Tuesday, May 27, 2008

No Objective Thoughts

As most of my writing starts, i find myself buried in another book written by someone five times as smart as i am and loving every minute of it. This time it is The New Testament and the People of God by N. T. Wright. It is heady reading, but rich with treasure on every page. i am struck by how long it must take to write all of those thoughts down and with aspirations to write a book one day, i am left wondering how i will accomplish such a feat.

He writes about how we must view the Gospel accounts from all three approaches, theological, historical, and literary. We need to look at these accounts in the original context, trying to understand why the authors wrote them the way they did, and with a healthy theological viewpoint not forgetting that they were carried along by the Spirit of God. The thing that struck me as i was reading was that no thought or idea ever comes to us without some interpretation attached to it.

We read books that are written with the lens of the particular author who wrote it. We hear sermons with a certain skew to the message (not necessarily bad). The point being that we must be well rounded in our learning or we can be miles from the truth of a matter. In particular, it is absurdity to teach solely the New Testament to the saints without equal emphasis on the Old Testament.

The OT is foundational for understanding the NT and you will be quite lost and lead many astray if you have a feeble grasp on what God has been doing from the beginning. For example, the Gospel was preached to Abraham:

Galatians 3:8
8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN

YOU."

According to the Scriptures, the gospel is not a new thing; it has always been the plan of God. In verses, 7 and 9 of Galatians 8 which this verse is the sandwich material, we see that all who are of faith are "sons of Abraham" and "blessed with Abraham".

This means that people in the OT got saved (there's is one of those terms again) the same way we do today. God intervenes and speaks into your life like Abraham, you hear and obey (Abraham left all that he knew and went somewhere he knew nothing about), and then God works on you through the Holy Spirit to change you to be like His Son. Just go read about the conversations God had with Abraham. He is still speaking to us, we are just too busy to hear Him.

We must be careful not to avoid the OT because it is hard reading. God has set forth patterns in the OT that help us to understand what He did in the NT and what He plans to do in the future (find the Greater Exodus, hint: Jeremiah 16:14-15; 23:7-8). One last example and i am done is Joseph who is set up as a type of Christ.

He is thrown into a pit and is then raised up, after being rejected by his brothers, and is preeminent over them and has authority to save them. From the time that Joseph was thrown in the pit till he saved his family during the famine is close to 30 years.

i find it no coincidence that our LORD lived approximately 30-33 years before He died for our sins. The patterns are there if we will search for them. Be wary of the lenses that you view life through and remember that we all have a bias of some type. God can set us free because He is Truth. Do not slay your brothers and sisters because of your biases or different colored lenses. Always be searching for the truth of God in everything, reject what does not line up with His word, and treasure what is from His word.

1 Samuel 2:2-4
2 "There is no one holy like the LORD,
Indeed, there is no one besides You,
Nor is there any rock like our God.
3 "Boast no more so very proudly,
Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth;
For the LORD is a God of knowledge,
And with Him actions are weighed.
4 "The bows of the mighty are shattered,
But the feeble gird on strength.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

The Hectic Life of Yeshua

The question was asked,

"How Jesus went about regular life with the Apostles and
everyone who was pulling on Him?"

First, i would say that there was no regular life for Yeshua:

1) He was God in the flesh and came for a singular purpose that was misunderstood by most men of His time

John 18:37

37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, "So You are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."

Yeshua came so that everyone who is of the Truth hears His voice. He had singular purpose as opposed to most of us who fumble our way through life trying to figure out what we are meant to do and be. We can spend a whole life and find out it was mostly a waste because of what we built it on. Yeshua knew from before He came to Earth what He would do and be here on Earth. He was not tossed about as men are because of a lack of wisdom which that have not received because they have not asked.

James 1:5-7
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,

So first and foremost, Yeshua's identity helped to ground Him as the trials and troubles of this life closed in on Him. He knew where He came from, what He was doing here, and where He was going.

John 8:42-45
42 Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.
43 "Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.
44 "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
45 "But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.

We would do well to imitate Yeshua and those who followed Him closely. Remember that it may not look like what is going on around us; this imitation is of the KIng of the universe, not a king of Earth. Follow truth, not the lies of the world.

3 John 1:11

11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.

i hope this helps you remember that our identity in Christ is our foundation for all of our lives. We will forget who we are.

You can be sure of that so i would find a way to remind yourself every day that you are a son of God, a son of Israel, a citizen of the commonwelath of Israel, once far away, but been brought near by the blood of the Passover Lamb, Yeshua. His blood covered your doorposts and death has passed over your house. You are going through the greater Exodus on your way to the promised City (New Jerusalem) and Earth (New Earth) of Revelation. The garden is restored and the trees of life line the banks of the river of life that flows from the throne of God. You will one day be glorified and your body will be made fit for beholding the face of God which no man has seen directly and lived. But through Yeshua we will see the Father as He is because we are being conformed into the image of Yeshua from faith to faith. And we will do all this with all the saints of the past, present, and future.

Your challenge is to find the Scriptures that i used in the paragraph before. Are you up to it? If you are, write them down and keep them with you to remember who you are.

Shalom!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Imputed Righteousness From a Hebraic Mindset

Some of us may be familiar with the term, “imputed righteousness” or “imparted righteousness”. This idea of “imputed righteousness” is the idea that not only did Yeshua die to atone for our sins, but also lived a sinless life to gain righteous standing for us before the Father. This concept or theology as it is being dubbed is almost unheard of among New Covenant brethren and I rarely have heard it spoke of outside of Reformed circles.

As I studied the Torah portion for last week, was made aware of an interesting patter in Leviticus concerning human impurity that seems to pattern for us this very idea, not to mention the call from the Old Testament for belief of God’s voice and obedience to His commands; belief in His voice for salvation and obedience to His commands for blessing and because of love for your Father in heaven.

As we look first at the passage in Leviticus, I also hope to visit the two-fold idea of belief and obedience and hopefully in the end shed some light into why Yeshua did what He did on earth in the manner that He did it, namely live a sinless life and then die on the cross for our sins. Why not just come and die for our sins if atonement for them is all that is needed? Was there anything particular about the length that He lived a sinless life? Did He do this because of Torah and what He and God the Father had commanded from the beginning?

Our journey begins in Leviticus chapter 12, verses one through eight. I will be using the New American Standard Bible unless otherwise noted. Let us first look at our base passage and from there we will move out on our subject of “imputed righteousness”.

Leviticus 12:1-8

1Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
2 "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: 'When a woman gives birth and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean for seven days, as in the days of her menstruation she shall be unclean.
3 'On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
4 'Then she shall remain in the blood of her purification for thirty-three days; she shall not touch any consecrated thing, nor enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed.
5 'But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean for two weeks, as in her menstruation; and she shall remain in the blood of her purification for sixty-six days.
6 'When the days of her purification are completed, for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the doorway of the tent of meeting a one year old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering.
7 'Then he shall offer it before the LORD and make atonement for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, whether a male or a female.
8 'But if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, the one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.'"


At first glance, this passage looks like a riddle rolled up with some commands about women and a dash of childbirth. I have to admit that I found it a bit challenging not to get lost on the translation of Hebrew which tends to b poetic to emphasize meaning. The part of the passage I want us to focus on is the part dealing with the offerings: “…'When the days of her purification are completed, for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the doorway of the tent of meeting a one year old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering…” Notice the presence of two offerings, one “…for a burnt offering…” and one for “…a sin offering…”

Already we see a pattern of two offerings set-up and they are significant because each offering has a specific purpose. We need to look at these real quick for context and further understanding. Not one idle word exists in the Bible (Deut. 32:47) and every word is significant.

1. The “burnt offering” or (olah) offering is the same thing God asked Abraham to do with Isaac. Isaac was to be an “olah offering” and is a type of Christ that points us to the fact that the Messiah would be sacrificed on the cross as a burnt; ascending offering that was a pleasing aroma to the Father. He is a substitution offering as the ram caught in the thicket was.
2. The “sin offering” or (chatta’ah) offering that was a young pigeon or a turtledove. These offerings were generally reserved for the poor and would have been the ones being sold in the Temple court that Yeshua wrecked. I believe the offering of turtledoves signifies our destitution when it comes to righteousness before God.

