Friday after TeTzaveh
Friday after TeTzaveh
Weekday Readings
Jeremiah chapter 31 & 32
Jer 31:1 At that time, says YHWH, will I be the Elohim of all the families of Yisra’el, and they shall be my people.
The “time” is the Ingathering, Sukkot.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 31:2 Thus says YHWH, The people who were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Yisra’el, when I went to cause him to rest.
Jer 31:3 YHWH appeared of old to me, [saying], Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.
Jer 31:4 Again will I build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Yisra’el: again shall you be adorned with your timbrels, and shall go forth in the dances of those who make merry.
Jer 31:5 Again shall you plant vineyards on the mountains of Shomron; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy [the fruit of it].
Jer 31:6 For there shall be a day, that the watchmen on the hills of Efrayim shall cry, Arise you, and let us go up to Tziyon to YHWH our Elohim.
Ephraim is often used in prophecy to refer to 10-Israel, since that tribe was the leader of the Northern nation of Israel when it split off from the southern nation of Judah.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 31:7 For thus says YHWH, Sing with gladness for Ya`akov, and shout for the chief of the nations: publish you, praise you, and say, YHWH, save your people, the remnant of Yisra’el.
Jer 31:8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, [and] with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together: a great company shall they return here.
Jer 31:9 They shall come with weeping; and with petitions will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Yisra’el, and Efrayim is my firstborn.
The “rivers of waters” probably refers to the “river of life” which will spring forth from the Temple Mount and turn into a large river, which will divide and go two directions, according to Ezekiel. On its banks will be trees for the “healing of the nations,” which bear fruit every month.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 31:10 Hear the word of YHWH, you nations, and declare it in the islands afar off; and say, He who scattered Yisra’el will gather him, and keep him, as shepherd does his flock.
Jer 31:11 For YHWH has ransomed Ya`akov, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.
The Ransom was Yeshua, and the one that used to be stronger than us was hasatan. Now, once redeemed by our kinsman redeemer, Yeshua, we are stronger than hasatan. Even if he kills our earthly lives we still win against him.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 31:12 They shall come and sing in the height of Tziyon, and shall flow to the goodness of YHWH, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
It is important to remember that during the Tribulation, starvation will be a common cause of death. All the grains and grasses will be burnt up, the fresh water will be contaminated, the seas will die off and the stinking rot of the carcasses of all the ocean fish and animals will carry on the wind and poison those foolish enough to try and eat anything from the seas. Those without the Mark of the Beast will not be able to buy provisions or sell anything to make money. Until you’ve been truly hungry, you can’t understand the desperation it causes.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 31:13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
Jer 31:14 I will satiate the soul of the Kohanim with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says YHWH.
It’s not called the FEAST of Ingathering for nothing – the food will be provided by Elohim and will be free of charge to all who come into the Messianic Kingdom.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 31:15 Thus says YHWH: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.
This verse was applied to Herod’s slaughter of the innocents, but that was merely a foreshadowing of the horrendous acts of the False Messiah during the Tribulation. Children will not be spared by the Beast. It will be a second Holocaust that makes the first look tame by comparison. But death is not the end for children under the age of accountability. Unlike the horrific church teachings to the contrary, Elohim never made any child or infant simply to toss him or her into the lake of fire. Until age 12/13, a child is not responsible for his or her actions. Children of Obedient Believers automatically will receive resurrection with the Tribulation martyrs if they are killed by the Beast or die due to WWIII. Children of the unsaved will likely have to wait for the Great White Throne Judgement. We can infer this from Shaul’s words:
1Co 7:12 But to the rest I–not Adonai–say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is content to live with him, let him not leave her. 1Co 7:13 The woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he is content to live with her, let her not leave her husband. 1Co 7:14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.
An underage child with even just one Obedient Believer as a parent is considered sanctified. This is difficult for modern people to understand, but it is related to the “authority” issue of taking responsibility for those in your household, congregation, parish, city, etc. In Hebrew someone under your religious authority is said to be “under the tallit” of the saved person, even if the saved person is themselves “under the tallit” of an unbelieving and unobedient spouse or boss.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 31:16 Thus says YHWH: Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says YHWH; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
Jer 31:17 There is hope for your latter end, says YHWH; and [your] children shall come again to their own border.
