Tag: blessing

Parashah Naso 2019 (Take) Numbers 4:21 – 7

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Moses continues to outline the duties of the Levitical clans, which began in the last parashah. After having ordered each family of the Levites to perform their specific duties regarding the Tabernacle, Moses moves on to further outline how the camp is to be set up.

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The unclean were to be removed from within the camp and placed outside of it. This is to safeguard the ceremonial purity of the camp.

Next, Moses details the process for a husband who suspects his wife has been unfaithful to prove her faithful or adulterous. This involves providing a grain sacrifice and her drinking of special water, accompanied by the woman pronouncing a curse on herself if she has been unfaithful.

The instructions for taking the vow of a Nazarite are reviewed, and then in Chapter 6, verses 24-26 God tells us how he wants the Cohen HaGadol (High Priest) to bless the children of Israel, which we call the Aaronic Blessing. This is also used in Christian services, and it goes like this:

The Lord bless thee and keep thee;

The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious to thee;

The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. 

Each of the 12 tribes brings a gift for the tabernacle, which comes to a total of six covered wagons and 12 oxen. These were distributed to the Levitical families for their use in transporting the tabernacle.

The parashah ends with the people of Israel offering an additional gift, each tribe giving the exact same things in the exact same weight and number:

one silver dish and one silver basin, both filled with fine flour mingled with oil, one golden pan full of incense, one young bullock, one ram, and one he-lamb of the first year (for a burnt offering), one male goat for a sin offering, and 2 oxen, 5 rams, five male goats, and five male lambs all presented for a peace offering.

Each tribe presented their gift on a different day until all 11 tribes (Levites were excluded) had given their gifts.

Today I want to talk about the Aaronic (or Priestly) Blessing, which is so beautiful; it is both simple in its form yet complex in its meaning.

The prayer is composed of three short verses, of 3, 5, and 7 words (in the Hebrew), gradually asking first for material blessing, then a spiritual blessing, and finally for the ultimate gift from God- peace. Traditionally, the prayer is to be offered in Hebrew and only by a Priest.

As I have often stated, not all traditions are bad, and as far as this one goes I would have to say that within the Messianic community (which would include Christians who are “Born Again”) it would be OK for someone to ask a blessing from God for someone else, so long as they invoke the name of Messiah when they ask.

You see, the Jewish requirement for only a Priest to give the Aaronic Blessing is based on the need for the person offering the blessing to be not just sober, but also worshipful, faithful, ceremonially clean, and prayerful. For most people, this isn’t going to be their normal state of being.

However, for those that have accepted Yeshua as their Messiah and have the indwelling of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), they should “measure up” to these standards. By also invoking the name of the Messiah, any shortcomings in their holiness would be offset, so to speak, through Yeshua’s intervention.

When I have served in the position of Rabbi or Cantor (although I am not officially ordained as either) in the houses of worship which I have attended over the years, I offered this prayer in Hebrew just as it is, not invoking the name of Yeshua. I also then repeated it in English for the benefit of those who didn’t know what the Hebrew meant. I do not believe that I was doing anything wrong by omitting “In the name of Yeshua, the Messiah” because at that time, I was in the position and authority of a Cohen. However, if I was asked to give this blessing to someone on the street, I might include a “B’shem Yeshua Ha Mashiach” at the end of it, just to be safe.

The Aaronic Blessing is both a prayer and a blessing because what we are really doing is requesting God to provide the things we specify; first, we cover material needs, then spiritual needs, and finally, we ask for God’s peace of body, mind, and spirit so that we can have complete joy.

In conclusion of today’s message, let me offer this blessing to you in the name of our Messiah, Yeshua (click on the link and make sure your audio is not muted):

Aaronic Blessing

 

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Parashah Chukkat 2018 (Statutes) Numbers 19 – 22:1

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As always, there is just so much in this reading to talk about. We are told about the cleansing ritual using the ashes of the Red Heifer, Miriam dies and Moses and Aaron, in providing water from the rock lose their right to enter the land. We read how God punishes the people with snakes for their constant rebellious attitude, of Arad attacking the Israelites and being destroyed, as well as the victory over Sichon and Og, kings of the lands to the East of the Jordan River (later to be occupied by Gad, Reuben and half of Manasseh.)

I want to interpose one thought here, not to be discussed in length, but can you imagine how disappointed Moses and Aaron must have felt when God told them they could not enter the land? This is at the end of their journey- it has been nearly 40 years and all that time Moses and Aaron were looking forward to being in the land God promised their forefathers. Now this one mistake and they are out! There is a real lesson here, but it will be for another time.

