Blog Archives - Yedidei Adonai

PHARAOH AND HEROD ANTIPAS

1/30/2012

Matthew 24:24

For false Messiahs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

As time and again Pharaoh hardened his heart against God, the worried Israelite must have wondered how come he could not see the light, change, and repent. God knew that in this event He was making His grand entrance on the scene of World History. Until today God is marveled at through their remembrance.

The narrative of a king or nation standing against Israel trying to destroy it was going to be repeated several times in History. It even has its place today. Egypt therefore needed to be a test-case for God’s children of all generations to remember and use as a precedent.

I am reminded of Herod Antipas who lived a double life. While in Jerusalem he acted as an observant Jew in order to please Israel, but when he was in his palace of Caesarea he would live a totally ungodly Roman lifestyle. Only the believers, the true followers of God from the Nazarene Sect, the disciples of Yeshua knew the difference, so to top it all, Herod Antipas is also guilty of initiating a persecution against the followers of Yeshua. In the end He is recorded as having been eaten by worms for not giving glory to God (Acts 12). Such is the fate of the hypocrite who pretends to be godly in order to attract people to himself, when he is actually a fake and a farce. He is soon revealed as he does not give glory to God but takes it to himself.

As the world gets darker and darker, we see many nations, even those who profess to believe in the God of Yeshua, becoming spiritually darker and darker. These nations will give rise to the one who, while professing and promising messianic expectancies of peace and plenty, will be in direct challenge to God, changing times and seasons and taking glory to himself (Daniel 7:25; 2 Thessalonians 2:4). In those days only those who know their God will know the difference (Daniel 11:32). For this reason, this Pharaoh-like/Herod Antipas-like king will also try to exterminate them.

Like Pharaoh who thought he was God and could challenge Him, like Herod Antipas who thought he could deceive the people and who did not give glory to God but took it for himself (Acts 12:23), one will rise to deceive the people. Many will be deceived in those days (Matthew 24:5,11, 24) except for those who know their God (Daniel 11:32), except for the true followers of God, those from the Nazarene sect, the disciples of Yeshua. We will recognize him as he will not give glory to God but take it to himself.

May we in those days remember the mighty victory of the God Hosts against Egypt.

THE THIRD EXODUS

1/27/2012

Luke 1:54
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy.

Through Moses God instituted that His people should remember the Passover, the great Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land. In those days the Creator of the universe revealed Himself to His people in the form of a burning but non-consuming bush to show them His great love, care and power to redeem them from their Egyptian oppressor. At that time God wrought great miracles, miracles we still talk about today and are even documented with evidence from land and sea. One of those great miracles was that as God redeemed His people, a great multitude of Gentile eventually followed them and found refuge from tyrannical doomed and destroyed Egypt in the God of Israel.

During His last Seder, the Master enjoined His disciples to also remember Him at the time of the Passover. For in those His days the Creator of the universe revealed Himself to His people to show them His great love, care and power to redeem them not only from Rome, but from the ‘world’, from the ungodliness that is in them since the Fall.. At that time God wrought great miracles, miracles we still talk about today and are even documented with evidence from land and sea. One of those great miracles was that as God redeemed His people, a great multitude of Gentile eventually followed them and found refuge from tyrannical doomed and eventually destroyed Rome in the God of Israel.

Since the time when Rome expulsed Israel from the country God had given them, Israel sought refuge in those nations that came to the Messiah of Israel. These nations for the most important part oppressed them. But even before the days of the Master the prophet Jeremiah uttered the following words, "Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, 'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' but 'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.' For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers (Jeremiah 16:14-15). This will be the third Passover.

In those days the Creator of the universe will reveal Himself to His people in the form of to show them His great love, care and power to redeem them from the nations that will surround them in an attempt to annihilate them. In those days, God will perform again great miracles, miracles that will be documented and spoken about forever and ever over land and sea. One of those great miracles will be that as God redeems His people, a great multitude of Gentile will also be redeemed joining Israel in finding refuge n the great Kingdom of God to come.

