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Hebrews 11:9
By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. The Almighty El-Shaddai swore to Abraham, all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever (Genesis 13:15). Yet, after decades of wondering, and even going to war with five kings to protect his divine inheritance, when it came time for him to bury his wife, the patriarch still claimed to be a ‘foreigner’ in the Land of Promise (Genesis 23:4). He even had to haggle a burial place from a mocking Canaanite. The Scriptures record three important places purchased by Abraham and his offspring: Abraham bought the Cave of Machpelah (Genesis 23:17-18); David purchased the place where the Temple was built (2 Samuel 24:24); and Jacob acquired the parcel of ground where Joseph was eventually buried (Joshua 24:32). The Scriptures solidly record these transactions but until today, these places are claimed to be Muslim holy sites ‘stolen’ by the Jews. Abraham believed the Divine reality of the promises of God and acted upon them as much as he could, but he also knew how to live within his earthly present reality, the very present reality of having to buy what already belonged to him by Divine right. He even refused Ephron’s offer of a gift. Abraham bought the land, and he bought it at an exorbitant price. This teaches us the difference between promise and reality. Four thousand years later, as a response to a distant echo, the descendants of the Children of Abraham move into this land and re-conquer what is already theirs by Divine right. Until today this small strip of land by the Mediterranean Sea, that Pleasant Land promised to the descendant of Abraham not to die but to live in, is being bought at an exorbitant price. It is being bought not only at the price of the lives and deaths of many victims of war and terrorism, but also at the cost of world’s anger and the resurgence of anti-Semitism. The haggling with the 'Canaanite' seems to continue, not only with one king this time, but with the world and the United Nations. Sometimes Israel is so tired of the ‘haggling’ that it is tempted to offer ‘land for peace’. We must learn something from Abraham our father. While being aware of our Divine reality, we must also learn to live within our present earthly reality. Our souls have been bought and purchased; Yeshua paid the exorbitant bride price to live within the walls of our hearts, but daily the haggling goes on with t 'Canaanite' who does not let go. We can get so tired at times of the daily fight that we compromise with the 'evil one' offering him terms of 'peace' in the form of land from our heart. But wait, Messiah bought that 'land'; it belongs to Him. And as Israel does, must remember the price and the promises, expecting total fulfillment in the Messianic Era.. As Abraham and his 'offspring', we must learn to fight knowing that what God has promised, He is also able t fully accomplish (Romans 4:21).
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John 14:9
“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” The dear sages who compared Jerusalem to Sarah our matriarch could not have foreseen the extent of their analogy. In the midrash of the barren woman, Hashem reveals the messianic future of His dear city to the prophet Isaiah. Since its sacking by the Romans in the first century C.E., many have looked at Jerusalem just as Isaiah saw her: a barren woman sitting on a heap of ashes, ostracized and rejected by her husband because of her many infidelities (Isaiah 54; Jeremiah 26:6). One of the legends I like the most is the one about the weaning of Isaac. It is said that Abraham called in a great feast (Genesis 21:8). The rumor had gone around that Isaac was actually Pharaoh Abimelek’s child (Genesis 20:2). Not only people couldn't believe that old Abraham sired a boy, but they also could not conceive Sarah lactating at ninety years old. The point of the feast was to vindicate the miracle God had performed and put the rumors to rest. Great Sheiks came from all around in great caravans and pomp to attend Abraham’s feast. To prove herself, not only did Sarah nursed her son, but she offered to nurse every baby in the camp. She did, and the story goes on to say that every child Sarah nursed eventually became a king or a person of great influence and integrity. Also, in order to erase any doubt that the child was truly Abraham’s, God had made the face of Isaac similar to that of his father, so that it was said that he who saw the son saw the father. Sounds familiar doesn’t it (John 14:9)? Look now why our ages compared Sarah to Jerusalem. Just like Sarah was, twice Jerusalem was conquered and taken captive by foreigners, first by the Babylonians, and the second by the Romans. With the re-establishment of the State of Israel, the Roman captivity shows signs of coming to its end. Having the past of Jerusalem in Sarah's life, let us now see now its future. After the return from her second captivity, Isaac, the promised child, the fore-shadow of Messiah was born. Sarah who barren and past the age, finally bore fruit. In the same manner today, Jerusalem, one of the oldest city in the world, a city that has been used, abused, rejected, redeemed, to be rejected again and re-redeemed, prides itself of a new vibrant Messianic community rising all over in Israel: the ‘remnant of the seed of the woman’ (Revelation 12:17) preparing the way for the soon return of the King (Revelations 19). The same miracle that rejuvenated Sarah to conceive Isaac and lactate happens in our day through Jerusalem. Think of it: a whole country was re-born in a day with a new generation of messianic believers preparing the way for the soon-coming of the King who will rule the earth in the justice and righteousness of the Father. Will they become the kings of integrity ‘nursed’ to rule in the Jerusalem of the World to Come? May it be soon Abba, even in our days! Those who would try to interfere with the miraculous plan of God are playing with the unstoppable spiritual and natural forces that created the heavens and the earth. May they beware! Hebrews 11:8
