Tag: obedience

Potato, potahto….Tomato, tomahto.

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They sound different but, once you taste it, you know that the potato is a potahto and the tomato is a tomahto.

In Hebrew there are no vowels, so the root consonants of the word can be the same for two different words, which can sound different but still have the same basic meaning. For instance, Joshua and Yeshua have the same letters, and both mean (essentially) the same thing: salvation of God. In one case, it is the name of the person and in the other case, it is more than a name- it is His calling and reason for His existence in human form.

There are two other words I am thinking of: Tzedakah and Mitzvah.

Tzedakah is charity and a mitzvah is a good deed (righteous act.) To give to the poor is to practice Tzedakah, and to help an elderly person across the street is a mitzvah.

The root letters of these words also are in the words Tzaddik and Mitzvot, which mean (respectively) a righteous person and a commandment.

The point is obvious (at least, to me it is, but then again I am the writer, ain’t I?): righteous people do righteous acts and obeying the commandments is performing good deeds or (more biblically phrased) producing good fruit.

If you want to be a righteous person, do righteous acts, and when you obey God’s mitzvot (commandments) then you will be doing good deeds.

For the record? The commandments that we are talking about here are the ones found in the Torah, the mitzvot that God gave to Moses for EVERYONE and ANYONE who claims to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. If you think that because you are not Jewish, because you are a Christian that you only have to obey the commandments in the New Covenant, that’s fine. Just know this: every single thing that Jesus (Yeshua) taught and commanded you to do in the New Covenant writings was unaltered and directly from the Torah. There was no other scripture then. In fact, Yeshua is the living Torah, the Word that became flesh, so there was nothing else He could have taught about and nothing else He could have commanded you to obey other than Himself (i.e., the Torah.) There is nothing ‘new’ in the New Covenant; it is simply Yeshua explaining the letter of the law in a spiritual context. He didn’t change it, He never even implied that we should ignore it, He emphatically taught us how to obey by setting the example in the way He lived. He told you (and me) to obey Torah: not just the letter of the Torah, but the spirit of it.

When I was in sales I learned a valuable lesson about humanity (you’ve probably heard me say this over and over already, so ….here it is, again!):

People don’t mean what they say, they mean what they do. 

When you do something that is in obedience to God’s commandments, you are not just doing a mitzvah, you are becoming more of a Tzaddik (righteous person). You can’t really be one without the other, can you? Because people mean what they do, a righteous person does what is right, and what is right is to do a mitzvah, which is done by obeying the mitzvot God gave us.

In the Gospels (B’rit Chadashah) we read of a young man who came to Yeshua (Jesus) and said, “Good Rabbi, what must I do to have eternal life?”  He answered by telling the young man that the only thing or person that is good is God. We can do good deeds but we, as humans, can’t really be good, ourselves. However, we can be better!

Do good things and you will become better, better in God’s eyes, better in everyone else’s eyes, better in your own eyes. And doing good things, doing mitzvot, will also help you develop into a Tzaddik.

The whole lesson for today is one we have all heard, over and over, but it never loses it’s importance: don’t just talk the talk, you must walk the walk.

We are what we do, so obey the Mitzvot and become a Tzaddik!

 

Parashah Lech Lecha (Go Forth) Genesis 12-17

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This parashah starts with these words:

The Lord said to Abram, Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, And I will bless you; I will make your name great, And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you And curse him that curses you; And all the families of the earth Shall bless themselves by you.”

What should we do when we receive a calling from God?  The answer is: do what you are told to do.

Abram (he isn’t Abraham yet: Abram means “Noble Father” but it isn’t until he is to fulfill his side of the covenant through circumcision that God says his name is to be Abraham, meaning Father of Nations) is to leave all that he has known, his family, his friends, everything that is of the Chaldees where he has lived. This is so that he will not be contaminated by their pagan worship, and the household he is to train up to be God fearing is also not to be influenced or contaminated by the unclean pagan worship and lifestyle.

The calling from God was more than just that God will make Abraham a blessing to the world. There was the need for Abraham to obey the calling so that this promise could be fulfilled. If Abraham had remained in Ur, if he had not gone to the land God called him to go to, then he would not have ever become the blessing that God intended to make of him.

But it’s not useful to be a hermit. It may be true that the only way to be completely free of wrongful influences is to hide away on some deserted island or make a home in the North Atlantic woodlands, which is especially hard in today’s technological world where everyone is only an email or a FaceBook post away. In Abraham’s day all he had to do is walk far enough away from everyone else, but that would have prevented him from fulfilling the rest of his calling.

