Slavery is a topic which has purely negative connotations to us today. When we encounter slavery discussed in the Scriptures, we are unsure how to react. Although this is the case, we are told that we ourselves are slaves. How are we supposed to understand this?

Many ancient civilizations practiced slavery in one form or another, but God did not want the Israelites to mimic their practices. He did not want slaves to be mistreated or worked ruthlessly: “If a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slave’s service” (Leviticus 25:39). If a person had become indebted to another in some way, in order to work that debt off he would work for his debtor. God instructs the debtors not to take advantage of the workers, however, but to treat them as if they were a hired hand. God also tells them that a fellow-Israelite was not to be kept even in this reduced form of slavery for an extended period of time. Every fifty years, there was to be a year of jubilee, a time where slaves would be released and purchased lands would return to their ancestral owners. This was the case whether the slave had worked off their debt or not (verses 40-41).

The reason they were not to be treated as a slave was because the debtor did not really own the other person: “For they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt; they are not to be sold in a slave sale” (verse 42). It was not within another person’s power to buy or sell a fellow-Israelite because they were God’s servants, not man’s. Instead of thinking of the slave as their own, they were to remember that God was the one who brought each one of them out of Egypt. Even those who did not indebt themselves to others should not feel superior, for they too were brought out of slavery in Egypt: “For the sons of Israel are My servants; they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God” (verse 55).

Since God redeemed the nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, the people now belonged to Him. Since this was the case, they were to serve Him alone by obeying Him and keeping His commandments (Deuteronomy 13:4). If instead they were too burdened with service to one another, then they would not be able to serve God with all of their heart. Since they had previously been slaves in Egypt, they knew how it felt to be in this position, and so they of all people should have known that this was true.

We as believers in Yeshua have also been redeemed and purchased in the same way by Yeshua (Jesus): “who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:14). Because we have been purchased with His blood, we are no longer bound in service to sin, but we are now free to be slaves to God.

What does it mean to be slaves to God? Paul tells us, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? … I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification” (Romans 6:15-16, 19).

Being a slave of righteousness therefore means obeying God and keeping His commandments. Just as He instructed the people of Israel not to harshly treat their slaves, so too He is merciful and compassionate. His desire is that we will serve Him out of love: “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). Yeshua also indicates that living in service of Him and obeying Him is not difficult: “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). Instead of being under the heavy burden of sin, we are to serve God by walking in righteousness.

Human slavery is a terrible thing, but this is a relatively new idea. Since slaves were a common part of society, it served as a suitable illustration to use to describe the believer’s relationship with God. Although the word “slave” is used, this doesn’t mean that we should imagine slavery to righteousness as taking upon ourselves a heavy burden, but we must remember that our work can only be done voluntarily out of love, and in it we will find true freedom from slavery to sin: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

The book of Numbers derives its name from the fact that the first chapter records the size of each of the tribes of Israel, counting all of the men who are of the age where they would be able to go into battle. The Levites, however, were not included in this census, because their job consisted solely of caring for the things of God, and thus they wouldn’t go out into battle like the rest of the nation.

“Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, ‘Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, every male, head by head from twenty years old and upward, whoever is able to go out to war in Israel, you and Aaron shall number them by their armies'” (Numbers 1:1-3). Since the people would have to fight for the promised land, God instructs Moses and Aaron to take a census of all of the men who are of age to go into battle. As we see, for example, in the event of David’s census (1 Chronicles 21), God did not want a census to be taken whenever the leader felt inclined to take one. Presumably this is because to take a census is to rely on your own military power instead of trusting in God. In this case recorded in Numbers, however, God specifically commanded the census to be taken: “So all the numbered men of the sons of Israel by their fathers’ households, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war in Israel, even all the numbered men were 603,550” (Numbers 1:45-46).

The tribe of Levi, however, was not to be included in this census: “Only the tribe of Levi you shall not number, nor shall you take their census among the sons of Israel. But you shall appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, and over all its furnishings and over all that belongs to it. They shall carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall take care of it; they shall also camp around the tabernacle” (verses 49-50). The families of the tribe of Levi would be counted, but this number was not to be included among the number of the fighting men (Numbers 3:14-15).

The Levites had a special relationship with God among the Israelites. There were three different families within the tribe of Levi according to Levi’s three sons Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Each of these families had a different task within the operation of the tabernacle. God specifically chose the tribe of Levi to serve Him in this way: “Now, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the sons of Israel instead of every firstborn, the first issue of the womb among the sons of Israel. So the Levites shall be Mine” (Numbers 3:12). Since they were God’s chosen, they were not to worry about anything other than the task which they had been called to, and just as they belonged to God, so too God would belong to them (Deuteronomy 18:2).

Maimonides, the well-known Jewish scholar, has some interesting words on this chosenness of the Levites, saying that this also applies spiritually to those who are not descended from Levi: “Not only the tribe of Levi, but any one of the inhabitants of the world whose spirit generously motivates him and he understands with his wisdom to set himself aside and stand before God to serve Him and minister to Him and to know God, proceeding justly as God made him, removing from his neck the yoke of the many reckonings which people seek, he is sanctified as holy of holies. God will be His portion and heritage forever and will provide what is sufficient for him in this world like He provides for the priests and the Levites. And thus David declared [Psalm 16:5]: “God is the lot of my portion; You are my cup, You support my lot.'” (Mishneh Torah, Laws of the Shemittah and Jubilee Cycles, 13:13, translation from chabad.org).

We too have the opportunity to be Levites in service of our God. When we determine in our lives to seek only Yeshua (Jesus) and His Kingdom, He has told us that the rest will be taken care of. We are not to concern ourselves with the worldly affairs that others are concerned with, but we are to focus on the holy task which God has called us to: “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). We should not desire to be counted among the rest of the world, but we are blessed with the opportunity to find joy in our place as God’s representatives.

In the month of June we celebrate Father’s Day. We give cards telling our fathers how great they are and that they are the king of their castle. It’s all great and proper, for we are to give honor and respect to our fathers. But what about the fathers? If children are to respect and give honor to their fathers, and wives are to obey their husbands, then what about these fathers and husbands? What are they to do to receive such honor and respect and obedience?

Let’s look at Colossians 3:18-21. Paul begins by telling us, “Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.”

So we see that husbands are supposed to love their wives and be gentle. Fathers are not to embitter their children. Ephesians 6:1-4 tells us, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’—which is the first commandment with a promise— ‘so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.’ Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”

Again we see that Fathers are not to exasperate their children. Fathers have a big job, and when the family works together as a unit they are united and ultimately happy and prosperous. So why is this article entitled “The Shepherd that Leads Us”? Because that is exactly what the father is, a shepherd, and we are the sheep of his flock and we must follow him as he follows the Good Shepherd Yeshua (Jesus). The father represents God in the family structure, so we want to look at what are the duties of the shepherd.

1. Every shepherd has to lead his sheep and the best way for a father to lead is by example. He must show his love for his wife so that his children will learn to respect their mother. He must lead by authority so that his children will grow up to respect authority. He must be a man of prayer to show his children that he seeks God for all that he does and obeys God according to His word by living by God’s ways. He will set the tone and direction for his family and so he must not endanger them in any way, for he will be accountable to the Good Shepherd on judgment day.

2. The shepherd must feed their sheep. Yeshua tells Peter, “If you love Me then feed My sheep.” Now you may say, “This scripture has to do with pastors,” and I would say absolutely. But as pastors pasture a large flock, his congregation, fathers pasture their flock, their family. So how does a father feed his flock? Well, in two ways. First, his family needs to eat regular food, and so the father goes off to work so he can provide for his family (2 Thessalonians 3:10). Second, his family needs to eat spiritually, and so he must feed them the Word of God. Just as we saw in Ephesians 6:4, the father is to train up their children in the way they should go and they will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6, Deuteronomy 11:19). Genesis 18:19 tells us, “For I have chosen him (Abraham), so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.” We see here that God chose Abraham because he knew that he would teach his children and train them to live by God’s ways. We see this throughout the Book of Proverbs.

3. The shepherd is to water the sheep. This of course means that fathers are to see to it that his family is well taken care of in the area of nutrition and a healthy lifestyle, but spiritually this represents the Holy Spirit. The father, like Abraham, needs to not only train up his children in the ways of the Lord, but to see to it that they are walking in the ways of the Lord by the leading of the Holy Spirit, and that they grow also in the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-25).

4. The shepherd grooms his sheep. This process involves keeping them clean and free of the contamination that may harm them. What kind of friends do your children hang with, and what kind of TV do they watch, and of course what do they see on the internet? This also has to do with his wife and himself. He must raise his children to have a clear conscience (Acts 24:16) and a pure mind and heart (Matthew 5:8). The Bible tells us not to conform to this world but to transform our minds into the likeness of Messiah (Romans 12:2), and so the father must be part of this process in his children’s lives.

5. Shepherds are suppose to shear their sheep for without this the weight of the wool will become so heavy and burdensome to the animal and cause it much stress. We see that the father is not to embitter his children or cause them to become angry. Now we all get angry at times, but this is not what Paul was talking about. Fathers are not to cause one to be so burdened down that the child or even his wife becomes embittered and not only turn away from the family, but from God. Remember, the father’s job is to keep his family healthy in body, soul and spirit.

6. The shepherd also has to deliver new little lambs into the world. So too does the father. Yes, this can also mean enlarging his family, but also seeing to it that he is raising up children who will be disciples that will go out and make new disciples. He is to see to it that his children will live their lives as an example by being the light to the world.

7. The Shepherd has to protect his sheep. The wolf is the main predator to sheep. In Acts 20:29, Paul says this: “Know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.” Paul warned against false prophets and teachers who would lead them astray. Much like the grooming process, the shepherd must protect his little flock from those who may lead them astray: pastors, teachers, friends. The shepherd must stay alert. He must be on top of his game, never letting down his guard. For the predators are out there waiting to see who they can devour, and no shepherd wants it to be one of theirs.

8. The shepherd must go after those who stray. At times there may be one who may wander off the path, but the shepherd who knows his sheep must go and leave the ninety-nine to seek the one who is lost. We know that we live in an imperfect world and there are times no matter how much we set the example or even keep watch and pray for our children, children still go astray, but we can not just let them go off. We must do all that we can to bring them back gently and lovingly. The shepherd carries his staff and his sword to accomplish his task and he must use these tools in leading his family and always depending on the Good Shepherd to help him on the journey of life.

Now that we looked at children, let’s look at mothers and wives. This I say: If any husband is a good shepherd, seeking God and diligently following after Him, his wife will follow him and help him to do his job. She will be by his side in all he does.

So this Father’s Day, may all the shepherds in this world keep their eyes on the Good Shepherd and follow Him. And I say to all the sheep in this world, let us pray always for those who shepherd us that they may be up to the task, for our families depend on them. And the greatest reward of the shepherd is to see his sheep multiply from generation to generation, all following the One True Good Shepherd. Let’s leave with the thoughts of Psalm 127: “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it: unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors; for He gives to His beloved even in his sleep. Behold, children are a gift of the Lord; the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; they shall not be ashamed, when they speak with their enemies in the gate.”

Happy Father’s Day to all of our loving shepherds, our fathers!

“I came to bring life and that life abundantly” (John 10:10).

In our last newsletter we saw that the Tabernacle represents the abundant life in God. We are going to continue our journey where we left off in the Holy Place and continue on into the Holy of Holies. We want to remember that even though the Tabernacle does not exist any longer, the heavenly Tabernacle does.

The Menorah

Let’s begin with the Menorah. The Menorah was the only light source in the Tabernacle. Like all the objects in the Tabernacle it represents Messiah, who is the Light of The World. 1 John 1:5 tells us that God is light and there is no darkness in Him. So the Tabernacle which represents God should not be in darkness either. We who are believers should walk in the light (1 John 1:7) and we should be light (Matthew 5:14-16). The Menorah sat opposite the table of Showbread which represented the Bread of Life. Together we see a picture of the Word of God. The Word is the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) who was made flesh and came down to dwell among us (John 1:14). God’s word is a lamp unto our feet (Psalm 119:105). God’s Word lights up our path so that when we obey God’s Word, it keeps us from falling or stumbling. His Word Guides us to Him, our eternal home (Revelation 21:1), our inheritance (Ephesians 1:11-17), our great reward (Genesis 15:1).

Because we are to be the light to the world, we should want to have that light in us and through us in abundance. We should want to have God’s word hidden in our heart (Psalm 119:11), for out of the mouth the heart speaks. Luke 6:45 tells us, “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” Notice that it says, “Out of the abundance of the heart one speaks.” If we want the abundant life, then we want to have God’s Word in abundance in our hearts and in our mouths so that when we speak we speak light and we speak life.

The Menorah was a seven branch candelabra which was filled with pure olive oil. The Levitical priests maintained it so that it burned continually night and day. The olive oil represents the Holy Spirit and His anointing. Olive oil was used to anoint the Kings and the Prophets and the High Priest. Messiah was called the Anointed One, and He fulfills all three of these roles. We should want to be anointed with oil of the Menorah, God’s word, and we should want that anointing and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives in abundance.

You see here again, God’s word and the Holy Spirit are one. Ephesians 6:17 tells us that the Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. It makes sense that the Table of Showbread and the Menorah should be placed together, for they both represent the Word of God along with the Holy Spirit, which is our Helper as we walk according to God’s Word. Now we can have the abundance of God’s table, we can eat and drink and receive a double portion, and our cup can overflow. We can have His light in us and through us, and we can be anointed to overflowing and filled with the Holy Spirit. God wants us totally, not just part of us, and we should want all of Him. This is what the abundant life is all about: that Yeshua came to give us life and we can have that life abundantly.

The Altar of Incense.

As we move on, we come to the Altar of Incense. This was place right in front of the entrance of the Holy of Holies. This golden altar was used to burn incense–not just any incense, but a special blend that was given to Moses by God: “And the LORD said to Moses: ‘Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices; there shall be equal amounts of each. You shall make of these an incense, a compound according to the art of the perfumer, salted, pure, and holy. And you shall beat some of it very fine, and put some of it before the Testimony in the tabernacle of meeting where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. But as for the incense which you shall make, you shall not make any for yourselves, according to its composition. It shall be to you holy for the LORD. Whoever makes any like it, to smell it, he shall be cut off from his people'” (Exodus 30:34-38).

Coals from the burnt offering were put on the altar to give off this sweet aroma which went straight up to God. This altar represents the Prayers of the saints.

Psalm 141:2 tells us, “May my prayer be counted as incense before You; The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.”

Revelation 8:4 says, “And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand.”

The Incense altar also represents Messiah, who is our intercessor. Hebrews 7:25 says, “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

2 Corinthians 2:15 says, “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved.” Messiah is our example when it comes to prayer. We see many times that He went off to pray to His Father (Mark 1:35, Luke 5:16), even in the Garden before His death (Luke 22:41), and we see Him praying at the last supper when He prayed for His disciples and for those who would follow after them (John 17:6-26).

So much is written about prayer and praying. We are told to bring our prayers before God. Philippians 4:6 tells us, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” We are never supposed to stop praying. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us, “Pray without ceasing.” Our prayers are as praise. Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.” Our whole life is one prayer before God.

Ephesians 5:19-20 says, “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.”

Colossians 3:17 tells us, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” Since prayer is so important to the believer’s walk with God, then we must understand prayer. We are told to never stop praying, and we see that our whole life is an offering to God as a sweet aroma.

You can’t get any more of an abundant life than in prayer, but because it is the last stop, as it were, before coming into the Holy of Holies or the presence of God, then we must use all that came before and apply it to prayer. We must come in the Name of Yeshua, who is the door to the tabernacle, we must draw near by His sacrifice, the altar of slaughter, washed in His blood, and cleansed at the laver which will require us to reflect and repent. 2 Corinthians 13:5 tells us, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” Again, 1 Corinthians 11:28 tells us, “Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.” Now, you may say that this refers to communion, but I say, is not prayer communion with God?

We must eat of the Bread of Life, and drink from the well of salvation, the Word of God, at the Table of Showbread. We must be filled with the Light of the Word, anointed and filled with the Holy Spirit at the Menorah, and then we must come to the altar with praise and thanksgiving, lifting up holy hands, bringing our prayers and supplications before God. But that is not the end of prayer. Yes, we cry out to God; yes, we make our requests before God, but prayer does not end there. When we ask, we must ask believing. Matthew 21:22 says, “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” James 1:6-8 likewise tells us, “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”

And when we pray, we must stand in faith. Ephesians 6:13 tells us, “Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.” The adversary, the devil, will do all he can to bring doubt by lying to you, saying, “God does not hear you, He will not answer your prayer, you are not worthy.” But we must stand on the Word of God and continue to feast at the table of God and let the light of His word keep us from falling into his trap, and we must keep asking and seeking and knocking till we get the answer. Matthew 7:7 says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Holy Of Holies

When we enter into the Holy of Holies, it is the most holiest place in heaven. This is the throneroom of God. We must come with a hush. When the Bible tells us that we can come with a boldness, this is taken out of context. Yes, we can come. Yes we can enter in with a boldness and a confidence, but that is our position because of Messiah: we have the right to come because of Him. But we must remember that this holy place can never become a common place. Ephesians 3:12, in the Berean Study Bible, says, “In Him and through faith in Him we may enter God’s presence with boldness and confidence.” And again Hebrews 4:16 tells us, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” But we must keep in mind 1 Peter 1:16: “You must be holy because I am holy.”

Let us come into God’s presence as the end of our walk through the tabernacle and let us bathe in the holiness of God. You cannot get any more of the abundant life than this, just sitting at the feet of our Master Yeshua, gazing upon his holiness.

One of the ways the Israelites could assume an extra level of dedication to God was to take on a Nazirite vow. There were special regulations which applied to this person for a predetermined period of time, and during this time they were devoting themself to God in a special way. Let’s take a closer look.

God begins by saying to Moses, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to dedicate himself to the Lord, he shall abstain from wine and strong drink; he shall drink no vinegar, whether made from wine or strong drink, nor shall he drink any grape juice nor eat fresh or dried grapes” (Numbers 6:2-3). The word Nazirite is based on the Hebrew word nazir which means “consecrated, devoted.” While the word Nazirite looks similar to the words Nazarene and Nazareth, they are not from the same root word. The purpose of a Nazirite vow was to separate oneself to the Lord. Some have made the claim that taking this vow was a way for an ordinary person to attain a level of holiness equal to that of the priesthood, even the high priest.

The first standard for a Nazirite is that they are not to consume any alcohol or grape products. There are several other regulations: “All the days of his vow of separation no razor shall pass over his head… All the days of his separation to the Lord he shall not go near to a dead person… All the days of his separation he is holy to the Lord” (Numbers 6:5-6, 8). The person taking the vow would set aside a particular period of time where they would follow these rules. After this time, the person would go to the temple, offer sacrifices, and have their head shaved, after which the person would return to their regular status.

We see that while the Nazirite vow was a voluntary one, there were important people who God called to be Nazirites. Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist were all bound to a lifelong Nazirite vow from the womb (Judges 13:7, 1 Samuel 1:11, Luke 1:15). This was God’s way of showing His specific calling upon those peoples’ lives and the important role they would each play in the history of Israel.

What may surprise us, however, is that the Nazirite vow did not come to an end in the Old Testament. When Paul returned from travelling throughout the world preaching, he tells of his travels to the apostles there: “And when they heard it they began glorifying God; and they said to him, ‘You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Torah; and they have been told about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs. What, then, is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. Therefore do this that we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow; take them and purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads; and all will know that there is nothing to the things which they have been told about you, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the Torah” (Acts 21:20-24).

Here, we see that rumors had gone around about Paul that he was preaching that Jews should not keep the Torah. In order to lay these rumors to rest, the believers come up with a good solution: there are some believers among them who have taken a Nazirite vow and are coming to the time of their completion. Paul will accompany them to the temple, where he will pay the costs for their sacrifices. It was a rule that one who travels outside of the land of Israel must purify themself, and so this is likely the purification that Paul himself was going to go through. An alternative to this idea is that Paul himself had taken a Nazirite vow as we see in Acts 18: “Paul, having remained many days longer, took leave of the brethren and put out to sea for Syria, and with him were Priscilla and Aquila. In Cenchrea he had his hair cut, for he was keeping a vow” (verse 18). If this is the case, then he shaved his head outside of Israel and was now coming to offer the necessary sacrifices to complete the vow. While this is not the way which the vow was traditionally completed, it may be possible that this is the case.

So we see that among the early believers in Yeshua (Jesus), the Torah was still being kept, so much so that believers were eager to take advanced vows which required greater responsibilities, but which also afforded an advanced connection with God. Since the temple services are no longer in operation, a person taking a Nazirite vow would have to continue with their Nazirite behavior uninterrupted for their entire life. Because of the near-impossibility this entails, Nazirite vows are no longer taken today. Other forms of dedication are commonplace, however, such as fasting from food or luxuries for a predetermined period of time. Regardless of what level of service we feel God is calling us to individually, let us pursue it and Him with our whole being.

When reading through the records of the children of Israel wandering through the wilderness, we see their behavior is far from ideal. Perhaps we have looked down on their poor attitudes and convinced ourselves that if we had been among them in those days, surely we would have acted much different. Let’s take a closer look.

The people of Israel, although they were being cared for by God, failed to see anything positive in their situation. They began to complain amongst themselves: “Now the people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing of the Lord; and when the Lord heard it, His anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp” (Numbers 11:1). The Scripture here says that the people “became like those who complain of adversity,” and that the Lord heard it. Even though God was taking care of them and wanted to dwell among the people of Israel, the people saw themselves as being oppressed and in desperate need. The punishment seen here affected only the edges of the camp. God’s warnings start off lesser and if the disobedience continues, God will increase the pressure (Leviticus 26:14-45). Why did the people feel this way? What did they lack?

What they lacked was the sating of their own desires: “The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, ‘Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna.'” (Numbers 11:4-6). We as human beings have a tendency to romanticize our memories. We look back on a previous situation with rose-tinted glasses and think that in the previous days we were better off. But Solomon warns us, “Do not say, ‘Why is it that the former days were better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this” (Ecclesiastes 7:10). If they were being realistic, they would have recalled that they were in bitter slavery back in Egypt.

The needs of the Israelites were taken care of with the manna. Instead of being grateful for this, they became comfortable and longed for things which they did not have. In most of our lives today, we face the same temptation. In our modern day and age, most people in the first-world do not need to worry about their daily needs being met, such as food, shelter, and clean water. In this situation, many desires and wants are given the opportunity to arise and tempt us. We must remember that it is God who provides for all of our needs, and we should not despise whatever it is that He has given us. This saying applies not only to the provision of our fleshly needs for survival, but also to every aspect of our lives, whether it be the financial situation we find ourselves in or the talents and gifts which God has given us. We cannot despise our situation, but rather we ought to give thanks to God for everything He has provided, even if that were only life itself.

Often God’s punishments are simply allowing our own choices to reach a fitting conclusion. This is true in the case of the peoples’ longing for meat: “Say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, “Oh that someone would give us meat to eat! For we were well-off in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat and you shall eat. You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you; because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before Him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”‘” (Numbers 11:18-20). The root cause of their longing was not because of a lack of meat specifically. The people had come out of Egypt with flocks and herds (Exodus 12:38), so if they simply had a craving for meat, they certainly could have eaten some of their own. The food was merely an expression of the people’s desire to return to Egypt.

Why would they want to return to being slaves in Egypt? Relying completely on God is far from easy from the perspective of the flesh. While slavery was indeed very difficult, it was stable and secure. Wandering around for years in the desert, sometimes going without water (Exodus 17:3), was the complete opposite, requiring complete trust and devotion in the face of suffering and impossible circumstances.

Paul explains that we ought to take heed to how the people acted: “Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved” (1 Corinthians 10:6). He tells us not to behave in the various ways that the people did in the wilderness, worshipping idols, behaving immorally, testing the Lord, and grumbling: “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall” (1 Corinthians 10:11-12). If we find ourselves craving a false sense of security instead of whole-hearted obedience, or pursuing our own desires instead of having a spirit of contentedness and thanksgiving, then let us beware lest we fall into sin and find ourselves receiving just what we are desiring.

This portion depicts the sad results of the Israelites’ unbelief. After the spies come back from the land of Canaan, they tell the people that the inhabitants of the land are too powerful to overcome. We see that the writer of Hebrews warns us, believers, about falling into disobedience according to their example. Therefore we are going to take a closer look and see what this means for us.

Although they saw the great blessing which rested upon the land they were set to enter, the spies are struck with fear at the sight of the inhabitants of the land: the Nephilim (Genesis 6:4). Fearing for their lives, the people begin to blame Moses and Aaron, and accuse God of bringing them out of Egypt and through the wilderness only to die in battle and have their wives and children taken captive. So frenzied is their unbelief that they are set to stone Caleb when he tries to encourage the people that the Lord will fight for them. God descends into the tabernacle and speaks with Moses: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst?'” (Numbers 14:11).

The people experienced all of the signs and wonders of God as He brought them out of Egypt and sustained them in the wilderness. Despite this, they did not truly believe in God. God tells them that their worst fears would come upon them: “Your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me” (Numbers 14:29). For each day that the spies were in the land of Canaan, the people will spend one year wandering the wilderness: 40 years, until all of that generation has died except for Joshua and Caleb, who both trusted God.

“When Moses spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people mourned greatly. In the morning, however, they rose up early and went up to the ridge of the hill country, saying, ‘Here we are; we have indeed sinned, but we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised'” (Numbers 14:39-40). Even though they acted as if they had repented and were ready to believe in God, they once again were showing their unbelief. God had told them that they would not go into the land, but they did not believe Him and sought to enter the land by their own power: “But they went up heedlessly to the ridge of the hill country; neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses left the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down, and struck them and beat them down as far as Hormah” (Numbers 14:44-45).

The hand of the Lord had been great among that generation in all of their journeys. We read through all of these accounts and ask ourselves, how is it that they did not believe after all that they had been through? We say that “seeing is believing,” and this generation had enough sights to sustain anyone for a lifetime, yet they did not believe. It is not that they did not believe that God was among them or that He existed, for they said, “Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword?” (Numbers 14:3). Their lack of belief was not whether God was present in their lives, but whether He would fulfill His words to them and bring them into the promised land.

This is important to understand, for the writer of Hebrews warns us against becoming like that generation. He says, “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Messiah, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end” (Hebrews 3:12). We are here being warned against something which accumulates day after day if we are not careful. As we saw, the belief was not whether or not God existed, but whether or not He would be gracious in fulfilling His promise.

