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Matthew 6:10
… on earth as it is in heaven. When Moses met Adonai on the mountain he received the following instructions, And let them (the Children of Israel) make me (Adonai) a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it. And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain (Exodus 25:8-9, 40). Moses was the first Biblically recorded prophet to have seen God’s throne room and God required that the Children of Israel build His earthly Sanctuary exactly as Moses saw it on the Mount. If we want to understand Heaven and our relationship with the Almighty, all we have to do is ponder on the picture of Israel’s encampment around the Tabernacle and on the Tabernacle Itself. In essence, the Children of Israel were building Heaven on earth. The dimensions and instructions to build this Tabernacle were very specifics (Exodus 35). This teaches us that God didn’t leave it up to us to decide how to worship and love Him. Of course we are free moral agents, but even as Yeshua said, our love for Him, as well as our unification to Him are measured by our obedience (John 15:10). Spirituality outside of Torah always leads to idolatry and paganism. Torah teaches us the definition and structure of worshipping God; it creates a structure and shape for spirituality to fill. In their attempt to bring divinity into their midst without the parameters of Torah, the Children of Israel built an idol, and rather than bring God close to them, they repulsed Him. Here is something to think about now: how often do we see the same dynamic at work among believers who earnestly desire after God, but pursue Him outside of the good laws of His revealed word? We would like to think that God doesn’t care how we love Him as long as we love Him, but these instructions on how to do so are a testament to the opposite. My wife and I run a small school and youth programs from our house. I have certain behavior rules concerning attitude, language, and general comportment that kids have to uphold while they are within the parameters of my property. I expect them to obey me if they want to benefit of what I have to offer them. They cannot argue with my rules telling me that their parents or their neighbor allows them to do certain things that I don’t. I tell them it is, ‘My house, my rule!’ I guess God is like any father on earth. He establishes the rules and parameters of His Kingdom and anyone living in it has to live by them or incur His displeasure. May we today learn to love the Father as He intended us to do it. Certain things may still be difficult to understand, but the Father in His indulgent love has sent Yeshua to help answer much of our questions. Yeshua in turn has allowed His apostles to give us many specifics on how to live a Torah lifestyle. May we spend our lives living by them and in so doing, build Heaven on earth.
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Ephesians 5:18
… Be filled with the Spirit, Moses comes down the mountain for the second time. He carries with him a renewed copy of the terms of the covenant between man and God. The Horeb wedding is on again, the Tabernacle therefore needs to be built to house the Tables of the Covenant and for God to indwell His people. Moses is not the one to build the tabernacle, instead the Father directs him to two skilled workers whom as the Text says, are ‘filled with the Spirit’ (Exodus 35:30-35). In contemporary charismatic circles, the infilling of the Spirit is mainly a pneumatic or emotional experience. As a result many Bible teachers today claim to be ‘led by the Spirit’ in their studying, spiritual walk and teaching, while at the same time they refuse to learn from the work of previous spirit-filled expositors such as the Jewish sages from which our Messianic faith derives. They therefore read the Scriptures ignorantly and feed themselves with erroneous doctrinal conclusions. Through millennia they have redefined the understanding of the infilling of the Spirit, the indwelling of God within man, baptism and redemption which are all Jewish Old Testament concepts well expounded on in the Hebrew Scriptures. They refuse to study from the knowledge of others, but then feed themselves errors from their own head. They are in essence the epitome of the ‘blind leading the blind’, and not only do they lead themselves into a pit but they bring others along with them. What we are seeing in the appointment of the two Israelite workmen is that the infilling of the Spirit has more to do with divine inspiration in the understanding and application of a learned skill than with the clairvoyant-type mystic who is led by vague pneumatic feelings and tingling sensations. The Spirit-filled biblical person is a person of study, ability, and understanding. This person is knowledgeable in the complex intricacy of their