Can you believe what some people surf the Web to find? I mean, there’s a site out there with eczema pictures! C’mon, discussing Messianic theology just HAS to be a bit more pleasant, right?

Anyway, in the end I wrote five sermons on the parables of Yeshua; that’s a pretty good basis for a series on the parables. Trouble is, I’m not sure when I’ll get a chance to complete it, unless I just do them without delivering them.

But the truth is, it’s more important for me to pray and seek the L-RD and his direction on my life, right now. Ministry is hard enough when the L-RD is with you and leading you; it’s just about impossible any other way, at least if you want to do it in the right, appropriate and God-pleasing way.

Not all churches or pastoral/rabbinical careers are handled that way… but I want mine to be one that is.

Finding a remedy for acne is fortunately no longer a concern for me. These days I’m more concerned with stuff like getting my teachings up on this site in a timely manner.

Such is the case with my last two messages at Beth Yeshua.

My penultimate sermon was on the Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Ruler. Shortly after I printed it out, my flash drive crashed and I had no backup; so to put it on my blog here, I’m going to have to retype it. Not fun work. But I do have the audio ready to upload.

Then there’s my final sermon for Beth Yeshua, on the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazerus; in this case, I have the text ready to go, but want to wait until I put the Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Ruler up, to keep things in order.

Decisions, decisions…

Some people worry about death and taxes. Others worry about trivial things like how to get rid of blackheads. Yet the imperative from from Yeshua is not to worry, since each day has “enough trouble of its own.

Worry and stress can and do shorten life, so I don’t believe Yeshua was sharing a facile piece of advice here. He was speaking a kingdom reality. And a very practical one at that. Why worry and stress out over things that haven’t happened yet, about mere possibilities?

Far better, I believe, to deal with each day as it comes, exactly as He tells us to.

Closing a congregation down isn’t fun work, but I do think we did well during our final service at Beth Yeshua this past weekend. Sure, sometimes it might be more fun to regress to the stage of life when finding effective acne products was my biggest concern, but hey, one has to grow up sometime.

My final sermon (and I feel blessed Stan entrusted the final weeks of Beth Yeshua to me in terms of sermons) was on the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazerus, and although a very convicting parable, we somehow managed to end things on a very upbeat note, with the “Horse and Rider” praise song.

It was a great fourteen months. I hope I get a chance to be part of things when Beth Yeshua is relaunched in the future. In the meantime, I’ll have more time to seek God and improve my prayer life now.

I was asked to prepare an “emergency reserve sermon” last weekend and ended up having to deliver it this weekend. Here’s my sermon on The Parable of the Weeds. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

We’ve been looking at a couple of the parables of Yeshua in recent weeks, and whenever one spends time on His parables, some natural questions arise. One of the first questions that comes up is, what is a parable exactly? Well, we get this definition from:

JEWISHENCYCLOPEDIA.COM
A short religious allegory. The Old Testament contains only five parables. A large number of parables are found in post-Biblical literature, in Talmud and Midrash. The Talmudic writers believed in the pedagogic importance of the parable, and regarded it as a valuable means of determining the true sense of the Law and of attaining a correct understanding thereof.

Now, that’s interesting, but I think it’s important to point out that parables are not relating literal, specific events. For example, with the Parable of the Talents, there was probably not a specific ruler and three servants that those events happened to. You see, a parable is a teaching tool; it’s a story invented by the teacher to illustrate a lesson. It’s a way of taking an abstract concept and making it relatable to the listener. They take something that’s hard to understand, and relate it to something nearly everyone can understand.

This defines nearly all of Yeshua’s parables, the bulk of which teach about the Kingdom of Heaven. Since none of us in this life have witnessed the Kingdom of Heaven personally, Yeshua’s parables try to help us understand what that unknown experience will be like by teaching us about it through situations most of us can understand and relate to. And it was even prophesied that Yeshua would teach by the use of parables, as we read in:

PSALM 78:1-2
O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old.

And Yeshua was not the first to use parables as a teaching tool; He spoke through the prophets in parables as well, as we find in:

EZEKIEL 17:1-3A
The word of the L-RD came to me: “Son of man, set forth an allegory and tell the house of Israel a parable. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign L-RD says:

Now, last time I spoke, we looked at the Parable of Great Debt, and saw that it was a teaching on forgiveness. We also learned that Yeshua regarded forgiveness not as a good idea, not as a suggestion or an option, but as an expectation, a command. In fact, Yeshua taught–and it was underlined in the Parable of Great Debt–that the forgiveness we receive from the L-RD will be in direct proportion to the forgiveness we extend to others.

Of course, the hardest part of Yeshua’s teaching to wrestle with was how we might be able to extend such forgiveness to those who don’t merely offend us by their rude behavior, but who are responsible for violent acts and crimes, who take the life or health of a loved one, who by violence rob others of their peace of mind.

I mean, it’s one thing to forgive the person who rear-ended your car during rush hour. That’s somewhat easy. It’s another thing to forgive the sexual predator who victimized one of your children, to forgive the rapist or the murderer.

These are serious issues. And what they bring to light is the problem presented by the presence of evil in the world. This question of why evil exists has been asked for almost as long as people have sought to know God. Rabbi Harold Kushner made a name for himself with his book, Why Bad Things Happen to Good People. Locally, Pastor Greg Boyd wrestled with this question in his book, God At War: Satan And the Problem of Evil.

And really, no matter where you look, whenever anything terrible and tragic takes place, from the Holocaust to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the question that eventually comes to the lips of most people – whether they are believers or not – is, “How can God allow such a thing? How can a creation God declared ‘very good’ contain the possibility for such tremendous acts of evil?”