May it be soon Abba, even in our days!

THE LEAVEN-REMOVER

1/25/2012

Luke 22:19
“Do this in remembrance of me."

Before being worthy of eating the Passover Lamb, the Children of Israel were to clean their houses from leaven. Leaven represents sin. Before celebrating the special meal which would initiate the signal to leave Egypt behind and follow God for a new life in a new country, people needed to clean themselves from the sin of Egypt. Have you ever tried to remove all forms of leavens from your house after a year of cooking and baking? It is hard work to go through all the cracks and crannies of your house, and even after you are done, can you say for sure that you did not forget one single grain? No. That is why traditionally we pray: “Any leaven … that is in my possession … which I have not seen … should be annulled … (Siddur). Yeshua annuls that which we cannot remove!

The disciples of the Master followed that tradition and the room where they celebrated their early memorial Seder was leaven-free. Even Judas was gone for most of the meal. He was gone to do his dirty work while Yeshua washed the disciples clean. Now they would all be very clean for celebrating the Passover on the very next day, eating the Passover Lamb itself, while the Master had just been crucified.

Some may think that because in Yeshua our sins are forgiven, we do not need to seek for leaven anymore. Nothing could be further from the truth. That would be like saying that because I found this new powerful cleaning agent, I don’t need to do the hard work of finding dirt and cleaning it. Part of the job of ‘cleaning’ our soul is finding the ‘dirt’ and being ashamed of ourselves. It doesn’t happen without our conscious participation. It is not like an operation under full anesthesia where the surgeon removes the cancer while we are asleep!

After eating the memorial Passover meal with the disciples the Master shared the Afikomen saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." He then lifted the third cup of the Passover Seder and said, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:19-20). The Exodus from Egypt was now associated with a Messianic Exodus from this world of sin.

Remembering Him each time we drink this memorial Exodus cup prepares us and our children for another meal following another Exodus: the meal that we will all eat with Him after He has come as the final universal ‘Leaven Remover’ (Revelations 19:9). First leaven will be removed from His assembly; at that time, judgment starts with the house of God (1 Peter 4:17; Daniel 12:10; Matthew 24:15-22), then the world gets purified.

As we are benefiting from Hs daily cleansing, may we walk worthy of our calling that we may be a good show-case to the world of the greatest cleaning agent on the planet, the only one who has been given the power to truly remove all leaven from our souls.

LEARNING FROM THE FATHERS

1/24/2012

1 Corinthians 10:11
Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

After God delivered the Children of Israel from Egypt with His mighty Arm He commanded them, Only he, (any given future Jewish king) must not … cause the people to return to Egypt … '(Deuteronomy 17:16). Because of this commandment, some in Jewish religious circles conclude that once someone returns to Israel, to the Land of their ancestors, it is a sin to leave it again. But was the commandment to be applied solely within a geographical understanding?

Eight centuries later, the Children of Israel had gone full circle. Subject to a coup within the royal house they fear the fury of Nebuchadnezzar. The remnant from Babylonian deportation decides to seek refuge in Egypt. They seek the advice (or approval) of Jeremiah the prophet who tells them to stay put in Israel and trust God. They reject the counsel and go anyways taking Jeremiah with them as a prisoner (Jeremiah 46). God must have foreseen this event for having warned the children of Israel before they even entered the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 17:16).

It is easy to judge and criticize the Children of Israel for this blatant disobedience. “Oh, how children love to judge their parents, especially teenagers!” Yes; we can look at them and say, “Why? Why didn’t they trust God and obey the commandment, especially when Jeremiah told them? Can’t they remember all the bounty and power God showed them in the past …etc …” Yes it is easy to react that way, but the only way to have mercy and compassion on others is to have a good hard and honest look at ourselves. A rule for Jewish judges was that if a judge could not see within himself the fault of the person he was to judge, he would be self-righteous and therefore not fit to judge him. Seeing the fault of others in ourselves provides us with the Spirit of the Judge of the earth who took on sin upon Himself so he could judge us righteously (Isaiah 11:1-4). He asks us, Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye(Matthew 7:3)?. We must remember that, these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come (1 Corinthians 10:11).

