Author: Steven R. Bruck

Why There Has To Be Evil In The World

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How many times have you heard someone ask, “How can a good God allow so much evil in the world?”

Maybe you have even asked this question, yourself?

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

Well, the answer is actually so simple it is hard to accept: there has to be evil in the world to allow us to be good.

Think about it…if there were no rules of moral conduct, which define the difference between evil and good, then everything is either evil or everything is good. You can’t have a one-sided coin; at least, not in this plane of existence.

Shaul, that nice Jewish tentmaker from Tarsus, said it well when he wrote to the Roman Believers telling them that without the Torah there could be no sin. In fact, he went as far as to say the Torah created sin! (Romans 5)

Shaul explained that sin existed long before God gave us the Torah, and what the Torah did was to define sin, so that now we had a baseline, so to speak, regarding what was proper and what wasn’t.

The world has a problem with evil and good, though, because the different societies in the world each define what is right and wrong. There is no standard set of rules for everyone (such as within the Torah), but instead, evil and good are defined by whatever that specific society determines is evil or good.

We all have been given the gift of Free Will, the right to decide what we will do or won’t do. But in order for that opportunity to be exercised, we need to have options. The options God gave us are to do as he said to do or to reject what he said to do.

Doing what God says is good, and rejecting what God says is evil: pretty simple decision, right?

Wrong!

Why wrong? Because too many human beings have taught others to do what they believe you should do as being what God said you should do.

Example: God said to observe the Shabbat on the 7th day, which is Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, but the early Christian leaders (who, by the end of the 1st Century were mostly Gentiles) decided that they would celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday, which is the first day of the week.

Another example: God told us the Holy Days he requires us to observe and how to observe them in Leviticus 23 (note: Holy Days are not holidays, the former being God-ordained and the latter being man-made), but Christianity has rejected every single Holy Day God demands us to celebrate (they didn’t fully reject the Sabbath, but they did reject the day God said to celebrate it) and instead created their own holidays.

Now, it is OK to have a holiday to celebrate God and his Messiah, but it is NOT OK to reject the Holy Days God said we must observe.

I believe God allows evil because it is necessary to have evil if we want good to exist; that sounds like an oxymoron, but it is a fact of life in the physical world.

Perhaps, when Judgement Day is over, the new temple, new Jerusalem, and new earth are given to those who have accepted Yeshua as their Messiah and been faithfully obedient- obedient to God, not to men– there will be only righteous people and righteous acts.

Perhaps, in the eternal presence of God, we will be able to have that one-sided coin, the one where no evil exists.

To my flesh, that sounds a little dull, as in what fun is there in that? But, to my spirit, it sounds like eternal rest and joy.

I suppose when it happens, I will get used to it.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry grow. Subscribe to my website, YouTube channel, and join my Facebook discussion group, Just God’s Word.

And please remember that I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

If It Isn’t in the Torah, Is It Forbidden?

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Let me start off by saying that when Gentiles who have been raised with traditional Christian teachings which turned them away from the Torah, later in life come to realize the truth of what Yeshua taught and turn their hearts to God’s commandments, there is nothing that can be wrong about that.

Well, almost nothing.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

Over the years I have met and talked with many Gentiles who have rejected the traditional, anti-Torah teachings they were raised with and have come to know that the instructions God gave to everyone, in the Torah, are still valid for those who profess to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

However, there are those who go from “the Torah is just for Jews” to “the Torah is the absolute, total and definitive way to worship God, and if it ain’t in there, then I ain’t doin’ it!!”

Life teaches us that the far end of the pendulum swing is the wrong place to be.

The Torah is missing many vital things, and just because God doesn’t say “Do this, this way” does NOT mean that you can’t do something another way.

One example is that the Torah tells us which animals are acceptable as a sacrifice, and we are also told to treat animals humanely, but there is nothing anywhere in the Torah that tells us how to kill the sacrificial animal in a humane way.

Another example is the showbread, the 12 loaves that are baked and placed on the table in front of the altar and left there for a week. Even the Ramban didn’t have an explanation for that, other than he thought God decreed it just so that David and his men would have something to eat when they were running from Shaul in Samuel 21:6 (I am pretty sure it was the Ramban who came up with this- if anyone can correct or confirm this, I would appreciate it.)