Now, one could spend a lot of time rationalizing these questions away without ever addressing them seriously, but that’s not why we’re here, is it? Rather than try to figure it out for ourselves, let’s go to the One who has real answers. Yeshua has a parable that explains why there is evil in the world, so let’s establish a common frame of reference for our discussion. Let’s take a look at the parable of the weeds in:

MATTHEW 13:24-30
Yeshua put before them another parable. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, then went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads of grain, the weeds also appeared. The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants asked him, ‘Then do you want us to go and pull them up?’ But he said, ‘No, because if you pull up the weeds, you might uproot some of the wheat at the same time. Let them both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest-time, I will tell the reapers to collect the weeds first and tie them in bundles to be burned, but to gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Now, at first, this appears to be a little abstract from our main question about the existence of evil. Yet it explains a lot of our questions when properly understood. Fortunately, this is one of the parables Yeshua Himself explained directly to His disciples and for our benefit, so let’s read on in:

MATTHEW 13:36-43
Then he left the crowds and went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world. As for the good seed, these are the people who belong to the Kingdom; and the weeds are the people who belong to the Evil One. The enemy who sows them is the Adversary, the harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up at the harvest, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth his angels, and they will collect out of his Kingdom all the things that cause people to sin and all the people who are far from Torah; and they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where people will wail and grind their teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let him hear!

Now, Yeshua offers up these explanations rapidly, but let’s slow down and apply them to the question of the existence of evil. First and foremost, what this parable reveals is that we are mistaken when we attribute works of evil in the world to God. As John, Yeshua’s apostle, writes, “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all,” and Yeshua underlines this point in the master’s response to his servants’ question about the appearance of weeds. “This is the work of an enemy,” he says.

In a direct allusion to the Garden of Eden and the creation story, Yeshua says that the master in this tale sowed good seed. God’s intent in creating this world was to be in fellowship with us; it was the work of the Adversary, not the L-RD, that brought evil into existence. And this understanding is consistent with the rest of the Torah, the prophets and the writings, as well as the New Covenant writings. As we read in:

II SAMUEL 22:29
You are my lamp, O L-RD; the L-RD turns my darkness into light.

So the L-RD is the source of all light, and he transformed darkness into light. He is the source, therefore, of truth in the middle of deception. We also read this in:

ISAIAH 5:18-20
Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes, to those who say, “Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we may see it. Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come, so we may know it.” Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

This theme of darkness being the work of the enemy is carried over into the prophets, but is this the classic excuse? Is this simply a reason to say, “the devil made me do it,” whenever we mess up, backslide or strike out in anger? Not at all. The enemy may be the source of evil in the world, but do we bear responsibility for cooperating with it? We read this in:

EPHESIANS 5:8-10
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the L-RD. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the L-RD.

Did you catch that? We weren’t just in the darkness before knowing the L-RD… we were darkness. It wasn’t just in us, it was our nature, our substance. Only through the work of Yeshua are we now changed; we are no longer darkness, but light! This idea is further supported by Yeshua’s own words; when confronted by men seeking to do evil to him in:

JOHN 8:42-45
Yeshua said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!

In this passage, as in the parable of the weeds, Yeshua makes it clear that we either belong to the Kingdom of the L-RD, or we belong to the Adversary. When we choose to follow Messiah Yeshua and obey His Torah, we become light, we become wheat, we become children of His Kingdom. But does that mean all around us change with us?

No. As Yeshua describes in the Parable of the Weeds, we exist in the world alongside the children of the Adversary, even though we are children of the L-RD. So why does the L-RD allow evil to continue? Why doesn’t he just expunge it from existence, not allow it to continue to grow and to do further damage?

Well, he tried that approach once, didn’t he? That’s what the flood of Noah was all about! There was absolutely no one left in the world who was following the L-RD, except for Noah; so God vowed to destroy all flesh and start from scratch.

How well did that work? Did it put an end to evil, to sin, so that Messiah never had to appear? No, it didn’t, did it? And in later episodes with Moses, God expresses a desire to wipe out the sinful, to destroy all flesh and start fresh, and only the prayers of Moses, seeking to protect God’s name among the heathen, causes the L-RD to reconsider.

The problem of evil in the world is more complex than any weed-pulling can solve. Evil feeds not only itself, but it feeds off of each of us through sin. We’re entangled with it.

That’s why the master, in the parable of the weeds, tells his servants not to pull out the weeds. He tells them, ‘No, because if you pull up the weeds, you might uproot some of the wheat at the same time. Let them both grow together until the harvest.”

This is why there’s no bolt of lightning to strike us down immediately when we sin. The L-RD doesn’t work like that. If he did, all flesh would perish. We’d all be uprooted. In this life, we’re too intertwined with evil for God to purge it effectively; that which is good would be uprooted as well.

So, what does this all mean? How does it apply to last week’s forgiveness parable?

Well, nothing in the Bible exists on its own, does it? We cannot just select one verse, or one passage, and expect to understand it completely. We need context. And you know, just about every question I’ve been asked about this verse or that passage of the Bible over the past year or so, since I’ve been teaching regularly, has been answered not through human reasoning or finding a book by a learned rabbi or pastor, but by seeking out the meaning of the verse or passage in context to the verses around it.

So yes, last week, Yeshua did indeed teach that the servant who would not forgive his fellow servant’s debt was thrown in jail to be tortured until his debt was paid – which it never would be – and then went on to say, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat you, unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

Forgiveness is not a light topic. Yet neither are those violent acts which wound us so deeply that forgiveness seems impossible. So how do we bring these ideas into alignment? How do we forgive the unforgivable? How do we maintain both forgiveness and personal safety at the same time?

