raise questions.

Recently, I had a friend object to our interpretation of this text; he was adamant that it was about doing away with the concept of unclean food because, he reasoned, God would never be so petty as to worry about what we eat and what we don’t eat. It’s all cultural. It’s all about personal tastes.

God doesn’t care about what we eat or don’t eat? Really?

Let me share with you an insight I received while studying through Acts 10 for this very message: Sin entered the world because of a dietary command of God.

Let me say that again: Sin entered the world because of a dietary command of God. Let’s take a look at:

GENESIS 2:15-17
The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

This one, simple command is all Adam was given in the Garden. One simple command, and it was a dietary command. Eat from any tree in the Garden except this one tree. Eat from any tree except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Don’t eat from that tree.

It was just one command. That’s all Adam had; one dietary command: don’t eat from this one, particular tree. And because Adam and Chaveh couldn’t keep even that one, simple command, sin entered the world. Rebellion against God’s instructions entered the world because we decided that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was “good for food and desirable for gaining knowledge.”

Sin entered the world because we refused to let God tell us what to eat and what not to eat.

Now, is that to suggest that disobeying the clean and unclean dietary laws are more important than the other commands of God? Not necessarily.

If I get absent-minded at a gathering and eat a slice of pizza that looks like a cheese pizza, but turns out to have some sausage in it, does it mean I’m in danger of the fires of hell? No. But it does make me unclean. The solution is not the death penalty; the solution is that I immerse myself and I’m unclean until the start of a new day, at sunset.

So, let’s not go overboard here. Dietary laws are not as critical as His command not to murder. We know this because the penalty is different. But dietary laws are an excellent temperature-taking set of commands when it comes to determining our willingness to accept God’s sovereignty in our lives.

It is easy for anyone to say they want to make God the Lord of their life. Anyone can say that. Yet we all know our actions prove our words, don’t we? And we are all familiar with the first-century Jewish argument style known as kol v’chomer, arguing from the lesser to the greater, correct?

So let’s imagine a scene. You are in your prayer closet and while praying, you say, “LORD, I want you to make my life a testimony to you! I want you to use me in powerful ways! Make me a missionary and anywhere you send me, I will go. Africa, Siberia, anywhere.”

So the LORD replies to your prayer and he says, “Give up your pepperoni pizzas.”

Indignant, you reply, “LORD, I love pepperoni pizza! Let’s not focus on such a trivial thing! You’re missing the point! I’m willing to be your missionary to anywhere in the world you wish to send me.”

And then the LORD replies, “If you cannot obey me in this small, simple command to give up pepperoni pizza, how can you obey me to go into the mission field wherever I wish to send you?”

Are you beginning to get the picture? Dietary laws may not be the most critical laws in terms of the penalty for violating them, but that also makes them the simplest to obey! And if we’re not willing to obey the LORD in the small, easy matters, how can we claim we are willing and able to obey Him in anything bigger and more important?

But let’s focus back on Peter. What we have seen in our look at Acts 10 and 11 is that Peter’s vision was not about food, but about Gentile inclusion.

Another objection to this understanding I was recently challenged with, by a friend, is this. “OK, so even if Peter’s vision isn’t about food, that’s certainly what was going on when Peter was confronted by Paul, as related in the book of Galatians! Peter was eating pork with the Gentiles, and that’s a known, indisputable fact!”

Is it?

Since this ties in directly to Peter’s vision, let’s take a look at this related incident in the book of Galatians. We read this in:

GALATIANS 2:11-12
When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.

Now notice the careful wording here. Paul does not write that Peter ate, “like the Gentiles.” He says that Peter ate “with the Gentiles.”

And why? Because God had shown Peter that it was OK to eat with uncircumcised Gentiles.

There is absolutely no verbiage in this passage that suggests that Peter and the Gentile believers were having ham sandwiches. That would have been the furthest thing from his mind! As a first-century Messianic Jew, the idea of eating anything unclean wouldn’t even cross his mind – it was not something he even considered food.

And when the members of the circumcision group show up, does it say Peter started reaching for the roast beef instead of ham? No, what does it say? It says, “he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles.”

Peter, always rash and eager for acceptance, knew the truth God had shown him in that vision – that it was OK to eat with uncircumcised Gentiles, but he didn’t always live up to that truth. He sometimes would slip up and allow the opinion of others to matter more than God’s opinion of him.

Stern agrees with this interpretation in his commentary, as we read:

STERN, JEWISH NT COMMENTARY, PP. 528-529
…it is not to be thought that Kefa (Peter) had abandoned Jewish tradition and now ignored keeping kosher, so that he ate with any and all Gentiles whenever he felt like it. His loyalty to kashrut had been such that nothing treif (unclean) had ever touched his lips prior to his seeing Cornelius; for this we have his word, spoken while he was seeing a vision and reported thereafter by him to other believers. There the meaning of Kefa’s vision was not that the laws of kashrut had been abrogated, but that a new circumstance, the inclusion of Gentiles in the Messianic Community, was to have an impact on Torah, so that keeping kosher became a less important mitzvah than preserving fellowship between Jewish and Gentile believers. Accordingly, the laws of kashrut remain; the Messianic Community has not ignored them…

So why did Paul “oppose him to his face?” What made Peter “clearly in the wrong?” Was it all over the food on his plate? Not at all. It was the sudden shunning of the uncircumcised Gentiles he had previously been treating as friends and brothers. And his hypocrisy spread quickly to others, as we read in:

GALATIANS 2:13-16
The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.”