The Torah was written by Moses and completed, most likely, by Joshua after Moses’ death. So, how could it include everything that God had planned for his people?

The Torah doesn’t include Purim, it doesn’t include Hanukkah, the Fast of the 9th Day of Av, Simchat Torah, Lag b’Omer, TuB’Shevat, Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron, and there are still other holidays we celebrate, all as either a memorial or to honor what God has done for his people. These are man-made holidays, but they all are designed to honor God.

There are so many holidays that are not in the Torah, but who can honestly say that celebrating them is wrong just because God didn’t tell us we have to?

Is God so self-centered and neurotic that he will punish us for celebrating him if he didn’t specifically tell us we must? Is God’s idea of worship more like a game of Simon Says?

“God says celebrate Shavuot”;
“God says celebrate Passover”;
“Celebrate Hanukkah…AHA!!! God didn’t say so: you’re out of the game and you have to go to hell.”

I don’t think so.

Let’s leave the Jewish holidays for a moment and open a new can of worms: you guessed it- we’re gonna talk about Christmas and Easter, the most famous, or should I say infamous, holidays. These are the ones that some Gentiles say are bad not only because they are not in the Torah, but because they were once pagan holidays. There are people who not only refuse to celebrate these holidays but call them pagan and sinful, despite the fact that they have been rebranded, so to speak, so that now they are a celebration of Yeshua (Jesus) instead of pagan gods.

I won’t say it is right or wrong to celebrate these two major Christian holidays. I can say there is no way they could have been in the Torah because the one they celebrate now (Yeshua) didn’t arrive for some 1500 years after Moses was given the Torah.

But I will say this: as far as I am concerned (and you can disagree), any celebration that gives glory to God can’t be wrong.

If it is one of the Torah commanded Holy Days, which we find in Leviticus 23, those we celebrate in order to be faithfully obedient. If it is a man-made celebration of God, such as the salvation of the Jewish people during the time of Mordecai and Esther, or the salvation of the Jewish people during the time of the Maccabee’s, or the salvation of not just the Jewish people, but the whole world that was made possible by God sending his Messiah, Yeshua, well…how can that be frowned upon by God?

Do you really think that God is upset by us deciding to honor him in a way that we created?

When it comes down to it, I would humbly suggest that if you are unsure of what is right and wrong in God’s eyes, run it by these three rules:

  1. If the Torah says do it, then do it;
  2. If the Torah says don’t do it, then don’t do it;
  3. If it isn’t in the Torah but it was created in order to honor God or Messiah Yeshua, and you celebrate it that way, then go for it!

One of the defining characteristics of God is his willingness to forgive the past and give us a clean slate when we do T’shuvah (repent and turn from sin) and worship him as he says to do. So, despite a holiday being man-made or having pagan origins if it NOW is celebrated in order to honor God and give glory to him and/or his Messiah, then I would say it is acceptable to God.

In Ezekiel 18, God says that the sinful man who turns from sin will be saved, and even a righteous man who turns to sin will be guilty; in either case, their past will not be held against them. So, doesn’t it make sense that God might see holidays the same way? Sure, what we call Christmas and Easter used to be pagan holidays, but just as the sinner did T’shuvah and became acceptable to God, so, too, these holidays are being celebrated now as a way to honor God and Messiah must also be acceptable.

Look- if God can forgive you for the sins you have committed, then he certainly can accept when you celebrate a man-made holiday, no matter what its origins if you celebrate it to honor him.

Give God a break- he isn’t stupid and although I cannot speak for God, based on my understanding of him from what he tells us about himself, I believe that he isn’t so stuck-up that he will reject anyone who is celebrating his wonders, his works, and his salvation just because he didn’t specifically say we should in the Torah.

And certainly not because a holiday is man-made or created to replace a pagan holiday that was on the same day.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry grow. “Like” my Facebook page, subscribe to my website and my YouTube channel, buy my books and share them with people who want to know the difference between what God says and what religions teach, and join my Facebook discussion group, Just God’s Word.

That’s it for now, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Parashah Vayyeshev 2021 (And he dwelt) Genesis 37- 40

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From this point on in the Book of Genesis, Jacob and his sons take a back seat to the story of Joseph.

