Introduction to Reading 127

 

This week’s Torah Reading is contained in Deuteronomy 2.1-3.22. For all intents and purposes, it is a continuation of last week’s reading. It is the 127^th Parashah of our 3-year Torah Reading cycle.

 

I’ve been led to title this week’s Sabbath Reading Discussion in the form of a question: “Why do we Dislike the God of the Old Testament?” No doubt a curious title to some, I feel this is a viable question, especially as it relates to the warrior side of Yehovah that is captured in our Torah, Haftorah, and Apostolic Readings for this Sabbath.

 

What do I Mean by God of the Old Testament?

 

Some may be confused by the title “God of the Old Testament.” Let me assure you, it is not a biblical title by any stretch of the imagination. But it is a title that many within and without our faith community have assigned to Yehovah our Elohim for various and sundry reasons. The primary reason people have assigned Yehovah this title is to make a distinction between Abba Yah and the Son Yeshua Messiah. Many distinguish the so-called God of the Old Testament from the so-called God of the New Testament because Yehovah is erroneously portrayed by spiritually myopic and misinformed teachers of scripture as a tyrannical, violent, angry, unforgiving, callous, harsh, uncompromising, war mongering, and murderous God, while His counterpart, Yeshua, is portrayed by equally uninformed teachers of scripture as a loving, forgiving, lifegiving, healing, longsuffering, giving, caring, and liberal God. Consequently, many so-called people of faith, and most if not all non-believing folks, dislike, if not hate the God of the Old Testament but like, if not love, the God of the New Testament for their respectively assigned character traits.

 

Embarrassingly, the distinction between the two is severely muddied when some of these same folks conflate the two Entities. Many God of the Old Testament haters, some of whom are self-professing Christians believe it or not, firmly believe that their much preferred God of the New Testament is also the God of the Old Testament. Indeed, there are several problems with this thinking which we won’t get into in this installment of TMTO. If you’ve followed me and this program for any length of time, you would know that I do not believe that scripture supports Yeshua and Yehovah being one and the same Person. The scripture clearly distinguishes them as two, distinct Persons.

 

Again, I don’t want to go down the rabbi-hole of defining who Abba Yah and Yeshua Messiah are as it will take us off-topic for today. But suffice to say that both the Son and the Father possess and exercise Warrior traits. Consequently, we will discuss the problems and misunderstandings that are associated with judging Yehovah’s warrior persona and intentions.

 

What do you say we get into Yah’s Word?

 

 

Go in and Possess the Land: Take Two

 

• The punishment ends — the sins of our first-generation Exodus parents died with them over our 38-year wandering period. Therefore, Yah says to Moshe: Rav-lachem — (too much for you…head north) ‘Long enough you have been skirting this mountain; turn yourselves north, (W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Dt 2:2–3).

 

• We would return to Kadesh-Barnea, bypassing our cousins, the Edomites (sons of Esau), Ammonites, and Moabites (descendants of Lot). Their lands and possessions were not under the ban that the Canaanites were under. These lands were allotted to the descendants of Esau (son of Yitschaq/Isaac) and Lot. We were not to interfere with their Yah-given heritage (2.5, 9, 19).

 

• However, Yah gave into our hands the lands held by Sihon and the Amorites (2.31 and 3.6) and Og of Bashan (3.1-3). These battles were the first tests of our strength, fighting skills, and obedience to Yehovah’s commands. These battles gave us street creds, so to speak, among the neighboring peoples’ nations. And these neighboring people nations grew to fear us greatly, as the fear of Yah and His people permeated the entire region.

 

• Yehovah is our Mighty Warrior. His Will shall be done. Thus, we pray: Thy Kingdom come; Thy Will be done. Here on earth, as it is in heaven (Mat 6.10).

