Do you know the Billy Preston song, “Nothing from Nothing“? He talks about relationships, but his message that you can’t get something from nothing is applicable to biblical interpretation, as well.

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

In science, we observe an event then form a hypothesis in order to figure out how it was caused. Through experimentation we try to reproduce that same event to validate our hypothesis. Criminologists use a similar methodology, observing the clues left behind, deducing how the crime was committed and by whom.

In biblical exegesis (interpretation), we read what is written and using the rules regarding proper biblical interpretation, we determine if what we read is validated by other, similar statements or comments found anywhere else in the Bible.

At this point, you may ask, “OK, Steve, what’s this got to do with the song?“

I’m glad you asked.

The song indicates that you can’t get something from nothing, and when people start with what they want a Bible verse or phrase to mean, they are really starting out with nothing. All they have is a thought or a feeling, and when people like what they are thinking, they say it is “spirit led”.

But in my experience, way too often what people say they got from “the Holy Spirit” really came from their own spirit.

To properly interpret what the Bible is telling us, we need to start with something, and that something is what is there. Then, we need to verify it with what else is in every other part of the Bible, before we can really state that what we think it means is what the Bible means.

The use of Hermeneutics is one way we do this, and the other way (and just as necessary to be correct) is using Circles of Context, which means interpreting the phrase or verse within the context of the sentence, of the paragraph, and of the entire letter or book, also taking into consideration of who wrote it, to whom, and for what reason.

For example: if I read that God said not to eat pork (Lev. 11, in case you were interested) and later, in Mark 7:19 I read that Yeshua declared all food to be clean, I cannot say that the Kosher laws were done away with by Yeshua, which is a traditional Christian interpretation.

Why can’t I say that? Because it can’t be validated by hermeneutics (God already said pork wasn’t clean), and when we look at that one statement within the context of the entire event, we see that Yeshua wasn’t talking about Kashrut (Kosher) laws, but rather about a hand-washing ceremony traditionally done before eating food to prevent contamination of the food.

And when we consider (culturally) what a First Century Jew considers to be food, he or she is talking about what God said is food, not what we today consider to be food. In other words, pork was NOT food to them, so when Mark said Yeshua declared all food clean, he was talking only about food allowed by the Torah.

We should also note that declaring all food clean was Mark’s statement-Yeshua never really said that.

To properly understand what the Bible means, we have to start out, like with a science experiment, thinking we know what it means (our hypothesis), but not accepting that as true until properly validated by using the established rules of interpretation.

I am sure you have had conversations with people who tell you what verses mean, and you know that their interpretation is wrong, but you can’t convince them because they do not understand how to properly interpret the Bible.

Yes, there are many times that people are given a supernatural understanding through the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), but just as we are told to test prophets by what they say must come true (Deut. 18:22), we must also test every interpretation of the Bible against what the Bible says- literally- and within the context of where that statement is found, using hermeneutics to verify that it is consistent with what God said in the Torah.

And, like it or not, the Torah is the only place in the entire Bible where, using Moses as his stenographer, God- himself -tells us what he wants us to do.

And I think anyone who truly worships God will agree that whatever God says we should do is what we need to do, and no one, not even his son, can overrule God.

Christianity will disagree with this, but the biblical fact is that throughout the Torah God tells the Jews how he wants them to worship him and treat each other, then he chooses them (hence, the “Chosen People”) to be his nation of priests (Ex. 19:6), so that they can bring the Torah to the world.

The real New Covenant is not in the Gospels or the Epistles, but in Jeremiah 31:31, where God says he will write his Torah on our hearts. So, by God’s own words, if you do not have the Torah written on your heart, you cannot be in covenant with God. That is bad news for almost every Christian, because Christianity teaches the Torah is not for Christians.

So, by definition, Christians who do not have the Torah written on their hearts can’t be in covenant with God. And, with regard to proper biblical interpretation, this statement is hermeneutically and contextually validated by what is in the Bible.

Think about that.

I have gone into much more detail about how to properly interpret the Bible in a teaching series: here is a link to that teaching: How to Properly Interpret the Bible.

Let me leave you with this last thought: the best way to know if a biblical interpretation is valid is to know the Bible. DUH! So… READ IT!

Thank you for being here; that’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

To most everyone I know, the “Good News” (in Hebrew it’s called B’rit Chadasha) is that Yeshua (Jesus) has come to die for our sins, which allows us to be saved.

But I think the Good News is something a little different.

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If you ask nearly anyone who is either Jewish or Christian, they will probably agree on one thing: the New Covenant is for Christians and the Old Covenant is for Jews. But, then again, if you ask any Jewish or Christian person who has a messianic understanding, they will tell you that the New Covenant is the continuation of the Old, and that they are both one book, one story about one God, and the Messiah he sent to the Jews, and then to the Gentiles.