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Joseph has dreams indicating that he will be the leader over his brothers which he innocently- or maybe arrogantly- tells to his brothers, inciting hatred and jealously from them. Add to this his having given a bad report about them to his father and Joseph was not doing himself any good. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when Jacob, now also known as Israel, gave Joseph a coat of many colors, which at that time represented more than favoritism- culturally in the Semitic tribal system, a coat of many colors was worn by the leader of the tribe. By giving Joseph that coat, Jacob was already showing that he was going to make Joseph leader over his brothers when Jacob dies.

One day while searching for his brothers, at his father’s request, Joseph is seen coming and the brothers decide to kill him. Reuben suggests they do not kill him but kidnap him and place him in a pit, which they do, then they shread his coat and spill blood all over it to make it seem that he was killed by a wild animal.

While Reuben is somewhere else thinking about how to save Joseph (which he wanted to do in order to gain favor back from his father who was really pissed at him for sleeping with one of his concubines), Judah makes the suggestion that they sell Joseph to a passing caravan, and the brothers agree. However, as they are eating their lunch a group of Ishmaelite passing by the pit hear Joseph; they pull him out and sell him to the caravan. When Reuben returns and finds Joseph missing, he is distraught and the brothers don’t know what happened to Joseph. They return to Jacob and tell him the bad news, after which Jacob is in constant mourning for Joseph.

Right here, in Chapter 38, we have a short story about Judah and his sons, both of whom were killed for being evil in God’s sight. After the first son, Er, is killed his wife, Tamar, is married to the second son, Onan, as was the custom in those days, It was the obligation of Onan to make Tamar pregnant so that she could have a son to inherit Er’s share of the estate. However, Onan would have sex with her but he performed coitus interruptus so that she would not get pregnant, securing the brother’s share for himself. For that evil act of selfishness, Adonai killed him. Judah’s third son, Shelah, was too young to be married so he sent Tamar back to her father’s house to wait for Shelah to be old enough, but when that happened, Judah failed to fulfill his obligation to Tamar. One day when Judah was in her neighborhood, she dressed herself up as a prostitute and after seducing him, received his staff as collateral for payment. Before Judah could send her the payment, she went back to her father’s house, now impregnated by her father-in-law. When Judah is told she is pregnant, assuming she was unfaithful, he wants her to be killed but she sends him the staff to prove who the father is. Recognizing his fault in the matter, he says she is more righteous than he was and never had sex with her again. She ends up giving birth to twins, Peretz and Zerah.

Meanwhile, back to Joseph, who is taken to Egypt and sold to Potiphar, a general in Pharoah’s army. Joseph is found trustworthy and given authority over the entire household. Mrs. Potiphar has the hots for Joe, and although he constantly avoids her, she traps him in the house one day and as he tries to escape, she manages to pull his clothes off. She then accuses Joseph of trying to rape her, and Potiphar throws Joseph in jail.

It is thought Potiphar wasn’t totally convinced Joseph was at fault because if he really thought Joseph, a slave, tried to rape his wife he would have had him killed, then and there. But since he only had him thrown in jail, biblical scholars believe there was doubt in Potiphar’s mind, but he had to do something.

While in jail, Joseph against shows his trustworthiness and is made a trustee, serving the needs of the Pharaoh’s baker and cupbearer, both of whom were in prison for somehow ticking off the Big Guy.

They each have a dream, and Joseph interprets the dreams correctly, with the cupbearer being returned to his station and the baker being hung. Joseph begs the cupbearer, as he is leaving the prison, to remember Joseph to the Pharaoh and tell the Pharaoh of Joseph’s innocence so he can be freed.

However, once back in his proper position, the cupbearer totally forgets about Joseph, and this is where the parashah ends.

What a story, right? Deception, conspiracy, violence, sibling rivalry, immoral sexual behavior, more deception, attempted sex, unjust imprisonment. I mean, this could be an HBO mini-series!

You know, it probably has been.

But, what will we talk about today? There is so much here, but I go by “feel” (always praying for that feeling to be Holy Spirit led), and what I feel is a message for us is relating how Joseph, in the midst of the worse tsouris anyone could have to deal with, maintained his faith and moral standards.

I am going to do something unusual for this ministry, and relate Joseph’s story to the current political and social environment in America. That environment is one of distrust in our government, distrust in our media, distrust in our medical system, and distrust within the community. We are a people totally polarized, where there is no common ground or compromise, living in a fearful and frustrated de facto civil war of ideologies and political positions.

