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THE THIRD TEMPLE

2/18/2013

Revelation 3:12
The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.

While the children of Judah were exiled in Babylon, they witnessed the capture of their king, the devastation of their beloved Jerusalem, and the destruction of God’s Temple. Ezekiel the prophet was among the captives who, after all hopes were gone for the deported nation, was given the ministry of encouragement. Hashem used Ezekiel to encourage exiled in the Babylonian dispersion by telling them of the wonderful future of a rebuilt Jerusalem hosting a magnificent glorious temple where the Messiah Himself will serve (Ezekiel 40: and forward).

Oddly enough, as particular as Hashem can be on these things, the architectural plans and service details of the Messianic era Temple are different than those of the first Temple. When the captives returned and started rebuilding, it would have seemed natural that they would follow the blue print of Ezekiel’s prophetic temple but they did not. The prophets of the day believed that the temple they were to build right after their return from Babylon would not last forever. So whereas they decided to incorporate some of Ezekiel’s plan, they stuck close to the layout of the first temple. They understood that the Temple of Ezekiel’s vision belonged to another time, to the time pertaining Messiah’s actual reign on earth.

Since Ezekiel’s Temple prophecies have therefore not been fulfilled, they now serve as an encouragement for us who are still in dispersion, for all believers are strangers and exiles on this earth (Hebrews 11:13) waiting to return to where we belong in the Kingdom of God.

So whatever upheaval we see in the Middle-East, we must fix our eyes on these prophecies which tell us of the glorious future of the Messianic age when Messiah Himself who has the true roadmap for peace in the area will reign from His Temple in Jerusalem. The Torah will be the Law of the Land flowing out of Zion to fill the nations of the world who will bring their glory to Jerusalem. It will be a time of great restoration when Messiah Himself will wipe our tears away while bringing true justice to the world.

May it come soon Abba, even in our days!

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THE SECOND EXODUS

1/21/2013

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

Through Moses, Hashem 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; this was His He chose to show His people His great love, care, and power to redeem. At that time Hashem wrought great miracles, miracles we still talk about today, miracles which 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 Gentiles cast their lot with Moses and Israel, following them to find refuge from tyrannical, doomed, and destroyed Egypt, and 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 His days the 'Consuming Fire' (Deuteronomy 4:24), also revealed Himself to His people in a 'non-consuming' manner in order 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 Hashem 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 renewed His covenant with His people, a great multitude of Gentiles cast their lot with Yeshua and the disciples, following them to find refuge from tyrannical, doomed, and destroyed Rome, and 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 know 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 Adonai, when it shall no longer be said, 'As Adonai lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' but 'As Adonai 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 second great Exodus, one Yeshua initiated 2,000 years ago.

In those days the Creator of the universe will reveal Himself to His people through His Mashiach in order 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, Hashem will valiantly 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 Gentiles will also be redeemed joining Israel in finding refuge in the great Kingdom of God to come.

May it be soon Abba, even in our days!

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EXODUS YESTERDAY AND TODAY

1/11/2013

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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 tells them that Hashem remembered the promises He made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that intending to make good on them, He now calls on them to be their God and His people. The Israelites understand the message. Israel, who presently belongs to Pharaoh, the God of the world, is now being vied by another lover who says to her, "You are being abused, I will deliver you. You shall be mine now 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 because of their broken spirit and the harsh slavery, the Children of Israel were not enthused at the message (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). Hashem was going to have to do all the hard work!

How much like today. As it happened with Moses, who is 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, Hashem today, spiritually and physically redeems 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 imported anti-Semitism from Europe, the Jewish people again seem spiritually exhausted on the 'Chosen People' idea. 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. First, this doesn't add up with God's mathematics of covenant faithfulness, but also, He says that He only remembers the wickedness of fathers for three or four generations. As far I know, Hashem changes not and his covenantal promises are irrevocable (Malachi 3:6; Romans 11:29). The question is: Is our History of disobedience worse than their? And then, why would He forgive their sins but not ours? He either forgives or He doesn’t. If He forgives yours, He also forgave mine. But if he doesn’t forgive our 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!

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FROM 'HERE', TO 'THERE'.

1/2/2013

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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, like Moses we are all born in exile and we 'grow up' to that divinely ordained place we are meant to occupy, to that perfect destiny Hashem 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 because of wrong decisions. It is in old age or on our death bed that that realization suddenly strikes.