So what is the promise that we must guard ourselves against disbelieving? It is the same promise which that generation refused to believe in the wilderness: that God would bring them into the promised land, the Kingdom: “Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it” (Hebrews 4:1). Even if we believe in our minds that Yeshua died for our sins, unless we live according to that belief it is as if we do not believe at all: “And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief” (Hebrews 3:18-19). The people did not believe that God would help them if they were obedient and went in to fight against the inhabitants of the land. In the same way, we must believe not only that God exists, but that He will fight alongside us in our battle against sin. We cannot enter the land by our own military power, but rather when we trust in Him, He will bring us into His rest: “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Korah was a Levite, born into the tribe which God had chosen to serve Him in a special way. In this portion, he and a group of leading men in the community rise up against Moses, saying that he has assumed too much in making himself the leader of the people, even though it was God who had put both Moses and Korah in their respective roles. Although this is an extreme example of discord compared to anything we may encounter in our lives, there are lessons here which are important to learn.

“Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took action, and they rose up before Moses, together with some of the sons of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, chosen in the assembly, men of renown” (Numbers 16:1-2). It is not recorded what exactly sparked Korah to rise up in this way. As is evident in Scripture, there were many of that generation in the wilderness who were resentful towards Moses and God for bringing them out of Egypt into the wilderness, so it makes sense that many of the influential people would hold this view.

This group comes together and pits themselves against Moses and Aaron: “They assembled together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, ‘You have gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?'” (Numbers 16:3). God had indeed told the nation, “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). It is true that all the congregation was holy, but God had commanded that there was to be an hierarchy, an inner circle of those who would be able to draw closer to Him in the tabernacle. It is interesting to see the difference between these men and Moses. Korah and his followers are acting in arrogance and asserting themselves as deserving of more power, whereas Moses responds to them in humility: “When Moses heard this, he fell on his face” (Numbers 16:4).

In order to show which of them God had chosen, the 250 men will stand in front of the tabernacle and offer incense. Moses comes before the tents of Dathan, Abiram, and Korah in front of all the people and declares, “By this you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these deeds; for this is not my doing… If the Lord brings about an entirely new thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that is theirs, and they descend alive into Sheol, then you will understand that these men have spurned the Lord” (Numbers 16:28, 30). Just as Moses finishes speaking, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and their households are swallowed up by the earth and the 250 men who were offering incense are consumed by fire from God.

What exactly was Korah’s sin? From the perspective of democracy, it may seem honorable for these men to question authority and assert the rights of the people. If Moses had been acting contrary to God’s will, perhaps they would have been justified in their actions. But in this case, the opposite was true: Korah and his followers were blind to God’s will and assumed they were holier than they were in truth. As we saw above, Moses said that “these men have spurned the Lord.” Their sin was not rising against the person of Moses, but because of lifting themselves up in the face of God, which caused them to rise against Moses. Throughout Scripture we see that hubris and pride are dangerous qualities. While it is true that God makes each one of us holy, we must remember that He is merciful towards those who recognize that they are unworthy vessels. Those who try to lift themselves up will be thrown down: “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, that they may see you” (Ezekiel 28:17).

Yeshua (Jesus) tells us a similar message: “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him… For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:8). In another passage, He tells a parable comparing a Pharisee, who is comfortable in his belief that he is holier than others, with a tax-collector, who can only ask God for mercy: “I tell you, this man [the tax-collector] went to his house justified rather than the other [the Pharisee]; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14). Paul also touches on this topic: “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith” (Romans 12:3).

We must be careful to never think too highly of ourselves either before men or before God. No matter what we do, our salvation relies completely on God’s mercy and our faith in Yeshua’s sacrifice. Once we accept this, it is our duty to seek first His Kingdom as a humble servant, not because we expect a reward, but because we wish to do the will of our Father. “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Messiah Yeshua came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all” (1 Timothy 1:15).

There is nothing better in July than the fourth. It is foundational to us. It is our heritage and it deserves nothing less than our gratitude to our forefathers and those who came after who have done all in their power to keep us safe and free. But we seem to forget the most important part to this equation, and that is God. It was our heavenly Father who gave birth to this nation and during its years of infancy, it was God who protected it and watched it grow. It was God who brought this country through every storm and every trial and tribulation. It was God our Father who lovingly blessed us and prospered us. He gently took our servicemen and women into His arms and received them when they fell in battle. He saw, and He who is a mighty warrior Himself rose up and gave us the victory.

Yes, we forgot the One who birthed us. We removed His name from the public square. We removed His commandments and we turned from His ways and mocked Him in our theater and entertainment. We shook our fists and we said defiantly in His face that WE and not Him will rebuild after 9/11, and not only that, but we said that we would rebuild even higher and better and stronger, never saying, “with God’s help.” And where did we find ourselves? In two wars, and even at that when we pulled out we had to return because we lost what we had gained. Fifteen years of wars and not peace. We had years without prosperity. We had a nation so divided and our streets have become war zones. God’s word tells us in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “And if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

I want to look at this passage closer, for I say the answer is right here to America’s problems.

It’s Up to God’s People

This passage in Chronicles took place when Solomon dedicated the first Temple. The passage goes on to say in verses 15-16, “Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.” So what does this have to do with us? Well, we have our foundational Scriptures to show us exactly how God deals with His people. God tells Israel if they would humble themselves and pray and seek His face and turn from their wicked ways that He would hear their prayers and forgive them and heal their land. We who have been grafted into Israel (Romans 11:17) through the death and resurrection of Messiah also have this same promise. Our churches represent the place where God resides, the heavenly temple—at least it should, in the respect that it should be holy and sacred. But today our churches show no respect to God. We sit during the worship service and look at our phones. We drink coffee and we do not enter into worship, as if God is so common. Isaiah 6:1-5 tells us, “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!'”

Revelation 4 tells us, “After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’ At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.’ Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.'”

This is a picture of the temple in heaven and we must always remember that we also are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we should be holy for He is holy, and to be holy means that we should be keeping God’s commandments. We should be praying and seeking His face. God opposes the proud but He draws close to those who are humble (James 4:6) and contrite of heart (Psalm 51:17).

So if the people of God, Jew and Gentile alike, would humble themselves and pray and seek God’s face, and if we would turn from our wickedness (YES this is to the people of God), He would hear our prayers and forgive us our sins and heal our country. We too are guilty of being like the world. Today there is no difference between a believer or a Jew and the world, Orthodox exempted. We are to be light to the nations. We are to be sowers of the seed of God’s Word.

Now you may say that this is all wrong and we are not guilty, and to that I say, then our land would be healed and we would not be so divided and our streets would not be war zones. God’s word is truth and it sheds its light, and we as a body of believers have to come back to living by God’s Word. When we do, we will see a mighty revival in the land and America will be healed.

Let’s take the advice of Psalm 81:

“Sing for joy to God our strength, shout aloud to the God of Jacob! Begin the music, strike the timbrel, play the melodious harp and lyre. Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon, and when the moon is full, on the day of our festival; this is a decree for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob. When God went out against Egypt, He established it as a statute for Joseph. I heard an unknown voice say: ‘I removed the burden from their shoulders; their hands were set free from the basket. In your distress you called and I rescued you, I answered you out of a thundercloud; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Hear me, my people, and I will warn you— if you would only listen to me, Israel! You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not worship any god other than me. I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would only follow my ways, how quickly I would subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes! Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever. But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.'”

As we celebrate our independence from England, let’s thank God who blessed this nation with abundance. Can we now turn from His commandments and His ways? Let’s humble ourselves in prayer and seek the God who has given us this great land.

The story of the bronze serpent is one that naturally piques one’s interest. There are some striking parallels between this account and the words of Yeshua (Jesus), so we are going to take a closer look at this.

The people of Israel had just had a military victory over the king of Arad. After this, God leads them the long way around the land of Edom: “Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey. The people spoke against God and Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food'” (Numbers 21:4-5). Even though the people had experienced the great deliverance and support of God over and over again, they continued to show that they really did not trust Him. Each time this happened, God would punish the people, and yet they continued in their behavior.

In response to their rebellion, God allows the people to be punished: “The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died” (Numbers 21:6). The description of these snakes as “fiery” likely refers to the effect which the bites had on their victims, such as a burning sensation. Amidst the great suffering and death brought on by the snakes, the people recognize that they are being punished for their sins in speaking against God and against Moses: “So the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you; intercede with the Lord, that He may remove the serpents from us.’ And Moses interceded for the people” (Numbers 21:7).

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.’ And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived” (Numbers 21:8-9). The remedy is a strange one, and yet it is this which God commanded. The bronze serpent would represent the sin of the individual who had been bitten, and when they looked upon it, they would remember their sin and repent in their hearts, believing that God would heal them.

There is an interesting commentary on this verse in the Jewish work known as the Mishnah: “Similar to this matter, you [can] say concerning the verse; ‘Make a [graven] snake and place it on a pole, and everyone bitten who sees it will live’ (Numbers 21:8): And is it the snake that kills or [is it] the snake that [revives]? Rather, whenever Israel would look upward and subjugate their hearts to their Father in heaven, they would be healed; and if not, they would be harmed” (Mishnah, Rosh Hashanah 3:8). In other words, what this is saying is that it was not that the snake on the pole had any significance or power of itself, but when the people looked at the snake, it was as if they were raising their heads towards heaven and asking God to forgive them. The people of Israel did not understand this early enough, however, as the bronze snake became an idol which was worshipped (2 Kings 8:14).

Yeshua alludes to this event in His conversation with Nicodemus recorded in the gospel of John: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). What is the connection between the bronze serpent and Yeshua being crucified? Aside from any visual connection between the snake on a standard vs. Yeshua on the cross, there is a deeper significance. The bronze snake represented the punishment of snakes that the people had merited because of their disobedience. When they looked upon this snake, believing in their hearts that God would forgive and heal them, they were saved from death. Likewise, the crucifixion of Yeshua calls to mind the fact that we all have sinned and therefore merit eternal death (Romans 6:23). When we look to Him and subjugate our hearts to Him, we are healed and forgiven of our disobedience.

This would not be the last time the people of Israel disobeyed God and merited punishment in the wilderness. The bronze serpent would not be used again for the healing of their subsequent sins. But for us today, Yeshua’s sacrifice remains the only way to be healed and forgiven (John 14:6). Not only this, but God’s desire is that we will not only be forgiven of our sins, but that we will walk in obedience to Him through the power of the Holy Spirit: “And He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf” (2 Corinthians 5:15). Let us never cease from living our life in the power granted to us through the sacrifice of Yeshua, but always lift our eyes and hearts to heaven so that we may continue to be healed and perfected until the return of our Messiah Yeshua.

Balaam, asked by the king of Moab to curse Israel, finds himself in an interesting predicament. The king of Moab asks him to curse Israel, but Balaam is only able to say what God tells him to. After all is said and done, Balaam was not able to curse Israel and collect the reward for doing so, but this is not the last we hear of him.

Moab and Midian see that the people of Israel are powerful and that God is with them. Knowing what has happened to Israel’s enemies and fearing that they will be next, they hire a man named Balaam, who was apparently some sort of well-known mystic in the area. They offer to reward him richly if he will come and curse the people of Israel so that they will be defeated. The Lord appears to Balaam in a dream, telling him not to go. He then tells the messengers this, who are sent back to Balaam once again with the offer of even more riches. Again God appears to Balaam, and says, “If the men have come to call you, rise up and go with them; but only the word which I speak to you shall you do” (Numbers 22:20). Apparently, Balaam’s heart is not right in this endeavor, for an angel is sent to destroy him (verse 22). Heeding this warning, Balaam informs the king of Moab that he can only speak what God tells him to.

Balaam proceeds to utter several prophecies, proclaiming blessings upon Israel. It seems as if Balaam will not receive any reward from Balak in this matter, and he almost seems as if he is not such a bad guy after all. But even though he was not able to curse Israel, and in fact spoke blessings upon them to his own financial disadvantage, Balaam is still depicted as an evil person in Scripture. All references to him in the New Testament are negative, and in Jewish literature he is also portrayed as an enemy. Why is this?

Directly following the account of Balaam, Numbers 25 begins by saying that the children of Israel at that place were enticed by the daughters of Moab and committed acts of idolatry. Many have linked these two passages together, claiming that Balaam, even though he was not able to curse the people himself, was still eager in his heart to get a reward: “Rabbi Jehudah said: ‘The counsel of the wicked is far from me’ (Job 21:16). This refers to the counsel of Balaam, the wicked, who advised Midian, and there fell of Israel twenty-four thousand men. He said to them: ‘You will not be able to prevail against this people, unless they have sinned before their Creator.’ They made for themselves booths outside the camp of Israel, and they sold all kinds of merchandise of the market. The young men of Israel went beyond the camp of Israel and they saw the daughters of Midian, who had painted their eyes like harlots, and they took wives of them, and went astray after them, as it is said, ‘And the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab’ (Numbers 25:1)” (Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer 47: The Zeal of Phineas). In other words, this and other Jewish literature claim that Balaam gave advice to Moab on how to circumvent the blessings he had just uttered by causing the Israelites to fall into sin, thus bringing judgment upon themselves. This is directly confirmed in Numbers 31:16 and Revelation 2:14.

Balaam is used as an example in the New Testament of being eager for dishonest wealth: “But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah” (Jude 1:10-11). In 2 Peter we also see Balaam used as an example of the same thing: “They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet” (2 Peter 2:13-16).

It is clear that Balaam’s life as recorded in Scripture contains lessons for us. As emphasised in the previously quoted New Testament scriptures, he is a warning against the pursuit of wealth. When Balaam initially went out with the messengers, his heart was in the wrong place, and so God had to send an angel to redirect his path. Some have used the verse which says he “arose in the morning and saddled his donkey” to say that he was eager to go and make his wage. We see that even after his prophecies, Balaam enticed the people of Israel into sin. One can appear to be a servant of God, but in practice they are not. Even though Balaam uttered blessings and prophecies, in the end his actions were wicked. Yeshua (Jesus) teaches us this same lesson: “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart you from Me, you who practice lawlessness'” (Matthew 7:22-23).

Let us be careful that we do not become like Balaam in his desire for wealth, and let us also be careful not to fall into the hands of those who would wish to deceive us for their own dishonest gain or join with them in their sinful practices. “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Yeshua Messiah to eternal life” (Jude 1:20-21).

The previous portion concluded with the end of a plague brought on by the Israelites’ affair with the daughters of the Midianites and their idols. The plague was brought to a close when Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, drove a spear through an Israelite man and the Midianite girl he had just brought home. God rewards him for this act, which was done in zeal. But what is zeal, and what is its place in the life of a believer?

Because of Phinehas’ boldness in carrying out God’s command to take action against the leaders of the tribes of Israel (Numbers 25:4), God speaks to Moses about him: “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give him My covenant of peace; and it shall be for him and his descendants after him, a covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the sons of Israel'” (Numbers 25:11-12). Perhaps we might misunderstand his actions as being excessively violent, but God tells Moses that the action was done out of zeal and a desire to end the plague which had come upon the people of Israel because of their sin. It was not because he wanted to kill sinners, but rather he was acting in the spirit of his grandfather Aaron, who in Jewish tradition was well-known as a man who pursued peace among the people of Israel, and whose job it was to atone for their sins to bring peace between the people and God (Psalm 133:1-2).

The word translated in these verses as “jealousy” can also be translated as “zeal,” and in fact Merriam-Webster supplies “zealous vigilance” as a definition of the word jealousy. So what is zeal? The word zeal indicates fervent support of a cause or group. Zeal is seen throughout Scripture, and it is used to describe both God and man. For example, Elijah the prophet is one who had zeal: “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away” (1 Kings 19:10). The zeal of Elijah is especially evident in the previous chapter, where the showdown between himself and the prophets of Baal is recorded: “Then Elijah said to them, ‘Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.’ So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there” (1 Kings 18:40). We also see zeal attributed to God: “He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle” (Isaiah 59:17).

Yeshua (Jesus) acts with great zeal when he drives the moneychangers out of the temple courts: “And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, ‘Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.’ His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me'” (John 2:15-17). Even when the word “zeal” is not used to describe an action in Scripture, it is easy to pick out when one is acting with zeal, and we see many of Yeshua’s deeds done out of zeal.

So what place does zeal have in the life of a believer? Paul tells us, “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord” (Romans 12:11). We are all called to have zeal for God, although this may look different in each one of our lives on different levels. For each one of us, however, our love for God will manifest itself as zeal for Him. To love God is to obey Him and to seek the glorification of His Name. While in Scripture zeal is often manifested in strong outbursts of violence, this is not a requirement for expressing zeal. As Paul tells us in Titus 2:14, Yeshua “gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” We should be passionate in our desire to obey God and to do good for others.

Zeal does not need to rest on violence, and on the contrary violence is in most every situation in our personal lives not the path toward peace. Zeal does, however, sometimes require one to act contrary to the established set of behaviors which are seen as normal or comfortable. In and of itself, zeal is not good or bad, but it depends solely on what one is zealous for and how pure and true their motives are. Therefore, let us be zealous in our love for God and for our fellowman, obeying Him and working fervently for Him as the day of Yeshua’s return approaches.

Some Christians may face the temptation to join a fraternity, secret society, or other such organization. These groups have historically achieved some level of success even among believers. By appealing to the desires of mankind for greater degrees of wisdom, closer ties to friend and neighbor, and insight into mysteries and hidden matters, these secret orders have enticed many into their fold. These are noble desires when they are pursued in the light of truth, but these groups only serve to be a source of false light. Freemasonry is probably the most well-known fraternal organization/secret society, with public lodges and community outreach forming a large part of the group’s identity. Therefore this brochure will mostly focus on the Masons. However, the topics discussed in this brochure will for the most part apply to other secret societies and fraternities in general. There are some common tenets which guide Masonry as a whole, and these are also noticed in fraternities and secret societies.

First, the concept of an elevated hidden truth which must be initiated into runs contrary to the fact that the wisdom that comes from God is not hidden from those who seek Him. Those whom the Holy Spirit has gifted in heightened understanding and teaching ought not to hide this truth, but preach it boldly to others. “For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light” (Mark 4:22). This type of secrecy causes one to live contrary to the example given us in the Scriptures.

Second, there is the issue of taking oaths. Taking an oath is a serious matter according to Scripture. Yeshua (Jesus) warns His disciples that it is better for them to not swear at all rather than take an oath in vain (Matthew 5:33-37). Swearing or taking an oath is not itself a sin (Deuteronomy 6:13, 2 Corinthians 1:23, Revelation 10:5-6), but taking an oath to do something contrary to God’s will puts one under a curse whether the oath is upheld or not. An example of an oath taken upon entering the Freemasons includes the following statement: “Binding myself under no less penalty than that of having my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by its roots, and my body buried in the rough sands of the sea… should I ever knowingly violate this my Entered Apprentice obligation. So help me God, and keep me steadfast in the due performance of the same.” Is this oath pleasing in God’s sight?

Secret societies often portray themselves as leading a person from out of darkness (ignorance) and into light (wisdom). If that light is not the “Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ,” then these teachings are false and this light is but an illusion. Scripture tells us that “even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). Some teachings of these secret societies bear resemblance to teachings found in Scripture, but they are twisted to be compatible with other religions and reduce conviction in the saving power of Messiah. An example of this is the ritual in the Freemasons about Hiram Abiff. He is presented as an ancient Mason who was killed, buried, and then resurrected. Masons are instructed to imitate Hiram in order to be received into a favorable afterlife. This ritual makes a mockery of the crucifixion and the message of salvation. A fraternity is a group or organization, usually composed of those of the same gender, who share a common goal or outlook on life which the fraternity focuses around. These orders often involve elements which are commonly found in secret societies. As the name hints at, secret societies operate mostly hidden from the public eye, usually having new initiates enter by taking solemn oaths and partaking in some established rituals. The purported reason for all of the secrecy and symbolism is usually because there are teachings and philosophies which the order seeks to implant in their members, and limiting this knowledge to only those who seek it directly helps prevent this so-called wisdom from being “cast before swine” as it were. The largest and perhaps most well-known of these secret societies is the Freemasons, with over a million members here in the United States. Some people join and participate in these types of groups without really understanding what they are doing, and they never question whether it lines up with God’s word. There are several issues that arise as some aspects of secret societies are examined, and as we continue it will be made clear that being a member of such an organization can by no means be compatible with a pure worship of God.

Another issue with fraternities and secret societies is that Scripture tells us not to be yoked together with unbelievers (1 Corinthians 6:14-16). Being yoked together is undeniably what happens when you join a fraternity, as you are working toward something alongside your group members, bound by the yoke of an oath. One of the pre-requisites for joining the Masonic lodge is that you must believe in a deity who is a creator, but it does not have to be the God revealed through the Bible. In a lodge, a public prayer spoken by the leader is directed toward this ambiguous Creator, and each man echoes this prayer to his own deity silently within his heart. Tolerance is one of the central dogmas of Freemasonry, meaning that people who hold vastly different religious beliefs work together toward the discovery of some type of universal truth found not in their respective religious systems, but in the secret teachings of Freemasonry. For a Christian, this is obviously not a Scriptural worldview. It is true that we are to show love to all, but this love is not expressed by acceptance of another person’s false religion. We are not to worship alongside those who are praying to idols, or else we share in their idolatry. In binding yourself with these men, you are aligning yourself with the organization as well as with the individuals who make up the organization as a whole. As followers of Yeshua, our loyalty is to God alone, and our task is to expose darkness and preach light. The goals of secret societies are in conflict with the message of the Kingdom of God, and thus allegiance to these organizations can only lead down a path to compromise and destruction.

Many point to the philanthropic activities which are done by the Freemasons and fraternities. Indeed, the lives of many have been positively affected by the donations of these organizations to hospitals and burn centers. But Christians are not to do charity in the name of Freemasonry or some other organization, but rather our deeds are to be done in the name of Yeshua, to the glory of God (Matthew 5:16). We do not minister only to the body, but to the soul. Any organization which ignores the latter is in antithesis to the Gospel.

Lastly, but certainly not least, there is a serious concern in regard to symbolism and ritual as a key point of focus. Secret societies very heavily rely on symbols and rituals to teach their lessons. An unknowledgeable member of a group which uses such symbolism may claim that it is all innocent and has a meaning which does not contradict Scripture. However, according to the nature of symbols, there is room for plain meanings as well as hidden meanings which are understood by those more knowledgeable on the subject. Just because an individual is unable to grasp their deeper meaning, these symbols and rituals often have other meanings. Many Masonic symbols appear to be borrowed from ancient mystery religions of Egypt and Greece as well as other esoteric and pagan traditions such as alchemy, Hermeticism, and Kabbalism. As mentioned before, one of the largest tenets of Freemasonry and other fraternities is tolerating differences of religion and belief. This includes piecing together a moral system from a wide array of religions and philosophical schools and marketing it as applicable to all mankind. For a follower of Yeshua, participating in these rites is to ingest the symbols and teachings of idolatrous and pagan religions syncretized into one demonic system which focuses on “improving” the self and the world without the power of the Holy Spirit. These ideas are presented alongside Biblical concepts and imagery, and therefore people are led to believe that the teachings of the group are not in conflict with Scripture, when in fact they are.

In conclusion, we have briefly examined several very serious inconsistencies between worshiping God and being a member of a secret society or fraternal organization. This position is also maintained by many large Christian denominations, including Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and several Protestant denominations such as Assemblies of God, Lutheran, and Presbyterian. If you are planning on becoming, or are already, a member of a secret society or fraternity, we urge you to seek the true light as revealed in the word of God: “Go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you.”

List of Popular Fraternities/Secret Societies

– Freemasons

– Order of the Eastern Star

– Scottish Rite

– York Rite

– Shriners

– Oddfellows

– Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

– Rosicrucian Order

– Greek letter organizations

The Freemasons are involved with the following youth organizations:

– Boy Scouts of America

– Job’s Daughters

– Order of DeMolay

As the time for Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness begin to draw to a close, God instructs Moses on how the people are to conduct themselves when they enter the land. They are not to show any mercy on the inhabitants, but are to drive them out and destroy their idols. What can we learn from God’s instructions to the people who are about to enter the land?

In the plains of Moab, near the Jordan river, God begins to speak to Moses. Although he will not enter the land, he is still the authority figure for the people of Israel. God tells him, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images and demolish all their high places'” (Numbers 33:51-52). God was giving the people the land. It would now be in their stewardship, and they were responsible for keeping it free from idolatry. While it may initially seem cruel to completely drive everyone out of the land, it was because God was using the people of Israel to punish the inhabitants for defiling the land with their idolatry and sinful practices (Leviticus 18:24-25).

Likewise, if the people of Israel refused to obey God’s commands in this matter, then they would be ensnared by the idolatrous practices of the people whose land they were supposed to inhabit: “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live. And as I plan to do to them, so I will do to you” (Numbers 33:55-56). As it turned out, this is exactly what ended up happening. The Israelites allowed some of the inhabitants of the land to remain in their midst instead of driving them out, and throughout the book of Judges we see the results of their disobedience.

Although we as believers today do not need to worry about military conquest, the lesson God was trying to teach the people remains ever-present throughout the ages. In order for us to live the way God wants us to, we must eradicate sinfulness from our lives with extreme prejudice. If we allow anything, no matter how mundane or insignificant it may seem, that small trace of sin will eventually blossom into something which is difficult to control. This involves putting to death the sinful nature and growing in holiness. James instructs us, “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). The danger of falling into idolatry is just as dangerous today as it was back then. Although we do not have the temptation to worship physical gods of silver or stone, anything that takes precedence over God in our lives is idolatry and needs to be removed.

The children of Israel, instead of obeying God, thought that they knew better. Many of the Canaanites were allowed to either dwell among the people or were subjected to slave labor, but this was not what God had commanded (Judges 1:27-35). They thought that they would be able to control them and stand firm against idolatry, but they were wrong. Likewise, we must never think that a matter of sin is under our own control. Like the Israelites who thought they could get some use out of the Canaanites instead of driving them completely out of the land, we must not delude ourselves into thinking that a particular behavior which could lead us into sin or idolatry is worth continuing in because of some other benefit which we may derive from it.

Not only does this apply to keeping ourselves free from sin in our personal lives, but this also applies to our families and congregations. We are not supposed to turn a blind eye to sin within our midst, but we are to confront it with love and humility. If one among us is deliberately sowing discord or leading some astray, however, these are not to be tolerated. Yeshua (Jesus) tells the church of Thyatira, “I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols” (Revelation 2:19-20). Although the deeds of the community were righteous, their flaw was that they allowed the idolater to remain in their midst and lead others astray. Today this most often manifests itself not as a single person leading others astray, but a general mood or worldview among the congregants, especially that of worldliness or lukewarm relationship with God, which threatens the spiritual well-being of the congregation.

Let us remain vigilant in allowing the Holy Spirit to work within us as we drive all sin and idolatry from our hearts and our congregations so that we may continue to grow in holiness and love through the power of Yeshua our Messiah.

Before the people of Israel are to cross the Jordan River and enter the promised land, Moses recounts to the people all of their past journeys and instructs them according to God’s word. We see throughout Scripture that right before God fulfills His promises, there are often times of waiting and resting. These are not times to be ignored or squandered, but they are for our benefit and for us to understand our purpose in moving forward.

