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.

One of the most challenging aspects of jobs in the Midwest is dealing with winter weather, but I think over the next couple days, that’ll be nothing unique as this monster winter storm system seems to be affecting everyone.

Of course, one advantage of being from Minnesota is, at least we know how to prepare in advance. Over the first three days of the week, Julie and I got everything done that needed to be done for services this weekend. That means that today, we don’t have to hazard our luck on the ill-plowed roads while heavy snow is still falling.

Fortunately, the forecast is for the snow to die off overnight on Friday into Saturday, so the snow should let up and the plows should have cleared the roads off in time for Shabbat services. The L-RD will protect his Shabbat!

But for now? Let it snow!

The new month of Tevet is coming; we’ll be celebrating it at our Saint Paul congregation on Thursday at 6:30 PM. New moon celebrations are part of what the L-RD commanded when he said, “‘from one Shabbat to another, from one new moon to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,’ says the L-RD.”

Yet because the rabbis didn’t emphasize it, little remains from those early Jewish traditions. But at Sar Shalom and Beth Yeshua, Rabbi Stan’s doing his best to restore us to first-century Jewish worship of the L-RD as Yeshua and his talmidim would have done.

May the new month of Tevet come to us, and to all Israel, for goodness… and for blessing!

And thankfully, there’s no phone check needed to observe that!

One of the most interesting suggestions I’ve received lately is a bit unique. At my congregation, I’ve begun having people ask me when I’m going to do a study like those our Rabbi does. And I hope to begin doing that one day soon.

But at least one request was a lot more specific… but no, it didn’t have to do with air filters; it had to do with a study on how to study the Bible… specifically, the weekly Torah portions.

While that’s a tall order for any Torah teacher, I felt complimented by the request. Certainly, there are habits I’ve picked up along the way, sources I turn to more than others, methods of reading, praying, re-reading and so forth.

But to create a study about studying is a bit of a challenge; for one thing, what works well for me in terms of study habits might not work for someone else. However, as I’ve given the topic more consideration, I do think there are some ideas that are somewhat universal in this area, and I could foresee doing a two or three week study on the topic.

That might not be as juicy as a study on the book of Galatians or something exciting like that; but I could see how it would be of use to people and that’s what excites me about it. It means there would be people attending it who are hungry to learn how to dig in more deeply to God’s Word themselves… exactly what all believers ought to be doing!

It was a few days late, but on Sunday I was able to throw a nice little birthday get-together for my wife, Andie. She’s not had many good celebrations, so it was nice to surround her with plenty of friends from the congregation we attend, as well as from her earlier life.

The turnout was fantastic; we had 14 people altogether. Because I didn’t stay for service on Shabbat, my wife had to finish out some of the inviting tasks, but it all worked out fine. She was surrounded by friendly faces who wished her well and let her know they appreciated her for who she was.

What more can one ask? Design furniture? I think not!

One thing the last week’s taught me is that the seasonal flu shot is no cure for the common cold. I had my flu shot early this year so when it tried to take me down last week, I had the antibodies built up to largely fight it off within 24 hours.

On the downside, while my bodies defenses were busy with that, a cold/sinus-infection snuck in behind the flu attack and settled in. So, for the first time in nearly a year, I missed service this past Shabbat. Actually, I was there for set-up early on, but I wanted to set an example and protect the health of others by staying home when I know I’m sick. Why spread illness among a group of people that are nearly as close as family?

So my Sabbath was a literal day of rest for me this week, and while that’s fun, I certainly hope this cold/sinus infection goes away soon; I don’t want to repeat this, not even if I received Orlando vacations in return!

Some people might expect me to be disappointed. After a year of doing a commentary every week, soon I’ll be writing one only every three weeks or so.

Hey, put me on a nice, comfy exam table if you want to, but I’m thrilled. Not only are the other guys in the rotation good friends and part of my men’s Torah study, but more time away from writing commentaries means I’ll have more time for my other writing.

Maybe I’ll finally get some real progress made on that novel of mine. Hey, stranger things have happened!

I enjoy getting feedback on my Messianic blog. I’ve received some compliments on my comments on church/synagogue growth that were a pleasant surprise. I should clarify, however, I’m not really a decision-maker at the congregation where I currently teach. Really, and I say this only partially in jest, but my opinion on things is about as useful as a motorcycle jack. Well, maybe slightly more useful, but decision-making? That is in the hands of others. I simply help where I’m asked to help.

I did, however, form my views on growth while studying under my Messianic rabbi. The idea or concept of keeping each congregation small enough for one rabbi or pastor to keep track of and know everyone is a concept I drew from him. And I’ve come to internalize it and believe it’s a wise view.

As I’ve said before and elsewhere, the biggest danger facing the Messianic movement today is growth and popularity. The Messianic/Hebrew roots movement is becoming trendy, and fast becoming one of the fastest-growing movements in organized religion.

