Author: Steven R. Bruck
Are Christians Better than Jews?
I know you’re thinking, “What a silly question! What Christian would consider themselves better than a Jewish person?”
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And you would be right in thinking that, but as a Jewish man who is also a Messianic Jew, I have been exposed to both Jews and Christians my entire life, and have experienced from both sides subtle, and not so subtle, prejudice.
To a “mainstream” Jew, I have to be a Christian because I “believe in Jesus Christ” and to many Christians, because I never rejected Judaism, I am not really “saved” because I still do all that Jewish stuff that Jesus did away with; they say because I try to obey the Torah, I am under the law and not under Grace.
The truth is that Jews have no idea who the real Messiah is because they only know the Constantinian form of Christianity which was supposedly created by that blonde-haired, blue-eyed European called Jesus. And the Christians? Most of them have no idea who Yeshua is or how their “Savior” really lived and worshiped, knowing (just as the Jews) nothing more than the Constantinian form of Christianity.
And what is one of the foundational teachings of Constantinian Christianity? It is that the Jews rejected Jesus and so those Gentiles who accepted him are not just saved, but because they recognized and accepted Yeshua as the Messiah, they are better than the Jews. Some take that to an extreme, which is called Replacement Theology. Replacement Theology states that the Jews, having rejected Jesus, are now rejected by God and that Christians are now God’s chosen people. Yeah, right. There will be a big surprise (and it won’t be pleasant) when they come before God and try to tell him they are his chosen people.
If you were brought up in one of those rare, yes rare, Christian churches that understand who Yeshua was and is, and do not accept that the Torah and all that “Jewish stuff” was done away with, then you probably will find what I am saying either hard to believe or maybe even a little insulting. If you are one of these (please believe me when I say) rare Christians, this next statement and the object of this message is not about you.
For the rest of the Christians, those who have been taught and believe that the Torah doesn’t apply to you and that Jesus did away with the law, let me remind you of what Shaul (Paul) said to the newly “saved” Gentiles in Romans 11:17-21 (CJB):
But if some of the branches were broken off, and you — a wild olive — were grafted in among them and have become equal sharers in the rich root of the olive tree, then don’t boast as if you were better than the branches! However, if you do boast, remember that you are not supporting the root, the root is supporting you. So you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” True, but so what? They were broken off because of their lack of trust. However, you keep your place only because of your trust. So don’t be arrogant; on the contrary, be terrified! For if God did not spare the natural branches, he certainly won’t spare you!
Too often Christians have been taught that they are better than the Jews because they accepted Jesus. Maybe not in those words, but in their attitude towards the Torah and Jews, in general. That is why, I believe, they have no problem rejecting God’s word in the Torah- it’s because that “better than thou” attitude has been conditioned through the subtle prejudice and anti-semitic teachings that have infiltrated Christianity since the first century. How else could one justify the historic hatred Christianity has shown towards the Jews?
What hatred, you ask? Ever hear of the Crusades? What about the Inquisition? Heck, even the Nazi’s had “Gott mit uns” (God is with us) imprinted on their belt buckles. And if you want to excuse them as not really Christians, to a Jew any non-Jew is a Gentile (the Hebrew word Goyim means “nations”, i.e. everyone else) and Gentiles have always killed Jews.
The sad truth is that Christians feel, whether they recognize it or not, that they are better than Jews, and even those that I deal with daily through discussion groups have demonstrated this by insisting on rejecting, and even decrying, traditional Judaic thought and actions, even when they are not in any way in opposition to God’s word. Things such as rejecting the standard Jewish calendar, or insisting on constantly using God’s Holy Name, even though Jews don’t use it simply out of respect. Too many Christians, mostly the “Holy Namers”, not only insist on pronouncing the Tetragrammaton, but insult and deride anyone who doesn’t. They say substituting “Adonai” (Lord) or “HaShem” (the name) for the Holy name (Y-H-V-H) is tantamount to praying to Ba’al! Ridiculous!