By becoming a hermit we can stay “pure”, but that purity is useless because it brings no glory to God and doesn’t do God’s work in the world. Yeshua tells us in Matthew 5:15 that no one lights a lamp then puts it under a basket; they light the lamp and place it high up where the light can be seen by all. Abraham’s calling was to be a light to the world, and through him, i.e., through his example of worship, his lifestyle and his actions, the world would be able to see how he is blessed by God. Then they would be influenced by his goodness. As they learned to live as Abraham lived, then they would, as a consequence of following Abraham’s example, also be blessed by God.

We must follow the calling we receive. You may not have heard it yet, or you may have heard it but you’re waiting for the right time. Well, if you are waiting for God to tell you it’s time for you to fulfill your calling, you have already missed it. God is not a god of “Let’s think about this”; God is the god of “Get it done!”, and that means now. When you receive a calling from God He is telling you He wants you do to something. If you stall or wait too long, His plan will go forth, without you. If you do not do as God says to do when He says to do it, you will miss out on what He had in store for you.

God’s plan of salvation is like a large ship going from creation to creation. As the ship travels, with God at the helm, people can get on for free, and they also can get off. That’s called Free Will. And there will  be many doing just that- many getting on, many getting off, and most just waving as it goes by. But the ship will continue to sail, and it will reach it’s destination. If you want to get on, it’s free. You have to work, though- it’s a free entry but it’s not a free ride.

Abraham did as God told him to do, without hesitation. We usually think of Genesis 15:6 when we think of Abraham’s righteousness, but I would venture to say that the true demonstration of Abraham’s’ righteousness and faith is the fact that he didn’t just do as God said to do, he did it then and there. He left his home right away, he went without knowing where he was being led, he circumcised everyone (including himself) the very day he was commanded to do so, and even when he was told to sacrifice Yitzchak, his only son, the son of the promise, he left early the next morning to do so. No hesitation, no questioning, no discussion. God said do, and he did.

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t heard too many callings in my life. I believe writing my book was a calling, but even though I wrote it and have tried to push it out (see the links at the bottom right of this web page), I really think I should have done more long ago, and even though I know I should do more now, I hesitate. I have invested a few grand in this, and need to invest more. I know that God will honor what I do, and if this book is giving God the glory I think it does, He will get it out there.

But I still need to do my part. I had a calling to give a testimony (the link to it is at the bottom of my bio) and I hesitated on that, too. I was a new Believer, but it seems I still have a lot to learn about faithful obedience. We all do, don’t we?

Praise God that He is not just patient, but compassionately understanding. I feel ashamed to confess to you that I have these hesitations, but I am not here to tell you about God because I am an expert at following Him- I am here to show you that even someone as useless as I am can still do God’s work in the world and honor Him. Even though I, myself, am weak. Just as Shaul said of himself in 2 Corinthians 12:9, God’s strength is made manifest in our weakness.

But you don’t have to be weak- you can be stronger than me, stronger even that Shaul. You can obey the calling God has for you ASAP. If you don’t know what that calling is, or He hasn’t revealed what He wants you to do for Him yet, then wait for it. It is coming, and you can prepare for it by studying His word, separating yourself from those influences of the world that would contaminate you, and listening. Remember that God was not in the fire or the shaking mountain or the fierce wind, but He was just a still, quiet voice (1 Kings, 9:12.) To hear the majestic voice of God, we need to listen quietly and faithfully.

Faith isn’t just believing, it is also doing. Abraham showed tremendous faith in doing as he was told to do, and doing it as soon as he heard the command. God grant us all that we may demonstrate that same level of faithfulness.

Days of Awe are Here Again

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L’Shonah Tovah! Happy New Year! Although it isn’t really the beginning of the year, biblically, it is still a celebratory day and a mandated Holy Day (see Leviticus 23.) The Rabbi’s have made this a civil new year (the beginning of the year for Jews is Pesach/Passover, see Exodus 12:2) and it is also the beginning of the Days of Awe.

The ten days after Rosh HaShannah, up to Yom Kippur, are a time for self-evaluation and reflection. We are to look inside ourselves and see what is there: is there repentance and a sense of T’Shuvah, or is there only rationalization and lame excuses for failing to even try to obey God?

We are to be in “awe” of God and His wonderful blessings, but I am more like, “Awe, shucks- I didn’t do as well as I wanted to do” when it comes to pleasing God. And that is the same way I feel every year, although I can say I have been doing much better since I started to worship God then before I knew Him or Messiah Yeshua (around February of 1997.)

