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Romans 11:28-31
… But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable … just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. How wonderful that in spite of sin, disobedience, and rebellion, the Almighty Father of all compassions never leaves us without comfort and hope for renewal. The refusal to enter the Land and the Korah rebellion brought the Exodus generation to a physical and spiritual end. Would the future generations miss on the promises made to Abraham because of a few jealous and disgruntled Levite priests? Let us remember that the promises of God are irrevocable. The last words of the narrative concerning the Exodus generation are …..These may have been the narrative's last words, but not the last Words of He who actually has the proverbial 'last word'. When Moses' divinely appointed leadership was challenged, the humble prophet went along with it and told everyone, "let's ask God what He thinks" He then proceeded to collect the leadership staff of each tribe to place them in the Tabernacle. "The tribe whose staff buds overnight will be our leader," he said. Everyone agreed. The next day, the sight of dead wood resurrected to life confirmed the choice of the house of Levy with Aaron as the High-Priest. May we take the time to look at this miracle in a Messianic light? A generation questioned God's leadership and refused to follow the divine command to conquer the land. The Exodus generation Israelites was annihilated but not without the hope of inheriting through their children. Three days after a few disgruntled priests got together to challenge Moses, God confirmed His choice of leadership by resurrecting the stuff of the staff of Aaron to continue leading the Children of Israel to the eventual conquest of the Promised Land. In the same manner, 1,400 years later, another few disgruntled priests convened to challenge the leadership of the 'prophet like Moses'. Three days after His execution, life came back to His dead body to lead the fires of a new generation of Jewish Messianic believers, inheriting the promises leaving behind the corpses of the old generation forty years later! From the beginning of its turbulent history, Messianic Judaism has suffered near annihilation. After the model of Yeshua, it is now resurrecting in a worldwide fire spreading form country to country, even in Israel. May we never lose hope! God's Word is eternal and doesn't change. The Promises that escape us, our children will inherit!
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Hebrews 3:14-15
For we have come to share in Messiah, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." Many look at the day of their salvation, the day they recognize Messiah as their Redeemer, as an end in itself. They do not recognize that it is actually a means to an end, the beginning of a process to be completed. The program of full redemption is very well illustrated for us in the story of the Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land. This is where we find what I will coin as the ‘Four Steps of Full Redemption’. First we are rescued, or saved from the angel of death coming upon the land. This salvation is purely by God’s choosing. Jew or Gentile who obeys the instruction concerning the lamb’s blood on the doorposts of their houses will be ‘saved’ and eligible to leave Egypt that very night. There is no ‘Torah’ yet. Only one thing is required regardless of who we are or of our past: the blood of the lamb. That’s the first step. Second, we must cross the Red Sea. This step takes us out of Egypt. With the help of mighty miracles from God, we have left our old life and culture behind. Paul referred to the crossing of the Red Sea to a national immersion, or baptism (1 Corinthians 10:1-2). That’s the second step. Third, we go to Mt Horeb to receive the Torah. We have left our old life, culture, and country behind. We need a new life, a new identity in a new country, a new culture, under a new king, with a new set of rules. Going to Mt Horeb provides us with the Instructions for our new life in our new kingdom. That’s the third step. Finally, after experimenting and learning to live under this new set of rules, we enter the Promised Land, receiving full citizenship of the Kingdom. This is the fourth and final step. In Hebrews, the writer warns us about not making the same mistake the first generation did in the desert fearing to accomplish the last and final step of entering the land because of unbelief. I do not know what this exactly means but the warning remains. They were like the bride who got ‘cold feet’. She went through the whole ordeal and great expense of getting married, but in the end feared to move in with the groom. The writer of Hebrews speaks of entering the Promised Land as the Shabbat. We have to make a conscious effort to enter the Shabbat. We have to agree to stop our personal activities; we have to trust that God will supply if we stop working; to enter the Shabbat we have to literally surrender ourselves to God. Is this what the Children of Israel feared? Without surrender there is no peace, and no Shabbat. May we learn to surrender to Him every Shabbat so that we do not harden our hearts at His Voice when He calls in to enter that final step of entering the Promised Land of His Kingdom when it is established on earth as it is in Heaven. Revelations 14:4
These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb. In the beginning of the Book of Numbers we learn about the redemption of firstborns (Numbers 3:45-51). Yoseph and Miriam brought Yeshua, their firstborn to the Temple to be redeemed. The functioning priest who did the redemption that day was Simeon (Luke 2:22-26). Since there is no Temple today there cannot be a functioning priest so the redemption ceremony that Jews currently practice is only ceremonial waiting for the days of the third Temple. Though non-applicable at this time, the principle is rich with teachings. I am a firstborn of my father and never was redeemed. Technically then, I belong to the descendants of Aaron. As an adult, I could redeem myself but I never did. In religious villages of Russia, firstborns of animals couldn’t be used for farm work. As a result, they were left roaming by themselves. They were dirty; they got into the garbage, messed up things and caused overall trouble. Maybe that’s my excuse for causing ‘trouble’ sometimes! Israel, as the biological descent of Jacob is called God’s firstborn (Exodus 4:22). Biblically speaking firstborns have a special status in the family. They receive a double inheritance and carry the role of patriarchs of the family, clan or tribe. The role of firstborn is not necessarily according to chronological birth. God often by passed it because of the unrighteousness of the actual firstborn. We see this principle at work in the cases of Isaac against Ishmael, Jacob