by Rod Thomas | Mar 11, 2014 | Blog, Podcasts
For what great nation is there that has God as close to them as ADONAI our God is, whenever we call on him? 8 What great nation is there that has laws and rulings as just as this entire Torah which I am setting before you today? (Deu 4:7-8 CJB)
Having taken on the daily study of Torah in my life, I have come to terms with many interesting and important aspects and elements affecting my daily walk with Messiah. Some of these aspects and elements are good to know things while others are downright disturbing and are likely impediments in my relationship with the Eternal. I dare say that I probably get on God’s (or as I will use for the remainder of this post, Yehovah’s) nerves more times than I care to guess. I realize in the back of my mind that if I do not correct those deficiencies in my life, I stand the chance of damaging my long-term relationship with Yehovah.
The Wilderness Example
CJB Numbers 11:4 Next, the mixed crowd that was with them grew greedy for an easier life; while the people of Isra’el, for their part, also renewed their weeping and said, “If only we had meat to eat! (Num 11:4 CJB)
Numbers chapter 4 is one of those chapters of Torah (better known to western Christians as the Old Testament) that paints a vivid picture of a people in seemingly perpetual wandering. Initially, the escape from years of bondage under the cruelty of the Egyptians was obviously jubilant and auspicious. The stuff that epics such as the Charlton Heston’s and Cecil B. Demil’s classic the “10-Commandments” captured in all its perceived pomp and circumstance. Beautiful and handsome actors from the United States and Canada, made to look the part, brought a sense of awe and mystery to the story. Despite the brilliance of the film, it failed to capture the inner workings of the human experience: that is the struggles of the flesh as it attempted to fall in line with the requirements of a Holy God; the challenges associated with basic human relationships, especially when a mixed multitude accompanied the Exodus party; Yehovah’s overarching purposes in bringing His Chosen out of the land of Egypt and subjecting them to the many problems and challenges they were to experience. Even today, Orthodox Churchianity and her appendages fail to grasp the immense purpose behind Yehovah’s subjection of those whom He claimed to love to such stark and abject poverty and inconvenience. Beyond that the leaders of orthodox churchianity, these supposed learned men of God, consistently fail to seek the Spirit for understanding how their story (i.e., the children of Israel), their experiences, and their lives impact us today.
The Grace Doctrine Muddies the Water
This problem of minimizing the lessons that would be learned from the Sinai experience by western orthodox and popular churchianity teachers, I believe, may be attributed to the all-encompassing doctrine of grace. This doctrine, more than any, has resulted in millions throughout the centuries, missing entirely what their purpose in Jesus Christ (from this point forward, Yeshua HaMashiach) was. You see, sola gratia (Latin for grace only) requires very little of the child of the Most High to ensure his or her eternal security. In fact, sola gratia provides the would-be child of Yehovah with the opportunity to live as the uncontrollable brat he or she is predisposed to be. Overall, the focus is eschatological (that is, where will I spend eternity and how will I escape the tribulation). Is our only purpose as the redeemed of the Most High to aspire to an eternity that is NOT hell? How many a soul has prayed the sinner’s prayer, not for reasons of being a light to a lost world (Matthew 5: 14) or a friend to Yehovah (James 2: 23), but rather to avoid spending an eternity in hell? (Hell is an entirely separate topic of its own we may discuss at some future time, Yah willing.) Why have we missed the mark and abandoned this life we currently have for some ill-conceived and unbiblical life in heaven sometime in the perceived future? So much benefit is to be had here today in this world for the analogous benefits that salt brought to the ancient Middle East (Matthew 5:13). The preservative and flavor benefits translate into a picture of a people who would bring life to the world and the example by which the human race would be saved. Being the salt to the world as Messiah crowned every follower of His to become and remain, is indicative of the emphasis that Yeshua put on the here and now. He, Messiah, built His entire ministry on relationships–love for His Father and love for His people–the two great categorical basic elements of Torah. It is high-time my friends that we stop focusing on the future and eternity, but instead focus upon our relationships with both Yehovah and our brothers and sisters today. If we are faithful to do what the Master commanded us to do as His disciples, the future will indeed take care of itself. Needless to say, we have very little to no control of the future. What we do have influence over is our relationships with Father and those whom the Father has placed into our spheres of influence.