Moses followed the exact pattern the Father imposed on all the patriarchs. Abraham went through it as well as Isaac, and I like to compare Jacob's 'School of Laban' to the proverbial 'School of hard knocks'. They, and we, all have to experience a time of spiritual, if not physical Diaspora, exiled from the perfect will of God in our lives. It could be Hashem's way to help 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 first have to travel in diverse endeavors, programs, ideologies, congregations, groups, and fellowships. Most of the time, we don't 'grow up' and get 'there' until our forties or fifties; Moses got there in his eighties (Proverbs 4:18).

In this age and 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 'home', when we study Torah and/or fellowship with one another. We get a glimpse of it when we pray, praise, and exalt the Father of us all (Psalms 22:3). One day as the Children of Israel did, we will all have 'grown up'. At that time, we will enter the Promised Land of the Kingdom of God.

Come to think of it, every Friday night as we welcome the Sabbath, we experience a little bit of the Kingdom of God on earth, a foreshadow of the World to Come. After the Sabbath, we all spend the week in 'Diaspora', but oh wonder of wonders, it always comes back, and when it does, what a joy!

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A BLESSING TO THE NATIONS

11/22/2012

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Matthew 28:19-20
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

As Jacob fled his brother's wrath, Hashem comes to our patriarch to reveal His overall plan. The Almighty Planner of the destiny of Israel said, "I am Adonai, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you (Genesis 28:13-15)."

Anyone who believes in the Bible has to accept that by Divine Mandate, the Land which is now called 'Israel' (Jacob's future name (Genesis 32:28)), belongs to his descendant. Jacob fled Esau, but also he was following in his father and grand-father's footsteps in getting a wife from within the family clan. Tradition says that as he left Canaan, Hashem protected Jacob from Esau's son who pursued after him, and now Hashem declares to Jacob that He will accomplish through him all the words He previously spoke to Abraham (Genesis 12:3; 28:14).

The spreading of the Children of Israel to the four winds is often referred to as the present-day great Exile. This exile may appear as a curse to the Children of Israel, but it is the instrument Hashem uses to bless the nations. The first post-second Temple Jews to go in exile were the Messianic believers who brought the teachings of our Master to all the nations of the Roman Empire. Later, as all Israel went in exile, it filled the rest of the pagan world with the knowledge of the One true God who created the universe. Thanks to the Great Exile, the majority of the world today is monotheistic, lives by a seven-day week, and derives its basic moral notions of right and wrong from the tenets of the Torah. Judaism has therefore become the most influential form of belief in the world. It is also fair to say that the whole world has heard of Messiah, so in that regards, one can also conclude that the whole world has been blessed in the descendants of Jacob, the grand-son f Abraham to whom this prophecy was first given.

Jacob receives this Oracle as he himself goes to exile. His exile is a foreshadow of the future Great Exile of his descendants. Hashem assures the patriarch that the Divine Presence goes with him in this exile to also bring him back to the Land Promised to Abraham. In the same manner, Yeshua our Mashiach has been with us all throughout this exile and today brings us back to our Land. Though as in the case of Jacob, God's heavenly purposes do not find their earthly fulfillment without troubles and tribulations, we are thankful to be a part of His great plan of blessing the earth.

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THE VOICE OF THE WILDERNESS

5/23/2012

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Matthew 4:4
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’.

The fourth book of the Pentateuch is called in English ‘Numbers’. In Hebrew the title of the book is the first noun of the text which is ‘Ba’midbar’, meaning: ‘In the Wilderness’. In today’s Hebrew, the word ‘midbar’ means ‘desert’. The Book of ‘Ba’midbar’ tells us of the thirty-eight years spent by the Children of Israel in the desert.

The Hebrew for the word ‘midbar’ reveals a very interesting truth. Most Hebrew words are based on a three letter verbal root, sometimes two. This verbal root is vital to us because no matter what the variation in the spelling of the word, the verbal root reveals its etymological meaning, which is important to us in order to understand what the Father is trying to convey to us through His ‘Word’.

