Author: Steven R. Bruck

A modern day Christmas Message from the past: Isaiah 29:13

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I am going to skip the Parashah teaching today because , it being Christmas Day, I feel there is a more important message the Lord would have me deliver.

Isaiah was a Prophet to the Southern Kingdom of Judah and tried to help the people realize the hypocrisy of their worship. He lived during the reign of 4 kings of Judah and within 100 years or so of his ministry, the Southern Kingdom of Judah was destroyed.

Isaiah was telling the people that their worship was useless because they were only paying lip service to God. The above-referenced passage says it all:

The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

This message was about how sacrifice had become corrupted and polluted into a meaningless rote activity that had no real love or worship of God attached to it.

Sounds exactly like what Christmas is today, doesn’t it?

Look at what Christmas is today: there is nothing “godly” about it anymore, except the occasional bumper sticker that says, “Keep Christ in Christmas.” Even that has become passe and meaningless to most- it’s something akin to the beauty pageant answer, “What I would like most is to have world peace.”

Most of us know that Christmas is not a Holy Day, nor is it a biblically commanded festival to God; it is a celebratory event created by Constantine in the Third Century (or thereabouts) to help rebrand the pagan celebration of the Solstice to a more “Christian” event.

That doesn’t mean it can’t be a wonderful thing. The music of Christmas is some of the most beautiful and heartfelt devotion to God I have heard from any religion, and the spirit of goodwill that comes on people during this season is unique, and refreshing. There is a magic to Christmas.

Unfortunately, even that is more from social conditioning than a desire to be closer to God, and how many of us really feel the impact of what Christmas means? Heck, if we really thought about what Christmas is supposed to stand for, celebration and thankfulness for the birth of the Messiah, we should all feel sad and dejected that someone was born into this world to suffer for us, to accept the blame and physical abuse that our sins deserved, and that this miraculous birth, this proof of prophecy, this wonderful and merciful living gift of salvation would have to die a horribly painful and lingering death because of what we have done.  That’s really what Christmas is about: thankfulness for the Messiah coming into the world, but tempered with the sadness of knowing what this tender, innocent baby would have to endure. Christmas should make me feel remorse and repentance that this baby had to live the life He lived because of what I have done.

Personally, I don’t think Christmas s such a happy time when you think about what will happen to Yeshua. Yes, I am thankful for His birth, and I am disgusted with myself for causing His death. It’s true: I killed Yeshua. In fact, you killed Yeshua. Each and every one of us killed Yeshua because if there had been but one sinner in all the world, Yeshua would have done what He did for the sake of that one person. His parables about finding the one lost sheep, the woman who found the missing coin, the statement that there is no greater love than that one will give his life for a friend (note that He didn’t say for many, or for friends, but for a friend- even saving one life is worth dying for); all the teachings Yeshua gave us, all of which are directly from the Torah, teach us that it is what we do and what we feel that add up to who we truly are.

I hope that you all have a merry and joyful Christmas- the birth of the Messiah is truly a wonderful event, the fulfilment of God’s promise of salvation for the world, and the proof that biblical prophecy is valid and trustworthy. The fact that it is not a biblical Holy Day, that Yeshua was probably born during Sukkot, that Constantine created it as a theo-political event, and that it has become totally corrupted in modern society is something we can get past. If we worship God from our hearts, if we ignore the retail sales events, the presents to each other and all the schmaltz, and instead concentrate on thanking God for His Son, and thanking His Son for all He suffered for us, then…just maybe then…Christmas can be the joyful and penitent celebration it should be.

Yeshua said that we should give to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar, and to God that which belongs to God. Thankfulness and worship from the heart belongs to God, sacrifice belongs to God, honor and glory belong to God. Give each other niceties, sure, but first give to God that which He is entitled to. Celebrate Christmas with heartfelt thankfulness to God and conscious recognition of how far short we come to measuring up to what God expects of us.

If you really want to show God that you are thankful for the birth of the Messiah, than go visit the sick, help the needy, dress the naked, feed the hungry. Instead of spending thousands of dollars at Kohl’s and Walmart and Macy’s, spend a few hundred at the soup kitchens and food pantries, give your time to bring food to the hungry, give to charities you know are doing good for people.

Today Christmas is all about what I get from you; let’s make Christmas all about what I can give to those who are in need.

That would be a Christmas present to God and Yeshua that I just know they would love to receive. Remember that Yeshua told us in Mattitayu 25:40:

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Why we don’t start a new tradition of giving Christmas presents to God instead of each other?

 

If you don’t believe , why get so mad?

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Have you had the same experience I have had when talking to people about God who say they don’t believe in Him? I have found that they first get very edgy, and most of the time they will tell me they don’t want to talk about God, and sometimes they even get downright rude about it and verbally attack me as weak and foolish because I do believe.

Isn’t it strange? If you don’t believe in God, why be so defensive because I do? Why get stressed out and angry that someone else does believe? If I said my favorite baseball team was better than yours, you would argue for hours with all the stats and achievements of your team and it’s stars. You would argue all about how well the team works, it’s accomplishments, and maybe you would attack some of the people on my team, but mostly it’s all about why you love your team.

Yet when I tell you I believe in God, you attack me, you attack God, the bible, et.al..  But do you tell me why you don’t believe? Not a chance. The best I get is, “I just don’t believe, that’s all.”

So, again I ask, if you don’t believe, why get so hot about it?

The answer is simple and the non-believer (alleged, that is) will never admit why: it’s because, deep-down, they do believe. They are scared that God does exist, that what He says is true, that they are sinners, that what they have been told about God being the final judge and about Sheol (hell) is all true. They don’t want to go to hell, and they don’t want to change how they live, so they just stick their head in the sand and say it doesn’t exist.

Then, like someone putting ice down their back, we come along telling them about how God has shown Himself to be real and to exist through the many ways He has acted in our lives, and giving not just our testimony but the testimony of many others we have heard and seen. The truth about God is an attack against their fantasy, their protective wall that blocks out the truth of their sinfulness, lack of control, and the hopelessness of the fact that they are headed for destruction.

When you think about it, no wonder they attack us: professing our belief in God, or any reference to God that so much as implies He might exist, is a direct attack against their protective wall of lies, so it is only natural they would defend themselves by attacking us back.

These are the people living in the dark to whom we are supposed to be a light. The problem is when we start to show that light it hurts their eyes and makes them see, as the little child called out from the crowd, “But the Emperor has no clothes on!”

And they know they are the Emperor.

When we strip bare their lies and ignorance, what can they do other than attack us? In truth, we are attacking them and their beliefs  by professing our love and commitment to God.  Not that we do it on purpose, but from their point of view that’s exactly what we are doing. And so many Believers who try to minister to people don’t have the slightest idea of how to make an argument or sell anything, and they make it even harder for spiritually mature ministers to talk to these people. And yes, we are selling God. We are trying to get the world to invest in it’s own salvation when it rejects the idea that there is any need for salvation.