That means a lot of new opportunities for Messianic ministry will open up, especially as the first generation of Messianic teachers drifts toward retirement. But that’s the danger, because the real challenge now is to ensure that the next wave of Messianic ministers and rabbis are fully trained and discipled, true followers of Rabbi Yeshua and who know thoroughly how to worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

Too often, when this kind of growth and replacement happen simultaneously, folks get rushed into congregational leadership roles without that full training and discipling process taking place. And that can lead to bad theology, inaccurate teaching and an even greater risk of scandals within the movement. It’s a challenge most movements have faced at one time or another.

I’ve always believed that it’s better to take the time to properly train and disciple people than it is to really watch a movement grow as fast as possible. Quality is by far preferable to quantity, in my book. The consequences of ignoring this could easily lead to the watering down of the movement, and I for one have little interest in a “Messianic” church that is indistinguishable from one that is Lutheran, Baptist, Assembly of God or, on the other side of the fence, Orthodox, Conservative, or Reformed.

Plenty of those out there. As a Messianic, let’s be truly Messianic “throughout our generations.”

While many good sites concentrate on health issues like appetite suppressant, here at MessianicMusings, we concentrate on searching the L-RD’s word for truth. Here’s my commentary on B’midbar. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah for today is B’midbar or “In the wilderness” and covers Numbers chapter 1 through verse 20 of chapter 4. This week’s reading largely concerns the taking of a census of the children of Israel. We read about this in:

Numbers 1:1-3
The L-RD spoke to Moses in the Tent of Meeting in the Desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. He said: “Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one. You and Aaron are to number by their divisions all the men in Israel twenty years old or more who are able to serve in the army.

At its most basic level, this census seems to be a military census, since the count only includes men of military age. The results show that at this time, Israel consists of over 600,000 men of military age … 603,550, to be exact, according to verse 46. Now, one might wonder about the significance of a book that concerns the counting of the people in various ways. Why is it important?

Well, for one thing, although the numbers seem in most places to be rounded up to the nearest fifty, they generally are not the nice, round numbers that one might expect if critics of the Bible were correct and the story of the Exodus were a parable and everything in it was symbolic. Instead, the numbers found here are irregular and seem to be random, as one might expect if a large number of people were actually counted. So the very existence of this book and the record of those counted testify to the historical nature of the book. It is a book that confounds skeptics.

But certainly confounding skeptics was not foremost in the mind of the L-RD when he inspired Moses to write the book of Numbers. There must be a deeper meaning, a purpose beyond a mere historical record. And we get a hint of what that is from this tradition from the sage:

Rashi
Because God felt a deep love for Israel, He constantly counted them. When they left Egypt He counted them (Exodus 12:37); after many were punished because of the sin of the Golden Calf He counted them once again (Exodus 33:11ff); and now that He had caused His presence to dwell among them, He counted them once more.

This is an idea I can relate to. You see, when I was young, I became an enthusiastic collector of comic books. Whether it was Spider-Man, Batman, Fantastic Four, Teen Titans or the X Men, I simply enjoyed the exciting mixture of dynamic visual art and compelling storytelling. And since I was not a person who cast aside any type of book or reading material, I soon needed storage boxes and, ultimately, an inventory system.

I can still remember buying packs of hundreds of index cards, rolling them one at a time into my Smith-Corona electric typewriter, and spending hours typing out an index card for each comic I bought, being careful to note not only the series and issue number, but the story title, writer, artists, cover price and so on. I spent almost as much time inventorying and counting my collection of comic books as I did actually reading it. I continued my collection through most of my teenage years before finally selling it around the time I entered college, making just enough in the sale to help pay for a Commodore-64 computer I needed to help me write papers at college.

What explains such behavior? Well, as with any collector, whether it is stamps, rare coins, model vehicles, or, as in my case, comic books … this is an example of what one does when they develop an affection for a treasured possession. I would count and sort and preserve and store so that I could easily find and re-read any issue I wanted to find, at any time; the system helped me also make sure I hadn’t lost anything, as well as track what I had and what I needed.

The key, there, is the concept of a treasured possession. That is a phrase that pops up between the L-RD and his chosen people, as we remember from:

Exodus 19:5-6a
Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

It is easy to overlook that simple turn of phrase, “treasured possession,” and take it for granted, but it has a significant meaning. The word used here is actually:

Strong’s H5459 ceg-ul-lah
* AV – peculiar treasure 3, special 1, jewel 1
* 1a) valued property, peculiar treasure

So we can see this is a word that implies a very special relationship between the L-RD and his chosen people. They are not just a common possession – as He says, the whole earth belongs to Him – but because of his relationship to the people of Israel because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, when they hear His voice and obey his instructions, they are a people he values above all else in creation.

