I was having a discussion with one of my Facebook friends, a sister in the Lord (Yes, Sarah- I am talking about you) about the red heifer, and I said something that I think is worth sharing. I doubt it will be of any great significance or a wonderful revelation to anyone, but still and all, this is my ministry and so I will talk about it.

Seriously, I think it might be of interest to some.

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The red heifer is an important animal in Judaism. It is a rather rare birth, and when born the cow is to be sacrificed and its ashes used to cleanse those who have become ceremonially unclean when touching a dead body. You can read about the red heifer in Numbers 19:1-10. One of the interesting aspects of the process of preparing the ashes that purify and cleanse people is that for every step in that process, the one performing it is made unclean and must wash their clothes and their body in water, remaining unclean until the evening (i.e., the next day.)

I have read the red heifer is considered a foreshadowing of Yeshua, in that the death of the heifer cleansed people, just as did Yeshua’s death. Personally, I don’t really think that is such a good comparison.

True, the red heifer was killed outside the camp, and Yeshua was killed outside Jerusalem; and true, the death of the red heifer led to a process by which people could be made clean, and the death of Yeshua cleanses us of our sin.

But there are significant differences that I believe make this comparison weak, if not invalid.

For one thing, no one became unclean associating with Yeshua, but the person who burned the heifer, the one who watched it (the Cohen), and the one who collected the ashes all became unclean by their association. The ones who were around and in close proximity to Yeshua not only were not made unclean but instead received the Ruach HaKodesh!

The ashes of the red heifer were used to remove only the uncleanliness that one receives from being in contact with a dead body. There’s no sin in being exposed to or touching a dead body, only ceremonial uncleanliness. The ashes make you clean, ceremonially, but they do not remove sin.

That is a significant difference: the ashes of the red heifer are useful only to remove ceremonial uncleanliness, but they do not remove sin because being unclean is not a sin. God never says, anywhere, that if you are unclean you are in sin. You are not allowed in the sanctuary when unclean, and if you go to the sanctuary when you are unclean or participate in any service (such as a Seder), THAT would be a sin and the ashes of the red heifer would be useless to you. You will need to go through one of the sacrifices outlined in Leviticus 1-7 to remove that sin, and the red heifer ashes are not part of any of those sacrifices.

On the other hand, Yeshua’s sacrifice and the blood he shed cleanses from us our morally wrong sins.

Yes, when in sin we are “unclean”, but not in the same way as when touching a dead body. There is a BIG difference between being unclean because we touched someone’s dead body and being unclean because we killed that person; the former is a ceremonial condition and the latter is a mortal sin.

Now, let’s talk about something I do find to be a valid comparison between the red heifer and Yeshua.

As mentioned above, everyone involved with preparing the red heifer becomes unclean, and what I find interesting is that when we are first introduced to the Torah, the closer we come to the Torah, the more we become aware of our own moral uncleanliness.

In the letter he wrote to the Roman Believers, Shaul mentioned how the Torah created sin because before we were given the law, there was no way to identify sin. As we become more knowledgeable, or better yet let’s say “in contact”, with the Torah, we become more aware of our own sinfulness (uncleanliness) before God.

With Yeshua’s sacrifice, we can be cleansed of our uncleanliness (from sin) just as those who had the ashes of the red heifer sprinkled on them became cleansed of their (ceremonial) uncleanliness.

The red heifer made people unclean and clean, first in contact with it and later after it had been properly prepared for them.

Yeshua, the Living Torah, makes us unclean by identifying that which we do as a sin, and he also makes us clean through his sacrifice, i.e. after he had been “properly prepared” (by means of his crucifixion and resurrection.)

The red heifer and Yeshua initially make us unclean (through touch and learning about sin, respec.), and both have the power to make us clean after they have been “prepared”.

Interesting? I thought so, and I hope you found this little conversation to be interesting, as well.

That’s it for today. I thank you for being here and if you haven’t already subscribed, please do so on my website and on my YouTube channel as well, because they are different lists and I don’t always do a video.

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How many times has someone called you “judgmental” because of something you said or wrote regarding an article or a person’s opinion? Me? More times than I care to remember.

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But aren’t we to judge the world? (1 Corinthians 6:2-3) And didn’t God tell Moses that he will take some of the Holy Spirit he placed on Moses and place it on others so that they can share in judging the people? (Numbers 11:16-30) Heck, even God thinks we should be able to judge others.

So why is it that when someone comments regarding an opinion or a statement, they are called judgmental, indicating that it is wrong to judge anyone?

If you ask me- and even if you don’t I will tell you, anyway (after all, it is my ministry, right?)- the difference between judging and being judgmental is not so much in what we say, but how we say it.