Weeping for the Wrong Thing
The children of Israel began to weep over lack of meat at the expressed lusting of the mixed multitude. Just prior to this episode, the Children of Israel murmured amongst themselves and against Yehovah for their present situation:
CJB Numbers 11:1 But the people began complaining about their hardships to ADONAI. When ADONAI heard it, his anger flared up, so that fire from ADONAI broke out against them and consumed the outskirts of the camp. 2 Then the people cried to Moshe, Moshe prayed to ADONAI, and the fire abated. 3 That place was called Tav’erah [burning] because ADONAI‘s fire broke out against them. (Num 11:1 CJB)
Thus, we have before us a very unhappy and depressed group all around.
The weeping of the Children of Israel was certainly misplaced here. Indeed the human flesh wants what it thinks it needs and what it selfishly wants. I ask you: knowing what we know about this situation, was the situation that the Chosen ones found themselves valid enough reason to weep before Yehovah and Moses and the hangers on?
I am a firm believer in cause and effect. My job as a Coroner’s Investigator is focused upon learning what the circumstances leading to the death in question were. Many a family member and associate of the deceased would query my staff and me as to the reasons for our inquiry, particularly when the cause of death appeared to be quite apparent. It all comes down to what were the driving elements that led to the death: why did the decedent crash his/her car? Were they sleep at the wheel? Did they have a cardiac event that caused them to become unconscious and lose control of their vehicle? Was someone else in the vehicle who distracted them and caused them to lose control of their car and then crash? Are there criminal elements associated with the death? Criminal negligence? Drugs? Psychological influences leading the individual to commit suicide maybe? The list can go on of course.
Many times, we weep for purposes of soliciting attention and sympathy from those around us, more so of course when we see ourselves incapable of containing or remedying a certain situation. Weeping in these cases seems to bring the comfort that help will come and relieve us of our heavy burden.
However, what about those situations where weeping is a response to something that we’ve done to someone or in response to some situation or some thing; when the only response to an embarrassing or tragic situation is to let the emotions and the depression that collects within us spill over the edges of our souls? What about the weeping that comes from having the knowledge that we’ve disappointed or hurt someone close to us and the only response is a wailing of abject sorrow and rejection of ourselves as subhuman and unworthy of the love of the individual we’ve wronged? When we are in such a deep and uncompromising relationship, either with Yehovah or with our brothers or sisters, we are just a stone’s throw away from finding ourselves in a state of remorseful weeping simply by doing something stupid; and that stupid something can be anything that causes the other party hurt or pain.
As an adult and prior to reaching my 50’s, I had little need of weeping apart from when my Grandmother (of whom I was equally raised by along with my mother and father in our Baltimore Maryland home) died from cancer. The sorrow I felt was of course a reaction to the intense sense of loss I was experiencing at the time; knowing that I would never see my grandmother in this life again. The weeping that emerged from within required no effort; no mental contemplation of how and why; no physical pushing or pulling on my part; just being and allowing myself to feel the pain. Knowing my grandmother was a born again Christian saved by grace (at the time I was a traditionalist/pop Christian), I felt confident she had gone to heaven and that I would see her again in the resurrection and rapture. Yet that assurance did not assuage the sorrow that seemed to engulf my being over the course of a number of days.
Indeed, the Holy Writ is festooned with numerous “weeping” passages; the weepers weeping for various and sundry reasons:
- Sorrow over the death of a loved one (Gen. 23:2; 37:35; Ecc. 3:4; Jer. 9:1; Luk. 7:13; 8:52)
- The lost love/longing for a loved one (Gen. 43:30; 1 Sam. 30:3,4)
- Concern over the anticipated death of a loved one and you can’t do anything about it (2 Sam. 12:21; Job 30:25; Isa. 22:4; Joe. 2:17; Luk 23:28; Jam. 5:1)
- Shame before the Creator and men over one’s transgressions against the Father (2 Chr. 34:27 Neh. 8:9; Isa. 15:2)
- Sorrow over the pain and devastation one we care for is undergoing (Jer. 13:17; Lam. 1:16; Eze. 24:16; Gen. 27:38; Num. 11:4)
- Sorrow over lack of resources, one’s plight, etc (Luk. 6:21)
- Joy (Gen. 29:13; 33:4; 45:2)
In many cases throughout Scripture, the weeping was misplaced and was indicative of a lack of trust and even understanding of those who wept of Yehovah. The weeping was indicative of the hopeless perception the weeper held regarding his or her situation.