A good honest look at ourselves easily reveals the spirit of fear and compromise which stifles our effectiveness for Him as well as eats at our trust in obeying His word of personal revelation to us. It is at the end of our lives that we realize how we have missed the boat. We see then how we have allowed fear and personal interest to provoke us to compromise and choose a life of seeming safety instead of launching out like Abraham into the bright future that could not be altered no matter what.

May we learn from the Children who tried to find safety returning to their old lives. May we learn that we are safer in a desert surrounded by enemies if God is with us that in that within a shaded walled garden with supplies yet without God. We need this lesson to help us face the days to come. We need to live it today so we can teach it to our children for their days to come … and their children’s!

THAT DAY!

1/23/2012

Matthew 25:13
Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour

The Biblical calendar is a lunar calendar adjusted with the sun and the seasons. Because of a Scripture in Colossians, some deduct that we are not to attach importance to certain calendar dates (Colossians 2:16), but we need to remember that the people that Paul chided for calendar observances where pagans. Paul himself observed Sabbaths, Passovers, Jewish festival, and the Yom Kippur fast which all were calendar base dates

God has asked that we ‘sanctify’ the New Moon (Exodus 12:2), meaning to set it apart. Setting apart the New Moon gets us all in sync celebrating festivals at at the same time. The Hebrew word used for Levitical Festival in Leviticus is ‘Mo’ed’: ‘appointed times’, appointment’. At these times we have a ‘date’ with the Creator; would we want to miss it?

Because of our undue independent nature, even something as simple as coordinating ourselves together with God has been a major issue over the centuries. A cloudy night could mess up the whole thing up. Also, with Jews living more and more outside of Israel, it became more and more difficult to synchronize everybody. To top it all, in the fourth century C.E., the Roman government officially forbade the Sanhedrin from convening and determining the New Moon. This had the desired effect of leaving everyone to their own devices creating division and chaos until today. As a result, the method of determining the moon by sighting fell in disuse and Jewish leadership started to do it through astronomical calculation. This is how the Hillel ll calendar was born. Until Yeshua returns and re-organizes the whole thing, it needs to suffice.

Days are important. There was a particular day when the door of the ark was shut, a determined day for the Children of Israel to put blood on their doorpost and for them to leave Egypt. In these cases, a calendar fluke would have had disastrous consequences. The Master followed the calendar dates of Passover scrupulously in His death and resurrection. The Sabbath also is a set day with particulars if not, how do intend to fulfill Yeshua’s injunction, “Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath” (Matthew 24:20)?

Even a day is coming, a day which is the culmination of all of our calendar dates, a day which has been foreseen and predicted by all patriarchs and prophet. We are told that the only people who do not know that day are the ones living in the night of ignorance, but that those who live in the light of knowledge should know (1 Thessalonians 5:1-6).

That day is a very special day. As the arrival of the day for the children of Israel to leave Egypt was punctuated by signs and plagues, so will the Day be of Yeshua’s return to avenge His people and judge the whole world. These signs will not be esoteric or mystical, they will be real and tangible, so that even will be able to recognize them. May we be ever faithful to study and obey the Word which gives us the light to know that Day!

BETWEEN 'IRAQ' AND A HARD PLACE!

1/20/2012

Matthew 6: 24 (KJV)
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

About 3,400 years ago the people of Israel learned that Egypt was an unreliable staff. Not only did they learn that Egypt was no match for God, but that the fish, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic didn’t really cost nothing, but came at the price of servitude to Pharaoh, the god of the land (Exodus 11:5). Ultimately God Himself challenges Pharaoh’s pride, destroys his army, and takes his country down a few notches. The only option at freedom for Israel was to throw itself at God’s mercy in total devoted obedience to His will.