I am a Messianic Jew, which means that both sides hate me: my Jewish brothers and sisters say I am a traitor and must be a Christian if I “believe in Jesus” (whatever the heck that is supposed to mean), and Christians say I am not really saved if I do all that “Jewish” stuff because I am still “under the law” (again, whatever the heck that is supposed to mean).

However, my advantage is that I was raised as a Reform Jew, so I was never really trained in Torah or Talmud, and being Jewish I was never told about the Good News or what the New Covenant writings mean, so I have been able to approach both the Old and New Covenant innocently, i.e., without preconceptions or a conditioned understanding.

Consequently, I see things that neither most Jews and Christians don’t: not because they are ignorant or faithless, but because they have been forced to wear blinders all their life, and don’t even know they are wearing them!

So, nu! What great revelation do I have to share with you?

Well, I’m not so sure it’s a revelation, but it is what I believe is the real “Good News” and, remarkably, it sort of fits in with the traditional Christian view of the New Covenant I talked about above, which is that the Old is just for Jews, and the New is just for Christians.

You may ask, “How is the Good News only for Gentiles?”

I’m glad you asked

The Good News, as I see it, is not that Yeshua came to earth and died for our sins- which is, in and of itself, about as good news as one can ever hope for- but rather the good news is that the salvation Yeshua provided to the Jews (who absolutely needed it because the temple was about to be destroyed) was now being made available to the pagan, polytheistic, hedonistic, drunkard, sexually perverted Gentiles, as well.

And this (again, as I see it) is not a surprise, since there are many prophecies about God’s house being a house of prayer for all peoples, the light coming to the Gentiles, and most of all, Ezekiel 18:23, where God says he doesn’t want to see anyone die but turn from their sins, and live.

So, my friends, if someone asks you what the Good News of the Bible is all about, you can tell them that it is about how salvation through the Jewish Messiah God promised to send was made available to everyone on earth.

And that is my understanding of what the “Good News” is really about.

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

To all Americans reading this I wish you a happy day celebrating the freedom we earned from a despotic government. It would be even better if we didn’t end up trading a despotic government for a corrupted one.

The truth is that no one is ever completely independent; that nice Jewish Pharisee from Tarsus, the one who made tents for a living, wrote to the Jews (and Gentiles) in Rome that we are either a slave to sin or a slave to God, and Yeshua confirmed that by telling us no one can have two masters.

The Revolutionary War wasn’t really what they wanted: they just wanted representation in Parliament. You know, if King George had been more accommodating, we might still be eating bangers and mash for dinner.

But, history lesson aside, my message is that we can be independent of some things that are of the world, but we are never truly independent unless we reject God.

Oh, wait a minute! That isn’t right, because if we reject God, then we will be under Satan’s control. You see, if we aren’t for God, we are against him, and that means we are subject to Satan, whether we realize it or not.

So, I say true independence is not freedom from something, it is freedom to choose something, but either way, we will be dependent on that something. As for me, I choose to be dependent on God.

As for the government we are living under, if we don’t like it we can go somewhere else. Or, in a free country (at least, one that is designed to be that way), we can use our vote to change what we don’t like, although that is always a lengthy process.

I choose to stay in America, despite how much it has spiraled down into a corrupted form of government- and that goes for either party! No one in American politics is completely clean, and that is because you can’t get anything done in politics without getting dirty.

The lesson we learn from both Yeshua’s teachings and Shaul’s (Paul) letters is that we must obey the government, because no matter how righteous or sinful it is, it is there by God’s allowance. And, being obedient to God, we faithfully suffer through the bad ones, and should give thanks for when we have a good one.

As for this day’s celebration of American freedom to be independent of England, despite how terrible I believe things have become, as a life-long student of American history, I know we have had bad times before and come through. If we can turn back to God, then this country will survive; if we continue on this backsliding, well… if you haven’t gotten right with God, now would be a good time.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

I believe that God hears every, single prayer sent to him, and that he also has the final word about how he will act regarding that prayer.

God may act immediately, giving you what you ask for, or he may wait until there is a perfect time, and then answer you in a way you never expected.

Or he may just say “No”.

The difference between prayers unanswered and prayers unfulfilled is based on how God answers the prayer. If he does something, whether it is immediate or in the future, then that prayer is answered, but what you asked for may not be what you get; in that case, you might think it was unanswered or unfulfilled.

But all prayers are answered: even the ones you believe to be unfulfilled; they were answered, but not the way you wanted them to be.