So we have two offerings, one that is the offering of the poor or the turtledove and one that is a one-year old lamb or a burnt offering such as the Messiah would become. It should noted that Mary, the mother of Yeshua, obeyed the Law of Moses found here in Leviticus in the gospel account by Luke (Luke 2:22-24). What is crazy is that she goes to the temple and we do not see any talk about the one-year old lamb for sacrifice, but Luke accounts for the turtledoves. Why? By bringing Yeshua with her to be dedicated as the first born in the synagogue, she was bringing the Lamb of God that would end up being the “olah offering” to come.

The wisdom of the Rabbis over the years in the study of Torah is invaluable in trying to discern what the word of God is saying in the Old Testament. I want you to see this wisdom from the Chumash that I typically read the weekly Torah portion from. Here is there commentary on the passage above that supports this idea of a two part plan of God in salvation and imputed righteousness:

“The creation of a human life is the most sublime phenomenon in the universe. By bringing it into being, man and woman become partners with God, Who gives a soul to their offspring. But this new life begins with tumah, spiritual impurity, to show people that mere fact of life is not enough. Life must be a tool for the service of God; otherwise it is nothing. After this period of contamination, the new mother begins her cleansing process, culminated by the bringing of an offering. Before she brings it, she cleanses herself of the contamination, but she still may not consume sacrificial meat or terumah, because the mere absence of contamination is not yet the fulfillment of man’s goal. Human aspiration must rise higher than the elimination of the negative; it must strive for positive achievement. One is not completely cleansed until one has come to the resting place of God’s presence with an offering that represents atonement for the past and dedication for the future.”
[1]

I love the part about the mere fact of life not being sufficient; we must live and not only live, but live a life devoted to God if we are to have significance in this world. Of ever there was life of eternal significance, Yeshua lived one. He kept the law perfectly and He did all that the Father commanded for His three and a half years on earth. I think we get that on the cross atonement was made on our behalf for our sin debt. But I am not sure we see or have recognized that Yeshua lived a righteous life and was blameless. Why?

Could He not have come to earth, not answered the questioning of the high priest, not called down a legion of angels, gone to the cross by just claiming to be one with the Father all in one or two days? Why the years of life spent ministering and discipling those who would do greater than He (John 14:12). It had to be purposeful and filled with the higher ways of God. Interestingly enough, Yeshua is believed to have been born at the beginning of Sukkoth which is the Feast of Booths and coincidently the beginning of the Triennial Torah Cycle. The Great Torah Teacher came to teach the people the commandments of God. That sounds like another paper so I will leave it for now and get back to our subject at hand.

So you can see how it could be possible that Yeshua was coming to kick off the Triennial Torah Cycle and then at the end of three and half years ends the cycle with His death on the cross. I ran across a verse in Romans that I think is interesting and one we should look at concerning this two-fold subject we are dealing with, atonement and imputed righteousness. I especially want us to look at the Greek text and see if there are not two things being talked about in this verse:


Ρομανδ 5¨10
ει γαρ εχθροι οντες καταλλαγημεν τω θεω δια του θανατον του υιου αυτον, πολλω μαλλον καταλλαγεντες σωθυσομεθα εν τυ ζωυ αντον

Romans 5:10
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

When we look at this verse we see two distinct things going on:

…reconciled to God…kat-al-las’-so…through the death of His Son...than’-at-os
…shall be saved…sode’-zo…by His life...dzo-ay’

We are reconciled through Yeshua’s thanatos and we will be saved by His dzoay. What do those words mean?

thanatos
1) The death of the body
1a) that separation (whether natural or violent) of the soul and the body by which the life on earth is ended
1b) with the implied idea of future misery in hell
1b1) the power of death
1c) since the nether world, the abode of the dead, was conceived as being very dark, it is equivalent to the region of thickest darkness i.e. figuratively, a region enveloped in the darkness of ignorance and sin
2) metaphor., the loss of that life which alone is worthy of the name,
2a) the misery of the soul arising from sin, which begins on earth but lasts and increases after the death of the body in hell
3) The miserable state of the wicked dead in hell
4) In the widest sense, death comprising all the miseries arising from sin, as well physical death as the loss of a life consecrated to God and blessed in him on earth, to be followed by wretchedness in hell

dzoay
1) life
1a) the state of one who is possessed of vitality or is animate
1b) every living soul
2) life
2a) of the absolute fullness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God, and through him both to the hypostatic "logos" and to Christ in whom the "logos" put on human nature
2b) life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, in the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions (among them a more perfect body), and to last for ever.

So we end up with a two-part deal in which we are reconciled or made right with God through Yeshua’s death and then we are saved by His life. Now I have no reference in Scripture that speaks specifically about an imputed righteousness coupled to atonement. What I do have is this:

1) Abraham obeyed God’s voice and kept His commandments (Genesis 26:4-6)
2) A woman after childbirth was to offer two sacrifices, one for atonement and one for dedication (Leviticus 12:1-8)
3) God desires us to obey His voice and keep His covenant (Exodus 19:5)
4) We are to hear the voice of the LORD, give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes (Exodus 15:26)
5) We must have God’s commandments and keep them (John 14:21)
6) The perseverance of the saints depends on keeping the commandments of God and our faith in Yeshua (Revelation 14:12)

Two parts, one Messiah. Faith and Obedience. Atonement and Imputed Righteousness. The patterns are there, will you believe and obey?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1) [1] Sherman, Rabbi Nosson (Ed.). (1998, 2000). The Chumash. Brooklyn, New York: Mesorah Publications, Ltd..

Monday, March 24, 2008

Commandment One

The First “Foundational” Commandment in the Torah

Using the word “foundational” in the title may set me up for questioning because what I propose as “foundational” will most likely not be common for all people. Unfortunately in this world we live in, not many people can come to agreement about anything and this includes those in the congregation of Yeshua. It seems as though we have been inundated with post-modernist thought which makes it a bulky walk to find truth, especially biblical truth. What I hope to accomplish in this paper is to bring to light the foundational first commandment of the Torah which has overarching implications for our entire walk of faith. It is here that we either stay on the straight path of the upward calling of Christ or veer, ever so slightly, to the right or the left of truth and thus Yeshua. I hope to bridge the chasm setup, however unintentionally, between the God of the Torah and Yeshua our Messiah.

We will first look at the commandment which is found twice in the Torah.

Exodus 20:2
2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

Deuteronomy 5:6
6 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

The commandment is to know that God exists. This is the foundation to believing God which leads us to love of God and obedience to Him. Without knowing that God exists, we will not obey His commandments and thus we cannot love Him according to Yeshua in John chapter 14 verse 5. We must start at the base of the mountain, the Ten Commandments.

Most of us are very familiar with the Ten Commandments and some of us could even recite them from memory or at least get the basic ideas expressed. I want to propose to you that there are Eleven Commandments given by God to Moshe; one non-imperative and ten imperatives. This is high speech for there is one implied, foundational, command that is not a direct “thou shall not” as opposed to the other ten that are positively telling us not to do something. Let’s look at the passage in Exodus and see what we find:

Exodus 20
1 Then God spoke all these words, saying,
2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 "You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
5 "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
7 "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.
8 "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 "Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.
11 "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
12 "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
13 "You shall not murder.
14 "You shall not commit adultery.
15 "You shall not steal.
16 "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
1 7 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

Traditional commentary and preaching has us start counting commandments at verse three, but I believe we would be better suited to start at verse two.

2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

The non-imperative command it is to believe God is who He says He is and the proof is that He is the One who brought Israel out of Egypt and out of the house of slavery. This picture has great meaning for us today as believers. What house were we in before Yeshua called us to life?

Romans 6:16
16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?

We are slaves to the one we obey and in the case of the unregenerate, we obeyed sin. Sin is the master of the one who is not been adopted into the House of God. In a sense, they are still living in Egypt and have not been brought out by the strong arm of the LORD; they missed the Exodus.

Paul pulls no punches as to our state before the Exodus of our hearts:

Romans 6:20
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

Then after we become sheep in the flock of the Aleph Tav (Yeshua):

Romans 6:18
18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

So you can see how we can use the Exodus as a picture of what happens to every believer at regeneration; they are brought forth from the house of slavery into the House of God and thus must know God exists first and foremost. No person that has been truly regenerated would say they follow Yeshua and yet do not know Him. They would then be apostate and thus prove that their regeneration was an illusion. This would we as ridiculous as saying we love our wives or children and yet we do not know them. To know God is to love God and to love God is to obey God. This is exactly what Yeshua taught His disciples:

John 14:15
15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

At this point is where are stared asking, “What commandments is He talking about?” What I had been taught was, love God with all your might, soul, strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. This explanation was satisfactory for me until I was freed from Old Testament phobia. The biblical context is the crucial here to answer that question and Yeshua gives us the context as He has just finished explaining how He and the Father are one. Look at verses seven through eleven:

7 "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him."
8 Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us."
9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
10 "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.
11 "Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.

