by Rod Thomas | Aug 5, 2015 | Blog
There is a beautiful doe that has chosen our “back four” as her favorite place to give birth to her baby every year. Why here, is anybody’s guess, but it seems she feels safer on our fenced property in the underbrush of a dry creek bed than she does in the forest, which is a couple miles down the road. It’s as if our property is her “Torah” – a place of refuge from “the world” where danger lurks around every corner. Because she keeps returning, we’ve named her “Aliyah” (Hebrew for “return”).
In the early days after Aliyah gives birth, we don’t have the privilege of seeing the babies very often because she always keeps them well hidden. But as they get older, they get to venture out with her, and within a few weeks, they simply vanish into the forest.
What always amazes us during the time she’s here and we get to watch the babies grow strong enough to leave, is that somehow the babies know to stay put while Mama goes off to graze, and somehow they “just know” to follow Mama into the underbrush when they’re out with her and she senses danger. And somehow, the doe knows exactly how long to remain here on our property until the babies are strong enough to travel….
Watching this miracle unfold in our backyard somehow reminded us of YHWH and His Torah – His Divine Instructions in Righteousness for mankind. For just a few days, our fenced-in acreage is similar to Torah for that mother deer. It provides safety and protection in an otherwise dangerous world on the other side of that fence where predators and highways and cars pose serious threats to the doe and her little ones.
YHWH gave mankind His Torah to keep us safe “the world” – a place where, after Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we could know the difference between right and wrong, good and bad. In short, He gave us a Divine blueprint for moral, holy living. Basically: “I am the Creator who made you; worship me only. Do this but don’t do that, or else you and others will get hurt. Eat this but don’t eat that because it could make you sick or kill you. Treat your fellow man thusly. Follow my rules and all will go well with you and yours.”
Unfortunately religion and religiosity crept into the world and broke the relationship with YHWH and His people, most of whom insisted on “jumping the fence.” Like Adam and Eve, He gave us all the choice to obey Him, or not. They chose not to, as have most of their offspring! But the thing is, if we don’t obey YHWH, then we are catering to Satan. There is no in between; no “tolerance” which seems to be today’s buzzword….
YHWH outlined via his Torah (the first five Books of Moses) exactly how He wanted us to live. But since the very beginning, we have refused to abide by it! Back in Adam’s day, there were only a few commandments that we know of: Name the animals, be fruitful and multiply, and don’t eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (see Genesis 1-3). Unfortunately, our original parents chose to “jump the fence” and, consequently, mankind was placed in bondage to Satan. The only way out of that bondage was to return to YHWH and His Torah. Naturally, as the world’s population grew, YHWH was forced to expand His Torah commands to encompass all the new ways man could get into trouble.
Suddenly, man was killing and eating animals, murdering his brother, taking more than one wife and committing all manner of sins that required the blood of innocent animals to be shed as atonement. (See Genesis 4 and beyond.) Because man’s decadence grew to unbearable proportions, YHWH decided to wipe out the earth. However, because Noah was righteous in His eyes, He promised to let him live and ultimately repopulate the earth (see Genesis 6-9).
Yet, no matter how many times YHWH forgave His Creation, man kept chosing to “jump the fence.” Biblical history is replete with a yo-yo cycle of man’s willful sinning and eventual return to Torah. Beginning in Genesis 12, YHWH made a covenant with Abraham to set him and his ancestors apart from the rest of His Creation which had totally strayed from His ways and became pagans. He made promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that basically required nothing of them except their loyalty, obedience and – oh yes – circumcision (Genesis 17:10-14).
The patriarchs were called Hebrews (which means, “to cross over”). Abraham, the first patriarch to cross over both physically AND spiritually, was commanded to move out of his country, away from his kinsmen and his father’s house and go to the land that YHWH showed him (Genesis 12:1-3). They and all their offspring were Torah observant, doing their best to please God through obedience. Unfortunately, when the Hebrews went into captivity in Egypt (beginning in Exodus 1), they ultimately forgot about Torah and began to pick up the customs and traditions of their captors.
But YHWH remedied that when He caused Moshe (Moses) to single-handedly take on Pharoah (beginning in Exodus 4) who (after YHWH caused the death of all the firstborn in Egypt, including Pharoah’s son) finally allowed the Hebrews to leave. And then He ultimately kept the Israelites wandering the desert for 40 years while they had to re-learn and readjust to YHWH and His Torah. This, of course, kicked off the Mosaic Covenant in which YHWH wrote the Ten Commandments in stone….
Eventually, to make it easy on His wayward and ever-straying Creation, YHWH sent us His Son Yeshua (a name which means, “YHWH is Salvation”) to represent Him in human form to speak directly to man to proclaim the Kingdom of YHWH, to show man first-hand who YHWH is and how to worship and obey Him. Yeshua ultimately martyred Himself on our behalf and thus became our Final SIN Sacrifice, thus forever abolishing the need for us to kill innocent animals to atone for our sins (See the Gospel accounts.)