I think of all the times in the past year I have done wrong to people: I wrote a nasty-gram at work, I chewed out my niece on Facebook (sorry, Heather- I love you and hate Facebook),  I even got mad at Donna once or twice (how could that ever happen?), and I am sure there are others I have hurt along the way that I am not even aware of having done so.

A traditional event at this time of the year is to ask forgiveness of those we have sinned against, and I do now, publicly, ask those named above, and anyone else I may have hurt, to please forgive me. I’m sorry. And I do this knowing that the forgiveness I need most is from God, for every sin I commit is against God, first and foremost. And I also want to remind all of you reading this that the forgiveness we all need from God is already here, through Messiah Yeshua. So many (in fact, almost every one) of my family disagree with my belief in Yeshua, but that is OK because they have a right to their opinion. God gave us all free will, and how well we use it is up to us. But you should at least be willing to ask why I believe as I do. If you are right, you have nothing to lose; if I am right, you have everything to gain. But I will not force you to listen. I will not force anyone to hear the truth about God and His Messiah.

What I (in fact, what all Believers) really should be doing is speaking with my actions, not my words.

During this time of introspection, review your actions over the past year but don’t beat yourself up over it. Getting distressed and upset about things you can’t change is giving power to the enemy, who will use the uselessness of wanting to change the past to destroy you. Remember the past so that you can have a more fruitful future; the best thing to do with past memories is use them to create a better future. I know people who will not let go of the past, who constantly live wanting the past to be different; consequently, their present is not as joyful as it could be and they can’t see any future. They live in limbo: feeling like they have no control, frustrated, angry and hateful. And through it all they haven’t a clue why they are so miserable.

Look back on this past year and decide how you will make next year better. Look to God for help and to His Ruach/Spirit for guidance. Read the Manual (Bible) every day to get good ideas about how to act, and how not to act, and (may I suggest) go through Proverbs slowly. There is more than a single lifetime of wisdom in that book.

All the commandments God gave to us were designed for one thing, and it isn’t just the proper way to worship Him (although that is in there), and it isn’t just what we are to eat (although that’s in there), and it isn’t just how we are to treat each other (you’ll find that there, too): the reason God gave us those laws (and He tells us why more than once) is so that by obeying them we will have long life, we will be happy, and we will live in peace.

Makes you wonder why anyone would not want to obey God’s laws?

Parashah Ekev (follow) Deuteronomy 7:12 – 11:25

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Most of D’Varim (Deuteronomy) is a discourse from Moses reminding the children of Israel all that has happened to them over the past forty years, reminding them of God’s commandments and encouraging them to obey God after they have gone into the land and conquered it.

This parashah starts with Moses continuing his discourse on the history of their journey. He reminds them of the wonderful ways God has protected and fed them, and also of the horrible ways they have rejected God and tested Him. Moses goes back and forth from what God has done, what He will do to help, and how He has kept His part of the covenant, then about how they have, for their part, broken the covenant because they refused to obey and what will happen to them if they continue to refuse.

He tells them they are to go in and take over the land, destroying all the pagan items and peoples, and that even though the people there are stronger and mightier than they are, God will go before them and battle for them.

Moses warns the people that they shouldn’t become complacent when God has done all these wonderful things, and begin to think that they deserved any of it. He is quite adamant that they don’t, and they better not forget that. They are getting the best not because they deserve it, but because God loved their ancestors, who did deserve it. They don’t. He wants them to continually be humble before the Lord- as should we all.

I  like how Moses tells them in chapter 10, verses 12-13 that all God requires is for the people to fear God, walk in His ways, love and serve Him. Sound familiar? Read Micah 6:8.

The message here for all of us is that we need to remember that God will do for us all that we could ever want, and when we walk in trusting faithfulness, He will be there, in front of us, protecting us and forging a path for us so we can complete the trip. He will smooth the path, place hedges on the right and the left to keep us straight, and destroy the enemies blocking our way. And if we fall, He will pick us up. If needs be, He may even carry us for a way. However, He won’t carry us all the way; there may be a smooth path but there will be hills to overcome and valleys to pass through. It won’t be easy, it won’t always be fun, but we must keep going.