Still in the land of Moab, on the east of the Jordan River, Moses begins to speak to the children of Israel. The previous generation has passed away after about forty years in the wilderness, except for Moses, Joshua, and Caleb. The words which Moses speaks are recorded here as an explanation of the Torah: “Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law, saying…” (Deuteronomy 1:5). He begins by recounting the various sins and wanderings, but also the victories, which their fathers and they have gone through over the past forty years in the wilderness. The purpose of all of this was to instruct the people and build them up in preparation for entering the land. If they were to remain in the land, they would need to trust God to make the way before them, and they would need to know the Torah of God so that they would obey it in love in order that they may stay in the land.

We see this idea of God stopping progress right before a big event in order that He may use this time for rejuvenation and instruction. In 1 Kings, we see Elijah fleeing from Jezebel. He is on his way to the mountain of God, and he stops to rest under a tree. An angel wakes him from his rest two times and encourages him to eat and drink: “The angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, ‘Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.’ So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God” (1 Kings 19:7-8). Elijah was on his way to meet God and plead his case before Him. In order for him to make the journey, God knows that Elijah needs to keep up his strength, so He sends an angel to sustain him. Surely God could have met Elijah Himself instead of letting him come to Him, but the journey was necessary for Elijah to go through.

Yeshua (Jesus) also, before He ascends into heaven, instructs His disciples that they must wait in Jerusalem until they are given the Holy Spirit: “‘And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high’… And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising God” (Luke 24:49, 52-53). Instead of supplying them with the Holy Spirit then and there, He instructs the disciples to wait. They spend this time in the temple worshiping God, knowing that soon He will fulfill His promise. Doubtless they used this time to prepare their hearts, knowing that soon their lives would be changed in a great way once again.

In our own lives, we experience times of great activity and times of rest and instruction. When we are going through a time when it doesn’t seem like there is much going on, we ought to take note of this and wait patiently for God to do whatever it is He is doing at that moment. This waiting is not passive, however, for there are lessons and actions which must take place during this waiting. If there was no reason for the wait, then God would not make us go through it. He will use these times to reorient our path and prepare our hearts and minds so that we will not only be able to continue on our path, but to succeed and thrive. As we see with the children of Israel about to enter the promised land, they did not allow their time of instruction on the east side of the Jordan to make an effective change in their life, but they lost focus once the time required them to act, and they fell into sin. We do ourselves a great disservice when we follow their example in this regard.

This is true not only in our personal lives, but on the scale of humanity this also illustrates our present condition. It seems as if we have been on the cusp of Yeshua’s return for the past two-thousand years. This time is not being wasted, but is meant for the gospel to be preached to every nation on earth and that all may find rest in repentance: “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Yeshua, the Messiah appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time” (Acts 3:19-21). In our own lives, as we expectantly wait for Yeshua to return, we ought to use our time effectively, lest when the time for action is upon us we fall short of our calling.

There have been spiritual revivals throughout history. After the Dark Ages we had the Renaissance beginning in the 14th century, with the reformation in 1517, in 1906-1915 was a big revival called the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles, the Charismatic movement began in the 1960s, just to name a few. But what about now, in the 21st century? We want to look at this closer to see if we should be praying now to bring about a new movement, a new spiritual awakening, maybe even a last time revival that will usher in the Messiah.

Paul talks about a fall from righteousness that will take place in the end times in 2 Timothy 3:1-9. He explains how people will fall into lawlessness, and in his second letter to the Thessalonians he speaks about a great falling away in chapter 2. Today we see both of these warnings coming to pass. Here in America we see that people have fallen away from God. The percentage of churchgoers have dropped especially in the younger generation over the past 20-25 years. People read their Bibles less and pray less. We have seen this lawless attitude with people taking to the street and destroying property. We have seen crime, and especially murder, skyrocket out of control. We see that people have grown cold and calloused to the things around them. We have taken God out of our school and marketplace and we have rejected Christian symbols all together.

Now maybe there are those who say, “I haven’t fallen from righteousness, and my family goes to church, and we even hand out food.” I say, Great! But I ask you, are you as devoted as you can be? Do you watch what is on TV or go to the movies or even listen to the radio? We have become so dumbed down that we do not realize that the wholesome TV that we once watched has been long gone and the TV that we watch today is full of violence and sexual situations and speech that one who serves God should not entertain (Romans 13:11-14).

We have lost our holiness. Today we snub our noses and say that this is radical or far right or extremism. But God has called us to holiness (1 Peter 1:5-6) and also to be set apart from the world (Romans 12:2, 1 John 1-10, Ephesians 5:17-14). We are not to look like the world or act like the world. To be holy means to be set apart. We are not to conform to this world but to transform the world. This is being light in the darkness (Matthew 5:14-16). This is what revival is all about, transforming the world from darkness to light. Now I understand that this may be a far reaching concept, for not all are going to come to the truth, but it is not impossible for the Holy spirit to renew lives (Titus 3:5) and change hearts, and for Him to do a work in someone’s life that will drastically and radically transform them into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) is not far reaching for Him. This is what He does.

So let’s just think about America, let’s just think about the state that you live in. Let’s just think about the neighborhood you live in and even the job where you work. It is quite possible now to reach the multitudes with God’s Word and bring light to the darkness. It is possible to even reach one lost soul for the kingdom, but how do we do this? Well everything starts with prayer. Not a little prayer like, “Lord help my neighbor” (not that God won’t hear that prayer), but we must earnestly seek God and pray for our neighbor. We must lay down our lives, which means we might have to turn off the TV and pray that hour for our neighbor and cry out to God with sincerity of heart, with compassion for his lost soul and I say, we can not just ask God once but we must keep asking and asking and knocking and knocking and seeking God for wisdom and understanding on how to reach that neighbor (Matthew 7:7-12, Proverbs 2:6, Ephesians 1:17-19). I tell you, you will see results if you tarry and not grow weary in well-doing (Galatians 6:9).

It is perfectly fine to do good deeds and maybe sing in that choir at church, but we must go beyond this and reach out to those around us, and we can all do this through prayer. We must be prayer warriors, knocking on heaven’s door, storming the throneroom of God, who is a mighty warrior Himself (Isaiah 42:13, Jeremiah 20:11), and we must bring our lost souls before Him and don’t stop there: pray for your neighborhood and your workplace and your city and state and those who are in public office and for our bosses and our pastors and teachers and even our enemies. Let’s be people of prayer on our knees bringing about a great revival to this land, and if we all take part in being warriors for the kingdom of God, God will hear our many prayers and He will reach down from heaven and cause a great revival to take place, and He will heal our land and many lost souls will no longer be lost (1 John 5:14-15).

Let’s form a wall around America with prayer, and we will begin to see that the light of our prayers will bring about America’s light to the nations. Will you make that commitment? Will you make the sacrifice that is pleasing to God (Romans 12:1)? Are you willing to lay down your life for your fellow man? If you are, then you will begin laying up treasure in heaven (Matthew 6:19-20) and you will have a crown filled with jewels, and on judgment day those souls will say, “Thank you, for I was a soul that was lost, but because of you I am here in God’s kingdom today.”

In the New Testament, Yeshua (Jesus) tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God, and the next greatest is to love your neighbor. Scripture even tells us that by keeping these two commandments, it is as if we are keeping the entire Torah. But what does this do for all of the other commandments?

The book of Matthew records Yeshua’s conversation with a Pharisee regarding the greatest commandment. The man asks, “‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). Some within Christianity have asserted that this passage and others which use similar language are meant to indicate that the many commandments found in the Torah have now been superceded by only two simple commands. Is this the case?

Looking back at the greatest commandment which Yeshua quotes, we can get a better idea of the context of His saying here in Matthew. The commandment to love God is found in Deuteronomy 6:4-6: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.” This passage of Scripture makes up one of the central creeds of Judaism, called the shema. If one is to love God with all of their heart, soul, and might, then what exactly does this look like practically? Love for God is more than just a feeling you get or a temporal emotion. It must have action behind it. Throughout the Bible, we see that loving God is intrinsically connected to keeping His commandments. Several passages in Deuteronomy illustrate this connection: “You shall therefore love the LORD your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments… If you carefully observe all this commandment which I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in His ways always… I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments” (Deuteronomy 11:1, 19:9, 30:16).

This is evident not only from the Old Testament, but it is explicitly stated in the words of the New Testament as well. John says, “Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it” (2 John 1:5-6). We also see Yeshua tell us, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15).

So we see that the first and greatest commandment is the first and greatest commandment because it instructs us to obey God’s commands, yet it is distinct in that it also tells us the attitude we are to have in obeying God. We are to love the Lord with all of our heart and soul and might. Keeping God’s commandments is not a source of merit in and of itself, but only if our obedience is accompanied and inspired by an emotional love for God. If our love for God is selfless and without fault, then we will desire to obey Him.

Not only is this true, but following God’s commandments is for our own benefit. God’s commandments are His instructions for how we as redeemed people are to live blessed lives. Just as the Torah was given to the children of Israel after they were freed from slavery in Egypt, so too now that we have been redeemed from our former lives of sin, we have been freed so that we may serve God in freedom and love (Romans 6:16). Moses tells the people, “Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged” (Deuteronomy 6:1-2).

Yeshua tells us, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (John 15:10). Let us not content ourselves in love that does not bear fruit, but strive to abide in the love of our Messiah Yeshua as we obey Him by serving both God and our fellowman with love.

Throughout all of the wanderings in the wilderness which the people of Israel endured, there was not one step that God did not ordain beforehand to take place. Although at times the people felt as if they were wandering around in circles (because they were), there was a reason they had to suffer through these tests. What can we learn about the trials we experience in our own lives from their example?

God, through the mouth of Moses, is continuing to instruct the people of Israel before they are to enter the land of Canaan. He tells them, “You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not” (Deuteronomy 8:2). After giving the people His commandments, He used the wilderness as a testing ground where the people would prove whether or not they would follow God and obey Him even when times were tough. Would they obey Him when He said that they shouldn’t go out on the Sabbath to collect manna? Would they trust Him when they haven’t had water for the past several days? Not only was this time used to test them and find out what they were made of, but God’s will was that through these experiences, they would learn and grow so that the mistakes they made would not be repeated and their faith would be bolstered.

“He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3). This phrase can be understood in several ways. In the physical sense, God was trying to show the people that He was bigger than their daily needs. God sent manna to feed the people day after day, and thus they were sustained at the command of the Lord. Beyond food, He was showing the people that they shouldn’t rely on their own efforts or only believe what is conventional or ordinary. Man does not live only by the work of his own hand or by what he can provide for himself, but one must trust God to do things that are beyond the ordinary to provide for us when we trust in Him. Another explanation is that our lives should not be only about seeking the satisfaction of our daily needs, but that we should focus on the things which God has commanded us to do. Man does not occupy only a physical space, but we have spiritual needs as well.

Yeshua quotes the above verse during His temptation in the wilderness: “And the tempter came and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’ But He answered and said, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”‘” (Matthew 4:3-4). Even though it wouldn’t have been an obvious transgression of the Torah for Yeshua to turn stones into bread, it would nevertheless have been a sin. He knew that He was able to turn the stones to bread, and He hadn’t eaten in forty days, but acting on these impulses would be showing that He didn’t trust His Father enough to believe He would sustain His physical body. Yeshua puts this into more practical terms for us when He instructs His disciples, “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? … But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:25, 33).

Returning to the words of Moses, we see he explains the reason the people of Israel had to undergo these trials in the wilderness: “Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him” (Deuteronomy 8:5-6). The idea of discipline is about correction. While punishment is a part of discipline, we must understand that discipline is also about instruction and guidance. While the lessons we learn through discipline may be painful, they are for our benefit in the long run. Our job is to trust God and continue to seek Him regardless of the circumstances.

The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us, “It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives” (Hebrews 12:5-6). We as humans are not perfect, but since we have put to death our sinful nature and have risen again with Messiah, we are called to put the old things behind us and strive toward what is ahead. Therefore, let us not grow weary in discipline or in difficult times, for when we allow God to change us through these times, He will bring us to perfection and a closer relationship with Himself: “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:19-20).

When we read through the accounts of Yeshua’s (Jesus’) miracles which He performed, we may wonder how it is possible that people could question whether He was the Messiah or not. We see, however, that miracles and extraordinary acts are not an adequate reason to believe that someone was sent from God. This is just as important for us to understand today as it was in those days, so let’s take a closer look.

Deuteronomy 13 begins with Moses explaining to the people of Israel that when a person among them tries to convince them to worship other gods, they should not pay attention to this person: “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 13:1-3). God is instructing the people that at some time or another, people will rise up who are able to work seemingly miraculous signs and wonders that will be convincing enough where people might be taken astray. God therefore sets the precedent that just because you see a sign or miraculous work done, it is not always a sign of God’s acceptance of that person. In fact, He says that He will allow these types of people to rise up so that He may test the people and see if they will continue to follow Him regardless of what their eyes see.

We see examples throughout the Scriptures of sorcerors, diviners, and others who are able to make things happen by their “secret arts.” When Moses was sent to perform miraculous signs before Pharoah in Egypt, the magicians in Egypt were able to emulate some of the earlier miracles that God sent Moses to perform: “But the magicians of Egypt did the same with their secret arts; and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said” (Exodus 7:22). While in the end God’s miracles overcame what the magicians were able to perform, the point remains that through some power the Egyptians were capable of turning a staff into a snake, water into blood, and causing frogs to rise from the Nile.

Yeshua also warns about the dangers of following those who perform signs and wonders: “And then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Messiah’; or, ‘Behold, He is there’; do not believe him; for false messiahs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance” (Mark 13:21-23). Yeshua came with many signs and wonders. He healed the sick, raised the dead, and exorcised demons, but none of this would have mattered had He been a false messiah who taught anything contrary to the Torah. This is why the Pharisees and people who knew the Torah (the ones who were genuine, at least) asked Him questions. They were following God’s command as we saw above to not believe any person who comes and performs signs, but to find out what their true intentions are.

It is important that we pay attention to Yeshua’s words here about false messiahs and false prophets. While miracles will follow those who believe in Yeshua and allow the Holy Spirit to work through them (John 14:12), we must be careful to not mindlessly follow anyone who is able to work signs and wonders. We must be able to discern whether a miracle is done by a person who is allowing God to work through them, or by a person whose motive is deception. Yeshua tells us how we can tell who is genuine and who is a false prophet: “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15-16). When we see someone performing an extraordinary event, instead of being caught up in the awe of the moment, we must take note of how the person lives their life and whether they are teaching things that are not true.

This is especially necessary for us to be able to discern, because the multitude of false prophets and false messiahs which Yeshua speaks of are leading up to the false messiah, the antichrist, who will come with very great signs and wonders: “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon. He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life” (Revelation 13:11-14).

The key to discerning false prophets and false miracle-workers from the true ones is to know God and be close in relationship with Him. The sheep know the voice of their Shepherd, and they will not be led astray by another. Therefore, let us always continue to seek Him in all things so that we will be confident in the truth and will be able to stand firm in the day of testing.

As Moses continues giving instructions to the people of Israel before they are to enter the promised land, he gives them instructions about a future day when they will desire to set up a king for themselves. The king played an important role as the head of the nation of Israel, and Moses, according to God’s command, provides specific instructions on how the king is to conduct himself.

Moses begins by saying, “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses” (Deuteronomy 17:14-15). Although this concession is made on account of the people’s desire for a king, this was not the way which God would have preferred the people to behave, for He was their true King. Samuel the prophet, when the people request a king, says to them, “When you saw that Nahash the king of the sons of Ammon came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ although the LORD your God was your king… Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call to the LORD, that He may send thunder and rain. Then you will know and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the LORD by asking for yourselves a king” (1 Samuel 12:12, 17).

What was so wrong about having a king? The problem was not necessarily the fact that they wanted a king, but the reason behind this desire. The Israelites wanted to be like the other nations which they were encountering in the area. The king provided a visible source of strength and power both in battle and in government. When the people had no king, they had no fear of unfair taxation or seizure of their lands, but they had to trust that even though they couldn’t see God, He was there on the throne. God was their protector and their provider. Instead of trusting Him to lead them and guide them, they desired a physical, tangible leader who they could put their trust in.

In order to give the king a proper perspective on leadership, Moses relays God’s command in regard to how the king is supposed to lead: “Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself” (Deuteronomy 17:16-17). Although the person who led the nation of Israel was to be a king, he was not to behave himself as the other kings do. He was not to put his trust in what his own hands could create for himself. By amassing horses, he would feel confident in his own military strength and would forget that God was the one who fought for them. He was not to have many wives, and as we see with Solomon, his many wives led him to worship their idols (1 Kings 11:4-5). He was not to heap wealth upon himself because it becomes an object of trust in place of God (Psalm 49:5-10). While all of this is also true for those who are not kings, it was especially true for the king, for these things would be especially tempting to the one on the throne.

In order to give the king guidance, he is to write out the entirety of the Torah onto a scroll, which he is to then keep with him the rest of his life: “Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel” (Deuteronomy 17:18-20).

The instructions which are given for a king do not apply to us literally today, since it is likely that none of us are in the position to be the king of Israel. However, we as the citizenry have the same responsibility as the people in those days and in the land of Israel. We are not to put our trust in any government or power which we find ourselves under. While it is true that God works through these men and we are to pray for them, their fate and ours rest in God’s hands. We are to pray for our leaders not because we are caught up in all of the politics, but in order that we may be able to do our Father’s will without hindrance: “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity” (1 Timothy 2:1-2).

The government under which Paul wrote this to Timothy was most definitely not one which honored God, yet the followers of Yeshua (Jesus) continued to worship Him both in the times of safety and in the face of death and persecution. We ought to fix ourselves with the same mindset, making sure our allegiance and trust is not in any man or system of government, but in the Kingdom of God and Yeshua our Messiah.

So often when things happen in our lives, there are those believers who want to say, “Oh! God is punishing them for their sins.” But is this really true? We see this with Job. His friends did not give him any sympathy, only condemned him and judged him. They would say things like, “If you would seek God and implore the compassion of the Almighty, if you are pure and upright, surely now He would rouse Himself for you and restore your righteous estate” (Job 8:5-6). Job, after listening to his friends tell him that he was not righteous in God’s eyes, had this to say: “Sorry comforters are you all!” (Job 16:2b). So we want to take a closer look into this so that the next time someone we know is going through a tough time, we aren’t quick to judge that person, but that we help them in their walk with God.

What exactly is punishment? The dictionary tells us punishment is “the infliction or imposition of a penalty as retribution for an offense.” Discipline on the other hand is “the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.” Now, you may say it seems like they are the same thing. But notice these two words: retribution and training. These are two different motives, and that makes the difference. The first is the penalty for disobedience which one may have to pay, and the other is for training a person to have a certain code of behavior.

Punishment

We know that Yeshua (Jesus) paid the price, He took the punishment, for our offense or sin, and that penalty for sin is death. One day every person who has not accepted Yeshua’s, death and resurrection, the price He paid for our sins, will suffer the retribution for his offenses. John 3:18 tells us, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” In John 8:24 Yeshua tells us, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” Again in Luke 13:3, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” In John 12:4 Yeshua tells us, “And if anyone hears My words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come that I might judge the world, but that I might save the world.” But the day will come when if we do not repent and believe on Yeshua’s work that was done on the cross that we will die in our sins. Again John 12:47-48 tells us, “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.”

So when we see someone going through a tough time, let us not judge, for God has not yet judged that person, but let us pray for them and help them if we can.

Discipline

So let’s look closer at what discipline is. We know that discipline is training a person to behave in a certain manner. Hebrews 12:4-12 tells us, “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin (this referring to Yeshua); and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.’ It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

The book of Proverbs probably tells us the most about raising a child. Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 23:12-14, “Apply your heart to discipline and your ears to words of knowledge. Do not hold back discipline from the child, although you strike him with the rod, he will not die. You shall strike him with the rod and rescue his soul from Sheol.” Proverbs 13:24, “He who withholds his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.” Proverbs 19:18, “Discipline your son while there is hope, and do not desire his death.”

So too our heavenly Father must discipline us to train us, for it says in Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Messiah Yeshua.” Now I ask you, when Yeshua comes, would you rather that He had disciplined you now or have to punish you later? Let us rejoice in our trial, for James 1:2-4 tells us, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” When we think of patience, we think of being calm in the midst of a chaotic situation, patiently waiting for the situation to become calm. But patience also means accepting suffering or trouble without becoming angry or bitter. Revelation 20:12-15 says, “And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.”

This is what we want, to be perfect and complete so that when the day comes for us to be judged Yeshua will say, “Well done good and faithful servant, enter into My kingdom.”

2 Timothy 2:20-21 tells us, “In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.” We want to take a look at what it takes to be vessels of honor.

The Temple

In the temple the priests used all sorts of vessels in their daily service to God. Pots, shovels, sprinkling basins, and dishes were all made for the temple. Exodus 27:3 tells us, “You shall make pots for it to receive its ashes, and shovels and basins and forks and firepans. You shall make all its utensils of bronze.” Exodus 40:10 says, “You shall also anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and consecrate the altar, so that the altar may become most holy.” Other places also talk about the temple vessels: 1 Kings 7:45, 2 Chronicles 4:11, Jeremiah 52:18 to name a few. Because the temple was a holy place, everything in the temple had to be holy from the smallest vessel to the priestly garments to the priests themselves. Everything had to be washed and sprinkled with the blood of a sacrificed animal, which we see in Hebrews 9:19-22, “For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.’ And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood. And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” This scripture tells us why everything had to be sprinkled with blood, for forgiveness, to make everything clean and holy. So you say, “What does this have to do with me?” Let’s continue to look a little closer.

The Making of a Holy Vessel

Romans 9:21 asks the question. “Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?” God is the Potter and we are the clay in God’s hands to mold and fashion. We whom the potter molds into various vessels are also in His hands to use. Paul tells us in Romans 12:4, “We have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function.” So does this mean that one person is greater than another? 1 Corinthians 12:14-27, “For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Messiah and individually members of it.”

We see here that we are all important and we must give honor to all. So then what’s with these vessels of honor if we are all to give each other honor? This is true, but in this case it is us who are giving honor to other people. We want to be vessels of honor to God, and to do this we must do a few things. So let’s start by looking at the first thing we must to.

The Walk of Honor

Romans 12:1-2 tells us, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” We must start by laying down our lives on the altar. Galatians 5:24 says, “Now those who belong to Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Yeshua Himself tells us in Luke 9:23, “Then He said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.'” We see that we must die to sin, to ourselves, to the world. We must be a willing sacrifice for God by putting aside our desires, our lives, and be an offering unto the Lord. Yeshua tells us in Matthew 10:39, 16:25, “For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for my sake, you will find it.”

So we see, if we say, “No, I want to live my own life,” that we will actually lose eternal life. Mark 8:35 tells us this way: “For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for me and for the gospel, you will save it.” James 4:4 tells us, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” James tells us that we are adulterous if we are friends of the world. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:16 says, “For all that is in the world the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life ”is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

So we as believers should be separated from the world. Yes, we live in the world but we can not be part of it, its worldview, its ways, its words. We must be holy because God is holy. We must be light, for He is light. 1 John 1:5-9 tells us, “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

So if we want to be vessels of honor then we must put God first, but this means that we have a heart for God. The Jewish prayer called the Shema, which means “hear” in Hebrew (and not just hear like listen, which is part of it, but hear as in do what you hear), says this: “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone.” [The first commandments says, “You shall not have any other gods before Me.”] “Blessed be He whose glorious kingdom is eternal.” [In Luke 1:33, the angel tells Mary, “And He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”] “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your life and with all your strength.” [Deuteronomy 6:4, Mark 12:29-30, Yeshua tells the people that this is the greatest of all the commandments.] “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.” [This is a reference to the ten commandments given on Mount Sinai. The psalmist writes in Psalm 119:11, “Thy word I have hidden in my heart so I may not sin against thee.”]

“Impress them on your children.” [Proverbs 22:6 tells us to train up a child in the way he should go and he will not depart from it. Genesis 18:19 speaks of Abraham, “For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”]

“Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” [Psalm 19:14 tells us, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.” Colossian 3:17 says, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”]

“Tie them as reminders on your hand and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” [Proverbs 6:22 says, “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” Psalm 16:8, I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.”]

So we see that to be a vessels of honor, we must have not only a life for God, but that we must have a godly household, raising up our children to be godly by not only teaching but by being an example. Paul tells the Corinthians, “Follow my example as I follow Messiah.”

One last thing in this walk, and it is probably the first and foremost, and that is to have a fear of the Lord. Proverbs 1:7 tells us, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Psalm 128:1-4 says, “How blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways. When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands, you will be happy and it will be well with you. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children like olive plants around your table.”

Let us draw close to God, giving ourselves over to Him, and let us determine in our hearts today that we want to be a vessel in the hand of God; and not just any vessel, but a vessel of honor by renewing our minds and becoming living sacrifices. 1 Peter 2:4-5 tells us, “And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Colossians 2:6-7 says, “Therefore as you have received Messiah, so walk in him having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.”

Paul reminds the Corinthians that we are the temple of the Lord. If so, then we want to be a holy vessel of honor in the hand of our Great High Priest Yeshua.

Yeshua (Jesus) commands in Luke 6:31, “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.” The essence of this commandment is also found in the Torah, where God provides specific examples of how we are to treat our neighbor as we would like to be treated.

God tells the people through the mouth of Moses, “You shall not see your countryman’s ox or his sheep straying away, and pay no attention to them; you shall certainly bring them back to your countryman” (Deuteronomy 22:1). The people of Israel relied heavily upon agriculture and tending livestock. If one or two of a person’s livestock had begun to stray away and the owner did not notice, God says that one who sees this has to stop and prevent the animal from straying away and becoming lost, which would pose financial loss to the one who lost the animal. The temptation in this case would be to either ignore the straying animal and continue on your way, or some may even be tempted to take the animal and claim it as their own. To stop what you are doing and help out your neighbor takes a self-sacrificing spirit.

He continues: “If your countryman is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall remain with you until your countryman looks for it; then you shall restore it to him” (Deuteronomy 22:2). If you find the animal but do not know who the owner is, it is now your obligation to keep that animal until you can discover who the owner is. This would require the person who found the animal to pay the expenses of feeding it, to expend the labor required to take care of it, to house it, and so on. This extra care was not only required in the case of lost livestock, but for anything at all that your neighbor has lost and you have found: “Thus you shall do with his donkey, and you shall do the same with his garment, and you shall do likewise with anything lost by your countryman, which he has lost and you have found. You are not allowed to neglect them” (Deuteronomy 22:3). This was not just something special the people were to do if they were feeling particularly generous, but it was the behavior which God expected.