So what laws is Paul referring to here? Traditional teaching has been that it is the dietary laws, but that is not the case. After all, the people who show up and cause Peter to start shunning the Messianic Gentiles was known as the circumcision group, not the Clean Meats Only group, right?

We get further verification of this in Stern’s commentary, where he quotes an early Messianic Jewish Rabbi. We read:

STERN, JEWISH NT COMMENTARY, P. 529
Daniel Klutstein has offered an alternative understanding: the problem may not have been whether fellowship between Jewish and Gentile believers is more compelling than kashrut but whether it is more compelling than ritual purity. Today it is hard to appreciate how important ritual purity was in first-century Jewish life, although the fact that one-sixth of the Talmud is devoted to this subject ought to give an indication. True, Orthodox Jews go to the mikveh on various occasions. But in the first century, homes of observant Jews frequently had mikveh built in: to be able to maintain ritual purity at all times it was considered normal to have a private mikveh … consider that Kefa (Peter) went frequently to the Temple; he would not have been able to enter in a ritually impure state, but eating with Gentiles and being in their homes could render him impure and thus subject to criticism by the picky.

What we see here, then, is that the source of many of these episodes of controversy is, if not the same individuals, at least members of the same group. The Messianic Jewish Pharisees who insisted that Gentile believers must be circumcised to be genuinely saved first spring to life in reaction to this new work of Gentile inclusion into the Messianic communities of the first century.

After this, they showed up and began “teaching the brothers at Antioch” without authorization, and disturbing the congregation there since their teaching contradicted that of Paul and Barnabas, who were assigned to Antioch at that time. This lead to the Jerusalem Council decision of Acts 15; there, the legalistic interpretations of the Circumcision group was defeated by James and Peter.

Yet the circumcision group did not go away quietly, we can see, because some time after the Jerusalem Council, the circumcision group shows up again, which leads Peter to forget himself and start shunning the Gentile believers, contrary to the truth of his vision.

In these incidents, the real issue at hand has been that uncircumcised Gentiles are no longer considered to be a source of uncleanness. Yet our twenty-first century cultural blinders mislead us so that we miss that truth and assume it’s about whether it’s okay to eat bacon. Can you see now why it’s important to understand these passages properly and in their first century context?

In the first century, the main problem was cultural pressure on Gentiles to conform to Jewish customs and traditions. How unfortunate it is that the far more common problem today is just the opposite: that we as Christians too often put pressure on Jewish believers in Messiah Yeshua to abandon their Judaism and conform to our customs and traditions.

So my prayer today is that God, through Messiah Yeshua and the ministry of his Ruach haKodesh, would bring all of us together to worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. After all, that’s what our Messianic community, Kehilat Sar Shalom, was founded on.

Shabbat Shalom.

What I’ve Been Doing Lately

The Messianic Musings blog has been quiet since October.

There’s a reason for that. First, I haven’t been doing any sermons or commentaries lately. That’s because our rabbi has been handling all the teaching duties of late with an exciting new series on discovering the Messiah in the Torah, going through all five books of the Torah. It’s shaping up into a great series that you can find here.

Still, that means I’ve been teaching less, at least in public.

But what have I been doing with my time otherwise, from a theological perspective? Well, I’ve been working on a few books that I plan to eventually publish in eBook form on the Kindle and perhaps other formats as well. Some of these books will be based on the very sermons and commentaries you’ll find right here on MessianicMusings, but researched more deeply and greatly expanded.

Other books will be original concepts. For example, one cannot really begin to teach the Messianic perspective without first laying the groundwork of a common understanding of terms, culture, context and the like.

Easy example. If I say, “Sabbath,” most of my Christian readers will automatically think, “Sunday.” However, most of my Jewish and Messianic readers will automatically think, “sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.” Which do I mean? To those who know me, they would immediately understand I mean the latter.

However, to someone picking up a book I’ve written for the first time, who has never attended a Messianic congregation, they might not share that definition.

So, before I delve into the other books I’m planning, I want to compose a “Messianic Basics” sort of book that I can then use as a frame of reference for many of these things.

After all, if you read through my sermons on here, you’ll notice that they were written for an audience that was already part of our faith community. I refer to teachings by Rabbi Stan that we all had heard in previous weeks, so it was a context we all shared.

One cannot do that in a book, because one is speaking to an entirely different audience, many of whom do not share that context. So, that’s probably what my first Messianic-centric book will be… a working definition of the Messianic movement, and the terms, context and understandings that I’d like people to understand when reading my later theological works.

I have no idea, at this point, when the first Messianic theological work will be published and available. Right now, I’m working on a fictional entertainment novel, which has little (if anything) to do with my spiritual views, other than it’s within the realm of what I would consider “clean, family-safe entertainment,” although that terms means different things to different people.