This passage laid me flat because there has been a separation between the Father and Son subtly taught to me throughout my walk of faith. It is in every sermon, book, and conversation about the bible I had previously engaged in before God revealed a Messianic way of seeing His word. Half-truth is not truth and men are teaching half-truths today and heralding them as truth. They are splitting churches out of ignorance and we need to pray for them.

This does not excuse us from the facts of the Bible that clearly state that Yeshua and the Father are one and that when Yeshua says, “…keep commandments.”, He is talking about the Torah He gave with His Father. He did not come to abolish, but to make full the Torah. He said that not the smallest letter would pass from the law until heaven and earth passed away. Heaven and earth are still here, right? The warning for us at this point comes from our LORD’s mouth in Matthew:

Matthew 5:19
19 "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

We would do well to teach and keep all of His commandments. There is no separation in agenda between the Father and the Son; there is no plan “B”.

According to the Bible, Yeshua is the same God that gave the commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. He was part of the “Us” that made us in His likeness and image. And He does not speak on His own initiative, but the Father does His work through the Son; they are inseparable. One cannot look upon Yeshua without seeing God the Father. Why?

Colossians 1:15
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

2 Corinthians 4:3-5
3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.


At this point we need to summarize: the commandments we are to keep are the Torah and in doing this we love Yeshua. And to keep the Torah we must know that God exists and thus we prove that the first and foundational commandment must necessarily be “To know that God exists”.

I fear that a great many professors of faith in the Messiah know that He is Messiah and know about the idea of Yeshua of Nazareth, but they do not know in the depths of their soul that He exists. How can I say this? They do not obey Him and keep His commandments. They give lip service of how they should be obedient and then, as James says, forget what they look like after leaving the mirror. How are we to know Yeshua our Messiah?

Knowing translates to believing:

John 3:16
16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

The Greek for “in” used in this verse is eis and it means “into” or the idea of entering into a place of destination. We must believe “into” Yeshua and we shall not perish, but have eternal life. It is more than conceptualizing an idea of Messiah or getting to the door of salvation and hanging out there. We must enter into our Messiah. We must enter into this new life and become new creatures; new creatures with new lives and new obedience to a new King who has new rules for a New Kingdom in a New Age. When you live in a city, you obey the rules of the city and when you live in your Father’s house, you obey your Father’s rules for the house.

John 14:2
2 "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.

Before I finish and forget about it I also want us to look at the Hebrew word for “Egypt” so that we can see more of the ties to us from that great work of God.

The Hebrew word for “Egypt” is “Mitsrayim” that shares a primitive root word with a like word that can mean, hostile, formative, and distress. Out of our hostility to God and our distress in separation from the One who knit us in our mother’s womb did God deliver us. We are in distress now as we wait on our King to deliver us from the hostility of the world.

All of the above set aside; it will mean nothing to us if we first do not believe that YHVH exists and see with the eyes of our heart the great distress He has brought us out of. By His strong arm were we brought out from our own personal Egypt and by His Son’s strong arm will we be brought out of our distress in this age into His house where He has prepared a place for us.

I pray for understanding and humility to accept the truth of God’s word even if it means not agreeing with men of power and stature.

Ba˙tish˙ba˙chot me˙hul˙al me˙lekh Adonai at˙tah Ba˙rukh

Blessed (are) You LORD, a King to be praised in adoration

Sunday, March 9, 2008

What to do with the law

Ephesians 4:4-7
4There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;
5one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
7But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

The question about the “law” and how it relates to us today has been permeating my thought-life as of lately. The rate at which my mind is thinking about things I have heard about the law and what I understand about the law in light of a Messianic train of thought is crippling. When I say “Messianic” I mean a train of thought rooted in a Whole Bible understanding of God’s redemptive plan. There is some background necessary if we are to journey together and end up at the same place.

The question for those of us who are New Covenant brethren is: How do we relate to Israel and what does that mean for our theology and our view of the law? The answers of the day to this question, I feel, have left us with more questions than answers. They leave us with a half-baked theology rooted in a bad foundation and grasping for a real understanding of God’s word on the subject. So when we hear someone talk about Israel, how should we necessarily think in terms of the conversation? Are they talking about a subject that I am included in? How do I approach the Hebrew Scriptures (O.T.) as a New Covenant believer? What place does the law have in my walk? Scripture is the only safe place to start when talking issues like this so that is where we go first.

Exodus 12:48-50
48"But if a stranger sojourns with you, and celebrates the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near to celebrate it; and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat of it.
49"The same law shall apply to the native as to the stranger who sojourns among you."
50Then all the sons of Israel did so; they did just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.

From the beginning, God intended one law for His people called the, His chosen people. His commandments were given from the beginning in the Torah given to Moses. The way we look at and understand Torah will forever effect our whole understanding of God’s word. Case in point, not widely known by those outside of the Messianic movement is the fact that many non-Hebrews grafted themselves into Hebrew families during the first Passover and left Egypt a part of Israel during the Exodus.

Exodus 12:37-39
37Now the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children.
38A mixed multitude also went up with them, along with flocks and herds, a very large number of livestock.
39They baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt into cakes of unleavened bread. For it had not become leavened, since they were driven out of Egypt and could not delay, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.

One would have no clue about this unless you studied Torah or had been taught by wide men about it. The One True God gave us Torah so that we would have patterns to study the New Testament and know about future events in the life of the people of God.

Our title Scripture passage from Ephesians above says that there is one God and Father of all. The Shema, from Deuteronomy Chapter six, proclaims that the LORD our God is One. Paul says in Romans Chapter four verse eleven that Abraham received the seal of the “righteousness of faith” prior to being circumcised so that he could be the father of all who believe. Our God is One, our father of faith is one. And if Abraham is our father than we all are children of Abraham and thus are common denominator becomes faith in Yeshua. That is why Paul says in Romans 9, “…For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel;”

Romans 9:6-8
6But it is not as though the word of God has failed For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel;
7nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED."
8That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.

We need to explore this passage more for I fear leaving it will not clear up current misgivings about what Paul is saying. Paul nowhere indicates that New Covenant brethren have replaced Israel because we are spiritual Israel which is commonly purported. No such thing as Spiritual Israel exists in Scripture. This is an explanation birthed out of a misunderstanding of God’s intent in redemptive history. When men of knowing find a place they do not understand, a Greek mind (that of our church fathers) will assert an answer where there need not necessarily be one yet. The Bible is a Hebrew book with a Hebrew Messiah and Jewish disciples. Hebrews do not think like Greeks. So what is Paul saying? Paul is merely pointing out the sovereignty of God in choosing whom He will to show compassion and mercy on. “Children of the Promise” points to descendants of Isaac, not some new path God is taking in redemptive history. The idea of a spiritual Israel is a tentacle of Replacement theology and is not biblical theology. If Abraham is our father, then how could the New Covenant congregation only be non-Jews or more accurately, non-Hebrews? The “church” does not replace Israel. Besides “church” is not a fair translation of “ekklesia” in my opinion. The idea of a congregation of God’s people is not a new thing first seen in the New Testament. In Hebrew it was called a “Kahal” and it meant congregation or company of peoples. So why did the translators invent the word “church” to use for “ekklesia”. What does ekklesia mean? Here is what the Greek means:

1) a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly
a) an assembly of the people convened at the public place of the council for the purpose of deliberating
b) the assembly of the Israelites
c) any gathering or throng of men assembled by chance, tumultuously
d) in a Christian sense
1) an assembly of Christians gathered for worship in a religious meeting
2) a company of Christian, or of those who, hoping for eternal salvation through Jesus Christ, observe their own religious rites, hold their own religious meetings, and manage their own affairs, according to regulations prescribed for the body for order's sake
3) those who anywhere, in a city, village, constitute such a company and are united into one body
4) the whole body of Christians scattered throughout the earth
5) the assembly of faithful Christians already dead and received into heaven

I am not saying it is wrong to use the word “church” as long as it means the same as the Greek “ekklesia” But I believe it to be misleading and a catalyst for separating the people of God in the Old Testament from the people of God in the New Testament. You be the judge of that.

