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John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. One of the mysteries of ancient Israel is the ‘Urim and Thummim’: ‘Lights’ and ‘Perfections’ (Exodus 28:29-30). According to tradition, these referred to the twelve stones set in the High-Priest’s breastplate. They are often mentioned as a means of consultation of God’s will. Only the High-Priest would wear them and only a king or prominent leader of the community could inquire from them. The High-Priest and the inquirer would stand in the ‘Holy’, and the answer would be given by the light of the Menorah shining on certain letters from the names of the tribes written on the stones of the breastplate. Until they were lost with the destruction of the first Temple, Israel often consulted with the Lord by the means of the Urim and Thummim. One of the most popular example is how the Urim and Thummim revealed to Saul the reason for Israel’s military defeat (1 Samuel 14:24-45). This story teaches us about the use of the Urim and Thummim, but it also tells us something about sins of ignorance. They do not absolve us from defeat, but they can be ransomed. We learn from the Urim and Thummim that God wants us to consult Him (Proverbs 3:5-7). Why did He allow the Urim and Thummim to disappear? Only He knows, but during the time of the Babylonian exile Israel developed systems of studies that kept them close to the Word and thereby God’s will. After the exile, Ezra established the system of local Synagogues and a yearly reading program. When the people returned from the Babylonian captivity, Ezra also worked at re-establishing the Temple priesthood. When some families could not prove their Levitical descent, they were refused the offices of the priesthood (Ezra 2:61-62). Their name was not enough. They needed to be found written in the registry. Disobedience had had a disastrous effect on the country. Ezra was therefore determined to stick to the Torah commands about Levitical priesthood and circumstantial evidence was not accepted. Ezra told them, not to partake of the most holy food, until there should be a priest to consult Urim and Thummim (Ezra 2:63), a statement which lends itself to the idea that one day, a High-Priest will return with the Urim and Thummim. Only that High-Priest-Priest, He who is Light and Perfection truly knows whose name is written in the ‘Book’ (Hebrews 5:5; Revelations 20:15). He promised through Moses and confirmed through Peter that we are a nation of priests (Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 2:5, 9). As Yeshua HaMashiach returns with the Urim and Thummim, He will confirm whose name is written in the ‘Book’. We will then be able to partake of the ‘most holy food’, of the ‘peace offering’ (Leviticus 7:31-32; In the mean time may we, through the agency of the Holy Spirit learn to consult Him about all our affairs. May we learn to seek His advice and follow it no matter what it says.
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Matthew 6:10
"Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven". Many teach after the Catholic idea that the final goal of our natural state is to eventually leave this earth and eternally dwell in a place called ‘Heaven’. Part of this teaching concludes that this ‘Heaven’ is the place where we all go after we die or shortly after, unless we go to the 'other place'. Many also report having had dreams about being in this ‘Heaven’ or even encountered loved ones living in it. I’d like to suggest that no-one goes to ‘Heaven’, but rather that ‘Heaven’ comes to us. When Moses entered the cloud God instructed him to tell the Children of Israel, Let them make me a sanctuary… Exactly as I show you …, so you shall make it (Exodus 25:8-9). Jewish sages teach that when Moses disappeared into the cloud, he actually entered the heavenly realm. There he saw the ‘pattern’ after which he was to build the Tabernacle and all its elements. God had brought His realm on earth to show Moses. The idea of the Tabernacle was to establish the necessary protocol so that the Holy One may be able to dwell among us on the earth (Exodus 25:8). We often speak of the restoration of all things. This implies the return to something that was and the original model of God’s creation, of God’s ‘Heaven', was, that He fellowshipped with us on the earth (Genesis 3:8). The Garden of Eden is the ideal we all desire to return to: living in complete unobstructed fellowship with God within the realm of His marvelous unadulterated creation. That is ‘Heaven’. “But what about these people who claim to have had dreams of a wonderful place, or to even have sojourned there?” you may ask. Well, maybe they are just reacting to their experience with the only information that they