Author: Steven R. Bruck
Parashah Bo 2020 (come) Exodus 10 – 13:16
God continues the plagues against Egypt, this time with locusts followed by the three days of complete darkness. Yet Pharaoh is still unmoved, although he has been asked by his officials to let the people go because Egypt is being destroyed.
Pharaoh tells Moses that the next time he sees his face, he will die, and Moses pretty much says “That’s fine with me.”
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The last plague now comes, the death of all the firstborn throughout Egypt. God gives Moses the instructions about how the Israelites are to protect themselves from the Destroyer coming at midnight, and also that this is now the first month of their year. He instructs them regarding the Passover lamb and the eating of unleavened bread for the week after the Seder.
Moses also has the people go to their Egyptian neighbors asking for what are essentially the spoils of war, and the Egyptians are happy to give all they have, all their valuables, in order to get these people out of their land.
Finally, after the firstborn of the royal family is dead, Pharaoh ejects the Israelites from the land, and they leave in such haste that they don’t even allow their dough to rise, so they have to bake the unrisen dough, which is what we call “matzo.”
Actually, they weren’t supposed to have any yeast in the dough, anyway.
The life of a thing is in the blood (Lev. 17:10); the blood that was brushed onto the lintels of the houses of the Israelites was life for them. God tells us many times throughout the Tanakh that it is by the life that is in the blood which provides us atonement for sin.
Blood is a double-edged sword because we need it to stay alive, but blood-borne diseases can kill us. In today’s scientific world, we know that harmful germs and bacteria can be spread through the blood, just like Chametz (leavening) can spread through a batch of dough. So even though God tells us that blood is life, it may also cause death.
But how can that be? Blood is used to anoint and sanctify the holy items in the Tabernacle, which are used to worship God! If there is death in blood, how can it be used to sanctify?
This is sort of like the red heifer thing (Numbers 19): everything associated with creating the water of sanctification from the ashes of the red heifer, which is used to cleanse us, caused the person performing the actions to become unclean.
I think this is all part of the universal balance God created when he created the universe. Blood is what transports life, and when we care for our blood by doing what God tells us to do, the blood remains free of death. But, when we disobey or reject God’s instructions, that which brings life will bring death.
For an example, let’s look at the Laws of Kashrut: the one main difference between kosher animal meat and the rest is that to prepare the meat, the animal is killed in a humane way (called the Shechita) which drains the blood quickly. Then the meat is salted to draw out any of the remaining blood. Once this is done, the meat is always cooked thoroughly.
You won’t find someone getting a bloody steak at a kosher restaurant.
This obedience to God’s instructions regarding the eating of blood is what keeps our blood free of pathogens. On the other hand, rejecting this ordinance will likely result (especially in the olden days, way before the USDA) in some form of infection.
Look at what is happening today: in China, they have long had to worry about SARS, but now this new virus, the Coronavirus is absolutely deadly. In Africa, the Bush Meat trade is what caused AIDS. And science shows that drinking clean blood can still lead to death.
Blood can be life-giving, or life-taking, depending on how you treat it. The same is true with the Torah: through obedience, we can achieve everlasting life, but rejection of God’s instructions will result in death. This is why Moses told the people (Deut. 30: 15-20) it is up to them to choose life (through obedience) or to choose death (through rejection) of the instructions God gave in the Torah.
There are many things in your life that will carry one result or another, and it is up to you to choose the right way. Argue with your boss or keep your job; argue with your spouse or sleep in the bed; drive safely or have your car in the shop; do as we are told to do in the Torah or spend eternity in suffering.
Last Minute Edit: I am not ignoring the Messiah and his sacrifice, or that it is through faith that we are saved. True faith in God and the Messiah must lead to Torah obedience. We can’t be saved by Torah alone, but Messiah’s sacrifice never did away with the requirement by God to obey his instructions.
Blood can provide life or death, depending on how we choose to treat it. The Torah is our spiritual blood, which provides eternal life when we obey it, and death by ignoring it.
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Until next time, Shabbat Shalom and Baruch HaShem!
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The All-American Religion
I like to listen to the Oldies station, and the one here in Melbourne, Florida has a weekday session at 1400 (that’s 2 PM to you non-military types) they call “The Impossible Question”, where they ask a question that has an answer which is hard to know, and when someone guesses the correct answer they get a $25 gift certificate to one of the restaurant sponsors of the show.