Jer 31:18 I have surely heard Efrayim bemoaning himself [thus], You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed [to the yoke]: turn you me, and I shall be turned; for you are YHWH my Elohim.
Jer 31:19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I struck on my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.
The people of 10-Israel will be ashamed of the pagan religious beliefs and customs they have adopted, such as “christmas” and “easter” and “halloween” and so on. They will repent of the false teachings of Torahlessness.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 31:20 Is Efrayim my dear son? is he a darling child? for as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says YHWH.
Elohim doesn’t WANT anyone to be lost – He wants everyone to repent and be saved. We DO have free will, and it is only our own fault if we refuse to repent and be saved.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 31:21 Set up road signs, make guideposts; set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went: turn again, virgin of Yisra’el, turn again to these your cities.
Jer 31:22 How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? for YHWH has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall encompass a man.
A commentary on this verse from a Christian pastor actually sums up the meaning of this strange verse perfectly. [Hat tip to ancienthebrewpoetry.typepad.com]
The verbs associated with the daughter / woman in this verse are all about movement and direction of movement. If this is not carried over in translation – and most translations fail to do so – it is easy to miss the point of what Elohim is saying according to Jeremiah.
According to the first half of this verse, the story of Jeremiah’s generation and its relationship with Elohim is one of waywardness. Like a headstrong teenage daughter…Israel runs hot one day and cold the next vis-à-vis its Elohim.
The second half of the verse transforms the ‘how long’ of the first half into a promise that the waywardness will come to end. It is anticipated that Adonai has brought about a new situation in which – the metaphor is changed somewhat – the woman will press the man. The woman will encircle and surround. The verb used is a strong one and can also be used in a negative sense, as when the waters ‘press round’ Jonah and nearly suffocate him (Jonah 2:4, 6).
To reuse an image that was applied to another generation, it is as if Elohim wanted to encompass his children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and they were unwilling. But Elohim fashions a new thing on the earth. The woman will press the man. The wayward one who went one way and then the next will circle round and encompass the one who for so long circled round and encompassed her.
The text refers to this as a “new thing on the earth.” A role reversal is described. The cultural template that will be reversed is the one that expects, in courtship, that the cock presses the hen. To this day in many cultures, in courtship, it is expected that the male take the initiative and the female be coy and play hard-to-get. The cultural template, of course, may remain so even if it hardly corresponds to reality. It is interesting that in the Song of Songs, the courtship proceeds with the girl, not the boy, taking the lead. And this, too, in traditional exegesis, is a mirror of the relationship of Israel (the girl) and her Elohim (the boy).
So this amazing prophecy of Jeremiah, on a par in every way with other prophecies in the context (note 31:33), imagines a reversal of the usual situation in which Elohim must beg his people for attention, and they do not respond. Now his people will take the initiative. Now they will court him. They will circle round him fixedly, rather than wander hither and thither. In terms of the image employed above, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, the people will gather Elohim under their wings.
Jeremiah 31:22 is the basis for the practice of the bride circling the groom seven times at a Jewish wedding. Understood in terms of its biblical subtext, the symbolism is breathtaking.
The bride’s encompassing of the groom is a sign and symbol of the prophecy of Jeremiah being fulfilled in every generation. Like the Shullamite in the Song of Songs, who is the image of Israel, the initiative lies with the bride, not the groom. Her proactive love for her groom becomes the means by which the relationship reaches its intended goal.
And we actively seek Elohim by reading the Tanakh, understanding and obeying the Torah, and believing in Yeshau HaMashiach, YHWH Elohim Incarnate, as having paid our previous death penalty for us, because He loves us, too.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 31:23 Thus says YHWH Tzeva’ot, the Elohim of Yisra’el, Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Yehudah and in the cities of it, when I shall rescind their captivity: YHWH bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.
Jer 31:24 Yehudah and all the cities of it shall dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks.
Jer 31:25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and every sorrowful soul have I replenished.
Jer 31:26 On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.
Jer 31:27 Behold, the days come, says YHWH, that I will sow the house of Yisra’el and the house of Yehudah with the seed of man, and with the seed of animal.
Jer 31:28 It shall happen that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant, says YHWH.
Jer 31:29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.
Jer 31:30 But everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.
For the whole House of Israel, there will be no more judgements upon neighborhoods, cities, regions, or the nation. Those days are over. All subsequent judgements on the House of Israel will be upon individuals, for their own actiosn alone.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, says YHWH, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Yisra’el, and with the house of Yehudah:
Jer 31:32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says YHWH.