have (we often do). I personally suggest that they have gone to the place where the soul sleeps or rests, awaiting the final resurrection (1 Samuel 28:15; Daniel 12:2; Revelations 6:9-11). Yeshua spoke of resurrection as a time long preceding death (Matthew 22:31). The Master also spoke of that place where people awaits the resurrection, a place corresponding to our works on the earth (Luke 16:19-24). He told the thief at His side that he would be in paradise with Him that very night but three days later Yeshua hadn’t yet gone to the Father (Luke 23:43; John 20:17). Paul also speaks of several levels of heavenly dimensions. From the beginning, God’s work has been to restore the original conditions of the Garden of Eden. The way Josephus describes the first 1,000 years on earth under Seth sounds heavenly (Ant. 2.3.68-69). Later God chooses for Himself a people through which He makes a covenant to be able to dwell among them. The Tabernacle and the Temple housed the Shekinah, the very Presence of God. Yeshua came to earth to show how godliness is experienced and lived. He prayed, Your kingdom come, … on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10), and the whole thing ends with Yeshua spending 1,000 years restoring all things on earth to prepare it for the arrival of New Jerusalem, again, on the earth (Revelation 20-22). May it be soon Abba, even in our days! Colossians 2:9
For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. After successfully receiving the stone tables where God engraved His first Ten Instructions to the people, Moses was asked to levy a free-will contribution (Exodus 25:1). This contribution from the heart will serve to build what will eventually become the Tabernacle, the very place the Almighty El-Shaddai will use as a sort of communication center with Moses. Remember, the Children of Israel confessed that they could not hear the Voice of God; they ask for Moses to act as an intercessor for them (Exodus 20:18-19)., I think it strange that today many people seem to casually say that they hear ‘God’ speak to them when in fact, the Children of Israel couldn’t and established an intercessor for themselves, move which God approved (Deuteronomy 18:16-17). Sages from ancient Israel saw the future and imagined Moses asking God, “Will not the time come when Israel will have neither Tabernacle not Temple? What will happen with them then?” The Divine reply was, “I will then take of their righteous men and retain him as a pledge on their behalf, in order that I may pardon all their sins.” (Midrash Rabbah Shemot 35:4). The agricultural ancient Israelites were familiar with the custom of dedicating a whole harvest to God by presenting one sheave, the first and purest drop of oil from their olives, as well as the first-born of animal and man-kind. They understood the principles of the first and best one being given for the sanctification of the whole. The Tabernacle and Temple housed the Ark which represented God’s covenant Presence among man. At the time when God knew the Temple would disappear for a long time and the Children of Israel would go for a long exile, God gave one righteous man that he held as a pledge for the sanctification of the people. By the end of the first century, there were over 1,000.000.000 believers in Israel. The Jews from the Chassidic movement seemed to actually understand the mechanism by which God operates These people believed that their righteous men, their ‘tsaddik’, their ‘rebbes’ (rabbis) housed the Shekinah of God, that they acted as the Temple or the Tabernacle. They were not so far off. Yeshua Ben Yoseph Hanotsree (Jesus Son of Joseph from Nazareth) is that righteous Jewish man, that Rebbe whom God held as a pledge for the sanctification of the Jewish people and through whom the whole worlds gets to partake of salvation and, in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority (Colossians 2:9-10). He is the first sheave of the harvest (Numbers 28:26), the pure first drop of olive oil from the press (Gethesemane, the place where the Master was pressed measure means: the olive press). He is also the perfect lamb offered as voluntary contribution from the heart. Luke 2:49