skill, understands it and is inspired (animated) by the Spirit of the Almighty in the accomplishment thereof. One can possess divine musical inspiration but if he doesn’t learn music or how to play an instrument, he will only produce dissonant noises uncomfortable to the ears. Such are the teachings of those who solely rely on inspiration without the aid of education. What we need today is more than the empty hot air of charismatic teachings. What we need today is the true solid doctrine based on the pragmatic and practical wisdom of the fathers of our faith. Maybe that’s what it means that in the end of time Elijah will come … to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared (Luke 1:17). May God give us true teachers who are not full of themselves and their own errors, but teachers filled with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship (Exodus 35:31), teachers who have studied the Word of God and who acknowledge that they stand on the shoulders of others wiser than they are. Luke 21:19
By your endurance you will gain your lives. The episode of the golden calf finds a parallel in the days of the Kings of Israel. In the ninth century B.C.E. Ahab marries the Tyrian princess Jezebel who reintroduces devotion to Baal worship. Before long Israel is deep in apostasy and God sends Elijah the prophet to minister to the wayward Northern Kingdom. Elijah’s efforts culminate to the test on Mt Carmel where again we have as in the golden calf incident, Israel worshipping a false god in a wild dancing party (Exodus 32; 1 Kings 18). The events on Mt. Carmel ended a three year drought. Rabbinic historians say that the drought only lasted fourteen months; why then did both Yeshua and James mention that it lasted three and half year (Luke 4:25; James 5:17)? Joseph Fitzmyer explains that the drought lasted fourteen months straddling over a three and half years period, and that this duration of the drought paralleled the length of the period of distress in apocalyptic literature (Daniel 7:25; Revelations 12:6). In both the golden calf and the Mt Carmel episode we have an impatient people turning to a wild idolatrous party. In the one they wait for Moses to return with the Torah, in the other they wait for the rain (the Hebrew words for ‘rain’ and ‘Torah’ are of the same etymological family). Will it be the same at the end of time? Hear these Words of warning from the Master, For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man (Matthew 24:37-39). Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed,' and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 24:46-51). These last 2,000 years of waiting for the return of the Master may seem long, but not as long as to those from whom the Gospel has been withheld. We have the assurance that, After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him (Hosea 6:2) (a day is as thousand years to the Lord (Psalms 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8)). May we patiently wait for Him, each day doing our best to follow in His footsteps and shining the light of His Torah to all around us. May he find us and ours doing so at his return. May it be soon, even in our days! 1 Corinthians 10:14
… flee from idolatry. IDOL SOUP RECIPE You will need: 1 Freshly Worshipped Golden Calf; 1 Angry Prophet; A Large Rock; A Big Stick; A Pestle and Mortar; 1 Blazing Open-flame Fire; A Generous Supply of Water. Remove idol from its elevated platform. Meanwhile, heat open fire to full strength. Handling roughly, toss idol into open flames. Allow image to thoroughly melt. Wait till gold has assumed a shapeless mass. Poke with stick to make sure it is completely melted before extinguishing fire. Allow gold to cool. Once cold, crush gold with big rock into medium size chunks. Thoroughly grind gold chunks with pestle and mortar until they reach a powder-like consistency. Spread powder over surface of the water. Serve cold. Serves 603,550. (Courtesy of First Fruits of Zion Ministries). In the incident of the golden calf, God treated the Israelites like the woman suspected of adultery (emphasis on ‘suspected’). Here is the passage about it, And if the spirit of jealousy comes over him (the husband) … and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself, then the man shall bring his wife to the priest … And the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. … And when he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has broken faith with her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her womb shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall become a curse among her people. But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive children (Numbers 5:14-28). The Hebrew for the last part says, ‘she shall bear seed’. I believe that God is knowledgeable of human biology and that He knows that women do not bear