Like anyone else, I can be lured by distractions from tasks I need to complete, like writing my Friday sermon. Let’s face it, there are times when I’d much rather be plopped in front of my PlayStation 3 than studying ancient texts. We all have similar temptations, though they are different for each of us.

The trick to overcoming distractions, I’ve found, is to rediscover what’s exciting about the task at hand in the first place. For example, I enjoy studying Scripture. I enjoy reading and researching ancient insights into Scripture. It’s fun to find nuggets of insight, polish them up, and present them in a way that opens up new ways of understanding those passages for other people.

I enjoy delivering a message. Sure, it’s a bit nerve-wracking at times, but once I start speaking, I enjoy the task of sharing the message I’m delivering with others. Perhaps it’s my background in theater, but being in front of a crowd isn’t that big of a hurdle for me.

Once I think about things like these, the call of that PS3 game diminishes into the background and I’m able to enjoy the heck out of the very activity that, at times, seems like a task rather than a joy.

Some rabbinic traditions shed more light on the Hebrew Scriptures than others. I think that’s because some traditions are more mythologically based, while others are things that possibly might have occurred. While this may cause some Bible scholars to write off much of Genesis as mythological, I don’t believe that to be the case.

I’ll use a more-recent illustration. Not from a KVM or KJV or anything like that, but from something we’re all culturally closer to.

In the history of America, our first president was George Washington. There is much about George Washington that is historically-verifiable fact. The wooden dentures, for example, are verifiable. The crossing of the Delaware is a matter of the historical record.

But the chopping down of the cherry tree? Well, that’s a bit more problematic. Young George may have been that honest, but there’s not a lot of historical witnesses to this episode in his life, and it’s quite possible that it is a tale spun to illustrate Washington’s honesty, long after he became president and after his parents, who might have been able to verify the tale’s veracity, were long gone.

Could the cherry tree incident have happened? Perhaps, but it feels more like George mythology.

In the same way, one can look at a tale about Haveh (Eve) having bad dreams about the enmity that would later manifest in her sons, Kayin and Havel (Cain and Abel), and see something that’s conceivable but impossible to verify; or at a tale about the Torah personified in a debate with Moshe and David and write that off as mythological; or to just about any tradition and, with a little logic and common sense, come to a conclusion to what extent a tale is either mythological or plausible.

In the first few words of B’resheet, we are given our first glimpse of Messiah; even the Jewish sages agree upon this. When haShem spoke the universe into being, his first recorded words were, “Let there be light.”

Even Talmudic sources agree that this is a reference to the Messiah. While Adonai was indeed speaking creation into existence, he was also speaking prophetically about Messiah, who is often referred to as the Light of the world.

While messianic Judaism and mainstream Judaism differs on the point of who the Messiah was or is, there is unity in interpreting this passage as a messianic promise on behalf of haShem. One can be completely sober-minded (as opposed to a member of the wine of the month club) and find Messianic significance even here in the earliest passages of Scripture.

This week, I’m facing my newest challenge: composing my first-ever 30-minute sermon, to be delivered on Erev Shabbat Service this coming Friday. To keep things simple for me, Rabbi Stan has told me to simply expand on my Torah commentary for this coming Sabbath.

I’m blessed that it’s coming this particular week, as I’ll have a chance to cover one of the meatiest parashahs in the entire Torah cycle: B’resheet. This will give me a chance to talk about creation, the fall of man, and the first murder – the story of Cain and Abel.

What I would like to do, I think, is concentrate all 30 minutes on Friday on creation and the fall of man, and make the Torah commentary all about Cain and Abel. I’m not intimidated by the challenge of filling up all this time, but about keeping it all within the time limit, since these five-plus chapters of B’resheet are so full of meaning and significance, I could easily envision – someday – doing several weeks on just these passages alone.

I have plenty of textbooks and source material to draw from, ranging from intelligent design writings to the musings of the sages. I’m really looking forward to this one!

Former journalist turned megachurch pastor and Christian apologist Lee Strobel is the star and main driving force behind The Case for Faith, a video documentary companion piece to his book of the same title. While the subtitle for this video is “A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity,” the case as laid out in this video is paper-thin and lacking in real substance. In fact, sad as it is to say, commercials for Vegas vacations offer more specifics.

The movie is very roughly divided up into three main acts. The first act features a lot of nice photography of people from around the world, while Strobel drones on endlessly about the “need for a connection with the divine” that exists “within us all.” There’s nothing new or particularly convincing about this act, as it is the sort of standard PowerPoint presentation that might move some people to tears if on display at a Sunday morning worship service, among a community of like-minded believers, but contains little content that would influence the mind of a skeptic.