 

We of this second generation have experienced a miraculous turnaround in terms of our faith and obedience. One would think that we would have continued in the way of our parents: Being that of a rebellious, faithless, and disobedient people. But we didn’t. How this happened or came about, the record is silent. But Yah works in mysterious ways. His mercies are endless and renewed every day. Now, we as a nation, had a shining future ahead of us and we were poised to meet our destiny in the taking of the Land of Promise. No longer would the stain and stench of our parents’ stubbornness, faithlessness, and disobedience cause our nation to remain as wanderers under a perpetual death sentence. (This is indeed a prophetic shadow picture of unredeemed humanity. Wandering about the stark wilderness of this world and this life. Under a death sentence. No hope for a reprieve, save for Yah’s grace and mercies.) Hasatan’s plot to steal, kill, and destroy had been foiled. “Thus, acts of the fathers must be redeemed by the sons. Otherwise, the consequences for future generations grow, even as the sons harden by mindlessly embracing the sins of their fathers. History hardens when sin festers.” (Jeffrey Enoch Feinberg Ph.D. and Kim Alan Moudy, Walk Deuteronomy!: Words (Clarksville, MD: Messianic Jewish Publishers, 2003), 21.) Praise be to Yah! He prepared us for this a redo of the first botched fulfillment of our redemption:

 

“For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand; He has known your wanderings through this great wilderness. These forty years Yahweh your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing.” ’ (Legacy Standard Bible (Three Sixteen Publishing, 2022), Dt 2:7.)

 

1. Yah blessed us.
2. Yah was well aware of your situation.
3. Despite our past failures, Yah remained with us. He did not abandon us.
4. Yah provided for all our needs.

 

 

We Were Set for a Redo of the First Botched Redemption

 

Yah would perform a redo of our redemption from Mitsrayim/Egypt. This redo would be replete with our journey from the Mountain of Elohim to Kadesh Barnea, the gateway to the Promised Land, even down to a vicious, hateful King whose heart Yah would harden (cf. Deu 2.30; Exo 9.12; 10.20, 27; 11.10; 14.4). We would overcome, through Yah’s miraculous power and leading, what one might naturally presume to be nations that were superior to us in strength and fighting ability. Yah’s Name would once again become known by the inhabitants of Canaan as the God of Yisrael and as the One True God. This was our redemption redo:

 

16 And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. (The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), Ex 9:16–18:4.)

 

 

Our reputation as a powerful and great people began to take shape when we, through Yah’s divine help, took possession of the lands once belonging to Sihon (2.24). Originally Yehovah instructed us to petition Sihon for permission to pass through his land peacefully. But the heart of Sihon was such that he denied our petition and went out to confront us. In response to Sihon’s aggression and hardened heart, Yehovah gave us the victory over Sihon as we devoted the people to destruction (these were put under the ban) (2.30-35).

 

In every advance we made towards achieving our destiny, we were careful to go and take possession of Land that Yehovah instructed us to. This shows that we were under Yah’s leadership. We were not under the leadership of some ambitious, greedy oligarch who destroyed, killed, and maimed haphazardly. Thus, when we are operating under Yehovah’s strict leading, authority, and direction, we acted under His perfect will and purpose and plan (and wherever Yahweh our God had commanded us–Legacy Standard Bible (Three Sixteen Publishing, 2022), Dt 2:37).

 

We repeated our conquest of the lands east of the Jordan when Og of Bashan came out to challenge us in battle (3.1-7). Like Sihon’s of Heshbon, we devoted Og and his people to destruction (3.6). (I’ve spoken a great deal about Yah marking certain Canaanite peoples for destruction. This was, to borrow a term used frequently in Islam, Yehovah directed Jihad, or Holy War in its truest and purest sense.)

 

After their defeat, Sihon’s and Og’s kingdoms were distributed among the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh (3.12-13; Num 32.32-38; Jos 3.8-13). (We discussed this in detail in our study of Reading 122 entitled “The High Expectations for God’s People to Fulfill His Will and Purpose—Thoughts and Reflections on Torah Reading 122.)

 

From there, Moshe takes us to where we were that day: Preparing to go in and take possession of the Land. Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh would fight alongside the rest of our nation until the land was ours and then they would return to their homes in the Transjordan: 21“And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, ‘Your eyes have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to these two kings; so Yahweh shall do to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross. 22 ‘Do not fear them, for Yahweh your God is the one fighting for you.’ (Legacy Standard Bible (Three Sixteen Publishing, 2022), Dt 3:21–22.)