But I do hope to put the Messianic Basics book on the front burner later this year, with an eye toward ePublication before the year is out, or very early in 2012. Once they start rolling out, I hope to ePublish a couple Messianic books per year, as well as a couple fiction novels per year.

But on this blog, the focus of my posts will be on the Messianic titles.

Sermon: The Jerusalem Council

Shabbat Shalom.

When I found out I was going to teach today while Stan and several of our members are over in Israel, it didn’t take me long to decide what I wanted to talk about. It is a passage of the New Covenant writings that many of us are familiar with, and one that poses special challenges to our understanding as Messianic believers. I’m speaking of Acts chapter fifteen.

This passage in the book of Acts has become known as the “Jerusalem Council” passage. What we are often taught about the Jerusalem Council is that this is where it was decided that Gentile followers of the Messiah Yeshua can ignore the Torah, because it doesn’t apply to them.

Those unfamiliar with the Messianic viewpoint often use Acts 15 as a basis for labeling us Judaizers. But is that what the Jerusalem Council was all about? Is Acts 15 the chapter that laid the Torah to rest, never to be relevant again?

To find out, let’s take a closer look at this important chapter in the history of the first-century congregations of Yeshua and see if we can determine what’s really going on. We read this in:

ACTS 15:1
Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”

OK, let’s stop right here for a moment because there are many elements to this first verse, and if we misunderstand these elements, we will misunderstand the rest of the chapter that follows.

The first and most natural question that occurs to me is, who were these men referred to in verse one who were teaching the brothers? We get some hints later in the chapter. For example, when they appear with Paul and Barnabas in front of the Jerusalem Council, we read this in:

ACTS 15:5
Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.”

We learn two key facts about these men from this passage. First, they are believers. Second, they are from the party of the Pharisees.

For some, that might sound almost like a contradiction. Yet it is an accurate way to understand the identity of these teachers: they were Pharisees who believed in the Messiah Yeshua.

The correctness of this interpretation is confirmed by David Stern in his Jewish New Testament Commentary, where we read this:

STERN, JEWISH NT COMMENTARY, P. 275
But there were in fact some Pharisees who believed in Yeshua. There were not “former Pharisees” but Messianic Jewish Pharisees, just like Sha’ul. “But,” some may object, “these Pharisees were wrong. Their Judaizing view was roundly defeated.” Yes, but they were still believers; not every believer is right about everything! Further, the text does not tell us that all the Pharisees who were believers took this position; but, on the contrary, it does tell us that Sha’ul, who was a Pharisee, took the opposite stand.

Stern’s insight here is perspective-changing. This passage is often interpreted as being between unbelieving Jewish Pharisees and the believing Paul and Barnabas, who represent early Christianity. But that’s not the case.

This is not a dispute among those outside of the congregations of Yeshua! It’s a dispute among those who are inside it and a part of it!

So now we know these men were Messianic Jewish Pharisees. Does the text reveal anything else about them? It certainly does! Even later in the chapter, in James’ letter to the churches, we read this key passage in:

ACTS 15:24
We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said.

So what this letter tells us about these men introduced in verse one is that they were doing their teaching without authorization. In fact, Stern tells us in his commentary that these men were not violating orders not to teach, but had not been commissioned to teach at all.

This happens all the time in congregations even today, doesn’t it? We’ve all seen it, been part of it, even done it ourselves on occasion, right?

People at Oneg or after a service or study will gather people around them and, rather than discussing the sermon given, they start offering up their own ideas; ideas that can sometimes be at odds with what has been taught from the bema.

I’m not talking about those who discuss the sermon or study; I’m talking about those who start teaching their own lessons, without approval, or teach something contrary to what we hold to as a congregation.

So this is a situation we can now begin to understand a little better. We are presented with a few Messianic Jewish Pharisees who have not been authorized to teach, but who show up in Antioch and start teaching the congregation there anyway! And what are they teaching? Let’s read verse one again:

ACTS 15:1
Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”

Now, we’re still not done breaking down verse one so that we properly understand it. What are these unauthorized teachers teaching? “Unless you are circumcised, according to the CUSTOM taught by Moses, you cannot be SAVED.”

There are two key words we must notice here to understand this verse, and everything that follows it, properly.

The first key word is the word CUSTOM. That should ring a bell for us right away. If we were talking about the written Torah of God, it would not say “custom” there.

This isn’t always easy to pick out in the text because of the first-century Jewish mindset from which it was written. For the Jewish people of Yeshua’s time, and for many traditional Jews even today, there is no separation between the five books of Moses and the oral traditions of the Pharisees. If you come upon a Jewish person studying the Talmud or the Mishnah and ask him what he’s up to, he’ll reply that he’s studying Torah.

That blending the written Torah and the oral traditions has been part of rabbinic teachings since at least the time of the Mishnah. For we read this in:

MISHNAH, PIRKEY AVOT 1:1
Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, the elders to the prophets, and the prophets to the men of the great synagogue. The latter used to say three things: be patient in [the administration of] justice, rear many disciples and make a [protective] fence around the Torah.