People only believe half of what you say, but they believe everything that they say. If you want to be a light to those in the darkness, you will never succeed by telling them how dark they are. You need to get them to tell you how dark they are. You need to get them to realize their system of beliefs, which is (basically) not to believe, is not justified. They won’t believe what you tell them so you need to get them to say it, themselves.

“How the heck can I do that?”, you may ask (I just did!): you do it by asking questions. Don’t tell them why you believe in God, ask them why they don’t. And when you get the answers, which are always (trust me, they always are) weak and unsupported by much more than “just because “,  you keep asking why. For instance:

“I know why I believe in God, would you tell me why you don’t?”

“I just don’t.”

“Then if I understand you correctly, you are saying  you don’t believe in God because you don’t want to?”

“Yes. I have the right to my opinion, don’t I?”

“Absolutely, everyone does. So, then, you don’t believe pretty much because you choose not to, right?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, so if you don’t believe because you choose not to, then God very well could exist, but you choose to reject that idea for yourself.”

“Yes, that’s it.”

“So you say God doesn’t exist but only because you don’t want to believe, which means you have no proof  that God doesn’t exist. I have no proof that He does, so  when it comes dowm to it, you say He doesn’t and I say He does, but neither of us can prove our point. Do you agree?”

“Yes.”

That puts us on equal footing, and the next step is to ask:

“If we both believe just because we choose to, doesn’t it make more sense to believe in something that is wonderful and has hope for the future than something that has no hope and can lead to nothing but living your whole life just to die?”

Silence.

That’s scripted, of course, and a real conversation may not take that exact course, but I hope you get the idea. We need to show that their rejection of the existence of God is not based on anything other than opinion, and opinions should be based on facts, yet there aren’t any. Just as we cannot prove, scientifically, that God does exist, they can’t prove He doesn’t. And accepting that there is a chance God does exist puts a little hole in their protective wall.

Once they admit their reason for not believing is based only on their choice not to believe, then you can offer, gently, why you do believe. One or two examples, something that made you absolutely certain God exists.

As for me, I tell how I felt His Ruach (Spirit) literally coming into my body when it happened. I had a totally physical and real-life experience. I have seen answers to prayers that are hard to explain away. I have heard the testimony of many people of miraculous events, healings, release from addictions, all very hard to explain away as just coincidence.

You can’t tell someone what they should believe, but you can tell them why you do. First, though, you have to get them to see their own reasons as weak and unsupported. And that has to be done patiently, gently and compassionately.

In the sales world, we learn that you never sell the quality of the steak: you sell the sizzle! Looking at a steak, reading the nutritional value, getting a good deal- none of that is why people buy a steak. They buy a steak because it tastes great and even more, because it sounds and smells absolutely wonderful when it is cooking. Just picture a steak on the grill, the browning of the fat as it is gently melting, the flames coming up around the edges, the aroma of the steak as it broils….

That’s what sells the steak- not how good it is, but how good it makes you feel.

God is good (all the time) and we love Him for who and what He is as much as what He has done for us. Well, maybe more for what He has done for us. That is why we need to get people who don’t believe to realize that their belief system has done absolutely nothing for them except suck out all the hope they could ever have in their life, and leave no hope for anything better after this life.

That is the selling point, that is what you need to bring them to realize: they choose to have no hope for no reason other than that’s what they choose. We choose to have hope in the resurrection and eternal joy, and if we want to believe that for no other reason that that’s what we choose to believe, then our belief that God exists is just as justified as their belief He doesn’t exist.

So the question is now, “Why would anyone choose to have no hope for anything wonderful in their life?”

If they don’t have a snappy comeback for that one, you are on your way to saving a soul.

Too much stuff, too little content

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I read Facebook every day, and wonder how I got this deep into it. I like hearing from, and being in touch (if you can really call it that) with family and friends. Some of these are friends from way back in high school with whom I would never be in touch with at all, if not for FB.

Yet, there is so much dreck and kvetching and stuff without content. I hear people spouting off, posting comments from other sites, reposting what someone reported that they were asked to share. Garbage and stupid requests, like some pretty-sounding emotional plea to copy and paste or share this picture or post if you agree. It’s the modern form of chain mail.

If I called you up and asked you to call everyone in your phone book and ask them if they agree with an opinion, would you? I doubt it. I expect you would feel that it was an imposition, and you would be right. Yet we have no qualms about spouting out our feelings about politics and religion and posting it to the world, then asking them all to share it with everyone they know. Something we would never do if we were talking to them in person.

And, yes- you’re right- no one is making me read this or even go to the FB site. Yet, I do see things that I want to comment on, and so I have to walk through all the cowpies in the field if I want to check out the few cows that I have grazing there.

The world is a cow pasture, and we have to walk in it. We have to be careful with every step we take, watch where we walk, and not piss off the bulls. And we also have to realize that we will fail to do each of those things, sooner or later, and often. The trick is to do it as little as possible.

What’s this got to do with God? Simply this: the world hates God, the world hates Yeshua/Jesus, and the world really hates those who love them both. Even within the circle of people who profess to love God, they hate each other (this is because of religion.) Jews love and worship God, and Christians love and worship God, but Christians have killed Jews since Yeshua came. And then within the Christian religions there is strife and hatred and destruction. The Protestants in England always fought the Catholics in Spain, and the Catholics in France persecuted the Huguenots. The WASP’s in America took almost 200 years before electing a Catholic President.

Hatred is the primary way we humans react when someone disagrees with us. Here’s how it works: the hatred stems from anger, the anger stems from frustration, the frustration stems from people not doing as we think they should, and wanting people to do as we think they should stems from pridefulness. Pridefulness is the mother of all sins. That’s the way it works- everything evil and hateful is born from pridefulness.

We need to talk as we would want to be talked to, but more than anything else we need to listen to others as we would have them listen to us. Everyone wants to be heard, and everyone wants to be talked to nicely, but it seems almost no one wants to listen with compassion.

Communication is essential if we are to live together. Yeshua talked in parables so that they would have to think about what He was saying!   People only believe 50% of what they hear, but 100% of what they say. So when you talk to them, you need to have them talk back, and you need to help them say the right things. The best way to communicate with someone is not to tell them what you want to say, but to concentrate on hearing what they are trying to tell you.

God talks to us plainly, God tells us what we should do, and He is very clear how we should do it. He has no pride, He has no ulterior motive, and He has no respect for persons. What God has is a plan for salvation, a means to be part of that plan, and the way to live according to that plan. I don’t think I should tell you what to think, how to live, or what you should do. God has done that: who am I to overrule God? Who are you to overrule God?

Give your opinion when it is asked for (it will have much more weight with others that way); talk to people with compassion and listen to them the same way you would want them to listen to you. Here’s the really hard part: you need to understand and accept that for the most part, people you deal with everyday of your life will not do these things for you. So what? You do what you know to be right.

It’s hard to be a light in a dark world, and it’s hard to hold one’s tongue when others are in such desperate need to have theirs pinned to their cheek! But we have to do the right thing.

And when you feel frustrated and angry, remember that Yeshua said we shouldn’t throw pearls before swine, and it’s silly to kick against the goads.

