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Matthew 5:12
“… The prophets who were before you.” "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also (Numbers 12: 1)?" This was Miriam’s complaint. Though the English text tells us that both Miriam and Aaron complained, the Hebrew text uses the verb in the feminine form. The complaint had to do with prophecy, but also with Moses’ Cushite (Ethiopian) wife. The Torah is not very generous on details concerning the situation with the Cushite woman, but we can certainly read in the text an issue of jealousy concerning Moses’ prophetic gift and elevated position in the camp. Right away God solved the issue by establishing what I would coin as the ‘hierarchy of prophecy’ (Numbers 12:6-8). Similar problems seem to prevail in congregations today. To understand the issue, we must understand the nature, function, and property of prophet and prophecy. A prophet is not someone who tells the future or who is given messages for the benefit of everybody else. A prophet is simply someone who hears God to a certain extent. Samuel started his career as a prophet when he heard God in the middle of the night; because all Israel hear the Voice on the mountain they were all prophets; Yeshua called His disciples ‘prophets' cause they heard Him (1 Samuel 3:4; Exodus 20:18; Matthew 5:12). Prophecy is also part of the ‘earnest of the spirit’ each one receives as believers, just as Peter reminded us using the prophet Joel’s prophecy (2 Corinthians 1:22 KJV; Acts 2:16-18). But whereas everybody has the ability to hear God’s Voice either in a dream, vision, through the reading of Scripture, or even in a Voice in their hearts, doesn’t mean that they should strut around as teachers and prophets saying 'the Lord told me' to give weight to their personal views and opinions. Only certain ones are given the divine command to share a message with the body and even when that happens, the congregation is to weigh the message (1Corinthians 14:29). In this sense, Miriam was right in her question to Moses. The issue here was that in her misplaced jealousy she did not recognize Moses’ status. Maybe as his older sister, she was a bit familiar with him. God seemed to communicate with Moses like with no-one else before. Whereas everybody else was given riddles, dreams and visions to decipher, God’s communication with Moses was less ambiguous. The Torah tells us, with him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD (Numbers 12:8). Yeshua is prophesied as the ‘prophet like Moses’ (Deuteronomy 18:15). That is because as Moses, the Master had open communications with God. In their innate craving for self importance people often ignore these principles of prophecy and thus like Miriam cause many problems in congregations. To ‘drop’ God’s Name to share a personal opinion or view on something is very dangerous and akin to ‘using the Name of God in vain’. May we remember that while Paul spoke highly of the gift of prophecy, he also said that something was higher than prophecy: Love (1 Corinthians 12:31; 13).
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Ephesians 5:20
… Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Adon, Yeshua HaMashiach. The old saying, 'Be careful what you pray for, you may get it' is true. When the children of Israel complained about their diet in the desert Abba gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them (Psalms 106:15). The lifestyle of the disciple is not generally one of abundance. The Nazarene sect of the early Israeli disciples of the Master were nicknamed, the 'Ebionites', meaning, the 'poor ones' (Galatians 2:10). There is nothing wrong with abundance as it certainly can be a sign of God's blessing, the problem is not abundance, but our attitude towards it, an attitude very well described in the episode of the Children of Israel and the quails (Numbers 11). If there is anything God hates I think it is whining, grumbling and complaining, especially against our own blessings. Here the Children of Israel had experienced the miracles of miracles since coming out of Egypt. From and enslaved people, they were going to be established as a sovereign nation in a country flowing with milk and honey, but all they could think was about a little more variation in their present diet? The problem was not 'Manna' or 'fish' abundance or poverty, the problem was the spirit of entitlement. We are not owed anything by the Almighty, except maybe a good whooping. The attitude that needs to emanate from our spirit is, Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD (Job 1:21). The minute we approach life in a spirit of entitlement, we are bound to disappointment, discouragement, and eventual failure. I think this to be the problem behind depression, sadness, and discouragement. We have been mistreated and it's oh so unfair; so we give up and curl up in self-pity licking our wounds. There is something very special about food. We think we are entitled to eat whatever we want in the quantity that we want. Nothing in life works that way. In everything we need to learn the discipline to choose the good and eschew the evil, but when it comes to food, we think we are entitled to whatever suits our palate. As a result, in America we have an epidemic of obesity. The first notion of sin ever taught us was about something to eat. Also a big part of God's requests for His people is concerning their diet. There is old song I sing sometimes: God has not promised skies ever blue, flower strewn pathways all our lives through. God has not promised sun without rain, joy without sadness, peace without pain. But He has promised strength for each day, grace for all trials, light for our way, Rest after labor, help from above, unfailing sympathy, undying love. May we learn that we are not entitled to protection, health, or wealth, only to redemption, and eventual resurrection in the 'World to Come'; May it come soon Abba, even in our days! Ephesians 5:8-10