There is only one word that describes that attitude: disrespect. And disrespect is a form of boasting because you don’t disrespect those who you don’t feel superior to.
The really silly thing is that not only is this feeling within Christianity that they are better than the Jews, but within Christianity, they feel superior to each other, as well! Imagine: I am a grafted in branch, and I am better than those other grafted in branches who are newer to the tree than I am. Not only that, but now that I am grafted onto the tree, the tree now lives off of me.
Traditional Christianity teaches that the branch has replaced the root.
No one is any better than anyone else in God’s eyes, except maybe those who live their lives trying to please God by doing what he said we should. I am not proclaiming that strict adherence to the Torah is the only way to be saved, but I am saying that trying to do as God said is what God expects of us, and those who do more of what God says will receive more of God’s blessings. He told us that’s how it works in Deuteronomy 28.
Yeshua said a house built on sand will fall and one built on a rock will stand. The foundational tenets of Judaism are what our rock, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Y-H-V-H, gave us through Moses. That is the foundation God said to build upon. Modern Christianity has rejected, for the most part, what God said and instead built their house on sand, the sand that Constantine gave them in the third century, and the sand that the early Christian fathers taught by misinterpreting what Shaul wrote.
How can anyone obey what men say over what God says and think they are right?
Most Jews did reject Yeshua, and they still do, for the same stupid reason that so many Christians think they are better than Jews: ignorance. Both Judaism and Christianity have, for centuries, been based on the idea they are superior because that is what religion is: a system designed to give some people power over other people. God’s instructions are not a religion, they are a way of life designed not to make anyone superior to anyone else, but simply to please God and, thereby, receive blessings and eternal life.
Religion teaches us that some are superior to others, and God teaches us that the proud will fall and the humble will be raised up, so you need to decide which you would rather be: superior in your own mind or raised up by God?
Thank you for being here. Please subscribe to this ministry and share these messages with others. And remember that I always welcome your comments.
Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
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Taking Some Time Off
I want to take this moment to thank all of you who have subscribed, and by continually viewing and commenting on my messages help support this teaching ministry.
I didn’t post anything Tuesday and although I do have something for today, I am taking some time off. I won’t be doing my usual parashah message tomorrow, either.
Everyone needs to take some time to rest from what they do, even when they enjoy doing it, if for no other reason than to keep it from becoming stale.
Have a wonderful and restful Shabbat this weekend and I will be back online with you next week.
God willing!
Until then, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
Parashot Chukkat / Balak 2020 (Statutes / Balak) Numbers 19-25:9
There is so much here that I have to just give the highlights.
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We start with the regulations regarding the Red Heifer and the purification procedures involved with it. Next, we read of the death of Miriam, and the water coming from the rock after Moses struck it. But in his anger, Moses did not give credit to God so God tells Moses that he will not be allowed to enter the Promised Land.
They come to Mount Hor, where Aaron dies and Eliazar takes his place as Cohen HaGadol (High Priest).
The people are still wandering around the desert, and as they are now nearing the end of the punishment God decreed for them, they again complain about no meat generally kvetch about their lives, so God sends snakes against them as punishment. After repenting and asking forgiveness, God tells Moses to make a brass serpent and place it on a pole as a symbol so that when someone is bitten, if they look at the serpent they will not die.
This first parashah end with the defeat of both Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan.
The next parashah we will read for this double-parashot Shabbat is Balak, the story of how Balak, the king of Moab hired Balaam to curse the Jews. Balaam tells the messengers from Balak he refuses to go, as per God’s instructions, but Balak sends more important men with greater promises of reward and Balaam agrees to go. God sends an angel to block Balaam, and even though Balaam doesn’t see the angel, his ass does and three times avoids the angel. The third time Balaam begins to beat the ass for her disobedience, but God allows the ass to talk to Balaam, and then God opens Balaam’s eyes to see the angel, with drawn sword and ready to kill.