About eight centuries later, both Israel and Egypt are found to learn the same lesson. Pharaoh Hophra thinks himself to be god and Israel seeks refuge under his provisions. Judea had been told to submit to Babylon and live (Jeremiah 27:12), but stubbornly refused, which eventually caused its destruction and seventy years captivity. Those left from the captivity see themselves again under Babylonian attacks and seek refuge under Ophra of Egypt, thus absolutely rejecting Jeremiah’s advice to stay put in Israel (Jeremiah 42). In the end, Israel finds itself between the Babylonian army coming as locusts to destroy Pharaoh and Egypt (or ‘between ‘Iraq and a hard place’’) (Jeremiah 46:23; Exodus 10:4, 12-14). The only option again for Israel will be to throw itself at God’s mercy in total devoted obedience to His will.

Today Israel faces the same dilemma. Having a divine destiny to re-conquer and repopulate the Promised Land, Israel is discovering that the political credit and financial support it receives from the international community may come at the price of heavy compromises including the giving up of Jerusalem. Again, Israel has to make hard choices, and throw itself at God’s mercy in total devoted obedience to His will.

On a homiletical level, this lesson may apply to us all. In the global economy in which we live, when someone sneezes in Asia or the Middle East, our whole economy gets sick with a cold. Suddenly, that far away ‘sneeze’ echoes and sends shivers into our very pocket books and ability to provide for our families here at home. The good news is that as believers and followers of God, we have the admonition from Yeshua to not rely on the shaky uncertainty of an international economy already so sick that it is actually dead, only made to look alive by the life support of political lies and pretences (Matthew 6; 19-34; Philippians 4:19).

Most of the time also, success in business in a capitalistic society comes at the price of aggressive financial maneuvers that go against the principles of Torah and God’s commandment to not practice usury, but to give in love preferring the welfare of others before that of our own. We all have hard choices to make!, and ultimately need to throw ourselves at God’s mercy in total devoted obedience to His will!

'BRING HERBS TO HERBTOWN.'

1/19/2012

1 John 4:1-3

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits … every spirit that does not confess Yeshua is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

Egypt was on the way to meet her Endtime. Having been given a chance at godliness through the God of Joseph, she had turned back on the God who saved her choosing rather the ways of idolatry and persecuting God’s people. Moses is sent to give her a last chance through a repentance taking the form of allowing the Hebrews to worship God. Even so, our world has been given a chance at godliness through the international preaching of the Gospel, but today it has chosen the ways of secular idolatry. As Egypt once did, our world will also one day chose a god-man leader who will persecute all those who desire to follow the God of Moses.

Using demonism to imitate the power of God is an earmark of the Anti-Christ. Pharaoh’s magicians replicating Moses’ snake miracle through their magic is actually a prelude to the Endtime period that is to come on the planet. Today our world is hungry for peace, health, tranquility and prosperity. This state of affairs provides a breeding ground for the Jannes and Jambres of our days (Exodus 7:11; 2 Timothy 3:7-9), for the magicians and false prophets of our days who claim to bring us the peace, health, tranquility and prosperity that only the Messiah will provide in the World to Come. Indeed, the medical and defense budgets are the largest expenses in many countries’ economies. Many also succumb to the gambling of the stock market and other ‘get rich quick’ scams. Our materialistic world has also created a society that is hungry for the spiritual. This provides both scientists, charismatic revivalists preachers, and New-Age groups the desperate audience they need to prosper.

It has been long foreseen that along with imitating the realm of Messiah (Revelations 13:4), His death and resurrection (Revelations 13: 3), the Anti-Christ will also be a political and military genius bringing for awhile peace and prosperity to the planet. It will take the form of a fake and enforced peace, not unlike what has been coined by historians, the ‘Pax Romana’.

