Parashah Ki Thissa (when you take) Exodus 30:11 – 34

March 6, 2015 Leave a comment

As usual, there is just so much here. I took an entire course just about the symbolic nature of the spices used for the incense and anointing oils.

There’s also how God can use humans to achieve His goals, in the way that he gave all this knowledge and understanding to Oholiab and Bezalel to make the things required for the service in the Tabernacle.

Then there is the sin of the Golden Calf; and what’s up with Aaron? How could he have done that?

And then there’s Hur- Moses left both Aaron and Hur in charge, but there is no mention of Hur when Moses comes back and asks Aaron why he made the calf. In fact, Hur isn’t mentioned anymore. The Chumash says it is thought that Hur stood up against the people and was killed, so Aaron decided to do as the people said and live. It also says that Aaron was a peaceful man and that he was stalling, knowing that to refuse would cause bloodshed and hoping that Moses would return before they actually had a chance to worship the calf (which is why he said the next day would be a feast.)

The Levites are the ones that come rushing to Moses when he asks who is for God, which God later reminds us about when He separates the Levites from all the other tribes to serve Him, alone. Their dedication and their immediate choice to serve Him was remembered and they were given the honor of having God as their inheritance. There’s gotta be at least one or two good sermons in there!

And then we have Moses asking God, after this terrible sin, to do him a favor? To show Moses His glory? I mean, what’s that about? Moses just managed to convince God that He shouldn’t destroy the people for this terrible sin, and when God relents Moses decides, what? Now’s a good time to ask Him something no one has ever asked of Him? To show me your presence so I will know that you really, really like me?

And God says, “OK- you got it. But you can’t see my face or you have to die; that’s how it is.” Talk about a compassionate and forgiving God! He is so teed off at this stiff-necked, rebellious group of people that He is going to wipe them out of existence, and when He relents to Moses’ pleas and says He won’t destroy them…POOF! It’s gone. No more anger, and here’s this guy asking to see my presence. Ah, he’s OK, I guess. After all, I did tell him that he finds favor in my sight, so why not?

Finally, Moses goes back to the mountain and gets the 10 Commandments again. After he destroys them in his anger (after telling God not to be so angry), God doesn’t say, “Why did you do that? I gave them to you and you broke them, on purpose, and now you want me to give you more?” Instead, He gives another set of tablets to Moses.

This parashah shows just so much about God, Moses, and the sinfulness of mankind. Where do I start? Worse than that, how do I stop?

I am always affected by Moses’ actions in this parashah, regarding the first set of tablets and how he soothes God’s anger, then loses his own. God is holy and righteous, yet with the intercession of Moses God relents from destroying the people and making a new nation out of Moses. This, alone, is remarkable when you consider that God was willing to chuck some 470 years of work right out the window, and start over. This reminds us that God’s time is not like our time. It would have been easy for God to do what we could never even think of trying. Yet, was God really going to destroy the people, or was He testing Moses’s desire to lead and his humility before the Lord? Abraham asked God to relent from a destruction, and here is Moses doing the same. Was that really the reason behind God saying He would destroy the people?

And after Moses, with a cool-headed and compassionate plea (not so much for the people but for God’s reputation) saves the people, when he sees the actual crime before him, he totally loses it. He smashes what God gave him, he calls for support and then he, on his own, orders the destruction of the sinners. Some 3,000 of them. Much less than the number God was going to destroy, but still, that’s a lot of people.

So Moses was cool and thoughtful when he was keeping God from vengeful destruction, but when faced with the same emotional response, Moses doesn’t hold back.

I think there is a lesson here for us- it is easier to tell others what to do than it is to do it ourselves. “Do as I say, not as I do” is easy. God, however, is different; He does what He says, and He expects us not to do what He says. Yes, He commands us to do things, but He knows we can’t. If He didn’t know that we are incapable of doing what the Torah says, then why did He plan, from moment One, to send Yeshua our Messiah to make it possible for us to be with God? If, when God gave us the Torah, He really expected that we could obey it to the letter (as Yeshua did), then why did we need Yeshua? Even if we are able to observe Torah perfectly, there still will be very few people who will make it into Heaven. No doubt. Even with the Grace of God we have now through Yeshua’s sacrificial death, Yeshua told us that only a few will make it. The path less followed is the one to salvation, so even with the automatic and guaranteed “Get Out of Hell” card Yeshua deals us, still, only a remnant will make it.

But we can’t observe Torah perfectly. And we do need Yeshua. That’s why I say God does as He says and doesn’t expect us to do as He says.

That’s no reason for us not to try. We need to do the “WWJD” thing. God requires us to do, not to think about doing, not to observe others doing, but to do. Like Yoda said, “Do…or do not. There is no try.” We must start out wanting to do, not saying we will do our best. I believe that saying we will try our best is making an excuse for failure before we even start. Henry Ford was quoted as saying, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.” And Will Rogers said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

What God is saying to the people and to Moses is simply, “Do!”

Maybe we can’t “Do” as God tells us to do, but we can do more than we have been doing. We never can be sinless, but we always can sin less. That’s the “Do!” for us. This is something we can hear and obey: sin less.

Look for the thing that God wants you to find in this parashah, as you should with the entire Manual. Always read it with the prayer that God will show you what He wants you to get from it.

I feel like I did a lousy job this morning, since there is too much for me to talk about and too little time for me to do it with. So help me, please- take whatever you can from my babbling and use it in a way which will allow you to please the Lord. That’s the best I can do- give you something you haven’t had: a new understanding, insight to a new revelation, or just a push to get you off your tuchas and into the game.

Thank you, Father, for your Word, your teachings, and your salvation through Yeshua Ha Mashiach, help us all to be doers of the Word.

Shabbat Shalom!

Happy Purim!! Chag S’Meach!! Yom Tov!!

March 5, 2015 Leave a comment

This is one of the happiest festivals we have. Fairs, games, reading the book of Esther (Hadassah) with groggers and shouting.

For those that don’t know the way we read this book in the Synagogue, groggers (noisemakers) are handed out to everyone, adults and children. When we read the book (it’s short) every time the name of Hamen is said, we use the groggers because his name should be blotted out from memory (he who shall not be named!) When the name of Esther is read, we all say, “aaaahhhhhh” because she was so beautiful, and when Mordecai’s name comes up we all shout, “Yay!!” because he’s the hero.

There is a traditional belief that during the celebration of Purim we are to imbibe so much that we get too drunk to know Mordecai from Hamen, and the favorite food of the night is Hamentashen, a cookie that is shaped like a three-cornered hat (which Hamen is supposed to have worn) and the center is filled with prune (traditional filling), or other fruit jellies, such as apricot or cherry, or even poppy-seed.