I must be about my Father's business? The U.S. has become the icon of Western civilization, and as a teacher in the U.S., I notice that its people have become very casual. I was raised in France, and in my school days, I would have never dreamed of calling my teachers or any other adult in any other way than Mr. or Mrs. so and so (last name). I would have gotten slapped for calling my parents or any relative in any other way than ‘Papa’, ‘Maman’, or by their title as a relative. I am of the belief that our style of rapport in human relationship reveals the way we are with God. We serve God the way we serve humankind made in the image of God. You cannot say that you have a good relationship with God while you have trouble living and working with others, or that your behavior is so obnoxious that others have a hard time getting along with you. You cannot tell me that you hear the Voice of God when you have difficulty hearing those around you whom God has placed to advise you. You cannot tell me that you have respect for God and His will when you are not reverent of His Word and of the people around you whom He has called ‘kedoshim’, or ‘saints’. Because of a society that has rejected the ideas of protocol and respect of individuals placed in position of authority, it seems we also want to have a very casual and familiar attitude with God, but do we have that option? During the time of His manifestation on earth (2 Timothy 1:9-10), the Master compared Himself with the Temple. An understanding therefore of Temple and Tabernacle protocol as we have it in the Book of Exodus helps us understand what kind of relationship we are to have with Him. God was not content to merely peer down at us from Heaven. He desired to engage in a relationship with us, but because of His status of holiness and ours of non-holiness, there are protocols to be respected and accommodations to be organized for the relatyionship to work, The Tabernacle/Temple system became this protocol and accommodation, and the Master compared Himself to it (John 2:21). That should tell us that our relationship with the Master is anything but casual. Look at what happened when people of a much greater spiritual caliber than you and I like the prophet Daniel, and John, the disciple, encountered the Master (Daniel 7:13-28; Revelations 1:10-17). After Yeshua’s death and resurrection, the disciples basically became a Temple sect, hanging out there all the time (Acts 2:46; 3:1-3; 5:42). They were in what the Master coined as the ‘House of Prayer’ (Matthew 21:13), doing His ‘Father’s business’ (Luke 2:49). Their base of operation was Solomon’s porch (Acts 3:11;5:12). While creation is described in one chapter in the Book of Genesis, the description of and measurement of the Tabernacle takes a large chunk of the book of Exodus. May we learn from the study of the Temple; there is a blessing in it. 2 Corinthians 6:16
For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. In ancient Israel when a man desired a woman in marriage, he would close the deal with her father around a covenantal glass of wine. This way of ‘closing a deal’ has travelled far and wide. In France, when people agree together towards a certain action, they serve everybody involved a glass of wine that each person with the other’s at the top before drinking. The future husband then would go and ‘prepare a place’ for him and his bride (John 14:3). He would usually do so as an addition to the house of his own father, where he lived. He may engage the help of friends and experts, especially if he were not necessarily gifted in carpentry skills. This is exactly what is happening in the twenty-fifth chapter of the Book of Exodus. God who betrothed Israel is now engaging ‘friends’ to build a tabernacle that as He says, “I may dwell in their midst” (Exodus 25:8). The Hebrew of that text is very interesting. It says, :oosh’chenti betocham”, which carries the more literal translation of, ‘that I may dwell within them’. God doesn’t want to live in a little ‘box’ somewhere in a building where we come and pay Him a friendly visit once or twice a week. As any husband would, He wants to live within the close intimacy of our hearts. There are two words in Hebrew for knowing someone., ‘Makir’, and yode’ah’. ‘Makir’ is a word that relates to a casual acquaintance, but ‘yoda’ah’ is the word used in ‘And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived (Genesis 4:1). From these verses, Jewish scholars developed the notion that each Jewish home is actually a small Temple, and each individual is also a miniature Temple. The apostolic writers were familiar with that notion. We read it in the apostolic Scriptures …For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Corinthians 6:16 quoting Leviticus 26:12)). This idea is erroneously interpreted as the body of believers replacing the Temple, but its concepts were actually an endorsement of the role of the temple in our lives: the sign of the Presence of God among us. The same applies to the Tabernacle which was the mobile Temple in the desert. God had His people built the Tabernacle which later became the Temple which Yeshua claimed was a ‘house of prayer’ (John 2:16). We also know that the Master was disgusted at the lack of reverence people had for the Temple. The same ungodly hands that killed Messiah also destroyed the Temple. We are told that one Day Messiah returns to take vengeance on a world who tried to up-throne Him. On that Day He will rebuild the Temple. On that Day, the Light of the world will have returned. All nations will flock once a year for the feast of Tabernacle to offer their gifts at the Temple (Zechariah 14:16). May it be soon, Abba, even in our days! Matthew 7:21