Weeping that is Appreciated by Yehovah
Our heavenly Father deeply cares for His creation and there are a few rare examples in Scripture where the weeping of one of His children swayed His heart to change His intended course to bring destruction upon His chosen or the weeping bent His will or the course of natural human events in favor of the weeper:
- The case of Hagar’s remorse over the impending plight of her son Ishmael (Genesis 21)
- The case of the Children of Israel weeping over lack of food (Numbers 11)
- The case of Hannah seeking of Yehovah a child as she was childless and ashamed (1 Samuel 1)
- Josiah’s weeping on behalf of His people for their grave sin and upon re-discovering the Torah in the temple (2 Kings 22)
Weeping does strike at the heart of the creator and has proven from time to time to move the Father to action. But no weeping moves the Eternal more than the weeping of one who sorrows over having offended the Most High and having transgressed His Torah.
We’ll pick this up next time.
We trust that you have been blessed as I have been blessed in this study of Numbers 11:4. I would then ask you to subscribe/register to this podcast and website simply by filling in the three boxes to the right of this post that is titled “subscribe to this website and podcast.” In doing so, you show your support for this ministry as well as provide for yourself updates on the happenings of this ministry. We’d love to have you and rest assured that we will never share your information with any person or organization. We thank you in advance dear friend.
Until next time dear friend, may you be most blessed.
by Rod Thomas | Mar 7, 2014 | Blog, Podcasts
Continuing on from our previous study, we find ourselves still looking at Numbers 11: 4 and the situation involving a mixed multitude of peoples who accompanied the Chosen People in the Exodus out of Egypt. The passage reads beautifully as:
CJB Numbers 11:4 Next, the mixed crowd that was with them grew greedy for an easier life; while the people of Isra’el, for their part, also renewed their weeping and said, “If only we had meat to eat! (Num 11:4 CJB)
This issue of a mixed multitude appears to be a most intriguing element to the Exodus story. Most accounts of the story of the Exodus focus main upon the Children of Israel and all their associated problems and challenges. However, this mixed multitude or in the Hebrew, this rabble, paints for a us a most fascinating story and life lesson. So many parallels here. So many analogies here. So many truths to be taken in and incorporated into our lives quite frankly. There is of course the low hanging fruit of matter that suggests the lesson to be learned here is to watch very closely those who are in our lives that are unequally yoked, so-to-speak. Clearly the rabble never anticipated the testing phase of the Exodus journey and thus they wanted off the bus quite early. Their influence upon the Chosen of Yehovah was evident in the latter half of this verse. Fast forwarding roughly 4-millennium, we can see the dangers of rabble in our walk with Messiah. Oh these folks may not be part and parcel of our walk with Messiah, but they are always present in various segments of our daily lives: unbelieving and unsupporting family members; grumpy and negative neighbors; co-workers and bosses who see the badge of our Faith as nothing more than a ploy to get time off for so-called “Jewish Holidays” or taunting us for being in supposed “cults.” It is these that often drive us to the very edge of compromise and drag us in to their unclean conversations and or personal and professional life problems that cause us great discomfort and frustration.
I know, for example, that I face each day I go in to the office a litany of staffers who come to me with their seemingly petty issues and expect me to make those problems magically go away. Or I am dragged into meaningless conversation that ultimately leads me astray and I find myself thinking, feeling, and saying things that are not of Kingdom essence. As we clearly see in the latter half of this verse, the Children of Israel “renewed their weeping” for food. I tell you, this Messianic life is a vicious circles much of the time and it can certainly weigh upon psychologically and physically if we are not girded about on our spiritual bodies with the whole armor of Yah.