You know, there are so many prayers that are just, plain wrong: to pray to God to win the lottery because you want to quit your job and travel, or to pray to God for a victory for your favorite team. Those are not righteous prayers, they are selfish prayers, and even though Yeshua said that when we pray in his name, we will receive what we ask, I don’t think he meant that anything and everything we pray for will be received.

I am pretty sure he was referring to righteous prayer, not selfish desires.

So, pray for what you need, and also for what you want (assuming it is not a selfish, ungodly thing), and God will hear and act. How he acts will be to either fulfill your prayer, in his time and the way he sees best, or he won’t do anything because his answer is “Nope, not this time.”

What you may believe is a prayer unheard or unfulfilled may simply be an answer that you don’t want to accept, or refuse to see: when you pray, always look for an answer, and don’t just look for the one you asked for because you may get exactly what you need, but not what you asked for, or when you expected it.

But it will always be just right for you.

Thank you, as always, for being here. That’s it for today so l’hitraot, and Baruch HaShem!

This phase, which Yeshua gave as the lesson at the end of a parable in Matthew 20, has been confusing to many people, including myself. However, just recently I realized that I can now understand this based on combining it with the statement God made in Ezekiel 18:23.

Lets’ look at these two verses:

Matthew 20:16
Thus the last ones will be first and the first last.”

Ezekiel 18:23:
Do I take any pleasure at all in having the wicked person die?” asks Adonai Elohim.
“Wouldn’t I prefer that he turn from his ways and live?

The first verse comes after the parable about the men being hired to work in the field, and each getting paid a denarius, no matter how long they have been working. When the ones there from the morning saw the ones who were hired just an hour or so before the evening get the same pay, they complained. Yeshua said (I’m paraphrasing here) that it was his money, and he could do what he wants with it.

In Ezekiel 18, God tells us that he doesn’t care what you did in the past, whether it was righteous or sinful, but what you do now is the measure by which he will judge you.

So, why do I think these two, seemingly disparate verses, explain what “first is last and last is first” mean?

I’m glad you asked!

Both indicate that God will make his own rules, and that we don’t really have any say in them. But more than that, it means that no matter how you have lived your life, whether it has been one of righteousness or sin, at the end you will be judged on where your heart is and how you are living at that moment.

The workers who had only been there for an hour were rewarded the same as the workers who had been there all day, which shows that even if we wait until our very last breath to do t’shuvah (repent), we can still receive salvation.

This parable confirms what God said many centuries earlier, through Ezekiel, when he said if the righteous person turns to sin, he will be judged on that, but if a sinful person turns from his sin and does what is right, then he will be judged on that.

Simply stated, no matter how you sinful you may have been, if you are truly repentant and turn from your evil ways, doing what is right in God’s eyes (the instructions for that are in the Torah), you will be saved. But, if you have lived a God-fearing life yet backslide into a life of sinfulness, even if it is on the very day you die, you will die in your sin.

These two passages from the Bible tell us that, no matter how you have lived your life to this moment, everyone has the same opportunity to be saved and everyone has the same opportunity to throw that salvation away.

On that pleasant thought, let me say thank you for being here: that’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

One of the traditional Jewish expectations of the Messiah is that upon his arrival, he will rebuild the temple, which is known as the Third Temple. Currently, the Temple Mount is under Arab control, but that will change when Messiah comes to rule.

In the New Covenant writings, we read that Shaul (you know him- that nice Jewish Pharisee from Tarsus who makes tents and is also known by another name, which is Paul) tells the Corinthians that their bodies are a temple of the spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19).

And the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31) which God made with the Jewish people (sorry, Christians, you came in second) says that the Torah will be written on our hearts, is clearly indicative of a spiritual change.

Now, when we take these two things, which are a third temple being built by the Messiah and the new covenant being a spiritual event, and add to that how Yeshua taught the Remes of the Torah (which means the deeper, spiritual meaning of the commandments; Remes is a term from PaRDeS, an exegesis tool in Judaism), we have to think that maybe, just maybe, this third temple is to be a spiritual one, and not necessarily a physical building on Mount Moriah.

So, nu! here is my point:

1. If the third temple is a spiritual one, and
2. Yeshua taught the spiritual meaning of the law, which
3. According to Shaul makes our bodies a spiritual temple, then
4. Can we say that the fulfillment of the Jewish expectation that the Messiah will build a third temple has already been done through Yeshua’s teachings?

I don’t know. But it does come together nicely, don’t you think?

What is even better is if I can get this to make sense to just one of my Jewish brothers and sisters, then maybe we can get more of God’s chosen to accept that Yeshua is their Messiah?

What do you think?

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