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven”. The rulings contained in Exodus 21-24 provide us with a big window into the heart of the Father. How more sensible our world would be if it acknowledged God’s wisdom in His approach to government. This is the problem today with the Bible: so few ever tried it! Maybe they will one day, probably out of desperation when the best of man’s efforts will have only led to catastrophe. For millennia the world has not been able to care for its poor. Even today, with all our sophistication all the world has to offer is a ‘slave-master’ economy based on cruel usury (Proverbs 22:7) which is forbidden in God’s eyes (Exodus 22:25-27). In the Torah, lending to the poor in need is not an option, it is a commandment witch Yeshua reiterated in, Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you (Matthew 5:42). An idea for the Messianic communities would be to emulate Jewish communities and create interest-free lending funds. As times worsen, we certainly need to pool our resources. God is generous; He cares for the downtrodden; He is One who has compassion on the poor and gives freely. We should be the same. Another ruling that we should be careful to observe is "You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people (Exodus 22:28). Miriam was afflicted with Biblical leprosy as a result of disobeying this commandment (Numbers 12). If the English wording in this verse seems strange, it is because the original Hebrew in the text of this whole chapter merges the identities of God and of ‘Judges of the people’ into one. In essence, in cursing or blessing the spiritual authority God has set upon you, you curse or bless God. This commandment is still relevant and here is an important precedent for it. After Paul publicly reviled a corrupt Sadducee High-Priest who was trying to unjustly condemn him and had even smitten his face, the apostle apologized saying, "I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest”. Paul then justified his apology quoting from Exodus, “for it is written, 'You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people (Acts 23:5).'" This is a condition-less commandment. Even if the ruler is curse-worthy, we are not to curse him with gossip, criticism or open challenge. Let’s say you don’t like the way things are in your congregation, after humbly presenting your point to the persons involved, if things don’t change, just leave and go where you can feel happy. It is certainly a sin to openly challenge leaders and create a mutiny. If you do it, it will surely happen to you in return, either in your congregation or in your family. God will see to it. May we learn to live by God’s rulings; Yeshua did! James 1:22
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves”. The reading portion assigned for this week starts with the rulings of freeing slaves every seven years. This law of release also applied to fields that are to be let fallow one year out of seven. The purpose of these commandments is to keep people from oppressing each other, as well as to establish a sense of priority in God’s people. God doesn’t want us to spend our lives aimlessly increasing our wealth at the cost of human beings and our spiritual walk, which also needs attention. When the people of Israel did not obey the law of release, God sent Babylon against them. The seventy years of Babylonian captivity correspond to the seventy jubilees they did not observe. The earth is God’s and everything in it. He makes the rules and He gets His due, you can make sure of it. The part that compliments this week’s reading portion is in the Book of Jeremiah. As the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem, through the mouth of Jeremiah the Lord convicts the people about not observing the jubilee (Jeremiah 34:8-10). As they obeyed, word reached the Babylonian army that Hophra was coming up out of Egypt with an army to raise the siege. It is not that the Egyptians loved Israel so much, it is just that whoever controls Israel controls the Via Maris, the main trade route between Egypt and Assyria. Here is where the story changes. When Israel sees Egypt coming to its rescue causing the lifting of the Babylonian siege, they renege on their repentance. They bring their slaves back to labor. They maybe thought they played a good one on God, until Jeremiah unveiled God’s retributive plan. You can read