CJB Ephesians 6:11 Use all the armor and weaponry that God provides, so that you will be able to stand against the deceptive tactics of the Adversary. (Eph 6:11 CJB)
But then, there is the higher level thought behind all this and that involves the overall leaven that infuses our lives on a daily basis. I’m not a huge fan or one who defers to commentary on the Bible, but I do from time to time enjoy reading what other well knowing experts or even lay folk think about a particular passage or Torah concept. According to Matthew Henry for instance (and I absolutely love this term he used to describe the rabble), this mixed multitude became “hangers on.” He goes on to describe these “hangers on” as individuals who saw and opportunity to latch on to the anticipated blessings of Yehovah that would be extolled upon the Children of Israel (my wording of his). I have to tell you, this gave me great cause for pause and reflection as he goes further to say that “scabbed sheep can easily infect a flock and he concludes his description likening the hangers on to leaven that leaven the whole lump.
Leaven and Scabs
One of the major challenges to those of us who embrace the Messianic lifestyle has to do with all of the elements that make up our life that can virtually infect us and hinder our walk with Messiah. As I mentioned above, the low hanging fruit is easily identified as those people who provide us opportunities to falter and stumble along the way. This situation my friends can be managed if we are careful to understand what it is that these hangers on bring to the table of our lives. In some cases we can simply dismiss them and have nothing to do with them unless we absolutely are forced to deal with them in a situation or problem. On the other hand, there are those we are either married to, related to and live with, or have to work with in order to make a living. In these cases, it may take a little more finesses than a simple dismissal. It may require that we set barriers and rule around how we will deal with them and what we will and will not tolerate from them. It may come down to having those “crucial conversations” (the name of a leadership book that describes having critical conversations to get your point across) with these individuals in order to establish an understanding as to what it is they are doing to create havoc in your life.
But then there is the compendium of things in and around us that have a leavening and scabbing influence upon our walk with Messiah and with that, we’ll pick this up next time.
We trust that you have been blessed as I have been blessed in this study of Numbers 11:4. I would then ask you to subscribe/register to this podcast and website simply by filling in the three boxes to the right of this post that is titled “subscribe to this website and podcast.” In doing so, you show your support for this ministry as well as provide for yourself updates on the happenings of this ministry. We’d love to have you and rest assured that we will never share your information with any person or organization. We thank you in advance dear friend.
by Rod Thomas | Mar 3, 2014 | Blog
One of the interesting aspects of Numbers 11:4 is the aspect of the Children of Israel weeping. I didn’t really pay much attention to this portion of the verse apart from the fact that the Chosen Ones of the Desert could not see beyond their physical needs and were inviting possible harm to themselves from Yehovah as we saw in verses 1 to 3 of this same chapter.
But then we come upon this behavior of weeping. Of all human emotional response to a situation, weeping is the tale-tale sign that something is amiss or is happening to or within the individual who is weeping. In our modern, western society, weeping is usually something that sends a strong visual signal to those who are within eye and ear shot of the person affected. We, the observers of this behavior, typically halt from what it is we are doing and take notice. We are usually disarmed and a sense of compassion or empathy or in some cases even sympathy takes over within us. If the situation or the level of relationship we, the observer is such, we may innately attempt to console the weeping individual. Why. I don’t know, we just don’t like to see people weep. It triggers a biological response within us and we react–one way or the other, we the observer react.
In this case, the Children of Promise wept over the absence of meat (or flesh as rendered in many translations) in their diet. The Hebrew term for weep is “bakah” and it generally, in Scripture, denotes weeping, crying, or the shedding of tears in response to grief, humiliation, or joy. In this particular situation, the weeping of the Children of Promise was over a lack of or absence of meat.