(NOTE: Our use of the term “martyr” is intentional because traditional Jews love to point out that “G-d never required human sacrifice!” Well, Y’shua wasn’t a “human sacrifice” because nobody “sacrificed” Him. He was a Divine Sacrifice who willingly went to the cross/stake. As a human being, He had the choice to obey YHWH or not. As we see time and time again, He CHOSE to obey. He KNEW who He was….)
Contrary to popular belief, NONE of the above actions ever abolished Torah! Without Torah, we would have no blueprint for moral, holy living; no fenced-in area to keep us safe.
Most people don’t realize it, but the Constitution and Bill of Rights on which our country was founded, are based on the Torah! All rules,all laws were written to protect us from ourselves and from each other. But, as with God’s laws, we’ve more than just “jumped the fence”; we’ve gone way overboard and abused those rights and freedoms, and are well on our way to getting run over and squashed on Satan’s sin-filled freeway – all in the name of “doing our own thing”.
In modern day America where we have thrown God out of our schools, along with prayer and Bible reading, we have raised several generations who not only don’t want God in their lives, but they hate any form of godliness and are embracing the occult, instead! We are not only condoning occultism and pagan “religions”, but everything else that YHWH calls an abomination, such as homosexuality, idolatry, bigotry, adultery, etc.
These days we are even seeing major denominations splitting over whether to ordain homosexuals. Lying, stealing, and murder are condoned in the cases where the perpetrator might have had a bad childhood, or is able to plead temporary insanity. Good is now bad, and bad is now good – all in the name of “tolerance”. The world seems to be turned upside down!
In Deuteronomy 6 YHWH said: “And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart: And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up.”
How many people actually do that? Christianity teaches that Torah is a curse and that we don’t have to do anything except “believe in Jesus”! Because of this Torah-less Jesus, all our sins are somehow automatically forgiven and we are free to do as we please….
Yeshua came to proclaim the Kingdom of YHWH and to do everything His Father commanded. He tore down the fences of man’s legalism. Neither He nor His Apostles ever advocated against Torah!
Deuteronomy 18: 15 “ADONAI will raise up for you a prophet like me from among yourselves, from your own kinsmen. You are to pay attention to him, 16 just as when you were assembled at Horev and requested ADONAI your God, ‘Don’t let me hear the voice of ADONAI my God any more, or let me see this great fire ever again; if I do, I will die!’ 17 On that occasion ADONAI said to me, ‘They are right in what they are saying. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kinsmen. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I order him.
John 12: 44 But Yeshua cried out and said “He who believes in me, it is not in me he does believe, but in Him who sent me.”
Yeshua was sent by the Father NOT to do His own will, but the Father’s! So many seem to think He came to replace the Father and abolish Torah….Yet He came to restore man’s relationship with YHWH and remind us to totally rely on YHWH for everything. We are to be “as little children”:
Matthew 18: 1. At that moment, the disciples drew near to Y’shua and said, Who indeed is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven? 2. And Y’shua called a child and made him stand in their midst. 3. And said, Truly I say to you, that unless you change and become like children, you will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. 4. He therefore who humbles himself like this child, he will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Like that little fawn that automatically did whatever its mother wanted it to do, without hesitation – that is how we are to follow God’s commands! He has our best interests at heart; HE knows what is best for our lives. HE told us exactly how to become righteous – yet most ignore Him. The Bible tells us we must be like little children; not like bull-headed teenagers who want to go their own way. Even Yeshua did what the Father commanded:
Luke 4: 43 “But he (Yeshua/Jesus) said, “I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.”
Acts 28: 23 “From morning till evening the Apostle Paul explained and declared the Kingdom of God and tried to convince people about Yeshua from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.”
Acts 24: 14. But this indeed I (Paul) acknowledge, that in that same doctrine of which they speak, I do serve the Elohim of my fathers, believing all the things written in Torah and in the prophets.
YHWH gave us His Torah to keep us safe and on His path as long as we are “inside the fence” of Torah and playing by the rules.
Proverbs 16:25: There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Torah has given us tremendous freedom – Freedom to know our Creator and His awesome Messiah through whom we are able to gain eternal life merely by “believing” in Him, and allowing the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit) to help us change from the inside-out to become the “new creatures” we were always meant to be!
Our beautiful Aliyah and her babies inevitably leave the premises. They, in effect, leave our “Torah”….We always pray that YHWH would keep them safe wherever they go. And we pray that all mankind will soon wake up to the realization that we are IN the end times as outlined in the Books of Daniel and Revelation; and that the safest place to be is not hiding in the hills, hoarding canned food and bottled water and arming themselves to the teeth; but, rather, taking comfort in the arms of YHWH and His Torah….
Carmen Welker
by Rod Thomas | Aug 4, 2015 | Blog
Blessings and Curses
Part 1
I had somewhat of a short week this past week as I was returning from attending to a family emergency on the East Coast. I sort of alluded to this situation in my last podcast entitled Defeating Satan. If you’ve not had the opportunity to listen to that episode and you have the time, I would humbly encourage you to do so. There is no time like now to refresh our understanding of how we defeat hasatan’s temptations and that posting was something that came to me in the midst of my dealing with my family emergency. I needed that revelation from above and frankly, it came at the right time.