One of the more interesting facts about the book of Hadassah (I prefer not to use Esther, because even though that is today considered a “Jewish” name, it is actually a form of the Semitic goddess of fertility, Asherah) is that the name of the Lord is not mentioned anywhere in the book. Not even once. The closest we come to even mentioning there is a God is when Mordecai tells Hadassah, who is trying to avoid going to the king, that if she doesn’t stand up for the people, help will come from another place (implying the Lord.) That’s as close as we get to hearing about God.

I have read that this was done because the book was written in Shushan, and as a form of respect to the royalty they left any specific mention of God out of it. I hope that is wrong; Yeshua told us that if we are ashamed of Him then He will be ashamed of us, and I can’t see someone as fearless as Mordecai, who refused to bow before Hamen, worrying that he might upset the king if he mentions God. I think this lack of God’s name or mention is one mystery that we may never solve.

Another thing I speak out about is that Hadassah, who I have always been taught was brave, wasn’t so brave. When Mordecai asked her to intervene on behalf of the Jewish people the first thing she said was no. True, she didn’t come right out and say, “Hey, Unc: I got mine, so tough for the rest of you.” but she used the excuse that if she went before the king, without being called for, she might die. It was only after Mordecai told her just because she is the queen she won’t escape the fate of the other Jews that she relented. I wonder, reading between the lines, if Mordecai wasn’t saying that somewhere, someone (I don’t think it would ever have been him) who knew Hadassah was a Jew would rat her out in order to try to save their own life. From my perspective, Hadassah had to be coerced into saving her people. That doesn’t detract from the fact that she did risk her life, but she clearly wasn’t up to it without a “push” from good old Uncle Mordecai.

And she isn’t alone. Moses needed more than push, Jonah almost had to drown, and Gideon tested the Lord with sheepskin and morning dew. Twice! Not all the great heros of the Bible were heros right from the start. It reminds me of the parable Yeshua tells of the two sons (it’s in Mattitayu.) The one who first said no but changed his mind is the one that actually did what the father wanted, while the other immediately said he would do as asked, but he never did. The first son, who initially was rebellious and disrespectful, was the one who ended up being the more obedient.

Being a godly person isn’t easy, and often we may find ourselves looking for ways to avoid what God calls us to do. If you see this in yourself, there is no need to berate yourself or feel low, so long as you are working towards obedience. In the end, God wants obedience, and He is more than willing (and He shows this to us throughout the Bible) to overlook any initial reluctance. In the end, it is what we do that counts.

How many times do we read in the Tanakh that God is not pleased with the blood of bulls and rams, but desires obedience over everything else? The answer is: a lot.

When I was in sales I learned that people don’t mean what they say, the mean what they do. God wants us to do, and if we say we don’t want to, so what? I also know that even when I don’t want to do something I know God wants me to do, and even if I do it kvetching and arguing and whining about it, so long as I do it I am pleasing the Lord.

Of course, it would be even more pleasing to Him if I just did it without all the drama. Or better yet, if I did it willingly and cheerfully. Now that, in my case, would be a miracle!

Enjoy this wonderful holiday, and remember what we Jews always like to say as a “short and sweet” condensing of our history:

They tried to kill us, we killed them. Let’s eat!

Take comfort in knowing that the hero’s in the Bible didn’t always start out that way, just as we didn’t start out as Believers. It isn’t what we say, or even what we want, but what we do that will determine our future.

So, nu? What are you doing to determine your future?

God’s Mercy in Action

March 4, 2015 Leave a comment

Do you recall what happened when Joshua first attacked Ai?

They had just come from a great triumph at Jericho, defeating the fortified town and destroying all the people and all the booty, just as God commanded.

Oh, but wait! Someone didn’t destroy all the booty, did he? Achan kept some of the spoils, against the commandment of God, and because of that the entire community (God sees the Children of Israel as a single entity) suffered defeat when they attacked Ai. Only a handful of the inhabitants routed the army of 3,000 Israelites, and could have damaged, if not destroyed, the fierce reputation that Israel was beginning to generate.

After the sin was atoned for (at the cost of the life of Achan, his entire family and all their possessions), the next attack at Ai was totally successful.

Here’s the part where, after such a harsh punishment, we see God’s mercy: God told Joshua that after destroying the town and people of Ai, the Israelites could keep the spoils. Achan paid the price for his disobedience, but God saw the weakness of the people, and instead of testing them further He mercifully relented and allowed them to keep the spoils, knowing that they were unable to control themselves.

Often I heard it said that God will never test us beyond our measure, and I believe that. However, I also see in the Bible that God will, initially at least, test us to the full extent of our self-control and obedience. The man who collected sticks on the Sabbath (in B’midbar/Numbers) was killed for his sin, yet those that collected extra manna were not killed for their sin (to God, sin is sin- there is no little sin or partial sin, so collecting extra manna when told not to is no different than collecting sticks on the Sabbath.) All that happened to them was that the manna did not survive longer than the regular manna.

God showed His mercy to the children of Israel in the desert. How many times did He want to destroy them for their sins? He sent birds to give them meat, but they suffered a plague from it which Aaron stopped. He sent poisonous snakes to kill them, but then he mercifully allowed those bitten to live; I am sure that many died before Moses made the brass snake that kept people alive. He sent a plague against them that Pinchus stopped, He sent a plague against them when David sinned with the census, but then withheld His hand. He was even merciful to Ba’alam by not killing him on the road to curse the Jewish people (Ba’alam got his later, though, for the sin of telling Bilam how to entice the Jewish men into sin.)

God starts out with His laws and commandments, and the first ones to disobey usually are the ones who end up showing that God is serious. The first to disobey get the worst of it, but it seems, as I read the Manual, that God’s mercy will intervene after that and even though others may sin, their punishment is less severe. God is our King, but His mercy allows us to survive our own disobedience, as a people. Individuals will suffer, but the people will go on. God told Moshe (Exodus 33) that He will show mercy to those whom He will show mercy, and have compassion for those whom He will have compassion for.

Basically, God says that He will choose who gets the full monty and who doesn’t. It’s not our choice, so, in essence, you pays your money and you takes your chances. If we choose to sin, we may get away with our lives, we can be forgiven, but we may end up destroyed in a heartbeat, too.

Do you really want to take that chance? Is the reward we get from any sin worth our life? Our eternal soul? Achan, Saphira, Ananias, the guy who collected sticks- they all died in their sin.