Unfortunately, we often do not properly understand the context of what Yeshua said. As a result of missing the context, we misunderstand and misinterpret his meaning.

Let’s use an example to illustrate what we really mean. Let us imagine a scenario where a man and a woman have decided to divorce, because the wife feels the husband is a direct physical threat, either to her, her children, or both.

Misunderstanding Yeshua’s context, what we often hear taught on divorce comes from:

MATTHEW 5:31-32
“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.

Well, that seems pretty cut and dried, doesn’t it? Yeshua explains elsewhere that Moses allowed for divorce in the Torah because our hearts were hard, but that it was not his perfect will for us to divorce, once we are married. Here he teaches that the only exception is marital infidelity.

As a result of sticking to the letter of the gospel account, rather than exploring the context, teachers and pastors for centuries have consoled women to stay in abusive marriages because their husband had not cheated on them, even though they’d beaten them, hospitalized them or worse. This technical, one-excuse-for-divorce argument has caused some abused spouses to seek out infidelity, just to have an excuse their church will recognize to divorce an abusive spouse. And it has cost many other abused spouses their lives because they stayed in out-of-control abusive relationships until their spouses finally did kill them.

None of that is necessary. Rabbi Stan often teaches that any rabbi worth his salt will tell you that the preservation of life comes before all the rules of the Torah, with one exception, and that is the command against worshiping other gods.

I mean, it just makes sense, doesn’t it? Generally, I eat kosher. But if someone puts a gun to my head and says, “Eat this ham steak or I’m pulling the trigger,” then like it or not, I’ll eat the ham steak. Life is precious to God, and so this is an understanding Yeshua would have had as well.

So where does this idea come from, that preserving life comes before all the commands, except the command against worshiping false Gods? There are many sources, but here’s an example of one from:

RABBI PINSKER, ACHAREI MOT, WEEKLY D’VAR TORAH
In the Talmud, the ancient rabbis debate how we know that pikuach nefesh—the preservation of life—is a mitzvah and that it takes precedence over all the other Torah commandments … In order to preserve a life, we may, for example, violate Shabbat observance or the laws of kashrut. In the volume of the Talmud called Yoma (85b) the Rabbis attribute this principle to our two little words vechai bahem— “’You shall live by them—and not die by them.” In other words, the Torah is given not to cause the loss of life, rather it is given that we may live, and therefore by logic we cannot be expected to endanger human life through the keeping of the Torah.

So, we don’t obey the Torah to such ridiculous extremes that we risk our own lives is the idea here. If the choice is eating pork or getting shot… eat the pork. It’s a no-brainer, right? That sounds good, but is there evidence that Yeshua had this same understanding as well? There is! We read this in:

LUKE 6:9
Then Yeshua said to them, “I ask you now, what is permitted on the Sabbath? Doing good or doing evil? Saving life or destroying it?”

In Luke’s account of Yeshua healing on the Sabbath, Yeshua by implication here refers to the idea that preserving life is one of the highest commands in the Torah, and that which is done to preserve life takes precedence over lesser commands. This is not an example of Yeshua doing away with the Torah, but merely acknowledging the importance of maintaining life over the importance of maintaining Sabbath observance.

So does that mean we should toss out all of the Torah under the heading of maintaining life? Of course not! Usually, obeying the rules of the Torah do not put our life on the line! But in defending Himself against alleged violation of the Oral Torah standard of Shabbat observance (though not the written Torah standards) Yeshua does say that the L-RD desires mercy, not sacrifice. Where does this come from? It comes from:

HOSEA 6:6
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

What is the L-RD really saying here? Well, according to:

STRONG’S G1656 eleos
1) mercy: kindness or good will toward the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them

So eleos is kindness shown by helping the miserable and afflicted, as opposed to what? According to:

STRONG’S G2378 thusia
• 1) a sacrifice, victim

So, ultimately what the L-RD is saying is, in our Torah observance, he wants us to be moved toward mercy, kindness toward those in misery. He desires that, not a human sacrifice, not the taking of a life in extreme observance of the Torah.

What does this mean?

Well, I think it means that while Yeshua was completely serious about not desiring that any who are married should be divorced, at the same time, it is apparent that the preservation of life comes before maintaining a marriage that is already shattered by acts of violence, by actions that in and of themselves shatter the vows of fidelity, love and respect of one’s spouse, even if no sexual infidelity has yet taken place.

If the choice is “break the vows of marriage by filing for divorce, or die at the hands of your violent and unrepentant spouse,” that should be as much of a no-brainer as “eat pork or die.” Life is precious to God, and maintaining the lives he has given us is more important than observing lesser commands.

So, if one finds themselves in a relationship that threatens their life and safety, please know that we serve a God who understands that. Know that we serve a God who knows when a marriage is broken, even before those who are in it know it’s broken. Know that while Yeshua desires you to stay married when you marry, he also does not ask you to give up your life as a literal victim to a spouse’s violence.

Yes, Yeshua said, “except for marital infidelity,” but part of his context for that statement, part of what he knew most people of his era understood, is that the preservation of your life would also take priority over staying married when a marriage is already shattered and has become life-threatening. And that includes the preservation of the life and safety of your children as well. For we serve Yeshua, who cares for the well-being of children so much, He said, in:

MATTHEW 18:6
“But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”

So, in the same way, let’s tie this back to last week’s lesson about forgiveness. Yes, Yeshua absolutely teaches us that unless we forgive those who have offended and wounded us, we will not be forgiven, and in the same way we forgive others, we also will be forgiven.