Regardless the situation, I made time each day to stay up with my Torah readings, very loosely following the established Jewish Torah Portions. I picked up from Parashah 47 which is found in Deut. 11:26 through 12:10.
Once again I came upon passages of Torah that seem to hammer home the principle that there are blessings to be had when we “listen to the mitzvot of Adonai our God,” as well as there are curses if we don’t listen to the mitzvot of Adonai. The overriding concern of Father seems to be the chance that we would turn aside from the way of life that He had given us through Moshe and thus begin following other gods that we had not known (vs. 28). These blessings and curses admonitions are referred to by Commentator Matthew Henry as the “great sanctions of the Law.” According to Henry, “Here we learn without vagaries where we stand with Yehovah.”
The traditionalist who so passionately holds on to the belief that we have fallen from grace simply by contemplating the keeping of Torah, on the other hand, goes through his/her daily spiritual walk in complete looseness and uncertainty. As it stands with our misguided cousins in churchianity, there are no formal indicators as to what pleases our Creator or what, for that matter, displeases Him. This of course is not taking into account the traditions and rules that each denomination chooses to enjoin their members to follow at the risk of being dis-fellowshipped when those traditions and rules are broken by them. I submit that these traditionalists go about their lives in total ignorance and depending upon their personal relationship they have with their “church,” fear of crossing the leadership; rejection and abandonment by their church brothers and sisters; or drawing attention unto themselves.
Interestingly, most of the world nations—be they of the West or of the third-world nations—live under and within a set of expectations, rules, laws and to a great extent, cultural-traditions and social norms. This of course does not apply to those rogue nations that exist only as pariahs to the so-called civilized world such as Somalia. Citizens of every so-called civilized nation, unless if they are of the lawless-type or not, live and flourish (and in some cases flounder) within the confines of their nation’s legal and social constructs. Take our nation—the United States for example. I was a child of the 60’s. I remember a time when one could drive in his/her car and not even think about wearing a seatbelt. Despite seatbelts being in American manufactured cars as early as the 1950’s, most folks never gave them any thought. It wasn’t until the late 70’s and early 80’s when seatbelt usage by all passengers of any automobile became the law of the land. I remember vividly how the nation’s lawmakers embarked upon a full-court press to impress upon the people of this nation as to the wisdom and requirement that ever passenger of an operating automobile wear seatbelts. To push this law to its fullest extent, the various regional and local jurisdictions aggressively publicized the positive aspects to be gained from regular and mandatory seatbelt use as well as the penalty to be incurred by the driver of any auto where his/her passengers failed to wear a seatbelt. If the rhetoric wasn’t enough, we began to see evidence that these laws were being enforced by local and state law enforcement officials. Before we knew it, we have then and continue to now buckle-up whenever we get into a car to go to and fro. The act of buckling-up is essentially automatic for most of us. Why is this act so second-nature to us? I believe it is because the essential nature of this act has been so ingrained into the American car-driving psyche for the past 40 or so years.
A more recent legal push can be seen in the whole texting and driving thing that became law in virtually every jurisdiction in the nation. The campaign against texting while driving was so aggressively pushed before the nation’s citizenry in recent years that most us today automatically see those whom we see texting while driving as outlaws and criminals and in most cases we actually become outragged at the sight.
Why then does the traditionalist balk at any mention of Torah observance on the part of believers in Jesus Christ (Y’shua Messiah)? Why would anyone even remotely contemplate that Christians are free to live their lives anyway they so damn-well please? How can one rationalize that virtually every aspect of Western life is governed by some law or set of laws, but when it comes to aspects of our walk with the Savior, there are absolutely no laws? The battle-cry of the traditionalist is “we have freedom in Christ,” this being an apparent reference to Galations 5:1. Indeed, we do have freedom in Christ. However, when we ask a traditionalist what the phrase “freedom in Christ” means to them, they essentially assert that they are free to worship the Trinity/God/Jesus/Holy Spirit and live their lives anyway they so choose or deem as right in their minds and hearts—or for that matter, what is deemed right in the minds of their chosen denominations. Sadly, this to them includes freedom to live outside Torah. Little do these realize that their interpretation of “freedom in Christ” is grossly misunderstood.