 

_______________________________________________________________

Our Haftorah Reading is contained in Habakkuk 3:8-19: The key phrase being “Yet I Will Exalt in Yehovah,” despite the horrifying turmoil going on around me. The prophet clearly and fully trusted in His God to fight on his and remnant Yisra’el’s behalf.

 

Yehovah stands as the Mighty Warrior, if not Yisra’el’s Mighty Warrior.

 

 

Many sages believed Habakkuk 3 was a poetic, mystical retelling of Shavu’ot at Sinai. A poetically grand illustration of the revelation at Sinai. It extolls the unimaginable power of Yehovah concerning His people and all creation. It includes Yah’s recompence of those that tribulate His chosen ones. Indeed, Yah is Yisra’el’s Mighty Warrior! Thus the prophet ends his words with a commitment that transcends anything that may befall him:

 

Though the fig tree does not blossom, nor there be fruit on the vines; the yield of the olive tree fails, and the cultivated fields do not yield food; the flock is cut off from the animal pen, and there is no cattle in the stalls, 18 Yet I will rejoice in Yahweh; I will exult in the God of my salvation. 19 Yahweh, my Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer; he causes me to walk on my high places. (W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Hab 3:17–19.)

 

________________________________________________________________

 

Our Apostolic Reading is contained in the Cepher of Revelation 19:11-21: The featured figure of this passage is a Rider on a White Horse. There is no mystery as to who this Rider is. It is Yeshua Messiah, returning to earth as the conquering King and Lord of Lords. His appearance pairs well with the imagery put forth by the prophet in our Haftorah reading. The One who rides the White Horse destroys the enemies of Yehovah and of Yehovah’s people.

 

Again, Yehovah is depicted here as the Mighty One/The Mighty Warrior of Yisra’el. But this time, Yah’s Warrior actions are enacted by His Right Hand – His Mashiyach – Yisra’el’s King.

 

The Warrior Side to Yehovah

 

The warrior side of Yehovah has and remains a point of contention among many within and without our faith community. Many individuals choose to use this attribute to advance their anti-God, anti-Bible, anti-Israel agenda. These contend that Yehovah is a hateful, vengeful, callous, murderous entity who cares little to nothing about his human creation. Such individuals delude themselves into thinking and promoting the foolish and patently false claim that the Almighty would just as soon destroy all who cross him and oppose his plans and purposes, then to show compassion, love, mercy, and grace to a race of beings that desperately need such things. I’ve heard some, yea, even some so-called Christians, go so far as to reject Yehovah on the basis of His Warrior Personna. They often label Him as the God of the Old Testament, no doubt meant to be a cheap jab at Him. These individuals are not ashamed to proclaim that they prefer the God of the New Testament to the God of the Old Testament. And of course, the God of the New Testament these are referring to is Jesus Christ.

 

I’ve recently heard of an elder of one of the Worldwide Church of God splinters, castigate the person of Yehovah. This self-styled social justice warrior, questioned Yehovah’s motives in leading us in war against the occupiers of Canaan and the Transjordan, marking them for destruction. This same soul even questions and challenges Yehovah’s motives in permitting various injustices go unaddressed in the world today.

 

It’s troubling to hear of such sadly misinformed and misguided individuals, many of whom claim to be born again Christians, believers, and followers of Christ. Clearly these individuals who claim to identify with the love and Person of the Son of God missed what the Son of God said about his relationship to the Creator of the Universe: “If you see me, you’ve seen the Father.” And “I and My Father are One (aka echad)” (Joh 10: 30; 14: 7- 9).