Yeshua’s command to treat others the same way we would like to be treated has become what is called the Golden Rule. In practice, we sometimes would prefer the negative of this phrase: “Do not do unto others what you wouldn’t want them to do to you.” When we practice the commandment in this way, there is no special responsibility upon us except to stand out of the way of our neighbor and not get on their nerves or cause them any grievous harm. On the other hand, the true command which is to do unto our neighbor what we would want them to do to us implies a greater force of action. Instead of just staying out of our neighbor’s life, we are called to involve ourselves in their life and sacrifice our own desires in order that they may be blessed. While it would be easier to just ignore their straying animal, we are to love them by doing what we would want them to do to us. Even when it costs us greatly and requires us to change our own lives, this is the way which God desires us to show love.

Yeshua illustrates this same lesson when He speaks of the judgment of the sheep and the goats. “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ … The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me'” (Matthew 25:34-36, 40). If God has commanded that we are supposed to take care of our neighbor if he has lost an animal, how much more are we to take care of our neighbor’s own physical needs when he is not able to provide for himself.

Treating others the way we want to be treated involves more than just being polite to people who we don’t particularly like. It requires an involvement and an eagerness to sacrifice ourself for the sake of others: “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Let us not stand idly by in the shadows waiting for the opportunity to show love to come our way, but let us meet our neighbor and show him love in the same way which God has shown to us.

When God was preparing the people to bring them into the land which He had promised to give them, He warned the people that in order to inhabit the land, they would need to obey God and keep His commandments. If they disobeyed, God would bring curses upon the people, and if they continued in their sins through all of these curses, they would be exiled among the nations. While the literal interpretation of the effects of the peoples’ sin is only relevant to the physical inhabitation of the land of Israel, the underlying truth remains the same for every believer in Yeshua who has been grafted in.

Moses begins by telling the people, “Be silent and listen, O Israel! This day you have become a people for the Lord your God. You shall therefore obey the Lord your God, and do His commandments and His statutes which I command you today” (Deuteronomy 27:9-10). By putting His name upon the people of Israel, God chose them to be a special nation of His own possession. Because of this, they needed to obey Him and do His will in order to continue to be blessed according to His will.

We see that if they do not obey God and keep His commandments, then the people will be cursed: “‘Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen'” (Deuteronomy 27:26). If by transgressing the Torah the people would be cursed and eventually exiled from the land, were the people of Israel doomed from the start? We know that it is not possible to never sin. Was God simply setting the people of Israel up to fail? “But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you” (Deuteronomy 28:15). Was God sitting in heaven waiting for them to make a mistake so that He could punish them?

No, for we also know that God is merciful and He blesses those who obey Him to the best of their ability while not trusting in their own actions to gain any merit in the sight of God. We see through Scripture that in the times when Israel has a leader who removes the idols from the land and trusts in God, the land and the people are blessed. “All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 28:2). This doesn’t mean that during these times nobody in the nation of Israel committed any sin at all, but it means that as for the most part the people were making a genuine effort to put their trust in God and obey Him.

While in some Christian circles we tend to shy away from the thought of meriting any type of reward or punishment based on our obedience to God, we see that this theme is carried over into the New Testament. Yeshua (Jesus) tells us near the end of Revelation, “Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy. Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done” (Revelation 22:12). Here we see that the way one has behaved and the deeds he has done play a large role in how one is determined as righteous or unrighteous, and the measure of a person’s deeds will be returned to him in some way.

This is not in conflict with the concept of salvation as a free gift to those who believe. The same mouth that said, “The Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done,” also said, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” The belief seen throughout the Scriptures is never a belief which is merely an assent to the existence of God and the sacrifice of His Son. It is a living and active belief which results in obedience. As James tells us, “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds” (James 2:18).

We as believers in Yeshua have become joined to Israel in being a people for the Lord our God. As such, we are called and expected to behave in accordance with God’s will for us. This doesn’t mean that we resort to a legalistic view, where salvation is only attainable by meeting a certain standard of obedience. But God has told us that we will be rewarded if we continue to obey Him in love, not because we are relying on our deeds to gain us a reward, but because it is through our actions that we reveal what is within our hearts. May God bless us all as we seek to know Him and His Son through every part of our lives.

Many Christians believe that physical circumcision has been replaced by a spiritual circumcision of the heart. It is evident from the New Testament that for Gentiles who believe in Yeshua (Jesus), circumcision and conversion to Judaism are not necessary for salvation, and in fact these things are discouraged. But what about Jewish believers? And what does it mean that a person’s heart is circumcised?

The first mention of physical circumcision in the Bible is God instructing Abraham that he and his descendants are to circumcise their sons as a lasting sign of the covenant between them: “And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations” (Genesis 17:10-11). This passage doesn’t say anything about circumcision of the heart, but is very specific in stating that it is circumcision of the flesh, and that it is to continue throughout the generations of Abraham’s descendants, even going so far as to call it an “everlasting covenant” (verse 13). Circumcision was a visible sign of Abraham’s obedience, which as Paul tells us stemmed from his faith in God (Romans 4:11).

The first time circumcision is related to anything non-physical is found in Leviticus 26, which predicts a future day when, after Israel has strayed from the covenant and recognizes their sin, they will be restored: “If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me… or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham” (Leviticus 26:40-42). Here, the people are referred to as having “uncircumcised hearts.” If circumcision was instituted with Abraham as a sign of faithfulness, then the uncircumcision of their hearts indicates their rebellion and refusal to obey God. This is also alluded to in Jeremiah 4:1-4.

We see this symbolism again in this week’s portion where Moses is speaking to the children of Israel about the same future day of exile and restoration. He uses similar language to refer to the disobedience of the Israelites, but he includes a prophecy about how God will remedy the situation: “Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live… And you shall again obey the Lord, and observe all His commandments which I command you today” (Deuteronomy 30:6, 8). Here we find another clue that circumcision of the heart has to do with obedience and faithfulness. In this time of restoration, everyone whose heart is circumcised by God will be able to obey God faithfully and keep all of His commandments.

There is another allusion to this in the words of the prophet Ezekiel: “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (Ezekiel 36:25-27). Again we see that the circumcision or restoration of the heart is related to obedience and following God’s commandments.

Paul echoes these words regarding being circumcised in the flesh without being circumcised in the heart. He tells his Jewish readers, “For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Torah; but if you are a transgressor of the Torah, your circumcision has become uncircumcision” (Romans 2:25). Although the outward circumcision is a sign of faithfulness, if it is not accompanied by a faithfulness and obedience from the heart, then it is not the circumcision which God desires. Paul continues, “So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Torah, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?” (verse 26). If a Gentile believer, who is not required to be circumcised, lives his life in obedience to God and His commandments as they apply to him, then he will show that his heart is circumcised, which means that he is obedient to God.

The chapter concludes with Paul saying, “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God” (Romans 2:28-29). Inward circumcision does not invalidate outward circumcision, but outward circumcision is supposed to be a sign and a reminder of the covenant which God made with Abraham because of his inward circumcision. Paul is not saying that Gentile believers become or replace Jews, but he is saying that not everyone who claims to be a Jew is truly acting in a Jewish way (meaning obeying God and keeping His commandments through the power of the Spirit).

Therefore, let us make sure we have allowed God to circumcise our hearts as we seek to know Him and imitate His obedience to the Father, for “in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Messiah” (Colossians 2:11).

God instructs Moses to read the people of Israel a song about their past and their future. In it he describes God’s love and care for the people and how after they enter the land and become comfortable, they will turn their back on God and worship idols. Let’s look closer at the mistake they made so that we will be sure not to follow their example.

The song of Moses describes, in poetic language, God’s election of Israel to be His special possession. It tells of the future, when the people would enter the land just as God has promised them. When they entered the land, God would fulfill His promises to bless and prosper His people, and Israel would enjoy the blessings which God allowed them to experience: “He made him ride on the high places of the earth, and he ate the produce of the field; and He made him suck honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty rock, curds of cows, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs, and rams, the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the finest of the wheat—and of the blood of grapes you drank wine” (Deuteronomy 32:13-14).

But because of their comfort and their decadence, they would forget about God and turn to the idols which their neighbors worshiped. Because of the ease and comfort in which they were living, they would forget the times when they relied on God for their every need: “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—you are grown fat, thick, and sleek—then he forsook God who made him, and scorned the Rock of his salvation… You neglected the Rock who begot you, and forgot the God who gave you birth” (Deuteronomy 32:15, 18). The name Jeshurun means “upright one,” and it is a name God calls Israel in several Scriptures, three of which take place here in the last few chapters of Deuteronomy. In this verse, we see the name “upright one” contrasted against the actions of rebellion which they have turned to.

God had brought the people of Israel into the land, and He was pleased to bless them with the abundance that lay within its borders. But Israel forgot about God and grew proud in their hearts. They believed that somehow they had merited God’s favor, or perhaps they thought that the blessings would always continue as they were now, regardless of the peoples’ behavior. God had previously instructed them that feeling comfortable was the first step toward this wickedness: “Then it shall come about when the LORD your God brings you into the land… and you eat and are satisfied, then watch yourself, that you do not forget the LORD who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Deuteronomy 6:10-12).

While the song of Moses is directed toward, and prophetic of, the downfall of Israel when they entered the promised land, we must learn about this so we are careful not to follow in their example. We must guard ourselves so that we do not grow comfortable in our luxury. While many of us wouldn’t consider ourselves as living luxurious lives, for the most part we do not have to worry about food, water, and shelter. Our basic physical needs are provided for and so we turn to other more artificial needs to pursue with our excess funds and time. But Yeshua warns against this behavior, telling us of a rich man who harvests many crops and only thinks of himself: “Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”‘ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:18-21).

James also gives a fiery warning to those who use their money only to provide comfortable lives for themselves: “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! … You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter” (James 5:1-3, 5).

The song of Moses provides us with an example of what happens when we grow comfortable and self-indulgent. This is true with physical wealth, and it is also true in our spiritual walk. We must never believe that we are owed anything or that we deserve any type of blessing, and we must not assume that God will bless our path if it is not the path He wants us to be on. Let us give thanks to God, for He is the one who desires for us to enjoy the gifts which He has given us, both physical and spiritual, not by using these gifts lavishly upon ourselves, but by sharing joyfully with our brothers, sisters, and neighbors.

God told the people of Israel that one day each year, the high priest was to make atonement for the tabernacle, and it was only at this time when he would be able to enter the Most Holy Place where God’s glory resided. The rest of the people also had a role to play: they were to humble themselves in fasting and prayer. What is this day all about, and what value does it have in the life of we who have put our faith in Yeshua (Jesus) for our atonement?

God tells the people of Israel, “This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you; for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It is to be a sabbath of solemn rest for you, that you may humble your souls; it is a permanent statute” (Leviticus 16:29-31). God set this day aside to be for the atonement of the sins of the people. The high priest would offer sacrifices for himself and the people in order to atone for the sins they had committed. Then he would enter into the inner part of the Holy of Holies, the place where God’s presence would rest. The high priest would anoint the mercy seat with the blood of the sacrifice in order to make atonement for it.

The phrase “you shall humble your souls” has been interpreted to mean that those who observe the day are to refrain from food and water, marital relations, and showering, from sundown on the ninth day to sundown on the tenth day, as a sign of humility before God. This behavior is accompanied by a mood of repentance and reflection on the sins which one has committed over the past year. Since God commanded no work to be done during this time period, it gives one plenty of time to contemplate and meditate on the changes which God wants to see take place in one’s life. While every day should be a day where we take stock of where we stand with God, the Day of Atonement provides a day specifically set aside by God for this distinct purpose.

God reproves the people through the mouth of Isaiah the prophet on their conduct during this holy day. Apparently the people were only going through the motions of repentance and sorrow over their sins: “‘Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’ Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, and drive hard all your workers. Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high” (Isaiah 58:3-4). Merely observing this day as if it were a ceremony is not what God desires from His people. He gave His people the Day of Atonement for them to receive atonement for their sins and to spend the day with God so He can reveal what hidden sins or attitudes need to be repented of in the coming year. The Day of Atonement is supposed to be an impetus toward action in the following months rather than a mark on the calendar to be crossed off: “Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him; and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?” (Isaiah 58:6-7).

What value does this day have for believers in Yeshua? We know that Yeshua has paid the price for our sin and we are forgiven by His shed blood, which He brought into the heavenly Holy of Holies of which the earthly is a shadow and reflection. In Yeshua, the true meaning of this day is revealed. Far from meaning the day is now unimportant, the Day of Atonement is renewed in the light of Yeshua. God said that the observation of this Appointed Time was to be a “permanent statute.” If this is the case, then surely this is something we should pay attention to. Even though the actions associated with the tabernacle are not possible in our day and age, the Day of Atonement provides us with a time to rededicate ourselves to God and evaluate where we stand in Him. While the actions of repentance and evaluation of where we are in relationship with God should be a part of the believer’s daily walk, the Day of Atonement is set apart by God for a type of yearly check-up for us to humble ourselves and dig deep into our hearts, allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal our shortcomings and where we can draw closer to God in holiness.

The Day of Atonement is a gift from God, and it is to our own spiritual benefit to observe it in the manner God has dictated through Scripture, giving thanks to Him for our High Priest Yeshua, whose shed blood is the only source of atonement and cleansing for our iniquity.

The Scripture tells us that, “God so loved mankind that He sent his only begotten Son to die for us so that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life” (John 3:16). We want to take a closer look at this subject of God’s love. I think that this has become such a cliche that we don’t really consider the full weight of this statement.

What is the Basis For God’s Love?

In Ephesians 3:17-19, Paul tells the Ephesians that his prayer is “For Messiah to dwell in your hearts through faith, being rooted and grounded in love, so that you may be fully able, with all the saints, to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth of His love and to know the love of Messiah that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God.”

Paul tells us here many things that we need to look at. For us to understand this love of God, we must first have Messiah in our hearts. When we accept Yeshua (Jesus) as our Lord and Savior, we so often do not exactly realize this, that God’s love for us goes so long and high and deep. Paul says in Romans 8:32-36, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”

We see here that first and foremost God is for us, and because of that He gave His own Son for us. He has shown His love for us in that while we were still sinners Messiah died for us (Romans 5:8). There is no greater love than one who gives his life for another (John 15:13). So because God demonstrated such great love to the point that it cost Him His own Son, we can have the reassurance that because of this investment in us that He will never renege on His commitment to us, in that nothing will ever separate us from that love.

Romans continues with, “ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We not only can not be separated from God, but now we are more than conquerors. Conquerors of what? Of the penalty of sin, which is death.

What did the Scripture say? “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” Because of the death and resurrection of our Lord Yeshua, the accuser of the brethren, Satan, can no longer accuse us because the blood of Yeshua covers us and protects us (Revelation 12:10-11). Because Yeshua died for us when we were still sinners, literally His enemy, we can have the faith to trust Him in all things. He has proven to us that He can be trusted and that he has our interest in mind.

So when days are hard and those times of testing come, we can rest in the knowledge that God is for me and He will let me be more than a conqueror in my situation. His peace can now rule in our hearts because He has invested in my well being, and it did not stop on the cross, for Yeshua has risen and now intercedes on my behalf before the throne of the Almighty God, my Father (Hebrews 7:25). So when the rulers and principalities and the forces of darkness attack me, He is there to fight on my behalf, for He is a mighty warrior dressed for battle (Jeremiah 20:11).

In Philippians 4:13, Paul tells us that we can do all things in Messiah who strengthens us. This means we can have victory in our struggles and in our tribulations and even in our daily lives because we can walk in faith, the faith that moves mountains, the faith that brings deliverance, the faith that brings victory all because of God’s love for us.

Today, what are you going through? If you think there is no hope, you are mistaken. If you think God does not love you, you are mistaken. If you think the windows of heaven are closed to you, you are mistaken, because Yeshua our intercessor is not on the outside but inside making intercession for you right now as you are reading this. And the best thing of all, He loves you so much that He died for you and nothing is going to separate you from that love. No failure, no sin, no lack of faith, He loves you and nothing will change that.

If you never accepted God’s love do it now. Receive the free gift of God’s love in the sacrifice of Yeshua His Son and have faith, believing in the power that is in His shed blood to save you from your sins.

Three times a year, at set times, the men of Israel were commanded to make pilgrimage to the place where God would put His name. This place was Jerusalem, and particularly, the temple. The three times for pilgrimage corresponded to three of the Appointed Times which God commanded to be observed: Passover, Shavuot (Pentecost), and Sukkot (The Feast of Tabernacles). The current portion is taking place during the feast of Sukkot, so that is where we will here focus our attention.

God instructs the people of Israel, saying, “Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no man shall covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the Lord your God” (Exodus 34:23-24). Because God was going to expand the size of the land of Israel and people would be living far away from Jerusalem, God made it so that three times per year the people should come up to the temple to worship God and bring sacrifices. This would serve to remind the people who it was that they served, and that the reason they were able to prosper and enjoy the land was because of God’s favor. It would also bring the entire nation of Israel together to remind them that they were one nation, one family, worshipping the one true God.

Deuteronomy records that the Feast of Tabernacles is one of these times when the men of Israel are to come up to Jerusalem, and it includes some additional instructions: “Three times in a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles), and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed” (Deuteronomy 16:16). The Feast of Tabernacles takes place during the time of harvest in the land of Israel, and so the people were to bring the fruits of their harvest to give to God. The land was not to be considered their own, but God was letting them use it, and so out of thankfulness they were to give the first portion to God in addition to any other offerings which the individual desired to give.

Today, the command to appear before the Lord is not possible to fulfill, because there is not a temple service taking place in Jerusalem. The reason the command was made was so that the men of Israel would come up to the temple and offer sacrifices, but since there is no priesthood and no temple, these sacrifices cannot be made, and thus the command to make pilgrimage is not able to be fulfilled.

The prophet Zechariah, however, prophesies of a day when not only Israel, but all of the nations on earth will make pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles: “Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them” (Zechariah 14:16-17). So we see that people from every nation will be celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. Of that day it is also said, “And many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths.’ For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war” (Isaiah 2:3-4).

This is the fulfillment which the Feast of Tabernacles looks forward to. As the final feast of the year according to the religious calendar, it represents the Kingdom. It is a time of great joy and celebration, and in fact God commands that this time is to be rejoiced in: “And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the Levite and the stranger and the orphan and the widow who are in your towns” (Deuteronomy 16:14). Our joy will reach its ultimate fulfillment when God Himself will be our tabernacle in the New Jerusalem: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them'” (Revelation 21:3).

If we will be celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles in the Kingdom of God, then why should we wait to experience the joy and power of God in this Appointed Time? It is a time which God has set aside for expressing our joy in Him and giving thanks for all that He has done for us and given to us, especially His own Son, Yeshua (Jesus) our Messiah. Let us celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles and rejoice as we look toward the day when Yeshua will return and draw us to Himself, and He will tabernacle among us for eternity.

Today, we have become so politically correct and so sensitive to words that even in our congregations and our churches we have compromised our beliefs and our words so we do not offend anyone. Tolerance is the word of the day, and yet we do not have tolerance for everything or everyone: it’s like pick and choose depending on who you are or what you believe. “Everyone must get a trophy, everyone must win, we can not have anyone left out. Watch your words! Are they degrading, or harsh, or something I just don’t want to hear? Give me a place to run to, give me a safe place from words and life!” But is this really life? The world we live in is a dangerous place. The Bible tells us that there is good and evil, there are those who will be saved and those who will not be saved, there is a heaven and there is a hell. But to so many people these statements are politically incorrect.

So I ask, do we live by the Word of God or do we live to please those who cannot or will not believe in a God who would not include all? It is sad to say, but many believers will say, “I can only believe that God in His mercy and grace will save all those who are good.” Many say, “God is a God of love and He would not send anyone to hell.” Many say, “Well, I am a good person and God would not send me to hell.” Many even would say, “I go to church, God would not send me to hell.” I have even heard believers say, “There are many ways to get into heaven. They may have been baptized, they may have said a prayer, belong to a certain denomination, go to church, or even read their Bible.” Many even would say, “My pastor tells us that we can still do this or that. He even does those things himself.”

So the question is, have we moved away from the cross of Calvary? Have we taken a step backwards? Is the cross even politically correct? In our society today, we do not like the thought of pain or torture. We do not like the sight of blood and death. We do not want to hear about it. We have become calloused to it, we resent it even. We want to run to our safe place, we want comfort, we want to close our ears and we do not want to listen. We close our eyes and we do not want to see. We have become weak, we have become soft.

We see death and we ask, “Why? Why does a loving God allow this?” Today’s believers do not even want to see a crucifix because we say, “Yeshua has risen, He is no longer on the cross. Quick, take the sight of it away from me! We want to live in the resurrection, not the death.” Without His death, we would have no need of the resurrection. It was through that grief that He bore our sins. It was through His death on the cross that He paid our debt. “Yes, we will accept that, but not the cross.” But this same cross, this instrument of pain and suffering and death which our Messiah Yeshua carried to His death, this cross is exactly what Yeshua tells us that we need to pick up in order to follow Him. We say, “NO, NO! I do not want to die. I have my life and I want to keep it. I have my business, I have my home, my car, all those things that I love and enjoy. I will not give them up, I will not die.” When a person hears that he is going to die, that is his response. There is a process that a man goes through when he hears that he is going to die. There is anger and denial and a sorrow and a letting go of this world which has to take place, and then hopefully they reach a place were there is peace. We in our nature cling to life. This is why God gave us eternal life through Messiah Yeshua, because He is the God of life. And yet Yeshua tells us to pick up that instrument of death and follow Him. Now, I know that I have heard many people who have an illness or some misfortune that they have to live with say that this is their cross in life, so they pick up their cross and go on in life. But is this what our Messiah meant? What are we dying to? Ourselves? To sin? The world? Let’s look at all the Scriptures where the Word tells us we have to die.

“Then he said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” (Luke 9:23-26)

“In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.” (Luke 14:33)

“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (John 12:24)

“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2)

“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we died with Messiah, we believe that we will also live with him.” (Romans 6:6-8)

“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Messiah Yeshua.” (Romans 6:11)

“Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:1-2)

“I have been crucified with Messiah and I no longer live, but Messiah lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

“Those who belong to Messiah Yeshua have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:24)

“May I never boast except in the cross of our LORD Yeshua Messiah, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14)

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24)

“I also consider all these things as loss for the majesty of the knowledge of Yeshua the Messiah, my Lord, him for whose sake I have lost everything, and I consider it all as rubbish that I may gain the Messiah.” (Philippians 3:8)

“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” (Colossians 3:5)

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Yeshua the Messiah, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2:11-14)

“Therefore, since Messiah suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.” (1 Peter 4:1-2)

So we see that we are to die to the world, to ourselves, to sin. The question is, have we died to this world? Have we died to ourselves? Have we died to sin? 1 John 2:15-17 tells us, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” Have we looked into the mirror and then walked away and forgot who we are? Have we truly laid aside the old self and put on the new? I’m sure if we were honest with ourselves we would have to say, “No, I have not died to myself. I have not put on the new. I still watch those worldly shows. I still use language I shouldn’t. I still live like the world and sound like the world and even look like the world.” How we need the cross before us! How we need the shed blood of Yeshua to cleanse us of our sins daily, and the only place for that blood to fall on us is at the foot of the cross.

We need to see the cross every day, and every day we need to crucify our flesh. Do not think that an image of our Yeshua on the cross is wrong. It was that image that paid our debt, and we need to be eternally grateful for the life that Yeshua gives us. As a disciple of Yeshua, a follower of our Messiah, we must walk in His footsteps. We must follow Him to the cross and we must deny ourselves and crucify our flesh so that we too may have life. “This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Yeshua His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Yeshua Messiah the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.” (1 John 1:5-2:3)

The cross may not be politically correct, and in this world we may not all win, but as for our Father, He has made the way for all of us to be winners. But to win we must first die. Do you need to come back to the cross? That is where the cleansing flow of the blood of the Lamb is. Come on bended knee and the love of Messiah will wash you clean.

November is the traditional month for celebrating Thanksgiving. Over the years we have forgotten what this day is all about. It’s no more about the history of the first European settlers in 1620 who came on the Mayflower. It is no longer about the harsh winter that they had to endure where many died. It is no longer about the celebration they had in 1621 after their first harvest. The celebration lasted three days. 90 American Indians and 53 pilgrims attended. The pilgrims were used to having a day of thanksgiving and prayer, thanking God for their blessing and victories. The pilgrims were a people of prayer and fasting. In 1623, after prayer and fasting and 14 days of rain resulted in a larger harvest, they once again had a thanksgiving day, but this time it was not the church that called for the day but the governor. From this a National Day of Prayer was instituted which we still have today.

President John F. Kennedy issued Proclamation 3560 on November 5, 1963 stating, “Over three centuries ago, our forefathers in Virginia and in Massachusetts, far from home in a lonely wilderness, set aside a time of thanksgiving. On the appointed day, they gave reverent thanks for their safety, for the health of their children, for the fertility of their fields, for the love which bound them together and for the faith which united them with their God.” Our American history is full of prayer and thanksgiving and faith in the One true God. We are Judeo-Christians because we share the Scriptures of the Jewish people. It is their faith that we have been grafted into. Romans 11:17 says, “It is as if some of the branches from an olive tree have been broken off. You non-Jewish people are like the branch of a wild olive tree that has been joined to that first tree. You now share the strength and life of the first tree, the Jews.”

But it seems over the last decade or two we have really taken a wide swing away from this foundation, both in our government and in our private beliefs. Our schools no longer teach the truth about this day or any day in our history. We now have a culture that is becoming farther and farther from the truth of our foundation not only with our Constitution but with the Word of God. We cry out, “Separation between church and state!” which has been so misconstrued over the decades. Our forefathers never separated themselves or this country from God and the Constitution. The people, the church and God were as a three braided cord. Ecclesiastes 4:12 says, “ A cord of three strands is not easily broken.” But we have begun to unravel that cord and we have begun to see more and more division in this land. A house divided will fall, that is what Yeshua (Jesus) told us in Mark 3:25. We see more and more violence and contention and we are losing our foundation and the reason this country was formed. Let us not forget that God birthed this country and it was the One True God who brought us through our toughest times. He gave us the victory in the Revolutionary War and in the Civil War and every war. He brought us through thick and thin. God was there and our country knew it and they had their times of thanksgiving and prayer. Today we do not win our wars. We do not have victories. We have suffered through many hard days. Homelessness and murder are at their all time highs. Drugs and alcohol are destroying our society. Sex and violence is everywhere, from on our TVs to the big screen and we are living out what we are seeing. We have turned to other gods and beliefs.

How long will we continue in this downward spiral? We say, “God bless America” as if it is some kind of mantra or formula that pleases the gods. God is not blessing us and the situation in this country speaks toward that fact. But we do not come and bow our hearts to the One True Living God, the Creature of all things, seen and unseen. We do not accept the sacrifice of his only begotten Son. Last year, 2016, 90,000 Christians were martyred for their faith. Anti-Semitism is on the rise like we haven’t seen since before the Holocaust. We call evil good and good evil.

We MUST pray. We MUST come and humble ourselves. We MUST repent of our sins. We MUST awaken our souls to the One True Living God. You may agree with me or you may not. I can only pray that eyes and hearts will be open to see truth.