Jer 31:33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Yisra’el after those days, says YHWH: I will put my Torah in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be my people.
This is one of the most important texts in the Tanakh. It defines for us just exactly what the New Covenant is, the one we obtain when we repent and are saved by Yeshua HaMashiach. It is the Torah written in our hearts. It is not the content of the new covenant that is different, it is the location that is different. Adam learned the Torah when he ate from the Tree of Knowledge, and passed it down to his descendants. It became distorted, like a game of post office. Then, Adonai came down on Mt. Sinai and gave it to us on stone and paper, but we still managed to mess it up by “interpreting” it to suit ourselves, or by adding to it, or by subtracting from it. Now, those days are also over. We now have the Ruach HaKodesh which has written the Torah in our heart and in our mind so that we can obey it perfectly. That is the New Covenant, and there is no other.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know YHWH; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says YHWH: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
Jer 31:35 Thus says YHWH, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that the waves of it roar; YHWH Tzeva’ot is his name:
Jer 31:36 If these ordinances depart from before me, says YHWH, then the seed of Yisra’el also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.
Jer 31:37 Thus says YHWH: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then will I also cast off all the seed of Yisra’el for all that they have done, says YHWH.
The message is clear, both the House of Israel and the Torah are forever – they are NEVER “set aside” or “done away with,” EVER. Anyone who says otherwise is a false prophet.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 31:38 Behold, the days come, says YHWH, that the city shall be built to YHWH from the tower of Chanan’el to the gate of the corner.
Jer 31:39 The measuring line shall go out further straight onward to the hill Garev, and shall turn about to Go`ah.
Jer 31:40 The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy to YHWH; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever.
Jer 32:1 The word that came to Yirmeyahu from YHWH in the tenth year of Tzidkiyahu king of Yehudah, which was the eighteenth year of Nevukhadnetzar.
This is about the year 3604 from the creation of Adam.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 32:2 Now at that time the king of Bavel’s army was besieging Yerushalayim; and Yirmeyahu the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the king of Yehudah’s house.
He was under arrest. This will be the condition of many observant believers when the last seige of Jerusalem gets underway in the last days of the Tribulation.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 32:3 For Tzidkiyahu king of Yehudah had shut him up, saying, Why do you prophesy, and say, Thus says YHWH, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Bavel, and he shall take it;
Jer 32:4 and Tzidkiyahu king of Yehudah shall not escape out of the hand of the Kasdim, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Bavel, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall see his eyes;
Jer 32:5 and he shall bring Tzidkiyahu to Bavel, and there shall he be until I visit him, says YHWH: though you fight with the Kasdim, you shall not prosper?
The same message, still unheeded, even with disaster staring them in the face.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 32:6 Yirmeyahu said, The word of YHWH came to me, saying,
Jer 32:7 Behold, Chanam’el the son of Shallum your uncle shall come to you, saying, Buy you my field that is in `Anatot; for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.
Jer 32:8 So Chanam’el my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of YHWH, and said to me, Please buy my field that is in `Anatot, which is in the land of Binyamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of YHWH.
Jer 32:9 I bought the field that was in `Anatot of Chanam’el my uncle’s son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.
Jeremiah was not a poor man. All of the prophets, priests and teachers had “day jobs” to support themselves, family businesses, family farms, or family inheritances.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 32:10 I subscribed the deed, and sealed it, and called witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances.
Jer 32:11 So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, containing the terms and conditions, and that which was open;
Jer 32:12 and I delivered the deed of the purchase to Barukh the son of Neriyah, the son of Mechaseyah, in the presence of Chanam’el my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses who subscribed the deed of the purchase, before all the Judeans who sat in the court of the guard.
Jer 32:13 I charged Barukh before them, saying,
Jer 32:14 Thus says YHWH Tzeva’ot, the Elohim of Yisra’el: Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase which is sealed, and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel; that they may continue many days.
Jer 32:15 For thus says YHWH Tzeva’ot, the Elohim of Yisra’el: Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land.