So how do we relate as New Covenant believers to Israel? In the ancient days, there were two parts to the Kingdom of Israel, the Northern and the Southern. The Northern Kingdom was known as Ephraim and later Israel. The Southern Kingdom was known as Judah. The Northern Kingdom or Israel was eventually carried off by the Assyrians and the peoples assimilated into Assyrian life. They lost there identity as Hebrews because they mingled among foreigners and took their women as wives. Judah remained until the time of Yeshua and this was the line of King David and where Jews today trace their lineage from. Those Hebrews from Israel or Ephraim intermarried and they had children and they had children and they had children and so on. Thus we have a Hebrew people who passes a Hebrew bloodline to the nations and then were scattered among the nations.

The fact of the matter is that genetic ties to Ephraim or even Judah would be impossible to determine 100% today because of the distance of time. So it is not out of line to propose that some of the New Covenant believers today are physical descendants from the House of Ephraim along aside from being children of the promise in Yeshua. We cannot know for sure either way. Thus our ties, as New Covenant brethren, to Israel may be deeper than we know. The fact remains that Abraham was our Father and that because of our faith in Messiah, we are children of God and sons and daughters of Israel.

It is necessary to get our identity right if we are to approach the law from a right perspective and not in ignorance. The prophet Hosea says that God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge and we would do well to be wise when approaching this subject. So now for some more questions:

1. If Abraham is our father, then what about the commandments given the people of Israel through Moses?
2. Did Yeshua come and change what He gave on Mount Sinai to the people of Israel?
3. When Yeshua says, “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished”, did he mean something other than “heaven and earth passing away”?
4. If keeping Sabbath is a perpetual statute given by Elohim, as it is, why do New Covenant brethren treat it so flippantly?

I don’t blame you my brothers and sisters; I blame your teachers and the teachers that came before them. We have all been a victim of reformational thinking, logic, and knee-jerk reaction to legalism. In an attempt to give separation form the Roman Catholic Church, the Reformers rejected anything that had to do with the law as bad, Jewish, and something Messiah took care of for us. Not all untrue, but not the truth by any stretch of the imagination. Isn’t it human nature to swing the pendulum the complete opposite direction and miss the middle where God is? Let me not make a claim without giving proof. With Easter approaching, I will give some truth concerning this misunderstood day and celebration. Let’s start by looking up the only passage that uses the word Easter (which is a pagan celebration of a fertility goddess.) Ever wondered why they have egg hunts and chocolate bunnies? You guessed it: fertility.

Acts 12:3-5
3And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)
4And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.
5Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.

It must be noted that subsequent translations, to include the New King James, do not translate the Greek word to Easter. Instead, the New King James, uses the correct translation of “pascha” as Passover. Could you see the value of celebrating Passover today as opposed to Easter or Resurrection Sunday? The one obvious reason would be that God commanded us to celebrate “Passover” (Exodus 12:42-51), but He did not command us to celebrate His resurrection. Yeshua did tell us to remember His broken body and shed blood during communion. On a more historical note, when you do the chronology of the time from when Yeshua died to three days later when He rose from the dead, accounting that Hebrews counted days from evening to the following evening, the Friday to Sunday model does not work. Yeshua more than likely rose on Monday. This is not meant to go legalistic on you, just stating some biblical facts and leaving you to wrestle with the Holy Spirit about it.

So now, with that out of the way, how then should we view the law? We must first see that there are two parts of the law given in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). God desires us to be Torah observant whether believing Jew or non-Jew. He has given commandments, ordained feasts, and appointed days that we are to know about today and observe and obey. You are not a legalist if you obey the word of God which is what Torah is. You are a legalist when you form a system of following the law and then force that onto other people instead of calling their hearts back to the true, Living Torah, Yeshua. You see, Yeshua was not angry at the Pharisees and Scribes for keeping Torah; He was angry at them for elevating the system of the Rabbis above the actual word of God in the Torah.

In fact it was Yeshua’s habit to teach Torah in the synagogues:

Luke 4:15-17
15And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.
16And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.

What was He reading? Was it not the weekly Torah reading? We must be careful not to let our past learning fool us into believing that God the Father and Yehsua had different agendas while He was on earth. He did as His Father was doing:

John 5:18-19
18For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.
19Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.

The same Yeshua that came in the flesh is the same God who gave Israel the commandments through Moses. They are One; remember the Shema, The LORD our God is One. Interestingly, the Hebrew word for God used in the Shema, Adonai, is a plural form. In Genesis, it says that Us made man in Their likeness and image. I would argue that anywhere we see a physical representation of God, we see Yeshua. He is the word of God manifest among the people. He is the Living Torah. God creates by speaking and Yeshua is the power of that spoken Word. I don’t have it all figured out in my head and may never grasp it fully, but it is beautiful to dwell on. I do understand that God speaks something into nothing when He regenerates a soul. We had not faith in Yeshua and then God speaks and we are not unbelieving.

The law has two components to it, to finish my earlier thought. The first part of the law was the ceremonial aspect which included the sacrifices and was a foreshadowing to the coming Messiah who would fulfill those requirements because animal sacrifice is still sacrifice with borrowed blood and life. Yehsua possessed divine life that was eternal existent and free. He laid down His life; they did not take it from Him:

John 10:17-18
17"For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again.
18"No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again This commandment I received from My Father."

Check this out:

Leviticus 17:14
14"For as for the life of all flesh, its blood is identified with its life. Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, 'You are not to eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off.'

God says that all flesh has its life in the blood. Why could animal sacrifices or the sacrifice of a man not suffice to wash away our sins? We all have the blood of Adam; we have tainted blood. Yeshua came born of a virgin, thus not inheriting the blood of Joseph. That would have made His sacrifice null and void. He has pure life, pure blood, and hads authority to lay it down willingly. So Yeshua fulfilled the requirements of the law for salvation. So what about the other component of law? What does it deal with?

Quite simply it deals with blessing. Keeping Torah has nothing to do with salvation, which is by grace through faith; the same way all have been saved from the garden until now. Keeping God’s commandments after salvation has to do with loving the Father and gaining His blessings through obedience to His commands. What child odes not want to please His father? Books are written about this subject and tragedies are blamed on bad relationships with fathers. Obedient children seek to do the will of their Father. Not only this, but when you are a citizen, you obey the laws of the camp. We are citizens of the commonwealth of Israel if we be in Messiah:

Ephesians 2:11-20
11Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human hands--
12remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world…

…19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household,
20having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone,…

Okay, so take what I said earlier about Yeshua being the same God that gave the commandments of Sinai and with that lens look at this passage:

Matthew 28:16-20
16But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated.
17When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful.
18And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

We know this passage well up until verse 20 and then we drop the ball as the ekklesia of Christ. We are to teach these disciples all that Yeshua commanded. So what has He commanded? I believe He includes Torah along with the clarifications of the Torah that He has taught them over the last three years. Why? Notice that they meet on a mountain. God first gave them Torah on Mount Sinai. Now He is clarifying and reiterating His command to obey with the exception of giving us the Holy Spirit to help. Also He was talking to Torah-schooled Jewish men. That is a whole other paper. The disciples were Torah-school dropouts and hence they were doing their father’s trade, fishing. Only boys, like Paul, who excelled in the Scriptures were discipled by the prominent Rabbis. Yeshua turned their system on it s head. Back to His Torah teaching, there is also an account of Yehsua opening up all the Scriptures from the beginning to some men walking on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-28). Why did He do this? The Scriptures He would have explained would have been the Torah; they did not have the New Testament.

So in summary, we see that Yeshua did not contradict the redemptive plan of the Father, all who believe in Yeshua, whether Jew or non-Jew are children of the promise and sons and daughters of Israel, and Torah is for everyone and profitable for blessing. Salvation is by grace through faith in Yeshua who willing laid down His life-blood. We must test what we are taught by the Scriptures and the w e will see what is the good and acceptable will of God through the renewing of our mind to the truth of God.

My hope and prayer is that you will explore some of the things I have proposed. See for yourself; ask God if it is true. God is not a God of confusion and we must not rely wholly on those that have gone before us; we must seek God through His word and stand on it alone. God is gathering a people unto Himself and they all have one Messiah, Yeshua HaMashiach. They are made up of a Melo HaGoyim (a noisy, tumultuous group of gentiles) grafted in a Hebrew olive tree, heirs to the promises of Abraham. This was God’s promise to Abraham as he gazed upon the stars. God has affected this plan through the House of Judah (believing Jews), primary carriers of the law and the House of Ephraim (believing non-Jews), primary carries of grace. He has given commands or statutes, which I believe we will be keeping for all eternity. How do we know that these two witnesses exist to demonstrate the truthfulness of God’s word? Because that is how He designed it:

Deuteronomy 19:15
15"A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.