God is King, Judge, and merciful Father. All in one. He will decide what the outcome of a sin is, and we have to decide to try to keep from sinning. He will forgive those who seek forgiveness, over and over. We see that throughout the Tanakh- no matter how often Israel sinned against the Lord, when they did T’Shuvah and cried out to Him, even though they fully deserved their punishment and the suffering they were undergoing, His mercy came forth upon them and He sent them a saviour. The Book of Judges shows this happening, over and over.

Trust God to be merciful, but never, never, NEVER expect Him to be merciful when you want Him to be. It’s His choice, not yours. The best thing to do is be as obedient as you can. God has set the rules and it is up to us to follow them. If we fail to obey by accident He has shown He is willing , even desiring, to forgive when we come before Him asking forgiveness. However, if we disobey purposefully, well…you are taking your chances with His mercy. Personally, I don’t think there is anything on Earth that is worth having if it means taking a chance on God’s mercy. Therefore, as for me and my family, we choose the Lord and His ways.

I know, because of my sinful nature, I will fail to obey at some point in my life. Probably more than just once, too. Because my heart wishes to obey, I have hope from knowing how God has been merciful, and I pray that God will be merciful in His judgement of my actions. I pray that I will be one of those sinners He chooses to have mercy on and compassion for.

Some of you may be feeling uncomfortable with the idea that God may not be merciful, because the usual teaching is all about God’s mercy and compassion, His love, His son’s love, forgiveness of sins, take you as you are, unconditional salvation, happy-happy-happy, yadda-yadda-yadda. All that is true, but we have to also remember that He is holy, the Holy of Holies, and sin is an anathema to Him. It is a stench in His nostrils and He has no desire to be anywhere near sin. We are told that we should not test the Lord, our God, but if we sin and expect Him to be merciful every single time we sin, we are really telling God what to do, aren’t we? He says it is His choice, and He is, after all, the one who makes the rules. He invented this game called life; He made the rules, He set the board, He determines what is a good roll and what is a bad roll, and He has the final say and judgment on everything that happens while you are playing. Don’t even think of expecting His mercy when you intend to sin; if you sin by accident, if you sin before you realize what you are doing, be penitent, ask forgiveness and pray for His mercy. Don’t expect it, don’t demand it, but plead for it in earnest and heartfelt prayer, with a broken spirit and a contrite heart. David knew how to ask for forgiveness, and he was a man after God’s own heart, so do as David did.

God is merciful, He loves every single one of us, and He wants us to have eternal life. He isn’t just willing to forgive- He wants to forgive. BUT…He is God, He is holy, and He will judge. He didn’t make the rules just so we could break them, and He made the rules for everyone. It’s not what we want the rules to mean, it’s what He says the rules mean, and that will count for us or against us. That’s why you need to read the Bible and see what God says, then measure it against what your ‘religion’ tells you, because ultimately you will stand before Him and you will have no one to blame but yourself.

Yes, we are saved by the sacrificial death of Yeshua, and His life, His death and His resurrection is proof that He is Messiah. And yes, He will stand at our side when we are before the Lord on Judgement Day and speak for us. It is His righteousness that saves us, not our own. Yet we still want to be honored, don’t we? Dont’ you want God to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” when you are before Him? I certainly wouldn’t want to hear God say, “Okay, you’re in, but you barely made it; you did a lousy job when you were alive, so you can clean the toilets and dust the stars. And don’t think even think of eating at the adult’s table!”

God is good, all the time. God is righteous and holy, all the time. God is merciful, NOT all the time. God told us this about Himself, so remember that the next time the little red guy with the horns on your shoulder tells you it’s okay to do something because God is merciful. Don’t test God and don’t take His mercy for granted. Do what is right and let righteousness guide your way.

Covenants Don’t Change, and They Don’t Go Away

March 3, 2015 Leave a comment

There are 5 Covenants that God made with us. The first was the Noahide Covenant, then the Abrahamic, Mosaic and Davidic. Finally, there is the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31).

The usual Christian teaching is that the New Covenant did away with most of the previous 4 covenants, leaving only what they (ridiculously) call either “moral” or “ceremonial” laws. The teaching is that the ceremonial laws (which I think are whatever they don’t want to follow) are still valid for Jews but not for Christians.

There are some 613 commandments (as told in Jewish teachings) in the Torah; about 1/3 have to do with the sacrificial system. These laws are not done away with, but they are impossible to obey because they deal with the sacrifices that are to be made at the Temple, and the Temple doesn’t exist anymore. There are a whole bunch of sermons in that fact, alone, but we aren’t going there today.

The other laws are not ceremonial- do you consider commandments about having fair weights and lending at interest “ceremonial”? Do you think that helping your neighbor is “ceremonial”. No? Oh, no- clearly, helping a neighbor is a moral law. Is it? Which is moral and which is not? Who’s to say: you? Me?

God made covenants and these covenants are not exclusionary. In other words, the Abrahamic Covenant did not override or overturn the Noahide Covenant. It added to it, it supplemented it, it complemented it. Same with the others.

Noah basically was told by God He wouldn’t destroy the Earth by flood. The rainbow was the sign and the blood of the millions of dead people was how the covenant was sealed (all covenants are sealed by blood.) Then the Abrahamic Covenant, which added by saying all the people that God won’t destroy will be led into righteousness by a Nation of Priests God will raise up through the seed of Abraham, who will be a blessing to the world. The Mosaic Covenant then added the rules by which that nation will live. The Davidic added that the ultimate Kohen Gadol (High Priest) would be a descendant of David and also be a king with an everlasting kingdom. Lastly the New Covenant, the final promise, which says:

(1) all the people whom God won’t destroy;

(2) who are blessed by the seed of Abraham;

(3) who live by the codes and laws given to Moses;

(4) who are led to salvation and ruled by the eternal king from David’s descendants (who is the Messiah);

(5) will then be given, permanently, the Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit).

And, with the Ruach to help them, they will be able to produce the good fruit they are required to produce which demonstrates their T’Shuvah (turning from sin) during their lives, and which they can present to God at Judgement Day,

Each covenant builds on the previous one- there is no overturning or doing away with, at all. God’s covenants are eternal; as long as He is alive and one human is still alive, every covenant, every condition of the covenants, is valid, real, and still in effect.

Don’t let anyone fool you or tell you that some laws aren’t valid anymore, that some are ceremonial and not required, or that some are done away with, altogether. Yeshua didn’t come to change the law but interpret it correctly and show us all how to live it. That’s what He says in Matthew 5:17. Read the entire verse; in fact, don’t stop there but read the whole chapter. The covenants of God are eternal and valid, true and necessary.