seed. Nevertheless, this is not the first time that the Bible makes mention of this. We also find the idea of the ‘seed’ of the woman in, I will put enmity between … your offspring and her offspring (Hebrew text for offspring: seed) (Genesis 3:15).Both these references about women bearing seed are formidable Messianic expressions. The first one speaks of the final demise of the devil by the only woman (Miriam) to ever conceive seed without the agency of a man, while the other speaks of the future destiny of Israel. How does that work? The woman in question is merely suspected of adultery; she has not been caught in the act. If she had been, she should get stoned. She is suspected of adultery because of uncomely behavior but when put to the bitter water test, if she really is guilty she should become deadly sick and a curse to her people. Israel has been put through the bitter waters tests of Sinai and of exile, but in the end has come out victorious. Looking at the full story, we see Israel again, the Israel of the believers, in the woman of Revelation 12 bearing seed from among the gentiles as a sign of her restoration. Sometimes the Father allows us to go though bitter times. If our heart is pure towards Him, these passing moments of our lives only enhance our station. Bitter times are coming to test all those that live upon the earth (Revelations 3:10). These bitter times will also take the shape of an idolatrous image (Revelations 13:14). May we keep our heart pure from the world, that we may be found guiltless and bear ‘seed’ unto Him. John 14:6
“No one comes to the Father except through me”. From New-Age type meditations to quantum physics, many books have been written on how to approach God. Why don’t people just read the Bible? In the Tabernacle, later to be the Temple, we are taught all the details concerning the protocol to observe when desiring an audience with the Almighty. Here is how it goes: Our sinful nature prohibits us from approaching God. We only do it by proxy through the mediation of the blood of a kosher animal, so first we must bring an offering to the altar. The offering was not designed to atone for sin; it only served as an acknowledgement and a confession of sin (Hebrews 10:4; 9:13). It was the same before He was manifested about 2,000 years ago, as it is now: only the work of Messiah done at the foundation of the world cleans the conscience from sin (Hebrews 4:3; 9:14; 1 Peter 1:20). From Genesis to today, the formula never changed; we approach the Father through the sole mediating agency of the Son (John 14:6; Hebrews 4:14-16; Psalms 2:12). After we have brought the animal and offered it, only the priest can go further into the precinct of the Tabernacle/Temple. To do so, he has to go through the laver and wash his hands and feet. He probably washed at home that morning, but these are ritual washings against ritual contamination for priests only. We remember how Yeshua did the same to His disciples on the day He died. The disciples had already washed their bodies as well as their hands before eating as was done in Jewish customs; all they needed now was to wash their feet which Messiah did for them that night. In essence, Yeshua was treating His disciples as priests, which fulfilled Messianic prophecies (Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 2:9). Yeshua Himself is the laver wherewith we are clean to approach the Father (John 15:3). Finally, the continual incense burning in front of the Ark showed the prayers offered unto God. When Zechariah came to the Temple, the angel who said, “Your petition has been heard”, appeared to him as he was offering the incense (Luke 1:13). Our prayers are brought before God and He answers each one of them; He will vindicate His people (Revelations 5:8; 8:3-4). May we then, having laid our sin on the altar, trust in the righteousness of our High-Priest in Heaven Yeshua HaMashiach, and through Him have the confidence to draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16). John 10:3
… He calls his own sheep by name … The Torah tells us that when a census is taken, each man is to bring the price of his atonement to avoid the plague (Exodus 30:12-13). A census in the Bible was a very serious and dangerous thing. It means to be counted and recognized as a full subject of the Kingdom of God. At that time, regardless of our social standing, our worth is the same as anyone else. At that time, our name and lineage are fully recognized in front of all. At that time, we can stand in full posture and be counted. The price of a man’s ransom is the same for all: half a shekel. The half a shekel price is not to be understood as a payment for salvation or as ‘indulgences’ for sins; the Hebrew word used here is ‘kaphar’, a word meaning: covering’ or ‘atonement’. It is an awesome thing to come into the presence of God. We need a covering. In