This Thanksgiving let us turn off the TVs and let us leave the shopping for a day and let us celebrate Thanksgiving with our family in a time of prayer and thanksgivings, reading the Word of God. In love let us sit down to those blessings that God has bestowed on us and say Grace. God, Family and Country: the three-stranded cord that cannot be easily broken. United we stand!

We want to look at Miriam. You may know her as Mary. I want to take a closer look at the Scriptures to see what the Scriptures tell us about her versus the legend which she has become. Many of the views of the Catholic Church regarding Mary only go back as far as the 19th and 20th centuries, so they are rather new. But is this how Miriam would have wanted her legacy to be told?

The Appearance of the Angel

Miriam was a devout Jewish girl from the tribe of Judah. Luke tells us in chapter one that in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to the city of Nazareth. The sixth month would be the month of Elul, which is August-September on our calendar. He was sent to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph. The angel began his dialogue with “Hail, favored one.” Hail, chairo in the Greek, means “cheer, rejoice, be glad;” in other words, it would be the same as us saying hello. “Hello, favored one! The Lord is with you.” She pondered in her fear what was this all about. Any one of us would be wondering the same thing if suddenly an angel appeared to us. We may even think, “My time is up!” But he tells her not to be afraid, “For you have found favor with God.” So many people in the bible had this same experience and were told the same thing that they have found favor with God: Yeshua (His son), Daniel, Joseph (Jacob’s Son), Esther, the Patriarchs, just to name a few.

The angel goes on to tell her that she would have a son, but this son would be great. You know how mothers all think their children are great, but this one God is calling great. He will be the Son of the Most High and He will have the throne of his father David and His name will be Yeshua (God saves) and He will reign over the house of Jacob (Israel) forever and His kingdom will have no end. The angel goes on to explain how this will all happen and Miriam tells the angel, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word.” And with that the angel departs. Now, as we see here the angel never calls Miram great or the mother of God or exalted. This frightened young girl calls herself a bondslave. Let’s look at the next thing that the Scriptures tell us about Miriam.

Elizabeth Greets Miriam

Miriam goes to visit her cousin who is also expecting a child. When Miriam greets her cousin, the child John leaps for joy and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Why? Because John had the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon Him which He received from Yeshua at that encounter. You could say that Yeshua and John met womb to womb and when they met in person, John‘s spirit knew exactly who Yeshua was. Elizabeth, overtaken by this experience, cries out, “Blessed among women, are you, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Elizabeth confirms to Miriam exactly what the angel told her about her Son. And of course, anyone who is about to have the Son of the Most High is blessed. Elizabeth goes on to say, “How is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Now I think this is where we all get confused. Elizabeth calls Miriam the mother of her Lord, and Yeshua was Lord, but Miriam is not the mother of God, for God has no mother, no beginning or end. To call her this is not right because we put her on the same level as God, and this is definitely not right. Let’s see how Miriam responds to her cousin.

The Magnificat

Miriam says, “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior (Psalm 35:9). For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave (Psalm 138:6); for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name. And His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him (Psalm 103:17). He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart (Psalm 98:1; 118:15). He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble (Job 5:11). He has filled the hungry with good things (Psalm 107:9); and sent away the rich empty handed. He has given help to Israel His servant. In remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his offspring forever (Genesis 17:7,19; Psalm 132:11).”

We see here that Miriam was quoting the scriptures in this dialogue, and once again we see that Miriam calls herself a humble bondslave. Yes, she was very blessed by God, but so is everyone who is faithful to God. We don’t exalt Abraham the father of faith, who God called His friend, and exalt him above all; or Moses, who saw God face to face, and make him above all; or any other person, for we are all the blessed of God who Paul refers to as the saints, which means “set apart” or “sanctified” in the Greek.

We see Miriam doubt and question her son throughout scripture, and like any mother was extremely afraid when they lost Yeshua on their way back from Jerusalem. They even came to get him because they thought he had lost his mind. We see her at the cross and at the upper room on the day of Pentecost, seeking God in prayer, and I’m sure that on the day of Pentecost she received the Holy Spirit like all the rest. Miriam was a humble person who only wanted to serve God. She had her faults like every other person, and like every other person she needed a Savior and needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Nowhere in the Scriptures does it tell us that Miriam was without sin. If she was, the Scriptures would for sure tell us. The only one without sin was Yeshua, and the Scriptures do tell us that in 2 Corinthians 5:21,1 John 3:5, 1 Peter 1:18-19. Romans 3:23 does tell us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. I think if we look at Miriam as someone other than an ordinary person, a human being like us all, we do her a great injustice because if she could tell us she would say that she was just a humble servant doing her part for the kingdom, and because she can not tell us that, the Scriptures do.

Let’s take Miriam’s example and let’s be humble servants of our Lord Yeshua in bringing about His kingdom.

2 Timothy 3:1-9 says this: “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.”

Paul paints a picture of the last days. Our question is this: are we in the last days? We are going to take a closer look at these verses, and then we will decide. In the last days, there will be difficulty. It seems as though all throughout history there has been difficulty of all sort, but Paul mentions these as proof of the end times.

1. Lovers of self. Now I suppose that there have been many people throughout history that have been lovers of themselves, like every ruler, Pharaoh, Caesar, Alexander the Great, Hitler just to name a few. But what about the everyday Joe? I would say in our modern-day world that most people have been thoughtful of others, but has that changed over the last century? The first commandment tells us that we are to only love God and our neighbor as ourselves. This is the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:36).

2. Lovers of money. We have seen over the last century many days of hardship like the Great Depression and the First and Second World Wars. But what happened after this was a great revolution in manufacturing and technology, as well as a soaring boom in the stock market and corporate wages. These have impacted people to not only put themselves first, but at any cost to claw their way up the corporate ladder. Having to keep up with your neighbor even has a slogan, “Keeping up with the Jones’.” Yeshua (Jesus) tells us that we cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24).

3. Proud and arrogant. We have become so competitive that even parents are fighting at their childrens’ games, claiming that their child is better than another. We have become so braggadocious because of our pride and arrogance as a result of our love of self. James tells us that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.

4. Abusive. Today we see such abuse of the elderly and animals and children and quite frankly everyone in so many ways and areas of life. It is terrible the things that people can bring themselves to do to another living being.

5. Disobedience to parents. Years ago, there was respect for not only our parents but for those who were your elders. The commandments tell us to honor our father and mother, but today we see children suing their parents and murdering them, disowning them, and mistreating them. As for our elderly parents, we drop them off in a nursing home and forget them.

6. Ungrateful. We are no longer grateful for what we have. Paul tells us to be content in all things and to rejoice in all situations, but today we complain about everything, and children, if they don’t get what they have asked for for Christmas, have a temper tantrum.

7. Unholy. The bible tells us that we are to be holy as He is holy. What happened to holiness? It is mocked and ridiculed in movies and on TV. A whole culture has turned their backs to those things that are holy and righteous and good.

8. Heartless. Yeshua tells us in Matthew 24:12, “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.” What has happened today with people not caring about other people’s feelings? We are quick to judge and to slander. We don’t think about people as having feelings. There is no heart in the matter any more.

9. Unappeasable. Today we can never be satisfied. It is part of the fact that we are not content, because of our love for self and our love for money. Always having to have more, we have become so miserable that the only way to satisfy our feelings is to have more: a vicious cycle of worldliness.

10. Slanderous. Today if we don’t like someone, we character assassinate them. The commandments tell us not to bear false witness.

11. Without self control. We have seen the level of intensity grow with this list. Everything today is supersized, no matter if it is drinking, eating, or pleasure of one sort or another. People are out of control with their words and actions.

12. Brutal. As we watch the nightly news we see this level of cruelty which has become so brutal and unthinkable.

13. Not loving good. Isaiah 5:20 tells us, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

14. Treacherous. We live in a dangerous world. We are a society of laws but we have become lawless.

15. Reckless. We do things today and we never think of the consequences, because for many there are no consequence. We turn a blind eye and say we must be forgiving and we twist God’s word. Actions have consequences no matter if we forgive or not. There is a penalty for sin.

16. Swollen with conceit. This is not just pride or arrogance, but being swollen like a river which goes beyond its banks and causes a flood, we have become conceited in our actions and words.

17. Lovers of pleasures instead of lovers of God. Church attendance has fallen because so many people would rather be doing something else than going to church. People today feel that they can sit home and watch a TV preacher who candy coats a gospel. It’s all about self-gratification and self-righteousness.

18. Having the appearance of godliness but denying the power. We see today that people’s self-righteousness is equated with being godly. Celebrities raise funds for different victims and we hail them as heros, and yet these same people ridicule and mock Christianity and God Himself in all His power. The true power He gives to His people when they follow His commandments.

In Mark 7:20-23 Yeshua tells us, “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” So the question for us all is, “What’s in your heart?”

Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 4:1-2, “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.”

Hosea 4:1-2 says, “Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge against you who live in the land: there is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. There is only cursing lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.”

We surely are in the last days and we need to heed the warning in Matthew 24:42-44, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

Finally let’s take to heart the parable Yeshua speaks to us in Matthew 24:46-51, “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

In Revelation 3:14-22, Yeshua speaks about the church, and He says this about the church of Laodicea, which many scholars feel is the end time church: “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.” But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the church.”

How do we avoid this great apostasy, this fall from grace? We must get off the fence. We must take charge of our walk with God. We must follow in the footsteps of our Messiah. We must be committed to His cause, which is His kingdom. We must be devoted to Him by loving Him with all our heart and life and strength, staying in His Word and keeping His commandments, crucifying the sinful nature and making a conscious effort in doing the opposite of what you just read above. God will not turn a deaf ear to those who cry out to Him and sincerely want His help. It is a spiritual battle and each person must fight the good fight, but the one we serve is a mighty warrior and He is mighty to save, so we can have the hope of Salvation.

Guard your eyes and your ears and your hearts and look only into the Master’s face, and never turn to the right or to the left, and he will bring us to Him and we will one day enter into His kingdom forever.

Every New Years, we begin afresh and anew. It’s like taking off the old, the past, and putting on the new, the future. Our hope is for a better future. We make those New Year’s promises which many times we never keep past the first week. Our intentions are good, but as they say, “The flesh is weak.” But there is one area that good intentions are not good enough, and that is when it comes to keeping God’s Word. We want to look at what Paul tells the Colossians about taking off the old and putting on the new.

Paul tells the Colossians in chapter 2:20-23, “If you have died with Messiah to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees such as, Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch! (which are things destined to perish) in accordance with the commandment and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self abasement (humiliation or humbling) and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”

So, what is Paul talking about? Well, let’s take those New Year’s promises for an example. Usually we want to make those New Year’s promises that will make us a better person or give us a better lifestyle. These are restrictions that we place on ourselves and as I said, we usually don’t keep them very long. Well, we do the same with God. We think that if we try harder or we place certain restriction on ourselves that we will be a better Christian. But the fact of the matter is that first, we can not make ourselves a better person without God’s help. That all becomes man-made and futile, just like those New Year’s promises. Second, it is not about becoming a better Christian (which can be nothing more than self-made religion or self-abasement) as it is about drawing closer to God and walking in obedience to His word.

Let’s look closer to what Paul is telling us. Paul continues in chapter 3:1-3, “If then you have been raised up with Messiah, keep seeking the things above, where Messiah is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Messiah in God.”

We see in chapter 2:20 that Paul begins, “If you have died with Messiah.” That is the first thing we must consider, because if we have not died with Messiah by crucifying the flesh and dying to ourselves, we can not even start the process. This is a daily choice and sometimes even a moment-by-moment choice. Paul repeats himself in chapter 3:3 and again in chapter 3:5 by telling us that we must consider the members of our earthly body to be dead. Once we have died to ourselves, then we must seek the things above and set our minds on things above. Remember, we are not citizens of this world but our citizenship is in heaven where our Father resides (Philippians 3:20).

Paul tells us in verses 5 and 8 that if we are dead to ourselves then we must put aside the deeds that keep us from God: immorality, passion, evil desires, greed, (which are all idolatry, and idolatry is as witchcraft, which breaks the first commandment) and anger, wrath, malice, slander and lying to one another (which breaks the commandments against our neighbor). Paul continues in Galatians 5:19-21 the list of the deeds of the flesh.

Romans 6:1-2 says, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” So let’s go back to chapter 3 and look at verses 9-10. Paul says, “Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.” This is exactly what Paul tells us in Romans 12:1-2, “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God which is your spiritual service; and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

By dying to ourselves we then are able to take off the old and put on the new. Romans 6:4-7 tells us, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Messiah was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is free from sin.”

So you may ask, “If I am to put off the old and put on the new, is that not the same as trying to keep New Year’s promises?” No, because that you are doing in the flesh, but what does the Scripture tell us in Ephesians 4:20-25? “But you did not learn Messiah in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him (prayer and the Word), just as truth is in Yeshua/Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth, therefore laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you to your neighbor, for we are member of one another.”

And again in Galatians 5:16, 24-25, “Walk in the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh… Now those who belong to Messiah Yeshua have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”

The New Year’s resolutions that you need to be making are to walk a closer walk with God by prayer, reading the Bible, and most of all walking in the Spirit. But first, leave that old self behind by crucifying your flesh and putting on the new, and you will see that you not only look better, but you will feel better.

We want to take a quick brief look at how the world began its global efforts and then we want to take a look at Scripture to see how this all turns out. Since God scattered the nations at the time of the tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9), man has tried to put back what God has separated. It was a slow go because God not only separated the nations by confusing the languages, but after the flood in Genesis 7 God had already broken up the landmasses which made it even more difficult. Man’s quest for power and to conquer his fellow man and take control of his land was the way to go for centuries. Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome were the four big kingdoms mentioned in the book of Daniel. These kingdoms covered vast amounts of land and the people became slaves of their conquerors and the world grew bigger and bigger. With the New World at hand discovered by people like Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci and so many others, life and knowledge continued to expand. Once again man had land to conquer. This New World, the Americas as it was called, offered things that the Old World did not have, and that was a new start. The freedom won by the people of the 13 colonies which became the United States of America was now in conflict with the old. This vast known world was now for the taking. Wars seemed to never stop. In the 1800s there were international organizations which had begun for the purpose of global intervention, like the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1864, the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 and the League of Nations which began in 1920 as a result of the Paris Peace conference which ended WWI. But the League of Nations failed by the 1930s and with that WWII had a deadly impact on the world, maybe like no other time in the history of man. What came out of this war was the United Nations, whose sole purpose was to create and maintain international order. The UN is broken into several areas: the General Assembly, which is for deliberation; the Security Council, which is for peace and security; Economic and Social Council, for promoting international economic and social co-operation and development; Secretaries, for studies and information facilities; the International World Court, UN Systems which include the World Bank, World Health, World Food, UNESCO, UNICEF. In 1948 the UN began a peace-keeping mission by having troops of all nations dedicated for the purpose of peace. In 1949 NATO began based on the North American Treaty, for the sole purpose not of peace, like the League of Nations which failed, but for a mutual defence response to an attack on those countries which belong to NATO. Today NATO forces are part of the UN’s international global army. Today, every area of our lives is intertwined globally. Today, the New World is a global world, united for the sole purpose of not peace, but power; not freedom, but slavery.

Let’s now look at the Scriptures to see how this all turns out.

Yeshua/Jesus Himself speaks about what we call the end times in Matthew 24. The end times is the time when man will complete the task of uniting the nations and the culminating of this present day called today. The book of Revelation speaks to us about the time when man completes this task. Now, I want to say that God never called man to complete this task. The scattering of the nations was done by God, and the uniting of the nations or the gathering of the nations will be done when Messiah comes back. So if it is not of God then it can only be the work of the evil one, who from the beginning put the thought in man to achieve this task. Chapter 12 of Revelation tells us that the devil, the dragon, will come down to the earth and wage war against God’s people, those who keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Yeshua/Jesus. Revelation 13 speaks about a beast, the antichrist, rising out of the sea full of blasphemous speech, one like a leopard and a bear and a lion. The dragon, the devil, gave him his power, throne and authority, and all worshiped the dragon. The beast, the antichrist, blasphemed God’s name and His dwelling place and he was allowed to wage war on God’s people and to conquer them. He had authority over every tribe and people, language and nation. All who dwelled on the earth worship the beast. Then I saw another beast, the false prophet, rising out the earth. He had all the authority of the first beast. He performed great signs and wonders. And he will deceive many. He will cause all, rich and poor, great and small to receive the mark of the beast so no one will be able to buy or sell without it, and his number is 666. All those who do not get the mark on their forehead will be put to death. During this time there will be all kinds of plagues and pestilences and hunger and war and death, a time like no other time in history. The nations will surround Israel, but Yeshua the Messiah will return to save His people and He will rule and reign on the earth for one thousand years. Today, all we are waiting for is the beast, the ruler of the One world Order and the beast, the one who will point man to him. The system is in place. The world is coming together, the churches are coming together and people have been deceived to believe that globalization will give them peace and prosperity, but instead it will give them sorrow and death. If you have been deceived to believe that the globalization of the world is of God, then I say to you, read your Bible. Search out your Scriptures, and let God show you the truth. For those who take the mark of the beast will have no share in the kingdom of God (Revelation 13:8).

Let Him who has an ear let him hear.

In today’s world, the predominant social trends continue to envelope the nations into a global community. This is happening not only in the political and economic realm, but the pursuit of world peace has also led to attempts at resolution of religious differences as a source of violence and discord. Since these efforts are pursued in the name of peace and love, we as believers must be cautious and understand what our stance should be, especially with end times prophecy in mind. This brochure will examine the Scriptural view of globalism, and then explain some of the ways this trend is currently manifesting itself, especially in regard to the church.

First of all, it is interesting to see the parallels between today’s attempts at globalism and the Biblical account of the Tower of Babel. After being commanded to fill the earth, or to spread out over it, the builders of this tower say to each other, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:4). The purpose of this tower was to unite the people of earth in one place and toward one singular goal, in direct contradiction to God’s command. In response, God separates the languages in order to break up this unity of purpose and to cause the people to spread out. Globalism is therefore to repeat the sin of Babel. The concept of global peace and unity is not evil of itself, but in the hands of mankind that unity cannot truly be established in righteousness. It is only with the return of Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) that this peace will occur, and it will happen so that all mankind will worship Him: “Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it” (Isaiah 2:2), and, “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). This is the globalism that we wait for, but it is not instituted or established by the will of man, and it is not a result of interfaith tolerance. It is the Sovereignty of God and the pure worship of Him. In direct opposition to this true era of unity, Scripture also speaks of a counterfeit globalism.

Revelation 13 introduces us to the beast, that is, the antichrist, and how he will gain control over all the nations and all the peoples of the earth through deception. This control is spiritual in that the beast will be worshiped as a god, and also economic in that the inhabitants of earth must receive the mark of the beast in order to engage in trade. Failure to receive the mark thus leads to physical death, while acceptance of the mark means spiritual death. We must not think that people will worship the beast only out of fear for their lives: “He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs” (Revelation 13:13-14). There will be great deception associated with the rise of the beast, so that those who worship him will be fully convinced that their worship is toward one who deserves to be praised. A similar message is indicated in the words of Yeshua as He teaches about the end times: “For false messiahs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24).

Also associated with the beast is the Great Harlot in Revelation 17, also called Babylon the Great. This is widely regarded as being symbolic of a one-world religion, her harlotry being spiritual. Her prosperity is connected with the success of the antichrist, as she is said to be carried by the beast (Revelation 17:7). Therefore we can understand that this religion will be used in conjunction with the worship of the antichrist and in coordination with the political globalization.

One of the hallmarks of the end times that applies both to one-world religion and political globalism is a deceptive proclamation that peace will be the end result: “While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). While we as believers are commanded to make great efforts for peace, this does not come at the cost of tolerating falsehood and lies.

So we see that all of these Scriptures combine to reveal that the gathering together of the nations and the formation of a universal religion are signs that the time of the antichrist is approaching.

If we look carefully around us, we will notice that the process toward globalization and a universal religion has already begun. The most obvious example of the political unification of the world has been through the efforts of the United Nations. As a collective composed of the leaders of 193 states, the UN exercises an exceptional amount of authority over individual nations through the enforcement of international law.

Religion is an obvious point of conflict among people. The differences between religions boils down to truth against lies, and in many cases also involves deep-seated traditions and cultural expressions. The goal of the United Nations and other related organizations at this time is not to openly advocate for a renunciation of all religions in favor of one global religion, but instead they are currently working to foster an environment of tolerance among all religions. Part of this tolerance includes the sentiment that all religions are based on truth and are no less valid or correct than other religions, which also implies that we all ought to learn from and celebrate our differences of religious expression rather than affirm that other religions are false. One of the most influential and troubling events in this area was the Common Word initiative. In 2007, a delegation of 138 prominent Muslim leaders sent an open letter to Christians, saying, “based on verses from the Holy Qur’an and the Holy Bible… Islam and Christianity share, at their cores, the twin ‘golden’ commandments of the paramount importance of loving God and loving one’s neighbor… [A Common Word] was and is an extended global handshake of interreligious goodwill, friendship and fellowship and consequently of world peace.” In response to this open letter, many Christian leaders signed a response affirming this “common ground,” implying that the Muslim understanding of God and how to love Him is based in truth and serves as a foundation for building a relationship on. As a result of this agreement, the United Nations decided to institute the yearly World Interfaith Harmony Week in order to, “spread the message of harmony and tolerance among the followers of all the world’s religions, faiths and beliefs.”

Another large event which has similar goals is the World Alliance of Religions Peace Summit. This annual summit, started in 2014, has as its goal the complete cessation of war and strife by focusing on the common threads between all religions. An example of one aspect of this plan can be read in its draft of the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War: “States should engage in multilateral consultations to deal with situations where differences attributable to religion or ethnicity pose a threat to peace so that necessary remedial action may be taken and to identify the root causes of a situation causing tension between different religious or ethnic groups, in order to adopt necessary measures to promote mutual understanding between the groups concerned.” In other words, whenever there seems to be an issue causing a disruption between two religious groups, the state should intervene to bring understanding between the two groups. Naturally, because of the message which Scripture brings and tells us to proclaim, tension will always result between us and the world—not because of a lacking desire for peace on our part, but quite the opposite, as Yeshua tells us, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you” (John 14:27). He is our peace, and there is no peace but through Him. To those who refuse to put their faith in Him, we are “an aroma from death to death” (2 Corinthians 2:16), and as Yeshua says, “you will be hated by all because of My name” (Luke 21:17).

As we observe end times prophecies being fulfilled, this truth should cause us, as believers, to pay heed to the warnings in Scripture: “The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer” (1 Peter 4:7). It is true that peace and love are indeed at the heart of the commandments, and therefore should be in the center of our hearts. However, the current organized global efforts we see taking place around us cannot truly bring peace, but only a counterfeit which leads to destruction. Tolerance of idolatry will only serve to dilute our convictions and cause us to compromise the truth that sets us free. “Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints” (Revelation 13:10).

Common Word and the Christian Response

Common Word Christian Response

Short list of prominent signatories include:

– Bill Hybels, Founder and Senior Pastor Willow Creek Church, Founder of Global Leadership Summit

– Rick Warren, Founder and Senior Pastor, Saddleback Church, and The Purpose Driven Life

– Leith Anderson, President, National Association of Evangelicals

– Rev. Dr. Stuart Briscoe, Minister at Large, Elmbrook Church, Brookfield Wisconsin, USA

Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War

https://web.archive.org/web/http://peacelaw.org/explanation/explanatory_book.html

United Nations Interfaith Harmony Week

https://web.archive.org/web/http://worldinterfaithharmonyweek.com

Today there are many religions, many denominations—just like there are many countries and peoples. For the world to be united as a one world order there has to be a gathering of all peoples, nations and countries; and we have seen this over the years, beginning with the United Nations, which formed the global society that we have today. So too, to have a one world religion all the religions have to come together and unite as one religion. We saw the beginning of this when the Catholic Church held the first ecumenical council in the early 1960s with Pope John XXIII. This began the era of ecumenical unity. Since then every religion and denomination has come together to form the framework of this new one world religion. Yes, even your religion. No, it has not come as far as the global unity has, but the framework is in place, and every year all religions have come closer and closer to uniting. They are looking at what they have in common and then compromising for the sake of unity. The Scriptures that they use to come together are John 17:11, 20-23: “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one… My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” Yes, it is hard to believe, but the Bible tells us that this will happen, and it is happening, but to the harm of each person in every congregation. We want to take a look at a few things in this brochure.

In our brochure “Globalism,” we stated that peace and love (or should we say tolerance) is what we must achieve to unify us. The thinking is that we all base our religious beliefs on truth and so all religions are true. But we know that the very little that may unite us is not the truth that saves us, that being that Yeshua/Jesus is God wrapped in the flesh of man, and He died for us and was buried and rose from the dead and He conquered Hell, death and the grave. In our brochure “Is the Cross Politically Correct?” we see that today the cross is not preached, and even less is it preached that we too must crucify our flesh, thus dying to ourselves. We must lose our lives to save them. The topic of sin is almost absent from the mouths of our preachers today. In our brochure “Where Did the Kingdom Go?” we also see that the goal of our faith is not only salvation, but to advance the Kingdom here on earth. We see that today these terms and Biblical truths are not preached, and if they are they are watered down in their truth and meaning. In our brochure, “Where Did the Blood Go?” we ask this question about the teaching of “grace only.” Why do we not say that we are saved by the shed blood of Yeshua our Messiah? Because this is unpopular, and we see that in all of these basic tenets of the faith, to be united with all of the faiths of the world we must stop teaching that which separates us.

Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” They will find teachers who will teach according to their own desires. This is what we find today.

People are not coming to the saving truth of the shed blood of Messiah. They are not coming to repentance or to the cross of Messiah. They are coming, the few that do, to a watered down version of the gospel to appease and to tickle the ears of the few. Church attendance has not gone up, but instead people roam from church to church finding the right teacher who will tell them what they want to hear, the kind of music they want to hear and the freedom they want to live their lives by. We have become weak and in so doing we can not fight the spiritual battle that needs to be fought. The birth pangs of Messiah have begun and they will increase as the time grows closer to His return. The Bible tells us of a great falling away.

Yeshua tells us in Matthew 24:10-14, “At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” This apostasy, the great falling away, is taking place more so today than ever. We see a great deception, a great darkness, a lie that has been taught for years that people have slowly boughten into. So many pastors today do not believe in the basic truths of the gospel. They are false shepherds who are leading the flock astray with words that sound right and yet they lead to a shallow, rootless congregation. And many today who sit in pews even deny the very foundation of the faith because of the teachings that only tickle our ears. The Bible warns us against such wolves in sheeps’ clothing, against such false teachers and prophets.