In this Mishnaic tradition, it becomes clear that the rabbinic mindset sees the oral traditions as inseparable from the written Torah of Moses. That is the basis of their authority, so that is why they call all of it Torah.

Yet remember, these Pharisees in Acts are believers in Messiah Yeshua. They understand Yeshua made a distinction between what was written down by Moses on Mount Sinai, and the many rabbinic teachings that came centuries later.

And so they don’t call this particular circumcision practice a law, but a custom taught by Moses.

Keep in mind the claim they are making. They are insisting that performing this circumcision in strict accordance with a particular oral tradition is necessary for a person to truly be saved!

You know, it is one thing to embrace the Jewish roots; it’s another thing entirely to embrace Judaism over the teaching of Yeshua. And that is exactly what these teachers are requiring. As Stern comments:

STERN, JEWISH NT COMMENTARY, PP. 273-274
These men from Judah are insisting that Gentiles must become in every sense Jews … This condition goes beyond the requirements for individual salvation set forth in the Tanakh, in Judaism or by the emissaries … The Tanakh says, and Peter quotes it at 2:21, “Everyone who calls on the name of The L-RD will be saved.” … The New Testament books of Romans, Galatians and Ephesians have as a central issue the equality of Jews and Gentiles before God, insofar as salvation is concerned; they make it clear that observance of the Torah, as it applies to Jews, is not a condition for the salvation of a Gentile … The correct conclusion is: a Jew who becomes Messianic remains a Jew, and a Gentile who becomes a Christian remains a Gentile.

So these are the stakes at play here. You have a group of Messianic Jewish Pharisees. They believe Yeshua is the Messiah, but they have come to Antioch without authorization to teach and have started teaching something contrary to the teaching of Paul and Barnabas: that Yeshua’s blood sacrifice was not enough to obtain salvation by itself. That obeying not just the direct commands of God in the written Torah, but also the oral traditions of the rabbis – including specific customs about circumcision – was necessary for someone to be saved!

This is what’s at stake.

With all this in mind, what plays out next becomes far easier to understand. Let’s read on in:

ACTS 15:2
This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.

I think now we can all understand more deeply why Paul and Barnabas had such a deep dispute with these particular Messianic Jewish Pharisees. This was Paul and Barnabas’ congregation that they were discipling, a suddenly along come some self-appointed experts, people who are not ready to teach, and they start contradicting everything Paul and Barnabas have been working so hard to instill in the believers there in Antioch. Of course that would be upsetting.

Moving on to:

ACTS 15:4-11
When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them. Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.” The apostles and elders met to consider this question. After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

So Peter here says that the Torah is done away with and irrelevant and we don’t even need to read it anymore, right?

No, of course not! Because that’s not what’s at issue here, is it?

That may be how we’re accustomed to hearing this passage taught, but through our study today, we know better now, don’t we?

Peter’s ruling is focused; he is saying God makes no distinction between Jew or Gentile when it comes to salvation… the same standard applies to all. And that is, that our salvation comes from God and God alone, though trusting in Yeshua as our Messiah.

So what exactly is this yoke Peter speaks of, that he says, “neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear.” Well, what we often are taught is that the yoke Peter is referring to is the Torah itself!

This is why we hear so many people proclaim, “Praise God, we have been set free from the Law!” The trouble is, that’s not what Peter means here by yoke.

Ask most Jews, and they will tell you that the Torah is not considered a burden, but a joy! That is also how the first-century believers in Yeshua would have seen the written Torah as well, because they understood that Yeshua was Himself the living embodiment of the Torah.

So, again, what is this yoke? Remember, Peter has just stated that God purifies our hearts when we place our trust in Him. So this is a contrasting statement.

What would be the opposite of following God with a purified heart? Well, quite simply, Peter’s referring to those times when we’re just going through the motions, when we’re not really living out our faith by our actions and trusting God.

Whenever we start doing all the ceremonies of our faith because it’s expected of us, but our hearts are cold to God, that’s when our practices become a yoke, a burden. We all go through this at times; the real problems begin when we get stuck there!

Let’s read what Stern had to say about this in:

STERN, JEWISH NT COMMENTARY, P. 276
[Peter] is speaking here of the detailed, mechanical rule-keeping, regardless of heart-attitude, that some (but not all!) Pharisees, including, apparently, the ones mentioned in verse five, held to be the essence of Judaism. This was not the “yoke of the mitzvot” prescribed by God, but a yoke of legalism prescribed by men! The yoke of legalism is indeed unbearable, but the yoke of the mitzvoth has always required, first of all, love of God and neighbor; and it now implies love toward Yeshua the Messiah. But love can never be legalistic.

Do you see the difference now? Obeying God because we’re passionate about our relationship to him is easy! But going through the motions when our hearts are far from him? Insisting others do the same? That’s legalism. And legalism doesn’t save us!

So can we now agree that no one has declared the Torah done away with at the Jerusalem Council so far?

It’s still intact, isn’t it?

What’s being spoken against is false religion and empty rule-keeping. Let’s move on:

ACTS 15:12-19
The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. When they finished, James spoke up: “Brothers, listen to me. Simon has described to us how God at first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for himself. The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written: “‘After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things’ that have been known for ages. “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.”