The second act focuses on the early career of evangelist Charles Templeton, who started his career around the same time as Billy Graham, but who experienced doubt and ultimately fell away from a life of faith and declared himself an agnostic. This is a very tricky portion of the documentary, due to how it’s constructed.

Strobel intersperses segments of an interview with Templeton conducted before his death in 2001, when Templeton was struggling with Alzheimer’s disease, complications of which ultimately took his life. Strobel’s interview segments with Templeton feature the former evangelist explaining why he stopped believing in God, but then cuts to Strobel explaining how he “defended the faith” to Templeton. While Strobel never directly claims to have influenced Templeton back to a life of faith, one is left with the impression that may have happened, an incredibly self-aggrandizing claim.

However, there is no evidence that the Alzheimer’s-stricken Templeton ever did retreat from his agnosticism late in life, even though he was able to talk about his former spiritual beliefs quite cogently.

Worse, however, is that this second act, also, is lacking in depth of content; for someone who is supposedly one of Christianity’s top apologists, there is a surprising lack of apologetics on display in this video; in fact, little of what he offers in answer to these “toughest objections” is unique or presented in a new way, and most of what he does offer goes beyond the simple homilies one might find in a “daily devotional” book of prayer.

The third act is perhaps the most convincing, and redeeming, act of the documentary. It focuses on the individual story of a husband and wife whose daughter was tragically killed in a driveway accident. The pain of their loss is clear and understandable in a way that Strobel’s over-simplified homilies of faith just are not.

The accident happened one winter, when his wife and son were preparing to leave to go to the store; his daughter was initially going to stay at home with her dad, but changed her mind and rushed out the door to join her mom and brother. The mother was backing up in the driveway, the daughter slipped on the snow and ice and she ended up beneath the car, dying almost instantly.

Such a mind-numbing loss would destroy many marriages. Guilt, recrimination and bitterness would be natural and understandable reactions. The testimony of how this family relied on their faith in God to overcome the emotional fallout of such an accident is emotional and moving. Their claim that is was a reliance on divine power that helped them overcome this tragedy may not convince everyone that God is real, but it is a far more convincing exhibit than any of Strobel’s simplistic devotional thoughts throughout the rest of the film.

Even those hard-pressed to be moved by any “evidence” in the movie will still find this family’s story moving and evocative. Strobel wisely backs off during this third act and reduces his own on-screen time, since the testimony of this family easily speaks for itself.

In the end, “The Case for Faith” presents and overwhelmingly weak case for, well, faith. The first two-thirds of the film are largely emotional and somewhat manipulative, and in the case of Charles Templeton’s final disposition toward faith, potentially misleading. They are definitely portions of your life you can never get back.

However, the final third of the film is, at minimum, watchable if not exactly convincing when it comes to answering logical doubts and questions about faith in Christianity. Over the years, many fine books of Christian apologetics have been written, many of them arguing persuasively for an evidential basis for faith in the God of the Bible; however, Strobel’s “The Case for Faith” is not among those more scholarly works. While his work may draw applause from a sympathetic audience at one of his megachurch homes, it is simply far too lacking in research, evidence and depth to influence most skeptics of faith.

Works like “Evidence That Demands a Verdict” by Josh McDowell, “Scaling the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity” by J.P. Moreland, “Hard Questions, Real Answers” by William Lane Craig, and “The Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics” by Norman L. Geisler are all works that would provide a more intellectually-satisfying defense of Christian faith than anything Strobel offers here; sure, these books and authors are older and less trendy, but sometimes that’s not such a bad thing.

This is the final part of my three-part posting of my Torah commentary on Va Yelekh. Or listen to it! Those who are looking for unique baby gifts can click that link, but those who want the final part of this message can read on.

Thanks for your interest, please leave comments if you wish, and also, I’ll soon be revealing what my next Torah portion will be, so stay tuned!

Let’s look at what Paul says about this:

Romans 3:9 (CJB)

“So are we Jews better off? Not entirely; for I have already made the charge that all people, Jews and Gentiles alike, are controlled by sin.”

John agrees.

1 John 1:8 (CJB)

“If we claim not to have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

Even Yeshua himself does not exempt anyone and makes clear that the source of this is ourselves … sin in us.