That’s really the whole story, isn’t it? From beginning to end, the basic A-B-C’s of salvation are:

A– Accept your own sinfulness and need for God, Accept the rule of God, and Accept His Messiah;

B– Be obedient, Be dedicated, Be an example of God’s wonder and goodness;

C- Continue to work at being more of what God wants you to be so you can Complete the journey.

That’s all there is to Salvation: it’s easy to attain, it’s hard to keep, but it’s well worth having.

Parashah Chukkot (Statutes) Numbers 19 – 22:1

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Where do I even start? The Red Heifer rules? The death of Miriam? The death of Aaron? The defeat of Sihon and Og? What about the incident at Meribah, which made God so angry with Moses and Aaron that He refused to let them enter the Land? And the snakes, which caused Moses to make the brass snake that we hear about later in 2 King, 18:4 (I speak of that in my book.)

The Chumash speaks of the Red Heifer regulations as the most mysterious in the Torah; in all scripture, for that matter. That which defiles everyone involved in the making of it also purifies all those who partake of it. The lesson the Rabbis give us is simply that there are many things that we can not understand, and it is not our understanding that is required by God, but our faithful obedience.

This can also be seen in the sin of Moses at the rock at Meribah. There are a few different commentaries, but (essentially) the way Moses acted showed faithlessness in front of the people, and for that God was not given all the honor He expected Moses to give Him. In Judaism it is believed that the greater the man, the stricter the standards by which he is judged.  This is repeated, in a way, in James 3:1-2 where it says, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” The total and complete obedience of Gods commands are what God expects and demands from us. Moses did not just speak to the rock to show God’s miraculous intervention, he struck it (twice!) with the staff that God told him to take with him. That staff represented the miracle that God caused (Parashah Korach)  and I believe that God wanted Moses to take it, not to strike the rock, but to have it there to remind the people of God’s choice of Moses and Aaron as His representatives and their leaders. Moses used the staff in a totally wrong way, which brought no honor to God at all.

In Chapter 21, verses 4 – 9 (inclusive) we are told of another time the people grumble against Moses. This is at the end of their journey- Miriam and Aaron have died- yet after all these years of God’s miraculous intervention and provision, they still kvetch about everything! Oy! No wonder God was so angry that he sent snakes to kill the people. Yet, when they repented, He told Moses to make a brass serpent and place it high on a pole, high enough that all the people, no matter where they were in the camp, could see it. And when they were bitten, they only need look to the snake and they would not die.

Yeshua said, in John 3:14, that He would be lifted up like the snake in the desert. I see a double-prophecy in this statement, one prophecy to be fulfilled currently and the other aspect to be a far-future event. The current meaning was that Yeshua was going to be placed up on a pole, i.e., He was to be crucified. The future meaning of this prophecy would be that Yeshua (Jesus) would be worshipped instead of God, as the snake (called Nehushtan) was in 2 Kings during the time of King Hezekiah. When Moses placed the snake on the pole, it was to represent the salvation of God- the people still suffered for their sin (they were still being bitten by snakes, and that doesn’t feel very good) but instead of dying they could look to the representation of God’s salvation, the brass snake, and the consequence of their sin (death) was avoided. Today, and for many years, the image of Yeshua, a graven image on a pole (cross) that is displayed in some churches, is worshipped in lieu of God.  Just as the representation of Gods salvation was turned into an idol during the time of Hezekiah, today the “church” has turned Yeshua into an idol- an image and a person to be prayed to directly for salvation and to answer prayers. Yeshua told us to pray in His name; He was telling us to pray to God and to invoke His name. It’s somewhat like when someone wanted to enter a Speakeasy during Prohibition days, when they were stopped at the door they would say, “Joe sent me”, or some other code, that gave them recognition and entry.  When we pray to God, praying in the name of Yeshua is a means to gain entry, to have our prayers recognized and seen as righteous: not because of who we are, but by the righteousness of Him who we are referring to when we come before the Lord. The snake stopped being a representation of God’s salvation and replaced God as an idol, in and of itself. An idol is anything that we worship instead of God. So, too, today the image and the very personage of Yeshua has become an idol, something that is prayed to instead of God. Just as He said He would be.

God, and God alone, is who we worship, who we pray to, and who we obey. God, and no other. Yeshua is our Messiah and, as such, he sits at the right hand of God. At the right hand of God, NOT on the throne of God! So we should pray to God, and ask what we ask in the name of Yeshua; as intercessor to God, not as His replacement.

From all there is in this parashah, let’s remember this: God is the only God, God is supreme, and whatever God tells us to do, whether we understand why or not, we should do. That means E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G God tells us to do, as much as it is possible for us to obey.