One recent example is how the media has painted a man found not guilty of murder as a white supremacist who killed black people peacefully protesting. When I read the transcript of the trial, the man had a legally owned firearm and was trying to protect a family business from rioters who were anything but peaceful. After failing to protect the business, he was being chased by the rioters who were armed and while he was being chased, he heard gunshots. He turned and shot back, reasonably assuming that the ones chasing and threatening him were shooting at him. In doing so, he shot and killed a few of the people chasing him (they weren’t all black).

The court found him justified in doing what he did and released him, but this case of self-defense was turned into a racist murder by the media, which didn’t care about truth or justice but only about causing strife and disunity within the community.

Another example is the presidential election of 2020, which is still considered by many to have been more of a coup because millions of votes were falsely created by one side. Whether or not this happened, the fact that it represents such a severe and widespread distrust in one of the building blocks of our democracy- the secret ballot- is as bad as if it was proven true.

And what about the pandemic? It has been so poorly being handled, with so many contradictory reports of the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, of the usefulness of masks, and lock-downs resulting in the financial ruin of millions of businesses and people, not to mention the general fear being fostered by the media, well…how can anyone not feel unjustly treated and mistrusting of our leadership?

Joseph must have felt this way, too. He was mistreated by his brothers, and even when doing the best he could showing his faithfulness to those who were in authority over him, he was unjustly accused and imprisoned.

But despite all that, he maintained his trust in God, and by continuing to behave as a God-fearing person should behave, always doing what is right in God’s eyes, he persevered. And, as we will find out later in this book, he not only persevered, he conquered.

There is distrust, strife, fear, concern, and a general sense of What-the-heck is going on! in the world today. We need to do as Joseph did, which is to trust that God will sort it all out, but in the meantime take charge of what we can, and live our life the best we can while we can.

Yes, it is difficult and there are so many things we want to do that we can’t, or we feel we mustn’t because it represents to us too much of a compromise of our freedoms. That is fine, because if we refuse to get a booster, or we decide to go ahead and get a booster, no one should tell us what is right or wrong because when we decide what we will do, it is our decision. We are taking charge of what we can, and dealing with that which we can’t control.

I don’t care what you think about the vaccine, or the President, or the medical “facts” or what I do…I am taking charge of my life as much as I can and living it with the trust and faith in God that whatever happens, he will work it out for the best. Eventually.

And that is what we spiritual types call “Faith”

I have little or no faith in our current government, not in the medical leadership of this country, and never in people, but I have tons of faith in God. Just because the world is one big mishigas right now doesn’t mean God isn’t in charge- it just means he is letting things happen. I know, absolutely, that he sees where things are going, and he has a plan to do the perfect thing we need to have done and will do at exactly the right moment.

So, nu? Are you feeling as frustrated as I am? Do you wish this all would just go away, and we could get back to our normal life- no masks, no mandatory vaccinations, no pandemic, no racist hatred (well, we’ve never been free of that), and life back to the way we had it before all this drek happened?

If so, then let me say this… GET REAL, PEOPLE!! That ain’t gonna happen, so get with the program. Do as Joseph did- act the way you know YOU are supposed to act and ignore the world going crazy. God will always see you and protect you when you do as he wants, and that is all we need to concentrate on. This will all pass, sooner or later (God willing, sooner!) so be like the maidens who had their oil ready, because when the Bridegroom comes, we don’t want to be caught up in the mess that everyone else is trapped in.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry grow. Check out my books on my website, and while there subscribe to my website and to my YouTube channel. On Facebook, “Like” my page and join my discussion group called “Just God’s Word.”

And remember that I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!

Is James 2:17 Damage Control for Acts 15:20-28?

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Right off the bat, let me wish everyone living in the United States a Happy Thanksgiving Day. Of course, given today is a national holiday to give thanks, you might expect a message about that.

Well, it ain’t gonna happen because everyone is already giving thanks, and I would be preaching to the choir, so we are going to have a really interesting discussion, instead.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

You might be wondering what the heck the title of today’s message is all about? Let’s do a quick review: Acts 15:20-28 is the recommendation that James gives to the Council of Elders in Jerusalem that the Gentile Believers be required, at that time, to only follow four commands. Those requirements are: (1) not to eat anything sacrificed to idols, (2) not to eat things strangled; (3) not to eat the blood; and (4) to abstain from fornication.