According to Hollady’s Hebrew & Aramaic Lexicon, weeping can become whining, which I would contend is accurate here. The Israelites were prompted in to a state of weeping by the “rabble” or the “hangers on” as referencing Matthew Henry. Hallady continues and I believe this is such an astute consideration to be had by every believer in Messiah: the weeping by the Children of Promise should have been a weeping of repentance. Indeed, such weeping transcends most if not all other causes of weeping among humans. When we weep, many times the weeping is a sign of selfishness. In other words, something caused us to feel sorry or sad about something and of course, we do not like to feel sad. In other aspects, we cry because something was taken from us or we are in lack, which happens to be the precise situation here.
Torah, above any other element, elevates man to a higher state of being. It shows us our deficiencies and prompts us to correct our errant ways. Torah and the sacrifice Yeshua made on the cross for our sins, provide for us that open door to the Creator of the Universe who has always, from the beginning of time, sought to provide His creation. It all comes down to relationships: that is the relationship between Yehovah and man. That relationship has been described as that of a Father and children.
We’ll pick this up next time. Have a most blessed day in Messiah.
by Rod Thomas | Mar 3, 2014 | Blog
If you read my last posting regarding our experiences with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, you will have heard discussion about my experiences with three Jehovah’s Witnesses last month. It had been several years since I’d last had any contact with a Jehovah’s Witness and having now met with some of their representatives, I found their doctrines, teachings, and beliefs to be quite disturbing.
Now I’m not coming at this from the perspective that because the JWs belief system doesn’t align with my belief system, I label them a cult as this has for centuries been the common knee-jerk and uncaring practice of popular churchianity. Indeed, as I’ve mentioned in other episodes, we as individual humans are on individual journeys and it falls upon each of us to make the most informed decision we possibly can regarding our eternal destiny. Heck, I’m certain that many in popular churchianity and possibly the JWs even, would consider us to be part of or even leading a cult. And if that is indeed the case, I’m okay with that. You see, history is replete with examples of humans feeling more at ease and secure when they are associated with a majority or well defined and established group. Popular Christianity, or as I like to refer to it, churchianity, is no exception. But then, where did this practice of abhorring and villainizing faiths that differ from orthodoxy come from? Weren’t we all taught at one time that the Christian religion was a religion of love and understanding?
Well, as the Faith once delivered devolved to a composite of Jewish, Greek, and Roman philosophies and traditions, and the 3rd and 4th century leaders saw the opportunity to bring unto themselves wealth and influence over the masses, the religion that became the Holy Roman Catholic Church took expansive actions to insure that all peoples within their sphere of influence would capitulate to their faith. Free will to determine what one believed or followed in their choice of religion was removed as a life option. Failure to affiliate with the Catholic Church in many cases meant death, if not at the very least loss of one’s ability to make a living for themselves and their families. As the Catholic Church split as a result of Martin Luther’s opposition to papal authority, the emerging protestant reform saw a new aspect of judgmental self-righteousness take center stage, although not to the extent that Catholicism’s bloody history portrayed to the world during the period of the 4th to the 15th centuries. Protestantism came on the world scene with seemingly the same Godly sentiments that was common to the Faith once delivered, but continued to carry much of the paganistic baggage of Catholicism–e.g., the observance of Sunday and the designated day of worship; the celebration of Christmas and Easter. As orthodox Christianity devolved over time to its current state of churchianity (i.e., the faith that is taught to the adherents of orthodox Christianity by its modern and happy-go-lucky and hip teachers and preachers–that your eternal destiny rests with your involvement in the church and not in you and Yeshua alone or better yet, the practice of churching its members), belief in God and Jesus Christ became codified in sound-bites and denominational “Statements of Beliefs or Faiths.” Thus, if one does not personally identify with the stated beliefs of the mainstream denominations but you practice a form of religion that possesses elements of Christianity, you and your affiliate organization are generally labeled a heretic or a cult. Of course, the label cult brings with it very negative connotations as memories of David Koresh’s Branch Dividian and Jim Jones’ “Peoples Temple” are brought front and center to the discussion. These two leaders along with their organizations came to a tragic and violent end, generally because their extreme belief-systems clouded their ability to think and behave rationally; not to mention their undying loyalty and faith in their leaders further stoked the flames of their destruction.