There is a proverb “Bring herbs to Herbtown.” This simply means that if you are a merchant you bring your market where people need and appreciate your wares the most. This doesn’t preclude that there will not be competition for your products, but this very competition can be the perfect place to prove the superiority of your goods. God knew that because of the supernatural bend of Egypt’s society, tricks like transforming a staff into a snake were common. God then, as a good marketer of His ware, brought His market to Pharaoh where His own reptilian ‘goods’ proved its superiority by devouring those of Jannes and Jambres magicians (Exodus 7:10-12).

And what does this teach us? May we not be so gullible as to follow in the footsteps of every peace, health and prosperity prophet. May we learn how to ‘try’ the spirits by a confession of faith that is not just verbal, but the demonstration of a life according to God’s commands (1 John 4:1-3; James 2:14-26).

THE PRIDE OF PHARAOH

1/18/2012

1Timothy 3:2-6
Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. … He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil

Pharaoh and the Exodus is a test-tube to show the world what happens in the days preceding the return of Messiah, but also of what happens when we harden our heart. Whereas as the plagues unfold the text mentions that God Himself hardens Pharaoh’s heart, it’s his own idea to challenge Moses and his God ((Exodus 7). It’s like the little boy who receives a scolding from his Mom, “Johnny, why did you punch your brother and then kick him? Don’t you know the devil made you do that?” “Oh no Mom," Johnny answered, "The devil may have made me punch him, but kicking him was my own idea!”

In a sense also, God is like a parent who after warning us teaches us by allowing us our mind frame, and even setting before us the fruits of our thinking. He then allows us to go the full length that we may learn by experience that He was right in the first place. It’s a scary thought but there was no other choice for Pharaoh. One may say that he was victim of his own environment and ignorant of the facts, but Joseph and the whole famine was not so far in the annals of Egypt. This Pharaoh though belonged to another dynasty, a dynasty who did not recognize the works of Joseph in saving Egypt (Exodus 1:8).

Rashi notes that for the first five plagues God did not harden Pharaoh’s heart; the biblical text tells us that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. What Pharaoh was, is a victim of his pride. He thought he was God. Spiritual pride, the notion that we are something special is the worst of all prides. It causes us to have a narrow worldview where the world revolves solely around what’s happening in our realm. As a result we step on everybody’s toes and then wonder why in the world they should be hurting. Pride makes a person very vulnerable to the devil’s weapons. There is a saying in whaling, “Don’t harpoon until she blows!”

Sad to say, spiritual pride is a very rampant and contagious disease in the body of Messiah. Even though Peter, the very disciple of Messiah strongly advised against autocratic oppressive leadership in the congregations in favor of team-works of co-workers (1 Peter 5:3; Acts 6:2-3), people naturally fall back on their past habits and training. In his pride, man is naturally wickedly ambitious always desiring to establish himself in a position of power and authority over others, which is forbidden. It is all the more sickly when spirituality is used as a vehicle to establish oneself as something.

Soon Messiah will return and help us establish leaders who are meek, not victims of the devil’s pride in being desirous of authority and leadership. He himself chose meek working man from Israel’s populace not from the proud religious circles, and told them that they will sit upon thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. May we take notice and live by their example.

THE COVENANT-KEEPING ONE

1/17/2012

Romans 11:26-27
“The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will banish ungodliness from Jacob and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins."

Moses arrives in Goshen and tells Israel of God’s promises. He speaks to them, lets them know that God remembered His promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that He now calls on them to be their God and His people. The Israelites understand the message. The expression is reminiscent of matrimony. Israel who presently belongs to Pharaoh God of the world, is being vied by another lover who says to her, ‘You are being abused, I will deliver you. You shall be mine and I will take care of you”. Was Israel ready for the fight between two ‘bucks’ vying for the same female? As far they were concerned, they could be jumping from the frying pan into the fire!