Once I was given (what we call) a back-handed compliment: My Boss told me that when we are in meetings what I say is usually correct, but because of the way I say it no one listens.

In other words, I judged correctly, but the way I expressed myself caused people to ignore my comment.

So, nu? How can we judge without being judgmental?

Here’s what I think the difference is: when we judge, we are looking at both sides of a situation and fairly and unemotionally making a statement regarding that situation. The focus is on the event and not the people involved with the event. When we go past the event and begin to make comments about the people involved, specifically their ability, their knowledge, or their emotional and spiritual state of mind that is when judging crosses over into being judgmental.

We can tell the difference between these two words simply from their proper grammatical usage: we can judge, but we are judgmental. “Judging” is something we do, but “judgmental” is something we are.

Of course, whenever someone judges they are, by definition, being judgmental, so where does it turn sour? It turns sour when we stop talking about the issue and turn it onto the person.

Here’s what I mean:

Judging: I understand what you said but when I look at the Bible references you quoted, there is more to them than what you gave us, and in their proper context the meaning you gave is not biblically sound.

Judgmental: I understand what you said but when I look at the Bible references you quoted, there is more to them than what you gave us, and if you were more spiritually mature you would have known that.

The difference is pretty obvious, isn’t it? Both times the comment is being judged, but in one case it is just the comment and in the other case, it is not the comment, alone, but the person, as well.

No one can tell what someone else’s spiritual state is. We can get an idea from what they say and write, and we can usually have a pretty good understanding of whether they know what they are saying or not, but even when we are positive, in our own mind, that the person is an idiot, it is not for us to say.

God is the only one who truly knows the heart, and even when we are absolutely certain someone is way off base, God knows if that is because they are really an idiot, or maybe a truly repentant and God-centered person who has been taught all the wrong things and speaks with concern but from ignorance.

I have never seen anyone who is in agreement with someone else be called judgmental; I assume that is because when someone says something we agree with, well, then, they are a genius! It seems we pull out the “You’re so judgmental!” card only when someone disagrees with us. Whether or not they really were judgmental, if I don’t have an answer to their comment I can always pull the judgmental excuse to redirect the issue.

In my experience, when someone accuses someone else of being judgmental it is little more than a defense mechanism designed to take the focus off the person accused of being wrong and placing it on the other person. It is nothing more than “smoke and mirrors”, and even when it is justified, it shouldn’t be used.

“Wait a minute, Steve! Why shouldn’t I call someone out when they are being judgmental?”

I’ll tell you why, and this is (of course) just my opinion: it won’t help. Even if you put that person in their place, so to speak, how will that help edify anyone? Sure, after you tell that person off they may open their eyes to what they were doing, but now the focus is totally off what you originally wanted to say and on this argument between the two of you. What you said in order to help people know God better, or edify them, or help console them, is now lost in the smokescreen that this name-calling has created.

If you find yourself being called judgmental, don’t reply and don’t just shrug it off: be humble enough to review what you said and if you think, even just think “maybe” you were judgmental, apologize.

And if you just have to let them know why you are right, you are no longer talking about God but just feeding your own pride.

Better that you should show humility and compassion for the feelings of others than to be correct because (just as I had to learn) being correct won’t be of any use if you are correct the wrong way.

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

It’s easy to see the relationship between Yeshua and Moses, right?

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Moses was sent and empowered by God with supernatural authority in order to free God’s chosen people, the Israelites, from slavery to Pharaoh. He was also given instructions by God teaching us how to worship God the way God wants us to and how to treat each other the way God wants us to, which Moses taught to the people.

Yeshua was sent by God, empowered by the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to free everyone, Jews and (eventually) Gentiles, from slavery to sin. He taught the spiritual meaning of the laws and commandments that Moses taught so that people’s hearts could be changed, in order that they would be more receptive to the New Covenant God was making through Yeshua, which we read about in Jeremiah 31:31.

Now, what about Absalom?

We read about Absalom in 2 Samuel, Chapters 13-19. We see he was prideful and also very deceitful, killing his own brother.

In 2 Samuel 15, we read how Absalom had conspired to steal the throne from his father, David. He would greet people coming into the city and befriend them, telling them the King didn’t appoint anyone to hear their case but if they followed him, Absalom would give them justice. He would be friendly and kiss them, stealing their hearts and making himself popular among the people while intimating that King David didn’t really care for them as much.

When he had won enough of the popular vote, so to speak, he defied his father and proclaimed himself king.

Eventually, he found himself hung on a tree (by his hair) and when discovered there, he was killed by the kings’ general and David regained his throne, at the loss of his son.