the Hebrew Scriptures, Messiah is often called the ‘Shield” (Psalms 5:12). The money collected is to be used for the maintenance of God’s sanctuary. By giving it, we all take personal responsibility for our enrolment into Israel and for the care of the Temple. Our giving makes us part of the work of God. Censuses were often taken for the purpose of military enrolment when only male twenty on up were counted. The reasons a census incurred a plague are not given to us clearly in the Torah text, so they have been left to scholars’ personal deduction and speculations. One thing is sure though, is that we want to be part of such census’. From Genesis to Ezra, Israel was numbered on nine occasions. The Tenth time will be in the future when ‘… flocks shall again pass under the hands of the One (Messiah) who counts them, says the LORD (Jeremiah 33:13). In that day, the Messiah will be the one counting His sheep from both Israel and the nations: He is our ‘half-shekel’, whose confession is at the same time priceless and dangerous. In my case, a long time ago it caused me the scorn and separation of my family; hasn’t He said that He came as a stumbling and an offence (1 Peter 2:6-8)? No matter what anyone does though, to those counted part of His final census He says, I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand (John 10:28). John 14:8
"Adoni, show us the Father,” The Children of Israel blew it. Impatient for the return of Moses they make themselves a god of gold. It is not that they transferred their loyalty to an idol, it is that being unfamiliar with the idea of an unseen god with no image or temple, they concretized the unseen One who had qualified Himself as He who took them out of Egypt into the similitude of a calf. The Father seems to have an issue with identity theft. Israel played the harlot during her betrothal. God called off the wedding. The first covenant made at Sinai is now broken. Israel, the bride is technically allegeable to the death penalty. Justice is an invariable concept. When justice is not paid, we give way to injustice and God cannot be found to be unjust. Justice has to be given its due but it doesn’t really matter by whom. In this case, Moses negotiates with the Father. Moses drives a hard bargain. Knowing that the Father wants to destroy Israel but that he also himself found favor in the sight of God, Moses places himself on the side of Israel. He stops talking in “I ‘, ‘You’, and ‘them’, but uses ‘we’ and ‘You”. If God kills Israel, He has to also kill Moses. Basically Moses wins the day by identifying himself with Israel, therefore putting his own life on the line. By the righteousness of one, the whole nation was saved, a very important concept foreshadowing Messiah’s mission. Having heard Moses’ pleas, the Father will now show His True nature. He will renew the broken covenant. It will be the same covenant, renewed, not a new covenant. It carries the same terms of the first one. God will do so because of His own character and desire. In the third chapter of the Book of Exodus, the Almighty Creator of the Universe starts revealing His identity to Moses. He uses the words “HEHIYEH ASHER HEHIYEH”, or “I Will Be That I Will Be” (Exodus 3), something to the essence of “I Am the Eternal Existential Being and I keep Covenant Forever’. In Exodus thirty-four, the Father continues revealing His identity. He does so using a list of thirteen attributes. These attributes represent the Father’s compassionate nature and are a central motif in Jewish liturgies. Because God is forgiving and compassionate, there will be a wedding in Horeb after all. It is so funny that so many people think that grace and forgiveness is something initiated by Yeshua, and that it didn’t exist before. Yeshua’s grace was only a reflection of the Father’s willingness to atone and forgive. Yeshua came to show and represent the Father to us. Do we forget that it is actually God who so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16)? Mark 4:40
“Have you still no faith?" The Master sails on a small fishing boat with His student. They are crossing the Sea. Of Galilee (Mark 4:35). As great storm arises almost filling the boat with water (Mark 4:37), they begin to be swamped and to be in danger (Luke 8:23). The Master sleeps soundly in the stern of the boat. This passage alludes to Jonah’s story, But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep (Jonah 1:4-5). In both stories the main character sleeps peacefully during a dangerous storm; terrified sailors awaken the sleeper and rebuke him; the principal character has the solution to the danger; the storm miraculously calms down; the sailors are amazed; and the boat is on route to a gentile city, the fact that in Mark’s account they meet a pig herder tells us so. From their cave carved in the rock, two demoniacs look down towards the lake below