That’s true. It’s absolutely true. And it’s as absolutely true now as it was when I taught it last week. Yet what is the requirement for forgiveness? Repentance! Even the rabbis understood that! For, as we read in:

BABYLONIAN TALMUD, MISHNAH, YOMA 85B:
If one says: I shall sin and repent, sin and repent, no opportunity will be given to him to repent. [If one says]: I shall sin and the Day of Atonement will procure atonement for me, the Day of Atonement procures for him no atonement.

So genuine repentance is required for forgiveness. Not just an “I’m sorry I got caught” sort of repentance but the sort of repentance that says, “I recognize how wrong my actions were, and I have no intention to repeat them, for I now see them as they are and they horrify me.” A repentance that requires a complete turning away from any sort of entertaining of the temptation to slip back into the same sin again.

So are we to forgive others, no matter how often they repeat the offense? Yes.

But are we to forgive the unrepentant? Are we to forgive those who are plotting how to injure us again, even as they sit in front of us apologizing? We are to forgive them, yes. But how should our forgiveness of the unrepentant look?

Are we to sit down to an unsupervised dinner with the person who murdered a loved one, even if the murderer has shown no remorse? No.

Are we to offer to let a known child molester babysit our children? Of course not!

We are commanded to forgive, but it is not to be a brainless forgiveness, is it? God desires mercy, but he does not desire a human sacrifice to prove it!

If a person genuinely repents, we are to forgive, and show that forgiveness in the same way we want to be treated. There is no room for compromise on that front.

But if we are faced with someone who has not repented, we should forgive so that we do not allow bitterness and resentment to take root in our lives; but we should also remain cautious around the unrepentant, lest they find another opportunity to do evil to us. We should keep our eyes open. Because the natural question is, how can we know when someone who repents is genuine or not?

Pray for discernment. And give it time. Those who have not repented genuinely will reveal themselves before long; be cautious with them. But if repentance is genuine, we must forgive others as we have been forgiven.

It’s still a confusing topic, I know. But why is it confusing? It’s confusing because we all know people in our lives who can go through all the right steps, adopt all the right tones of voice and body language, who can sit face-to-face with you and seem to genuinely repent, and yet still be deceptive, still harbor evil intentions rather than the fruits of the Spirit.

Why is that? The reason for this is all explained in the Parable of the Weeds; we who believe and obey the L-RD are all wheat – children of the Kingdom of God – but we’re mixed in with weeds – children of the Adversary. And the children of the Adversary, as Yeshua pointed out, are like their father; they seek to deceive and destroy. Prayerful discernment is needed.

May Yeshua guide us all in dealing with those who are in our lives, giving us wisdom on who to forgive fully, because their repentance is genuine – and who to forgive at a distance, because their repentance is not genuine, but a trick, an attempt to gain naïve trust from us, so thatthey can do us further damage.

Help us, L-RD, to discern the wheat from the weeds. And help us, when dealing with the children of the Adversary, to still forgive those who wrong us; or at least to forgive them enough so that we do not allow ourselves to grow bitter and untrusting toward those who are also children of Your kingdom, who have done us no wrong.

Shabbat Shalom.

If you’re looking for Michael Kors products, there are much better places to be than here. At MessianicMusings.com, we’re all about Torah teaching and Messianic thought. And so, that said, here is my 2010 commentary on Sh’mot. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah today is “Sh’mot,” a Hebrew word that means “names,” and covers Exodus chapter 1, through chapter 6, verse 1. With the ending of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus, we bid farewell to Joseph and all his predecessors, and we greet Moses, the man who would become the prophet that Messiah would be compared to in Messianic prophecy. Our introduction to Moses as the greatest prophet can sometimes stir up impressive, yet in accurate, images.

Thanks to the Cecil B. DeMille classic, The Ten Commandments, there is an entire generation of believers who cannot help but envision a young Charlton Heston when they picture Moses. More recently, thanks to the DreamWorks animated musical, Prince of Egypt, a new generation is growing up thinking of Moses as an eternal teenager off on a great and grand adventure, someone similar to Aladdin.

Yet Moses as he was is not to be found in any of these false images. While he is the greatest of all the patriarchs and, as the Torah itself memorializes him, “the humblest man who ever lived,” what we find in these opening chapters of Exodus is a man who is exceptionally flawed.

First, after he is weaned, he is raised primarily in the house of a Pharaoh of Egypt, as a child of one of Pharaoh’s daughters. While this means he had access to perhaps the finest level of education available to man in that era, it also means he grew up among people who did not serve the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but among a family who served and worshipped a pantheon of false gods – gods who, as the Torah puts it, are no gods at all, gods his fathers had not known.

In spite of this upbringing, Moses does not lose himself to the pagan influences by which he was surrounded. Somehow, he is made aware that although he being raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, his true heritage lies with the Hebrew slaves that he may have even helped rule over. However, we know Moses does not forsake his Hebrew heritage because, as we read in:

EXODUS 2:11-12
One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

So here’s our first hurdle; however justified one might feel he was in striking down the Egyptian who was beating the Hebrew, the fact is that Moses is starting off with a pretty serious strike against him: he’s a murderer.

And his own conscience bears witness to his guilt, as we read in:

EXODUS 2:13-15
The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.” When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian,

So now, not only is Moses a murderer, but he is a fugitive from justice! A failure to take responsibility for his actions could be seen as a form of cowardice. So not only is Moses a murderer, but he’s a coward as well.

Does the list get any better?

Well, while Moses is in Midian, he marries the daughter of a priest of Midian, Tzipporah, the daughter of Reuel, also known as Jethro. So he takes a gentile bride, the daughter of a man who does not worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This taking of a gentile bride will later become a point of contention with Moses’ sister, Miriam, but we’ll talk about that another time.