An essential cross-reference to Galatians 5:1 is John 8:31-32 where it is recorded of the Master speaking to Jewish followers: “And Y’shua said to those Yehudeans who believed in Him, ‘If you should abide by my words, truly you are my disciples. And you will know the truth and that truth will set you free.’” (AENT) Hebraic Roots teacher and overseer of the House of Israel, Arthur Bailey teaches that one can not truly understand Torah unless they first gain an understanding of Y’shua HaMaschiyach. And as we can clearly see in this passage, one cannot become truly free from the bondage of religion—and when I say religion I mean churchianity as much as I mean Catholicism and Judaism—unless he/she first abides in the Words—the teachings and example of our Master. Doing so embeds the Word of Yah in our hearts and minds and if and when that happens we can discern, know and live out this Faith that was once delivered to the first century saints by Maschiyach Y’shua. Thus I would sadly assert that those currently abiding in churchianity are not abiding in Messiah as Y’shua taught His Jewish followers. These are unfortunately abiding in their religion’s doctrines, beliefs and traditions that serve only to nullify Torah (reference Mat. 15 and Mar. 7).
Why did Y’shua make such a bold statement to His Jewish followers? I believe it was necessary for them to understand that their spiritual, physical and eternal wellbeing was not tied to Judaism, their national religion and government system that in the first-century C.E. was under Roman occupation. Contrary to what their sages, the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes and their peers might say in opposition, the Jewish nation was heading down the path of certain destruction. Contrarily, their spiritual, physical and eternal wellbeing, like ours today, would be wholly dependent upon the Words of Father (aka Torah), which He, our example, redeemer and older brother Y’shua Messiah, taught and modeled for us. There is no other way to truly live and understand Torah. Granted, this would be a hard pill to swallow in first-century Judah, because Judaism was so ingrained into every Jew’s psyche and life. Judaism defined who and what a Jew was. But truth be told, no religion must ever define who or what we are as individuals or a people. In the eyes of Yah, one should be defined by strict adherence to that which proceeds from the mouth of Yahovah. Otherwise, we become known by the world’s standards which rates extremely poorly in the eyes of Father.
If our careers are our primary focus in life and we are company people so to speak, then we are defined by our jobs. If our families are our primary focus (and let me say that I absolutely contend that families are important, but that they should never supersede one’s relationship with Father and Messiah) and everything we do in our lives is tied to our families, then our families define who we are. If our material possessions consume us to the point that we obsess over them, then our material goods define who and what we are. Ever heard of status symbols? Our homes and cars and gadgets define who and what we are in Western society. People know us in accordance to the things we possess. When was the last time that anyone could say of us: “oh, those people are Torah people or those folks are into Hebrew Roots stuff or they are people of Yahovah?” As awkward and negative as that may sound to the uninitiated, it would actually speak volumes as to who and what we are in the eyes of the Almighty. And this is my Torah Living Daily Challenge today: that we assess that which defines us and make the appropriate adjustments in our lives so that what defines us as a people is not our careers and the things we own, but that which is hallow in the eyes of our Creator. Whatever it takes to make that adjustment must be done and done sooner than later. The only person who can determine and make that happen is you and I.
Have a blessed day. May you walk in the power and might of His Rauch haKodesh and experience and perform great and wonderful exploits such that the world will be led to the One true God. Shalom.
by Rod Thomas | Jul 7, 2015 | Blog
Occupying Territory
Deuteronomy 11:22-25
This passage brings us to the end of Parashah-46. As it has been throughout this lengthy portion, we see again Moshe’s admonishment that we love Adonai our God. This concept of love in the Ancient Near East continues to be misinterpreted and misunderstood; primarily within churchianity circles. Love has always been understood or interpreted from a purely emotional perspective. Certainly, emotions are a big part of love as it relates to human relationships. Interestingly, that which we deem as love is not consistent across the board of human experience and relationships. We love our spouses differently than we love our parents. We love our children differently than we love our close friends. We love possessions differently than we love the people in our lives. But at the end of the day, those relationships that we place into the category of love are based primarily on emotions. Now bear in mind, I am not a psychologist nor am I a psychiatrist. I just call things that way I see them. And the reason I contend that much of our human relationships that we assign the classification of love to are based on emotions is because that form of love wanes and ebbs–often depending on how we feel at any given time. For instance, when say our spouse really upsets us–I’m not talking about when one’s husband leaves the seat up ladies–I’m talking, when one of us really does something wrong or bad, love for the offending party is typically the furthest thing for the offended party’s mind and heart. What then happens are arguments, tantrums, remonstrations, cold-shoulders, and whatever else is common to individuals who are upset over the actions or inactions of a loved one. Often, when a situation reaches a level of being really bad or hurtful, the relationship suffers to the point of not being recoverable and the relationship is severed. Despite all affirmations and proclamations and displays of love in the past, that incident that upset the apple cart has caused a complete rift in the fabric of that relationship and love goes away.