Now here’s a critical point. James is handing down the final decision of the Jerusalem Council, and it’s important we understand it properly. What he says here is, “We should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.”

From this wording, what are we often taught? “OK, whatever comes next, this is what we Gentiles need to do and understand. Nothing more. Just this. The Jerusalem Council said so.”

But is that the best understanding of the text? Quoting Joseph Shulam, Daniel Stern points out that there is a different rendering for this verse, one that lends deeper insight:

STERN, QUOTING JOSEPH SHULAM
“Or, ‘the Goyim, while they are turning.’ Joseph Shulam expounds the second alternative thusly: Do not put obstacle in the way of Gentiles while they are going through the process of turning away from idolatry to God. Instead, let them use their spiritual energy in repentance. There will be plenty of opportunities later for them to absorb what Moses has to say.”

And that’s the point here! The ruling of the Jerusalem Council is not meant to be taken as a final word on what Gentiles have to observe to please God, now and forever!

It is merely a starting point. A beginning. A minimum standard so that Gentiles turning away from their paganism and coming to worship God can get along with peaceably, and not offend, their fellow brothers and sisters in the L-RD who are coming to Messiah from a Jewish background!

Let’s read what they required to accomplish this:

ACTS 15:20-21
Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

This is what many people mistakenly rally around as the only rules that should ever apply to Gentile believers in the Messiah Yeshua. That they should stay away from sexual sin, from food polluted by idols or the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.

It sounds nice. It sounds Biblical. But I think we’ve explored enough of background on this chapter now to come to an entirely different conclusion than what we are normally taught.

Should we assume, if these are the only rules we Gentiles are to live by, that it is OK to covet?

Is it OK to harbor hatred in our hearts toward our neighbors, in direct violation of Yeshua’s teachings?

Is it OK to steal, since that’s not mentioned either?

I don’t think that’s what Peter and James and the rest of the Jerusalem Council were driving at. If you look at that very next verse again, you’ll notice another key statement.

James says, “For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

Many people wonder what James could have meant here, but I think it’s pretty clear, in context.

He’s saying those who are Messianic Jews have been raised on the laws of Moses! It’s been preached from the earliest times, and still is, every Sabbath!

Understanding all the commands of God found in the five books of Moses comes naturally to them! They were raised on it! It’s what they know, and it’s no burden. It’s second nature!

But is that true of the Gentiles who are just beginning to turn away from their paganism, from their idol worship and from the worship of false gods? Have they had Moses preached to them from the time they were children until now?

No! Of course not! They don’t have the same background! They don’t have the same context! They don’t even have the same language, in some cases!

So the desire of Paul and Barnabas and the Jerusalem Council isn’t to do away with the written Torah of God! It’s to ease the transition of these new Gentile believers into the first-century congregations of Yeshua, to give them a bare minimum, a starting point at which their presence won’t be chaotic and disruptive to the rest of the community!

Remember, this part of the ruling isn’t a salvation question; it’s a question of how righteously they have to live in order not to be disruptive to the congregation of Yeshua they are not a part of, until they learn more about living a God-pleasing life. This is about that next step.

Ultimately these Gentile believers will spend more time with their Messianic brothers and sisters. They will be discipled. Are they never expected to advance in righteous living and deeper obedience to the Torah?

No, of course not! As they grow in maturity, more obedience will be expected of them; not as a means of salvation, but as a means of living a purer life, a life empowered by the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit!

God treats all of us the same. He accepts us where and as we are! But He calls all of us to ever-greater obedience, ever-greater trust, as we grow in our knowledge of Him.

I came to know the L-RD personally in college. And I was able to give up some of my sins immediately. But when I look back at how I lived in those first couple years of walking with the L-RD, there was a lot to be desired.

As the years went on, I learned more about prayer, more about distancing myself from various temptations, more about who God really was and what He expected of me. I walked with and grew in the L-RD for almost fifteen years before I ever discovered the Messianic movement.

I’ve been in the Messianic movement for over a decade now. When I first started attending, some things were easy for me to grasp right away, like celebrating the Sabbath on the seventh day.

Others, like avoiding unclean meats or keeping the Festivals of the LORD, took more time for me to get used to. And here’s the thing: both God and the people here at Sar Shalom gave me time and opportunity to grow into greater obedience.

They didn’t chase me off with a stick the second time I walked in the door! They didn’t debate me when I had questions or I stated something that didn’t perfectly line up with our doctrine at KKS. Even after a couple years of coming here, I still had a lot of growing to do! Yet they welcomed me here at Sar Shalom throughout that growing in obedience process, just as God does!

And if God and Sar Shalom were willing to be that patient with me, how can we be any less patient with anyone else coming here for the first time?

See, that’s the real message of the Jerusalem Council! Despite what we may have been taught traditionally, it was not an event in church history where the disciples declared the Torah to be done away with!

It was, more accurately, a ruling against legalism! It was a ruling in favor of patience and tolerance toward all who follow the Messiah Yeshua!

It was a ruling allowing them to grow and mature in trust and love and knowledge and obedience to the L-RD, as He draws us all continually closer to Him, knowing that He will build us always toward a higher standard of obedience, far above the minimum requirements, not a lower standard.