The next note of concern comes up when Moses meets with God at the burning bush, at the time of his calling by the L-RD. There, the L-RD lays out the entire plan for rescuing Israel from Egypt and taking them back to their own land, a land promised to them by God to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. After detailing to Moses this marvelous plan, how does Moses respond? With hesitancy and uncertainty, as we read in:

EXODUS 3:11
But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
So the L-RD then reiterates his entire plan to Moses again, detailing even some of the challenges he will face, letting him know it will not be an easy accomplishment. Even so, Moses again expresses his uncertainty to the L-RD, as we read in:

EXODUS 4:1
Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The L-RD did not appear to you’?”

So God shows Moses all the signs and wonders he is to perform to gain the trust of the people, as well as the eventual obedience of Pharaoh. Yet even then, Moses is not satisfied and continues to offer objections to the plan of the L-RD, as we read in:

EXODUS 4:10
Moses said to the L-RD, “O L-RD, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”

Apparently, the L-RD is more patient than me; after this many objections, I might have just said, “Oh forget it. I’ll just do this myself.” And indeed, even the L-RD wasn’t exactly pleased with Moses’ attitude at this point. As we read in:

EXODUS 4:13-14A
But Moses said, “O L-RD, please send someone else to do it.” Then the L-RD’s anger burned against Moses.

God is infinitely more patient with Moses than I might have been. He promises Moses to have his brother Aaron help him with speaking before Pharaoh and the people. The sad part is, God offered to help Moses by curing his slowness of speech and stuttering, yet Moses didn’t trust God enough to allow that, which is why God appointed his brother Aaron as his assistant.

Are we still seeing the heroic image of Charlton Heston in our minds as we read about this Moses? Do we still see the Aladdin look-alike in our heads, the dashing and fearless young man with a quick wit?

Well, we’re still not done counting Moses’ flaws. After finally convincing Moses to do as He commanded, Moses sets out for Egypt to meet his brother Aaron when this odd episode takes place, as we read in:

EXODUS 4:24-25
At a lodging place on the way, the L-RD met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said.

So, Moses has been so caught up in his life in the household of Pharaoh, and then his life as a son-in-law of a priest of Midian, with a gentile bride, that He forgets to circumcise his own son in keeping with the traditional sign of the covenant God made with his ancestor, Abraham. Can you imagine the outcome if Tzipporah, his gentile wife, hadn’t been there and known what to do? As the eldest male, Moses was responsible to be the priest of his own household, and yet he had shirked his duties so much that his wife had to perform the circumcision, rather than Moses himself.

This is the Moses of history. Not some romanticized movie hero like Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments; not some fun-loving prankster like in Prince of Egypt; but a deeply flawed man, hesitant to obey the L-RD, unsure of himself and his abilities, and lax in his observance of the commands of the L-RD. Surely not someone worthy of becoming the greatest of all the patriarchs. Surely not someone worthy of knowing the L-RD face-to-face. Surely not the greatest prophet who ever lived.

Or was he?

You see, the L-RD does not look at a person the way man does, based on the outward appearances; he judges us on our hearts, on our inmost being. He judges us on who we truly are on the inside.

So, yes, Moses was a murder, a coward, took a Gentile bride, married into a family that served a false God, was hesitant to trust the L-RD, slow to obey and so caught up in his life that he was lax in his observance of the L-RD’s commands.

Which is what makes Moses so perfect for the role the L-RD has carved out for him. For, as we read in:

II CORINTHIANS 12:9-10
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Messiah’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Messiah’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

We find a similar sentiment expressed in:

ISAIAH 40:29
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

You see, this week’s reading goes on to relate how Moses’ first appearance before Pharaoh was an absolute failure. His actions only caused Pharaoh to work the Hebrew people harder and increase their suffering. And I believe this is because God wanted to ensure that when deliverance came, one thing was clear: this deliverance came from God, not Moses.

While we look back on the life and testimony of Moses and what God accomplished through him with awe and reverence today, often what we lose sight of is just how unworthy he was for the task he was given; and yet, that is exactly how the L-RD planned it, for the L-RD was not trying to build a people up for Moses to be exalted, but who would exalt the L-RD and not man.

If Moses had been a strongly moral man all his life, handsome and a persuasive public speaker, a master of politics and confident in all he did, married to the best bride from the best bloodlines of the Levites only, then would he have been humble enough to give the glory to the L-RD?

You see, the L-RD does not measure success as we do; he does not look at the same things we do when it comes to being qualified. As we read in:

II SAMUEL 16:7
But the L-RD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The L-RD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the L-RD looks at the heart.”

When the L-RD examines our hearts, may he find in us what he found in Moses; not hearts that are eager to make a name for themselves in service to the L-RD, but hearts that are eager, in all we are given to do, to give the L-RD the credit and glory. May we all be found to be as “woefully unqualified” as Moses, for that is what our Messiah Yeshua looks for in those who would serve Him.

Shabbat Shalom.

While some people surf the Web to find great sources for ceramic tiles, this is not one of the sites where you’ll find that. We’re all about messianic teaching here, from the Torah through the Brit haDasha. Here’s the text of my most recent sermon. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

When I was asked to give today’s sermon in Rabbi Stan’s absence, I once again turned to the parables of Yeshua. Last time I spoke, we took a closer look at the Parable of the Talents, but today I would like to take a look at an entirely different parable that Yeshua offered at a different point in his ministry, under different circumstances. Yet, like the Parable of the Talents, this parable contains several elements that are worthy of closer examination, and so I saw this as a great opportunity to study it more deeply.