Don’t tell people what you think unless they ask you to, don’t offer your opinion until it is asked for, and more than anything else, show people what God has done for you by being a living example of the spiritual peace you have from His Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit.)

Actions do speak louder than words, so act the way God says to act and you won’t need words.

Parashah V’Yegash (and he came near) Genesis 44 – 47:27

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We take up from the last Parashah where Benjamin had been found holding the cup of Joseph, and was being held as bondsman to Joseph for life. Judah, who had told Israel he would be surety for the boy, approaches Joseph and tells Joseph how much Israel is bound, heart and soul, to Benjamin because his other son had been killed. Judah also tells Joseph that if Benjamin doesn’t return it will kill their father, and so Judah begs Joseph to let him, Judah, remain behind as slave for life and allow Benjamin to return so that their father isn’t troubled anymore.

This seems to be the final test passed, from Joseph’s viewpoint, for now he is so overcome with joy that his brothers have shown the loyalty and love to both Israel and Benjamin that he wanted to see, that he clears out all the Egyptians and confesses his true identity to his brothers. After the shock and surprise of this passes, they fall upon each other, crying for joy and Joseph immediately puts away any fear of reprisal by him, explaining how all this came about by God’s doing, that the terrible thing they did was actually part of God’s plan and His doing, so the brothers shouldn’t feel any remorse or guilt anymore.

The end of this parashah has Pharoah (who really seems to be a good leader and this guy just LOVES Joseph!) glad that Joseph is reunited with his family and immediately orders Joseph to bring them into the best land of Egypt, Goshen, so they can live there protected from the famine. God gives Israel, in a vision, permission to leave Canaan and dwell in Egypt, with the promise that God will bring his children back to their land. We are given the listing of genealogies of the sons of Israel at that time, and they come into Goshen and settle there.

We learn also how powerful the Pharaoh becomes thanks to Joseph. Up to this time, the people of Egypt were ruled by Pharaoh but they were all self-sufficient, owning their cattle and lands. When they run out of money to buy grain, Joseph barters their cattle for grain. When they are out of cattle to trade, Joseph acquires the titles to their land, and all this is now the property of Pharaoh. Essentially, Pharaoh is not only the legal ruler of the land of Egypt, but he owns it all, including the cattle. This makes Pharoah richer than before, and Joseph allows the people to keep 80% of the produce and give 20% to Pharaoh as their bondsman fees.

When I read this story, from Joseph’s sale into slavery through his reconcilement with his brothers, I think, strangely enough, of Mordecai saying to Hadassah how if she doesn’t ask the king to save the Jews, salvation will come from somewhere else, intimating God will do something, one way or another, to make sure His people survive. What causes me to think of this is how Joseph gives God all the credit (or blame?) for the slavery he suffered through for most of the past 13 years. Joseph was testing the resolve of his brothers, so do you think God had been testing Joseph’s resolve in the same way?  Joseph was a bit of a braggart, ratting out his brothers, telling them of his dreams how they were going to bow down to him. Was he really that naive? Given how smart he shows himself to be, I can’t think that Joseph wasn’t, at least a little bit, rubbing their noses in it. That almost got him killed, and did get him sold into slavery. And while slave to Potiphar, God tempted Joseph, now in charge of everything, with the wife of his master. Joseph showed himself to be trustworthy and upright, which landed him in the jail. However, it was in the jail that he ended up getting the most direct route to the Pharaoh, wasn’t it? We are told Potiphar was a mighty military man, but we don’t know if he had the ear of the Pharaoh as well as the cup bearer did. If not for being in jail, Joseph may never have even known about the dreams. Finally, when Joseph is brought before Pharaoh, we hear him tell Pharaoh that it has nothing at all to do with him, but everything to do with God when it comes to interpretation. Joseph now has passed the final testing from the Lord, showing his true humility and acknowledgement of God as the ruler and knower of all things.

What would have happened if the brothers didn’t change? What would Joseph had done if Judah had just said, “Oh well, see ya Ben. I’ll tell Dad you screwed up and have to stay in Egypt.” ?

I don’t know. Maybe if Judah hadn’t shown compassion, Reuben would have? After all, Reuben owed his father a lot for having insulted him the way he did. Maybe it would have been one of the other brothers? As Mordecai said, if Hadassah doesn’t do something, God will raise up another savior. If not Judah, would Reuben have been the one to demonstrate the compassion and love that Joseph was looking for?

It doesn’t really matter. The important thing is not who God uses, but that God uses someone to accomplish His plans. God has used righteous men, God has used horrible men, God has used an ass, and God has even stepped in and taken the reins, Himself. Whatever or whomever God chooses to achieve His plans and enforce His will, the bottom line is that whatever God wants to be done, will be done. And exactly when He wants it to be done, as well.

For you and me, the lesson here is that we aren’t in charge- we never were, we aren’t now, and we never will be. But that doesn’t mean we are predestined and have no control. Au contraire, mon Ami! It means we are totally in charge, and thereby fully responsible, for our actions. We are the ones who  choose to do and we are the ones who choose not to do. God will always get what He wants done, done. If He gives us a chance to be part of His plan, and we take it, then we are blessed to be able to serve the Lord. If He gives us the chance and we refuse, He may give us another chance, or He may not. We can blow it in a second and never know we could have been a Joseph, or a Judah, or even a Moses!

The choice to serve God or not to serve Him is totally up to us- we are not predestined to the degree we are irresponsible. I knew people who believed that God was in charge, but instead of honoring Him, they blamed Him. They easily took credit for anything they did that got them acclaim, and anything they failed to do or screwed up, well, then it was God’s fault because He is in charge of everything. A fatalistic approach to everything and an irresponsible attitude go hand in hand, and when you have a God that is in charge of everything, it is real easy to blame Him for what goes wrong.

I love to teach, and God has given me a gift for it, so when I give the message at Shabbat services or teach a class and I am congratulated, I will say that if I do something which is really good, I have to give all the credit to God. But when I really screw something up, that’s when I can take full credit.  I am proud to say that when I say that, it is NOT false humility (if that makes any sense.)

God has taught me that He is in charge, and that He will always get what He wants done, done, and that He will most often use people to achieve His plans. God has also taught me that everyone He has used, is using, or ever will use has the option to do God’s will or to ignore God’s calling. Sometimes, like with Jonah (for instance) God may give you a second chance; other times He may not. I can’t really give you an example of when God doesn’t give you a second chance because no one who has ignored God’s calling has made it into the bible.

We all have Tsouris in our lives- that is necessary for us to grow, spiritually and emotionally.  Those who use this to become better are the ones who will lead others; those who suffer under this and give in to their depression and self-pity become the bane of society. I believe that God will call on everyone at least once in their life. He is clear throughout the Tanakh that He wants everyone to turn from their sin and live; the death of the sinner never pleases Him. Therefore, He just has to call on everyone sometime to give them a chance to repent, to grow spiritually, to know God better and to be an instrument in God’s orchestra of salvation.