Mark 7:20-23 (CJB)

“It is what comes out of a person,” he [Yeshua] went on, “that makes him unclean. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come forth wicked thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, arrogance, foolishness… All these wicked things come from within, and they make a person unclean.”

So, coming back to Moshe at the end of his life, I now realize that there is no cruelty in what Adonai is telling Moshe here. He is merely confirming something Moshe already knows: The people will go astray. It’s nothing new. As it is written in:

Ecclesiastes 1:9 (CJB)

“What has been is what will be, what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”

Near the end of the chapter, Moshe admits himself that he understands this. As it is written:

Deuteronomy 31:27 (CJB)

“For I know how rebellious and stiffnecked you are! Here, even while I am still alive with you today, you have rebelled against ADONAI; so how much more will you do so after my death?”

Many people regard the end of Moshe’s life as one marked by tragedy and disappointment. Not me. Moshe had faults and sin, but his life was one Adonai used to bring us the Torah. The Torah, in turn, exposed our need for Messiah Yeshua. As humble a man as Moshe was, as great as the L-RD’s accomplishments through him were, he was not a Messiah himself.

I think the people needed to cross over into the Promised Land without Moshe as a reminder that it was Adonai, not Moshe, who had brought them there. Moshe’s mortality needed to be made clear, so that God could be God.

Moshe, however, served the same purpose all true prophets of the L-RD serve: he pointed us toward our need for Adonai, and for the atoning sacrifice of Adonai’s messiah, Yeshua. At the end of his life, Moshe had to let go and realize the results were not in his hands: the rest is between us and the L-RD.

Shabbat Shalom.

If you’re here looking for the best acne treatment, click that link. But if you’re here looking for part two of my three-part Torah commentary on Va Yelekh, you’ve come to the right spot!

Read on! Or listen to it!

As many of you may know, my mother passed away at the end of August. My wife and I went down to visit as much as we could toward the end of my mother’s life. We knew her time was near and we took advantage of each visit to talk and say the things we felt we needed to share, or to ask, or to talk about with her, in her final days.

As is the case in many families, Mom was the glue that held the rest of us together as a family. And I had the chance to sit with her alone and talk about Dad and my sister and the concerns I had about both of them, once Mom was gone. My wife had opportunities for similar talks of her own with Mom.

Now, Mom may have called our Messiah Jesus, but she walked with Yeshua. As she faced the end of her days, she relied on Him more and more. And the more she relied on Him, the less she worried.

The way Mom regarded our concerns over Dad and my sister was, “Well, Dad’s going to do what Dad’s going to do. Paulette’s doing to do what Paulette’s doing to do.”

I think what Mom meant is, ultimately, we can’t control the actions of others, even those we love. We can’t force people to make better choices. We can pray, we can encourage, we can do all we can; but at some point we have to let go and realize the results are not in our hands … the rest is between them and the L-RD.

All of this has given me a new perspective on this passage on the final days of Moshe. Where once I saw Adonai as almost being mean for telling Moshe that these Isra’elites would go astray and worship false gods, rather than staying true to Adonai and his commands, I now see it as an act of intimate honesty between God and Moshe.

More importantly, I don’t think the news came as any big shock to Moshe. He had journeyed most of his life with them. He knew them as a parent knows a child. They had strayed before, and I’m sure it did not surprise him when Adonai told Moshe that they would stray again.

Remember, Moshe was witness to how quickly the children of Isra’el turned to the worship of the golden calf while he was with Adonai receiving the Ten Commands. As it is written in:

Exodus 32:19-22 (CJB)

“But the moment Moshe got near the camp, when he saw the calf and the dancing, his own anger blazed up. He threw down the tablets he had been holding and shattered them at the base of the mountain. Seizing the calf they had made, he melted it in the fire and ground it to powder, which he scattered on the water. Then he made the people of Isra’el drink it. Moshe said to Aharon, “What did these people do to you to make you lead them into such 9a terrible sin? Aharon replied, “My lord shouldn’t be so angry. You know what these people are like, that they are determined to do evil.”

Notice the phrasing of Aharon to Moshe: You know what these people are like. That’s important to understand. Moshe knew what these people were like. How could he not, after leading them for so many years?

I also think it’s very important to understand here that the Isra’elites here are not unusually sinful. If they were, Adonai would never have selected them to be his elect. This is not a special condemnation of the descendants of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, as some Christian churches teach. This is a statement of fact about human nature, about what we are like apart from Messiah Yeshua, when we are ruled by the flesh and not by the Ruach haKodesh, when we are under the reign of the Old Adam, under the power of the Adversary of Adonai.