Balaam asks forgiveness and says he will return, yet God says to keep going but say only what God will tell him to say. Balak takes Balaam on a high hill to see the multitude of God’s people, and instead of cursing them, Balaam blesses them. Balak tries to get Balaam to curse the people three times, but all he does is bless them. Finally, enraged, Balak sends Balaam back home.
This parashah ends with the sin at Ba’al-Peor when the men of Israel began to associate with the Midianite women, sinning and worshiping their gods with them (we learn later, in Numbers 31, that this was Balaam’s idea). As Moses is telling them to stop, one of the princes of the tribe of Simeon is with a Midianite woman, and mocking Moses in full view of all the people; meanwhile, God has sent a plague as punishment for this terrible sin. Phineas, the son of Eleazar, is so enraged at the Simeonite prince that he thrusts a lance through both the prince and the woman with him, and this act of zealousness for God stays the plague, and that is where this second parashah ends.
As I said at the start, there is so much here.
Chukkat are the laws that God gave to us for which we can’t understand their meaning. The laws regarding the Shew Bread on the table, for instance, and this law about the Red Heifer, in which everything associated with preparing the heifer makes one unclean, but that which has made you unclean is then used to cleanse you.
The snake in the desert is so important for two reasons: first, the snake represented God’s salvation for those who would die, which has the spiritual message that when we look to, i.e. call upon God, we will be saved from death. Second, the snake is mentioned by Yeshua (John 3:14) as a foretelling of his form of death, as well as a prophecy about the distant future when he is held up and worshiped as God, just as the snake was later called Nehushtan and turned into an idol (2 Kings 18).
And finally, the lands that were taken from the two kings, Sihon and Og, are later given to Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, which ended up separating them from the protection of their brothers and their eventual destruction and dispersion throughout the world by the Assyrians, well before the Northern Tribes suffered the same fate.
Oy! Where to start, how much to say, and how can I stop once I start (which is always a problem)?
I am going to make this a simple lesson because as I reviewed these chapters, one thing stuck out in my mind: in my Chumash, the commentary on the Red Heifer gave a story about Rabbi Yochanon Ben Zakkai telling his talmudim (students) “…but the law concerning the Red Heifer is a decree of the All-holy, whose reasons for issuing that decree it behooves not mortals to question.”
This is pretty much what God told Moses later, which we read in Deuteronomy 29:29:
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
Too often I hear people asking questions about the secret things, such as the pronunciation of God’s name, are he and Yeshua the same or separate beings, when does a certain holy day on the calendar really begin, and other such Gnostic-like questions. They want to know every little detail about every single line of the Torah and use the excuse that they are trying to be obedient as their reasoning.
God told us everything we need to know, and beyond that, he told us to mind our own business. God doesn’t care if we understand why he said what he said, or why he wants us to do something, he only cares that we do it. The Torah is the first time people were told they don’t have the need to know. To me, the willingness to accept that because God said something, that is all the justification we need is a demonstration not just of obedience, but of our respect, trust, and faithfulness.
So today’s message is this: if you don’t understand why God wants you to do something, it’s OK to ask God to explain it to you; but, if he doesn’t give you an answer, accept that his silence means it isn’t necessary for you to understand, it’s just necessary for you to obey.
The ultimate demonstration of our faith in God is to come to him like little children (sound familiar?), meaning we don’t question why we have to do something, we just do it.
You don’t get on God’s good side by trying to understand him, you get on God’s good side by trusting that he knows what is best for you and faithfully obeying him.
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Until next time, L’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!
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Request for an Independence Day from Bad Social Media
I am doing something very different today.
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Here is a copy of a post I placed on my Facebook timeline the other day:
I did this as a rhetorical post, but one of my friends said that he liked the idea and that he was in and for me to just name a day.
I added a comment that I will name a day, and the day I am naming is the Fourth of July. This day represents to Americans our independence from being controlled by a monarchy that didn’t respect our right to be independent and to practice whatever religion we wanted to. In fact, this country was founded on the idea that people have the right to do what they want to do, think, and speak as they want to, so long as those rights do not infringe on the rights of others.