The love that Yahovah is speaking to us about throughout Torah is not that same human emotion-based characteristic. The love Yahovah is speaking about is not based upon emotions, but based upon loyalty. Loyalty is hardly ever addressed in churchianity circles as it relates to love for God. Relationships that are built upon a firm affirmation of trust and loyalty, as Yahovah has required of us, will weather any relational storm that could possibly come in our midst. When we affirm our relationship with Father based upon our trust in Him and we back up that trust with obedience that is unwavering, we are loving our Creator. When our human relationships are based upon trust and loyalty first and foremost, then any potential problems that come within the realm of the relationship will be just a speed bump that does not impede our walk with the Father and His Messiah. Can we or should we eliminate emotions from the love equation? I’d say no. Emotions have their proper place in all relationships. The problem with emotions come when we based the relationship on emotions. Emotions, when properly factored into the relationship, can have a positive impact on the relationship, especially in our relationship with Father. In fact, dedication and loyalty and trust will often have as byproducts, emotions. Emotions can bring us joy and peace of mind; emotions can help us perform or work behalf of Father with vigor and zeal. Emotions can help us create and imagine what is and can be in our relationship with Father. Emotions can draw us closer to Him. But at the end of the day, we must always be loyal, trusting and obedient. That is what the Father is looking for in us. And Father wants that loyalty and trust and obedience to be built upon pure desire to serve and relate to Him, devoid of outside influences, prejudices and personal agendas.
This last section of Parashah 46 speaks to our love for Yahovah translating into possessing the promised land. The land of promise was significant, especially compared to what the land of Israel is today. Father assigned the land perimeters from the desert or otherwise rendered, wilderness which is south of Jerusalem; to Lebanon which would compose the northern boundaries; to the Euphrates which defined the eastern border; then to the hinder sea or the Mediterranean which composed the land’s western boundary. Because of our love for Father–that is our obedience and loyalty to Him–our nation would be a most formidable entity that no nation in the known world would be able to withstand–assuming it would ever come to that. Interestingly, this scenario–that being a formidable nation that no nation could withstand–was actually realized during the reign of Solomon. During the reign of Solomon, the full extent of land boundaries was realized and Israel as a nation was unchallenged as the one world power not to be trifled with. Although not perfect and certainly straying from Torah during his reign, Solomon and his nation Israel enjoyed unparalleled peace, prosperity and power in the whole of the region. It was the closest to paradise that we have displayed since the Garden of Eden. But once Solomon died, and the fullness of Yahovah’s promises to Solomon were completed and met, the nation of Israel plummeted into idolatry, disobedience to Torah and fragmentation into two nations. Never more would the land be as this passage described.
Our Torah Living Daily Challenge today is that we honor Father by obeying His Torah and that we obey His Torah with the greatest zeal and dedication and trust. As a result, we have a land that is promised to us that we will occupy. Oh we could rationalize that that land of promise is within us today as grafted in Israelites. But looking ahead in the future, there is coming a time when those of us who have sold out to Father and who have been obedient to His Torah and to the service of His Messiah, we will occupy that same land of promise that physical Israel currently possesses. But this go around, that occupying of the land will be unlike anything ever recorded in the annals of man. That go around, as the Tanakh says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard and no one’s heart has imagined all the things that God has prepared for those who love him.” (1Co 2:9 CJB) Let us occupy today Saints. Be blessed and Shalom.
by Rod Thomas | Jul 6, 2015 | Blog
The Great Commandment
Deuteronomy 11:10-21
Verse 10 gave us a glimpse of the many features associated with our pending inheritance. One of those features included the fertileness of the land. Yahovah compared the fertileness of the land of Canaan compared to Egypt, the land we had left behind 40-years prior. We know that that land was Goshen (Sifri). Now, we must remember that most of us who had lived in bondage in Egypt had by now died off in response to Yahovah’s punishment for our breaking of the covenant and for purposes of starting over with a new generation that he could actually work with. Indeed, Yah kept his covenant to bless our people with the land inheritance, but it would not be realized by those of us who had participated in the Exodus 40-years hence. So Yahovah and Moshe were educating us about the land of Egypt, but in contrast to what we would experience once we entered the land of promise. The cultivated portion of Egypt where our fathers once resided consisted of a low but level plain where rain rarely if ever fell. The primary source of water for the Egyptian agriculture/produce was provided primarily via the annual overflow of the Nile River and advanced irrigation systems that would tap into the receded Nile. Jamieson, Faucett and Brown’s Commentary on the whole Bible describes this irrigation system as thus: “the cultivator opens a small sluice on the edge of the square bed in which seed has been sown, making drill after drill; and when a sufficient quantity of water has been poured in, he shuts it up with his foot. Where the bank is high, the water is drawn up by hydraulic engines, of which there are three kinds used, of different power, according to the subsidence of the stream. The water is distributed in small channels or earthen conduits, simple in construction, worked by the foot, and formed with a mattock by the gardener who directs their course, and which are banked up or opened, as occasion may require, by pressing in the soil with the foot.” Indeed, relatively ingenious adaption seen here on the part of the Egyptians who were forced to adapt to the arid nature of their country. One scholar described the irrigation technology in Egypt as that of a water-wheel pump that during our time in Egyptian captivity and our associated slave laborings, we worked with our feet. Apparently, this apparatus or system is highlighted on several ancient monuments in the land of Egypt to this very day. Although fertile, the maintenance of agriculture in the land of Egypt did not come without great manual labor and continuous oversight. But this would not in any way be the case in the land of promise according to the Creator. “The hills would attract the frequent clouds, and in the refreshing showers the blessing of God would especially rest upon the land.” (ref. JFB)
Vs. 12 was one of the most enlightening verses for me to have come to in this study. It reads in the CJB as, “It is a land (talking about the land of promise) Adonai your God cares for. The eyes of Adonai your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.” For me, this is most fascinating passage: (1) Yahovah cares for the land of Israel; and (2) Yahovah’s eyes are always on the land of Israel from the month of the Aviv to the next month of the Aviv. So favored is the land that that Yahovah that watering of the land required no human or mechanical intervention. Indeed, the context of this passage seems to be related to Yahovah favoring the land from an agricultural perspective. But one could reason that if the Father was so in love with this splotch of land, then there must be something special about the land. It’s like us: what was so special about us that we caught the Creator’s attention? Certainly it has nothing to do with how wonderful we were or how holy we were or that we were inherently so special in comparison to the rest of the nations. What that something is, I can’t tell. However, as it ties directly into this passage, it is clear that the love Yahovah had (and continues to have) for us was to such a degree that He was placing us in a land (somewhat Edenisque) that required little from us in terms of labor and care. Yah was going to pamper us as one with means would pamper their children and their spouse. We would want for nothing and we would in return declare our undying allegiance to Him as our one and only Elohim.