That’s the true heart of the Jerusalem Council. And that spirit of love and mercy, not legalistic observance, is what should be in all our hearts whenever we encounter newcomers. Let’s make them feel at home. Let’s make them all feel as welcome as we did the first time we walked through those doors.

Shabbat Shalom.

My Nitsavim-VaYelech 2010 Commentary

Shabbat Shalom

Today we have two Torah portions to cover. The first is Nitsavim, a Hebrew word that means, “You are standing,” and the second is VaYelech, a Hebrew word that means, “And he went.” Together, these portions cover everything from Deuteronomy chapter 29, verse 10 (though some Bibles will number it as verse 9) through all of chapter 31.

You know, this week’s reading brings something to mind. As some of you may remember, I used to teach the bar and bat mitzvah kids here a few years ago. One week we were discussing the Ten Commands, and we had been focusing for a while on, “Honor thy father and thy mother.” One of the boys raised his hand and when I called on him, he asked, “Craig, are there any commands that tell us how to treat our brothers and sisters?” Before I could answer, one of the other boys spoke up and said, “Of course there is! Thou shall not murder.”

Now, of course, the commands of the LORD are not a joking matter. And yet, too often, we as believers do not treat them with the seriousness they deserve.

In this week’s reading, God makes it clear his commands are not to be taken lightly. For example, we read this in:

DEUTERONOMY 29:18-19
Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison. When such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself and therefore thinks, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way.”

The passage goes on to say that such stubbornness will only bring disaster on the people and the land. Yes, God is patience; He is gracious and long-suffering; He is certainly not short-tempered. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished so what should that tell the children of Israel? That they do not want to be numbered among the guilty! That they should not persist in going their own way!

Unfortunately, in this week’s reading, God reveals to Moses that despite everything the children of Israel has been through, including losing an entire generation in their time of exile in the wilderness, due to their stubborn rebellion to God, the lesson has not been learned. God confirms this to Moses in:

DEUTERONOMY 31:15-16
Then the LORD appeared at the Tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance to the Tent. And the LORD said to Moses: “You are going to rest with your fathers, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them.

Can you imagine the anguish Moses felt upon hearing this prophecy from the LORD? He had dedicated his life to serving the God of Israel to bring them here to the Promised Land, where they might be blessed and serve the LORD, and in his final days in this life, he is basically being told, “Mission Incomplete.”

Now, one can argue that Moses had done all that God had commanded him to do, and that is true. In that sense, Moses had fulfilled his mission – but God’s plan is not yet complete. You see, the fact that the people of Israel will sin and rebel again is not a failure of Moses; Moses was just a man, like any of us. It is not even a failure of the law; for the commands of God are true. What was missing was constant communication between God and his people.

That’s what the Israelites turned down at Mount Sinai; God offered to let them hear from Him directly, but they were intimidated by that and asked for a human mediator instead: Moses. Moses couldn’t be there all the time… and now in this week’s portion, he’s about to not be there at all.

God promised earlier in Deuteronomy a “prophet like Moses” who will restore that constant communication between God and His people, and that prophet like Moses is the Messiah Yeshua. Part of why the law was so hard for the children of Israel to keep is because they were trying to do it on their own. No one can accomplish that apart from God’s help. Perfect obedience requires a lack of sin; and no one lacks sin, except for Yeshua the Messiah, as we read in:

I JOHN 3:5
But you know that he [Yeshua] appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.

This is the hope we have as followers of Yeshua; yet are those who say that the Torah is too hard to follow, or that it has been done away with because it was fulfilled in Yeshua, correct? Once we have the power of God through His Spirit, the Ruach haKodesh, at work in our lives, are we to continue to regard the Torah as too hard to fulfill, as having no value and as something that is now done away with and irrelevant?

This week’s reading teaches us the correct answer is, “No!” The Torah is not asking us for more than we are capable of. Here is one of the cornerstone verses of this week’s reading, and we find it in:

DEUTERONOMY 30:11
Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.

In this passage, the LORD is speaking through Moses to the people of Israel as they prepare to enter the Promised Land. He has spent time summarizing the entire history of the Exodus from Egypt, the giving of the Torah, and the laws that shall govern them in the land they are about to enter. And so it is entirely appropriate at this point for the LORD to reassure the people, so that they do not feel overwhelmed by the burdens and responsibilities they have been given and he shares these words. “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.”

As Solomon observed, there’s nothing new under the sun. As it was back in the days of Moses, so it is today. I’m sure many of the children of Israel listened to all these commands, this entire Torah, and found themselves overwhelmed by it, and in their hearts were thoughts that it was too much for God to expect of them. That no one could ever keep it. That’s how many believers still feel about it today.

But is that true? Well, if the Torah is to be believed, and IT IS, then we have to accept as true what we read here. “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.”

This is consistent with the life of Messiah Yeshua. He lived a life far above the standard set down in the Torah, and if He is our example, would he set an example that no one can follow? Of course not! He set one we are capable of following!

We also know there are others who lived at or above the standard set by the Torah. For example, we read this in:

LUKE 1:5-6
In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.