2 Corinthians 11:13-15 warns, “For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.” This unity of religions and nations will usher in the Antichrist. Paul also tells us in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12, “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

For years now this sugar-coated gospel has been taught so that today many new believers do not know what is actually required of them by our Messiah, and so many who have sat in pews for years have become tone-deaf due to the lack of the truth of God’s Word being preached. We have accepted the lies and deceptions for the comforts of a social gathering we call church.The book of Revelation warns the churches about their sins and the need to repent. In the church of Laodicea, which has been considered the end times church, Yeshua tells them that they are neither hot or cold and that they, in other words, need to stop sitting on the fence and choose if they are either hot or cold because being lukewarm will cause Him to spit them out of His mouth. He finds them guilty of worldliness.

“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”What about you? Do you need to return to your first love? Do you need to return to a closer walk with the Father? Do you need to begin with repenting because you are neither hot or cold? Take some time and consider all that has been spoken of here and ask yourself, have I been compromising my faith, my beliefs, my walk, because I have become comfortable and complacent and have allowed myself to fall into a spiritual slumber? Remember, Yeshua is the Good Shepherd and He is gathering His sheep. Ephesians 5:13-16 tells us, “But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that is illuminated becomes a light itself. So it is said, ‘Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Messiah will shine on you.’ Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.”

Even though we have seen anti-Semitism throughout history, we have seen a recent increase over the last several years. Anti-Semitic violence and attitudes have once again begun to surge. After the Holocaust, most Christians in the United States had been pro-Israel, but today, we have seen that many church-goers have turned their backs on Israel and now support Israel’s enemies. You see more and more hateful remarks on social media. Western Europe has exploded with hate for the Jewish people. The state of Israel has seen many attacks over the years. So you have to ask yourself, why? And why now? Is it the nationality or is it their religion that is causing the hatred? We want to take a closer look at this, so to do that we have to look back into the Scriptures to see when this all started.

We could go back to Adam and Eve, when they sinned in the garden. We could look at when Cain, filled with hatred, killed his brother Abel. But we will start with Abraham. God blessed Abraham with these words: “I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you” (Genesis 12:3). We will see this hold true till eternity. Abraham’s first son, Ishmael, was from Hagar rather than Sarah, who God said the promises would come through. When Abraham sent Hagar away with her son she cried out to God and He heard her: “As for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation” (Genesis 17:20). The descendants of Ishmael are the Arab nations. The Arab nations will reconcile with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Today there are many Muslims who have found the One True Living God, and when Messiah returns He will gather the nations unto Himself. So we see that we need to look further into this subject, but not too much further, for we see this also with Esau and Jacob the sons of Isaac. The Scriptures tell us that God loved Jacob but hated Esau: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated” (Romans 9:13). So why did God hate Esau? Let’s take a closer look at the backstory to all of this.

We see that Esau, who was the eldest of Isaac’s sons, had no regard for his birthright. The birthright was a special blessing given to the firstborn son. It also meant a double portion of land and money. Genesis 25:29-34 tells us how one day Jacob was cooking some stew, and Esau came asking for food. Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” So Esau swore an oath and sold his birthright to Jacob for some bread and stew. So Esau despised his birthright. Esau had no regard for the things of God. He would be, let’s say, a man of the world, but Jacob, he was a man of God. Hebrews 12:16-17 tells us, “See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.” We see from Scripture that Isaac loved Esau more than Jacob, and when it came time for Isaac to bless Esau before he died, Rebecca (Isaac’s wife) had a plan to replace Esau with Jacob for this blessing, for she knew that God’s will was for Jacob to have this blessing (Genesis 25:23). Well, Jacob deceived his father who was blind by putting on Esau’s clothes and covering himself with animal skins so he would smell and feel like Esau. So Isaac believed and he blessed Jacob. When Esau found out, he swore that he would kill his brother and so Jacob fled.

Now let us move forward in time. The descendants of Esau were the Edomites. The Scriptures tell us a lot about the Edomites: they are mentioned about 120 times in the Old Testament. Genesis 36 gives us the family tree of Esau, and again in 1 Chronicles 1:43-54. Numbers 20:14-21 tells us about a conflict that took place between Edom and Israel. Moses, after leading Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness, sent messengers to the king of Edom asking permission to simply pass through his country on the way to their destination, stressing that their intentions were not to stay in the land but to move through it and that they would pay for any water used in his country. Edom responded harshly and came out to meet Israel with a mighty army, so Israel is forced to take a different route.

This hatred was evidently also passed on to Esau’s grandson Amalek. The Amalekites come and attack the Israelites at a place called Rephidim. While Joshua leads the army, Moses prays and lifts his hands toward God. As long as Moses’ hands are raised, the battle is in Israel’s favor, and in the end Israel is victorious. God tells Moses, “‘Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.’ Moses built an altar and called it ‘The LORD is my Banner.’ He said, ‘Because hands were lifted up against the throne of the LORD, the LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation'” (Exodus 17:8-16). Let’s look at some other Scriptures regarding Edom. Isaiah 34:1-17 speaks about God’s wrath toward Edom. “My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; see, it descends in judgment on Edom, the people I have totally destroyed. The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood… For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in the land of Edom… For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause. Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become blazing pitch! It will not be quenched night or day; its smoke will rise forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever pass through it again.” Jeremiah writes in Jeremiah 49:7-22 how once again God will destroy Esau. “’Turn and flee, hide in deep caves, you who live in Dedan, for I will bring disaster on Esau at the time when I punish him… I will strip Esau bare; I will uncover his hiding places, so that he cannot conceal himself. His armed men are destroyed, also his allies and neighbors, so there is no one to say, “Leave your fatherless children; I will keep them alive. Your widows too can depend on me.” I swear by myself,’ declares the LORD, ‘that Bozrah will become a ruin and a curse, an object of horror and reproach; and all its towns will be in ruins.’” Dedan and Bozrah were towns in which the Edomites lived. We see again in Obadiah 1:18, “Jacob will be a fire and Joseph a flame; Esau will be stubble, and they will set him on fire and destroy him. There will be no survivors from Esau. The LORD has spoken.”

We could also look at Ezekiel 35:1-5, where the inhabitants of Mount Seir, an Edomite town, are told they will be judged for their hatred toward Israel: “You have had everlasting enmity and have delivered the sons of Israel to the power of the sword at the time of their calamity.” The prophet Malachi says, “’I have loved you,’ says the Lord. ‘But you ask, “How have you loved us?” Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?’ declares the Lord. ‘Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals. Edom may say, “Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.” But this is what the Lord Almighty says: They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord. You will see it with your own eyes and say, “Great is the Lord—even beyond the borders of Israel!”‘” (Malachi 1:1-5).

So why does God hate Esau? Frankly because Esau hates the God of Israel. We have seen the various prophecies concerning the destruction of Edom. Not like the descendants of Ishmael, Edom was and never will turn to God. Esau, who kept cursing Israel, eventually was cursed of God. But we must understand that just as in the days of the Apostles the spirit of antichrist was already present (1 John 4:3), so too is the spirit of Edom present, and in many ways they are the same spirit. We want to look at several people in history that had this spirit of Edom. Doeg is seen in 1 Samuel 22:16-19. Saul unjustly orders his army to slaughter the priests of God who had given David support as he fled from Saul. The soldiers refuse, so Saul orders Doeg the Edomite to carry out his order. Doeg not only kills eighty-five priests, but continues to destroy the entire town the priests inhabited. Doeg did not just kill the priests, but the whole town including the women, children, and animals. Next we see Haman in the book of Esther, who wanted to kill all the Jews. Esther’s uncle, Mordecai, refused to bow to Haman, who was a descendant of Amalek and a powerful man in the kingdom of Babylon. Haman is furious, so he devises plans to not only kill Mordecai, but all of the Jews along with him.

We also see the example of Herod, whose father was an Edomite, in Matthew 2:13-18. After hearing from the Magi that the King of the Jews, Yeshua (Jesus), had been born in Bethlehem, he commands them to tell him where the child is located once they find him. Warned in a dream, the Magi return home. “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.'” There have been so many others throughout history, too many for this brochure, but we do want to mention one other and that was Adolph Hitler who also wanted to annihilate the whole Jewish race. Today we still see the spirit of Esau who has not stopped persecuting the Jewish people and also the Judeo-Christians who believe in the God of Abraham. Revelation 12:17 says, “Then the dragon was enraged at the woman (Israel) and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Yeshua.”

We see that anti-Semitism is all about who the people of Israel are, the children of Jacob, and who they worship, the One True Living God. How about you? What kind of spirit do you have? Are you true to the God of Abraham, or have you been duped to believe that God no longer cares for His chosen Israel and has chosen another? He who blesses Israel will be blessed for all eternity.

We want to look at the question, where did the Kingdom go? Now you may say, “The Kingdom is in heaven, why ask where it went?” Today, the believer lives more for the world than he does for the Kingdom. We have lost the vision of the Kingdom to come. We do not live by Kingdom principles nor do we promote the Kingdom. Yeshua talked so much about the Kingdom and what it was like and who will see it that you have to ask yourself, “Where did the kingdom go?” Today we seldom hear anyone preach or teach about the Kingdom of God. So let’s look at what the Scriptures tell us about the Kingdom, otherwise known as the Messianic Age. But first, has there been a misconception about the Kingdom? The kingdom is not in heaven only, but right here on earth. The prophets spoke a lot about the coming Messianic Kingdom, too many Scriptures to look at at this time, but we will look at a few.

Isaiah 2:2-4 tells us, “In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways so that we may walk in his paths.’ The law will go out from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He (Yeshua) will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”

The book of Zechariah is full of Messianic Scriptures. Zechariah 9:9-10 says, “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.”

When Yeshua entered Jerusalem before His death on the cross, He entered on a donkey, signifying to the people that He was the Messiah. The people knew this prophecy about the Messiah and they quickly cut palm branches and cried out, “Save us, son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 21:9). The people believed that their Messiah had come and He would now save them from their enemies and restore the kingdom, because this was the sign of the Messiah.

The book of Revelation also tells us in chapter 20:6, “Blessed and holy is he, whoever has part in the first resurrection, and the second death has no authority over these, but they shall be priests of God and of the Messiah, and they shall reign with him 1000 years.” Revelation 21:1 also says, “And I saw new heavens and a new earth, for the former heavens and the former earth had departed, and the sea was no more.” We see after the 1000 years that a new heaven and a new earth will be created, for the Kingdom will continue to exist forever. Isaiah 9 tells us about Messiah Yeshua, “For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”

Again we see the angel tell Mary that Yeshua will sit on the throne of King David forever in Luke 1:30-33: “But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Yeshua. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

So let’s see what Yeshua has to say about the Kingdom. Yeshua began His ministry with one message, and that message was, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). At hand? Yes, the Kingdom has now come down to earth and we can now live as citizens of the Kingdom, here and now. We see that the disciples had the same message (Matthew 10:7). When Yeshua gave this message, the people knew this meant that the Messiah had come and that Yeshua was the Messiah. Yeshua taught much about the Kingdom. The beginning of the Beatitudes begins with, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Again, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:10). Regarding the teaching of His commandments He says, “Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:19-20). One day the disciples ask Yeshua, “Teach us to pray.” They knew how to pray, but He was their Rabbi and as disciples they wanted to pray like Him. So Matthew 6:9-10 tells us, “And He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The Kingdom was so important in Yeshua’s eyes that after blessing the Father’s name He prays that the Kingdom would come. As far as our needs, God knows our needs and He will provide, but we need to do what is more important and that is to seek first the Kingdom. “For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:32-33).

So how do you seek the Kingdom first? Yeshua tells us in Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon this earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Could this be why we have lost our vision of the Kingdom? We are serving the wrong king. Yeshua continues to tell us in verse 24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You can not serve God and money.”

Yeshua tells several parables about the Kingdom. Let’s look at one in Matthew 13:44: “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is likened to treasure that was hidden in a field which a man found and hid, and for his joy he went selling everything that he had and he bought that field.” Have we given up everything for the Kingdom? Do we live like strangers and aliens in this world, knowing that one day we will have the blessings of the Messianic Age, the eternal kingdom? One more parable is in Matthew 25: “Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the prudent answered, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. Later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open up for us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’ Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.”

Are we doing the work of the Kingdom? Is our light shining in the darkness of this world? Is the oil of the Holy Spirit burning in our hearts as we long for the Kingdom? If not, then we are not ready for Yeshua’s second coming. If we are not daily doing God’s will on earth as it is being done in heaven, then we have lost our vision.

Isn’t it time to get ready for our coming King? He is coming not as a little baby, not as the suffering servant, but as the Messiah, our victorious King, the Anointed One of the Father. “Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the Kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or, “There it is!” For behold, the Kingdom of God is in your midst’” (Luke 17:20-21). It is here and now, and we should be living in the Kingdom today serving our King Yeshua. We do not know the day or hour, so if you need oil for your lamp don’t delay, because while you are out buying oil He may come and you will not be prepared for Him or for His Kingdom.

Open your eyes and your hearts to the vision of the Kingdom, the coming Messianic Age.

Did you ever wonder why Yeshua died on the cross? Couldn’t He have died another way? John the Baptist was beheaded. Isaiah was sawed in half. Others were thrown to the lions. Why the cross? Let’s take a closer look. In fact, let’s go back to the beginning.

We find in the Garden of Eden that there were two trees that Adam and Eve could not eat from: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and The tree of Life (Genesis 2:9). Now, we know that Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and so did Adam, and because of this their eyes were opened. We see from the start that the tree played an important part in man’s future. We also see Moses making a serpent and placing it on a pole, or, more literally, something like a tree branch, to lift up so all would see and be saved (Numbers 21:8-9). Yeshua quotes this verse in John 3:14. Yeshua, speaking to Nicodemus about eternal life, makes reference to Moses lifting up the pole or tree branch: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes in Him should have eternal life.”

Again Yeshua indicates what kind of death He would die. In John 12:30-33 Yeshua said, “‘This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.”

Crucifixion was the popular method of death in Yeshua’s day. We see in John 18:30-32 that the Jews could not put anyone to death: “’If he were not a criminal,’ they replied, ‘we would not have handed him over to you.’ Pilate said, ‘Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.’ ‘But we have no right to execute anyone,’ they objected. This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.”

But there was one other reason why Yeshua died on the cross other than that it was the Romans’ choice of the day. Deuteronomy 21:23 tells us, “The body must not remain hanging from the tree overnight. You must bury the body that same day, for anyone who is hung is cursed in the sight of God. In this way, you will prevent the defilement of the land the LORD your God is giving you as your special possession.” Galatians 3:13 tells us “Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, ‘CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE’.”

So we see that from the beginning the tree was the object of sin and the object of redemption. Yeshua took upon Himself our sin and became a curse, or in other words, He who knew no sin became sin, and the wages of sin is death: total rejection by God; sentenced to hell; cursed and not blessed. So the story went like this, recorded by Luke in chapter 23:

“But they all cried out together, ‘Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas’—a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder. Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, but they kept shouting, ‘Crucify, crucify him!’ A third time he said to them, ‘Why? What evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him.’ But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Yeshua over to their will. Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Yeshua said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!’ The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ There was also an inscription over him, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’ It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Yeshua, calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’ And having said this He breathed his last. Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, the praised God, saying, ‘Certainly this man was innocent!’ And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. Now there was a man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man, who had not consented to their decision and action; and he was looking for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.”

“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.’ And they remembered his words” (Luke 24:1-8).

Revelation 22:1-4 tells us the end of the story. “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”

God bless you as you remember our Messiah’s death and resurrection.

Ask any believer and he will tell you that he is saved by grace through faith; and that not of himself, it is a free gift of God; and not as a result of works, that he should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). Though this may be true, I ask, what happened to the blood and the cross and sin? Should this not be our first response? Is it not time to put the words of Yeshua before the words of Paul? We are saved by the precious blood of the pure, innocent Lamb of God who died on the cross of Calvary for our sins. Our Savior, the only begotten, precious Son of God the Father, holy, set apart, pure and innocent, without sin, without blemish, took my sins, my burdens, my shame, my guilt and placed it upon Himself. He dirtied Himself with the filth of my sin. He became guilty who was innocent. He became a reproach who knew no reproach, and most of all He took on Himself the pain: not just of the scourging and the cross, but the pain of being separated from His Father, which was the greatest pain of all. It caused him to cry out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” The precious Lamb of God, He who was with God from the beginning and who was God, was separated from the Father and found guilty, paying the price of damnation, and yet we do not respond with an eternal gratitude that we have been saved by His shed blood. Without the shedding of the blood there can be no forgiveness of sin (Hebrews 9:22). But we have not been taught this because we have no need of the knowledge of the sacrifices, nor do we usually quote from the Hebrew scriptures, but Isaiah tells us, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5). He was oppressed and He was afflicted, cut off from the land of the living, and Isaiah tells us that, “His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men” (Isaiah 52:14). It is for this reason that we want to take a closer look at this, but first we want to see were we went wrong.

Two Roads and the One Not Taken

With the turn of the twentieth century and two World Wars, man had taken a turn away from God. This was the beginning of all things. We won two wars and prosperity and renewal filled our hearts. We entered into the global age. The gospel message changed. There was no longer turn-or-burn messages from mighty preachers of the day, like Moody, Spurgeon and Scofield. Holiness and godliness faded like a painting left to the sun, despite a mighty revival of the Holy Spirit that took place at Azusa Street, which lasted from 1906-1915, dawning a new day of hope. That new day gave birth to the Assemblies of God and the Church of God in Christ. Pentecostalism was on the rise with great signs and wonders and the gifts of the Holy Spirit which are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12. But that day of hope did not last. No, the new gospel message was a road that many took. Instead of Azusa Street, many took easy street, even with such a powerful move of the Holy Spirit. After WWII we entered into the golden age of capitalism, which gave almost every nation a time of growth and prosperity well into the 1970s, in which time God once again gave a spiritual renewal, this time in the Catholic church with the Charismatic movement. Despite these two Spiritual movements, more and more people fell away. The church was lulled to sleep and this, that you read today, we hope will awaken your soul to truth and light. The church must be awakened and strengthened before the days called “Jacob’s trouble.” We want to look at the reasons behind this falling away.

The Message of Messiah

Yeshua/Jesus began His message by saying, “Repent” (Matthew 4:17). Mark 1:14-15 tells us, “And after John had been taken into custody, Yeshua came into Galilee, preaching the gospel (the good news) of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (the good news).” The Jewish people knew exactly what Yeshua was saying, for the gospel (the good news) that Yeshua preached was that the Messiah had come. He was telling them that He was the Messiah. The prophets spoke of the Messiah: that He would bring salvation to His people (His name, Yeshua, in fact means “salvation”), give them victory over their enemies, and restore the Torah and its teachings. Now, this is something that we were never taught. We believe in the Jewish Messiah, and yet we do not even know the role of Messiah in Scripture. Yet the Jewish people knew. The role of the Messiah must be taught to us in order to completely understand who Messiah is. We are not going to look into the ministry of Messiah in this brochure. (A more extensive teaching on this subject can be found at JudeoChristianClarion.com/good-news.) What I will say is that we get the gospel message confused with the salvation message. They are two different messages. We see that John preached the same message: “Now in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (Matthew 3:1-2). I just want to note that the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven is the same kingdom. We see that Yeshua tells His disciples to preach the same message. Luke 9:2 says, “And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God.” Peter, on the day of Pentecost, says to the crowd, “Repent.” All through the ages preachers have preached the same message.

But the kingdom was not Yeshua’s only message to His disciples: He taught the Torah. Yeshua never taught the salvation message, but He did tell His disciples at the Passover Seder, what we have come to call the Last Supper, to “Remember.” Most people do not keep the Passover, nor do they attend a Seder. Yeshua was telling His disciples that when they keep the Passover, the Seder in particular, that they remember Him in the breaking of the matzah, called the Afikoman, which represents His body; and when drinking the third cup, the Cup of Redemption, to remember the shedding of His blood. It was not about Communion, but it was Passover, on which the Israelites were saved from the death angel by the blood of an innocent, unblemished lamb. Paul tells us to keep the Passover, because Yeshua our Passover lamb has shed His blood for us (1 Corinthians 5:7).

The Lost Message

We have lost the message of repentance. Repentance is a humbling of one’s self. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at the proper time” (1 Peter 5:6). The very act of repentance says, “I am a sinner lost in my sins and I need a savior.” James 4:8-10 says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” We have lost the message of the Passover to remember, and we have lost the message of the cross, which represents the altar of sacrifice. The cross was an instrument of death. Messiah tells us to crucify our flesh (Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23). We must deny ourselves and pick up our cross and follow Him, or else we are not worthy of the kingdom. Paul tells us in Galatians 5:24, “Now those who belong to Messiah Yeshua have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

We have lost the message of sin and the message that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). In fact, the whole chapter is about sin. We are to examine ourselves. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Yeshua the Messiah is in you—unless indeed you fail the test.” If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive our sins (1 John 1:9), but if we do not examine ourselves we will not know if we have fallen. The whole Bible is the full counsel of God. Hebrews 10:31 says, “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” “But if we examine ourselves rightly, we should not be judged” (1 Corinthians 11:31). We have lost all of this because we have been taught only this: “We are now under grace.” With grace comes no fear of God, no need for anything else. It is like one size fits all. It all fits into one nice, easy package. This is not the message preached by great preachers of the past; this is not the message taught by the disciples. We must have depth to our relationship with our Savior. We must live by Yeshua’s words, and He says, “If you love Me then keep My commandments.” What commandments was He speaking of? He gave no insinuation of grace in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). When asked which was the greatest commandment He did not answer, “To live by grace.” No, He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). This sums up the first three commandments. He went on to say, “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (verse 39). This sums up the rest of the Ten Commandments. We are taught that we are now under grace and therefore do not need to keep the Ten Commandments. Yet Yeshua tells us that if we love Him we must keep His commandments (John 14:15). This message of “saved by grace only” is not the full counsel of God. This has been the dumbing down of the believers. This has made us lax and weak. We no longer see a need for holiness and godliness. We seem to think that we do not need the fear of God, and yet the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding (Proverbs 9:10). Believers today do not read their Bibles. They do not pray and seek God out by coming into His presence. We have become like the world. We look like the world and we sound like the world.

The Road Back

Paul tells us in Galatians 1:8, “But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” We have been taught another gospel and another salvation message since Paul wrote this. We have lost our way. Paul never meant for us to hang our hat on one line of Scripture and forsake the rest of God’s Word.

Jeremiah 6:16 tells us this, “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls.” We are to be living sacrifices, holy unto the Lord. The Psalmist writes in Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” How we need to come back to living by the whole counsel of God! We must see our sins and repent. The righteousness of our Messiah does not mean that we can go on sinning. Paul tells us this: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2). If we overemphasize grace, then we feel that there is no need to repent because Yeshua died for our sins. There is no humbling, no contrition, no change. Isaiah writes in chapter 66:2, “But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.” Refusal to repent and be humble causes us to become prideful and presumptuous, and God hates both. James 4:6 tells us, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Saved by grace? Yes, if it were not for His great love for us and His great sacrifice on our behalf, if it weren’t for the shed blood of the Son of God who gave His life for us, we would never have been saved. It was surely more than grace that took our place on the altar of sacrifice that day. It was the precious innocent Lamb of God, and we should always acknowledge that, “By His blood I am saved!”

We have been looking at the end times, and we have seen that there will be a great falling away from the truth. We also saw that the man of lawlessness would rise up and rule the world. We would like to look at the One World Religion. In 2014 the world came together to sign a peace agreement and many religions also signed an agreement to bring the world together. The Pope brought different religious leaders together from other religions to unite the religions of the world. This coming together fulfils prophecy not only concerning the great apostasy, but the false prophet in the Book of Revelation. Every denomination has compromised its beliefs so all could come together. Ministers and priests and clergy from all religions no longer preach on those topics that separate us.

Paul tells Timothy in the last days people will only want their ears tickled. 2 Timothy 4:3 tells us, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.” Most people do not even notice that they are not being taught the full counsel of God’s Word. The world has taken from us every sign of our faith and we do not even realize that things like the Ten Commandments are not even taught any longer. This dumbing down as I call it has been taking place for years, going back even when God was being taken out of our public schools. Our history has been taken away from us so that with the coming generations they will not know that this country was based on Godly principles. We have been taught tolerance and with this tolerance has come compromise. This has been no coincidence or any happening of chance but this is a well thought out plan of the devil and all of this will eventually bring about the coming of Messiah.

The question is, will you be standing for the truth of God’s Word or have you already compromised your beliefs? Do you even know for sure? For years we have not been taught fully. Many churches, many pastors, have diluted the gospel message. The Pastor along with the sheep have taken the wide road. We have become more like the world than ever before. We watch TV programs and movies that have things in it we should not be looking at or words we should not be listening to and we have begun to use words that are foul and our actions are far from holy. God says to us, “I am holy and you shall be holy.” What has happened to holiness? What has happened to purity? Honesty? Righteousness? Godliness? Where is the sacrifice of our lives? Where is repentance?

I will tell you where, our new versions of the Bible have changed words and removed such things that even the blood of Messiah is not mentioned. Church has become a social club. We bring our coffee in the sanctuary, which represents the heavenly temple of God, and we are casual as we sit looking at our phones and talking to each other and worship has become more like a rock concert than a coming before God in reverence. Is this who we think God is? One of us! We feel that we have arrived and God is love and mercy and there is no punishment for sin. Sin? What is that? We are all going to heaven? Which Heaven? Certainly not where a holy God resides. If we look at the Hebrew Scriptures we will see that God is quite particular about how the priests must conduct themselves not only in the temple but in their lives. Are we not supposed to be a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, set apart for God’s own glory? We must return to the ancient paths.

During this time that we are preparing for God’s greatest gift to us, His Son’s own death, the shedding of the blood of the lamb, on the cross of Calvary, for our sins. Shouldn’t we make it a point that throughout the year we remember and speak about these things, teach about these things and even preach about these things. If you have a Pastor, Minister, or Priest who keeps telling you that you need to be tolerant I ask you to consider what is being preached about throughout the year. Is the Word of God being spoken of or taught or preached? Are you hearing the same subject being talked about like grace or love, or are the sermons all about social issues and tolerance and a watered down version of the gospel? Get into your Bible and be like the Bereans who searched the Scriptures high and low to see if Paul was telling them the truth. If you have a modern day version of the Bible or a new copyright version chances are certain words and meanings have been changed.

I say this, “BEWARE of the One World Religion.” Do not be deceived. It’s the little foxes that ruin the vine. The devil is too clever to be so bold and blunt. Do some investigating on your own about these matters and become aware of this One World Order that is taking a hold on our lives and the religion that goes with it. Don’t let the devil rob you of this important time of year when we celebrate our victory over this defeated foe. For it is by the shed blood of Yeshua/Jesus, His death, burial and resurrection that we are saved. May we always remember that believers in Yeshua are the only people who can say that. There is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven by which men must be saved, Acts 4:12. His very name Yeshua means God’s salvation. Blessed be His name!

I recommend you read our brochure on globalism, it will be a good start in your investigation and don’t forget to read the Book of Revelation.