Matthew 18:15-17
15"If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.
16"But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED.
17"If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

John 8:16-18
16"But even if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me.
17"Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true.
18"I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me."

2 Corinthians 13:1-3
1This is the third time I am coming to you EVERY FACT IS TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE TESTIMONY OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES.

1 Timothy 5:19
19Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses.

Revelation 11:2-4
2"Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months.
3"And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth."
4These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Many facets of a parable

Luke 6:40-45
40"A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.
41"Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
42"Or how can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.
43"For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit.
44"For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush.
45"The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.

Matthew 7:1-5
1"Do not judge so that you will not be judged.
2"For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.
3"Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
4"Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye?
5"You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.



As I was sitting in class and listening to a lecture on the Gospel according to Matthew, the facets of this passage dawned on me. I had never really thought about the events in detail until now. Yes, Yeshua teaches in parables for the purpose of those with ears hearing and those with eyes seeing.

Matthew 13:13-14
13"Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
14"In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,
'YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND;
YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE;


But what I had not noticed was the specific stories Yeshua chose and why he chose the details of the parables that He did. Scripture is full of messages on all different levels, yet we as ones with a Greek mindset, tend to want a singular answer that is neatly packaged and works logically. Not so with the word of God. It is a jewel that held one way in the light shines a certain way and when turned shines a different light; all truths of God, just stated different ways.

The message we see in the passage above is clear. At least we would at first believe that as I had. Don’t point fingers at your brother if you struggle with the same thing. Or “don’t judge lest you be judged” as Matthew puts it in his Gospel account. Application for the passage? Get right before you judge and help your brother to see the error of his ways. Okay, fair enough, but most people see this meaning and go on like all the truth has been mined (Proverbs 2). Seek silver!

I started to ask questions concerning the process of removing a speck from a person’s eye. How small is a speck? Isn’t it dangerous to put your dirty finger in someone’s eye even if it is to clear their sight? Won’t they have to trust you to allow you to put your dirty finger in their eye? Dirt in your eye hurts which I know from experience. To answer a possible question: yes I know it is metaphorical, but Yeshua is no dummy and He used everything He said and did to teach. His examples were always meant to have meaning in every detail of them. There is not an idle word in the Bible.

Deuteronomy 32:45-50
45When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel,
46he said to them, "Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law.
47"For it is not an idle word for you; indeed it is your life and by this word you will prolong your days in the land, which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess."



God’s word is our life; it creates in us faith (something) out of nothing in our hearts. The lesson is to study the Scriptures word by word and seek the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness in His word.

So here is what I gleaned with my questioning:

1) Removing specks for our brother’s eyes is not for the untrained

- Eye Surgeons go to school for years to do eye surgery.
- Plus Yeshua tells us the same thing.
…"A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.”…

2) Removing specks from our brother’s eyes requires them to trust us

- I do not let anyone I do not trust near my eyes
- Winning a brother is the ultimate goal
Matthew 18:15
15"If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.
- Trust takes time
- Yeshua spent three years discipling His disciples.

3) Your hands must be clean if you are going to stick them in your brother’s eye
- Scrub up before you do surgery
…You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye…
- Not cleaning up can make things worse
Galatians 6:1-3
1 Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.
2 Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.
3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.


4) We must maintain a spirit of gentleness when removing specks
- Surgeons have calm hands and controlled nerves
…restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness…
Ephesians 4:2
…with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,…
2 Timothy 2:25
…with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,…

I believe that Yeshua wanted us not only to see that we should be wary and discerning when judging, but that His method was one of gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for this lost flock of sheep. That He was clean as He spoke correction into lives that were stained with sin. Yeshua did life with His sheep and earned their trust by building a relationship and being involved in their lives.

We too must imitate Christ as He gives us examples from the parables that He spoke. God is eternal and so is His word. Never get caught in the lie that Scripture is merely words in a book. They are life and life that is eternal in our Messiah. We shall be hard-pressed to delve as deeply as we long to into God’s word, but we can always turn the jewel from side to side. This way we bask in continually changing glimpses of God’s beauty.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Sinner's Prayer from Torah

Exodus 34:8-9
ח וַיְמַהֵר, מֹשֶׁה; וַיִּקֹּד אַרְצָה, וַיִּשְׁתָּחוּ.
8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.
ט וַיֹּאמֶר אִם-נָא מָצָאתִי חֵן בְּעֵינֶיךָ, אֲדֹנָי, יֵלֶךְ-נָא אֲדֹנָי, בְּקִרְבֵּנוּ: כִּי עַם-קְשֵׁה-עֹרֶף הוּא, וְסָלַחְתָּ לַעֲו‍ֹנֵנוּ וּלְחַטָּאתֵנוּ וּנְחַלְתָּנוּ.
9 And he said: 'If now I have found grace in Thy sight, O Lord, let the Lord, I pray Thee, go in the midst of us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Thine inheritance.'


Something has always left me perplexed having attended a small Baptist church and been around “invitations”: where does the Bible speak of the sinner’s prayer? We see it done every Sunday in churches across America. Heck, I have even lead people into a prayer similarly motivated. Why? Because that was what everyone was doing to come into relationship with Yeshua. Basically, I didn’t know any better.

Since that time, I have had a bad taste in my mouth for such “invitations” and seeming “salvation by prayer” sessions. I think my view may be a little too far to one side, but as God always does, He teaches us His ways if we are humble enough and do not harden our hearts to His word. One of those teaching moments came last Friday night as we celebrated Shabbat in our family and listened to Torah teaching by Lion and Lamb ministries. Who would have guessed that the sinner’s prayer could be found in the Torah?

The prayer that Moses prays is different than the one we have heard said in today’s congregations, but Moses’ is indeed the true sinner’s prayer and churches would do well to heed the Torah and change their ways to a way that more honors Elohim. Let’s look at Moses’ response to God and His prayer of salvation.

First we need context. God has just declared that He will not go with Israel into the Promised land because they have worshipped the golden calf and He will wipe them out in His anger if He has to endure their adultery:

Exodus 32:9-10
9 The LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people.
10 "Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation."

God will not tolerate sin and it cannot be in His presence or the shear weight of His angered countenance will destroy those responsible. See why Yeshua had to die for us? We could not have withstood Elohim’s fierce wrath.

So Moses intercedes for the people of Israel and basically says that they are not going to go one step forward without the LORD. God is willing to still drive out their enemies and put them into the Promised Land, but He will not be present with them for they have sinned.

Exodus 33:4-8
4 When the people heard this sad word, they went into mourning, and none of them put on his ornaments.
5 For the LORD had said to Moses, "Say to the sons of Israel, 'You are an obstinate people; should I go up in your midst for one moment, I would destroy you. Now therefore, put off your ornaments from you, that I may know what I shall do with you.'"
6 So the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.
7 Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting and everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp.
8 And it came about, whenever Moses went out to the tent, that all the people would arise and stand, each at the entrance of his tent, and gaze after Moses until he entered the tent.

Notice the response of the people: They are sad and repentant, they wait at their tent doors longing to know what God is saying to Moses, and wanting to make things right with the LORD. Moses, as the priest, intercedes for the people and asks God to go with them for it would be pointless to go without Him. Please do not miss the lesson here; heaven (the Promised Land) would be pointless without the presence of the LORD. Hear what Moses says:

Exodus 33:15-16
15 Then he said to Him, "If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.
16 "For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?"

So now, after some beautiful truth from God’s word, we will look at Moses’ prayer and how it gives us a biblical model for any sinner’s prayer we might use. Moses wants to know God intimately, so He asks the LORD to show him His glory.

Exodus 33:
..18 Then Moses said, "I pray You, show me Your glory!"
19 And He said, "I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion."
20 But He said, "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!"
21 Then the LORD said, "Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock;
22 and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by.
23 "Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen."

Exodus34:
…4 So he cut out two stone tablets like the former ones, and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and he took two stone tablets in his hand.
5 The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD.
6 Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;
7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."


After God passes by Moses, proclaims His name, and defines who He is, then Moses responds with the sinner’s prayer. God always initiates salvation. He spoke first to Abraham and He first loves all whom He saves. What is Moses’ response to this experience?

Exodus 34:8-9
8 Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship.
9 He said, "If now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your own possession."