This parable is often referred to as The Parable of the Debtor, or the Parable of Great Debt. And so, before we begin analyzing it, let’s read through this parable, so we all have a common frame of reference. The passage begins in:

Matthew 18:23-35
“Because of this, the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared with a king who decided to settle accounts with his deputies. Right away they brought forward a man who owed him ten thousand talents, and since he couldn’t pay, his master ordered that he, his wife, his children and all his possessions be sold to pay the debt. But the servant fell down before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ So out of pity for him, the master let him go and forgave the debt. But as that servant was leaving, he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him, crying, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ His fellow servant fell before him and begged, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he refused; instead, he had him thrown in jail until he should repay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were extremely distressed; and they went and told their master everything that had taken place. Then the master summoned his servant and said, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt just because you begged me to do it. Shouldn’t you have had pity on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And in anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured until he paid back everything he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat you, unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

Now, at first glance, there are a lot of apparent parallels between the Parable of the Talents and the Parable of Great Debt. Both involve a ruler settling accounts with his servants. Both concern themselves with the poor behavior of servants when they are outside of their master’s direct presence. And both parables resolve themselves with the punishment of a wicked or lazy servant.

Both the Parable of the Talents and the Parable of Great Debt are teachings of Yeshua on the kingdom of heaven, on what it will be like when he returns and settles accounts with all flesh, on that final Yom Kippur, on the Day of Judgment. Yet while the Parable of the Talents is a teaching of how we are to use our wealth in this world to help the needy and thereby spread the kingdom of heaven, the Parable of Great Debt is far less concerned with our worldly finances, and more concerned with our direct treatment of others.

What is the main concern or question that gives rise to this parable of Yeshua? We find the context immediately before the parable begins in:

Matthew 18:21-22
Then Peter came to Yeshua and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Yeshua answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.”

Now, often, this passage is taught separately from the Parable of Great Debt that follows; yet the Parable of Great Debt is a greater elaboration on the theme Yeshua has just established in response to Peter’s question. Their message is both complimentary and congruent. The Parable of Great Debt is acknowledged almost universally to be about forgiveness.

Yet has this parable been heard, understood, and acted upon by most believers? Or have we lost some of the weight of its meaning to the passage of time and culture, so that while most people agree with its point, few actually live out what it teaches, dismissing it as merely “a nice, idealistic homily” on moral living.

To fully understand the meaning and significance of this parable, we first have to understand some of its less-familiar terminology.

First and foremost, lets take a look and what kind of debt we’re actually talking about here, both in the case of the first servant, as well as the servant who owed him a smaller amount. We are told that the servant who is the focus of this parable owed his master ten thousand talents. How much is that? Well, the word talent comes to us from the Greek word talanton, and as we read in:

Strong’s G5007 talanton
• 2b2) a talent of silver in Israel weighed about 100 pounds (45 kg) 2b3) a talent of gold in Israel weighed about 200 pounds (91 kg)

Additionally, as David Stern tells us in his Jewish New Testament Commentary:

Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary, p. 59
In Roman times one talent equaled 6,000 denarii, a denarius being roughly a day’s wages for a common laborer … Haman offered King Achashverosh of Persia 10,000 talents of silver to destroy the Jews (Esther 3:9).

So, if this servant owes his master ten thousand talents, how much is that worth in modern terms? After all, to modern ears, at least, ten thousand of anything doesn’t always sound like much. Our first clue to its value comes from comparing the value of a talent to a denarius.

A denarius in the New Covenant Scriptures appears to be equal to roughly a day’s wages for the common working man or woman. To translate that into modern terms, let’s say that a day’s wages for the average laborer is calculated at an eight-hour work day and a wage of ten dollars an hour. That places the value of a denarius at around eighty dollars today.

A talent, then, is said to be the equivalent of six thousand denarii. That means a single talent would be roughly equivalent to $480,000. It would also mean that 10,000 talents would be equal to $4.8 billion. How long would it take to pay back such an amount? Over 164 thousand years, as a common laborer!

Also, it is important to realize that loans were not strictly business transactions in the strictest sense of the word, in the first century. As we read in:

JewishEncyclopedia.com
In ancient Israel every loan was an act of charity.

Now, all this math can get confusing and, at the very least, mind-boggling, so let’s simplify it. An alternative reading of ten thousand talents, according to some translators, is “an amount too large to count.” And not only is it too large to count, but it’s too large to ever repay. I mean, the Torah speaks of only six thousand years appointed unto man, and we’re nearing the end of that period of time already; so any amount that would take 164 thousand years to repay can, I think, be considered pretty much unrepayable.

And while we’re talking about modern values, let’s take a look at how much the other servant owes to the main servant in this parable. We are told he owes him one hundred denarii, or the equivalent of 100 days wages. Now, certainly, that’s a significant amount – about $8,000 by modern standards – but certainly it is also a repayable amount. With some scrimping and saving, even allowing for ongoing expenses, an amount like that could be paid back within a matter of two to five years with a whole lot of room for comfort along the way. And a dedicated plan could possibly even pay off that amount in about a year. Most of us have to work at least that long just to pay our annual tax burden each year.

Now, let’s apply these insights so far to the Parable of the Great Debt. Our main servant has been forgiven by the king of an unrepayable debt, a debt that in modern terms put him billions of dollars in the red. Yet despite that, he chokes and jails a fellow servant who owes him a mere $8,000.

Let’s imagine that our main servant here still believes he might be able to someday repay his forgiven debt. Even if his fellow servant had the money available, would collecting $8,000 get him noticeably closer to paying off his $4.8 billion debt? Well, it’s approximately only two ten-thousandths of one percent of his overall debt. In other words, it’s a drop in the bucket. Not enough to make a dent, a down-payment, or even an interest-only payment.