Today’s message is a simple one, based on the regulations for preparing the ashes of the Red Heifer.

Let’s start off by saying that this regulation is one that even Solomon is said to have never been able to understand. The ashes are to purify one who is unclean, but everything to do with preparing the ashes renders one unclean to start with! This is quite a conundrum- what I need to make me clean will make me unclean as I prepare it! HUH?

If someone was to ask my why God gave these instructions, I have what I consider to be the definitive answer: it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter why God says we should do something, or what his reasons are for telling us not to do something. The only thing that matters is that God said so.

Humans have curiosity and that is a blessing; without curiosity there can be no advancement or improvement. Yet curiosity is a two-edged sword in that too much curiosity can lead us down a path that has a very bad ending. I refer to how people constantly use human reasoning to explain why God gave certain commandments. We shouldn’t eat pork because pigs carry trichinosis;  no sexual relations during the time of Niddah because studies show that sexual activity during the menstrual cycle increases the chance of cervical cancer; do not have sexual relations with close family members because incest causes genetic mutations, etc..

God doesn’t give us the reasons for his commandments and regulations but we need to know why so we figure it out on our own. I believe we do this because once we know why God said to do something we can then come up with a reason why it is no longer necessary.

For example: yes, way back then pigs carried diseases but today the USDA and proper cooking equipment prevents us from being infected so we don’t need to do that anymore.  You see? For those who want to reject God’s laws but not get in “trouble” for doing so, knowing why God said to do something is the means by which they can justify their ends, which is that they don’t need to do it anymore.

The faithful Believer knows that it doesn’t matter why God says what he says; what matters is that he said it and we are obligated to faithfully accept that it is good for us and we should obey our Father, our King and our Savior. Yeshua said that if we do not come to God as little children (meaning we should have unconditional and total trust) we can never enter the Kingdom of God.

Are you faithful enough to do what God says without questioning why? If not, I respectfully suggest you ask yourself, “Why? Why can’t I just do what God says to do without needing to why he wants me to?”

I can give you the answer: pridefulness. It is your prideful desire to do only what you really want to do and that will eventually weaken your faith.  In my book, “Back to Basics: God’s Word vs. Religion” I address this in the chapter I call “Buffet Believers.”  That is what I call people who look through the bible, pick and choose which commandments they are comfortable with and make excuses for rejecting the ones they don’t want to obey. And when they are done filling their plate with their favorite foods, they sit complacently by and tell others that try to take everything on the table they are wrong to eat so much.

When it comes to Psalm 34:8 (“Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”) gluttony is not only a good thing, it is a blessed activity. God has provided us with spiritual manna which we call commandments, and the more we partake of that food the more blessed our lives will be.

It doesn’t matter why, it only matters that God said so. That is true faith.

Parashah V’yishlach (and he sent) Genesis 32:4 – 36

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There’s so much in here: Jacob becomes Israel; Jacob and Esau are reunited; Rachel gives birth to Benjamin and dies; Dinah (Jacob’s daughter) is raped and after forcing the entire town to have every man circumcised, Simeon and Levi slaughter them all as they are recovering and weakened, forcing Jacob to leave Shechem; we learn that the wives and children of Jacob have foreign gods with them (Genesis 35:2-4) which they have to remove from among them, indicating they were still influenced by the religion of Laban (remember that Rachel stole the family gods when they fled); Isaac dies; we are given the generations of Esau and the kings that ruled his land.

So, nu? Where to start? And, once I have started, how do I end?

I feel led to talk about what Jacob wrestling with the angel might mean to us, and I will be so bold as to talk about what it means to me and let you consider if you agree or not. That’s just one of the many wonderful things about the word of God- it can mean two totally different things to two totally different people, and both can be correct.

Jacob had striven against men and he did pretty well: he managed to buy the rights to the firstborn, he succeeded in fooling Isaac to give him the blessing that was associated (and rightfully belonged) to the one who had the rights of the firstborn,  and he outsmarted Laban more than once. All of these challenges to Jacob during his life he was able to overcome. Now, as he is about to face a life-threatening challenge, i.e. Esau with 400 men, he calls to God for protection and God sends to him an angel to prevent him from crossing the Jabbok river (Genesis 31-32).

Jacob wrestled with the angel and overcame him, but at the cost of a painful injury to his thigh, which he never recovered from, causing him to limp for the rest of his life.  So, although Jacob won the match, he sustained a life-changing injury which weakened him.