Again, in verse 13 we receive an admonishment to hearken (diligently) to Yahovah’s commandments. As I tried to drive home last post of this portion, it is this diligent hearkening–this willful obedience to Yah’s Torah, that defines our love for Him. It is here that we also realize the famous allusion to what the greatest commandment is, and that being to love the LORD your God, and to serve Him with all our heart and with all our soul. This is what the Master was referring as He responded to a question challenge by a Scribe who obviously attempted to ensnare Messiah with a perceived technicality of the Law–Matt. 22:35-38. Hertz’ Pentateuch and Haftorah defines “to serve Him with all your heart” as heart service, which entails the institution of prayer 3-times daily, attributing this institution to the time of Daniel 6:11, 14. Overall, I see no problem with this connection, this application. However, I find this so-called institution to be nothing more than another fence around Torah, whereby men have developed mechanisms to ensure that we stay within the confines of Torah. This is what Yahoshua came to deliver us from: the drudgery of law–no, not deliver us from Torah, but deliver us from man made pharisaic rules and traditions. Indeed, there is nothing wrong with praying 3-times a day. Shaul instructed us to pray without ceasing–1 Thessalonians 5:17. And it is this concept of praying without ceasing that carries over from the teaching of our Master, as recorded in Luke 18:1. So, prayer is an essential element of our loyalty and service to Yahovah. However, is this what Father is expecting from us in terms of our love for Him being with our whole hearts? I don’t necessarily think so. To begin with, most of the prayers the Jewish leaders would pray 3-times/day were recitations and not heartfelt intercessory, repentive, and praiseworthy prayers to Yahovah. In fact, most of their prayers had nothing to do with the heart. It was all mechanical. This is why Yahoshua’s disciples approached Him and asked Him to instruct them on how to pray. Obviously, Yahoshua’s method of praying defied anything that the disciples had ever witnessed before. Matthew 5 records Yahoshua’s instructions on the viable, appropriate method to pray. Who other than Mashiyach should be the expert on how we as humans are to communicate with Father? He knows His Father better than anyone and is a worthy example to emulate. Prayer is to be a private intercourse with the Father that no one else is to be necessarily privy to, as those Pharisees who would stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners (NAS) or according to the Aramaic stand in the assemblies and on the corners of the marketplaces to pray (Roth’s Aramaic). So there is a side of prayer that beckons us to pray in “secret.” Another aspect of proper prayer demands that we reject the methods of prayer that other religions employ to communicate with their gods. These particular forms of prayers–if they can be called prayers–typically involved the adherent reciting a litany of meaningless repetition of words and phrases (NAS) or as Roth translates the Aramaic, these are “chatterers.” As it relates to the orthodox Jewish understanding of prayer, most of their prayers are prefabricated and are repeated on the advent of whatever occasion that particular prayer was formulated for. I am a firm believer that we are not to employ such formulated prayers. They can not reflect the true thoughts and feelings of the one in prayer as a pure, spontaneous, and yes, heartfelt prayer would. Thus, I believe service to Yahovah with all our heart–which in Hebrew is “lebab” –is referring to service to Yahovah with our whole inner man. Service to Yahovah with our whole inner man involves mind, will, heart, soul and understanding. It’s doing that which Yahovah requires and commands of us to do in such a spirit that we absolutely can not wait to accomplish the tasks. For our goal is always to make Daddy happy and we all know from the example of children and parents, that children do a great many things in order to make their parents happy and thus garner even great love from them.