James follows this up by stating that the laws of Moses (meaning the Torah commandments from God) would be heard by these neophyte Believers every Shabbat, implying that they would learn to obey the other Torah commandments as they matured in their knowledge and their spirit.

Later, James wrote his letter to the Believing Jews in the Diaspora.

If you are thinking, “No, it was to the Christian churches” you are wrong-
there were no Christian churches then, just Gentiles and Jews who accepted
Yeshua as the Messiah. If anything, these congregations would have
identified themselves not as a church, but as Kehillot (communities).

In that letter, written much later than the letter in Acts, James explains that when people say they have faith they must demonstrate it through their actions. James 2:17 plainly states that faith, without works, is dead.

Now, if you are wondering why am I thinking that the letter to these Believing Jews and Gentiles is damage control for what James suggested in Acts, I will explain.

The letter in Acts, which was written to new Gentile Believers, has traditionally been used to justify ignoring the Torah and that Christians need only follow JUST THOSE 4 REQUIREMENTS in order to be saved. This is absolutely NOT what the letter was meant to do: that letter was intended to help the formerly pagan people adjust slowly to this new religion.

In the book of Galatians, we learned that many Jewish Believers were forcing the Gentiles accepting Yeshua to convert to Judaism overnight. This was a paradigm shift in lifestyle, going from a hedonistic, sexually perverse polytheistic religion and way of life to one of righteousness, purity, and self-control.

Not to mention the requirement to be circumcised. Ouch!

I mean, really? Going from perversion to purity “cold turkey” (no, that is not a Thanksgiving Day reference) is just too much for most people, and if this was required of all newly Believing Gentiles, the Elders realized that they would lose too many, too quickly.

Remember the parable Yeshua told of the seed thrown on the ground, and how the weeds (worldly desires) choked much of the new growth?

So, to prevent too many Gentiles who were, for the most part, converting to a Jewish lifestyle and form of worship, the Elders said, “Take it one step at a time.”

But that letter, which was to become a stepping stone to righteousness, became a stumbling block, instead, when it was used to justify ignoring God’s commandments.

I believe (and you can agree or not- it is simply my belief) that many years after that letter, when James saw what was happening to the movement, he decided to get these people back on track by writing his letter to remind them that they must still obey the entire Torah. He decided to show them that they were being taught incorrectly when they were told that faith is all you need, and performance (ie., doing good works) is not necessary.

Faith demands good works, and when we say we have faith we need to show it by how we act. If we are faithful, truly faithful, then we will want to do as God said to do and not listen to men telling us we don’t need to.

Men do not have more authority than God, and God never said to stop obeying him. James knew this, and (again, it is my opinion) realized that what he wrote then to help people was now hurting people.

It was the right idea at that time, but it had been perverted from a slow learning process of how to obey God into a justification for totally rejecting God’s instructions.

So, that’s my thought. Do you think that James realized what he did had been turned against him? Or are you of the school that Christians do not have to do anything in the Torah, which are the direct commands from God, but instead can do what men who have run the “church” say you should do?

James suggested the letter in Acts 15, and many believe it was the same James who wrote that letter to the Believers in the Diaspora, so if it was (and even if it wasn’t), I really believe that James 2:17 was written as “damage control” to get those people back on track who had been misled by the Gentile church leaders who perverted the Acts 15 letter.

What do you think?

That’s it for now, so please share these messages with everyone you know, subscribe to my website, YouTube channel, Facebook group (Just God’s Word), and check out my books. If you like what you get here, you will also like my books.

Enjoy your turkey and do give thanks, every day.

Baruch HaShem!

How Does God’s Punishment Help Us?

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It is very hard to recognize the value of punishment when it is happening to you. Especially if that punishment is not one just designed to teach you a lesson, but the sort of vengeful punishment that human beings generally dish out to each other.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

God, on the other hand, punishes us without malice or anger, although we can tick him off now and then. When God punishes us, it is because we deserve it, yet he always tempers his temper, so to speak, with mercy.

“What’s so merciful about killing 250 high-ranking members of the tribes, as well as having the ground swallow Abiram and Datan, with their entire families, down to Sheol?” (Numbers 16)

“What’s so merciful about allowing the Philistines to constantly raid and harass the people all during the time of the Judges, and throughout the kingdoms that came afterward?”