Organizations such as the Branch Dividian and the Peoples Temple are inherently dangerous because they tend to isolate their adherents from the rest of the world and essentially indoctrinate them to the level of brainwashing in to the beliefs of the organizations’ leaders. Certainly, living in America, we are blessed to have so-called freedom of religion and speech and I believe with my whole heart in those rights. I do take exception when I see seemingly genuine and well-intentioned souls as those who visited Hilary and me last month being led astray by an organization who should know better and who do not leave their members to learn for themselves the truths contained in the Holy Writ. I do not look down upon the JWs nor do I group them in with sects such as the Branch Dividians or the Peoples’ Temple. Nevertheless, my heart does go out to them and I pray that those members who visited our home last month, and others like them, are able to seek the face of Yehovah for themselves and take personal responsibility for their eternal destiny. I pray that they establish a one-on-one relationship with Yeshua and not rely upon their organization to provide such a nebulous relationship.
This brings me to the issue at hand. One of the things that came out of our rather contentious meeting with the JWs was this understanding that Christianity (including the JWs) is built upon the teachings of Paul with just a sprinkling of Jesus here and there for taste. Devoid altogether was any notion that the elemental faith that our respective belief systems sprung from is built upon Hebraic roots–specifically having a Torah foundation. Bear in mind that I said Hebraic roots and not Judaism. I fully believe that Judaism is a religion in the strictest sense of the word like the religions of Catholicism and Islam. Yet the Catholicism and Islam religions of today have not abandoned their roots nor denied their respective histories. Christianity and the JWs, on the other hand, with embarrassment totally denied their Hebraic roots and Israelite foundations. These groups have sought to teach their adherents a doctrine that villainizes the Torah and the ancient and present day nation of Israel. The leader of the group contended that the Israelites and the Jews had their chance and now they are doomed. We, the Christians of today, have effectively taken the Israelite’s place in the promises of the Father that He once bestowed upon His chosen people. Consequently, the future, according to this JW, holds no redemption or even significance for neither the nation of Israel nor the Israelitish peoples of the earth. Game over for God’s once chosen people.
But is this indeed the case?
I look back to the Prophet Jeremiah who predicted through the guidance and revelation of Yah’s Holy Spirit:
ESV Jeremiah 16:19 O LORD, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit. 20 Can man make for himself gods? Such are not gods!” 21 “Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the LORD.” (Jer 16:19-21 ESV)
We know from God’s appointed prophets that Israel will come to their senses and will return to the covenant they once had with Yehovah and thus enjoy the promises that we, the true Believers in Messiah embrace with love and great passion. Indeed, something will provoke the Jewish and Israelitish peoples of the earth to jealousy and come to Yehovah in Spirit and Truth.
CJB Romans 11:11 “In that case, I say, isn’t it that they have stumbled with the result that they have permanently fallen away?” Heaven forbid! Quite the contrary, it is by means of their stumbling that the deliverance has come to the Gentiles, in order to provoke them to jealousy. (Rom 11:11 CJB) Continuing to verse 14: CJB Romans 11:14 in the hope that somehow I may provoke some of my own people to jealousy and save some of them! (Rom 11:14 CJB)
In the end times, the nation of Israel will come to know Yehovah through Yeshua Hamashiach and thus they will be a light to the nations of the world:
ESV Zechariah 8:23 Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'” (Zec 8:23 ESV)
As pompous and puffed us as we may become in our claims of being the present day chosen ones of God, replacing Israel who dropped the proverbial ball, we must be cognizant that Yah calls the shots. He has never nor will he ever abandon His people to oblivion. When Yehovah calls the peoples of the scattered nations of Israel out of the world, there will be move of the Spirit that will be unprecedented in the history of our Faith. Jew and Israelite will come to a full understanding and acceptance of Yeshua as Messiah and live Torah in the power and might of Ruach HaKodesh. Thus, the root and the ingrafted branch will come together and reign with the Master for a 1000-years.
And if we are so sure that Torah has been done away with like the Israelites of old, what says the Prophet Isaiah on this subject?