So, can you now begin to get a sense of the injustice the first servant did to the second servant? A person forgiven an unrepayable debt refuses to forgive the debt of a man who owes virtually nothing, compared to him, and whose money would not even put him close to satisfying his own debt. Is it any wonder the other servants were disturbed? Does it now seem out of line for the king to be so outraged at the servant’s lack of forgiveness of his fellow servant? Proportionally, this is like beating up a guy who owes you a couple bucks when you’re trying to repay a million-dollar loan!

Another aspect of this parable is to realize the full extent of what the first servant did to the second by tossing him in jail. When we think of jail today, what do we think of? We think primarily of small cells where prisoners are mostly isolated, but where the biggest danger they face on a daily basis stems from each other. We imagine prison violence as being posed primarily by one prisoner attacking another.

Yet this was not the case in first-century prisons; there were no group lunch lines or time out of a cell in a prison yard or even group shower time to allow such things to occur. Instead, the biggest source of prison violence in the first century came from the jailers themselves. You see, the word for jailers used in this parable comes from the Greek word basanistes, which means, as we read in:

STRONG’S G0930 basanistes
• 1) one who elicits the truth by the use of the rack 1a) an inquisitor, torturer also used of a jailer doubtless because the business of torturing was also assigned to him.

So you see, jailers in the first century were not these guards that we think of in today’s prisons, but people who were actually assigned to torture those under their care. So, for the sake of a repayable debt that wouldn’t even touch the amount he owed, the first servant, by turning the second servant over to the jailers, is actually consigning him to be tortured. Does this even make sense? Can a person in prison and under torture perform daily work to pay off a debt? Of course not. So, in effect, he’s transformed a repayable debt into an unrepayable one, by tossing his fellow servant in jail.

Now that we understand what a great injustice this first servant did to the second servant, let’s step back for a moment and examine the motive behind his actions, and whether it was even necessary.

Let’s take a closer look at what I think is the key passage to understanding this parable. Because, you see, for many years whenever I read this parable, I couldn’t understand the actions of the main servant; I couldn’t understand why he’d be so unforgiving after being so recently forgiven himself. But as I’ve studied and re-studied the parable, the truth of the matter was revealed.

Remember what this servant said when he begged the king for mercy? The verse reads, ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ So, the servant has promised, in his own way of thinking, to repay his master. And this sounds like a good character quality, right? How many people promise to repay what they owe, even when they’re in way over their head? Yet it is at best a vain promise when made in light of repayment being an impossible task.

So here’s what the next verse says: “So out of pity for him, the master let him go and forgave the debt.”

Now, this is where I believe there is room for misunderstanding this parable, and it helps to explain the servant’s actions. In English, I believe that this verse has been robbed of its full meaning, implication and power. When we hear the phrase “let him go,” I think what commonly comes to mind is, “decided not to put him in jail … for now.” There’s a sort of immediate implication: OK, I won’t put you in jail today for this. But there’s little in this phrase that suggests, in English, a permanent release.

Likewise, the phrase “forgave the debt” also seems to imply a current but temporary forgiveness. But is this an accurate understanding?

Well, the word rendered as “released” or “let him go” in English is actually the Greek word apolou, as we read in:

STRONG’S G0630 apoluo
• 1) to set free 2) to let go, dismiss, (to detain no longer) 2a) a petitioner to whom liberty to depart is given by a decisive answer 3d) to release a debtor, i.e. not to press one’s claim against him, to remit his debt

And the word rendered as “forgave” the debt is actually the Greek word aphiemi, as we read from the:

STRONG’S G0863 aphiemi
• 1) to send away 1b) to send forth, yield up, to expire 1d) to let go, give up a debt, forgive, to remit 1e) to give up, keep no longer 3c) to depart from one and leave him to himself so that all mutual claims are abandoned 3e) to go away leaving something behind 3g) to leave on dying, leave behind one 3h) to leave so that what is left may remain, leave remaining 3i) abandon, leave destitute

So the king in this parable has given this servant his liberty by a decisive answer, and that answer is that this huge debt, this unpayable debt, has been completely abandoned. It’s not just temporarily forgiven, but completely forgiven.

In other words, the king looked past the vain and unreachable pledge of the servant to repay the unpayable debt, and went a step further; he released him from any current or future obligation to repay that debt. That is what is implied by the use of apoluo and aphiemi.

So, does this servant act like someone who understands that he is under no further obligation to repay what he owed? Certainly not. Why else would he almost immediately confront a fellow servant about a much smaller debt, choke him, and toss him in jail to be tortured? That’s certainly not the act of a person who has understood the forgiveness he has been offered.

It’s the act of someone still trying to repay his obligation. He’s fearful, desperate and anything but secure. He is the opposite of blessed – the Hebrew word ashrei, which means secure and content. That’s why he acts as he does! Because anyone who truly understood the extent of the debt that he’d been released from would certainly not go around tossing others in jail for far lesser offenses, right?

It has long been my conviction that this servant’s main problem was not understanding that he was indeed fully forgiven and no longer under obligation to his king; that’s why he acted as he did. And it appears by the words used here that this must be the case.

Understanding the nature of God’s forgiveness can be life-changing, if you truly grasp and appreciate it. We are commanded to forgive as God forgives, and yet if we don’t understand just how completely God forgives, can we reflect His forgiveness to others? No. We’ll reflect a forgiveness that is as temporary and fleeting as the kind we may have experienced at the hands of the world around us, a forgiveness that brings with it no peace of mind, no release, no rest.

Yeshua teaches us what God’s forgiveness looks like, though, in:

Matthew 6:12, 14-15
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors … For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Notice that here in Matthew 6, Yeshua describes forgiveness in the same way he describes it in the parable in Matthew 18. Is God’s forgiveness capricious? No; it is linked to our willingness to reflect the same kind of forgiveness we’ve received back to others, isn’t it? And this is a consistent message throughout the Torah and the New Covenant writings. Yeshua consistently lets us know that the forgiveness we receive will be in direct measure to the forgiveness we offer others.