Have a Blessed Passover and Resurrection Season

There was a song that we sang years ago that went like this: “Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning.” We want to look at the lamp in the temple. This lamp, called the menorah, was the only light in the temple. Exodus tells us about this lamp: “They made the lampstand of pure gold. They hammered out its base and shaft, and made its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms of one piece with them. Six branches extended from the sides of the lampstand–three on one side and three on the other. Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms were on one branch, three on the next branch and the same for all six branches extending from the lampstand” (Exodus 37:17-19).

The seven-branched candelabra was beautiful. It was made to look like an almond tree. It was filled with pure olive oil. The Lord said to Moses, “Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually. Outside the curtain of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the Lord from evening till morning, continually” (Leviticus 24:1-3).

So what does that have to do with us? Well, we want to take a closer look at just this, to find out what is the relationship between the menorah and the believer’s life.

The Commandment to be Light

Yeshua tells the people, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). And again, “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness” (John 12:46). In Matthew 5:14-16, Yeshua tells us, “ You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Yeshua knew that after His death and resurrection He would be going back to the Father and that His followers would now take on the yoke of the kingdom. This kingdom is a kingdom of light. Just like the temple was referred to as the light to the nations, so were Israel and Yeshua.

Now, we Gentiles who have been grafted into Israel also become light to the nations. Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:5, “For you are all children of light and children of the day and you are not children of the night, neither children of darkness.” So if we are to be light, then we must also keep that light burning, for we can not hide it under a bushel basket.

How do we keep it burning? Like the menorah in the temple, it was filled with pure olive oil. Olive oil represents the Holy Spirit. Yeshua tells us a parable about oil in our lamps in Matthew 25:1-13.

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them, but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps. At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

The Oil of Anointing

We see that oil was used also for anointing. “You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. And you shall say to the people of Israel, ‘This shall be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations. It shall not be poured on the body of an ordinary person, and you shall make no other like it in composition. It is holy, and it shall be holy to you’” (Exodus 30:30-32). So we see that the High Priest was anointed.

“Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward” (1 Samuel 16:13). We also see that kings were anointed.

We see here that prophets were also anointed and received the Holy Spirit. “When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you.’ And Elisha said, ‘Please, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me’” (2 Kings 2:9).

We also see that the name of Messiah in Hebrew is “The Anointed One.” Yeshua here makes reference to it in this passage. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He did anoint me; to proclaim good news to the poor, sent me to heal the broken of heart, to proclaim to captives deliverance, and to blind receiving of sight, to send away the bruised with deliverance” (Luke 4:18). With the anointing came the Holy Spirit upon that person.

So how about us, the believer? Galatians 3:14, “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Messiah Yeshua, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” Ephesians 1:13-14, “And you also were included in Messiah when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the pledge of our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession, to the praise of His glory.”

Acts 2:17-18 “‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.’” We see this fulfilled on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit fell upon the Apostles and those who had been praying in the upper room. After Peter spoke, 3,000 people accepted the Messiah and were filled with the Holy Spirit. All throughout the whole New Testament we see the move of the Holy Spirit.

So what about keeping our lamps lit? 1 Corinthians 12:7-10 says, “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.”

We see that there are gifts of the Spirit and fruit also. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23).

So how do we keep our lamp burning? With the oil of the Holy Spirit we do the deeds and the work of the Holy Spirit. Walking in the Spirit and living in the Spirit keeps that oil burning, but when we don’t live by the Spirit or walk in His ways the oil stops flowing and the light goes out.

Galatians 5:16-17, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.”

Galatians 6:8, “The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

How about you? Is your light filled with oil? Do you keep it topped off? No one knows when the Bridegroom will come. If He came today, even right now, would your lamp be burning bright for Him to see? If not, why not? Get filled with the Holy Spirit and start filling your lamp with good deeds and using your gifts, and spreading fruit to all you meet.

Did you ever wonder why at the time of creation it says that there was evening and there was morning the first day? Why did God start His creation with night? Let’s look at the beginning of Genesis and see exactly what it says.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness He called ‘night.’ And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day” (Genesis 1:1-5). Let’s take a closer look into all of this and let’s see why the Creator started at this point.

First, we must understand that for God to even begin to create He had to remove himself from part of His presence. It’s like sitting on a chair and your dress or your coat took up the whole seat of the chair and you tucked part of it under you so that you could see part of the seat of the chair. When God removed part of Himself, what remained was formless and empty. Some translations even say chaos and darkness was over the surface of the deep. We see that without God there is a void—a chaotic, empty, dark void. When there is an absence of God’s presence, there is darkness and that darkness is the darkness that fills the evil one. The evil one is not only darkness, but he brings chaos and emptiness. This is what our lives are like when we do not have God in us. Our lives our empty.

As we continue reading, it says, “The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” This reminds us of the days of Noah, when Noah sent out the dove and it came back because there was no place for it: “Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark” (Genesis 8:8).

So if at the time of creation the earth was formless and empty, why the water? Well, demons can not survive in water. Remember the story of the possessed man in Matthew 8 whom Yeshua/Jesus delivered, and the legion of demons ran into the pigs and the pigs took off running into the water and they all perished? Also Yeshua tells us when an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it (Matthew 12:43). So we see demons need a dry place to survive because water is associated with the Holy Spirit. John 7:38 says, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” The Holy Spirit was hovering over the waters at the beginning of creation. Even though God’s presence was not there, the Holy Spirit was. God said, “Let there be light,” and that light was the light of Messiah. John 8:12 tells us, “When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

God separated the light from the darkness, calling the light day and the darkness night. What we see here are two kingdoms: the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness; the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. When we accept Yeshua as our Lord and Savior then we pass over from the darkness into the light. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13).

“For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:5).

What we see is that the darkness was overtaken by the light. The night was overtaken by the day and we see that the day, the light, Yeshua and His own, will be victorious over the night. Revelation 19:11-16, “Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”

It goes on to say in chapter 20:7-10, “And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

And finally in chapter 21:22-27 it says, “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

To this day the Jewish people live by a lunar calendar, starting their day beginning at sundown to the following sundown, giving testimony and a witness to the One True God, the Creator of heaven and earth and whose kingdom will live on forever.

In our December 2017 newsletter, “A Fall from Righteousness,” we looked at what Paul had to say about the end times. We saw that people will become lawless against God’s commandments and the laws of the land. I hope that you will read this entire newsletter and that it will cause you to think about what is being said.

We want to continue with that thought and take a closer look at the man who is called the man of lawlessness. Let’s start by looking at 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12.

“Now regarding the arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to be with him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to be easily shaken from your composure or disturbed by any kind of spirit or message or letter allegedly from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not arrive until the rebellion comes and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, and as a result he takes his seat in God’s temple, displaying himself as God. Surely you recall that I used to tell you these things while I was still with you. And so you know what holds him back, so that he will be revealed in his own time. For the hidden power of lawlessness is already at work. However, the one who holds him back will do so until he is taken out of the way, and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will destroy by the breath of his mouth and wipe out by the manifestation of his arrival. The arrival of the lawless one will be by Satan’s working with all kinds of miracles and signs and false wonders, and with every kind of evil deception directed against those who are perishing, because they found no place in their hearts for the truth so as to be saved. Consequently God sends on them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false. And so all of them who have not believed the truth but have delighted in evil will be condemned.”

As we saw in the last newsletter, today we are in this state of rebellion. In other translations the word apostasy is used regarding a falling away. A falling away from what? Grace!

Hebrews 12:12-17, “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.”

2 Peter 3:17, “Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”

We see in Paul’s day that the spirit of Anti-Christ was already happening. 1 John 2:18 tells us, “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know that it is the last hour.”

The Apostles, in their Epistles, warned of false prophets and teachers. And as believers we are to beware of such people. Today with TV and the internet it is so easy for these kinds of people to have an audience. People think because they read something online or see a preacher on TV what they read or hear must be a fact. You have people calling good evil and evil good. We must beware of wolves in sheeps’ clothing. One must have discernment, and for sure, one must know his Scriptures. We must learn to walk by the Spirit and live by the Spirit.

So who is this man of lawlessness and how will we know him? 1 John 2:22 tells us that the antichrist is one who denies Messiah Yeshua/Jesus Christ and the Father. John calls him a liar. Of course, he would be since he is from the father of lies, Satan. John continues in chapter 4:3 to say that, “Every spirit that does not confess Yeshua is not from God; and this is the spirit of antichrist, of which you have heard that is coming, and now it is already in the world.”

We see again that the Apostles, and now John, were saying that the spirit of antichrist was at work even in their day. So if there are many antichrists and they were in the days of the Apostles, then the spirit of antichrist was a false teaching by false teachers. We see that there is a spirit of antichrist and the antichrist, the man of lawlessness. We see the spirit or the teachings, the ways of antichrist, is already here, but the man of lawlessness THE Antichrist is still to come on the scene.

In our last newsletter we saw that people would change from being godly to ungodly. We see today that there is a great deception going on in many churches. Most people do not probably realize that we are not being taught the whole truth of God’s word, that preachers are slowly not talking about the power of the blood of Yeshua, let alone the blood of Yeshua. They no longer speak of sin or holiness or judgement or hell. The Bible tells us in Revelation that there will be a One World religion. To do this, all faiths and creeds must come together and to come together, they must compromise their beliefs, so all may agree. If we realize it or not, this is happening today. The church has slowly been dumbed down. It has been happening for many years, so that the slowness keeps us from noticing the change. Little by little translations of the Bible have been changed. Many Pastors began preaching about the teachings that they believe in, such as, “God is loving and he will not send anyone to hell;” “If you belong to this denomination then you have salvation already;” “There are many roads to heaven;” “We must be tolerant of all people and faiths;” “We cannot judge another.” We see our Pastors never dealing with sin in the church because they do not believe in sin. Many Pastors do not believe in the literal translation of the Bible. Many believe in evolution instead of creation. Many pastors are for the One World Order and many belong to secret societies such as freemasonry. Many Pastors have pledged allegiance to the god of Baal and Mithra the sun god. This may be hard to believe, but this is unfortunately true. The church was put to sleep many years ago and that is why we no longer see signs and wonders and powerful moves of the Spirit. This has all been carefully planned by a crafty liar called Satan. When Yeshua defeated him on the cross and took the crown from him at the resurrection, there was no longer a place for him in heaven to accuse the brethren and he was cast down. He knew his time was short, so from the beginning he spewed lies and the truth had to be squelched. We see it at the resurrection when they said, “Say that his disciples took His body and hid it.” They could not have the Jewish people believe in their Messiah, so lies had to be told. Then when persecution came and the Gentile believers were being persecuted and martyred by such people as Caesar, then they no longer wanted to be associated with the Jewish faith and so lies had to be told. Today the church believes that God forsook the Jews and made the church His chosen people. If God broke covenant with the Jews, what’s to say that He will not break covenant with us? How can God be God and lie? We have been made to believe that the God of creation who sanctified the Sabbath and set it apart changed all that for the church to now celebrate Sunday as Sabbath. One, we no longer give witness to Creation or the God of Creation because we do not keep the 7th day of creation as a witness. We now are like the pagans who deny God as Creator. Second, we follow Sunday which was changed by Constantine and anti-Semitic leaders who did not want the church to resemble anything Jewish. We went from Jerusalem, the city of the great King, to Rome, the city of the pagan gods and the Caesars who thought they were gods. There are people today that do not know that Yeshua was Jewish and He kept Torah and never told one person to stop following God’s commandments, His teachings or His statutes. There are Pastors today that do not believe any of this, nor do they teach any of this, in fact they refuse to have the Hebrew roots of our faith even mentioned in their church.

So the spirit of antichrist will bring about the One World Religion and is very close to completing the task. Whenever we see anything global we must run from it because God separated the nations at the time of the tower of Babel and we have been trying to put the pieces back together. The Babylonian religion has never died. This false worship and beliefs are alive and well today and most people do not even know that they are taking part in it. This rebellion has been taking place since the days of the Apostles, to deny the truth. Yeshua said that He was the Truth and the Way and the Life (John 14:6), and no one comes to the Father except through Him. So the way to eternal life is through truth, and Yeshua is truth. There is no other name except the name of Yeshua by which any can be saved. And yet, people think that they can find the way on their own. Christians believe once saved, always saved. We can live any way we please because we said a little prayer and now we are saved. No holiness, no commitment, no letting go of the world, no drawing closer to God. No crucifying the flesh. No picking up our cross and following in His footsteps. We can watch filthy programs. We can speak with filthy mouths, we can curse and we can live for ourselves and yet we think that a holy God will close His eyes and save us. We are deceived and this is what we have been taught, or should I say, this is not what we have been taught, but should have been taught. This is all part of the rebellion which we looked at in the last newsletter.

We must have an awakening and we must repent and cry out to God to open our eyes and let us see truth once again. We already have a global world. Everything is in place for the Antichrist to come on the scene, the one who will rule the earth. It could have been one of the Caesars, it could have even been Hitler, but the world did not repent, nor did it cry out to God. But soon, because we have come so far in globalizing the world and the One World religion, we can now say, that the time is close for the Antichrist to come on the scene. Matthew records Yeshua’s words in Matthew 24. Yeshua speaks of the many wars and how people will fall from the truth and the persecution of the saints, which we have seen increased dramatically over the last several years. He says the gospel will be preached around the world, which it has, but He says that this is only the birth pangs, the beginnings. He goes on to say in verse 15, “Therefore when you see the Abomination of Desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains….” Did we not see the fulfilment of this during the time of the Maccabees when Antiochus Epiphanes set up an idol in the temple? Yes, we did, and we saw it during the time of the Jewish revolt, but when we look at Revelation 13, we see that the Antichrist comes out of the Roman empire. So were the days of the Jewish revolts and people like Titus or Nero who persecuted the saints, fulfilling Yeshua’s prophecy? What we do know from Daniel and Revelation is that during the days of the great tribulation the One World Order will be the order of the day and the Roman empire will have returned and one ruler, the Beast, will arise to rule and one Beast, who will be like the false prophet, will proclaim like John the Baptist, “Behold the Lamb of God,” except he will point the way to the Antichrist. You will have the government and the religion and both will be an abomination to God. Yeshua tells us to be alert and to be ready, for no one knows the day or the hour, but we can read the signs of the times, and they tell us that the Beast is most likely already on the world’s stage preparing for his time to fulfil scripture. Reader beware and be ready for such a time like never before.

Oh! And those Pastors that told you we will not go through these terrible times? Well they lied to you. People all over the world have been going through terrible times of persecution and martyrdom, and America will be no exception. God warns the shepherd, “Woe to you shepherds who did not prepare my people for the day of battle.” Read Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34. These readings are not just for Israel’s shepherds, but also anyone who shepherds God’s people.

The One World Order is already in operation. Everything is globally intertwined and the One World Religion is framed out and is slowly being executed, the Seal Judgements have been opened and the horsemen are riding across the globe. It’s time for the people of God to awaken from their sleep and prepare for a time like none other.

Paul is the number one person who people quote when talking about Christianity. This is likely due to the fact that nearly half of the New Testament is attributed to his authorship. Although this is the case, Paul is probably the most misunderstood figure in the Scriptures. Even his own contemporaries found his words sometimes difficult to understand (2 Peter 3:15-18). Today, in addition to this we have the obstacle of time which separates us from him. For this reason it is essential that we understand who Paul was so we can understand his teachings.

Paul of Tarsus

Paul, also known as Saul, was born in the city of Tarsus (Acts 21:39, 22:3). This city was in the Roman-controlled region of Cilicia, which is located in what is now southern Turkey. This is where he was born and spent some of his childhood. Here he would have been immersed in the culture and education that Rome had to offer, which itself was heavily reliant upon the cultural forces of Hellenism. Although this, the Greek side of Paul, is the one most often emphasized today, there is another side to Paul, one which was closer to his own worldview than that of the Romans and Greeks. While Paul grew up in the midst of a culture that was fixated on the world, he was raised in a home that was devoted to God. Philippians 3:5 gives us a brief look into Paul’s Jewish background: “Circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee.” Let’s break this verse down so we can see who Paul was. The first point here is that Paul was circumcised on the eighth day. From this we know that not only was Paul Jewish, but his parents were as well, and they made sure to follow the command in regard to circumcision (Genesis 17:9-14). Circumcision was the sign of the covenant that God made with the children of Israel, and so it was important that he would be circumcised to keep in obedience with this covenant. The second identifying point in this verse is that he was “of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin.” Paul’s ancestors had not been converts either, but were born into Israel. The tribe of Benjamin had given Israel their first king, who was Saul’s namesake (1 Samuel 9:21). It was the smallest of the tribes, yet it along with Judah remained faithful to the house of David when the other ten tribes broke away.

Paul continues to title himself “a Hebrew of Hebrews.” This is a summary of all of the above and an assertion that he was a Hebrew who lived and believed like a Hebrew. Despite living in a Hellenistic atmosphere, Paul affirms that he did not compromise his Jewish religious expression at any point, but that he is in fact more Hebrew than the others who claim to be so, but are not (Philippians 3:2-3). The last point we are going to look at in this passage is that in regard to his understanding of the Torah, he is a Pharisee. We want to look a little closer at what this means.

Paul the Pharisee

Paul’s alignment with the Pharisean beliefs was not only based on his own conclusions, but these beliefs were passed on by his father as Paul grew up in Tarsus before ever setting foot in Jerusalem: “Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees” (Acts 23:6). He did go to Jerusalem to continue his education in regard to the intricacies of the faith, showing that his desire was to pursue an active role in religious leadership (Acts 22:3). By the time he was old enough to continue his religious education in Jerusalem, he already had a head start on his peers (Galatians 1:14). The system of education he would have been immersed in was discipleship. In that system, a prominent religious figure would raise up disciples, who would completely devote themselves to emulating their teacher in every manner of life. Acts 22:3 informs us that Paul was a disciple of Gamaliel, who is shown in the Bible to be sympathetic in judgment (Acts 5:34-35, 38-39), and in Christian tradition it is said that Gamaliel secretly held a belief in Yeshua (Jesus). As a Pharisee, Paul would have held to certain beliefs, some of which we have borrowed through Paul and the disciples as recorded in the Bible. Some of these beliefs which the Pharisees held are the resurrection from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:12-18), the existence of the soul/afterlife (1 Thessalonians 5:23), the validity of Scripture for personal application (2 Timothy 3:16), and the importance of tradition (1 Corinthians 11:2, 2 Thessalonians 2:15). While today we take these truths for granted, the reason we adhere to these beliefs within Christianity is because of the Scriptural interpretation of the Pharisees rather than that of the Sadducees or the Essenes.

In Christianity today, we tend to only view Pharisees in a negative light because of the rebukes we see Yeshua make against them in the Gospels (Luke 11:42-44). It is also true, however, that Yeshua spent lots of time with Pharisees (Luke 7:36, 11:37) and as we have seen, passed on many theological views to His apostles which were similar to the views of the Pharisees. Obviously if the entirety of the Pharisaic belief system were completely in line with those of the apostles, then there would have been no need for the sect of the Way to be formed (Acts 24:14). However, the distinction between the practices of the Way and the Pharisees were not as clearcut as we may believe today, and initially followers of Yeshua were comfortable within the rabbinic system and the synagogue (Matthew 23:2-3, Acts 13:14). The biggest difference between the Way and the rest of Judaism was obviously the acceptance of Yeshua as the expected Messiah, but the difference which caused the most division was the eagerness of the believers in Yeshua to accept Gentiles into the community. Increased persecution led the Christian sect to separate from Judaism, and as time went on and more Gentiles began to come to belief in Yeshua, Greek and pagan ideas became syncretized into this belief, which caused further separation between the Gentile and Jewish believers.

Paul, however, retained his identity as a Pharisee. Returning to Philippians 3, however, we see that he did not rely on his heritage or his sectarian alignment for any sort of justification: “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Messiah Yeshua my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things” (verse 8). Does this mean that Paul forsook his heritage and became like a Gentile? No, for he recognized that being Jewish did have value, although not as a means of being justified in the sight of God (Romans 3:1-2). He recognized that the Gentiles only received the blessings of Israel because of the grace God had in His election of the people of Israel, who we as Christians become grafted into when we put our faith in Yeshua the Messiah of Israel (Romans 11:17-18).

Paul’s Conversion?

Most people are willing to accept that Paul was Jewish, but they say that after his “conversion” on the Road to Damascus in Acts 9, all of that changed, signified by the changing of his name from Saul to Paul. A closer examination of this passage, however, reveals that he is not referred to as Paul until Acts 13, and no change in his behavior in respect to his Torah-observance is ever recorded. Using the term “conversion” in the passage title as most translations do, a word which is not found in this passage, also frames it in a way that it causes the reader to assume Paul converted from Judaism to something completely different. While it is true that Paul had a life-changing experience with Yeshua on that road, this did not negate his continued Torah-observance. This is evident in the description of Ananias, the man who was sent to Paul to heal him after he is blinded, as “a man who was devout by the standard of the Law, and well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there” (Acts 22:12). It is reasonable to assume that Ananias was a typical believer at that time, one who would never find any reason to believe that following Yeshua and living according to the Torah were opposed to each other. Paul repeatedly defends himself by saying that he has neither taught nor acted in any way opposed to the Jewish people, the Temple, or the Torah and traditions (Acts 23:6, 24:14, 25:8, 28:17). In fact, those who were making false accusations about him tried to frame him as one who taught that the Torah was no longer important or binding (Acts 21:20-21, 24). For believers today, the largest hurdle to accepting this is most likely some of the phrases which Paul uses in his epistles when he discusses the Torah and circumcision. A clearer interpretation and understanding of these passages and the cultural context they were written in shows that there is no actual discrepancy between Torah-observance and following Yeshua. Paul’s letters were mainly written to Gentile believers, and so his main goal was to teach them that they did not need to become circumcised, that is, physically converted to Judaism, in order to be grafted into and receive the blessings of Israel, including the hope of salvation through faith in Yeshua the Messiah.

Our Paul

So why don’t we recognize the Jewish Paul today? It is partially that we simply don’t realize that his teachings were from a Jewish perspective because they were teachings that we carried into Christianity. We are generally not taught that Christianity in its earliest stages was a sect of Judaism known variously as the Way or the Nazarenes. Christianity as we know it today has been influenced by many different cultures and perspectives, far removed from the Mediterranean worldview which it was written within. We are so used to thinking of Paul as one who supposedly taught against Judaism that it is difficult to change that frame of mind.

Another reason for the apparent discrepancy is that Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. The writings which we have in the Bible are letters to majority Gentile communities, and therefore his goal was to be relatable to them and give them instructions that were applicable to them (1 Corinthians 9:20-21). This doesn’t mean that he himself behaved in any way opposed to Judaism or advocated a rejection of Torah, but he was bringing the message for those communities that they needed to hear at that particular time, which was mainly that Gentiles do not need to undergo a ceremonial conversion to Judaism in order to be spiritually grafted into Israel.

You can find more topical teachings on Paul’s letters in our other brochures on Paul.

The Jerusalem council recorded in Acts 15 is a crucial moment in the history of Christianity. Unfortunately, this passage is generally misunderstood. Most people today believe the decision made here by the council declares that Gentiles should not follow the Torah. We are going to go through this chapter to find out if this is correct.

Who Can Be Saved?

At the beginning of Yeshua’s (Jesus’) ministry, the overwhelming majority of His followers were Jewish (Matthew 10:5-6). After more and more Gentiles began coming to belief in Yeshua and attempting to worship alongside the Jewish believers (Acts 13:44-45), the question of how they were to relate to God and the people of Israel became necessary to answer. One of the beliefs that was gaining popularity was that the believing Gentiles must be circumcised and observe the Torah in order to be saved. (Acts 15:1, 5). Circumcision and Torah-observance were both terms used to symbolize conversion to Judaism. So why would these believers think Gentiles needed to convert to Judaism to be saved? To understand this, we must learn about the common ideas about salvation in those days.

As Christians today, we understand salvation to mean that when we die, we will not be subject to eternal punishment in hell, but will spend eternity in heaven. This opportunity is afforded to anyone who accepts Yeshua and His atoning sacrifice as a free gift. But during the early days of the apostles, Judaism purported that salvation was based on the covenant between God and Israel (Genesis 17:14, Isaiah 45:17, 60:21). Some Jews, the sect known as the Sadducees, did not believe in an afterlife, so they did not see anything they needed to be saved from (Mark 12:18). The Pharisees, however, saw hints and glimpses in the Scriptures (Acts 23:8), and understood that death was not the end of individual existence (Proverbs 15:24, Isaiah 26:19, Daniel 12:2). Because of the lack of explicit details about the afterlife recorded in the Old Testament, there were many explanations of what happens after death and in the final judgment.

Contrary to popular belief, Jews do not believe that eternal life is earned by keeping the commandments perfectly. The majority opinion is summed up in the words of the Talmud: “All Israel have a share in the World to Come.” In other words, the belief at that time was that salvation is granted by God only to Israel, and so Gentiles must become Jewish in order to have a relationship with God. While this was the idea about Gentiles during the time of Yeshua, eventually the idea developed that those of the nations who act in accordance with righteousness will receive eternal reward. According to this idea, Gentiles are saved by adherence to the covenant God established with Noah. Noah existed before the Jewish people, and so the writers of the Talmud say that the covenant God made with Noah is for all of mankind (Genesis 9:9, 18-19). They developed a list of seven rules which go along with this covenant: 1. Do not worship false gods, 2. Do not curse God, 3. Do not murder, 4. Do not commit sexual immorality, 5. Do not steal, 6. Do not eat a live animal/meat with blood, and 7. Establish courts of justice. The first six laws were derived from various passages in Scripture where God shows certain expectations of mankind in general, and the last is established to uphold the other six.

Some of the Jewish followers of Yeshua adopted the first view of salvation, saying that Gentiles needed to join to Israel by becoming circumcised and converting to Judaism in order to share in the blessings associated with the covenant, including the hope of salvation. Peter and some of the other apostles, however, saw that God had a different plan for the Gentiles. Peter explains in Acts 15:7-11 that God had shown His acceptance of the Gentiles when He gave them the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:34-35, 44-45, 11:15-18). If God did this, showing that their hearts had been circumcised, then Peter argued that Gentiles did not need to be physically converted in order to receive the other gifts of God, including salvation. Furthermore, the Torah speaks of Jewish and Gentile believers worshipping God together (Deuteronomy 31:11-12, Isaiah 56:6-7, Acts 15:17). In other words, Gentiles are joined to Israel not through circumcision of the flesh, but through circumcision of the heart.

A Heavy Yoke

But where does this place Gentiles in relation to the Torah?As Peter is explaining all of this, he asks in verse 10, “Why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?” Some have asserted that this yoke is the Torah, since Torah-observance would be required for someone who converted to Judaism. Is Peter really implying that since believers are justified by faith in Yeshua that we are not required to obey God’s commandments because they are a burden?