 

But here’s the irony to their thinking. Although Yeshua’s persona was one of love, kindness, sacrifice, and so forth during His earthly ministry, appealing to most as, let’s just say, their preferred God. Indeed, at that time, He was the suffering Servant; the Lamb that taketh away the sins of the world. However, our Apostolic Reading this week clearly points to Master Yeshua as a conquering, warrior King who will right all wrongs and establish His Kingdom headquartered in Yerushalayim. John the Revelator depicts Yeshua as the King who will rule with a rod of iron (Rev 2.27; 12.5; 19.15). The days of the suffering Messiah will have been long passed. This Messiah will tolerate no foolishness. He will be the righteous judge and the conquering warrior. He will be just like His Daddy! Halleluyah!

 

Indeed, Yeshua, along with the other Apostolic writers, contend that Master Yeshua possessed the exact character traits and personal attributes of his Father Yehovah.

 

To condemn Yehovah for his righteous actions, which often involved cutting short the lives of certain nations and people, is to operate in ignorance of the true nature of the Great I Am. It is to operate from a sinful place of self-righteousness and ignorance to the existence of evil and good in this world, and the simple fact that in Yah’s perspective, good and evil are incompatible bedfellows. At the end of the day, Yehovah requires the eradication of evil and all impediments and challenges to his irresistible sovereignty and plans.

 

Yah operates at a level that is far above our own. He is the Creator of all. So, who are we to challenge Him, His sovereignty, and the righteous actions he wrought to advance His plan to redeem and save humanity from the scourge of sin and death? Of himself, Yah declared through the mouth and pen of his holy prophet: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways, declares Yehovah. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa 55:8; LSB).

 

Who are we, indeed, to challenge Yehovah and question his righteous motives. The same prophet proffered: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isa 64: 6; KJV).

 

When Job experienced his crisis of faith, which prompted his challenging of Yehovah, the Father asked him: “Where were you [Job] when I laid the foundation of the earth” (38:4)?

 

When we get to the place where we reduce and judge Yehovah according to human standards of righteousness which Yah declared was nothing more than filthy rags, it means that we either don’t know Yehovah, or we, like Job, are amid a “crisis of faith.” If we don’t emerge from that crisis of faith, we run the risk of estrangement from our Heavenly Father. Indeed, to possess such hostile thoughts and feelings toward our loving, gracious, holy, and righteous Creator is to instead be rebellious toward Him.

 

As it relates to our rebelliousness, Yehovah declared: “Rebellion is as the sin of divination” (Deu 18:10), and insubordination is as wickedness and idolatry. Because you, [King Saul], have rejected the Word of Yehovah, He has also rejected you from being king” (1 Sam 15:19; LSB).

 

I mentioned previously that to challenge Yehovah’s holy and righteous motives is often founded on anti-God and anti-Israel sentiments. Well, let’s consider, for a moment, what we’re seeing played out, in this nation related to the ongoing conflict between Israel and the evil terrorist organization Hamas. Despite the horrific event Hamas wrought upon the innocent citizens of Israel on October 7, 2023, which prompted Israel to act in her defense, many people in this nation, again acting from a place of self-righteousness, are aggressively promoting a violent agenda that calls for the destruction of Israel and the turning over of Haaretz – the Land — to the so-called Palestinians. Some of these are demanding that Israel cease defending herself and permanently turn over portions of the Land to their aggressors, in what they call a “two-state solution” to the conflict.

 

Those who engage in such foolish rhetoric are writing checks that they’re behinds can’t cash. For the land belongs to Yehovah. He has owned that Land from the beginning: “The earth belongs to Yehovah, and all that fills it” (Psa 24.1; The Scriptures ISR). Of Haaretz – the Land  of Yisra’el, Moshe revealed: 10“For the land which you are going in to possess is not like the land of Mitsrayim from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden, 11but the land which you are passing over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of the heavens, 12a land which יהוה your Elohim looks after. The eyes of יהוה your Elohim are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the latter end of the year. (The Scriptures, 3rd edition. (Northriding: Institute for Scripture Research, 2009), Dt 11:10–12.) Thus, Yah has every right to grant access and possession of the Land to whomever He chooses. And, by the way, Yehovah chose to gift the Land to the descendants of Jacob/Ya’achov. Neither the Godless world-leaders, nor the nation state of Israel, possesses the authority to change the arrangement that Yehovah set in place for the Land four or so millennia ago.