it in chapter thrity-four of the Book of Jeremiah. Through Abraham, God made a covenant with mankind which cannot be broken (Genesis 15). But the fact that this covenant cannot be broken does not exclude retributions for us breaking it. Though these retributions may not be definitive, they are nevertheless drastic (Jeremiah 34:13-22). When a person goes under the redemptive covenant God made with the world through Yeshua the Messiah, that person becomes liable to the obligations of its contract. Inclusion under God’s covenant is free, but there are particulars to the terms. As we read Scripture, it is important for us to understand the particulars of our contract. In this day and age of literacy, the only excuse we have for not knowing is disobedience or indifference, and both are bad. James admonished the Israeli community of believers in these very pertinent words, Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves (James 1:21-22). May we also take these words to heart! Matthew 18:35
“So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." Because of an erroneous stubbornly recurring theology that requires to make differences between the Hebrew and the Apostolic Writings, people automatically assume that the Master overthrew the Mosaic legal code of retribution of, ‘an eye for an eye’ and replaced it with a new law based on love and forgiveness (Exodus 21:24; Matthew 5:38-41). Let’s examine the issues a little closer. The expressions, ‘eye for an eye’ and, ‘turning the other cheek’ are not to be taken literally. These are Hebrew idioms; legal terms invoking damage restitution by a liable parties. For damage restitution not to be demanded by God’s court of law would be unjust, and God cannot be unjust. Actually, for a liable party not to ‘beg’ for an opportunity to demonstrate his true repentance for his foolish actions, would show callousness and a total lack of the fear of God. When reading the Master’s recommended application of the Torah legal code all throughout His teachings, we must realize that Yeshua could not have been changing the Torah. That would automatically make Him a false prophet to be shunned. It is because of that erroneous teaching that until today Jews will not consider Yeshua as the Messiah. What Yeshua did in His teachings was absolutely in line with Rabbinic Judaism. He took the Torah and gave His personal opinion on how to apply It’s wise instructions. Most of the Master’s recommended Torah application can be found within Judaism itself. He promoted much of Rabbi Hillel’s teachings (Rabbi Hillel was Gamaliel’s (Paul’s mentor and teacher) Grand-father)). Of course, since Yeshua is the Mashiach, His chosen applications are the right ones. The mistake people make when they read the Master’s teachings is the failure to distinguish between obligations pertaining to Torah courts of Law, and imperatives given to individuals. Because of this, people often want to take the ‘law’ in their own hands and appl iti in a vigilante style desiring wanting to kill the adulteress, the idolater and the criminals, when actually nothing could be done outside of a legal Sanhedrin ruling. What the Master teaches us here is greater than requiring the due course of justice. There is no commandment to litigate, and what Yeshua offers is the idea to not litigate, but rather to forgive a debt (a sin or an offense) from the heart, to not hold grudges, but to rely upon the God of the Universe for justice. This principle is the one found in the parables of the unjust servant (Matthew 18:21-35).To forgive in the legal code of Torah was not an emotional mental exercise, it was simply not to require retribution. Could anyone of us be required the full mandate of the Torah for our trespasses against God? Luke 1:79
“… To give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." The Torah provides us with much ruling having to do with man’s inhumane behavior. Some of the things the Torah talks about would make very gory bedtime stories. How can such a heavenly document be so besmirched with the filth of human sin? King David said that the Torah is Light (Psalms 119:105). Light is only useful when it shines in darkness. In essence, the Torah finds its mission within the spiritual darkness of our human dimension. Paul built on David’s proclamation in the Psalms with, But when anything is exposed by the light (of Torah), it (the sin of ‘anything’) becomes visible (Ephesians 5:13), and when he taught Timothy that, Now we know that the law (the Torah) is … not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine (1Timothy 1:8). Well I think that includes all of us! The Torah is a Light made to reveal to us our sinful condition, as a help to direct our paths away from sinful behavior. In studying God’s Oracles, we