CJB Isaiah 2:3 Many peoples will go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of ADONAI, to the house of the God of Ya’akov! He will teach us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For out of Tziyon will go forth Torah, the word of ADONAI from Yerushalayim. (Isa 2:3 CJB)
I believe we must resist the lies of hasatan that the Israelites and the Jews and Torah are forever eliminated. Accepting such unbiblical lies will only lead to our ultimate destruction and our inability to be effective witnesses for the Master. Let us pray for our Jewish brothers as well as for those caught in religion–that they will escape the scourge and bondage of religion for the only truth known to the human race and that is the Faith once delivered to the first century saints by Yeshua HaMashiach.
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by Rod Thomas | Mar 2, 2014 | Blog, Podcasts
Greetings Saints. This Torah Living content is being posted on the 28th Day of the 12th Biblical Month of 6014 (according to Rood’s Astronomically & Agriculturally Corrected Biblical Hebrew Calendar). I trust that you are well and blessed in all areas of your life.
I want us to continue our journey in Numbers 11:4, picking up where we left off in discussing the Matthew Henry generated description of the rabble accompanying Israel as the Hangers On. The latter half of verse 4 reads:
while the people of Isra’el, for their part, also renewed their weeping and said, “If only we had meat to eat! (Num 11:4 CJB)
Over the last several postings I’ve beaten up on the rabble or hangers on and I explored with you the likely reasons why the rabble acted the way they did as recorded in the first half of verse 4. Now the second half of verse 4 it seems pretty evident that the Children of Israel (i.e., those who were not hangers on) began to react to the grumblings of the rabble. The Chosen’s reaction to their situation was slightly different than the reactions of the hangers on group’s reaction to their situation. The Chosen’s reaction was to renew their weeping over the lack of “meat” (or in the KJV and other similar translations–flesh) to consume. If you recall, Numbers 11:1-3 records an event where the people began to complain about something. The Complete Jewish Bible–CJB (which I have grown to love and consult more than any other translation of the Bible) provides us with the object of the people’s complaining and that object is “…about their hardships.” Every other translation that I’ve consulted fails to provide a specific object or reason for the complaining or “murmuring.” I tend to give a goodly amount of credence to the CJB translation such that it seems to take into account the context of what was happening to the wandering nation and instead of attributing the people’s miserableness and murmurings to food, heat, water, inconvenience, CJB elected to group it all into the simple package of “hardship.” At the end of the day, it is all about hardship, whether it is about having a lack of meat or having to endure the challenges of the wilderness.
Yehovah did not appreciate the murmuring of the people and reacted with extreme force, incinerating many individuals in the camp until Moses intervened on the offenders’ behalf.
Before I move beyond this, I see here a shadow picture (reference Hebrews 10:1) that is quite awesome. Moses, in intervening and advocating on behalf of the people in their sin, took on one of the roles of Yeshua, our High Priest. Recall that Yeshua is our advocate to the Father when we sin. Consider:
CJB 1 John 2:1 My children, I am writing you these things so that you won’t sin. But if anyone does sin, we have Yeshua the Messiah, the Tzaddik, who pleads our cause with the Father. (1Jo 2:1 CJB)
Even in the midst of the nation’s sin and waywardness, she had an advocate and his name was Moses. Over and over again I revel in the beauty of Torah and see the wonderful shadow pictures that are painted upon its pages. Here, laying before me, is the image of the nation of Israel who today is a former image of us–Truth Seeking Messianics. I stumble and falter on a daily basis and I am so honored and happy to know that I have an advocate before the Father who intervenes on my behalf and by doing so staves off certain destruction. Paul aptly addresses this reality in his letters to the Roman Believers and to his young mentee Timothy respectively:
Rom 8:34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
1Ti 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
Yehovah chose His leader well. Moses is certainly a type of savior, not only for physical Israel, but also for spiritual Israel, which is us. If Yehovah’s ire went unabated, the nation could have been utterly destroyed and our futures uncertain. We owe Moses a debt of thanks for stepping in the roll of advocate for the nation, in spite of that less than palatable inherent nature of the Israelites.