The thing is, God doesn’t shout. He doesn’t move mountains (although He can, if He really wants to) and he doesn’t send an engraved invitation. He just asks you to do something for Him. He doesn’t beg, He expects you to accept, and He doesn’t really want to hear excuses, like when Moses tried to get out of his calling. And most important, He doesn’t expect or like it when you try and give up. He is compassionate, patient and more than willing to lead you along the way, but when you accept God’s calling there is no Three Day Right of Rescission. When you agree to do God’s will, you are expected to do God’s will! You are expected to follow through, and I think that may be one reason we have free will- because it is such an onerous task to do God’s will in a world that hates God’s will, God will not force it upon us. God wants us to accept, and yet He allows us to refuse.

Listen for the calling in your life, and when you hear it, decide. You are allowed to say “No”, and I suspect that the vast majority of people choose that option. Yeshua tells us it is the small door and the path least taken that lead to salvation. The choice is yours, so please- make it a good one.

To know me doesn’t mean you love me

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In Matthew 7:21 Yeshua tells his Talmudim (Disciples) this:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

He goes on to say that just because some people declare they did miracles and wonders in His name doesn’t mean they will enter the kingdom of heaven. In fact, he says He will tell them that He never knew them!

It seems that we get these different messages: all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13) yet here Yeshua says that those who call Him, “Lord! Lord!” will not be saved! And we are told that the gift of salvation is an irrevocable gift, but Yeshua says (and Paul reiterates this in his letter to Timothy) that those who hear the Word and accept it can still fall away, i.e. lose their salvation.

So is the gift of salvation truly a guarantee? When we call on the name of the Lord, are we really saved? Can we trust God?

The answer to these question is Yes….and No. Except for the last one- we can always trust God. Always. Who you can’t trust is yourself.

Yes: the gift of salvation we receive from God (through Messiah Yeshua) is guaranteed and is irrevocable. No one can take it away from you, ever. And Yes: if you call on the name of the Lord you will be saved.

The reason the answer can be No to both of these questions is because no one can take away what God has given to you, but you can throw it away.

Do you really think that if someone who is not truly repentant and calls on the name of God for salvation will receive salvation? There are so many parables Yeshua tells us that show how some are going to be able to enter the Kingdom of God and others will not because they didn’t do as they should have, even though they were there. The bridesmaids without oil, the tree in the garden that didn’t produce fruit, the slave that buried the Talent: all of these parables are clearly stating that just knowing Yeshua is the Messiah, and acknowledging that He is the Son of God, is not enough. The bible tells us that even the demons know and acknowledge who Yeshua is. You think they are going to heaven? Will they be in Paradise with God for all eternity?

I don’t think so.

The most important part of Matthew 7:21 is the end of the sentence:”… but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven.” We can have salvation for free, we can know absolutely that God will grant us forgiveness of sins, but if we don’t really mean it, if we haven’t done T’shuvah (turning from sin) in our hearts, and if we don’t walk the walk, then what God has done we will undue. No one can take it from us, no one can change it, and God will not renege on His promise, but the promise that we will be saved is not an unconditional promise. It is free, it can never be bought, and it can never be revoked, but….we have to do our part. God will do His part but if we don’t do our part He hasn’t weaseled out of the deal- we have.

You buy life insurance, you are guaranteed that your family will receive the benefit if you have an accidental death, and then you jump off a bridge. Do you think the insurance company will pay out on that? Of course they won’t- suicide is not an accidental death. You didn’t meet the conditions of the agreement; the insurance company’s promise is still valid and trustworthy, you are the one who failed to meet the requirements.

Calling on the Lord and receiving the gift of salvation is absolutely the best insurance policy there is. But if you continue to sin on purpose, if you never had (or don’t now have) any desire or intention of changing your sinful ways, then no matter how many times you go to church/synagogue, no matter how well you tithe, no matter how many “nice” things you do, you are going to be told, “Be gone- I never knew you.”

God isn’t stupid. He can’t be fooled, and when He says He will save you it is based upon you doing what you should do, which God has outlined very clearly in the Torah.

If you don’t know what the Torah says, you can still do what Yeshua told you to do and be OK because (here it comes…) Yeshua taught nothing but Torah. Torah was what Yeshua told us to follow, that He did not change any part of it (Matthew 5:17) and Shaul backed Him up on that in every single letter he wrote to the Messianic communities he formed throughout Asia and the Middle East during his ministry.

What Yeshua and Shaul said is that just obeying the letter of the law in Torah is not going to get you saved because, quite simply, it can’t be done. Attaining salvation through Torah is like taking a test with questions you cannot answer, so you can never get 100%, and you have to attain 100% to pass. That’s why we need Messiah- He is our “spiritual grading curve”  that allows us to get that 100% we can’t get on our own. We still have to take the test, we still have to study to be able to do as well as we can, and the curve is available to all. But it’s only given to those that try to pass.

If you never show up to take the test (never call on Messiah Yeshua for forgiveness) or if you never study (live as best you can to obey the commandments) then you will not receive the curve. In fact, you will fail miserably. And failing the test means being left back when everyone who passes goes to the next grade, which is being in God’s presence forever. You will be “left back” in the cold and the dark where people wail and moan and gnash their teeth.

So don’t listen to those religious leaders who fill you up with bad test answers by telling you you only have to be a good person, or Jesus died for your sins so you can just live your life any way you want to, or who tell you that because you have been baptised you will be able to enter heaven. None of that will get it done. You need to show that you love the Lord by following the commandments He gave us in His Torah. Then He will know you.

God gave us Torah, Yeshua provided the forgiveness we need because we can’t live according to Torah, and we have to do our part, which is to let the Holy Spirit shape us into the likeness of Yeshua; for that to happen you have to be willing to change.

God and Yeshua have done their part- it is all on you now.

 

 

 

That’s Not My Job

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In the Gospels Yeshua tells us that if we so much as lust after someone with our eyes we have already committed adultery. That’s a tough lesson to listen to, especially in a world where we are constantly bombarded by sexual commercials and ads telling us how to be more attractive and showing off how attractive others are.

But there is a difference between looking at someone who you recognize as beautiful/handsome, and stripping them down with your eyes while imagining how the rest of it could go.

I thought I would try to do as Job said he did, i.e. make a covenant with my eyes not to look at any young girls. I asked God to help me overcome what I am as much conditioned to do as (maybe) sinfully want to do, and I asked Him again, and again, and again. I asked him to keep me from staring at beautiful women; in fact, I asked Him to take all sexual thoughts from me, completely.

Here is the answer He gave me:  “Not my job.”

HUH? Not your job? But, but, but…we are told that whatever we ask for we will receive, and that you answer prayers, and, and, and ..uh…uh…that when we ask in Yeshua’s name we will receive what we ask for. I want you to take this from me! I want to have clean thoughts only, I want to be acceptable before you always. You know, like David prayed in the Psalms: create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit in me, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart always be acceptable before thee.  Aren’t these good things to ask of you? Isn’t this the kind of prayer you will not just acknowledge but one that you want to hear? Whassup with this, “Not my job” thing?