in fear and trembling. The spirits in them are in a panic. They know exactly who is coming, And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. And behold, they cried out, "What have you to do with us (Hebrew idiom for: ‘don’t meddle with us’), O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time" (Matthew 8:28-29)? Evil spirits know and look forward to a time of everlasting judgment (1 Enoch 10:13; 55:4). They were surprised to see Yeshua a bit early so they panicked and reminded the Master that their time had not arrived yet. Yeshua took pity on the poor victims and delivered them which created a mixed reaction among these gentiles. Even so today the Master’s footsteps are heard and evil spirits fear in anticipation of their coming eternal fiery future. His people are being restored to the Land and His message crosses borders reaching the nations creating mixed reactions. Because he knows his time is at hand, the enemy fills the world with political, financial, social, theological and physical storms which provoke us to fear but again the Master says, "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith (Mark 4:40)”? The worst I fear is the storm of new technologies which floods our youth with evil media and ungodly relationships. The evil one tries to destroy the generation that will have to maybe face him before they even a chance. He will actually succeed in establishing himself for a while, but only for awhile for the King of Kings will rise and as He delivers His people, He will also deliver those of the nations and send the evil ones to their everlasting torment (Revelations 19:11-21). May it come soon Abba, even in days! 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. God used Ezekiel to encourage the people of the Babylonian dispersion by telling them of the wonderful future of a rebuilt Jerusalem hosting a magnificent glorious temple where the Messiah Himself served (Ezekiel 40: and forward). Oddly enough, as picky as God can seem 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 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! 2 Corinthians 2:16
… a fragrance from life to life. There are three offices in the Torah which require oil annointing: priests, kings and prophets. The Hebrew word ‘Mashiach” from where we derive the English ‘Messiah’ and the Greek anglicized word ‘christ’ simply means: ‘anointed one; ‘he upon whom oil has been poured’. Yeshua is the ‘Messiah’, the ‘Anointed One’; ‘He upon whom oil has been poured’ because He fulfills these three offices. He first came as the promised prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15); He performed the function of High-Priest (Hebrews 9:11); and He will return as the King of kings (Revelations 19:16). Whereas the priests were simply sprinkled with the fragrant oil, the precious ointment was poured upon the High-Priest's head; it anointed him from head to toes thus the High-Priest emanated of the special oil’s sweet fragrance. Oil was used for washing, cologne and perfume in those days. It provided a shine and a shining sweet fragrance to the bearer. Hear David’s poetic description of the anointing of Aaron: Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes (Psalms 133:1-2)! Jewish sages saw Aaron as the quintessential man of peace. He would go to two enemies and say to one, “Would you agree that in spite of all his faults, _ (his enemy) is a good carpenter?” When the man agreed, Aaron would go to his enemy and say, “Hey do you know what _ (first man) said about you? (”I can imagine …!” he would say) He said that you were a good carpenter. I know you don’t like him too much but you can agree that he is a good cook!” When the second man heartily agreed, Aaron would take the precious statement to the first man. When the two met each other next, they were able to have a positive rapport. It is because of this reputation of Aaron that in the Psalms, David compared the sweet fragrance of Aaron’s anointing to brethren united and in peace together (Psalms 133:1). Hear now Paul’s praise, about the fragrance of Messiah, But thanks be to God, who in Messiah always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Messiah to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). Let us spread this sweet fragrance of peace throughout the whole world. Let us be example of the sweet fragrance of the peace of Messiah because really, if our application of Torah doesn’t bring us to the nitty-gritty of being at peace between each other as families, communities, and congregations, we are totally missing the point. May our heads, faces, hands and feet be filled with the radiant fragrance of Messiah, the prince of Peace. May we be part of those whom the Master called ‘peace-makers’ that we in turn may be called the ‘Children of our God’ (Matthew 5:9). |
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