Moses “makes haste to bow low”. He responds physically with reverence and adoration. It never says that he leaves this posture as he speaks to God. He then accepts Christ as Lord and Savior?!?! NO! He asks God if he can have relationship with Him. Notice the structure of his prayer:

Low posture to recognize his position before the LORD
Humility in speech as he asks God to grant relationship
Repentance for their iniquity and sin
Recognition and longing to be a bondservant or owned and possessed of God

We are foolish to approach God as if we are accepting the work of His Son. Was He a choice among many? Now, why did Moses ask for relationship? Why did Moses beseech God for relationship, why did he ask for mercy and compassion? Because he knew how God operates because God had told him:

Exodus 33:19
19 And He said, "I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion."


Paul understood and taught the Torah:

Romans 9:15-16
15 For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION."
16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.


Salvation is from the LORD and not from man:

Psalm 37:39
39 But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their strength in time of trouble.


It does not matter what man wills or how he runs, but God is the one who shows mercy, extends grace, and has compassion on the lost. What is our part you might ask? When God passes His glory before, we respond in the only way possible; Exodus 34:8-9.

With a reverent posture and heart
In humility honoring God with our speech
Recognizing our position under God
Repentant of our iniquity and sin
And willing to become enslaved and possessed of God

Shalom,

Jason G. Brown

Saturday, January 26, 2008

If you don't know what Moses said...

Luke 24:44-45
44 Now He said to them, "These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled."
45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,


In this passage taken from Luke, we see Yeshua speaking to His disciples after His resurrection. He comes to them and says that all the things written about Him in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Now remember that He has risen from the dead already and died on the cross. Yet Yeshua still says that all these things must be fulfilled indicating that there is more in the Hebrew Scriptures that they have not yet seen fulfilled. Why do i say that?

Look at verse 45 where Yeshua opens up their minds to the Scriptures. What Scriptures did Yeshua open their minds to? We must look back in verse 27:

27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

Yeshua taught His disciples on the road to Emmaus all the Scriptures beginning with Moses and all the Prophets. Now if we are to emulate our Messiah and the way that He walked on earth was perfect in the eyes of His Father, then where might we start when studying His word? My money is on Moses and all the Prophets, yet that is not so for most American Churches. They start in John or Matthew and thus miss 75% of what Yeshua is teaching because they do not know and believe Moses' teaching. This was a problem for a very influential group during Yeshua's day and i fear we may be dealing with the same problem.

There is an unwillingness by in large to examine ourselves and see if we are worshiping the God of the Bible or have we shaped what He has said to fit our comfort zone. If we have, that is idolatry. Do we celebrate Christmas because it is a festival given by God to honor His Son. No! We celebrate it because that is what we were taught and are expected to follow. Yet, how many of us know the true background of the celebration? It started in America with a man trying to make money off of selling evergreen trees insisting that people use them to celebrate "Christmass". Have you ever thought about how we bow down on our knees in front of the tree to get the blessings out from underneath it. We are to have no other gods before the LORD because He is a jealous God.

i do not say this to be legalistic, but there are Feasts, perpetual ones, given by God for us to honor Him and remember all that He has done. They do not have anything to do with our salvation, that is by faith alone, but they do bring blessings down upon your family because of God's promises attached to them. Read Leviticus 23 to see what they are and please study up on what God has said about Sabbath, what day He established it, and whether or not Yeshua came to abolish it or change the day as He called Himself the Lord of the Sabbath.

We must believe the words of Moses if we are to believe the Messiah. Moses writings testify about our Messiah. If you do not read the Hebrew Scriptures and believe in them, you will not believe Yeshua our Messiah.

John 5:39-47
39 "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;
40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.
41 "I do not receive glory from men;
42 but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.
43 "I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
44 "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?
45 "Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope.
46 "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.
47 "But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?"

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Check your Anchor

As I sit and wonder about my faith and what I believe, I am hit full force with how easy it is to get off the path of truth. I am starting to see that it is usually not an intentional directional change on the part of an individual, but more a lack of checking where you are anchored. Anyone who has ever floated on a raft knows that if you close your eyes for a little while on a lake, you do not always end up in the place where you started. We, like the raft, drift in life if we do not check our anchor. It is not easy to check our anchors though; it means peering into our innermost being and dealing with our complacency and sin. Why do I say sin?

For the reason that God has spoken to us and told us to obey His commands and when we do not obey, that is sin. Now the question we all, myself included, must ask is in what areas of my life am I ignoring God’s voice and when I hear His truth, no matter what others think, do I obey it. No matter what my parents brought me up doing or what I am comfortable with, or how embarrassing it might be, do we listen to God’s voice and check our anchor of obedience? Before we get into the meat of what I want to convey, we need to lay a foundation in God’s word. I pray that as we soak in a multitude of Scripture passages from the Torah as well as the New Testament you will start to see the importance of being “Entire Bible” followers of God. As a whole, it has been observed of Christians that they are spiritually anemic when it comes to the Old Testament and Torah teaching for that matter. So I start with a word of warning from Yeshua and then we can begin:

Matthew 7:22-28
22"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'
23"And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'
24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25"And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.
26"Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
27"The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell--and great was its fall."
28When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching;


Jesus used parables and comparisons in a majority of His teachings. They help us to see the stark contrast of obedience and disobedience. The keys to the passage above are that those whom Yeshua says to “DEPART FROM ME”, do or incur the following: “they practice lawlessness”, “they do not act on His words”, and “they fall and great is their fall”. Now before we get trapped into a line of thinking (subtle or known) that Yeshua only spoke in the New Testament and thus the God of the Torah is a different God than Yeshua, we need to look at another passage:

John 5:18-24
18For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.
19Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.
20"For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.
21"For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.
22"For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son,
23so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
24"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.


Pay careful attention to what Yeshua says in verse 19. He says that “he can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing.” This means that Yeshua speaks what the Father speaks, does what the Father does, and holds dear what the Father holds dear. Yeshua was with God in the beginning; He is the creative Word of God, the Living Torah or commandment of God. This same Yeshua of the New Testament gave the commandments of God to the congregation at Mount Sinai. This same Yeshua ordained the Biblical Feasts of Israel given in Leviticus 23 and said that they are to be perpetual statutes. The begging question is: Why do we as New Covenant brethren not celebrate the perpetual Biblical feasts of God as He commanded? I think the answer lies in our lack of understanding of the Torah and lack of Torah teachers. Please know that I am not speaking about salvation when I talk about the practice or lack of practice of The Feasts, but rather receiving the blessings of God through obedience to His commands.

Matthew 5:18-20
18"For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
19"Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
20"For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.


The “commandments” that Yeshua is talking about are from the “Law” mentioned in verse 18. And these are the commandments in the Torah or Law of God. Have we become the ones who have annulled and taught others to follow suit? Brothers and sisters do not harden your hearts to this message, but let the Holy Spirit show you truth. Do no be a stiff-necked people who die for lack of knowledge (Acts 7:51; Hosea 4:6). Notice that Yeshua says that those who annul and teach others the same get into the kingdom. There is no doubt here that He is addressing believers, but the fact is that they become least in the kingdom. Do you realize the implications of this passage? Pastors and great theologians alike will be least in the kingdom because of what they teach and practice. Now you must know that you are only responsible for truth as it is revealed to you. When faced with truth, you either obey or ignore (disobey). Righteousness greater than the Pharisees and Scribes means that unless you bring people back to the commandments of God, the Torah, instead of listening and placing in higher authority the teachings of men and rabbis, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

The problem Yeshua had with the Scribes and Pharisees of the day was not that they were trying to keep the Law, but that they were trying to keep the law of men. They had placed the teachings of the Rabbis above the Torah. Yeshua says that “until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished”. Last time I checked my beloved, heaven and earth are still around thus the Law or Torah is still valid. Yeshua came to fulfill the requirements of the law or as the Greek says to make full the intent and meaning of the Torah or Law, not to abolish or destroy it.

Matthew 5:17-18
17"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
18"For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Remember that our Messiah gave the Law and He will not contradict the mandate of the Father for He does nothing on His own except what He sees the Father doing. Yeshua says that He came to make “full” the intent of the Law. He focuses His message on our minds because actions grow out the seeds of thoughts. So He says, “Do not think…” that we might get our minds right by the renewal of truth (Romans 12:2) and thus our hearts will be right and our actions (obedience) will follow. The Greek for fulfill is:

πληρoω (pleroo)
1) to make full, to fill up, i.e. to fill to the full


Yeshua taught the people The Torah because they had been lead astray by their spiritual leaders of the day who had used the Law to burden the people.