The text then tells us that the Children of Israel were not enthused at the message because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery (Exodus 6:6-9). I like how the Hebrew text puts it. It speaks of Israel’s spiritual condition using the term, ‘ketser ruach’. The expression is an idiom for ‘despondency’. The literal meaning is ‘shortness of breath, or of spirit’. They were spiritually exhausted. Their cruel bondage stole from them all strength for faith (Genesis 6:9). God was going to have to do all the hard work!

How much like today. As it happened with Moses also called in Judaism, the ‘First Redeemer’ (thus making allusion to Messiah, the Second Redeemer), we are watching the fulfillment of the promises God made to the patriarchs and the prophets concerning Israel. We have seen Him resurrect the country where Messiah is supposed to make His landing at the time they will all see Him (Zechariah 14). Just as in the times of the Exodus, God is spiritually and physically redeeming Israel His people. Someone once told me, “If I were Jewish, I’d take the first plane out of exile, I’d be exited; why are they not?”

Same problem as with Moses! After 2,000 years of persecution first by the Romans, then the Catholics and the Spanish inquisition, followed by Luther’s Protestants, the Germans, Tsarist and Communist Russia, and now the Muslims who are importing anti-Semitism from Europe, the Jewish people seem spiritually exhausted. They seem to complain with Reb Tevieh (Fiddler on the Roof) “Why, why? I know, I know, because we are the ‘Chosen People … but sometimes couldn’t You chose somebody else?” Nevertheless God again saves His people with a great and mighty hand.

It is funny though. There are some who teach that because of their sins God forsook His people of old and replaced them with another: the Church. These same people teach a ‘New Testament‘theology condoning unconditional forgiveness of sins. As far I know, the God of the Bible is One and the same and He changes not (Malachi 3:6). Is our History of disobedience worse than their? Why would He forgive their sins but not ours? He either forgives or He doesn’t. If He forgives yours, He also forgives mine. But if he doesn’t forgive my unbelief, neither will He forgive yours! If He replaced us because of our sins, then he is also apt to replace you because of yours!

The Hebrew word ‘chesed’ translated as grace means ‘covenant-keeping’. Our God is a Gracious God. Unlike mankind, He keeps His covenant and His promises in spite of us. He keeps them for me, and He keeps them for you!

WHEN MOSES HAD GROWN UP ...

1/13/2012

Hebrews 11: 23-27
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Messiah greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people … (Exodus 2:11). '. We are not born 'there'. We get 'there' by starting where we are. In essence, we all have to 'grow up' in order to get to the divinely ordained place we are meant to occupy, to that perfect place the Father created for us to gravitate to.

To get 'there' is the compounding result of many of life's decisions, and sad to say, the reason why many don't get 'there' is wrong decisions. It is in old age or on the death bed that that realization suddenly strike.

Moses followed the exact pattern the Father imposed on the patriarchs. Abraham went through it, Isaac also, and I like to compare Jacob's 'School of Laban' to the proverbial 'School of hard knocks'. They, and we, all had to experience a time of spiritual, if not physical Diaspora spending time in a place away from the perfect will of God in our lives. Diaspora probably helps us appreciate the "Promised Land' of His perfect will when it comes!

It takes us a long time before we find that perfect place. We spend it in diverse groups and fellowships. Most of the time, we don't grow into it until our 50's (Proverbs 4:18).

In this age, in this world, we are all in Diaspora from the Kingdom of God. We have been away from our spiritual home since Adam and Eve. We get glimpses of it when we study Torah, fellowship with brethren, pray, and praise the Father of us all. One day as the Children of Israel did, we will have 'grown up'. We will then enter the Promised Land of the Kingdom of God.

Come to think of it, it is Friday today. Tonight we welcome the Sabbath which is a little bit of the Kingdom of God on earth, a foreshadow of the World to Come. We all spend the week in Sabbath Diaspora, but oh wonder of wonders, it always comes back, and when it does, what a joy!