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The other day I was in the car listening to the station and the question was something along the lines of “18% of all relationships break up for this reason.”
I thought the answer would be money, how to raise the kids, abusiveness, cultural or religious differences, or something along those lines.
Would you like to know what the answer is?
(I hope so because this entire message is based on it.)
The answer is the relationship fails because one of the partners cheers for a different NFL team.
That’s right- not something as significant as money, children, addiction, mental illness or abusive treatment, but simply that I like the New York Giants and you cheer for the Greenbay Packers. Hey – pack your trash and go!
Even if we have a relationship based on mutual trust, love, and common interests, we cannot have a lasting relationship unless you are a fan of my favorite football team.
I guess that also means if I am going to start dating someone, I better do it at the end of football season so that I might have a chance at getting 7 or 8 months with this person before we have to break up.
When I thought about it, I realized that the relationships fail because of religious differences: those people follow that All-American religion called: Professional Sports.
It is a pantheistic religion because there is not a singular deity but multiple deities we call Athletes. There are demigods called Coaches and the Priest is called an Announcer, and the temple where they worship is called ESPN.
They read their Bible every day, which is found in the newspapers under the title “Sports Section”, and they tithe monthly through their cable channel. Every February there is a pilgrimage to whichever place their god says the Super Bowl will play, and some pay thousands of dollars for choice seating at the altar, which we call a Stadium.
How many people do you know that are devotees of this religion?
I’ll bet those who pay thousands for season seating at their favorite team’s stadium, and monthly fees for sports channels, don’t spend anywhere near as much money for tithing to their church or synagogue (if they even go to one.)
Idolatry is allowing anything to come between you and the one, true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. If you have more devotion to something or someone than you do to God, that is idolatry.
I know you feel physical and emotional love for your spouse more than what you feel for God, but you know what I mean. Of course, your spouse may not be all that important to you if he or she cheers for the wrong NFL team.
I am not saying that anyone should cancel ESPN and forego any sports events from now on; I would ask that they think about their level of devotion to a bunch of guys who probably don’t even know they exist. People don’t just honor their skills, which are God-given, to begin with, but many people literally worship their favorite sports star. They hang pictures of them, want their autograph, follow their life and read everything they can about them. And when they die, they are devastated.
But do they read their Bible every day? Do they pray to God for peace or salvation for their friends? I know that if they pray at all, it is probably that God will let their team win, which, I think it is safe to say, isn’t really all that important to God.
I don’t want you to stop watching your favorite sports teams or participating in your favorite sports but think about this situation for a second: one out of every four relationships in America is ruined because of something that has nothing at all to do with the other person’s personality or compatibility. One out of every four relationships is ruined because of a difference between which sports team they prefer.
Would they break up if I like steak and she likes fish? Would we break up if I loved purple and she loved Yellow? What about if she drove slowly and I drove like the New York driver I am? Probably not, but if I am a NY fan and she is a California fan? Then our chance of having a meaningful, rewarding and lasting relationship has an 18% chance of failing, right from the get-go.
If that statistic doesn’t shake you down to the soles of your feet, then if you’ll excuse my saying so, I believe you need to sort out your priorities.
The Enemy wants us to worship him, but if he can’t get someone to worship him he is satisfied to get them to stop worshiping God through seducing them (as Balaam did) to worship something or someone else.
Think about that the next time you watch a football game.
Thank you for being here and please subscribe and share this ministry with others. I welcome your comments and look forward to the next time we get together.
Until then, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
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To Judge or Not to Judge: There Ain’t No Question
Because I am a member of a number of different Facebook discussion groups, some Christian, one or two that are Messianic or Hebrew Roots, and others somewhere in between, I get to see a lot of different opinions about the same topics. And more often than not, someone will “correct” someone else’s understanding. Sometimes it is done respectfully, and sometimes the other person is just, plain nasty and insulting.
However, no matter how the correction is stated, there will always be someone else who says, “We are not to judge others!”