Psalm 78:4-6
4We will not conceal them from their children,

But tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD,
And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.
5For He established a testimony in Jacob
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which He commanded our fathers
That they should teach them to their children,
6That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born,
That they may arise and tell them to their children,

Listen to the words of Isaiah as He describes Yeshua our Messiah as the great Torah teacher:

Isaiah 2:2-4
2Now it will come about that

In the last days
The mountain of the house of the LORD
Will be established as the chief of the mountains,
And will be raised above the hills;
And all the nations will stream to it.
3And many peoples will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
That He may teach us concerning His ways
And that we may walk in His paths."
For the law will go forth from Zion
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4And He will judge between the nations,
And will render decisions for many peoples;
And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,
And never again will they learn war.

My chief aim of writing all this is to get you to think and check your anchor. Only a prideful follower of Christ has reason to fear what I have written and the Holy Spirit will testify to you each individually about the truth of these declarations. Search your hearts and turn to the Living Torah, Yeshua. Receive the blessings of God through obedience to His commands. At the very least check what I have said to His word and let God be judge of whether or not it is truth.

John 14:26
26"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.


Shalom,
Jason G. Brown

Friday, January 11, 2008

The Red Heifer Sacrifice

The mystery of the Red Heifer sacrifice has its beginnings in the Torah and more specifically Numbers chapter nineteen. I will include the entire text because of the necessity to read it in its entirety to see all that is involved. Subsequently, I will try to glean out the important parts of the this sacrifice as they will be crucial to see if Yeshua our Messiah fulfilled them and indeed came as the true Red Heifer sacrifice. At the end of this study, I hope that you will start to see the beauty of the Torah and how without it we are a doomed to not understand correctly the entire Bible. Just a reminder: the Torah is the “Law” or “Commandments” of God and it refers to the first five books of the Bible.

Numbers 19
1Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
2"This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded, saying, 'Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an unblemished red heifer in which is no defect and on which a yoke has never been placed.
3'You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence.
4'Next Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.
5'Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned.
6'The priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the burning heifer.
7'The priest shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward come into the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening.
8'The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water, and shall be unclean until evening.
9'Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as water to remove impurity; it is purification from sin.
10'The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening; and it shall be a perpetual statute to the sons of Israel and to the alien who sojourns among them.
11'The one who touches the corpse of any person shall be unclean for seven days.
12'That one shall purify himself from uncleanness with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean.
13'Anyone who touches a corpse, the body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from Israel Because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.
14'This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean for seven days.
15'Every open vessel, which has no covering tied down on it, shall be unclean.
16'Also, anyone who in the open field touches one who has been slain with a sword or who has died naturally, or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days.
17'Then for the unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the burnt purification from sin and flowing water shall be added to them in a vessel.
18'A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched the bone or the one slain or the one dying naturally or the grave.
19'Then the clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify him from uncleanness, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and shall be clean by evening.
20'But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself from uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD; the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean.
21'So it shall be a perpetual statute for them. And he who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening.
22'Furthermore, anything that the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.'"


So let’s look at the components of this sacrifice so we have a clear idea of the commandment of God and what is involved.
1. The sacrifice must be, “an unblemished red heifer in which is no defect and on which a yoke has never been placed.”
2. The Priest was then given the heifer to slaughter and burn. Eleazar was the Priest at the time of the initiation of this sacrifice. For those who do not know Eleazar was one of the remaining sons of Aaron who was the start of the Priesthood. Remember two of Aaron’s sons died for using unauthorized fire before the LORD and were struck dead (Leviticus 10:1-3).
3. The unblemished red heifer must be killed and burned “Outside the camp”
4. “Outside the camp” or “outside the gate” is also used to speak of where Yeshua died on the cross (Hebrews 13:12). It is debated as to the exact location of Yeshua’s death, but some believe and I happen to side with them that is was on the Mount of Olives instead of the traditional church place because on the Mount of Olives is where the Red Heifer sacrifice was preformed. Also you have a view into the Temple and across to the altar that the Passover lamb would have been slain on. The Father sits on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies and He would have been able to see His Son dying on the Mount of Olives at exactly the same time that the Passover lamb was slain, the ninth hour. I will discuss this idea in more detail when we get to the altars and their locations.
5. The priest, Eleazar, was to sprinkle the blood from the heifer in the direction of the Temple mound which is where the tent of meeting entrance is. He was to do this seven times which is significant because numbers are always significant to Hebrews.
6. The entire Heifer including its refuse was to be burned; in other words the entire sacrifice was to be consumed. Also, “The priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the burning heifer”
7. Now to the cool part: The priest then must wash his clothes and bathe his body. The he can come into the camp, but he is unclean until evening. Remember all he did was kill and burn a Red Heifer sacrifice and now he is unclean until evening
8. The same ritual goes for the one who burned the sacrifice as for the priest which leads me to understand that this was more than a one-man job.
9. In fact, there would be at least three people involved. Why? “Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as water to remove impurity; it is purification from sin” The third person must be clean and he is the one who handles the ashes of this Red Heifer.
10. The “Israel shall keep it as water to remove impurity; it is purification for sin” is paramount and has ties to Yeshua’s miracle at the wedding in Canaan in the gospel of John (read what kind of waterpots they were)
11. The next significant part is how the ashes are used. They are to mixed with water and watch this, “17'Then for the unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the burnt purification from sin and flowing water shall be added to them in a vessel. 18'A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched the bone or the one slain or the one dying naturally or the grave. 19'Then the clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify him from uncleanness, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and shall be clean by evening.” A clean person must sprinkle the unclean. Sprinkling and hyssop are things to remember as we move forward.
12. Last, but certainly not least, is the fact that God gave this statute as a perpetual, meaning forever command, statute. “21'So it shall be a perpetual statute for them. And he who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. Again, the clean person becomes unclean as a result of sprinkling the unclean person with cleansing sacrificial water.

Are you starting to see some of the connections with our Messiah and this sacrificial command by God? This sacrifice was to never be done away with because God calls it a “perpetual statute” (v. 21). The Salvation of the LORD is working to this day to make the unclean, clean. Why am I calling Jesus “Yeshua”? Yeshua means Salvation in Hebrew and He was Hebrew. The name “Jesus” may have been derived from a variation of the name “Zeus” upon studying it and I feel more comfortable with using His Hebrew name. I am not attempting to be legalistic about it; I am just trying to be as close to the truth of God as possible.

Baal worship was the practice of mixing worship of the One True God with worshiping pagan gods. Unfortunately we have not moved far enough away from the sins of our fathers. Some questions to ask yourselves at this point are: When did Sabbath get moved from Friday evening at sundown to Sunday morning? Where did the name “Sunday” come from? Why did it get moved and did God command this? How did God command us to worship Him and how does He feel about the Sabbath? Where is the celebration of Christmas commanded in the Bible? How come Easter Sunday is on and named after the day in celebration of a fertility goddess? These questions may be troubling, but they deserve some answers. I could write a whole paper on each of these subjects, but that is for another time. If you take time to do the research and you may see why I feel the way I do about these things. One must be convinced in his own mind about truth and I trust that if you seek the truth about what God has and has not commanded, He will show you.

Now that we have at least given some clarity to the particulars of Yeshua’s name, let’s look at the components of the sacrifice: a Heifer is a female cow. She is to be unblemished, red, and has never had a yoke on her. Never having a yoke on her means that she has never been trained to a certain way of work. She has not been tainted by the teachings of this world. Yeshua was not tainted by the workings of this world; He had no worldly yoke upon Him when He died. He did prescribe to the teachings of Rabbis over the teachings of the Father. He was unblemished and perfect. Yeshua died “outside the camp” of Jerusalem and He was consumed by the wrath of God on the cross.

Hebrews 13:12-13
12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
13 So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.

Luke 22:41-43
41 And He withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and began to pray,
42 saying, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done."
43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.


Revelation 14:9-11
9 Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand,
10 he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
11 "And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name."


Yeshua drank the full cup of God’s anger and wrath on the cross and thus was consumed because our God is a consuming fire:

Deuteronomy 4:24
24 "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

The sprinkling is significant that the Priest does because is foreshadows that we would be sprinkled in Christ’s blood for our sins (1 Peter 1:2). There is also another account of blood sprinkling that Moses did. We will look at Hebrews and then were the author was pointing us to.