And if you want to know everything that God tells YOU to do, read the Torah. Read the Mitzvot (commandments), read the Chukkot (regulations/statutes) and read the Mishpatim (rules).  All of the laws, rules, statutes, commandments, and regulations in there are expected to be obeyed by anyone and everyone who worships El Elyon, Adonai, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the father of Jesus.

There is just so much in this parashah, but if I were to put it in a nutshell, so to speak, I would say that the lesson here for us is to recognize that God isn’t concerned with how well we understand His laws and regulations, just that we show Him our love and worship through obedience.

Yeshua said that if we love Him we will obey Him: like Father, like Son.

Red Light; Green Light

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It’s zero-dark-thirty in the morning and you are on a major road going home. You are stuck at a red light: there isn’t a car in sight in any direction. Do you just go through the light or do you wait for it to turn green?

I confess I might go through it. I have been in that situation more than once, and usually I do wait (no, I am not a major party animal. As an IT guy sometimes I have had to stay really late to get upgrades completed after hours. No…really!)

They say that honesty is doing what you know you’re supposed to do, even when you’re positive that no one will ever find out. For those of us who know and worship the Lord, we understand that while no person may ever find out, nothing is hidden from God. So, do we not go through the red light because we know that is the right thing to do, or do we not go through because there could be someone watching that we don’t see?

In other words, do we obey because we want to obey, or do we obey because we are afraid of the consequences when we don’t?

I bet you can see where this is going….Yeshua said if we love Him we will do what He says, and we are also commanded to love God and love each other. In the very same breath we are also told that if we disobey we will be cursed. Obedience brings blessings and disobedience brings suffering, so do we really have a choice?

It doesn’t seem so, does it? Yet, God gives us free will, and even those that not just ignore Him, but outright reject that He even exists, are often “blessed” with riches and fame.

Or are they? Just because someone has all they could want doesn’t mean it comes from God. There is another power that has control over the worldly things that people crave. And his retirement plan is very different from the one God offers.

Should we obey from love or from the fear of retribution and punishment?

We are told that God was sickened and disgusted with the sacrifices offered to Him by the Judeans when these sacrifices were done along side sacrifices to Ba’al, Asherah, Molech, and the other Semitic gods that they worshipped before they were taken into captivity. They obeyed His commands, but he didn’t want their sacrifices because there was no love or true worship behind them. How often are we told in the Book of Nevi’im (Prophets), again and again, that the blood of bulls and sheep means less to God than obedience. Here it is clear that God wants obedience from the heart, not just going through the motions. Does that mean that if we go through the motions they won’t be accepted? Remember Cain? Cain went through the motions and his offerings weren’t accepted, were they?

I think the answer is that God wants us to love Him as He loves us, and to show that love by loving each other as we would want them to love us.

WOW!! Steve!! What a revelation! You’ve changed my life, Man!!

Yeah, yeah….I know. I am stating the obvious (did you catch the cynicism there?) but as obvious as that is, can you tell me why we still don’t do it? I think the answer is just as obvious: people that regularly do not obey the Lord are people that don’t love Him. And that includes professed “Believers.” As such, those who regularly disobey because their heart tells them to disobey (although that may not be how they see it) are doomed people. God tells us, more than once, that we should choose life and not death- He lays it out simply: if we do as He says, we live in His presence and if we don’t do as He says (in other words, we reject Him), then He will reject us.

The good news is that love is absolutely unstable and untrustworthy: that which we hate today we can love tomorrow, and vice-versa. People who hate the Lord have turned to Him and become strong and fruitful followers, and those raised with God who always thought they loved Him can turn against Him as soon as they hit real strife, such as loss of a loved one. So we need to be aware that our love for God is as fragile as the human spirit, and only God’s spirit is strong enough to get us through the horrors of living. Therefore, rely on God and don’t trust yourself.

The answer, for me, is that we obey God because we love Him and from fear of the consequences of disobedience. I think that is OK because we are, in our very nature, sinful sinners and sin is always crouching at our door. The more we love the Lord the easier it is to obey, but it certainly helps overcome the weakness of the flesh when we realize that disobedience carries consequences we don’t want.

Yeshua told the parable about the good son, remember? Even though he refused to do as his father asked initially, for whatever reason he changed his mind later and did as asked, and for that he was recognized as a better son than the one who happily and immediately said he would do as the father asked, but never got around to it. I think one lesson here is that our heart may initially reject what God asks of us because we love ourselves more than Him, but that can be overcome. Maybe not at first, maybe not right away, but it can be overcome, eventually. And let me add this: when we have the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, living within us and when we listen to that spirit talking to us, we can more easily overcome the flesh because we want to.