Getting back to the situation at hand in verse 4, the hangers on through their lusting after or for an “easier life” according to the CJB, likely prompted the Chosen Ones to renew their murmuring and the start of weeping for their lack or absence of “meat.” I wondered when looking back at the previous 3-verses if the Children of Israel had been cured of their complaining tendency. Well, it appears that it didn’t take much to sucker them back in to their old ways.
Are we any different friends? When I consider that I am in so many ways, like the Children of Israel, constantly looking at the glass being half-empty and having the “woe is me” mentality, it doesn’t take much for me to find myself falling back to this mentality with its associated behavior. Using my job as an example: lately, I have been cognizant of my tendency towards being a complainer and a murmurer. Thus, I have taken firm action to stem this tendency. I have made significant leeway in combating this tendency. However, it takes very little to push me back over to the tendencies that I am fighting to overcome. It could be something that someone says to me; it could be something that someone does to me; it could be something that I read; or even something that I observe. I think Paul stated this dilemma quite well:
CJB Romans 7:15 I don’t understand my own behavior- I don’t do what I want to do; instead, I do the very thing I hate!
(Rom 7:15 CJB)
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Indeed, we are always in some form of internal and spiritual struggle that more times than not, the flesh wins over. And it is those that we find living and working alongside us that usually prompts this internal and spiritual conflict to wage. I do not believe it is something that we could ever expect to see go completely away from us. Indeed, these types of situations add to the testing regimen that prepares us for the Kingdom. The positive thing to gain from this, however, appears to be the knowledge that we must always be cognizant of our weaknesses and equally alert to those things, people, and situations that cause us to stumble. It is a process and speaking from experience, it is a constant challenge. Yet, I believe this is something that must be put into perspective as we walk this walk with Messiah. We are being called to walk according to the Spirit. The Spirit always flies contrary to the ways of the flesh as Paul so aptly put it:
CJB Romans 8:7 For the mind controlled by the old nature is hostile to God, because it does not submit itself to God’s Torah- indeed, it cannot.(Rom 8:7 CJB)
We are in a much better place than the wandering nation of Israel. We have been blessed with the Holy Spirit that provides a means to overcome our fleshly tendencies. The Children of Israel lacked this ever-present help. Instead for them, it all came down to them obeying Yehovah’s commandments and laws and we know that mankind can certainly do that if he so desires. Contrary to popular Christian teaching, man can indeed keep Yah’s laws. It seems pretty foolish to think that the Father would provide man a system of ordinances that would make them wholly acceptable to Himself if mankind was physically incapable of keeping them and obeying them to the full. Yet we tell ourselves, through this false teaching, that it is impossible to keep Torah and thus we don’t have to nor should we be made to. Why? Because Yeshua kept Torah perfectly and thus we have been released from all responsibility of keeping Torah. Hogwash! That’s like saying, I own this hot muscle car and thus it is impossible for me to observe the speed laws because my muscle car is inherently so fast. Therefore, I shouldn’t be expected to obey the speed laws. For real!? Come on. Let’s be real about this. We have the capacity to endure and pass any test
CJB 1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has seized you beyond what people normally experience, and God can be trusted not to allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. On the contrary, along with the temptation he will also provide the way out, so that you will be able to endure. (1Co 10:13 CJB)
The Father placed the Chosen Ones in a multi-faceted situation: a wilderness, lacking many provisions, and with a multi-cultural grouping of individuals. All of these elements made for a crucible that the Father could use to mold and fashion His chosen in to a set apart people, holy unto Himself, Yehovah’s unique treasure out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. So it is with us today: we find ourselves in an unequally yoked world. Our world is part and parcel of the testing ground to shape us in to the form and image of Yeshua. When we come to terms with this reality, then and only then may we move beyond our fleshly defaults. I’m working on this and I’m hanging so very hard to the Holy Spirit to give me that extra weight to help me overcome my evil tendencies. I hope that you will join me, in whatever capacity you are struggling, and overcome our tendency to adversely react to the people, places and things around us. May we be victorious over the flesh and shine as the sun among the peoples of the earth.
Be most blessed.