What God has said is not subject to human intervention, human denial, or human interpretation. The covenants are not delivered as a vision or need to be interpreted- they are clear as glass. There is nothing any human should do except obey them as best as he or she can. ALL of them!

The greatest victory the Enemy has won is that he managed to separate those seeking the Messiah from those finding the Messiah. The way he did it was the usual method for the Enemy: he just let mankind do their own thing, subtly leading them to think it is okay to identify God’s laws and commandments as necessary or unnecessary, ceremonial or moral.

At first we had those who believed in the one, true God and all the rest were pagans. Then we had Jews and pagans; then we had Jews who believed in Yeshua and Jews who didn’t, pagans who believed and were becoming Jewish, and all those other pagans. Then we had Jews, Christians, and a few pagans still hanging around. Now we have 6 sects of Jews (Hasidic, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Messianic), any number of Christian sects (Catholic, Western Orthodox, Lutheran, Protestant, Baptist, with all their subdivisions, Amish, and many, many more) all of whom have their own ideas of how to worship God. Oh yes- believe it or not, we still have pagans hanging around.

As I read it in the Manual, God doesn’t have ceremonial or moral laws, He doesn’t say these laws are for the Jews, these are for the Catholics, these for Mennonites. etc., and He is absolutely clear that these laws and commandments are to be observed throughout all our generations. No end-point, no “up until…”, but forever!

God has no religion, so anyone who believes in God shouldn’t have a religion, either. Period, end of statement, das ist alles, shut the door on your way out!

You want to make it easy, you want to know what to do and how to do it, then read the Bible and just simply follow what God says. Yeshua and the Rabbis of old knew there were just 2 commandments that needed to be followed in order for all the rest to be easily observed: love God and love each other. If you do that, it doesn’t make the others unnecessary, just easier to obey.

You have your choice to make: follow the laws and commandments in the Torah or try to obey the plethora of laws, regulations and traditions that we find in every religion, which have very little to do with God and everything to do with people enforcing their own will on others in the name of the Lord. That’s the difference between God’s Word and religion: God tells us how to follow Him to lead us to salvation, and religion tells us we must obey human laws and traditions over God’s word in order to allow other humans to rule over us.

The Bible is clear in more than one place that we should never add to or detract from the commandments that God has given us. If we have been following that, then where did all these different religions come from? Read my book and see where there are differences, or just read the Bible and don’t allow yourself to have preconceptions of the meaning of what you read. Let the Ruach lead you to understanding.

God has no religion, and we shouldn’t either. We should have only God. Really: if we have God, what else do we need?

My Worst Nightmare Come True

March 2, 2015 Leave a comment

To the person who said always follow your dreams, I say,”Bah!! Humbug!!”

I have had a beard, and a nice one, too, for about 18 years. My wife likes it, I like it, and I have been complimented on it.

Occasionally I have this nightmare where I am really tired, and getting ready for work, and instead of shaving around the beard I accidentally shave a portion of it off.

Well, you can see where this is going, I am happy, at least, to say it wasn’t a careless mistake. I bought a new beard trimmer and was testing the plastic heads that allow you to trim to a specific length, and the one that I wanted to use slipped off the shaver head just as I was working my way up the left side of my moustache. So, ZIP!! Half the moustache is gone. I tried to shorten everything else to make up for it, but when I really did not want to face the truth, I took the coward’s way out…I asked Donna if it looked okay.

After I picked her up off the floor (not from fainting but from hysterical laughter) she confirmed what I knew all along, ever since the shaver head fell off.

Like the lead song from that 1960’s movie: Bye, Bye Beardie!

So, nu? What’s this got to do with God, or Messianic Judaism, or anything, for that matter? Good question.

My beard was a part of me, and it was something I had cared for and never expected to lose. But in a moment it was gone. Worse than that, in a moment it suffered a devastating accident, and I had to take action on my own to complete the partial loss.

It’s like when a loved one is suffering, or brain-dead and we have to be the ones to pull the plug. Yes, yes…I know….a beard is not a loved one, but the lesson is the same. We never know when something will happen to change what we expected to remain the same.

In the B’rit Chadasha (Good News) Yeshua is talking with a man who says he is going to build a barn, store his grain, yadda-yadda-yadda. He was telling Yeshua all the plans he had made before trusting totally, and Yeshua called the man a fool, because he was making all these plans for his life, but his life was going to be called that very night. The lesson was that the man was too busy being involved in worldly things to recognize the need to first and foremost be right with God.

We don’t know when we will have an accident. That’s why they call it an “accident”: if you plan for it, it is an event. We don’t know why or when or what will happen, day by day, minute by minute. That’s why we have to be prepared for the unprepared. The way to do that is to be right with God, and trust God to take care of whatever comes your way.

If you are right with God, and you know someone who isn’t (they shouldn’t be hard to find) please tell them about my beard. Tell them how the world is an unknown, and that we can never get back what has been lost. We can only go forward, and sometimes we need to be able to let go of the little bit that is left so we can move on.

There is nothing of this world that is more important than preparing for the second life. The whole purpose of being alive is to take the opportunity to prepare for death. If we plan to wait only a minute longer, we may not have even a second to do that. We need to make sure we are not afraid to tell someone who is not a Believer, or a Believer who is not doing right, that they have no time to wait.

I believe we are living in prophetic times. I see the world coming against Israel, the growth of unrest, wars, bad weather, and an evil that is growing very quickly from the Middle East. We, those who believe in God, that Yeshua is the Messiah, and have been saved must try to get the word out. I often take “chances”, dropping little hints here and there in conversation at work or when I volunteer at the Brevard Zoo, or just in general conversation to see if I get a reaction. I will talk about a story in a book relating to the conversation and tell one of the parables, or a story from the Torah or one of the writings, to exemplify the point I am making. If I get a positive response, I may ask further, “Oh, you know that one. Do you read the Bible?” and that can lead me into a discussion, if the other person is willing.

It’s always by baby-steps so I don’t do wrong. Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) tells us there is a time for everything, so if it seems the other person is willing to listen, talk; if they are shying away, leave them be. You can’t shove God down someone’s throat. But you can give them a small taste, and since God’s word never returns void, you don’t know what good you might have just done by sowing seeds.

We need to sow the seeds, no matter what kind of soil, and let God do the rest.