There is the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.  When we stop at the red light, even though we can go through, we are obeying the spirit of the law. To obey the spirit of the law of God, we need His spirit guiding us. If we only want to obey the letter of the law, that is what Shaul (Paul) called being “under the law”, i.e. trying to gain salvation by doing what we are supposed to do, whether we want to or not. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that it is impossible for us to do that, because God really wants us to obey the spirit of the law. That is a heartfelt obedience, that is doing what He wants because doing so will please Him. That is obedience from love.

Next time you come to a red light, and there is absolutely no one around, what do you think you will do? Now ask yourself, “Why?”

Can I Still Go to Heaven if I Teach Others to Sin?

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In Matthew we are told by Yeshua,” Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

It seems that even if we continue to sin after being saved, we can still go to heaven. For me, that’s good news, because I know I have accepted Messiah as my Savior and King, but I still sin. His sacrifice covers it for me.

The bad news is that there are people who will take this as a license to keep sinning since His blood covers all sins. I guess they think they can do what they want and, so long as they repent on their death bed, they’ll be OK. On the other hand, in all fairness, maybe they are just like me- wanting to stop but incapable of doing so.

We are all sinners, and we can’t stop it. That’s why Yeshua had to die. If any one human being (other than the Big Guy) is capable of living a sinless life, then there is no need for a Messiah. The grading curve is busted, and the only people that will be in heaven are God, Yeshua and that one dope who ruined it for the rest of us!

But yet, if I can keep on sinning, and all that happens is that I am the least in the kingdom of heaven, heck! I’m still in heaven, right? Joshua slept at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, Proverbs says it is better to spend one day in heaven than a thousand with sinners, so if I am the least in the kingdom, so be it. I get to live my life as I want, and still get saved. Woo-hoo!!

Sorry- not gonna happen. Yeah, it sounds like that but it doesn’t jive with the rest of the Manual. First off, Yacov (James) reminds us that faith without works is dead. If we are truly repentant, we don’t want to go on sinning. We want to change- that is what T’Shuvah means, to turn , to walk away from sinning. God is compassionate, understanding and merciful, but He’s no fool. You can’t fool Him into calling on His name (to be saved), then not changing your ways. Besides, how can you be sure you will have that “last breath” to repent with? He will come like a thief in the night, it will be like in the days of Noach…in other words, we can’t count on having that last moment of repentance. It’s now or (maybe) never because when it happens, there won’t be time to repent. Even if you mean it.

Maybe the big difference is that part about teaching others: we all continue to sin, and (thanks to Yeshua) we can always be forgiven when we ask God to do so. In Yeshua’s name (B’shem Yeshua ha Mashiach) we can be forgiven our sins, but if we teach others to sin will they be forgiven? We can intercede, we can ask God to forgive them just as Yeshua did as he was being nailed to the tree, but will that help those people? Shaul tells us we shouldn’t do anything to cause another to stumble into sin. That means to set the right example. It’s not just about teaching others in a formal classes setting  to watch out for- it’s setting the wrong example in our daily lives.

Halakah (sets of Rabbinic laws for how to live) is based on the idea that we don’t want to trespass (break) the laws of Torah. But we might, so to protect the law we build a fence around it. And, being Jewish, we ask what if I accidentally fall against the fence? What if the gate opens and I walk in without knowing? Well, the answer is to build a fence around the fence.

Yes, but what if I am driving (it’s not Shabbat) and my brakes fail and I accidentally crash into the fence and go through both? OK- let’s build a fence around the fence that is protecting the fence that is keeping us from trespassing.

Yes, but what if….ad infinitum. That is why I will tell people that I follow biblical laws and not always the Rabbinic laws. Kosher laws aren’t that hard to follow if you stick to the Bible, but the Kosher rules and regulations that are Halakha are infinitely hard to keep. I just stay away from shellfish and pork, and try not to get caught accidentally eating coney, eagle or camel. That’s not all that hard to do.

Personally, even though Yeshua tells us when we are a guest we should choose the least important seat at the table, I would rather be one of those that is considered great in the kingdom. It may be pride, and it may be (I would like to think) because it would represent that I did God’s will when I was alive. If I sin less and less, and by my example and by how I teach, I can help others to sin less and less, I will be great in the Kingdom, and it won’t be from pride but from faithful obedience.