This prophecy has a double application. First, of course, many of those with inheritances in the land of Israel would eventually return after the Babylonian Exile. And secondly, at the Ingathering of the Sukkot which follows Yom Kippur, the second advent, every obedient believer who enters the Kingdom will receive an inheritance in Eretz Israel, and every righteous gentile will receive an inheritance among the nations. It will belong to their family for perpetuity – even if they sell it, it must be returned to them in the year of Jubilee.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 32:16 Now after I had delivered the deed of the purchase to Barukh the son of Neriyah, I prayed to YHWH, saying,
Jer 32:17 Ah Adonai YHWH! behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for you,
Jer 32:18 who show loving kindness to thousands, and recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them; the great, the mighty El, YHWH Tzeva’ot is his name;
Jer 32:19 great in counsel, and mighty in work; whose eyes are open on all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:
Jer 32:20 who performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even to this day, both in Yisra’el and among [other] men; and made you a name, as in this day;
Jer 32:21 and brought forth your people Yisra’el out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terror;
Jer 32:22 and gave them this land, which you did swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;
Jer 32:23 and they came in, and possessed it, but they didn’t obey your voice, neither walked in your Torah; they have done nothing of all that you commanded them to do: therefore you have caused all this evil to come on them.
And the same will be true of us, in this day.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 32:24 Behold, the mounds, they are come to the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Kasdim who fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence; and what you have spoken has happened; and behold, you see it.
Jer 32:25 You have said to me, Adonai YHWH, Buy you the field for money, and call witnesses; whereas the city is given into the hand of the Kasdim.
Even Jeremiah is amazed at this – it’s hard to see from his prison how this can work out for good for him or for the field in question.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 32:26 Then came the word of YHWH to Yirmeyahu, saying,
Jer 32:27 Behold, I am YHWH, the Elohim of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?
Jer 32:28 Therefore thus says YHWH: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Kasdim, and into the hand of Nevukhadnetzar king of Bavel, and he shall take it:
Jer 32:29 and the Kasdim, who fight against this city, shall come and set this city on fire, and burn it, with the houses, on whose roofs they have offered incense to Ba`al, and poured out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger.
Jer 32:30 For the children of Yisra’el and the children of Yehudah have done only that which was evil in my sight from their youth; for the children of Yisra’el have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, says YHWH.
Jer 32:31 For this city has been to me a provocation of my anger and of my wrath from the day that they built it even to this day; that I should remove it from before my face,
Jer 32:32 because of all the evil of the children of Yisra’el and of the children of Yehudah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their Kohanim, and their prophets, and the men of Yehudah, and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim.
Jer 32:33 They have turned to me the back, and not the face: and though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction.
Jer 32:34 But they set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.
For us, this means not just the 3rd Temple that is going to be built, but it also refers to the churches, synagogues, meeting halls and “recreation centers” and such being built and used by people who claim to be Elohim’s people. They are filled, seasonally, with pagan occult items which offend Elohim greatly.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 32:35 They built the high places of Ba`al, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through [the fire] to Molekh; which I didn’t command them, neither did it come into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Yehudah to sin.
We incinerate the bodies of aborted babies, claiming they are just “medical waste,” a biohazard to be burned instead of a baby to be buried. Abortion is an abomination which Elohim never, ever condones in scripture. Man’s justifications for abortion are the products of his own twisted mind.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 32:36 Now therefore thus says YHWH, the Elohim of Yisra’el, concerning this city, about which you say, It is given into the hand of the king of Bavel by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence:
Jer 32:37 Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries, where I have driven them in my anger, and in my wrath, and in great indignation; and I will bring them again to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely:
Jer 32:38 and they shall be my people, and I will be their Elohim:
Jer 32:39 and I will give them one heart and one Way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them, and of their children after them:
Jer 32:40 and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good; and I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me.
It should be clear here that in the Messianic Kingdom, it is the Written Torah from which there will be no departing – the true Halacha (path or way) of Elohim’s true people.
Jeremiah, continued:
Jer 32:41 Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.
Jer 32:42 For thus says YHWH: Like as I have brought all this great evil on this people, so will I bring on them all the good that I have promised them.
Jer 32:43 Fields shall be bought in this land, about which you say, It is desolate, without man or animal; it is given into the hand of the Kasdim.
Jer 32:44 Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe the deeds, and seal them, and call witnesses, in the land of Binyamin, and in the places about Yerushalayim, and in the cities of Yehudah, and in the cities of the hill country, and in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South: for I will cause their captivity to be rescinded, says YHWH.
Amein – soon, we hope!
Loading...