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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. They did not transfer their loyalty to an idol of gold. Unfamiliar with the idea of an unseen god with no image or temple, they concretized the unseen One who had qualified Himself by taking them out of Egypt into the similitude of a calf. Hashem seems to have an issue with identity theft. Israel played the harlot during her betrothal so God calls off the wedding. The first covenant made at Sinai is already 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 here where Moses found a legal loophole: it doesn’t matter by whom it is paid. In this case, Moses negotiates with Hashem. 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’ terms, but uses ‘we’, and ‘You”. Therefore if God kills Israel, He has to also kill Moses. Moses saves the day by identifying himself with Israel, by putting his own life on the line alongside Israel. As a result, by the righteousness of one, the whole nation is saved. This is a very important concept foreshadowing Messiah’s mission. Having heard Moses’ pleas, Hashem rewards his sacrificial stand and shows His True compassionate nature by renewing the broken covenant. It will be the same covenant but renewed, not a new covenants such, this 'renewed covenant' (brit Chadasha) carries the same terms as the first one. Hashem does so because of His own character and desire. In the third chapter of the Book of Exodus, as the Almighty Creator of the Universe reveals His identity to Moses,. He uses the words “HEHIYEH ASHER HEHIYEH”, or “I Will Be That I Will Be” (Exodus 3), which means something to the essence of “I Am the Eternal Existential Being and I keep Covenant Forever’. In Exodus thirty-four, Hashem 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 Hashem is forgiving and compassionate, there will be a wedding in Horeb after all. It is so funny that so many people think that divine grace and forgiveness is something our Master Yeshua brought, and that it didn’t exist before. Yeshua’s grace was only a reflection of the Father’s never-changing willingness to atone and forgive. Yeshua came to show and represent the Father's eternal comapssion 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)?
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Matthew 10:28
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. In his exhortation to the Children of Israel towards obedience to God, Moses reminds them of the sin of the Golden Calf; he warns them against idolatry with the words, For Adonai your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God (Deuteronomy 4:24). The writer of the Book of Hebrews admonishes his readers to obedience using this same passage (Hebrew 12:29). For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest (Mt Horeb) … But you have come to Mount Zion (in Jerusalem where Messiah was crucified). This whole chapter is usually read as an antithesis between Mt Horeb and Mt Zion. It is usually interpreted in the assumption of a spiritual opposition between the two mountains: "you haven't come to Moses, but to Yeshua; not to the Torah, but to 'grace'; not to the Old Testament, but to the New. God was mean before, but now He is nicer!". This is a flawed understanding and even a minimal understanding of not only the context of the chapter, but also of the style of Jewish writers reveals it. In this passage the writer makes a point for people to obey and fear God's discipline (Hebrews 12: 1-17) using the traditional 'kol v'homer' argument so often used by Paul, Yeshua, all the prophets and apostolic writers. In the same manner that Yeshua said (my narration) "if God clothes the lilies of the field which are here today and burned tomorrow better than even King Solomon in all his glory, won't he also clothe you?", the writer of Hebrews declares, "you think Mount Horeb, the mountain of Moses and of the congregation in the desert was so awesomely terrible that people who disobeyed died a terrifying death? Mt Zion, the mountain of the firstborn (Yeshua) in Jerusalem is even more deserving of your respect." He says; See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth (Moses), much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven (Yeshua) (Hebrews 12:25). Now we get the intended message: "You saw what happen to those who disobeyed at Mt Horeb? Mt Zion is even more terrifying!" In this day and age people tend to have a very familiar relationship with Yeshua; they remember the baby born in Bethlehem, He who cried at the death of His friend Lazarus, the gentle Lamb who opened not His mouth as He was reviled by both His brothers and the pagans. We tend to forget though that the baby grew up to be the returning King clothed in a garment dipped in blood, and vested in all the authority and power of God to execute judgment and vengeance on His enemies and on all those who defy His rule (Revelations 19). He is able not only to kill the body, but He can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28). May we stand and be warned: Serve Adonai with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him (Psalms 2:11-12). 1 Corinthians 15:52
… At the last trumpet. Paul, Yeshua’s emissary speaks to us about the ‘last blow of the shofar’ (1 Corinthians 15:52). If there is a last blow there must also be a first, and in our case the last blow of the shofar is an echo of the first at Horeb through the passage of time. The first shofar is blown at Horeb to herald the grand entrance of the King in the lives of men. God entered the created dimension and His feet touched the mountain (Exodus 19:11). The Almighty Creator of the universe also enjoyed a meal with Israel sitting at His feet (Exodus 24:9-11). In the same manner, the last shofar will herald the arrival of the King whose feet will touch the mountain and who will also recline with His disciples for a meal (Zechariah 14:4; Revelations 19:7-9). In Exodus, while Egypt drowned and licked its wounds from the results of a series of plagues, our fathers were placed under the legislation of God’s eternal Instruction. By these, they were to be a light to the nations. At the last shofar, while the worlds also licks its wounds from the plagues of God’s judgments, those of the nations who remain will also be placed under the legislation of the Light of Torah which is the constitution of the Word to Come. When a man blows the shofar, he starts out strong then grows weaker as he runs out breath. It is not so with the God whose breath (in Hebrew: ruach meaning: spirit or /breath) is infinite. The mighty El-Shaddai doesn’t run out of breath as the text in Exodus tells us, As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder …(Exodus 19:19). Looking at our sad world today, it can easily be concluded that all of its problems are the result of breaking the fundamental instruction taught at Mt Horeb. One of the sages of Israel defined that just by keeping the last of Horeb’s Ten Statements we keep all the rest of them. Indeed if we (10) do not covet the things that we do not have or even need, (1) we worship our One God and (2) are not tempted the dainties offered us by idol-worshipping; (3) we do not need to lie so we do not need to take His Name in vain by swearing falsely (Matthew 5:33-37); (4) we do not find it binding to take a day off from lucrative activities to spend it with God and those created in His image such as family and friends, and (5) we have no qualms about morally and financially supporting our aged parents. The absence of covetousness also negates the need for (6) murder, (7) adultery), (8) stealing, and (9) lying. Thus is the legislation of the Messianic Era now and in the World to Come. May it come soon Adon Yeshua, even in our days! |
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