That’s what it boils down to- faithful obedience. If you call yourself a Believer, or Born Again, or even Messianic, and you have a hunger for Torah, a terrible thirst for His word and a burning desire to sin less and less in your life, while not judging those who do sin, you are doing what the Manual (at least, as I read it) says you should be doing.

We all are sinners, from birth, living in a sinful and cursed world, and we need to be the light. We need to be the salt, and the best way to do that is to simply live a life desiring to be faithfully obedient, and acting on that desire. Wanting won’t cut it with God- you really need to act. He is not a God of waiting around, and He is not a God of wanting to have it done for you. The biggest lie anyone ever told is that Bible says God helps those that help themselves. God helps those that call on His name AND take action to be more like God wants us to be. God is a God of action, of doing and not just saying. He wants us to trust in Him, to ask Him for help, to turn to Him and not to our own devices, but always, always, always to keep moving forward. We should follow the example of Avraham Avinu (Abraham our Father) and listen to God, unhesitatingly walk in faith where he tells us to go, and maintain faithful obedience in everything we do.

Don’t live your life settling just to be in heaven- strive to be greater than that, because to do so means you are doing God’s work here on Earth. It’s not for bragging rights we should want to be among the greatest in heaven, it’s because it will represent that we served God obediently on Earth.

Parashah Ki Tavo (When You Come)

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This parasha continues with the commandments regarding how the people are to behave when they enter the Land (ha Eretz). It tells them to write the entire Torah on plastered rocks and to stand, 6 tribes on one mountain and the other 6 on another one, and pronounce the blessings and curses that the people are subject to while in the Land. Chapters 28 and 29 specify, in somewhat graphic detail, the blessings for obedience and the curses (this is where it gets graphic) for rejecting the laws, thereby rejecting God.

But does God really curse us? God is good, all the time! We hear that often during services, and it is in the Manual, too. We also hear that God is the same: yesterday, today and tomorrow. Totally dependable. Loving and compassionate. Patient and forgiving; in fact, more than just willing to forgive, He wants to forgive!

We know God will judge, but we also know His judgments are infused with mercy.

However, He is God, and will do whatever He wants to do, however He wants to do it. We trust, and we should, that what He does is just and holy. God is loving, fair, merciful and compassionate, and he wants us to have only the best there is.

So, nu? With all that going for Him, why would He curse us just because we want to do our own thing? He gave us free will, right? He lets us make our own decisions, right? So, if we decide to ignore some, or all, of His rules why be so vengeful and nasty? I mean, c’mon, God- live, and let live. You go your way and I’ll go my way. No need to be all “up-in-my-face” about it. I’ll leave you alone and you leave me alone. Okay?

Actually…that is exactly what he does.

Remember that the world is a cursed place. It was cursed with the sin that Adam and Eve committed, and has remained cursed. In fact, Satan was thrown not to Sheol (hell), but to Earth. If you sometimes think it is hell on Earth, well- you’re right! It is.

God’s blessings are a kippur, or covering. It is the umbrella that protects us from the raining down curses that we must endure while we live in this world. We have the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, coming soon. Kippur means covering, and that is really what atonement does for us: when we atone before God, when we do T’Shuvah and (literally) turn from our sins, He covers us with His protection from the world, i.e., blessings. You see, things start off lousy- we are born into sin, with a sinful nature (Yetzer Hara) and into a sinful, cursed world. The wonderful things that happen to us are the exception, not the rule. Those exceptions happen because God covers us with His blessings. Yeshua said He wished He could cover Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) like a mother hen covers her chicks under her wings. Often, David used the term “under the wings”, an image of being covered and protected, in his psalms about how God cares for us.

We are given free will, and we can do whatever we want regarding the laws and commandments God has ordered us to obey. But we need to be ready for the consequences.

Does God curse us? I say no, because he doesn’t need to. We start off cursed, in a cursed world. God wants to cover us, to give us His Kippur, and we can choose to go to Him and stand under His protection, or we can choose to say, “Thanks, but no thanks” and stand alone, unprotected in the midst of tsouris.