The remainder of this passage speaks to “reward and punishment.” We would reap rewards for diligently keeping and honoring and obeying Yah’s commandments–He would provide rain for our crops (vs. 14). According to Hertz–“the agricultural year in Palestine consists of 2 seasons, the one rainy and the other dry. The whole of the winter is the rainy season. The heavy rain towards the end of October are the Yoreh or the “former rain.” They open the agricultural year. The rainfall increases throughout December, January and February; it begins to abate in March and April. Coming as they do when the grain is ripening and being the last before the long summer drought, they are of great importance.” Boy, we could use some of that rain here in Southern California. Maybe if we would turn our hearts and minds and souls to Yahovah and obey his mitzvot–well, that’s a pipe dream huh? Thus, it is the rain that Father provides that will secure the well being of our livestock by providing grass for their consumption. This rain blessing is but a small aspect of the goodness to be had when we obey Yahovah in the land of promise. But rain was a crucial aspect of life if we are to flourish as a people. Failure to follow the commands of Father would result in a closed heaven devoid of rain. Thus, we were admonished to ensure our well being and safety by obedience to Torah. Verse 18 and 20 tells us to bind the Word of Yahovah on our heads, arms and post them on the door posts of our homes. This has been interpreted by certain Jewish sects as a literal binding of little boxes that contain a passage of Torah onto the adherent’s arm and the top of their forehead. These boxes are called philacteries and the posting of the Word on door posts are called mezzuzahs. I would encourage you to read Carmen Welkers excellent work on philacteries at https://www.themessianictorahobserver.org/2015/06/29/tzitzits-tefillin/. At this stage in my walk with Messiah where I tend to agree with Carmen on this issue and that is that Yahovah is requiring us to essentially cement His Word in our minds and in the actions that we take each and every day. And it is this thinking–this admonishment–that I pose as today’s Torah Living Daily Challenge: that we cement His Torah into our minds and that we serve Him, in obedience to His Torah, with every fiber of our being. This is a challenge indeed. The cares of life often drown out the Word of Yahovah. Thus, we must continually bind His Word in our minds and factor them in whatever tasks we are doing throughout the day. As it relates to binding them on the door post of our homes? Well, that’s simple: we are to bind His Word in our hearts–our bodies comprise the House of God.
Have a blessed day friend. Shalom.
With much love in Messiah–Rod Thomas
by Rod Thomas | Jul 3, 2015 | Blog
The Barna Group Reports on Same-Sex Marriage
I came upon these statistics published by the well established and respected Barna Group, regarding the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage. I found these statistics not so surprising I must admit and it pretty much supports what appears to be the moral attitudes of the U.S. citizenry and fundamental churchianity.
Support for and against the ruling
Barna learned that 49% of Americans support last week’s Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50-states of the union. Some 43% of Americans appear to disagree with the high court’s ruling while 7% were undecided. Undecided? Really. I respect the supporters of the ruling more than I do the undecided’s. If we are not able to take a position on such a fundamental social and moral issue; an issue that essentially has redefined the definition of marriage in this nation. So as far as I’m concerned, 56% of Americans support the supreme court’s ruling on this pivotal issue. If you are undecided on this issue, for all intents and purposes you are in favor of the ruling as far as I’m concerned.
Consequently, 37% of Americans surveyed believe that this ruling will have positive impact on the nation. Really? I wonder how anyone can come to such a conclusion. When we consider that the creator of the universe, who defined marriage as being a union between a man and a woman refers to gay and lesbian relations as an abomination, there should be no doubt in any one’s mind that standing in such overt opposition to the commandments of Yahovah is a terribly risking thing for anyone to do. But then, when one considers that most humans, though they claim to know Him, really don’t know Him. If you don’t know Him, regardless if one has a cognitive understanding of Yahovah, you can’t be expected to know of His ways now can you? So what is general knowledge to those who truly know Him (and we’ll get into just who those persons might be in a future posting) would obviously be foolishness to those who don’t know Him. We all know the position that the Apostle Shaul (aka Paul) took on the issue of non-believers and the things of Yahovah:
Now the natural man does not receive the things from the Spirit of God – to him they are nonsense! Moreover, he is unable to grasp them, because they are evaluated through the Spirit.
(1Co 2:14 CJB)
So it is with this issue. Many people have no concept of what is right or wrong and thus their worldview is based solely upon a set of self-determined and self-or even society created ideals of what’s write or wrong. This ultimately becomes a prescription that will lead to demise of a nation and peoples.