According to Scripture, the Torah is not a burden (Deuteronomy 30:11-14, James 1:25, 1 John 5:3-4). However, some of the traditions, or oral commandments, are indeed called a burden in Scripture (Mark 7:8, Luke 11:46). Jews have an obligation to keep both the written Torah and oral traditions in order to remain in the covenant (Deuteronomy 17:9-11). These oral commandments are decisions that the religious leaders and judges have made throughout the years in order to determine how a particular commandment is correctly lived out. While this was the underlying purpose of the oral commandments, sometimes the religious councils abused their authority. Yeshua, throughout His ministry, speaks against some of these extra commandments, which often were extremely strict or ran against the spirit of the Torah. Despite this, He instructs His disciples to follow these traditions in Matthew 23:1-4, because the religious leaders derive their authority from God.

The burden Peter is advocating against is the full weight of covenantal obligation, especially the oral commandments. He was saying that the new Gentiles did not need to convert in order to be in right-standing before God, and that if they did convert, then the entirety of the covenantal obligations would rest upon their shoulders.

The Four Rules

In opposition to the multitude of manmade commandments in traditional Judaism, the Jerusalem council decides on four rules which will be binding upon Gentiles in verses 19-20: “Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them that they abstain (1) from things contaminated by idols and (2) from fornication and (3) from what is strangled and (4) from blood.” He did not stop there, but goes on to explain in verse 21, “For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.” During the time of the Jerusalem council, Gentile God-fearers and Jewish believers in Yeshua still went to the synagogue every Sabbath and worshiped alongside regular Jews who were not believers (Acts 14:1, 18:4). This was the way it was expected to be, and the council did not aim to change that. So what was the reason for these four rules in particular? Obviously these were not the only commands that Gentiles were supposed to follow, so what was their purpose? The answer is that James and the Jerusalem council basically advocated observance of the laws that had been given to mankind from the beginning, like what we saw with the Noahide commands. These four commands also had the problem of idolatry in mind: consuming food offered to idols, temple prostitution, and participation in sacrificial rituals that were all associated with paganism. Notice that none of these commands directly come out and forbid idolatry, since that was already a commandment in the Torah (Exodus 20:3). Since the Jews had laws against associating with idolaters, these four rules would prove to Jewish believers that the Gentile believers had indeed forsaken their past pagan lifestyle so that they would be able to come together in fellowship. These four commands established a basic level of Torah-observance that allowed the Gentile to assimilate into the community of believers where he would begin to learn more about his role as a Gentile now grafted into the body of Israel.

In conclusion, we have seen that this ruling solidified the fact that Gentiles do not need to become Jewish to be grafted into Israel. The prophets speak of Jews and Gentiles worshipping together, and so it is necessary for Gentiles to retain their nationality. Certain commandments were placed on their shoulders initially to aid their acceptance into the Jewish community, commands which apply to all of mankind. These rules would allow Gentiles to participate in the synagogue and home fellowships, where they would learn more about Torah and the teachings of Yeshua. The four commands for Gentiles do not explicitly include Sabbath observance, but it was understood that they would be honoring the seventh day, instituted at the time of creation (Genesis 2:2-3), at least in part alongside the Jews in the synagogue. So what bearing does the decision from the Jerusalem council have on us today? Although we don’t have to worry about worshipping idols made of stone, idolatry is still rampant in our world. Anything that stands between us and God is an idol, and therefore even the appearance of such idolatry needs to be eliminated from our lives. Sexual immorality was forbidden, and today we should guard our hearts by not even watching programs or movies that promote such things. Eating meat which came from a strangled animal and blood are no longer associated with pagan rituals, but are like a basic level of kosher observance, similar to that included in the Noahide laws. Just as the Gentiles rejoiced when they heard the report (Acts 15:31), so too we should rejoice that we have been grafted into Israel as we seek to grow ever-closer in our walk with God.

The main theme of Romans is the justification of sinners. Justification is the way in which God accepts a sinful human being and sets them in a place of right-standing through Yeshua. The relationship between justification, faith, and following the Torah (God’s commands) is sometimes misunderstood, so let’s look at Romans and see what Paul is really saying.

Sin

In Hebrew, the word “sin” comes from the root word chata, which means “to miss,” mainly in regard to missing a goal. It is an archery term, and it evokes the image of an archer shooting an arrow at his target. The target which man aims at is the commandments of God, and sin is a failure to hit that target. All of mankind has failed to obey the commandments of God, Jew and Gentile alike (Romans 2:1-3, 12; 3:9-10, 23). The commandments of God are revealed in the Torah. Torah is a Hebrew word which means “teaching” or “instruction,” and is most often referred to as “the Law.” It includes the first five books of the Bible, which contain God’s instructions for His people. Even though God has a special relationship with His people Israel (Deuteronomy 7:6) because of the covenant He made with them at Mt. Sinai, God has made His existence known to all the nations of the earth so that they may choose to either obey His commandments or to follow their own desires (Romans 2:14-16). Therefore, since neither Jew nor Gentile has been able to perfectly walk in the ways of God, we are all bound by the punishment which the Torah has mandated for one who misses the target: death (Deuteronomy 11:26-28, 30:19, Ezekiel 18:4, Romans 6:23).

So how does the archer correct his sin? He examines himself to see where his form was incorrect, and adjusts accordingly so that he is able to hit the mark, “For not the hearers of the Torah are just before God, but the doers of the Torah shall be justified” (Romans 2:13). Although this is true, Paul also tells us that no amount of human work or effort will ever bring a person into a place of right-standing before God (Romans 3:19-20). When a person gazes into the mirror of God’s Torah, he sees who he really is: a sinner in need of a savior.

Belief

Because of the fact that nobody is able to live perfectly in God’s sight, it was His plan to provide a way for everyone who believes in Him to receive justification: “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known” (Romans 3:21). In what way is this righteousness apart from the Torah? The Torah was never meant to be something people strove to keep in order to receive salvation, but rather it outlines the way a person is to conduct themself in order to live a life pleasing to God. This desire to please God is not the same as attempting to receive justification. Justification is the method by which our sin is atoned for and not counted against us, as Yeshua has borne the penalty for our sin, which is death. Once we are justified and our past ledger of sin is cancelled (Colossians 2:14), we are free to serve God the way He wants us to serve Him: with clean hands and a pure heart (James 4:7-8, 1 Peter 2:16). The righteousness of God that is apart from the Torah is Yeshua (Jesus). Our justification does not come through observing the commandments perfectly, since we are unable to do so. God has provided a source of righteousness independent of Torah, but not contrary to it. This source is Yeshua’s sacrifice (Romans 3:25-26). Yeshua atones for our transgressions through His death and resurrection when we believe in Him (John 3:16).

Paul uses the story of Abraham to illustrate the point that justification is granted as a gift outside of attempts to merit salvation: “For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness'” (Romans 4:3). Abraham believed that God would provide a son for him even though he was old, and both he and his wife were past the age of raising a child. Abraham could not trust in his own efforts to provide a son for himself, since he was physically incapable of doing so. But he believed that somehow, God would bring His promise to pass. In the same way, we are counted as righteous when we believe that although our own efforts are incapable of gaining any sort of right-standing before God, He has made the way for us through the sacrifice of His Son, Yeshua. In keeping with the belief of our father Abraham, however, we must follow up our belief with action.

Faithfulness

Although it is true that we are counted as righteous when we believe in Yeshua, this is not a belief that is merely held in the mind, for even the demons believe in the authority of God and the power of His Son (Matthew 8:29, James 2:19). To believe in the sacrificial work of Yeshua is not marked by a mental acceptance of the fact that Yeshua paid the penalty of our sins. On the contrary, we show that we truly believe in Him when we repent and submit our will to the authority of God, allowing the work of Yeshua to take its full effect in our lives (John 15:10). Our sins are covered when we repent, but this does not mean that we have a license to continue living in our sinful ways (Romans 6:2).

An interesting perspective on faith arises when we closely examine Romans 3:22. Most often, this verse is translated to say that the righteousness of God is through “faith in Yeshua.” However, because of the ambiguity of the Greek word which is used, an alternative translation of the phrase is “faithfulness of Yeshua;” that is, the righteousness of God is through Yeshua’s faithfulness. Yeshua is the Lord our Righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6), and it is He who showed complete faithfulness to the Father (John 5:30, Hebrews 3:6). It was He who first showed faithfulness to the Father in giving up Himself as an atonement for our sins, and it is through His faithfulness that we are set free.

Paul echoes the words of the prophet when he tells us that “the righteous shall live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17). The ones who are considered righteous in the sight of God are those who walk in faithfulness. Just as Yeshua was faithful in laying down His life, so too we are called to lay down our life and follow Him (1 John 3:16, Matthew 16:24). When God judges mankind and renders to each one according to his deeds, He will judge based on our faithfulness to Yeshua (Matthew 16:27). The ones who are considered righteous in the sight of God are those who walk in faithfulness, just as Yeshua walked in faithfulness to God, obeying His every command.

Torah

So what does all of this say about the Torah? Some have asserted that since our righteousness is through faith in Yeshua, obedience to God’s commandments is no longer necessary. But Paul himself, after explaining that both the circumcised and the uncircumcised are justified by faith, says, “Do we then nullify the Torah through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Torah” (Romans 3:31). The Torah is not abrogated either by the work of Yeshua or by the faith that we have in accepting this work. Just as all of mankind has a debt of sin prior to believing in Yeshua, so too after acceptance and belief in Him, the next step is to allow God to change our hearts and begin the process of writing His commandments on our hearts: “For when Gentiles who do not have the Torah do instinctively the things of the Torah, these, not having the Torah, are a Torah to themselves, in that they show the work of the Torah written in their hearts” (Romans 2:14-15). Abraham’s circumcision is not what God credited to him as righteousness, but his belief is what inspired him to obey the commandment in the first place. For this reason his circumcision was regarded as “a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised” (Romans 4:11). In the same way, when we put our faith in Yeshua, we are inspired to obey Him and do what is pleasing in His sight (Romans 1:5). We do not obey Him because we feel we can earn our salvation by doing so, but as the natural expression of our love for Him and the circumcision of our hearts (Deuteronomy 30:6-8, Jeremiah 31:33). If justification is the act of removing the guilt and penalty of sin, thus making one right with God, then redemption is the price paid for purchasing that justification. The idea of redemption is best illustrated in the purchasing of a slave. Yeshua redeemed us from slavery to sin (Romans 6:1-4). His death and resurrection frees man from the realm of darkness and brings us into His Kingdom of Light. Now we are free people, but not free to continue to sin (Galatians 5:13, 1 Peter 2:16, 1 John 3:9). Our liberty from slavery in Egypt (the kingdom of darkness) makes the way for us to become slaves in the Kingdom of God (Exodus 3:12).

Justification

What is the verdict on justification? According to Paul, all men are unrighteous and unable to stand pure before God, and are thus worthy of eternal punishment. Everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, are expected to live up to a certain level of morality, which is described in the Torah, God’s commandments. Because there is not a single righteous person who never sins, we are all under the curse of the Torah. This curse is not the Torah itself, but is the curse which rests on the person who disobeys the Torah. But Yeshua bore that curse for us, being faithful to God even to the point of death on the cross so that He may become righteousness to anyone who will believe. This is not an inert mental belief, but is alive and active. Those who believe in Yeshua will submit their lives to Him, for this is the very reason He came (John 17:3).

Since Yeshua has set us free from the penalty of our sin, we are free to serve Him without fear of eternal wrath. Justification cannot be achieved through obedience to the Torah, but the Torah is not abolished because of faith. On the contrary, it is only in faith that the Torah can truly be lived out. Just as Abraham believed God and then proceeded to obey His commands, so too we must first come to believe in Yeshua and recognize our own inability to save ourselves before we can begin to live out the commandments in a way which is pleasing to God. The reason God sent His Son is not so that we will continue to transgress the Torah as we previously have, but so that we will be given new life through the power of the Spirit to walk in the path that God has ordained for those who will choose to serve Him.

We, as believers in Yeshua (Jesus), have died to the Torah (Law, God’s commandments). This is the way Paul describes us as well as all of those who accept the sacrifice of Yeshua on their behalf. What has been a subject of confusion, however, is what exactly this means and what it looks like to effectively live our lives as dead to the Torah. In this brochure, we will examine the context surrounding Paul’s use of this phrase to get a good idea what it means and what its implications are for believers.

In Romans 7, we see Paul speaking to his brethren at the congregation in Rome. The chapter begins, saying: “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the Torah), that the Torah has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?” (Romans 7:1). He goes on to create a parallel between a married woman and a believer in Yeshua. If the woman’s husband dies, she is free to marry another man without being considered an adulteress, and therefore she is not required to bear the punishment which the Torah describes for one who commits adultery, which is death (Leviticus 20:10, Deuteronomy 22:21, John 8:1-5). He then goes on to say, “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Torah through the body of Messiah, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4). Traditionally, this and the following verses are used to claim that the Torah is no longer binding upon a believer. We must examine this passage within its context to find out what Paul is actually saying. In chapter 6, Paul tells us that we have been crucified with Yeshua (Jesus) and have become one with Him in His death (verses 3-7). This took place so that “we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.” As a result of this death, we are now able to rise to new life in Him, no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness. He charges his readers, “Present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (verses 13-14). So what does it mean to be under grace as opposed to under law? And how does not being under law allow us to present ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness?

Paul tells us that we have died with Messiah, and therefore sin no longer has power over us, “for he who has died is free from sin” (verse 7). How is it that we are free from sin? If we were truly free from sin, then we would never need to repent or change, because we would already be perfect. Aside from our own personal experiences, Scripture also testifies that even after our acceptance of Yeshua, we will still sin (James 3:2, 1 John 1:8). Therefore, being free from sin more accurately means we are free from the power of sin. The power of sin lies in the fact that all of mankind has sinned and is deserving of eternal death. Therefore, being free from sin means being free from the eternal wages of our sins (Romans 6:23).

The phrase “under law” does not mean living in obedience to the Torah, but rather it means being under the power of sin. Because we are unable to perfectly walk in the ways of the Torah, we are held under the power of sin, for, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Torah” (1 Corinthians 15:56). Those who are under law are those who are still bound under their own debt of sin. How can we be so confident that “under law” does not equate to obedience to the law? Well, let’s look at the verse which directly follows this phrase: “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!” (Romans 6:14). Since sin is transgression of the Torah, we can be sure that Paul is not advocating forsaking the Torah. This point is further proved in verse 19, where Paul ties our old self which died with Messiah to transgression of the Torah: “For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.” Because we are not bound by the power of sin and the wages of our transgressions as defined by the Torah, we are free to live under grace. This means that we are covered with the blood of the Lamb, and so we can be confident that our sins are forgiven when we come to the cross in repentance. This grace is given not so that we may further transgress the Torah, but so that we may live in the full resurrection power that is within us in order to walk more closely with God through the obedience of His commands.

In order to more clearly explain this, Paul continues into chapter 7 with his illustration of a married woman. With our explanation of the preceding verses in mind, the meaning of this passage now comes into clear focus. While we were sinners giving in to our sinful nature, we were “married” to the punishment of our sin according to the Torah. But because of the death and resurrection of Yeshua, we are now considered dead to our sinful nature. Since we are dead, we are no longer bound to the punishment of our sin, which according to the Torah is death (Deuteronomy 30:19, Romans 6:23). We are now set free from our past marriage to sin and are free to join ourselves to another husband, who is Yeshua, our Bridegroom (John 3:9, 2 Corinthians 11:2). He bore the punishment for our transgressions on the cross (Galatians 3:13) so that we would be free to serve Him without fear of punishment. We were previously slaves to sin, but now we are slaves to righteousness. Note that Paul is not saying that the Torah has died or that it becomes obsolete because of Yeshua, but rather its penalty of eternal separation from God no longer applies to us because of our reliance on Yeshua’s righteousness to achieve our justification. We are the ones who die, not the Torah. Yeshua did not come to rescue us from serving Him, but to “rescue us from this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4) so that we may serve Him wholeheartedly.

It is this same point that Paul is making in Galatians 2: “For through the Torah I died to the Torah, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (verses 19-20). Yeshua lived out the commandments of God without fault. The more we allow Him to live through us, the more like Him we will be. He is the very Word made flesh. The Torah is perfect, and so as we draw nearer to God, becoming more like Yeshua, we will be living in line with God’s commandments (Romans 6:4, 7:12, James 1:25).

In Romans 7:6, Paul goes on to explain that release from the Torah corresponds to dying to sin: “But now we have been released from the Torah, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.” The newness of the Spirit is here placed in opposition with the oldness of the letter. This bears similar language to passages such as 2 Corinthians 3:3-6. A cursory reading of these verses might cause one to assume that the letter is the Torah itself. This does not make sense, however, especially considering Paul’s own words in Romans 7:14: “For we know that the Torah is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.”

So if the Torah is spiritual, then what is the difference between serving in newness of the Spirit versus in oldness of letter? The difference is not the Torah, but the place on which it is written. As we see in 2 Corinthians 3:6, this is talking about the difference between the old and the new covenant. In the old covenant, the Torah had been written on tablets of stone and only pointed out man’s sinfulness, but provided no way to overcome this (Exodus 32:16, 1 Corinthians 15:56). Man could see in that he did not live up to the standard of the Torah, but he could not free himself from his own sinful nature. With the dawn of the new covenant, the Torah can now be written on our hearts (Ezekiel 36:26-27). It is not a different Torah, but the same Torah which has always existed, for in it is expressed the very character of God (Psalm 119:1-3, Isaiah 51:4). Since we have been released from the sinful nature, we can begin to obey God in the way which He has always desired (Deuteronomy 32:46, Psalm 37:30-31, Jeremiah 31:31-33). Paul tells us that “the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:7-8). When we give our lives to God and trust in Yeshua for the forgiveness of our sins, He will begin to do His work in our hearts as we draw near to Him in love and repentance. It is only through the power of the Spirit that we can hope to live the way God desires for us, which He has revealed to us through His Torah.

What have we learned from Paul about being under the Law? In the passages which we have examined, he is explaining the relationship between a person and sin. When we come to belief in Yeshua, we become one with Him in His death. This death frees us from the power of the sinful nature, which is death. Sin derives this power from the fact that we as fallen mankind are unable to perfectly adhere in obedience to the righteous demands of the Torah. Therefore, since we are no longer under the power of sin, we are also no longer under the condemnation which the Torah dictates for one who violates it.

Now, this does not mean that the Torah is no longer the righteous standard which God has given us to live by. On the contrary, now that Yeshua has set us free from the power of our sinful nature, we have been invigorated by the Holy Spirit and the circumcision of our hearts so that we are able to draw ever-nearer in relationship with God by keeping His commandments (John 14:15). He does not change, and neither does His righteous standard. Torah-observance alone does not free a person from the sinful nature; that was never its purpose. First we must die to the sinful nature through the righteousness of the Messiah Yeshua. Only then are we free from the penalty of sin and can experience regeneration so that we may obey God’s Torah in faith. As long as we are bound by the evil inclination, it is impossible for us to please God. In short, being dead to the Torah means that in the eyes of the Torah, it is as if we have died with Yeshua and already paid the penalty for our sin. Since this is the case, let us always strive to continue putting to death the sinful nature as we daily await our glorification.

Paul’s words in his epistles have led to some confusion among believers about the place that we as Gentiles have in relation to Israel. Most people today don’t realize how intricately Christianity was interwoven within Judaism at its beginning. Looking at Christianity and Judaism, one would never guess that Christianity was initially a sect within Judaism. Let’s take a look at Paul’s words to see what we can find out about the relationship between God, Israel, and the church.

Before we look at what Paul had to say, first we must understand the relationship between God and Israel. God brought the people of Israel out of their slavery in Egypt and brought them to Mt. Sinai, where He made a covenant with them (Leviticus 26:46). If the people of Israel would obey the terms of the covenant, God’s commandments, then He would bless them and protect them in the land which He was going to give them (Leviticus 26:1-13). As time went on, Israel repeatedly broke the terms of the covenant, going after foreign gods and disobeying God’s commandments. When this happened, God would punish the people. Even though Israel did this, God promised that He would never forsake His people Israel, nor would He break His covenant with them (Leviticus 26:44-45, Jeremiah 33). He also promised that one day, He would change the hearts of His people so they would walk according to His commandments and be blessed (Deuteronomy 30:1-14, Jeremiah 31:31-40, Ezekiel 36:24-38). This is what the people of Israel were waiting for, and are still looking for today: the coming Messiah who would restore them. Part of the job of Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah was to provide the way for Israel to be blessed by turning to Him and being cleansed from their sins. As a nation, Israel did not repent and turn to Yeshua, however, and so they would be taken off into exile once more (Matthew 23:37-39). At the same time, the Israelites who did believe in Yeshua at that time recognized that His sacrifice was not only for the Jewish people, but that He was also going to bring about the fulfillment of the prophecies that the Gentiles would worship God alongside the people of Israel (Zechariah 8:20-23, Malachi 1:11, Acts 15:15-18). This did not lessen the place of Israel, but rather it is through God’s blessings upon Israel that we as believers in Israel’s Messiah are also blessed.

God’s wisdom is shown in His purpose to redeem the whole world through His people Israel. From the beginning, the calling of Israel was to be a light to the nations (Deuteronomy 28:10, Isaiah 60:3, Micah 4:2). It is them to whom God revealed Himself in the past, and again will in the future: “To whom belongs the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Torah and the Temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers and from whom is Messiah” (Romans 9:4-5). Paul, as the apostle to the Gentiles, preached the gospel of salvation to bring hope to the nations in order to make them part of the commonwealth of Israel. We as the church do not, nor ever will we, replace Israel: “I say then, they (Israel) did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the nations, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression be riches for the nations, how much more will their fulfillment be… For if their rejection be the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead” (Romans 11:11-12, 15). When God fulfills His promises to restore the people of Israel, it will be made clear that they are a chosen people before God: “For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting loving-kindness I will have compassion on you… In righteousness you will be established” (Isaiah 54:7-8, 14a). This righteousness is through Yeshua the Messiah of Israel. Although Israel rejected Him for a time, God has not left His people to be abandoned. History has seemed cruel to the people of Israel, and some have misunderstood this to mean that God has rejected them completely, instead changing His graces to be upon the Christian church alone. But this ideology is directly addressed in Scripture (Jeremiah 33:23-26).

If all of these promises are for Israel, then what about the nations? How do we fit into the master plan? Well, Romans 11 continues: “But if some of the branches (Israelites) were broken off, and you being a wild olive (a Gentile), were grafted in among them and became partakers with the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant; remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you” (verses 17-18).

What does it mean that we are a grafted-in branch, and how do we practically live that out? Paul uses another image to describe the relationship between Jew and Gentile in Messiah: “For He is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by having put to death the enmity” (Ephesians 2:14-16). Becoming “one new man” does not mean that one’s heritage and identity are lost, nor does it invalidate the specific national calling of Israel. Some have used this passage as well as those like Galatians 3:26-29 and Colossians 3:11 to say that in Messiah, there remains no special calling or blessing upon Israel. There are obvious differences between the groups Paul contrasts in these passages, and that serves to prove his point: even though we are all different and unique, in regard to our faith which saves us we are one. It is like in a marriage: a husband and wife become one, but they are still two different people with distinct roles in their marriage. So in Ephesians, what is the enmity, this law of commandments contained in ordinances that separated Jew and Gentile? Is it the Torah, God’s commandments? There is no commandment which would have created enmity between Israel and those from the nations who wished to worship the One True God. In fact, the wisdom of God’s Torah is supposed to attract the nations (Deuteronomy 4:6). Gentiles who saw the wisdom in God’s commandments and genuinely sought to obey them were encouraged to never feel as if there was a wall between them and Israel (Isaiah 56:3, 6). Some of the man-made commandments and traditions, however, caused enmity between them and the Gentiles. The Jews saw Gentiles as naturally impure. They said it was only by becoming a Jew through conversion that a Gentile could be saved (Acts 15:1). Likewise, the Gentiles looked with scorn on the Jews, seeing them as elitist. After God showed His will through giving the Holy Spirit to Gentiles (Acts 10), it was clear that the walls of enmity that man had built up to separate between Jew and Gentile were not meant to stand.

So what was Paul’s rule for the churches in this matter? He lays out his thoughts in 1 Corinthians 7:17-24. This passage clarifies Paul’s intent in Galatians 3:26-29. When it comes to salvation and justification, all are made righteous through faith alone. When it comes to living out that faith, what counts is following God’s commands, as he is speaking of in the passage in 1 Corinthians. There are different expressions of faith for different members in the body. Think about it this way: Paul says “there is neither male nor female,” (Galatians 3:28). Does this mean that in Messiah there is no difference between men and women? Besides any obvious physical differences, Paul himself gives different instructions for different groups of people (1 Corinthians 11:4-5, Titus 2). This is not because there is a different standard of holiness for everyone, but because certain commands don’t apply to everyone the same way. This is true in the Torah as well, where different commandments apply only for certain groups of people. There are certain commandments only for Levites (Numbers 1:51), there are different times of purification for men and women (Leviticus 12:2, 5). and there are certain things Gentiles are not able to do (Exodus 12:43), among many other distinctions.

So according to Paul, just because Gentiles are grafted into Israel and together we are one body, Jews do not become Gentiles and Gentiles do not become Jews. In Romans 3:1-2, Paul declares, “What advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect! First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.” Paul reminds us once again that the Jew is first and the nations are second (Romans 1:16). Because of this, circumcision is very important and has great value, for it is the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham, which is an everlasting covenant (Genesis 17:9-11, 19). The people of Israel have been specifically called from among the nations of the earth to serve Him in a special way (Deuteronomy 7:6, Amos 3:2). We as Gentiles are also to obey God in the way He has called us, keeping His commands in the way they apply to us.

Christianity over the years has lost its perspective on its relationship with Israel, as well as Israel’s relationship with God. While Christianity began as a sect within Judaism, this relationship soon became muddied as more Gentiles began to believe in Yeshua and the Jewish thought of the earliest believers began to interact with other forms of philosophy. With the influx of Gentile believers, the movement became overwhelmed until few ethnic Jews remained, and over time the wedge was driven deeper and deeper. As time progressed, some influential people have ignored Paul’s warning to not become arrogant toward Israel, who is still God’s chosen. They have rejected the tree they were grafted into and attempted to plant one of their own. Some have said that since we are one new man, there is no reason for Israel to have a special calling. The problem with this is that instead of there no longer being any Jew or Greek in Messiah, everyone is Greek.

Israel is still God’s chosen people, and He will still fulfill the prophecies He made to them so long ago in regard to their choseness and their future restoration. The church has not become Israel, Jews do not become Gentiles when they come to believe in Yeshua, and neither do Gentiles become Jews. Although we don’t become Jews, we are blessed with the opportunity to share in the rich history of the faith of our spiritual father Abraham, partaking with Israel of the “rich root of the olive tree” as we anxiously wait alongside of them in anticipation of the coming of Messiah.