I’m not sure if I will keep the baby-face look or not. I figure since it’s done, I might as well stay clean-shaven for a while and see what the general reaction is. You know Donna didn’t waste a second before posting my shaven face on Facebook, and we got a dozen OMG!’s before 5 minutes passed (don’t these people have a life?) Maybe I should leave the beard off- being Messianic doesn’t mean I have to look Orthodox, right? Besides that, Donna has a real good belly-laugh every time I try to kiss her now. Until she gets used to it, it’s worth being this way just to make her happy.

Maybe you won’t have to suffer the loss of your beard, but we all will suffer the loss of our loved ones, and our loved ones will suffer the loss of us. Prepare for them- have your will or trust in order, get a Living Will so they don’t have to make that decision for you when you can’t make it for yourself, and tell people to be prepared for death.

The most important way to be prepared for death (as far as I am concerned) is to reserve my place in the resurrection. I have done that by accepting the truth that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised throughout the Tanakh, and I have accepted the gift of Grace through Yeshua. I have made fellowship with God through the fellowship sacrifice Yeshua made when He gave up His human life so I could have my spiritual life. My human life is how I prepare for my eternal life, and I am set. I have a reserved space, a guaranteed ticket, and all I have to do is make sure I do my part while I am waiting to be called.

The Torah says never come before the Lord empty handed. When I am called before Him, I want to have baskets and baskets full of fruit, the first fruit of my life’s work to bring the Good News to people. I am no missionary, and I am not the type to minister to people. I don’t have that strong a love. I am a good teacher- that is my gift from God, and I will try to use that to bring His word to the world.

I also need to live the word and not just speak the word. That’s hard to do, and I stink at it. But I am getting better.

That’s what living the life of a Believer means to me: not being a different me, just being a better me. And not being who I was, a sinner who rationalizes his sins, but being who I am, a sinner who regrets his sins. This is the path we walk, the way we need to be, and the most difficult thing in the world to do: live in the world but refuse to be a part of the world. I am a foreigner, a sojourner in the world, but unlike those that sojourned with the children of Israel and were expected to live as they did, I am not accepting the world’s ways. I want to live as God says I should live.

What about you? Are you ready to lose people important to you? Are you ready to lose things that you love? Are you ready to lose your very life? If not, get with the program, people! Get real- you will lose everything when the Tribulation starts! If you aren’t ‘raptured’ out you will be in the middle of it (and I have to add I don’t think anyone can say, for certain, who will or won’t be enraptured, or even if or when it will happen.) We must steel ourselves for the battle, get familiar with our armor (read Ephesians) and prepare our emotions and our very souls for loss and sadness. The Ruach will get us through it, if we learn to look to it and draw on it’s strength. It is, after all, the Comforter.

Prepare ye the way of the Lord by preparing yourself.

Parashah Tetzaveh (Command) Exodus 27:20 – 30:10

February 27, 2015 Leave a comment

This parashah describes the way the priestly robes are to be manufactured, and the process for the anointment and consecration of the priests (Aaron and his sons), as well as the rules for their share of the sacrifice, and about the incense.

In the description of the breastplate, the Urim and Thummim are mentioned. According to the Chumash (Soncino Edition) the words are translated as “The Lights and the Perfections”, possibly to imply “perfect lights.” There is still to this day the question of just what the Urim and Thummim were: were they a kind of dice, or is it a term for the breastplate, being one and the same with the precious gems?

They are mentioned also in Leviticus, Numbers and 1 Samuel. But after the reign of David they are no longer being used for determining God’s will; in fact, they aren’t mentioned at all.

So what were they? I would like to submit that what they are is less important than what they represent, which is the need to ask for God’s opinion and judgement on important matters. We know that whatever the Urim and Thummim were, when important matters of state or judgement was needed this “thing” was used to determine God’s will. In Joshua, after the failure to attack Ai, God commanded Joshua to call forth all the families and draw lots to determine the person at fault for the sin Israel committed. We read in other places about the use of lots to determine the outcome, always with the underlying understanding that it is God who is making the lot come out as it should. This could have been the Urim and Thummim.

In the “real” world, we “know” that the use of dice or some other form of determining a result from a random process is all luck and statistics-with each throw of the dice you have a 1 in 12 chance of a certain number coming up. It’s just dumb luck.

That doesn’t explain why the lots used in the Bible were always accurate. The party that was chosen never said, “It’s not me- I didn’t do it! Throw those dice again.” No, indeed- those chosen by lot confessed. If you knew that you were going to be killed because of the results of the Urim and Thummim, wouldn’t you lie through your teeth to prevent it?

I don’t think it is important to know what the Urim and Thummim were because the point is that they were used to ask for God’s guidance before taking action. That is what we need to remember. And that is, I believe, why we don’t hear about them after the days of David. What happened after David’s rule? The kingdom split in two, the Northern Kingdom of Israel (Shomron) began a long and ugly degradation of it’s worship, immediately prostituting itself to the Semitic gods of the area and eventually being destroyed by God. The Southern Kingdom of Judah did the same, although it was a longer decline due to a number of righteous kings, but in the end they also were destroyed by God. Not totally, like the Northern tribes, but it was devastating and lasted from about 750 BCE up to the 1950’s. Not once during this time do we hear of anyone consulting the Urim and Thummim: it is like America today. First we took God out of the schools (1962 Supreme Court decision from a New York suit) and then in 2003 they removed the monument to the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Courthouse, taking God out of our system of judgements.

The use of the Urim and the Thummim remind us more than just that we need to ask God for His guidance in (not just) important matters, but it also reminds us that God is in charge, that what might seem to be a random chance event may be God determining the actions of men, all designed to accomplish His will. No one will be able to accept this unless they faithfully believe God is in charge. However, when we leave God out of our decisions, when we ignore His will, and when we tell Him, basically, to “mind His own business”, He will do just that. He will not keep us in His will, He will not influence our outcomes, and He will leave us to our own devices.

Not a good idea. We are totally incompetent, self-centered and foolish. I like to say the ultimate proof that God exists is to look at the history of Mankind: if there wasn’t a compassionate, all-powerful and protective God watching over us, how could we have possibly survived this long?

We must look to God for guidance in everything we do. We must trust that He is not just willing to help us, but is (in every way) able to guide us away from sin and self-destruction towards righteousness and everlasting life. He tells us throughout the Tanakh that He gets no pleasure from people dying in their sin, but wants us all to do T’Shuvah, and live. The Urim and Thummim were more than just a method for determining His will, they represent the understanding and acceptance that God is in charge, that God is willing to help, and that God wants us to ask Him for guidance. So much so, that He even provided the means to ask Him.