Is this value God places here based purely on heritage and birth? It would appear not, because this declaration is made in connection to what? To hearing the voice of the L-RD and obeying all that He commands. As Rabbi Stan has pointed out in his recent sermons, the phrase “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” does not reappear in the Bible until I Peter, when it resurfaces in light of the followers of Yeshua receiving the Holy Spirit and once again being able to hear the voice of the L-RD. If you can’t hear His voice, you can’t be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Yet even though the Hebrew people passed up the opportunity to hear God’s voice, to speak to Him directly, they remained His treasured possession. Can we who are not by heritage Jewish share in this status? We read this in:

I Peter 2:9-10
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Other translations render verse nine as “a peculiar people,” while the NIV renders it as “a people belonging to God.” The Greek word used there comes to us from the Strong’s entry:

G4047 peripoiesis
* AV – purchased possession, obtaining, saving, peculiar
* 2) possession, one’s own property

This is nearly the same meaning, the same expression, as the Hebrew word cegulah. Although not identical, it expresses a very similar sentiment, that of a possession, even a special possession. Peter’s statement is directed to believers in Messiah Yeshua, so as long as we listen to His voice and obey all of His commands, I think it’s reasonable to draw the conclusion that we are grafted in to that statement of being a treasured possession of the L-RD, on the same basis … meaning, so long as we hear His voice and obey all that He commands.

So what kinds of love are expressed by the L-RD when He counts those He loves and who love Him? We get this clue from a tradition recorded in:

The Weekly Midrash, page 690
When they left Egypt He counted them and said Israel is my first-born son, for he loved them with the love that a father bears a son. The second form of love was that of a person to his righteous friend. Israel repented after they were punished because of the sin of the Golden Calf. Moshe and the tribe of Levi killed those who had worshipped it, and although the people numbered 600,000, no one had raised a hand against them. It is therefore obvious that they had repented. For this reason, God loved them and counted them. The third kind of love was expressed when He wished to rest His presence among them, and take Israel as His people, and so He counted them.

The counting also gives us a ballpark figure of how many the children of Israel numbered at this time. If there were 603,550 males of military age, as a starting point, you can at least double that number to account for the number of women of the same age, bringing the total to over 1.2 million at least. Then, if you add in at least another twenty-five percent for those who were younger than that – from newborns through teenagers – a reasonable estimate of the group gathered there at Sinai is about 1.5 million; it would be hard to imagine, under even the worst circumstances, that the group was less than one million, just based on the number of men age 20 and up. And that’s not even including the Levites, who were not counted since they are dedicated to God and not required to serve in the military.

Now, the Bible at times takes a dim view of census-taking. For example, in the book of II Samuel, David repents for taking a census of the people against the will of the L-RD and the judgment against him was so harsh it led to the deaths of 70,000 Israelites by plague.

In the gospel of Luke, a census of the people by a Roman governor, Caesar Augustus, is linked to the birth of Yeshua, but the census is cast in a negative light. Even Exodus contains instructions on how to avoid suffering a plague as a result of census-taking.

Yet there are differences. David’s census was inspired because, in his old age, he began trusting in his military might, rather than in the L-RD. The Roman census was linked to taxation, which included hefty taxes even on the poor.

That’s not the kind of census the L-RD is engaging in here; He is asking for a count of his people because He loves them and they are a treasured possession. Just as a collector of stamps, coins, sports cards or comic books will periodically devote time simply to sort through and count their collection, so too does the L-RD here desire to sort through and count those hearts who are devoted to Him by hearing and by obedience.

As we journey through this book of Numbers, let us keep in mind that every time the L-RD is counting His people, be it men of military age, or the number of first-borns, or whatever … it is, at its most basic, a way in which the L-RD is expressing His love for those who love, listen to, and obey Him.

Shabbat Shalom.

Good news for those of you bored with just reading my commentaries and not being able to hear them: audio blogging (or podcasting, if you will) is coming soon to MessianicMusings.com! That’s right, I’ve overcome the technical barriers, found a great FTP program that uploads smoothly and quickly, and very soon I will be posting MP3 audio versions of my commentaries along with the text version.

As I roll this feature out, I’ll go back and offer up audio versions of all my old commentaries as well. While it’s not as exciting an announcement as it would be if I were to announce wholesale discounts on steel buildings, well… let’s just settle for an improvement to what this site is good at, shall we? Audio blogging is coming to MessianicMusings.com!

I think I’m finally grasping the difference between sermons and commentaries. It’s been a fine line for me and one I haven’t always seen clearly as I continue my Messianic training. It’s a quandary even the best diet pills can’t help me with.

So, here’s my understanding as of now: in a Torah commentary, the purpose is to teach, not to exhort. In a sermon, exhortation is just fine. Check.

Now here’s my newest insight: in a Torah commentary, you are to stick closely to the content of the parashah, not use it as a launching point for tangentially-related topics. Check.

OK, so, a good commentary on Tetsaveh, for example, would talk about the priestly garments described in the instructions of the L-RD to Moses. A less-focused commentary that strays into sermonizing would be one that picks up on the presence of a hint of Messiah in the instructions for the Tent of Meeting, and then launching into the theme of obedience to God.

Guess which way my upcoming Tetsaveh commentary went? Not the better of the two ways, I’m afraid, but in the process I did learn a lot more about how to distinguish a commentary from a sermon; so it was a great growing experience! Mazel tov!