The verbal root of the word ‘midbar/wilderness’ is composed of the three Hebrew letters, ‘daleth/beth/resh’. Strangely enough, these letters are also the verbal root for the word ‘lehdaber: to speak’, verb from which is derived the word ‘davar’. Today ‘davar’ means, ‘word’ or ‘thing’, but it is also the ancient Aramaic word used in the Targum (Aramaic layman’s version of the Hebrew Scriptures) to refer to Messiah. ‘Davar’ is the word John used when he said, ‘In the beginning was the ‘Word’ (John 1:1).

Where does all this take us? These interesting facts concerning the word ‘midbar’ have certainly not escaped the attention of Jewish sages and we find illumination in some of their commentaries. Looking at the relationship between the Hebrew words for ‘wilderness’ and the idea of the ‘spoken word’, the sages have concluded that the wilderness is the place where God speaks. God may speak in many places, but the wilderness is usually the place where we are the most dependant on Him and where we can give Him our full attention. Sometimes this ‘wilderness’ can also be the spiritual or emotional wilderness of difficult and trying times in our lives.

The idea is certainly carried in the Scriptures. John the Immerser defined himself using the prophet Isaiah’s words as, ‘the Voice crying in the wilderness’ (Matthew 3:3). The Master Himself when fasting (food and water) for forty days in the wilderness (such a fast should kill a person) said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4)”.

The ‘wilderness’ is certainly the place where we hear God most clearly: the place of total undistracted dependency. May we learn to benefit from our wilderness times, hearing His Voice telling us ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand’ (Matthew 3:2). May we not murmur at the ‘manna’ nor at the water shortage. May we learn to use those times for growth, maturation, and consecration as the Children of Israel did.

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REWARDS AND MERITS

8/15/2011

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Romans 4:13
For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.

Much is revealed about Hashem’s plan for His people in the Book of Deuteronomy. Whereas He says that the prosperous success of our sojourn in the Land of Promise is contingent to our obedience to the Torah, we do not inherit it because of our personal righteousness (Deuteronomy 7:12; 9:4-6). It is partly because the wickedness of the Canaanites was much worse than that of Israel as well as because of the promises made to our fathers. Hashem always keeps His promises.

Whereas the idea of proper retribution for good and evil is biblical, it is a mistake to assume that the success of our endeavors is always a divine personal endorsement or that the lack of it is the sign of a curse because of sin. The Book of Job is the testament to the opposite. This notion particularly leads to error when we apply it to our standing with Hashem.

The apostle Paul reiterates this concept in his diatribe about the role of Torah in our lives. When he says, For by works of the law (Torah) no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law (Torah) comes knowledge of sin (Romans 3: 20). Paul is not teaching us about a new way God has initiated with his people since the manifestation of Yeshua’s work on earth, but he is teaching us the actual concept of Torah as was taught by Moses in Deuteronomy.

I find ludicrous the teaching that because of their sins and so-called rejecting Messiah, God has rejected and replaced the Jewish people with a nation taken from the gentiles. That would be a God who does not keep His promises. If our standing with the Father is a question of personal righteousness, it seems to me that the gentiles deserve to be rejected as much as they would be. Israel as a political entity may have rejected Messiah, but the church throughout time has rejected the Torah that Yeshua taught saying, If you love me you will keep My commandments (John 14:15). Historical records, including those found in the Bible, tell us that the Jewish people actually received Yeshua gladly, that Jerusalem was filled with the apostles' doctrine, so much that the leaders were scared to touch the disciples. The disciples were all Jewish along with the new believers from Acts 2 who were Diaspora Jews coming to Jerusalem for Pentecost. These are the very people, and Jews at that, who brought the Gospel to the area around the Mediterranean Sea, who led the first congregations of believers and taught those so-called Church Fathers who for the most part later rejected their Torah teachings.

I thank Hashem that He is a covenant-keeping God. Proof? As He said He would, He has returned the Jewish people to their land and no matter what people may try in their efforts to undo it, Hashem keeps His Promises that after a long exile in the nations He returns to the Promised Land.

Those world politicians who try to defeat this purpose better watch out; they may be poking in the apple of God’s eye!

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THE THIRD TEMPLE

THE SECOND EXODUS

EXODUS YESTERDAY AND TODAY

FROM 'HERE', TO 'THERE'.

A BLESSING TO THE NATIONS

THE VOICE OF THE WILDERNESS

REWARDS AND MERITS

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