I think of Shaul (Paul) asking God to remove the thorn in his side (2 Corinthians 12:7), which Shaul tells us was there to prevent him from becoming too conceited. Jacob has prevailed against both man and God, so if anyone had a right to be proud, it was Jacob. Yet, here he is- the angel is back in heaven, none the less for wear,  and Jacob will limp for the rest of his life. He may have won that match, but it cost him something, or….maybe the limp was a blessing in disguise? Maybe this limp represents his ego, his self-importance, which God is using as a thorn in Jacob’s side, a reminder that no matter how successful Jacob (now called Israel- another reminder) may be, he is still dependent upon God and it is God who is behind his success.

I know that I need constant reminding that whatever I do that is worthy of praise, it is more the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) which leads me to do good that deserves the glory than anything I do on my own. My nature is to do wrong, to do what I want for selfish and self-serving purposes. I am not saying this to demean myself, I am saying it to remind myself- I was born into sin, and have a sinful nature. Sin is natural for me, as it is for all of us, and only by recognizing this can we overcome it.

An alcoholic or a drug addict can never even start to recover until they hit what is called “rock bottom”, which is the time when they realize they are not in control of the substance but the substance is controlling them. Only when they do their own form of T’shuvah (turning) and “own” their habit can they truly start to overcome it.

And the healthy and sustainable attitude is that they are never cured- they are simply recovering. An alcoholic is always an alcoholic; a drug addict is always a drug addict; what they are while they remain sober/clean is a ‘recovering’ alcoholic or addict. Recovering: not recovered, but recovering. That is a very important attitude they have to have because, like Jacob’s limp and Shaul’s thorn, it is a constant reminder of what they are trying to overcome.

We all have our own thorn or limp; we are all “recovering sinners”, so to speak. The 12 step program for recovery says, “One drink is too many, and two drinks aren’t enough” (or something like that) and the same is true for sinning. We do it unintentionally (I hope!) and, often enough, without even knowing we just committed a sin. That is why the sacrificial system includes a sacrifice for forgiveness for the sins we do that we don’t even know we did. We need a reminder, a limp, a thorn, something to keep us on the straight and narrow.

I wear a mezuzah around my neck as a sign of my faith, and also as a reminder. I also wear a gold bracelet, part of my sales training, to remind me that it is more important to listen than to speak (James 1:19.) At first I didn’t wear a gold bracelet, I wore a rubber band. The lesson was that every time I wanted to say something during a sales pitch, I was to stretch the rubber band and let it snap back onto my wrist. It was a painful lesson, but I learned it well, and my successful sales career demonstrated that. Once I didn’t need to snap the rubber band, I “graduated” to a gold bracelet (being a good salesman, I could afford it then) but it is still a reminder, just a little nicer looking reminder.

Maybe you have something you wear? A mezuzah, a cross, a plastic “WWJD” bracelet? A rubber band around your wrist? Whatever you use to remind yourself to do everything you can to overcome your sinful nature, cherish it because it can save your life. When we can be reminded to do as God wants us to do, and that reminder keeps us from sinning, even if it is just one sin a day less than we would do on our own, it is a blessing from heaven.

And if you limp, have bad knees, suffer from some debilitating disease or physical/mental challenge, accept it not as punishment (too many times I hear people blame God for their problems) but as a reminder of who is in charge, and what is really important.

God is really important. Whatever you have or don’t have or suffer with today, it will mean nothing in eternity. That is the goal, that is the prize- eternal life in God’s presence. So embrace your problem, embrace your challenges, and strive against them as Jacob did, trusting in God to help you overcome them.

That which seems to be a curse can always become a blessing in disguise- it is all up to you and how you deal with it.

Parashah Lech Lecha (Out of) Genesis 12:1 – 17:27)

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This portion of the Torah tells us of God’s covenant with Abraham; the promise that  his seed will be many, that they will be a blessing to the whole world, and that God will stand behind them, blessing those that bless them and cursing those that curse them.

There is just so much in here, most notably the verse often quoted in the B’rit Chadashah regarding true faithfulness, Gen. 15:6.

We see Abraham as a pillar of faith. Everything the Lord asked of him he did immediately, everything the Lord told him he believed, absolutely. He was a great leader (it tells us he had over 300 trained men when he went to war against the 5 kings to recover Lot) and that meant he had to be a good manager and leader to have so many servants, trained and loyal to him. He also was a man of action, going to war successfully and also a man of honor, not accepting gifts, as valuable as they were, from the wicked king of Sodom, and a man of generosity giving the tithe to Melchizedek.

In all of this we look up to Abraham as a true Patriarch and a man of unwavering faithfulness.