… For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. As we continue our reading through the Hebrew Texts, we are told of Aaron, the High-Priest at the time, being given instructions concerning the lighting of the menorah, the seven branch candelabrum placed in the first chamber of the tabernacle. This menorah is positioned facing the twelve loaves called ‘The Bread of Presence’, which speak of the twelve tribes which form the Hebrew nation. Ancient texts concerning the seven lights of the menorah read, “The seven lamps of the menorah correspond to the constellations of the seven stars”; What this says in in essence is that the lights above are represented by the lights below. The first chapter of the letter which cradles the endtime revelation which the Father gave Yeshua to give John through an angel tells us more about the seven lights of the menorah. In the text, Yeshua is described walking in the midst of seven menorahs and holding seven stars in His hands (Revelations 1). The text explains the imagery of the vision in the following words, the seven stars are the angels of the seven Messianic communities, and the seven menorahs are the seven Messianic communities (Revelations 1:20). In essence, just as the Tabernacle menorah represented Israel, the menorahs in Revelations one represent the congregations. We are told also that Yeshua holds in His hands the lights of these congregations, the leaders of these congregations which He calls ‘stars’. In Talmudic texts, a star can be a leader or a king. Yeshua Himself is defined as ‘a Star out of Jacob’ (Numbers 24:17). Yeshua had a message to communicate with these leaders to communicate to their congregations. The Menorah of the tabernacle lit the darkness of the Tabernacle chamber. Just like stars, we can see a candle from far away when it is dark, but in the daytime we see neither candle nor stars. In the text of Numbers, the congregational Menorah of Israel is to shine perpetually lighting the darkness around it. It tells us that Israel is to be a light to the nations (Isaiah 49:6). So is the role of each of the communities in John’s letter, and so it is with the congregations today. The communications from Yeshua to these communities were for the most part rebukes for inconsistencies and disobediences. This would be similar to ‘trimming the wick’ of a lamp so it burns clean and clear without giving suit and smoke. So must we today allow Messiah to ‘trim our wicks’ from inconsistencies, hypocrisy, and disobedience. “Avinu shebashamayim (Father which is in Heaven): trim our wicks that we may shine and be the light you mean for us to be in the world (Matthew 5:14). Romans 11:33
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! Numbers five tells us of a very strange ritual concerning the 'woman suspected of adultery'. The ritual is very different from all others because it depends on a miracle. In those days women were not to be seen alone with someone of the opposite sex who is not a relative or their husband. Here is a scenario: A man sees his wife several times alone in the company of another man. He does not witness any indiscretion but finds it very strange that his wife should break protocol in this way. He suspects her of adultery. Immediately he has to stop marital relationships until she is vindicated. To vindicate her, the man has to bring his wife to Jerusalem where an officiating priest will unbind her hair and make her drink a potion of water, ink, and dust from the tabernacle (reminiscent of the Golden Calf episode in Exodus: 32:20). If she is guilty, her womb will swell and her thigh will drop, but if she is not guilty of adultery, she will conceive and have a child (Numbers 5: 14-31). At first glance the system seems chauvinistic and even ludicrous The whole thing also solely depends on the operation of a miracle for either vindication or condemnation. The sages of Israel teach that the whole point though was to protect the woman from an over jealous husband, to exonerate her, as well as to preserve marital harmony. He who is married to Israel preserves marital harmony with His bride even at the cost of His own Name. The passage tells us that the priest is to write God's Name and then dilute it in water, mix it with dirt and give it to the woman to drink. This erasure of the Divine Name comes against and despite the forbiddance to do so (Deuteronomy 12:3-4). In order to bring marital peace and unity God is willing to let His own Name be erased and dragged through the dirt. Pondering on this point, I am saddened when I realize the flippant attitude many have towards marriage. Whereas the Father of all Compassions seems to go to the nth degree to preserve marital peace and harmony, I see (and you probably do too) many marriages broken because of trivial and mostly selfish reasons; sometimes even because of theological differences. Whereas Paul, the chosen apostle of the Master, advises marriages between believers and idol-worshipping pagans to remain together (1 Corinthians 7) nowadays people divorce because can't agree on how to worship the same God. Such a sad reflection on the Father! The way I see it, we would be destroyed if He treated us the way we treat each other, and be lost if He judged us the way we judge each other (Psalm 103:10). If only we would realize the sanctity God places on marital harmony, on peace in the home called in Hebrew: 'shalom Bayit', we would understand the infiniteness of His love and compassion. |
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