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Let’s get something straight: God NEVER said we should not judge others. What he does say about judging is not that we shouldn’t, but that when we do it must be righteous and fair. Let’s see an example or two of what God tells us about judging:
Deuteronomy 16:18-20 (CJB):
You are to appoint judges and officers for all your gates [in the cities] ADONAI your God is giving you, tribe by tribe; and they are to judge the people with righteous judgment. You are not to distort justice or show favoritism, and you are not to accept a bribe, for a gift blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of even the upright. Justice, only justice, you must pursue; so that you will live and inherit the land ADONAI your God is giving you.
In the very next chapter, this command is further defined.
Deuteronomy 17:8-9 (CJB):
If a case comes before you at your city gate which is too difficult for you to judge, concerning bloodshed, civil suit, personal injury or any other controversial issue; you are to get up, go to the place which Adonai your God will choose, and appear before the cohanim, who are L’vi’im, and the judge in office at the time. Seek their opinion, and they will render a verdict for you.
We are told in 1 Corinthians 6:2 that those who follow Messiah are to be the ones who judge the world, and if any of you have ever had to judge someone, such as writing a work evaluation, then you know (assuming you are fair and just in your evaluation) how hard it is to judge someone. You need to have copious notes that you have made during the evaluation period because memory can’t be trusted when talking about someone’s career, and you need to be able to overcome personal feelings and concern for what others might think of you.
Judging the way God wants us to judge is hard.
I can tell you from personal experience, writing fitness reports on the men under my command when I was an XO in the Marine Corps, and as a manager for many years writing evaluations of the people who worked for me, that when you realize what you are doing is literally shaping their future, well, it’s very humbling and quite a burden to judge others correctly.
As far as what we read posted in discussion groups or may hear in person, there is a fine line between what is a judgment and what is being judgmental. Let’s see if I can give a good example…
If someone says something that is clearly wrong according to the Bible, I will tell them they are wrong, then give my reasons why I have judged them to be wrong using biblical references to support my position. This is a proper form of judging someone else.
However, if I tell them they don’t know what they are talking about and obviously have no understanding of the Bible or God because this is what he says (quoting the same verses I used in the other example), that is being judgmental, and is not a righteous form of judging someone.
To judge correctly we must make our judgment based on the facts and not the person.
This is evident in the way God tells us to judge because he says judge the poor and the rich the same way, and accept no bribe. That bribe doesn’t have to be a monetary bribe, either: I could be bribed by making a judgment that benefits someone else who might one day help me, or I could be bribed by myself, in that I might make a judgment I know to be wrong but would be a popular one with the public, ensuring my next election. A bribe can be anything that unfairly influences a decision.
To render fair and equitable judgments, the kind that is righteously originated and factually justified takes practice. You can’t go through this life never making a judgment about someone and then be expected to suddenly make good ones when we are resurrected in the Acharit HaYamim (End Days), so you need to practice. Now, I am not saying you should go around correcting everyone you see- that won’t really help you, but may end up speeding you towards the first step of your resurrection, which is the one where you die.
No, do not go around judging everyone you see, but when you are in a position where you will need to make a judgment, remember God’s rules for how we are to judge others and make it a fair, factually-based and righteous judgment.
The best “Acid Test” question you can pose to yourself when judging someone is to remember this: you will be judged by God, in the same manner, you judge others.
Thank you for being here and please don’t forget to subscribe. I welcome comments and proper judgments.
Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
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Parashah Va-ayra 2020 (I appeared) Exodus 6:2 – 9
In the previous parashah, Moses had complained to God asking why God hasn’t freed the people but instead, now they are treated worse than ever before. God told Moses that this was all designed so that God could now show his might.
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This parashah starts with God telling Moses that he and Aaron will bring the people out, and that to Pharaoh Moses will be like God, and Aaron will be his prophet (we will come back to this later.)
From this point on we begin one of the most well-known and wonderful events in all of human history: Moses and Aaron continue to ask Pharaoh to let the people go, he refuses, and God sends his plagues on Egypt. These plagues start easily enough, meaning that Pharaoh’s magicians can mimic the miracles, but soon even the magicians cannot duplicate these events and by the 4th plague, everyone within Pharaoh’s government is asking Pharaoh to let the people go, but he refuses.
This parashah ends with the plague of hail that turns to fire when it lands.
We all know the story of the 10 Plagues. These plagues showed God’s strength as each plague overpowered one of the many Egyptian animal gods. First, they were duplicatable, then they were not, and soon enough God demonstrated not only his power to send these plagues on Egypt but his ability to keep his own people safe from them.