That’s when God answered me, again. I didn’t hear some majestic voice thundering, and it wasn’t even a still, quiet voice. It was a thought that just came into my head: one so simple, one so truthful, and one so significant and demonstrative of God’s ways that I knew it wasn’t from my brain. God made me to understand His answer.

“It doesn’t work that way. I won’t just take this from you because then when you need to learn how to call on My Spirit to help you, you won’t know how to. Spiritual strength is like any other strength- it needs to be exercised to reach it’s full potential. If I just take away sin from someone, they won’t have the spiritual strength to stand up against the enemy when he comes at them.”

It’s like the parable Yeshua tells about the man cleansed of a demon, and after the demon roamed the earth he came back into the very same man because the house had been cleaned, but it was empty. The lesson is that when the man was made clean, he didn’t do anything to fill himself with God. He was cleansed without any actions of his own, and when the demon came back he had no defence against it. Similarly, just being made pure in thought by having God “rewire” my CPU won’t help me to keep it that way.

We all, each of us, have to go through the fire of purification. We have God there to help and guide us, and His Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit) to comfort us as we struggle with ourselves, but in the end, it must be us, it must be you, it must be me who overcome the sin in ourselves.

Didn’t God tell Cain that sin crouches at his door and is waiting for him? And more than just that warning, God told Cain that he-Cain- must conquer it!

Right from the start we are told that we must conquer the sinfulness in us. God will help us, God will guide us, God will provide (and already has, in Messiah Yeshua) the means for us to be acceptable when we fail to overcome our sin. But, day to day, we each must work at strengthening our spiritual muscles so that we can overcome the sin in our lives and stand up to the enemy when he comes at us.

Ask God to strengthen you, to guide you, to send His Ruach to comfort and ease your pain, and continually thank him for Messiah Yeshua, who is the ultimate Get-Out-Of-Jail card for everyone who does T’shuvah in his or her own heart, then asks forgiveness from God in Yeshua’s name.

That is how it works.  We must first want to turn from our sins, then accept the grace God gave through His Messiah (Yeshua/Jesus) so we have forgiveness despite our own failure to be sinless, then after accepting Yeshua as our Messiah we can be given the Ruach HaKodesh to comfort, guide and help us through knowledge and understanding of God’s ways so that even though the journey is difficult, we will know the way to walk.

God will answer prayers, God is always there, and God wants us all to turn from our sin and live. He is clear about that throughout the bible. With God we are able to do this, but God is not an enabler- He will always help us, but we have to do it. He will guide us, but we have to walk. He will lift us up when we fall and help direct us to the right path, but we need to keep going.

When it comes to salvation, God has provided it.

When it comes to forgiveness of sins, Yeshua has provided it.

When it comes to overcoming the sin in ourselves, that’s not His job- it’s ours.

Parashah Mikketz (and it came to pass) Genesis 41 – 44:17

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Joseph is brought before Pharaoh, who has had the dreams of the 7 good cows and the 7 bad cows, and the 7 good ears of corn and the 7 bad ears of corn. Joseph interprets the dreams and even tells Pharaoh the best way to prepare for the famine to come.

Pharaoh recognizes Joseph’s ability to plan and organize, and immediately promotes him from Buck Private to Executive Officer over the entire land of Egypt. Joseph efficiently does what he said should be done and there is so much grain in the storehouses it can’t be measured. Then the famine comes, just as God had foretold through Joseph’s interpretation, and the land of Egypt is the only place in the world there is food.

Jacob hears of the food available in Egypt and sends his sons, all but Benjamin, to get food to keep them all alive. As they come to buy, Joseph is over-seeing the sales and making sure that everyone coming into the country is there peacefully. He sees his brothers, but they can’t recognize him; he is dressed as an Egyptian, speaks Egyptian and is the Grand Vizier- even if they thought he looked familiar, how they possibly even think that it could be their Hebrew brother running the entire land of Egypt?  They don’t know it’s Joseph, but Joseph knows it’s them. He treats them badly, accusing them of spying, and ends up keeping Simeon as a hostage until they verify their story about having another brother by bringing Benjamin to him.

Jacob is adamant that Benjamin not go anywhere, but when there is no food he has to relent. Reuben offers up his own two sons as collateral, but it is Judah’s promise to watch over Benjamin that Jacob accepts as trustworthy. They go back with Benjamin and Joseph treats them well, feeds them in his own house, then sets them up so that it appears Benjamin has stolen from him. The parashah ends with Benjamin found out a thief and to be held forever as the slave of Joseph.

Some people always try to demean and debunk the bible as nothing more than a storybook, but the details and historical accuracy of how Egyptians lived, the gold necklace, the re-naming of Joseph, all the details in this parashah indicate this is an historically and culturally accurate accounting.

Joseph is demonstrating here what Yeshua said to His Disciples in Mattitayu 10:16:

Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

He is testing the brothers to see if they have learned their lesson regarding the way they treated Joseph. He already has remembered his dreams of the brothers bowing down to him, as they were right then and there doing exactly that same thing. He has overcome in many ways the pain and suffering he felt, which we can see in how he named his children. His shrewdness is demonstrated in that he did not reveal himself, giving the brothers the chance to act sorry and ask forgiveness simply because of Josephs’ powerful position. He didn’t speak Hebrew, he acted totally Egyptian, and in an instant he planned out how to test their loyalty to Jacob and their love for Benjamin. He remembered their jealousy of him, and I think he reconciled it not to his own actions but to the favoritism he received from Jacob as the son of Rachel. Maybe Joseph was testing the brother’s loyalty and protection of Benjamin, the only other child Rachel had, because he might have thought they would have the same hatred and jealousy of Benjamin they had for him.

Joseph was very shrewd, and yet we see he was also very gentle. Even though he accused them of being spies and talked roughly with them (essentially he gave them the “third degree”) he supplied them with the food they needed as they returned to bring Benjamin to him. Returning their money, I believe, was out of kindness- although it made it even harder for them to return because they were afraid that Joseph would not only think them spies but thieves, as well, having taken the food without paying for it. I don’t get that part- they had to have given the money when they received the food, and if it was in their packs later I would think they would wonder how anyone could possibly know they didn’t pay for the food. If someone who was responsible for giving out the food allowed them to get food without paying, that person was in trouble, not them. I guess this shows how people can be fearful even when there is nothing to be afraid of. Or, perhaps, they were concerned because they really thought this was God’s doing, as is evident in the way they talked to each other when Joseph was accusing them. They said it was the recompense and justice they deserved for what they did to Joseph, and God was bringing this down on their heads. Perhaps, even though there was no way the Egyptians could have known they didn’t pay, they figured they would know, anyway, since God is bringing this about.

We don’t see the fullness of Joseph’s acting gentle with them until the next parasha, but the lesson here is that we should be forgiving of those that harm us, even if they don’t care whether we forgive them or not. In fact, forgiveness has nothing to do with what the sinner feels. Joseph named his children Manasseh (God has made me forget all the trouble I have gone through) and Ephraim (God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction), demonstrating his acceptance of his life in Egypt and having forgotten the painful way he got there. He had already forgiven his brothers, he was gentle with them in his “mistreatment” because he wasn’t being vengeful, he was only testing them.