must be careful to distinguish between what the Torah permits and what the Torah advocates. Failure to do so can be disastrous. Whereas the Torah advocates unbroken marriages, in the knowledge of the nature of man’s heart it gave leeway for divorce (Matthew 19:8). Whereas it advocates monogamous marriages, it gave rulings concerning polygamy. It doesn’t mean that the Torah advocates divorce or polygamy, it only means that the Torah is relevant to the society in which it was given. The same goes for slavery; whereas the Torah gives ruling for slaves, it does not advocate slavery. We must be careful to study it according to its contextual values. Not understanding this causes us to feel removed from the text to a point of irrelevance. For example, many who would not consider polygamy as a lifestyle practice it in a sequential manner, using one spouse, and ‘throwing it away’ for another one. Many today also who would not consider enslaving humans practice a different form of it through the very commonly accepted practice of usury (lending for interest) and economic policies that offer less guaranties than those offered to slaves in the Bible. The Torah is a Light, and those who consider it obsolete live in darkness. The Torah reveals God’s nature and character, and those who in a cafeteria-style pick and choose what they want from it, are found to ‘edit’ God in their hearts. For centuries man has tried to find a better type of government than the one offered in the Torah, and the messy results are evident. In the World to Come, the Light of Torah will expose our sinful world for what it is and we will finally learn to be ruled under the justice and righteousness of God. May it come soon Abba Father, this world can’t wait any longer; too many are crying out for justice. John 5:22
The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, The Children of Israel couldn’t bear to hear the Holy Voice (Exodus 20:18-21). Who can blame them? Could you? (If you answered yes to this question you may need to go back to the ‘drawing board’ in order to understand who God is and your relationship with Him). As the people stood at distance, Moses received rulings just as valid and pertinent as those he received from the time God started speaking (Exodus 21-23). These rulings took on the judicial tone of civil cases. We must here come to a certain realization. In order to justify their theology, modern-day believers have divided God’s rulings into three categories: civil, moral, and ceremonial. We must realize that this categorization does not appear anywhere in the Biblical text. In the eyes of God, everything is religious; everything is His Torah, period! In fact, the division of God’s rulings into these categories seems to be a reflection of our modern society where some things are civil (secular) and others religious. In the days of the giving of this Torah, everything was religious. In fact, for most of History, atheism was unheard of, and at certain times and places was even a crime. The Hebrew text tells us that God was the One giving before Whom the Children were to appear for any and all cases (Exodus 21:6; 22:7-8). We do not realize this because the English text uses the word: ‘Judges’ when the Hebrew says, ‘Ha’elohim’ meaning ‘God’. We then see that all cases are of a religious nature. The reason the translators used the word ‘Judges’, is because as the people appeared before the Sanhedrin court established through Jethro’s council (Exodus 18), it is as if they appeared before God. Later, we are told that disobedience to this court is liable to a death penalty. This puts a heavy responsibility on these men. No wonder Sanhedrins shied away from the death penalty. It is told that a Sanhedrin who would rule in favor of a death penalty even once in seven years would be considered murderous. Because of this heavy responsibility, Jewish law-makers only accepted eyewitness testimony. They refused circumstantial evidence. The Sanhedrin that convicted the master was a ‘Kangaroo-court’ held in contempt of all the safeguards applied in Jewish courts. The Sadducees wanted Yeshua dead; they did not even allow the Pharisees in the court as they would have stopped the process. Human courts are bound to make mistakes. This is the nature of humanity. One day, our Messiah will return and it to Him judgment has been given (John 5:22). He will judge righteously (Isaiah 11:1-5). Let there be no mistakes though. We cannot say, ‘I will obey God only’ and with that attitude defy every human authority. We learn to obey God by learning to submit to men appointed by God. That is why the Exodus text speaks of appearing before ‘Ha’elohim’ when appearing before the judges appointed by God. |
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