I am not suggesting that you carry a pair of dice or a “lucky” coin and toss them every time you need to make a decision. What I am saying is that we need to seek God’s guidance in everything we do. Heck, maybe tossing a silver dollar and leaving it up to God to determine the course of action we should take isn’t such a bad idea, after all. It worked for the Patriarchs, it worked for Joshua, who knows? Maybe it will work for you?

Whichever way you want to seek God’s will in your life is not as important as the fact that you do seek His will before you make important decisions. As a Believer, as a country, and as a people we need to seek the Lord’s will and guidance in what we do. And this needs to be done at all levels, from the lowest to the highest, because the highest human level is still way, way, way below God. Way below!

By the way, asking God for guidance is no excuse to do nothing and blame God for not answering you. We are to seek His guidance, and we are to walk in faith. The need for action was already determined when the Urim and Thummim were consulted, so do not use asking God’s guidance and waiting for an answer as an excuse to sit on your tuchas and do nothing.

Ask and He will answer, walk in faith and He will guide you.

Beware of Advice: Part 2

February 26, 2015 1 Comment

Yesterday we talked about how just because something seems to be alright or feels “right”, that doesn’t make it right.

We need to know what God tells us is right, and what God tells us is wrong. I do believe that “going with your gut feeling” is often the right thing to do, but only when our “guts” are in the right frame of mind.

What I mean is this: if I was someone who had a moral foundation, a conscience, and a sense of right from wrong according to normal societal mores and biblical beliefs, then my “gut” would be trustworthy. On the other hand, if I was immoral, hedonistic, and did not know or care what happened to others, my “gut” should be the last thing I listen to.

The problem, as you most likely already know, is that the people with the least trustworthy guts are the ones that believe their guts are fine. Too often we have the inmates running the asylum instead of the other way around.

There will come a time in everyone’s death (not during their lifetime, only after) when they will be in THE court- God’s courtroom. God will be sitting on His Throne of Judgement, and on one side will be the prosecution (HaSatan, the Devil, himself) and the other side will be the Defence Attorney. Satan, which means the Accuser, all throughout your life has been trying to tell you that God is a liar; he accuses God of not telling you the truth. He started that way in Eden, telling Eve that she wouldn’t die if she ate the apple (effectively saying God lied to her, right?) Now, when you need him most, he will accuse you– he will accuse you of failing to do as God commanded. And if you say that he was the one who told you to “go with your feelings”, that “if it feels good, do it”, or that you don’t need to obey the Torah because the law was done away with when Yeshua was resurrected, God will say something like, “I understand, but what he told you is not what I told you, and what I say counts!” At that point you’re only chance to escape damnation is the argument from your defence attorney.

But wait! Where’s the defence attorney? In the courts that men run, a defence attorney is appointed to you if you don’t have one of your own, but God’s court is not like man’s court- if you don’t have a defence attorney, you are defending yourself. And if you have to defend yourself against God’s Torah, and His judgement of how well you have obeyed Torah….OY! You’re in hot water now, Baby!

However, if you have accepted Yeshua as your Messiah and asked Him to be your Saviour, you have the best defence lawyer there is, ever has been, or ever will. He makes Darrow look like a dork, Dershkowitz look like a dweeb, and Webster look like a wimp. Yeshua has only one argument for the defence, and it is all He needs. He says, “Father, this one is mine.”

Not guilty by means of the sacrifice; case closed (gavel slams and shofar blows); who’s next on the docket?

Here is good advice you can trust: Yeshua really is the Messiah God promised all those many, many years ago. I know if you are Jewish this is a hard word to accept, but please take it from me, a Jew who didn’t even care for most of my life, it is the truth. We have been told a lie since we were born, by people we trusted, who were told the same lie by people they trusted since they were born, back and back and back, all the way to somewhere around 100 CE. That’s my guess when the “Christian” religions started being developed by men, and Judaism and Christianity began to separate.

It went from: Jews who accepted Yeshua as Messiah and Jews who didn’t, the rest being Gentiles who were pagans;

to: Jews, Jews and Gentiles who believed in Jesus but were being separated from Torah by religion, and the Gentiles who were still pagans.

And the enemy has been trying to widen that gap ever since. He has been very successful at keeping both Gentiles and Jews from the truth, which makes his “kingdom” grow, meaning that there are more and more people being led away from God, and thereby, worshipping what the enemy stands for instead of what God stands for.

That’s how this works: there is no “middle ground”, there are no minor sins and major sins, there is only God’s way or the hell-way. The enemy doesn’t have to make you worship him, he only has to make you disobey God. It isn’t a choice to be bad, it’s only the choice not to do as God says. You can be a “good person” as far as the World is concerned: a loving parent, a faithful friend, go to worship every weekend, and even tithe. In fact, you can believe in Jesus, too! All of this won’t save you if you disobey God and ignore His commandments.

It takes more than just saying you believe. You need to want to do as God says, you need to provide good fruit, and you really, really need to read the Bible (the whole Bible) and accept that what God said is the way to be is as valid now as it always has been.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, any individual human being can do to save him or her self from the sin we are born into, and from our sinful nature. On our own we have no defence before the Lord. But when we have Yeshua as our defence attorney, it is His actions that save us. But we need to have him in our corner, and the way to do that is to accept His messianic calling as true, to accept we are sinners who can’t stop and ask forgiveness in Yeshua’s name (because we have no righteousness on our own), and to do T’Shuvah (to turn) from our sinfulness and live our lives as best we can doing what God said we should do.

And I mean what God said we should do, not what the Rabbi, Priest or Pastor tells you. Not what your “whatever” guru says, not what Cosmo recommends and certainly not what any other, non-Believing person tells you is alright to do.

You need to read the Bible and believe that God is in charge, Yeshua will stand for you if you stand for Him, and the enemy will do whatever he can to get you to ignore God’s commandments.

When I used to sell siding and window replacements, off telemarketed leads, often I was stopped at the front door and told that no matter what I said that person was not buying anything from me, so if I was going to try to sell him something (it was always the man who said this) I might as well leave right now. My answer was to ask him a question: “When you buy something, do you do it with no information at all about the product or do you want to know what you are buying?” The answer was, as I designed the question to elicit, always that they bought something they knew about. That was my lead to then say, “Of course you do- that’s the sensible way to buy. So, you do whatever you want to do- it’s not my decision and I won’t tell you how to spend your money. All I ask is that you let me give you the information you need to make a wise buying decision when you are ready. Is that OK?”

More often than not, the more obstinate someone was about not buying that day, the more likely I was going to make a sale.