I think many people just don’t like being told what to do; yes, we are sheep easily led astray. But we are also stiff-necked and stubborn, prideful and egocentric. The way we are easily led astray is that anyone who promises us hedonistic pleasures and autonomy will have a following more numerous than the grains of sand on all the beaches in the world. What God tells us to do is for our best interest and will lead to Eternal pleasure, but (sadly) we prefer to do what feels good now and ignore the Eternal consequences. We like to be “eased” into obedience, but that is not how it works with the Lord. He doesn’t ask, and He doesn’t need to ask, just like when I was a Lieutenant in the Marine Corps I didn’t need to ask an enlisted man to do something. Even the Roman soldier who told Yeshua, by means of servants, that Yeshua did not need to come to his home to cure the sick slave, knew that was true because Yeshua had the authority to do so, wherever He was. God is THE ultimate authority in the Universe. He, and He alone, has the right and the power to enforce telling us what to do. Yes, he could send horrible curses upon us, but he doesn’t use that power- He doesn’t need to. He chooses instead to lovingly, and (I believe from what I read in the Bible) regretfully leave us to our own devices.

People curse each other- we willingly desire that bad things happen to someone else and if we could make it happen, we would. We actively curse each other. God does not actively curse us- His “curses” are passive, in that His curse is the result of us rejecting Him, and thereby throwing off His Kippur from the already cursed world. God doesn’t throw us under the bus- we run into the road and lay down in front of the bus all on our own.

Obey God, believe that Yeshua is the Messiah and accept Him as your Messiah, follow the commandments and you choose life: a life of blessings and an Eternity in the presence of the Almighty. If you prefer to do as you please, reject Yeshua and thereby reject God’s plan of salvation for yourself,  you choose Eternal suffering. You may have one heck of a good life on earth- the sinful know how to get what they want (there’s an interesting parable about that in Luke), but in the end, you are choosing death.

It’s your choice.

 

Our Gift to God

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God already owns everything. David said it, the Prophets said it, we are told this throughout the Tanakh. God is the Creator of everything.

When we tithe, we only give Him back what He already owns.

When we give to the poor, the orphaned and the widow, we give them what God gave us. It was His to begin with.

Our property- His; our gifts and talents- His; our very life- that’s right, it’s His, too. He gave it all to us, and we only give Him back that which He already owns.

Nu? What gift can we give God that is really a gift? What can we give God that is something we own, totally ours and no one else’s, something that He cannot have without us giving it to Him?

What can we possess that God doesn’t have, wants to have, but can’t have unless we give it to Him?

The answer is: our love and our faithful obedience.

God has given each one of us Free Will. We decide what we will do and what we won’t do; consequently, He made us in such a way that He doesn’t already own our love or obedience. And He wants it. He tells us so, doesn’t He? In the Bible, from front to back, we are told that what God wants is faithful obedience. More than sacrifice (maybe because He already owns the animals?), more than lip service, more than anything else. The V’Ahavta prayer (found in D’Varim/Deuteronomy right after the Shema) tells us, first and foremost, we are to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and strength. The Prophets tell us constantly to return to the Lord, and that means to do as He says we should do. Why? For His sake? No, for our sakes!  In Ezekiel God says that He is not glad to see the sinner die, but rather that the sinner turn from his sins and live. God isn’t concerned with this corporeal existence when He says “live”, He means to have everlasting life in His presence. And He desires our love and obedience.

We are told  God can do anything, but that isn’t true. I remember a funny paradox that George Carlin used to say, even though some may think it’s not all that respectful (God has to have a sense of humor- I mean, He created us, right?): George would ask, “If God can do anything, can He make a rock so big He can’t lift it?” I’m sorry, but that’s funny.

But, I digress.

There is one thing God can’t do, and that is sin. Oops! Make that two things God can’t do- sin, and make us love Him. Well, He could make us love Him, I suppose, but He won’t! As much as it hurts the Lord to see even one of His children suffer, He is just and fair. He laid down the rules and we can follow them or reject them.  It’s totally up to each one of us.

I just remembered a story I once heard. No idea where it comes from, and I don’t even know if it’s valid as Jewish folklore, but it certainly sounds correct. I will put it out here and you decide if you like it or not.

Just after the Hebrews safely crossed the Red Sea, and as the waters engulfed the Egyptian army, the angels in heaven said to God, “Let’s sing a song of joy, for the children of Israel are safe!”, but God was sad. When they asked why He was sad, God said, “Because my children are dying.”

If you love the Lord, and you want to give Him something that is truly from your heart that really means something to Him, something He doesn’t have already, then love Him. And show that love by obeying Him.

Yeshua told His Talmudim that if they love Him, they will obey Him. He was just repeating what His Father has always said.

Give God your love and faithful obedience, and you will give God the only thing that exists which He doesn’t already own.