Matthew 10:8B
Freely you have received, freely give.

And again in:

II Chronicles 6:30B
Forgive, and deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of men),

And again in:

Luke 6:37
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

And also in:

Colossians 3:13
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Is it becoming clear yet? As believers, as people who have experienced the salvation offered through Yeshua the Messiah, forgiveness is more than just a good idea, or a moral imperative. Forgiveness is expected, and in fact, the forgiveness we receive will be in direct proportion to the forgiveness we offer others! This is not Yeshua speaking carelessly just to drive home a point; I believe he’s speaking a Kingdom reality. Why else would he say, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat you, unless you forgive your brother from your heart?” Does that sound like a “nice idea, easily ignored” type of teaching? Of course not!

Now, whenever forgiveness at this level comes up, there are two types of objections that typically arise. The first is, “Well, you don’t know some of the things I’ve done. I’ve done things that just can’t be forgiven.” And the other is, “Well, you don’t understand what I’ve gone through. I’ve suffered things that no one should expect me to ever forgive.”

The first objection brings to mind a call I received once while working in the Sar Shalom office. A man called asking to speak to the rabbi. Stan wasn’t in so I asked if I could take a message, and this guy poured out his heart to me before I could get another word in edgewise.

The core of what was disturbing him, it turns out, was that he felt as though some actions he’d done in the past had made him what he called, “super-corrupt” and “unforgivable.” This young man had been hospitalized for depression and a variety of issues, but they all seemed to stem back to his core belief that he was unlike anyone else who’d ever been born; he was too sinful for the L-RD to ever forgive. And this core belief had created chaos in his life, making him unable to hold down a job or have normal relationships… all because he believed he was unforgivable.

Well, here’s a word of hope for anyone who feels they are unforgivable: through Yeshua’s work on the cross, his grace is sufficient for you. It’s enough. There is no room for the concept of being so corrupt in your sin that you are unforgivable.

But there is a catch. You have to be willing to obey the words of Yeshua and, as he directed the woman caught in adultery, you have to be willing to “go and sin no more.” You have to be willing to walk away from your sin, to turn from it completely. That’s what repentance means! As we read in the:

JewishEncyclopedia.com
Forgiveness is one of the attributes ascribed to the L-RD … The condition essential to God’s forgiveness of iniquity is … repentance on the part of the sinner for the offense committed. A further essential condition is the intention to avoid repetition of the offense. The fulfillment of these conditions restores the sinner to his right relation toward the L-RD.

Now, this may go against what many of you have been taught forgiveness and grace are all about. The common believer’s understanding of grace tends to be, “Hey, Yeshua paid the price, I’m covered, so anything goes.” But that is not the message of Messiah Yeshua! It’s not the message of the Torah! While forgiveness is a work of God, if we are found absent of repentance, absent of even a willingness to change, something’s missing. Salvation is not dependant upon what we do, but if we have truly experienced salvation, we ought not be found absent of the fruit of that forgiveness.

As for the objection brought up by those victimized by others, be assured, the L-RD grieves and weeps with you. It is for this reason Yeshua has said, “Secure and content are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Those who are victimized by others are in mourning. Whether they are mourning for the loss of a loved one to violent crime, or mourning a loss of innocence as the result of a violent crime that did not take physical life, but robbed them of all the elements essential to an abundant life, such as peace of mind, please know that Yeshua does not promise lightly that you will be comforted. You are understood. He does weep with you.

However, I’ve met many people like this over the course of my life. I remember one person in particular I met in college. She had been the victim of sexual abuse by her father, and although she claimed to have forgiven him, the evidence that her forgiveness was not complete was apparent in many of her actions. Though she claimed to be a believer, she had a grumpy, suspicious disposition; she was frequently argumentative, easily took offense at the slightest comment, and made every effort to keep others at arm’s length. She never developed close, trusting relationships. Does that sound like the fruit of a person who has known the L-RD’s forgiveness in its fullness?

If that is the kind of place in which you find yourself … wounded by the sins of others, feeling victimized, then yes, the word of hope for you is that you will be comforted, but the word of caution for you is that the L-RD wants you – even you! – to reflect that forgiveness and comfort to others!

If we withhold forgiveness from others, what are we hanging onto? Pain. Betrayal. Bitterness. A boatload of emotions that have no place or benefit in the life of a believer who has experienced the true presence of the L-RD in their life.

We don’t forgive because it’s easy, or because the person who offended us has earned it, or because whatever happened wasn’t that big a deal. We forgive because the alternative is a burden that draws us away from the L-RD, rather than toward Him! The alternative is treating anyone we don’t trust like an enemy. Yet Yeshua commanded us directly to forgive and bless our enemies. If we only do that with our friends, He instructs us, then we are no better than the godless, the Torah-less masses! Even the rabbis who wrote the Oral Law, the Talmud, recognize this important aspect of forgiveness, as we read in:

Talmud, Avot of Rabbi Natan, 23
Who is strong? He who turns an enemy into a friend.

That is our charge as believers; that is what we are commanded to do. We are to forgive, and forgive completely, so that we can be forgiven by the same measure. Be cautious! Every time you’re tempted to say, “Well, I forgive that person, but I don’t have to like them,” or, “but I don’t want to be around them,” … the question you should ask is, “Do I want Yeshua to say the same thing about me, and my sin?”
I’ll leave you with these words from the book of:

Philippians 2:12-16A
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed–not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence–continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.

Shabbat Shalom.