As I pointed out in my last commentary, apart from Messiah, we are all selfish at heart. Not inherently good, not inherently evil – inherently selfish. We, like the Isra’elites, are impatient when it comes to waiting on Adonai. In fact, I think we today are worse at it. We seek the gratification of the now, rather than the reward of the not yet.

Parents recognize this truth. Offer any grumpy, hungry young child a choice between a candy bar now, or a wonderful steak dinner in a half-hour at home, and most kids will want the candy bar RIGHT NOW! And then, of course, when a half hour goes by, they’ll also be asking about that steak dinner you promised them, forgetting that it was a choice. Right?

Remember those multiple choice tests we used to get when we were in school? Every once in a while, you’d get three answers, A, B, and C that all sounded pretty good. But then you’d get choice D – All of the above. And the temptation to answer All of the above was so great, because it felt like at least you were covering all your bases – even though it was sometimes the wrong response.

We’re no different from the Isra’elites. In fact I doubt we’d endure half of what they endured. We are the All of the Above generation. We want freedom and salvation, but we also want the comfort of what we’re familiar with in our own personal Egypts. We want it all! We don’t want to make a choice!

This is not about just one generation of Isra’elites! This is all of us! This is where we are and what we’re like, apart from Yeshua.

This past Shabbat, I delivered my commentary on Va Yelekh and I will now be posting it here, to MessianicMusings.com, as I did my last commentary. It will be posted in three parts.

While some people may visit this site in the vain hope of finding Atlanta jobs, we’re about messianic Torah perspectives here, so that’s what I’ll deliver. And now, part one of my three-part posting of my Va Yelekh commentary. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah today is Va Yelekh, or “He went,” and covers the thirty-first chapter of Deuteronomy. It is primarily concerned with the final days of the life of Moshe.

First, Moshe addresses the people of Isra’el and tells them that, at the age of 120, he cannot get around anymore and while Adonai will be crossing over into the Promised Land ahead of them, they will be crossing over without Moshe.

After some final encouragements, Moshe summons Y’hoshua and commissions him in front of all Isra’el to take his place. He assures both Y’hoshua and the people that it is Adonai who is their true leader.
Then Moshe does something significant; he writes out a Torah scroll and gives it to the priests with instructions to read it every seven years, on the festival of Sukkot. As it is written in:

Deuteronomy 31:10-13 (CJB)

“Moshe gave them these orders: “At the end of every seven years, during the festival of Sukkot in the year of sh’mittah, when all Isra’el have come to appear in the presence of ADONAI at the place he will choose, you are to read this Torah before all Isra’el, so that they can hear it. Assemble the people––the men, the women, the little ones and the foreigners you have in your towns––so that they can hear, learn, fear ADONAI your God and take care to obey all the words of this Torah; and so that their children, who have not known, can hear and learn to fear ADONAI your God, for as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Yarden to possess.””

Moshe knew the time of his death was near. Adonai had told him this was so. For over 80 of his 120 years, Moshe had stood in the gap between Adoani, the holy God, and the people of Isra’el. He negotiated with God for their lives at a time when Adonai said he would just as soon let the people perish.

In many ways, Moshe was like a parent to these people, but now, facing the end of his life, he was making his final arrangements to see that the children of Isra’el, the people he’d been like a parent to for so many years, might have the best chance to stay faithful to Adonai in his absence.

However, whatever hopes Moshe may have held that the people of Isra’el would stay faithful to Adonai were soon dashed. Away from the people, Adonai gives Moshe the truth. As it is written in:

Deuteronomy 31:16-18 (CJB)

“ADONAI said to Moshe, “You are about to sleep with your ancestors. But this people will get up and offer themselves as prostitutes to the foreign gods of the land where they are going. When they are with those gods, they will abandon me and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger will flare up, and I will abandon them and hide my face from them. They will be devoured, and many calamities and troubles will come upon them. Then they will ask, ‘Haven’t these calamities come upon us because our God isn’t here with us?’ But I will be hiding my face from them because of all the evil they will have done in turning to other gods.”

The first few times I read this particular passage, I thought about how sad and demoralizing this must have been for Moshe. Here he was, one of the greatest prophets of all time, and he was being told, in effect, that it was all for nothing. It felt almost cruel of Adonai to share this truth with Moshe.

It felt like Adonai was almost saying, “Your life hasn’t mattered. All your struggles and prayers have been for nothing, because those you prayed for are still going to go astray.”

But recently, my perspective has changed.