Well, maybe not unwavering all the time. I am not going to talk Abraham “down”, but the lesson I see here for me, and maybe for you, is that no one is perfect except Yeshua. Abraham’s faith was not so great in  Genesis 11:11 when he took his family into Egypt and asked Sarah to say she was his sister to prevent him being killed so Pharaoh could take her as his own. Abraham certainly wasn’t showing faith and trust in God’s promises that he had already received when he “pimped” his own wife to save his skin. And Sarah, although we don’t have any idea how long she was with Pharaoh or how intimate their relationship had been, went along with this. In all fairness to her, at that time and as a woman, she didn’t have a lot to say about it, but I would think she couldn’t have been very happy with the situation. However, she was a dutiful and obedient wife, submitting even to her own shame in showing obedience to her husband. Shaul wrote to more than one of the Messianic Congregations about how wives should be obedient and submissive to their husbands, but he followed that  up with how the husband should be toward his wife- he should protect as he would his own body. I don’t think Abraham was thinking of her as his own body here; he was only thinking of his own body.

Abraham was unquestionably a man of great faith. He was strong, brave, faithful, honourable…he was a real mensch! And we should all look towards him as an example of how to live regarding our relationships with the world and our relationship with God. Yet, as great as he was, he had faults, fears, and he did have moments of faith-less-ness. He was, after all, human. So are we, and as such we need to remember that we will fall.

The important lesson here is not to avoid falling, because we will. We have no choice to avoid it and no chance to escape it- it is our nature to sin. God knows that: that is why Yeshua had to die, because without His sacrifice on our behalf we had no hope. Messiah is the hope of the Jewish people, and since the Jewish people are chosen by God to be His representatives to the Goyim (the Nations, i.e. the rest of the world), we are Cohanim (Priests) to the world, set apart by God by His Torah to be an example for everyone else, and thereby lead them to salvation. Messiah is for everyone, Jew and Gentile. It has always been that way, and always will be. Be joyful, thou Gentiles, that God has included you in His plan and be not prideful, you Jews, to think that you are better than anyone else. We were chosen not because of who we are, but because of Avraham Avinu (Abraham our Father) and his worthiness.

I got off topic a little there, but it’s good stuff, right?

Back to Abraham and the fact that he showed lack of faith and trust in God. We all will backslide, one way or another, sooner or later. We need to treat those discretions correctly- without guilt, without remorse, and with a stronger desire and commitment to do better. That’s the best we can hope for and what we should aim to achieve: just to do better. If we try to be holy and righteous, we will fail and become distressed and disappointed with ourselves. That is fuel for the Enemy. He will come into your life with trials and problems, or tempt you with the pleasures of the flesh to keep you away from returning to the correct path. When we are attacking ourselves all the Enemy has to do is stand to the side and occasionally give us another reason to feel God has rejected us. He will give us more Tsuris, or he may introduce new pleasures, hedonistic and sinful, that will make us feel better, at the same time leading us away from the proper Halacha (way to walk).

Everyday I fight myself. Just like Shaul says, I do not what I want to do, and that which I do not want to do, I do. I am as much a wretch as he said he is.  But I have the hope of Messiah, and the promise of God, and the knowledge of His forgiveness, compassion and mercy which helps me continue to get back on track. It’s not the falling that is the problem- that goes with the territory. What we need to remember is that the key element is getting back on the right track. We will fall, we will stumble, we will get skinned knees and bloody noses. It will hurt, we will also hurt others (sin always hurts more people than just the one who committed the sin) and we will feel bad about it. You better feel bad about it!  Here’s the big BUT: feel bad but don’t berate or abuse yourself. Don’t give the Enemy a foothold: use the bad feelings in a positive way that will help you get back in the race, get back on the right track, and walk more carefully. Remember the spot where you tripped and avoid it next time it comes around. Don’t worry about not having enough chances to sin- you will never run out of opportunity to sin. That’s OK- God will never run out of mercy or forgiveness to those who do T’Shuvah.

I used to think that those people who were “saved” used this Messiah thing as a crutch to simply explain away their problems.  I was right, and I was wrong. I was right in thinking we can use Yeshua as a crutch, but not in the way I thought. I thought He was a crutch people used more for an excuse, a means of avoiding the truth about themselves and the world. The truth is that He is a crutch which supports us when we are about to fall, and keeps us standing and moving , and gives us the hope that we will be better. He is not a means of avoiding our responsibilities: He doesn’t enable us, He edifies us. He holds us up in our weaknesses and supports us with His love, His truth, and the Ruach HaKodesh.

Don’t be afraid of falling; but, do be horrified at the thought of not getting off your butt and back in the race when you do.