What is happening today, though, is somewhat like what it was like under English rule, only much worse because the anarchists using smokescreens such as BLM and Antifa are not trying to control us from a foreign land, but from within. These anarchists, as well as Facebook censorship, government control of how people dress, and media fear-mongering, are the true virus attacking America today. They may be funded from different sources, but overall their boss is the same snake who has always used lies and false accusations to stir up trouble in God’s kingdom by convincing people to do evil in the name of goodness.
So, I am asking everyone who uses social media to join us on this coming July 4th to NOT post or copy or share anything that is political or dealing with the Covid-19 rhetoric, or that shows rioting or potentially disturbing videos, or anything that might be considered upsetting in any way.
Instead, let’s share our hopes and dreams; let’s encourage one another and post only what is joyful, uplifting, and positive.
This coming July 4th, let’s declare our independence from social media drek, from political intrigue, from violence in the streets, and from the evil in our land by sending light into the darkness.
God bless you all, and may he protect and help us all through these troubling times.
Please subscribe and spread this message on YouTube and social media so that on this coming Independence Day there will be something on social media other than the usual garbage we have to deal with.
Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
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What Does Created in God’s Image Mean?
We are told in the very beginning, Genesis 1:27, that we are created in the image of God. But what does that mean?
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Does it mean that we look like God? I know there are many places in the Bible where God appears to people, and his appearance was too much to behold. Most of the descriptions we have, such as from Moses and Daniel, present God as an overwhelming presence.
On the other hand, God told Moses that he could see the back but not the face of God, for anyone who sees the face of God’s will die. That implies that God has a physical body like ours.
By the way, when God said that anyone who sees his face will die, does that mean the sight of God’s face is so emotionally overwhelming that it shocks us to the point of death, or simply that it is forbidden to see his face and if we see it, we must be executed?
After all, he told Adam and Eve if they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they would die, but when they ate they didn’t die. At least, not immediately; eventually they did, a few hundred years later. So, if they hadn’t eaten, would they have lived forever?
Who knows? However interesting that answer might be, I am going off on a tangent so let’s get back to today’s message.
I don’t think that we are created looking like God, if for no other reason than this: God is not a physical being. He is spirit, and as such can appear in any form he wishes. So, no, I don’t think God looks like we do or that we look like him, and that whatever form he has taken in the past to appear to people, whether in real life or in visions, is for our benefit.
One thing that might give us a hint to what “in the image of God” means might be found in that fact that of all the millions of different creatures God created, only human beings are created in his image. By identifying what is it that humans have which no other creature has, that might point to the image we are looking for.
So, nu? What’s so different about us?
I think it’s that we have a soul.
Animals have intelligence, they have emotions, they have skills (Jane Goodall turned the anthropological world upside down when she discovered chimpanzee’s had developed tool usage), and they also can learn new skills and pass them down to their progeny. All of these things are exactly the same things that humans have, except that the Bible specifically omits any reference to animals being reborn.
Now, one of the first lessons I learned about proper biblical exegesis is that “You can’t make an argument from nothing”, and just because something is not mentioned in the Bible, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. However, since we are specifically separated from every other living thing by the fact that we alone are created in God’s image, and that we, alone, will be resurrected in the End Days, then I think it makes sense that we have something which is the same thing God has but is not found in any other creature on earth.
And what is that? It’s our soul. I have always heard that the soul is eternal, and if that is true, then it is the one thing that only a human being has in common with God, thereby making us the only creatures in the world that are made in the image, or we could also say similar, to God.
That’s my take on what being made in the image of God means. It means that we have a soul that part of us which is eternal, just as God is eternal, and only human beings can lay claim to this similarity.
The only thing left now is to decide where our souls will go after we die. The answer to how we do that, my friends, is to follow the roadmap to salvation that you find in the Torah.
Thank you for being here and please subscribe and share these messages with others. And remember: I always welcome your comments.
Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!