God tests us, too, and just as Joseph’s apparent cruelty was only an act, when we suffer through testing, God is not angry or vengeful, He is lovingly watching what we do so He can be ready to reward us when we pass the testing. He wants us to pass, He wants us to do what He has told us we should do, and when we fail, I am sure He is disappointed, but already thinking of a testing that is less harsh. We must pass through the fire to become purified, and if there is so much dross in us that we can’t be purified in a single testing, then we will go through the fire over and over and over until we are pure.  God is doing this to us out of love: we need to remember that when it feels more like punishment.

Joseph is showing us that we can forgive but still be wary; we can allow others back into our lives when they are repentant but we don’t have to trust them again until they prove their worth. Joseph had forgiven his brothers, but he needed to give them the opportunity to prove their repentance and trustworthiness so he could not just forgive, but accept them back into his life.

If there is someone who has done you wrong, do not wait for them to ask forgiveness- forgive them now. Remember what David said, even after he committed adultery with Bat Sheba and then planned Uriah’s death to cover it up: he said (in Psalm 51) that his sin was against God, and against God alone. The sin we commit may seem to be against someone, but it is really against God, and every single sin we commit has to be reconciled with God. When God forgives us, we are spiritually “saved” from the consequences. We will always, and I mean always, suffer the consequences of the sins we commit in the physical world, and we still need to ask those we sin against to forgive us.

Here’s the way forgiveness works: the only forgiveness that counts is the forgiveness we receive from God. That’s because we are not commanded to ask forgiveness, we are commanded to forgive. What that means is that if you sin against someone, you need to get yourself right with God first, then you can ask that person for forgiveness. However, it doesn’t really matter (from a spiritual viewpoint) if they forgive you or not. If they do, they are then making themselves right with God; if they don’t, they are sinning against God! To forgive is a commandment. If you feel someone doesn’t deserve to be forgiven, you are placing yourself above God! If God is willing to forgive, then you better be willing to forgive, too. Your willingness to forgive someone is between you and God- they are out of the equation. Once they sinned against you, they’re no longer important- now it is between you and God, and He wants you to forgive them. As for God forgiving them, well, that’s between them and God, and you have no part of that.

You know, we can learn a lot from from Joseph about forgiveness, and also about accepting where God has placed you.

Suffer the sins of thy government

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We have heard, over and over (which is a comforting thing for us) that God is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow. We understand this to mean He is always compassionate, forgiving and merciful.

We also know that His timing is perfect, and all that He wishes to accomplish He will. Throughout history we see God doing what He wants done, using the peoples and nations He wants to use to fulfil His plans.

So, when something works, you keep doing it the same way, right? I always say to my clients,  “Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken.” Therefore, if God is the same all the time, and what He has done to accomplish His will has worked all the time, then doesn’t it make sense for us to expect that He will do things the same way today He has in the past?

Let’s look at how God has worked in the past:

  1. 1 Samuel 31 (King Saul and his sons all are killed, and Israel is defeated with many killed because of Saul’s sin of offering the sacrifice)
  2. 2 Samuel 24:15 (God sends a plague against Israel for the sin David committed);
  3. 2 Kings 15:29 (first attack against Shomron by Assyrian army because of the sinfulness of their kings)
  4. 2 Kings 17:3 -6 (Second invasion of the Northern Kingdom by Assyria under Shalmaneser and Sargon in 721 B.C, resulting in destruction of Israel and dispersion of the 10 tribes)
  5. Isaiah 37:1 (Assyrian incursion into Judah under Sennacherib in 701 B.C. Jerusalem was delivered, but Assyrian records indicate forty-six cities and 200,150 captives were taken)
  6. Daniel 1:1 (Fall of Jerusalem to Babylon about 605 B.C. Many from Judah were carried to Babylon at that time)
  7. 2 Chr. 12:1 -12 (Shishak, Pharaoh of Egypt, invaded the country, plundered the treasures of the Temple and the royal palace, and destroyed a number of newly built fortresses)
  8. Jeremiah 52 (the invasion and final destruction of Judah by the Babylonians)

This timeline is incomplete- as we read through the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles we read about the punishing destruction that rained on these kingdoms, all because of the sins that the people performed. But it doesn’t say that the people were punished for their sins- it says that the people punished because of the sins of their kings.

In Jeremiah 52:2 we are told:

“He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done. 3 It was because of the Lord’s anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence.”

Jeremiah is talking about King Zedekiah, but the wording is the same we read throughout those books I mentioned, throughout the history of Israel and Judah. When the king sinned, the king and all the people were held guilty. In fact, if the king sinned and there were righteous people in that kingdom, they suffered as well. You can read it throughout the bible- the young and the old, the men, women and children, all who lived in the kingdom and under the rule of those kings who were sinful suffered for the sins of their kings and of their kingdom (in other words, God doesn’t seems to be adverse to the idea of guilt by association.)

This is how God has punished those that sin against Him. We are in the early stages of the End Days, the Acharit HaYamim that God promised (through His prophets) would come and which Yeshua talked about to His Disciples. It is no longer time to judge Israel or the Jewish people- this is the time of their regathering to their Homeland.

The judgement is coming upon the Goyim, the Nations; those who have been attacking Israel and/or sinning against the Lord by ignoring His mitzvot (commandments) are the ones coming under judgement now.

The Lord, as I have shown above, historically has punished nations by using other nations to destroy them. Assyria was God’s rod of punishment, and for their sins they were punished by the Medes, who were punished by the Babylonians, by the Greeks, by the Romans, etc., etc., etc. throughout history.

And now it is our turn. America, along with the other major nations of the world, are feeling God’s wrath through terrorism. It is not a large powerful army that is attacking, it is a small, annoying flea. Yet, enough small. annoying fleas can drive a large, strong bull mad.

I would pray that we find and kill every terrorist out there before they have a chance to attack us, whether it be America, or France, or Europe… whomever. But I know that prayer is bound to fail because  it goes against God’s will.

Our country, America, has fallen into sin, and it is our government, our “kings” that have caused this punishment to come upon us. We have rejected God’s word, we have kicked Him out of our courts, we have encouraged and legally allowed sinful relationships, we have literally shaken our fists in the face of God and told Him we don’t care what He says, He isn’t ‘politically correct”, He is a bigot, He is intolerant, He is outdated and His commandments are no longer valid in our “modern” world.

Gee, ya think maybe the Lord is a little upset with that attitude?

I don’t disagree that we should be aware of the political tenor of the day, and I think it is a good idea to be up to date on your current events. Yet, I don’t read the paper (except for the comics and word puzzles) and I don’t follow or listen to the President’s speeches, or what the candidates say. I can glean what is going on just by listening to what I hear around me and on the radio between songs. I don’t follow politics, and the reason for that is simple: I know where it is all going to end up. Like it or not, this country will be punished for it’s sinfulness, we will all, righteous and unrighteous alike, be punished. Just as God causes rain to fall on the righteous and unrighteous, alike, so too will the hammer of His justice fall and crush all of us.