So, nu? What does Absalom have in common with Yeshua, other than being the son of the king?

Actually, nothing, But Christianity has created a “son of the king”, their Savior, who defies his father by telling people they should follow him and reject his father’s rule (which we call the Torah) so that they can be given justice, i.e. salvation.

WOW! That’s a hard word to hear and at first, it sounds so wrong, doesn’t it? I mean, Yeshua the Messiah as a rebellious son who is acting like Lucifer, trying to wrest the kingdom from God? C’mon- du bist meshuggah!!

Truth be told, I am not crazy. Think about it: by using, or should I say mis-using, the letters from Shaul (Paul) addressed to the Gentile Believers who were first learning about God, Yeshua and the Torah, Christianity has separated itself from Judaism and the ways God taught us to live and worship him. Christianity, over the millennia, has taught that the Jewish people are no longer God’s chosen (misusing Galatians 6:16, which provides the foundation for Replacement Theology); that the Kosher laws were done away with (misusing Mark 7:19 and Acts 10); that obedience to the Torah has been replaced by Grace (misusing Romans 6:14); and that Yeshua is God, himself (misusing the Gospel of John.)

Every single one of these theological beliefs screams rebellion against the Father.

When Yeshua said that he would be raised up like the snake in the desert (John 3:14), he wasn’t talking only about being crucified: he was also saying that he would be idolized and worshiped instead of God. That is exactly what happened to the metal snake Moses made; at first, it was a symbol of God’s salvation (from dying by snakebite) but later was turned by people into a god, replacing the true God and being worshiped (Numbers 21:8 and 2 Kings 18:4).

Yeshua is the Messiah God sent, and he is, by divine conception, God’s son. Everything he did and said was meant to glorify God, his father, and he was so humble that he even refused to be called “good” saying that the only one who is “good” is his father in heaven (Mark 10:18). Yeshua taught the spiritual meaning of the laws and commandments that God gave to Moses. Moses, as the Pharisees had been doing, taught only the literal meaning, called the P’shat, so “Do Not Murder” means just that- don’t kill anyone.

But Yeshua taught us the spiritual meaning, called the Remes, so “Do Not Murder” became more than just don’t kill anyone- it became do not even hate people in your heart!

Yeshua did nothing against God, and everything for God, even to tell people that he only does and says what God tells him to do and say, which is why when we see him we see God. That wasn’t mean to say Yeshua is God, which is what Christianity’s Trinity Theology proclaims, but simply that because Yeshua is doing only what God tells him to do and saying only what God tells him to say, in him we see an exact image of God, but he is not God, himself.

So whereas Yeshua is the prophet which Moses said God would send (Deuteronomy 18:5), Christianity has replaced Yeshua’s role as Messiah with that of Absalom, a son who rebels against his father and tries to take the kingship away from him by endearing himself to the people, which has been accomplished through the teaching of Christianity that no one who follows Jesus Christ has to obey any of those “Jewish” holidays or laws.

God gave Moses those laws to teach to the Israelites for them to teach to the world; God said that the Jewish people are to be his nation of priests to the world (Exodus 19:6), meaning to teach the world (Jews and Gentiles) how to worship God and how to treat each other.

Yeshua is the epitome of that commission, and he NEVER did, said, or taught anyone, ever, to disobey the Torah or to worship him.

So, if you are a follower of any of the Christian teachings I specified above, please reconsider what you are doing and re-read the Gospels- forget about the Epistles for a moment- and find out what Yeshua said. After all, he is the one God sent as the Messiah: not Paul, not James, not John, or Mark, or Luke. Not Matthew, and not Peter.

Yeshua is the Messiah, Yeshua is the one who we should listen to and obey, and Yeshua never taught anything but to follow God’s instructions in the Torah. Not as the means of salvation, because faith is how we are saved, but as the means to please God and remain free of sin.

This is how salvation works: we are saved by faith in God and Yeshua as his Messiah. The Torah has God’s instructions on how we should live, Yeshua is the means for us to be forgiven of the sins we accidentally commit when we violate the laws in the Torah, and of which we repent, and Grace is God’s forgiveness which he is willing to give when we accept Yeshua as our Messiah.

The Torah was never done away with and God promised that we would be blessed when we obey the Torah (Deuteronomy 28), which is exclusively what Yeshua taught us to do.

God is still the King of the Universe, and even when Yeshua is king of the world, he will still report to his father, whom he loves and obeys.

Yeshua is the prophet Moses talked of, and not the Absalom which Christianity has turned him into.

Thank you for being here. Please like, subscribe, and share these messages with everyone you know, and remember that I always welcome your comments. You don’t even have to agree with me, so long as you are respectful.

Until next time, l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!