Hebrews 9:19-22
19 For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
20 saying, "THIS IS THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT WHICH GOD COMMANDED YOU."
21 And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood.
22 And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

This account comes from Exodus when the people affirm their Covenant with God. Things in the Renewed Covenant (New Testament) usually point back to things that were shadows in the Old Covenant (Old Testament). The reason I use the terms “New Covenant” and “Old Covenant” instead of the traditional terms is because in a Hebrew mindset, there was no Testament because a “Testament” is like a will and implies that it can be changed until the Testator dies. The truth of the word of God is unchanging like our God (Malachi 3:6). If you study the Covenant of God you may also come to find out that the New Covenant is more of a Renewed Covenant than something altogether new in idea. The plan has always been for man to be close intimate fellowship with Yahweh and that is what Yeshua completed for eternity on the cross.

Exodus 24:5-8
5 He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD.
6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
7 Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!"
8So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."

So those who are sprinkled in Messiah’s blood are cleansed for forgiveness of sin; they go from unclean to clean. So when did Yeshua show us that He was replacing the original sacrificial water with His blood in the New Covenant? We must go to the gospel of John to answer this question.

John 2
1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there;
2 and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.
3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."
4 And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come."
5 His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."
6 Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each.
7 Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water." So they filled them up to the brim.
8 And He said to them, "Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter." So they took it to him.
9 When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom,
10 and said to him, "Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now."


This is a commonly overlooked piece of the puzzle; that the waterpots that Yeshua used to change water into wine were the very purification pots that contained the Red Heifer ashes. They were changed from water to wine thus symbolizing that purification now comes through the blood of Messiah and not Heifer ashes and water. Wine is symbolic of blood to a Hebrew. The clean (Messiah) was going to become unclean (because of our sinfulness) so that we could become clean (righteousness of God). And interesting side note is what Mary told the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it." Think Yeshua might have done this change over thing before in their household? They were a poor family and Yeshua did feed five thousand on a couple loaves of bread and a few fish. He most certainly would have provided for His family as God our Provider.

And finally we come to the transference of the guilt of our sins to Yeshua on the cross. Anyone remember the Hyssop branch. I told you it would be significant later. Let’s go back to John when Yeshua is on the cross.

John 19:28-30
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, "I am thirsty."
29 A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth.
30 Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

Not only did Yeshua do this to fulfill Psalm 69, but it doubles to symbolize the transfer through hyssop of uncleanness of humanity to the clean High Priest. Interestingly enough, the priest was unclean until evening and Yeshua died before He could become clean. He died under the weight of the sins of the world and faced the wrath of God meant for us.

King David understood the importance of the Red Heifer sacrifice and that it was a shadow of the coming Messiah as he writes:

Psalm 51:6-8

6 Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,
And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness,
Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.

One last thing to discuss is the death place of Yeshua and the altar that Yeshua was sacrificed plus the altar that the Passover lamb would have been sacrificed on at the same time as the death of our Messiah, the ninth hour. Where are these two altars and how did they come about? Well, King David purchased two pieces of land for the purpose of building altars. On a side note needed for context, altars are what sanctify the sacrifices. They are the mark of God that the earth is the LORD’s and all the fullness thereof (Psalm24:1). The word altar or altars is used 369 times in the Bible and there will be an altar when we are with Yeshua in heaven as well, we will celebrate the Feast of God (another paper):

Isaiah 56:7
7 Even those I will bring to My holy mountain

And make them joyful in My house of prayer
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar;

For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples."

Watch what Yeshua says about the altar in Matthew:

Matthew 23:15-22
15 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
16 "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obligated.'
17 "You fools and blind men! Which is more important, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold?
18 "And, 'Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering on it, he is obligated.'
19 "You blind men, which is more important, the offering, or the altar that sanctifies the offering?
20 "Therefore, whoever swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it.
21 "And whoever swears by the temple, swears both by the temple and by Him who dwells within it.
22 "And whoever swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.

Yeshua loved to use comparisons and He is pointing out to the Scribes and the Pharisees that they do not understand the order of sacrifice from God’s perspective. The altar sanctifies the offering, the temple sanctifies the gold, and He (God) who dwells in the temple sanctifies the temple. The altar holds preeminence over the sacrifice and without an altar there is no sacrifice. So the question then becomes, what altar was the sacrifice of Yeshua our Messiah made on? Back to King David and His land purchases.

The land bought for the Temple Mount

1 Chronicles 21:18-30
18 Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19 So David went up at the word of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the LORD.
20 Now Ornan turned back and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. And Ornan was threshing wheat.
21 As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out from the threshing floor and prostrated himself before David with his face to the ground.
22 Then David said to Ornan, "Give me the site of this threshing floor, that I may build on it an altar to the LORD; for the full price you shall give it to me, that the plague may be restrained from the people."
23 Ornan said to David, "Take it for yourself; and let my lord the king do what is good in his sight. See, I will give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for wood and the wheat for the grain offering; I will give it all."
24 But King David said to Ornan, "No, but I will surely buy it for the full price; for I will not take what is yours for the LORD, or offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing."
25 So David gave Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site.
26 Then David built an altar to the LORD there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And he called to the LORD and He answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.
27 The LORD commanded the angel, and he put his sword back in its sheath.
28 At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered sacrifice there.
29 For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were in the high place at Gibeon at that time.
30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was terrified by the sword of the angel of the LORD.


David paid 600 shekels of gold for this land and altar site. Gold signifies divinity thus this is where the Temple would have been built. The tabernacle was in the high place at Gibeon which was inaccessible because of the sword of the angel so David bought a new location for the tabernacle. Now to the altar for Yeshua:

The land bought for Yeshua’s sacrifice

2 Samuel 24:18-25
18 So Gad came to David that day and said to him, "Go up, erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite."
19 David went up according to the word of Gad, just as the LORD had commanded.
20 Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; and Araunah went out and bowed his face to the ground before the king.
21 Then Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" And David said, "To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be held back from the people."
22 Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood.
23 "Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king." And Araunah said to the king, "May the LORD your God accept you."
24 However, the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing " So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
25 David built there an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Thus the LORD was moved by prayer for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.


David bought a second altar location for fifty shekels of silver. Silver signifies redemption or salvation. This is why Joseph put a silver cup in the bag of his youngest brother, Benjamin. Joseph was his families’ redemption from the famine and his story points us to the story of our redemption in Messiah. This altar purchased by King David was to be the altar of redemption for our Messiah.

I certainly do not claim to have all the answers, but I hope at least I have raised some questions. Why have you never heard this before in your church? Certainly what you have heard has been good if it has been in line with God’s word. There are four Hebrew levels of understanding Scripture that Non-Jewish believers are vaguely acquainted with if that from what I have found. And this may go a ways in explaining why we have not been taught at this level; not out of direct intention, but merely a lack of knowledge and revelation. The four levels are as follows:

Pshat (פְּשָׁט) — the "simple meaning" of a verse or passage
Remez (רֶמֶז) — "hints" of a deeper meaning beyond just the literal words
Drash (דְּרַשׁ) — "interpretation"; unraveling midrashic meaning by comparing words and forms in the passage to similar occurrences elsewhere
Sod (סוֹד) — the "secret" or mystical meaning of a passage, as given through inspiration or revelation


"Pardes (Jewish exegesis)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 9 Jan 2008, 06:25 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 11 Jan 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pardes_%28Jewish_exegesis%29&oldid=183128440>.

So you see that there really is more than meets the eye. That is why we study the Scriptures individually as well as corporately. We do this so that we interpret correctly and remain on the path of truth not going to the left or to the right.

Joshua 1:6-8
6 "Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
7 "Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.
8 "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.


Yeshua is the true “Red Heifer Sacrifice” to make the unclean clean. He was consumed by the holy wrath of God an unblemished and unyoked sacrifice for the sins of humanity to sprinkle us clean by His blood. To end I will share an interesting fact that warmed my heart when I heard it: traditions say that the red Heifer had to be three years old before it could be eligible for sacrifice. Yeshua’s ministry lasted approximately three years before He died.


Shalom


Jason G. Brown








About me

i am a man changed from day to day as i willingly surrender to God's call. God has shown me many things since He called me to be a child of light, but as of recent months He has destroyed my foundation so that my life would be built on the truth of His word and not what i had always been doing or been taught. Truth is all about where it comes from and truth that comes from the Bible is to be stood on and proclaimed. Nothing else matters, but God's opinion. His word is what will stand the test of time. Never rest on the words of men, but test all things by God's word and make sure that what you do daily is what God requires and not what is contrary to His desires.