Blameless is the key word there. And such an achievement is a requirement for leadership in a congregation, as we read in:

TITUS 1:6-7
An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless–not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain.

Is blameless keeping of the Torah standard really too hard for any believer to live up to? Notice that these passages do not indicate sin-free living, but blameless living.

I took my examples from the New Covenant writings to demonstrate that this is not only a Mosaic standard: the expectation to live a life blameless according to the written Torah is how Yeshua lived out His example, it is a standard many people are said to have lived up to in both the Old and New Covenant writings, and it was a general expectation for those in leadership in the first-century church.

Would this be expected if it could not be accomplished? The answer, of course, is “No.” It would not be required if it were impossible to do it.

It is important to remember that what the Torah requires is not the LORD’s perfect standard for holy living, but merely the minimum standard for our behavior to be acceptable to Him. In other words, it’s the least anyone could do in gratitude for all He has done.

This is why Yeshua taught things in this style, saying, “You have heard it said, but I say to you.” Each teaching in that style always has Yeshua raising the standards, not lowering them or doing away with them. And He did this to point out that not only was the Torah standard achievable, but much more was possible as well.

It is a myth that no one can live up to the expectations of the Torah. Remember the words from this week’s reading, offered truthfully to the Israelites by God: “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.”

Now, let’s not be deceived. All are subject to sin; all fall short of the LORD’s perfect standard. But there is a vast difference between the occasional slip into sin in a moment of weakness and what Paul identifies in:

GALATIANS 5:21
I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

That phrase, “live like this,” indicates a state of ongoing, willing, unrepentant sin. It is that point at which one gives up the struggle against fleshly desires, snuffs out the will of the Spirit, and we begins to justify and excuse whatever sinful behavior captures and enslaves them.

That is what the LORD is referring to here as well as he speaks to the people of Israel through Moses in this week’s reading. The LORD is not impatient with those who slip up occasionally; but those who allow their hearts to grow hard and unrepentant will not go unpunished by Him.

That’s our insight for today from Nitsavim and VaYelech; the LORD is and will always be consistent. He is not a God who deals unfairly, making demands that are impossible to meet. Because, “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.”

Shabbat Shalom.

My 2010 Ki Tetse Commentary

Here’s my 2010 take on the Torah portion known as Ki Tetse. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom

Today’s Torah portion is called Ki Tetse, a Hebrew word that means, “When you go out.” The reading covers Deuteronomy chapter 21, verse 10, through chapter 25, verse 19. You know, upon first glance, this week’s portion seems to have little to no unifying theme. It feels like an almost random collection of laws and decrees that the LORD, through Moses, is reviewing for the people before they enter the Promised Land.

It feels random because so many commands are covered in such a brief amount of space. The topics vary widely, ranging from how to properly acquire a bride who is the widow of a defeated foe, to the proper burial timing for bodies hung on trees, to looking out for your neighbor’s property, to what clothing is proper for a man or a woman to wear.

The rulings come rapidly, and in the barrage, barely even thematically arranged, and one can become a bit lost in the riches of so many commands. Yet is it a true observation that Ki Tetse, this portion of the Torah, is without a theme?

To be honest, I think that would be overstating it, because there is a theme, if you pay close attention, and it’s one that’s repeated after many of these commands are given. We read in:

Deuteronomy 22:22
If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

The key is found in that last sentence. “You must purge the evil from Israel.” It is a phrase that is repeated over and over again in this week’s reading. My count may not be perfect, since wording varies from translation to translation, but I found this phrase, or minor variations on it, no less than five times in this week’s reading alone.

“You must purge the evil from among you.”

It is an important message for the children of Israel, because they have just lost an entire generation wandering in the desert, because that generation did not purge the evil from among them, but allowed evil to grow, take root, even flourish to the point of rebellion – not only against God, but even against their chosen mediator, Moses.

With Moses now at an age where God is about to call him to his ancestors, Moses will no longer be with the people. In the short term, Joshua will take his place; but no mediator who came after Moses matched the dedication to, and intimacy with, God that Moses enjoyed. As the generations spin out from Sinai, those who sit in Moses’ seat will drift further and further away from God’s very words, his very instructions.

So it is heavy on the heart of both God and Moses that the people be warned to avoid the same pitfalls that befell those who came before them, to avoid allowing evil to grow and dwell among them. That is the purpose of this review of the commands; God is reminding them of all sorts of things that can lead to a rebellious spirit. Some of these are dramatic and obvious; others are subtle. Yet they are all important.

Also, many of them have links to the mistakes of those who came before them! To prove this, let’s take a look at one such command. We read this in:

Deuteronomy 21:15-17
If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love, when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love. He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.

Now, this is the command the LORD gives, but does this ring any bells for anyone? Does it seem contrary to anything we’ve encountered earlier in the Torah?

Well, the example of Jacob comes to mind. We all know the great love story of Jacob and Rachel. Jacob was so taken with Rachel that when he agreed to work for Laban seven years to earn her hand in marriage, the Torah says that those years of hard labor “seemed like only a few days” because he loved her so. Of course, Jacob is betrayed by Laban, who switches Rachel out for his older daughter Leah at the wedding supper. Laban eventually allows Jacob to have Rachel as well, in exchange for another seven years of labor, but the troubles have just begun.