That hammer is ISIL, Al-qaeda, ISIS: whatever name these cowardly, murderous psychopaths want to use, they are (and they don’t even know it) the rod of punishment that God (not Allah, but the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) is using to bring judgement upon the nations.

We can stop them- we have the military might and ability to kick their butts and take no names. All we need to do is set the Marine Corps on these guys and that will be it.

What we really need to do is send an international army against Syria and totally clean it up. If we put an internationally-sponsored government in there by sending in the United Nations army (just like we did in Korea in the 1950’s) we will essentially set up what is a beneficial dictatorship (aw, c’mon- we’ve done it plenty of times before: Panama, Guam, Iran, and many other places you never even heard of) and we will destroy these terrorists. That will put an end to ISIS/L.

But it won’t stop God’s punishment. Once we kill off ISIS/L, another “nation” will arise- it will be the international army we created, which will be the means by which the Son of Perdition will arise and take power.

Mark my words- it may not happen as I describe above, but it will happen. These terrorist attacks will grow and spread, the governments of the world will unite (seemingly in a first-time ever peaceful coalition) to destroy this threat, but the threat is no more than the bait, a lure which will bring the world governments together and allow the enemy to rise to power.

Not a very pretty picture, but definitely not a pessimistic one. Did they call Jeremiah a pessimist? Did they accuse Elijah of being a Debbie Downer? No- they called them foolish, and even treasonous, but not pessimistic.

In fact, my view of the future is very optimistic, because the worse things get, the sooner we will receive our eternal reward. Not good for the non-Believers, but great for those of us who have accepted Yeshua as our Messiah and have the indwelling Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to guide us and comfort us throughout these terrible times.

If you are reading this and haven’t accepted that Yeshua (Jesus) is really the Messiah God promised us, and you haven’t really accepted that you are a sinner (just like everyone else), you need to know that being a “good person” is not going to do you any good. The only way to really be saved from the second death is to accept the gift of grace that God is holding out to you, to accept your own lack of ability to be what God wants, and to ask His forgiveness in Yeshua’s name. And even if you do all that, if you aren’t willing to do T’shuvah- turn from your sins- then understand that asking forgiveness is useless if you don’t really want to try to stop sinning.

The times are only going to get worse, and because the rod of God’s punishment is not selective you cannot possibly know when or where you are going to “buy it.”

I used to sell Revocable Living Trusts. One of the objections I received often was that the person liked the idea and would probably want to have one when he dies, but he isn’t ready yet to invest in it. He wants to wait until a better time.

I would agree- why pay for it until you need it? I would explain the process of  writing the trust and getting all the assets transferred into it so that the family is fully protected takes at least three months. Then I would pull out my calendar, and say, “OK- we know you need three months for this to be done, so tell me when you are going to die and I will make an appointment now to be here three months before that day.”

If you think this “God” thing is probably something you should consider but just don’t feel you need to do it now, or want to put it off till you have more time (after all, we’re all soooo busy, aren’t we?) then make an entry in your calendar for an hour before the moment you are going to die and ask for God’s forgiveness.  I think since you know, absolutely, you are going to die that your desire to be forgiven will probably be an honest one.

Got your calendar out?

Just because we don’t see something doesn’t mean it isn’t there

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Ever see the wind? Do you see sound waves when listening to the ocean? When you get a sunburn, did you see the UV rays all around you?

There are many things we don’t see, yet they exist. And how do we know they exist? By their effect on our world.

We don’t see the wind, but we see flags moving in the breeze, we see trees bend over, we see waves in the pond and we see smoke traveling sideways. And we feel it.

We see the red skin and feel the pain when we are in the sun too long, we get a ringing in our ears when we go to a concert or have the radio too loud, or when a fire truck goes by blaring its siren.

There are so many things we don’t see that are there. We easily accept their existence because we see their effect on our physical world. Sometimes it is immediate, sometimes it takes a while to appear, but because we see the effect it has on our physical world we trust that it is real.

If it is so easy for us to accept the existence of UV light, of wind, of sounds we are incapable of hearing, of mesons, and so many other things that we have never seen, why is it so impossible for us to accept that God exists and that He is always there?

I am sure most people reading this already accept that God exists, but do you really, really believe that He is always there? Always watching and aware?  I do. Just because I don’t see His work in my life, at that time of my life, it doesn’t mean He isn’t present in my life.

God’s time is not like our time: we live in a lineal timeline, flat, one-way only, from this moment to the next one. We can’t go backwards, and we can’t go any farther into our future than right this second. God, on the other hand, is unrestricted by our timeline. He is in the ancient past at the same moment He exists in the distant future, all the time being right here with us, now. That’s why He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow: it is all the same time to Him.

When Joseph was in the dungeon for 12 years did he think God had abandoned him? When Daniel was praying for answers, did he think God was ignoring him? When David cried out his heart to the Lord through his psalms, while being chased for years by Saul, did he think that God was missing in his life? Did Yeshua think God was ignoring Him when He prayed to “let this cup pass by me?” When Shaul (Paul) was in jail and chained, did he think that he was singing to the wall?

When you are going through tsouris, are you praying to God and expecting relief right away? There’s nothing wrong with expecting God to answer prayers- He’s good that way. But we need to be doing much more than just faithfully expecting the answer: we need to be looking for it, too! The answer to prayer we receive is (I believe) more often not what we expect but it is always exactly what we need. God knows much better than we do what we need because He can see what will occur from what is happening to us right now. We can only hope and try to make things happen the way we want them to, but God can make things happen the way He wants them to. Every time.

That is why we can’t really know what He will do when we ask something of Him. Yeshua told us in the Gospels, when we ask in His name we will receive, and we need to be expecting to receive. But what we receive may not be what we asked for, yet it will be the answer to what our prayers were about.

That sounds a little convoluted, but it is true. At least, it has been for me. When I have thought that maybe God was too busy to deal with me, looking back I see that I was too busy dealing with myself to see what God was doing. And sometimes, I wasn’t doing anything wrong, it just wasn’t time for the answer to my prayer to be realized. God’s timing is perfect because, well, He controls time. Duh! When you make the rules you always win.

Just because we don’t see God at work doesn’t mean He isn’t doing anything. You know, sometimes just waiting is the best thing to do. Doing nothing is, in many ways, doing something.

In my high school was a guy named Mike Santoro (Mike, if you ever read this, how ‘ya doing?) Mike was the best wrestler we had, state-level champion. He taught me that my body could be maneuvered into positions that you couldn’t imagine. When Mike wrestled, he often just sat on the opponent- doing nothing. The other guy was face down on the mat, and Mike is sitting on that guys’ butt, just waiting. The ref would whistle and tell him to stop stalling, but Mike wasn’t stalling- he was prowling. He was stalking the prey, and the moment the other guy moved- POW!! Like a snake striking, Mike was intertwined in this poor guys limbs, and the next thing you knew the ref was on his belly smacking the mat three times.