“What’s so merciful about having the Assyrians kill thousands of Northern Kingdom people, destroy property, and sell survivors into slavery throughout the Diaspora?” (1 Chronicles 5)

“What’s so merciful about letting the Babylonians raze Jerusalem and destroy the temple while bringing hundreds or more of God’s people into slavery in a foreign land?” (2 Kings 25)

“What’s so merciful about allowing the Romans to not just totally destroy the temple and the walls protecting Jerusalem, but to rename Judea- the land God gave us- after our ancient enemies, the Philistines?” (Circa 70 CE)

“You call that ‘merciful’?”

Yes, I do.

“How can you say that is showing mercy?”

Simple: despite all that, we are still here.

And not just still here in the world, but now we are back in the Land, and we are not just surviving- we are thriving!

Have you ever been in a fight? Not a verbal battle, but a swing the fist, hit the body, and hurt someone fight? It isn’t like what you see in the movies, where the fighters hit each other, kick each other, throw each other around but constantly get up and continue.

That’s not real life. Let me tell you about real life, having been a student of martial arts for a number of years in my youth: all you need to make you think twice about fighting is to get the wind knocked out of you once. You can’t breathe, you can’t even stand, and while you are turning blue the only thought going through your mind is “Will I die?”

When God punishes us, it is so that we stop everything we are doing, stop thinking of whatever we were thinking of, and fall to our knees with the wind knocked out of us thinking only one thing: “Will I die?”

That is why when God has to resort to punishment, it can seem so terrible; you see, we make it necessary for him to do that because our stubborn, self-centered, and sinful desires are so strong that God needs to get our attention.

He will do so gently at first, giving us little hints, helping us to see the light, but when we refuse to accept what we are doing is wrong, he will turn up the juice. And, after he has given us all the time in the world to repent, that’s when God will drop the hammer.

And even then, he is merciful in that despite the pain we feel, it isn’t going to kill us.

Well, wait a minute… I stand corrected: there are many thousands who have died suffering from God’s punishment, as we have noted earlier, but their death isn’t necessarily eternal death. There have been many righteous people over the centuries who have died as collateral damage when God punished the nation, but dying to the world isn’t the death that we should be afraid of.

There is one thing I want to mention before finishing: too often I have heard people say they are under attack or being punished by God because things are going badly for them. Now, it may be true; the Enemy may be harassing you if you are doing something wonderful for God’s kingdom, or God may be making life difficult if you are on the wrong path (remember I said he starts off gently letting us know we are going the wrong way?), but in most cases, I believe people are just having a bad day or a bad week, and that is all there is to it.

God sees and knows all that we do, and he cares, but being in charge of everything doesn’t mean always doing everything. I believe many times God just lets things happen, and if I am right, I think that is a good thing.

It allows us to learn to use what God teaches us in the Bible and is a way we can test ourselves in how we handle tsouris, which is inevitable because we live in a cursed and fallen world.

So if you feel you are being punished by God, check yourself against the Torah and what Yeshua said about loving each other. Take a long look in the mirror and see who is looking back at you.

In Judaism, we say the Torah should be like a mirror: when you look into it, you see yourself. This is very much what Yeshua meant when he said that when we see him, we see the Father (John 14:9): this is too often misunderstood because Yeshua wasn’t saying he is God, he was saying he is the mirror image of God in that he did and said what God wanted him to do and say.

That is why God tells us to be holy, as he is holy- we can never be God, and we can never be as holy as God is, but we can be like God in how we treat others and by living in accordance with the instructions God gave us in the Torah.

We will all be punished, sooner or later, either for our own sins or as collateral damage to the nation. It is inevitable, but don’t let that bother you. Remember that what happens on the earth is temporary, and we who believe in God and accept Yeshua as our Messiah aren’t to worry about what happens temporarily because we are focused on eternity.

God’s punishment, even when mercifully administered, is terrible. But it is temporary, and so long as you do your best to worship and treat others as God said to do, then you can get through it and look forward to eternal peace.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know, subscribe to both my website and YouTube channels, buy my books, join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word”, and “Like” my Facebook page.

(That’s not too much to ask, is it?)

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!