The enemy is a better salesman than I ever was. I sold windows, I sold siding, I sold insurance, I sold estate planning, I sold advertising…all the things I sold were good products that helped people. The enemy sells pleasure, he sells ease, he sells hedonistic rewards and he sells sin, which is what we are made up of. What he sells looks like fun, it seems to be okay to have, it feels good, tastes good, and we want it. But what he is really selling is death and damnation.

God doesn’t sell anything- He is giving it away. But it costs you- you need to separate yourself from the world, you need to obey, you need to let go of friendships and family, you need to be alone in many ways from those you know and work with. The free gift of salvation is very costly in human terms; whereas the enemy sells you something that looks good but kills you, God gives you something that is hard to accept and costly in human terms, but will result in everlasting joy.

Tough call; yes, it is. It goes against our nature, but it is essential for us to make that choice. That’s why you need to know about what you are buying.

There is death for sale and salvation for the taking: learn about each so you can choose well.

Beware of Advice

February 25, 2015 Leave a comment

Some days I wonder what I will write about. This was one of those mornings. I am doing the crosswords and word jumbles (can’t start the day without waking up the brain with coffee and puzzles) and wondering what I should write about, and hoping that either Dear Abby or Ask Amy might provide some kindling for the fire.

Well, thank you Ask Amy! There was a letter from a teenage girl asking about how to handle her lesbian dreams while she is in a heterosexual relationship. She loves her boyfriend but dreams about girls, and is confused. Amy’s answer is so politically correct I could hurl: she says that the girl is normal, because whether bi, hetero, gay, whatever, any sexual orientation is normal because there is no one way to be.

HUH? Where does she get this stuff from? Men have certain parts, women have certain parts, and they are designed to go together in a certain way. When Amy was a toddler was she one of those kids that forced the round peg in the square hole?

This is why we need to be so careful when reading advice or even asking it of trusted friends. For the most part, I think Amy is OK. Same for Abby (or whomever is being ‘Abby’). Overall, their advice is close enough, and they do have the nerve to tell people off, now and then. However, when it comes to sensitive topics, such as sexual orientation, they clearly don’t give a hoot about what the Bible says and go with the political “flow.”

Amy goes further to say that if something feels right it is OK. Oh, well then, that’s good advice to give a teenager. Smoking dope feels alright to me, so it must be OK. Oh, yeah, a drink and some fornication, that really feels right to me. Yes, yes…I like this advice!

I have read these columns for years (like I said above, they provide good fodder) and cannot, in all fairness, ever remember once that they gave biblical advice. Occasionally they suggest asking a clergyperson for advice, along with parents, teachers, etc., but I can’t remember ever reading where they say to see what God has to say about it. And never have I read that they even hint at the fact that hetero-sexual relationships are the ones we are designed for, and the ones that God says are not just normal, but the only correct way to be.

I have known many people who are gay, and I have family members and friends who are gay; I accept them and love them for who they are. That doesn’t mean I have to agree that what they do is right. Yet, I am a “gay-basher” for even suggesting that their way of life is not normal and correct. It’s funny: people who live outside the realm of “normal” always argue that they are abused and persecuted and all they want is the right to live their life as they choose. But, say even a word against their choice and you are abusive, bigoted, and have no right to say what you say or think what you think.

In other words, I have a right to reject your idea of normality but you have no right to reject mine. Hypocrites!

I will agree that homosexuality is normal, not as an acceptable lifestyle, but normal as a part of humanity that has been around as long as we know. It is rife throughout the Bible, and it is “normally” found in society. That doesn’t make it right or good. In the same light, crime is also normal. As is sickness and hatred and disease and marriage and love and everything else that is “human.” Being human means being sinful, and therefore, even sin is ‘normal.’

In fact, it is more “normal” to be sinful than it is to be holy. Big surprise there, right?

So, keep giving advice Amy, go for it, Abby! Just YOU, the reader, keep in mind that the advice you read is tainted with human sinfulness and political correctness, and if you want to know what God says, you won’t find it in the newspaper (well, maybe the article Billy Graham writes.)

There is one place you can go to get good advice, and that is (of course) the Bible. Let the Ruach (Spirit) be your guide when you interpret when your read (go to the Search button at the bottom of the page and search for ‘bible interpretation’ to see some blogs on proper bible interpretation.)

The Bible is the only advice you can trust.

Trust in God, do as He says as best you can, and always always always remember this one absolute fact: we are all sinful by nature, so if you are doing something that seems right to you, you should probably stop and think about it. I know that sounds very dogmatic, but it is (I think) a good self-check. Just because something feels “good” or “right” doesn’t make it right, or bad, for that matter. It just means we should remember we are sinful and therefore everything that we do needs to be tested against the Bible. If it passes the Bible test, then go for it. Of course, remember what Shaul (Paul) said- everything in moderation.

So take everything you hear with a “grain of salt” and test it against the Bible. This is not what society tells you to do, but it is what God tells us all to do. And when it comes down to it, God will be the final judge, so why would you not want to make sure He is okay with what you do.

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger, and you don’t mess around with Him!

Now that’s good advice you can trust. 🙂

Did You Reboot It?

February 24, 2015 1 Comment

I am that guy you call when the computer you work with proves it is smarter than you are. And sometimes, not too often but sometimes, it is smarter than I am, also.

Many people complain and/or joke about the fact that when they call tech support they are first asked, “Did you reboot the system yet?” It is a sort of running gag, but it is also true. The computer performs many, many thousands upon thousands of small, regular computations, and all those bits and bytes floating around in the memory confuse it. Just like we get confused when we are trying to do too many things at once. The reboot turns off all electric power for a second or two, which is enough for the memory to be cleaned out. Sort of an “electronic colanic.”

Humans need to reboot, as well. We call that process “Vacation”, although many come back from vacation more stressed and tired than when they went on it.

Spiritually we need a reboot now and then, as well. I have found myself feeling burned out, too involved in doing “church” things, and then feeling guilty that I haven’t done enough. Help this committee, fix that, be there for meetings, etc. etc.etc.

Now don’t get me wrong- we all must participate in more than just showing up once a week. It is more than just a place to go, it is a place to participate in maintaining. Throughout the Bible we see how the Levites were responsible for the service to the Lord in His house, but everyone helped with the maintenance of the house.

If you feel that you are overwrought with the responsibilities, whether real or imagined, of having to do more for the Rabbi, Pastor, Priest, whomever, then you need to reboot. Even if you are the Rabbi, Pastor, Priest or that whomever guy I keep talking about. Rebooting is necessary to maintain a well managed and efficient system.