But let me say, before I continue on with this, that I don’t care what any man chooses to do with another consenting man or woman with another consenting woman; that’s their business. It bothers me, as I imagine it does many of you reading this post, when these individuals begin to impose their lifestyle choices upon our society and threaten me and my affiliations when and if I choose to disagree with their position and lifestyle. It used to be that the gay and lesbian fight for rights would be likened to that of blacks during the civil rights movement. In fact, many of the laws throughout this nation regarding marriage, were designed to prevent blacks from marrying whites. The difference between the civil rights struggle in the middle to late 20th century and the gay and lesbian agenda of the late 20th to early 21st century is that blacks were being discriminated against and persecuted for the color of their skin and their heritage. We (I am black by the way) had no say in our race as we were born into that race. The gay and lesbian agenda, however, is focused upon a chosen lifestyle which at the heart of the matter stands in opposition to the natural setting of human life on this planet. Oh, many gays or lesbians may sharply contend that they have no say as to their attraction and love of the same sex. I will not get into a debate about that in this forum, only to say that regardless, they have a say in living and operating in that chosen lifestyle–whether they choose to believe it or not. Case in point: how many of us men at some point in our lives were attracted to let’s say a beautiful woman, but for whatever reason–be it that we were married at the time, dating a special someone, or committed to Yahovah, we would never act upon that attraction. The attraction might have remained or even remains to this day, but we know that we are bound by Torah and God’s way of life for mankind and we simply don’t cross that line of pursuing that outside relationship. It would be wrong and it would fly contrary to the life we’ve been called to live as demonstrated and required by our Master. So the comparison between the civil rights movement and the gay and lesbian agenda and so-called struggle in this country is a null and void one.
But continuing on with the Barna survey results, the other half of the equation is that 40% of Americans do believe that the supreme court ruling will have a negative impact on our society. These individuals, although they may or may not be believers in Messiah, inherently realize that there are consequences to be paid by an individual and a nation that rejects the ways of Yah. All we need to do to realize and understand this basic concept is to read the blessings and curses outline in Deuteronomy 28 and 29 respectively. What somewhat disappoints me, however, is why do we not have a greater understanding of this concept in our nation–what about the other 23% of Americans? I guess we can safely conclude that these are like those 7% commenting on agreement versus disagreement on the ruling, are undecided on whether or not there stands to be negative repercussions for this nation because of this ruling.
Here’s a very sad commentary on the moral fiber of our nation: 52% of Americans surveyed believe that same-sex marriage is morally right. Oh dear Lord. 52 % friends. This suggests that over half of this country’s population believes that it’s a good thing for a man to marry another man and a woman to marry another woman. Again, this goes back to the thinking that the ways of Yahovah are complete foolishness to the natural man. I mean, what can you say to this apart from, Father, please be merciful to us as a nation. We must continue the fight to preach and teach the Word of God to the nation in hopes that this nation will turn from their iniquity and perverse worldview before it’s too late. By the way, 43% believe that same-sex marriage is morally wrong. I guess that’s some consolation.
Related to the 43% of Americans who say that same-sex marriage is morally wrong, when Barna sampled evangelicals (defined by Barna as those Christians who are committed to Jesus Christ; their Faith is very important to them; they believe they will go to heaven when they die; they are known to witness about their Faith to non-Christians; they believe hasatan exists; they believe salvation is achieved via grace alone and I would add, they reject the keeping of Torah by Christians; and they believe the Bible to be accurate in every conceivable regard), 94% were not in favor of the high court’s ruling. I actually was somewhat surprised by this percentage. I don’t know why I thought that this number would be lower, thinking that there may have been a moral drop in the make-up of evangelicals over the last several years. Why? Because, when you reject Torah–which most evangelicals clearly do–you have no true moral compass upon which to base your beliefs and worldview upon. Somehow, these evangelicals understand that despite their rejection of Torah, they still must support Torah principles. That my friends is somewhat encouraging and something upon which to base future evangelizing efforts upon. Indeed, most evangelicals are supportive of Torah whether they believe it or not–we have something in common with our wayward cousins.
And rounding this survey off, Barna found that 19% of Americans surveyed feel that religious institutions and clergy should be required to perform same-sex marriages. Now, this is the gist of the problem I say associated with this landmark ruling and I applaud Barna for taking the pulse of America on this particular question. In this country, we Torah fans (stealing from Michael Rood) can not force our convictions upon the peoples of this nation. Thus, if the high court chooses to give Yahovah the finger by passing the same-sex law in this country, making it legal for same-sex marriage in all 50-states, then we are pretty much stuck with that ruling. However, what should give everyone a pause for concern is, will this ruling affect our religious freedoms. In other words, will our leaders in the Faith be forced to perform same-sex marriage regardless their moral and Biblically based convictions? Worse, if members of our Faith are led by the Ruach to speak out or teach against same-sex marriage, in whatever format or form or convention, will they–will we–be condemned or subject to fines, loss of jobs, loss of income, loss of freedom and even imprisonment. Friends, this is the primary crux of this same-sex debate. Is this ruling the start of the demise of religious freedom in this country? We better get ready. The storm clouds are gathering and we may not have much more time before we find ourselves gather to worship and study the Bible in hiding as in the time of the apostles. It’s not a matter of if friends, but a matter of when. Interestingly enough, the study ended with a very astute observation by 6 out of 10 Americans: that this ruling will ultimately restrict our religious freedoms in this country over the next 5-years. Let us think hard about this and let us prepare and pray and fast and study while it is stay day. Shalom Saints.
Rod Thomas–Disciple of Yahoshua Messiah; Coroner Investigator; Messianic Content Creator; Wishful Musician