That’s how God works. He waits for the right moment, and when He moves it is immediate and devastating. Just because we don’t see God doing anything doesn’t mean He isn’t doing something. And  when we don’t see God at all, it doesn’t mean He isn’t there, or that He doesn’t exist, and never means that He doesn’t care.

People who are agnostic, atheistic or just sheep believing what they are told to believe have doubts about God, and refuse to see His effect on their world. The bible tells us of all that God has done, and I am constantly disappointed in how people believe a priori what Huffington Post or Wikipedia says,  but doubt the bible. The people who wrote the bible didn’t do so to make themselves rich, or to appease some special interest group, or to make themselves look to be heroic. They were often ridiculed, stoned and killed for their writings. As a point in fact, we are currently celebrating Hanukkah, and the Maccabees are the heros, but when you read their story you find out that just about every single one of them was assassinated later. Not a very happy ending.

We need to stop looking for the Son of Man to come down with power and glory from the skies. It’ll happen when it happens. In the meantime, just look for the effect that God has on the physical world- that is what we can use to prove His existence when we are ministering to the world.

As for all of us, when we go through tsouris and feel that God is ignoring or forgetting about us, and we don’t see His presence in our lives, please remember that just because we don’t see something doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Parashah V’Yashev (And he dwelt) Genesis 37 – 40

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There is sooooo much here if I started, I couldn’t finish.

We are introduced to Joseph, Jacob’s favorite, and the jealous hatred of his brothers, fueled by Joseph telling them of his dreams. The coat of many colors, the treachery of the brothers, the narrow escape from death in the cistern and the eventual sale into slavery to Potiphar.  We also have a tangential telling of the story of Judah’s first born sons, and how Peretz was born out of his father’s (Judah) relationship with his own daughter-in-law, although Judah did not know it was Tamar at the time.

Back to Joseph, in Egypt, slave to Potiphar, but now because of his righteousness and competence, the slave is in charge of the masters household, and the masters wife wants the slave for her sexual partner. Joseph refuses to the point where the wife accuses him of doing just what he refused to do, and he is thrown into jail (probably because Potiphar was being merciful- normally an accusation of attempted rape would get the slave killed.)

In jail Joseph again shows his righteousness and is made a trustee, and this parashah ends with Joseph correctly interpreting the dreams of the baker and the cup bearer.

Like I said, just sooo much: but what I want to talk about today is not regarding any of these events, but what happens to the righteous in an unrighteous world.

Joseph was a Tzaddik, a righteous man. When he was younger he was a little immature, and didn’t show good judgement by telling his brothers about his dreams, but we see as he went through some tsouris that he matured to the point where his acts of righteousness talked for him.

So here we have this righteous man, a slave yet trusted by his master so much that he was, in truth, the de facto master of the house. But although Joseph was righteous, the environment he lived in wasn’t. What made Joseph stand out so well what also what got him into trouble so quickly.

Didn’t Izabel want to kill Elijah when he demonstrated the goodness and power of God? Wasn’t Jeremiah thrown into a cistern to die, then kept under arrest for years? Wasn’t Shaul (Paul) stoned, whipped and jailed for speaking righteousness?  John was marooned on Patmos, and James was killed. Many who spoke and did nothing but what the Lord had commanded of them, righteous, holy and moral people, became martyrs because of their service to God.

The story ends, we all know, with Joseph eventually reaping the fruits of his righteousness, and as such, showing for the first time the effect of God’s promise to Abraham that those who bless His people will be blessed- Joseph saved not just himself, but the Egyptians, and the people of God. Pharoah blessed and treated Joseph well, and God rewarded Pharaoh by saving his kingdom.

We all live in a cursed world, which wants anything righteous and godly to be gone. The righteous person has, as Paul described in 2 Corinthians, 2:16, the smell of death on them to those who are not righteous, to those who are of the world. That is because those who do as God wants, which should be all of us who profess to be saved and who have the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) living in us, speak to the very soul of the unrighteous reminding them that their ways will turn on them, that a judgement is coming, and that they will end up with the short end of the stick.

Think about it this way: you have been hiking and camping out for a week, no shower, no bathing, no toothbrush, and you walk into an elevator full of people. How do you think they might react to you? You don’t think there’s anything wrong- you are used to your smell, but they aren’t. You think you are OK, but the truth is you stink!!

That is sort of how it is with the righteous in the midst of the unrighteous, except instead of them realizing how much you stink, your “cleanliness” forces them to realize how much they stink!

And, just like Joseph suffered not for his sins but for his righteousness, we will suffer for our righteousness, too. The world hates us because it hates Yeshua. In fact, He told us all about that, didn’t He?  In Matthew 10:22, John 15:18, Mark 13:13, Luke 21:17, and throughout the Gospels we are told by Yeshua that following Him is no bed of roses. We will be hated, attacked, tortured, killed and…well, I guess once you’ve been killed it can’t get much worse.

Being righteous in an unrighteous world sucks. That’s all there is to it. The good news, however, is that this life is but a mist, a moment, the wink of an eye, and we can look forward to reaping our just rewards in the presence of the Lord of lords and King of kings, forever!  Things always seem to take a long time when looking forward to them, but when you have come into your time, looking back it seems to have happened in a flash!

When your righteousness gets you in trouble, don’t look to the present but think on the future. As we have been commanded to do, pray for those that hurt and harass you, give our enemy water and food and show compassion and forgiveness: it will demonstrate your righteousness even more, and thereby give glory to God. And, it will really eat at them, too.

Hey! There’s nothing wrong with knowing that your goody-little-two-shoes behavior will really rub their noses in it. After all, doesn’t God direct us with His staff (gently leading us) and His rod (giving us a good whack upside our heads) when it best suits His needs? We can allow our righteousness to foster some level of jealousy in others, hopefully which (with the help of our prayers for their deliverance) will lead them not into more sinning but make them jealous for our peace, our joy in the midst of tsouris, and bring them to the Lord.

The one thing you need to remember is this: being holier than another person doesn’t mean you are any better than they are- you are still a sinner! Yes, you are a saved sinner, but you are still a sinner. Righteousness has to be tempered with humility. That is what Joseph learned (probably sometime right after his brothers threw him into the cistern.) You can’t “lord it over” others (see Matthew 20:25, Mark 10:42, Luke 22:25) and you must be humble. Allow your actions to speak for you, and don’t talk of yourself as if you are any better than anyone else.

Remember that you were once like them, so be humble and thankful you are changing, that you are becoming holier. That doesn’t mean better, it means more righteous. There are plenty of unrighteous people who do righteous things. Even Nebuchadnezzar did good things, now and then. So be holier, just not “holier than thou.”

The world hates the holy, hates the righteous, and really, really hates to be reminded of the fact that they aren’t. That’s their problem: we need to be what God wants us to be, which is to be humble, to be compassionate, and to be righteous. And to be prepared to suffer for it.

It’s hot in the fire, but that is the only way to purify the gold.