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. Do you hear The Voice? Do you hear the call? How many times does Hashem call us to a place with Him but we don’t go? He is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5). To be with Him He requires a total abandonment of everything else. He requires that we completely strip ourselves of our personal attempts at righteousness, protection, security, and sustenance. He wants us to lie bare and prostrated before Him down, to our utmost vulnerable point because without faith it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). Where is Hashem taking you today? Has He asked you like Abraham to, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. (Genesis 12:1)? Has He asked you to leave the comfortable place of familiar surroundings, to venture out from the comfort zone of familiar beliefs and into the unknown? When He does, are you willing to go like Abraham or do you whine because things are the way they 'used to be'? In this day of fundamental changes in the society of man, in this time of economic, political and societal international upheavals we may feel the rug pulled off from under us. We may feel insecure and uncomfortable. For the person lacking faith it is a test, but for the person whose faith has been already tested, it is a joy. The world is going to a place we are not familiar with and God forbid that we should become at ease with the direction it is taking. It is now high time for us to do like Abraham and hear the call of Hashem’s Voice, For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work (Psalms 95:7-9). . Let us with Abraham let go of our comfort zone and walk in the new dimensions of faith He leads to; who knows, it may take us to the Promised Land! Matthew 19:28
"Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” When Moses arrived near the borders of the Promised Land, the aged leader knew that the time for him to be gathered with his people had come near. As a father does before the moment of his death, Moses gathered the people of Israel around him, a people that had grown as numerous as the stars in the sky (Deuteronomy 1:10), to give them his final word of advice. Except for himself, Caleb, and Joshua who was to succeed him, the whole generation that came out of Egypt had now died. Moses was surrounded by a people who had been raised in the desert under the sole nurture and admonition of God through Moses. Their only diet was manna; their sole drinking water came from the Rock that ‘followed’ them. Egypt was a distant echo they had only heard of. Moses knew that the people were difficult to lead (Deuteronomy 1:12). He knew that after his departure they still needed leadership so he reminded them of their leadership structure. These had been trained under Moses top take charge over the different matters between people, and they would need to continue to do so when in the Land. The Father has often compared us His people to sheep. Sheep need human leadership and so do we. We may rebel and chaff against it but we do need leaders to define the right way for us and even enforce it at times. The saddest words in the Tanach could be, In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 17:6). The Book of Judges is s sad testament to what happens to us when we are left to our own devices, without authoritative earthly central leadership. Today our congregations and communities are scattered and divided, and like in the days of the Book of Judges, everyone does that which is right in his own eyes, trying to obey the Word each one according to his own perspective. This has caused deep divisions, problems and hurts within the congregational body of Messiah. Hopefully, this state of affairs may not be long, for soon One day the King will return and along with his disciples as the appointed Sanhedrin, as Moses did in the desert, He will sit and judge the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28) and their myriads of disciples throughout the nations (Matthew 28:20). May it be soon Abba, even in our days! Hebrews 4:16
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Whereas our Almighty ever Beneficent Father loves to bless us with the most exquisite gifts, He also thrills at the idea that we can trust Him for them in spite of all that may seem to stand between us and them. As a result, He often hides His gifts behind seeming walls of difficulties, obstructions and impossibilities. Such was the case with our forefathers as they arrived in Kadesh and saw the Anakim, a race of people who were supposedly extinct from the earth by the Flood. The Torah doesn’t bother to explain how these people still existed after the flood. A fanciful; explanation in Jewish literature suggests that a fellow named Og clang to the roof of the ark. Along with their giant owners, the Children of Israel could also see the giant clusters of grapes of the area of Eshcol (meaning: cluster of grapes), a sign of the Land’s promising fertility. The clusters were so full with giant grapes that it took two people to carrying one on a pole between them. Jewish eschatology teaches that in the World to Come, the Land will give again grape clusters of that caliber. In the meantime, the giants stood between the people and the grapes. This is when the test of real faith comes. Those who see the giants feel dwarfed to locust’s size; Joshua and Caleb saw God instead which in their eyes dwarfed the giants. We know what happened next, ten spies discouraged the generation of Israelites which had to hen die in the desert waiting for their children, a generation raised under Moses and God’s care, to grow and conquer this Land. Will we ever know the blessings we may have inherited had we looked at God instead of sizing the difficulties? We often complain about the way things are but how many initiative for improvement go by un-attempted because we “count the cost’ forgetting to include the God factor. It seems that often our own faulty perspective is our personal giant; we downsize God to the dimensions of our fears. It must make Him feel insulted; what if your three-year old child downsized you to his level of trust and didn’t think you his father could protect him against an eight-year old? May we ponder on this sad chapter in the history of our fathers in the desert. Mostly, may we learn to recognize our unfounded fears and return God to Its proper perspective in our minds. Knowing that the time to favor Zion has come and that we live in a time of unprecedented fulfillment of the promises of the Father towards us His children, may we approach Him boldly with our requests knowing that He is more willing to grant them to us than we are willing to receive them. |
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