 

This whole question of Israel having rights to the Land is secondary to Yehovah’s will and plan of salvation, redemption, and restoration. Yehovah’s plan and purpose for all humanity is being worked through the Torah concept of a land – a people – and a covenant. And any who would desire to partake of Yehovah’s grand plan of salvation, redemption, and restoration must get on the same page that Yehovah is on. And to do that, is to believe and trust Yehovah and enter into and remain in a covenant relationship with Him through the Person and ministries of Yeshua Messiah. This has nothing to do with our personal feelings and perceptions of the modern nation of Israel, nor the humanitarian crisis that is happening in Gaza now. It’s about trust and faith in Yehovah and the resulting relationship we must have with Him in order that we enter His glorious Kingdom that operates within His beloved ones today, and that will come into the world tomorrow.

 

Yehovah is in control, and He is still on the throne. He owns us and we all are subject to His will and plans: “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), Eze 18:4.)

 

 

We, on the other hand, are required to trust and obey him:

 

13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. (The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), Ec 12:13.)

 

 

Our God is truly a God of the living, despite the enemy’s claims to the contrary:

 

38“Now He is not the Elohim of the dead, but of the living, for all live to Him.” (The Scriptures, 3rd edition. (Northriding: Institute for Scripture Research, 2009), Lk 20:38.)

 

He has nothing but good intentions towards us, if we but only trust and obey Him:

 

9יהוה is not slow in regard to the promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward us, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (The Scriptures, 3rd edition. (Northriding: Institute for Scripture Research, 2009), 2 Pe 3:9.)

 

11‘For I know the plans I am planning for you,’ declares יהוה, ‘plans of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and an expectancy. (The Scriptures, 3rd edition. (Northriding: Institute for Scripture Research, 2009), Je 29:11.)

 

Behind the scenes of life, as portrayed in our readings over the last few weeks, and going forward to the end of our three-year reading cycle when the Fall Feasts of 2024 comes around, Yehovah is busy at work deconstructing the Kingdom of Darkness and bringing in its stead about the glorious Malchut Elohim/The Kingdom of God. This means that Yehovah’s will must be carried out, even though His will may at times infringe upon our misplaced sense of righteousness. Yehovah has a reason for doing everything He does. What we think or how we feel about that which he does means absolutely nothing when weighed against his unimaginable plans and will for those who are His.

 

During our second-generation exodus cousins conquering and taking possession of the land, it turns out that because it was Yehovah’s will that his bride takes possession of the Land, He was the one who defeated the Canaanites. Israel was simply the righteous tool He used to eradicate evil from the Land (cp. Gen 15:16).

 

So, what does any of this say to us today? It simply says that Yehovah has a plan that He is working out on a global and individual basis. Globally, Yehovah will personally right all wrongs and establish His Kingdom on this earth. His beloved Son will reign as king over His Kingdom. In so doing, righteousness and holiness will be restored to the Land and Yehovah’s people be made eternally whole. Yehovah will restore that which the devourer has taken (Joe 2:25). Paradise Lost will become paradise restored. Fallen humanity must be restored to its original, created state that Yah deemed as being very good (Gen 1.31). We must be redeemed and made whole as a people, as His new creation. Death must be erased. And Yehovah is going to do what He must do to make all this and so much more happen. From an individual standpoint, Yehovah simply invites us to get on the winning side. And that, again, requires our complete and unadulterated trust and obedience. We are His workmanship (Eph 2.10), destined unto good works. All that we have then belongs to him. Everything we have we receive through His grace, His mercy, His provision, and His strength, all of which He lavishes upon those of us, belongs to Him, not us. Yah just allows us access to and use of these blessed resources until He replaces those things with things that will be far better and greater (1Chr 29:12).

Links to Mentioned Teachings:

Shabbat HaChodesh Teaching

Explanation of Current Calendar Confusion Among Observational Calendar Keepers