Even though Jacob accepts Leah as his wife, as a necessary requirement to get the wife he truly loves, he never seems to love Leah. Seeing this, the LORD blesses her with far more children, to give her honor in place of the love Jacob withholds from her. In fact, Jacob gets six sons from Leah – half of the six tribes of Israel – while his beloved Rachel only bears him two sons – Joseph and Benjamin.

Yet despite having ten other sons from Leah, Leah’s maidservant and Rachel’s maidservant, most of them older than Joseph and Benjamin, who does Jacob favor? The sons of Rachel! That favoritism is what leads to the intense jealousy of Joseph’s other brothers toward Joseph; the special coat Jacob made for Joseph was symbolic of that favoritism.

You see, the actual first-born of Jacob was Reuben, the son of Leah. He is the one Jacob should have been favoring, by birthright standards. Yet Jacob did not do this, and it brought much trouble into the lives of both Jacob and Joseph, as well as the lives of his brothers.

Now, God can work miracles, so it is no surprise that Joseph being sold into slavery in Egypt becomes the very instrument by which the LORD rescues Jacob and his sons from a deadly famine in the land, ensuring their survival.

Yet, through this command, the LORD is re-establishing the correctness of the command concerning the rights of the first-born, especially in the case where one wife is loved, the other unloved, and the first-born son comes through the unloved wife. God is a God of justice, and those who are unloved are shown love and given justice by God.

The example of Leah and Rachel’s bitter rivalry for favor in the eyes of Jacob is also believed to be an inspiration for why God commanded, in:

Leviticus 18:18
‘Do not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.

What God is showing us here is that while the patriarchs are to be admired for trusting the LORD, they were not without sin; they were, like us, merely people, as vulnerable to falling short of God’s standard as any of us.

While some of the commands may remind us of the poor choices of some of the patriarchs, other commands are clarifications of how justice is to be carried out in Israel. Israel is meant by God to be a reflection of the World to Come.

For example, we read of commands where farmers are told not to pick through their harvest fields and vineyards a second time, but to leave what remains for the poor, the widow and the orphan, as well as commands not to charge interest on money loaned to a fellow Israelite.

Why do these commands exist? To show us that in God’s kingdom, no one will go without, no one will go hungry, everyone will be provided for, and no one will be cheated or made to fall into a trap of debt from which there is no escape. As a picture of God’s kingdom, these commands demonstrate in concrete ways what God means by His justice.

Purging evil from the land comes up especially in the commands regarding sexual crimes such as adultery and rape; the penalties are stiff and severe because the LORD wants those who enter into marriage to remain there and to treat their spouses with respect and justice and faithfulness.

Yet there is at least one command that deserves special attention in this week’s reading, because the biggest purpose of the command seems to be a shadow of the future. You’ll see what I mean as I read this passage from:

Deuteronomy 21:22-23
If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

On its own, this commandment does not seem to fit, even in a portion as varied in topic as this week’s reading. Whenever the Israelites are commanded by God to put someone to death, it was most commonly by stoning; they were not in the habit of putting people to death by hanging them on a tree.

This, of course, is where God shows His sovereignty, uniformity and consistency over all of Scripture. Now, dates for the Exodus and the entry of Israel into Jerusalem forty years later vary widely, anywhere from 1200 to 1600 years before the time of Yeshua.

However long it may have been, the point is that this command was offered up by the LORD well before His promised Messiah arrived on the scene. And yet, it is because of this command, in part, that Yeshua was able to fulfill his mission as Israel’s Messiah.

You see, to complete His Messianic mission, Yeshua needed to be buried three days and three nights in the earth before rising again, in order to fulfill the sign of Jonah. Yet taking criminals off an execution tree was not the way of the Roman rulers of Yeshua’s time; they preferred to leave such criminals hang there for long periods, the bodies rotting and decaying, to intimidate anyone considering defying Roman rule.

Exceptions, however, were made during Jewish high feast days. Rome was more lenient toward Jewish customs than the Greeks before them had been, and one of the concessions made prior to important feast days like Passover was that they would allow the Israelites’ laws to be observed in deference to the Roman laws on purity matters, mostly because it kept the peace in an occupied territory.

Such was the case when Yeshua was placed on the execution stake; if Passover had not been imminent, it is likely his body would have been left up for days, in accordance with Roman rule. Yet because of Passover, the Jewish law was given deference and the body of Yeshua was allowed to be buried before sundown.

What Jewish law created this provision for Yeshua? This one, given 1200 to 1600 years before Yeshua even arrived, and long before the Roman Empire, which regularly put criminals to death on a tree, even existed.

God knew what was coming, and so we have this command. “If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day.”

We can now clearly see that even in this seemingly random collection of rulings for entering the Promised Land, we can find a shadow of God’s plan Yeshua the Messiah, who was in God’s mind and plan from the time of the giving of the Torah, and even from the very beginning of time. And it is ultimately Yeshua who can fully and finally purge the evil from among us.

Shabbat Shalom.