against Esau and Joseph against Reuben. The idea of firstborn is linked to the idea of firstfruit. A harvest is dedicated to God by the waving of the firstfruit, of the first harvested omer. In the very same manner, a family of sheep or goats is consecrated to God by the giving up and consecration of the one who opens the matrix. The Book of Revelations tells us about the consecrated firstborns of the harvest of the earth. They come from the twelve tribes of Israel (Jacob’s descendants). They have been chosen and sealed by God with His Name and that of the Lamb. In essence, they are Messiah believers from the twelve tribes of Israel and they represent the harvest of believers from the whole world before the Father (Revelations 7; 14:1-4). Yeshua Himself is their Firstborn who represents them before the Father (1 Corinthians 15:20). We are approaching the end of the Omer counting season. On the first day of the Omer the first sheave of barley is brought to the temple for the dedication of the Harvest. This is the day Messiah rose. Later during the counting of Omer He appointed His intimate disciples, His firstborns harvest from the Land of Israel as His representatives to the rest of the tribes in Diaspora, and to the world (Matthew 28). On the fiftieth day of the Omer which is Pentecost, is the time for the firstfruit of Israel’s wheat to be brought to the Temple. On that day also Israelites and God-fearers from the whole world brought their firstfruit to Jerusalem. These became the firstfruit of Diaspora Israelites (Acts 2). Through them the Words 0of the Master were carried to the rest of the world until today. Hallelu-Yah! Matthew 5:19
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Whenever I challenge people with our responsibility to God’s commandments, in full knowledge of personal failure they automatically retort with the statement, “Oh yes, but He forgives me”. They seem to know very little about the Bible, maybe they are proud, they lie, or are selfish with their time or finances (Proverbs 6:16-19), but they know how to use that statement like a theological security blanket. There is a theology out there that clams that 2,000 years ago, Yeshua came and abolished the Torah. Think about what this means. This means that 2, 000 years ago, Yeshua came and abolished the moral code that helps us discern right from wrong. That same theology also claims that the Torah has become obsolete to whoever recognizes Yeshua as his Savior because He is the Torah written in their hearts. I am willing to believe that it is true but those who claim that recognition certainly don’t act like it. If it were true, our Western world should be a paradise certainly not facing the sort of social issues it faces. Actually, the people who adhere to that theology are doubly guilty for their ungodly actions because they live in opposition to the Torah written in their conscience. This notion that the Torah is obsolete not only takes away the understanding of right and wrong, but also the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom. It is therefore the utter foolishness and ‘law-lessness’, which is the exact translation of the word ‘iniquity’. What need is there then of a Savior to cover our sins? My friend, the role of Messiah is and has always been to teach us the proper application of obedience to Torah. He came teaching, ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand’ (Matthew 4:17), which means, “turn your ways towards God for the days of His Kingdom are near; start living by His Torah and by His Instruction.” In Yeshua nothing becomes obsolete, not even the death penalty against us; He just takes it upon Himself. We therefore owe Him our lives. So beware, there are still consequences for sin; sin is crouching at the door — it wants you, but you can rule over it (Genesis 4:7). “Abba Father: may we understand that your Kingdom is ruled by the commandments that you have outlined in Your Word; .may we realize that we are responsible to Your Torah and that repentance means to turn back and start living by your teachings and principles. Forgive us for following erroneous teachings that negate the importance of obedience while we forget the teachings of the Messiah You sent to tell us that, Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven … (Matthew 5:19)”. Matthew 19:20
“Where do I still fall short?” I find it very difficult to explain to people the idea that I expressed in yesterday’s devotional, that the recipe for Eternal Life as proclaimed to us by the mouth of Yeshua Himself is: to keep the Commandments and follow Him (Matthew 19:16-21). Whereas people may at a later time understand, their mind is usually stuck behind a very strong and tall barrage of ‘Law-phobia’. Since the days of Luther’s Reformation, people have been accustomed to the ‘free-be’ version of the faith. As soon as they hear the slightest mention of ‘Mosaic law’, they suddenly become expert watchdogs of the faith to make sure that you are not teaching the ‘false doctrine’ of a Redemption that would cost them something. Don’t get me wrong here, I do believe that my Redemption cost me nothing, but as far as saying that Redemption is free I would suggest first asking Yeshua about it. The facts are that if it is free, it is because someone else paid the tab, so in essence it is not free. Justice had to be paid for God to be a ‘just’ God. So as the adage says, ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’. The other question I want to ask is, ‘And what if it did cost something; don’t you think that the benefits far outweigh anything you can invest for the Kingdom? I know that this is not theologically correct, but I feel that the issue of free redemption is only appreciated for that very reason: because it is free, an attitude which seems to denote of a spirit of calculated self-preservation and selfishness. Didn’t Yeshua teach the parable of the man whom when he found the Kingdom, was happy to invest all that he had to obtain it (Matthew 13:44)’? It seems that this man fell onto the ‘pro version’. The version that requires to pay, but the one which then answers the question of our rich young ruler in Matthew 19, ‘where do I still fall short?’ As we come to the Kingdom through the ‘free version’ program, we are introduced to the pay ‘pro-version’ option which brings us deeper into the Kingdom and closer to the Master, and whereas the entrance is free, the measure of our rewards is estimated by our personal investment, the bread we cast upon the waters and the use of our talents (Ecclesiastes 11:1; Matthew 25:14-30). We are certainly free to remain in the free-version, but wouldn’t we want to get closer to him who gave everything so we could enter the kingdom? Are we just in it for the ‘free stuff’? We are supposed to emulate Him and He did not balk at the cost. Do we? |
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