So, nu? How do I reboot my spirit? By doing something different. Go on a retreat, leave the job to someone else for a week or two, read the Bible in total solitude, go for a walk in the woods, travel to Bryce Canyon and on a clear night observe all the stars in the heavens. That’s a humbling experience, especially when one knows the Lord and can really appreciate His grandeur and wonder.

My Pastor has asked me to fill in once in a while to give the message, as well as with other people whom God has given teaching skills and who show spiritual maturity (that’s the only kind of maturity I have.) This is not just so he can help develop us, but so that he can take a break now and then. He’s a smart guy, and he recognizes that even the ‘Levite’ among us needs to have a rest, to reboot not just spiritually but physically, too. King David set specific times for the Levites to serve, giving time on and time off. He was somewhat ahead of his time, when you think about it: back then you worked all the time. The only rest was Shabbat. David gave the Levites a “working week”, if you will, although it was more than a week at a time. But then, again, they had really long weekends 🙂

If you feel tired of doing whatever you are doing, then give it a rest. Have someone else take over for a bit, let someone else lead the service, teach the Bible class, clean the floors. Don’t be so selfish- there is nothing more rewarding than serving the Lord, so let someone else enjoy the blessing now and then!

Reboot your body, reboot your emotions, reboot your Spirit.

As my people like to say, “Try it! You’ll like it!”

God’s Curses aren’t Really from Him

February 23, 2015 Leave a comment

I just finished reading one of my favorite chapters from Torah- D’varim 28 (Deuteronomy). This is the chapter where Moshe tells the people about the blessings they will receive from God for obedience, and the curses they will receive for disobedience.

The blessings are about 1/3 the number of curses. This is not unusual for a covenant: if you read the covenants and warnings throughout the Tanakh, the promises of a blessing for keeping with the conditions of the covenant are nearly always followed by the promises of being cursed for violating the covenant. Except for the unconditional covenants, God tells us what blessings He will give when we obey and, if we don’t obey, how He will send terrible curses upon us.

But does God really “send” terrible curses?

Is the world a blessed place, or a cursed place? That’s the basis for my thoughts today. We are told the world was cursed from the original sin of Adam and Eve, and later in the Bible we are also told that the Enemy was thrown to Earth (not to Sheol, but to Earth), that he is the Prince of the Air (the world, not the underground) and that he is/will be given dominion over the world for a period of time.

In the Bible God often describes His desire to protect His people, Yeshua wanted to gather them like a mother hen gathers her young (under her wings for protection), and David often talked about God’s protection as being under His wings.

The Hebrew word “kaphar” means to cover, from which we get the word “kippah”, which is the covering men wear (yarmulka). It is also the way God protects us from the sinful and cursed world. When we are under God’s protective kaphar we do not suffer all the ills of the fallen and cursed world. The way we stay under God’s kaphar is the same way we stay under an umbrella someone is holding in the rain: we walk alongside that person.

When we wander off we are exposed to the world. We have lost our shield, and the curses that are in the world fall on us like an avalanche. We are especially susceptible, I think, because we are not ennured to the dreck (filth) and so the curses seem worse to the clean (formerly clean, that is) than to those who have been dirty for a long time.

That’s how God curses- passively. Whereas humans will actively try to hurt one another, God actively loves and protects us. When we reject His protection by doing what we want to do instead of what He tells us to do, we literally walk away from His covering, which leaves us totally exposed to the world. We are under an umbrella of protection, a kaphar of love and peacefulness, yet we choose to go out into the pouring rain, to chance the lightning, to get wet and cold. Why? Because we’re stupid! Duh!

God will allow us to do as we want. He sends prophets and signs to us, all the time, yes: even today there are signs and prophets, of a sort, to warn us to follow correctly. They remind us of His desire to protect us and save us from ourselves, but it rarely works. Really- it is rare. The number of people who follow God’s laws and commandments is exceptionally small. I’m not talking about the ones that say they do, I am talking about the ones that do. God told Elijah that 7,000 hadn’t bowed the knee to Baal; 7,000 out of how many people living in the Northern kingdom (Israel, or Shomron) at that time? Hundreds of thousands? Maybe over a million? And only 7,000 were faithful.

Yeshua said that many are called but few are chosen (I just did a blog on this last week- use the Search button at the bottom of the page to find it), and also that we must take the road less traveled. How many Jews are there in the world? Usually we number about 4/10 of 1 percent. And there are possibly 250,000 Messianic Believers? I looked at a website that said of all the Christians in the world, the “other” category (not Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox) represent about 2.2%. Of course, you can’t (and shouldn’t) believe anything you read on the Internet, but these numbers are not too far away from what I have heard from other sources. Those that choose God, and ‘walk the walk’, are very few.

The blessings God has for us are beyond our ability to count; in fact, they are beyond our ability to understand! How can such a powerful and awesome entity be so loving and compassionate to those that constantly accept His goodness and mercy, then bite His hand and turn against Him in a heartbeat. Yet, after our own folly and hedonistic desires cause us to hit rock bottom, when we call to Him for help He listens and brings us up from the depth of Sheol, a place we went to intentionally. And not just once, but over and over and over. Seventy times seven times. How can any human understand that? I can’t.

God’s curses are terrible, indeed, but they aren’t so much from Him as they are already here. God protects us from the curses, and when we reject Him we are, in truth, cursing ourselves. God passively, and sadly, watches us walk into the arms of the Enemy.

God’s way is not easy: it separates us from the world and, thereby, makes us an enemy of the world, whereas the real Enemy makes himself out to be a friend to the world. If you are of the world, you cannot be of God. That’s just the way it is, so when we choose the world, we lose the protective covering that God gives us. That’s why I say we really curse ourselves; God, being who He is, simply tells us that He is causing it because, uh…, well…you know something? I really don’t know why He takes the blame for it! Why would God say He will send curses our way when the curses are already here, and it is our choice to live with them?

Maybe because he is in charge of everything, and just like a good leader, he realizes that whatever happens on His watch is His responsibility?

Again, I don’t know. I never said I had all the answers, and if you think you know the answer to this question of why God takes the blame for curses we endure when we walk away from Him, please share it. Perhaps this is a question we can’t ever answer, and perhaps someone reading this has been given the answer. If you think you know why, please let us know.

The bottom line is that there are blessings for us, and there are curses, too. The blessings come from God, and the curses are already here, crouching at our door like a lion. The way we master sin is to stay away from it.

Stay under the kaphar of God. It isn’t easy walking alongside someone holding an umbrella, and often you get a smattering of the rain when you start to stray too far away or the person changes direction quickly. You need to be vigilant, every moment, and stay focused on where the person is going.

Sounds exactly like what the Bible tells us about following the Lord, doesn’t it?