When I read a parashah I ask for some message, some insight that might be new, and today I think I received something. That’s what great about reading the Bible over and over – you never know when something you have read a million times will suddenly have a different meaning for you.
For me, it was when I read Chapter 7 in the book of Exodus, which begins with this:
And the Lord said unto Moses: “See, I have set thee in God’s stead to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shall speak all that I command thee; and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land.”
If we imagine that Pharaoh represents the people in the world, and Moses and Aaron are God and his prophet, respectively, then this can represent more than just God giving Moses and Aaron roles to play. What is interesting is that nowhere does it even imply Aaron was considered to be the progenitor of those miracles. No, it was always Moses who got the credit for the miracle: Moses turned the water into blood, Moses brought the locusts, Moses stopped the locusts, etc.
Throughout the ages we have seen prophets and judges perform great miracles, and when you think about it, how many times have those miracles been credited to the person? Elijah and the 400 Prophets of Ba’al, Gideon and his military victory, Samson and his strength: these and other stories are about the prophets and judges who performed great deeds, but wasn’t it God who actually did it all?
Too often we ignore the “man behind the curtain” and give credit to the false wizard who demonstrates the fearsome feats.
And the best example, which could just as well be called the worst example, is how so many people worship Jesus Christ and give him all the credit for what God wrought through him.
Messiah was no different from any of the prophets or judges God sent to do his work in the world. True, Yeshua was a miracle baby, and he was the only prophet from God who died and was resurrected to life (Samuel being called from Sheol by Saul doesn’t count), and it’s true that Yeshua was the only one of all God’s prophets who was acceptable to act as a substitutionary sacrifice for us all.
But when it comes down to it, Yeshua tells us over and over, and over again throughout the Gospels that he was only doing what he was told to do. Just the same way that Aaron did what Moses told him to do. Yeshua should NOT be worshiped any more than Aaron should have been, or Moses (for that matter) because only God is deserving of worship.
Yes, I know the Bible tells us that people at times bowed down and worshiped Yeshua, but when I looked at dozens of biblical verses regarding the worship of Yeshua, the only place that I found anything indicating that Yeshua was worshiped was in the New Covenant.
One day I shall write about how the New Covenant, which is scripture which quotes from and is based upon the Tanakh, was composed by non-Jews for Gentiles who didn’t want to be Jewish anymore, and has many questionable references, such as making it seem to be okay to worship a man instead of God.
But…that is for another time.
How many times have you heard it said by people, Pastor’s, Ministers, Priests, or Rabbis that God deserves all the credit and our worship? I know that in my experience, almost every single time we have a Shabbat or Holy Day service, somewhere in there we are told that it is all about God.
Then we hear people pray to saints or to Yeshua for help, or ask a human being to provide forgiveness, or worship the Messiah and call him our God. In some places, people actually bow down before a graven image of a human being and pray to it.
There is only one savior- God. There is only one who can help us and forgive us- God. Even when someone performs a miracle, that person is only the tool through which the real power is working, and that real power is- God.
There is one God whose power is often manifested through whomever he chooses, and the rest of the world can accept that or reject it. And, for the record, when you reject the true originator of the power behind the Messiah, you have placed a wedge between you and God and are practicing idolatry.
Moses was, in fact, the prophet through whom God worked his power, and eventually (as we get further along in Exodus) we see that Aaron’s position changes from performing God’s miracles to being the intermediary between the people and God, teaching and leading them in the proper worship of God.
We are not saved by the sacrificial death of the Messiah, but in fact by his resurrection. That resurrection was not brought about by Yeshua but by God. So, you see, even though it is true that through Yeshua we can be saved, the actual “savior” is God because God provided the Messiah.
Always give credit to God, worship God alone, and ask God for what you need. Remember: Yeshua never said pray to him to receive, but when we pray (meaning to God) we are to ask for what we need in Yeshua’s name. When God answers a prayer that is made invoking the name of his Messiah, not only does it honor the Messiah but that, in turn, will glorify God.
We can credit Yeshua for all the suffering he endured on our behalf, and we can be thankful to him; we can honor him and praise him for what he did, but we cannot worship him or put him in the place of God, who is our true rock and redeemer.
To paraphrase the famous line from the Wizard of Oz, “Don’t ignore the man behind the curtain.”
Thank you for being here, please subscribe to both this website and the YouTube channel (use the link above) and share these messages with others if you think it will edify and help them.
Until next time, Shabbat shalom and Baruch HaShem!
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Beware of Spiritual Misdirection
If you have ever watched magicians, one of the basic skills they possess is to misdirect their audience. They do this with sleight of hand, lighting, mirrors, and more often than not (all the major stars use this) one or more really attractive assistants who dance seductively around.
Sometimes they are so distracting that you could walk the tiger into the cage in front of everyone and no one would notice.
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Through the Prophets in the Bible, God warns us that there will be false teachers, and these people will use a form of spiritual misdirection to turn our attention away from what is important for us to do; their goal is to make us do what we think is right but actually it will lead us away from salvation.
The way you can identify being misdirected is not difficult: you simply have to know which direction is the right one. Let’s say you know how to get to a building but someone tells you there is a short cut you can use, if you know your way around then you will be able to immediately know the path they are sending you on is a false one.
It is the same with the path to salvation. When you know what God says he wants of you from reading the Bible, and that means the entire Bible – Genesis through Revelation – then if someone tells you to take a different path, one you know is not what the Bible has mapped out, then you can avoid being misdirected.
Often times this misdirection will not be obvious but might be hidden, like a Trojan horse, within a conversation or a discussion. Numerology, Gnosticism, the argumentation over the correct way to pronounce the name of God or the Messiah, when to celebrate holy days, and many other topics that appear to be a legitimate bible study topic are often misdirection. They take one’s focus away from the worship of God to the worship of knowing things about God.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with learning about God; in fact, he tells us exactly who he is in Exodus 34:6-7. We call these The 13 Attributes of God; it is when God passed by Moses and announced himself. If you ask me, this is all we need to know about God. I believe if there was more he wanted us to know, he would have told us.
True faith is not dissecting everything about God or the Bible, it is humbly accepting what we are told as all we need to know. Once we start to get too deep into details, we lose sight of the goal; after all, you can’t find your way out of a forest if you only stare at the tree directly in front of you.
That goal, the one everyone should be seeking, is Salvation. Salvation must be the goal of everyone, even though most don’t know or even care about being saved. Atheists don’t believe God exists, so salvation means nothing to them. Most Christians have been taught that Jesus died for their sins, which are now automatically forgiven, and as long as they are a “good person” they go to heaven. Jews believe that we have no salvation without Messiah, but sadly enough, mainstream Judaism has rejected their Messiah, and only those who learn the truth about Yeshua and accept him will have a chance at being saved from the second death. Muslims are completely off-road.
Because salvation is the ultimate goal, we must know the way to get there, and the Bible tells us how in a way that is clear, understandable, and direct: the path is to do as God instructs us to do in the Torah. Yeshua never taught to ignore or avoid the Torah, but modern Christianity (if we want to be accurate, it should be called Constantinianism) teaches to ignore pretty much all the instructions God gave.
And my own people, the Jews? The Rabbis have added so much more onto the Torah through Talmudic dogma that most Jews are practicing what I would have to call Rabbinic Judaism instead of just what God said we need to do.
Anyone who teaches to divert from the Torah is a false teacher, and anyone who allows themself to be misdirected will be led off the path to salvation. That is a simple truth; if you don’t walk the roadmap God gave you then you are going somewhere else. And since we have only two pathways, an eternity in God’s presence or eternity outside of his presence, we better know which way we are going.
That’s it. That’s all I want to say to you today. But this isn’t all there is to it, because reading the Bible is a lifelong activity, and the more you read it, the better you will understand it. God has a message in there for you, and you may not realize what it is until the third or fourth reading, or maybe it will take even longer. The thing to do is to keep reading, ask for Holy Spirit guidance in understanding, and realize that there are many, many people out there who might misdirect you, even though they may think they are doing God’s work.
Satan has a lot of Three Card Monty tables set up along your walk through this life, and he wants you to play, so don’t be misdirected and stay on the pathway God made for you.
Thank you for being here and please subscribe and share these messages with others. Please help this ministry to grow- I am not in it to make money, just to get the right information to people. Hosea said his people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; you’ve got to make your own decision, so make it – just make sure it’s an informed decision.
Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!