Kollel Naso

Kollel Naso

First Thessalonains chapters 3 and 4

If you have not read the introduction from last week’s parashat or for every Pauline epistle, please do so.

First Th 3:1 Therefore, when we couldn’t stand it any longer, we thought it good to be left behind at Athens alone,

First Th 3:2  and sent Timothy, our brother and Elohim’’s servant in the Good News of Messiah, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith;

First Th 3:3  that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you know that we are appointed to this task.

First Th 3:4  For most certainly, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we are to suffer affliction, even as it happened, and you know.

First Th 3:5  For this cause I also, when I couldn’t stand it any longer, sent that I might know your faith, for fear that by any means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor would have been in vain.

The “name it and claim it” crowd has it all wrong – yes, there are physical and financial blessings we get from observing the Torah commandments, but that is no guarantee that we will not suffer from trials and tribulations.

Thessalonians, continued:

First Th 3:6  But when Timothy came just now to us from you, and brought us glad news of your faith and love, and that you have good memories of us always, longing to see us, even as we also long to see you;

First Th 3:7  for this cause, brothers, we were comforted over you in all our distress and affliction through your faith.

First Th 3:8  For now we live, if you stand fast in Adonai.

First Th 3:9  For what thanksgiving can we render again to Elohim for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sakes before our Elohim;

First Th 3:10  night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face, and may perfect that which is lacking in your faith?

Recall, “Faith” in Hebraic thought is not ever something in your head, it’s the message your actions and attitudes give about you.  It is the way you live day by day.

Thessalonians, continued:

First Th 3:11  Now may our Elohim and Father himself, and Adonai Yeshua the Messiah, direct our way to you;

First Th 3:12  and Adonai make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we also do toward you,

First Th 3:13  to the end he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our Elohim and Father, at the coming of Adonai Yeshua with all his holy ones.

Holiness means without sin – and sin is the transgression of the Torah.  Therefore, we must be found not to be living in sin when Yeshua comes, that is, not to be willfully and knowingly transgressing the Torah.

Thessalonians, continued:

First Th 4:1 Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in Adonai Yeshua, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please Elohim, that you abound more and more.

Your “walk” is your “halacha” in Hebrew – the way you live your life.  And we know what is pleasing to Elohim; it is spelled out clearly for us in the Torah and the rest of the Tanakh.  His will is perfectly clear.

Thessalonians, continued:

First Th 4:2  For you know what charge we gave you through Adonai Yeshua.

First Th 4:3  For this is the will of Elohim: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality,

First Th 4:4  that each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honor,

First Th 4:5  not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know Elohim;

First Th 4:6  that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because Adonai is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified.

First Th 4:7  For Elohim called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.

Uncleanness and sexual immorality were big problems in the pagan world – and in today’s world, for that matter.  Western culture from its very beginning was seeped in sensuality and we have not yet conquered this in the modern world.  If anything, it is probably worse now.   We have instantaneous access to smut and perversion at our fingertips.  The tools we can use for education and learning can also be used for the lowest forms of “entertainment.”  We must strive to be pure in our daily lives and in our “entertainment,” turning away from all forms of sin and sexual immorality.

Thessalonians, continued:

First Th 4:8  Therefore he who rejects this doesn’t reject man, but Elohim, who has also given his Ruach HaKodesh to you.

Again, freedom is not meant to be “anything goes.”  Real freedom is freedom from the bondage OF sin, not freedom TO sin!

Thessalonians, continued:

First Th 4:9  But concerning brotherly love, you have no need that one write to you. For you yourselves are taught by Elohim to love one another,

First Th 4:10  for indeed you do it toward all the brothers who are in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brothers, that you abound more and more;

First Th 4:11  and that you make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, even as we charged you;

First Th 4:12  that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and may have need of nothing.

This is an important thing for teachers and preachers to remember – these activities, though for Elohim’s kingdom, were never meant to be a sole career.  Even Levites lives in cities, towns and farms and when not on rotation at the Temple earned a living at their own businesses and farms.  Our community is not supposed to be a big ponzi scheme – each person is supposed to pull their own weight to the best of their ability.  Of course, we help the poor – help set them up in a business or profession or farm.  That is the greatest charity of all, as the Sages also wrote.   We are to be as economically self-sufficient as possible, and band together to meet the community’s common needs where not possible.

Thessalonians, continued:

First Th 4:13  But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope.

First Th 4:14  For if we believe that Yeshua died and rose again, even so Elohim will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Yeshua.

First Th 4:15  For this we tell you by the word of Adonai, that we who are alive, who are left to the coming of Adonai, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep.

First Th 4:16  For Adonai himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the chief angel, and with Elohim’s shofar. The dead in Messiah will rise first,

First Th 4:17  then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet Adonai in the air. So we will be with Adonai forever.

First Th 4:18  Therefore comfort one another with these words.

This is often described as a “new” teaching of the apostles, but in fact the only thing “new” about it was that living persons would be included, not just the dead.  As Paul says here, this teaching already exists in the Word of Elohim. It is found in Isaiah chapter 26:

Isa 26:15  You have increased the nation, YHWH. You have increased the nation! You are glorified! You have enlarged all the borders of the land.

This is generally considered to refer to the re-establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 or possibly the reclamation of Jerusalem in 1967.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 26:16  YHWH, in trouble they have visited you. They poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them.

Isa 26:17  Like as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so we have been before you, YHWH.

Isa 26:18  We have been with child. We have been in pain. We gave birth, it seems, only to wind. We have not worked any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

This, of course, obviously describes the birth pangs leading up to the Tribulation. Neither Jews nor “Christians” have been able to bring the world to peace and salvation.  Elohim will have to step in and do that Himself.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 26:19  Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast forth the dead.

This refers to the Parousia, which Paul describes above.  The living and the dead together will be secluded with Elohim in the wedding chambers of Heaven, to observe the 7 day (7 year) wedding festival while the Tribulation occurs on the earth.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 26:20  Come, my people, enter into your chambers, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past.

Isa 26:21  For, behold, YHWH comes forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also will disclose her blood, and will no longer cover her slain.

This is the same promise we read again in Revelation:

Rev 3:7  “To the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia write: “He who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says these things:

Rev 3:8  “I know your works (behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one can shut), that you have a little power, and kept my word, and didn’t deny my name.

To keep Elohim’s Word is to keep Torah.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 3:9  Behold, I give of the synagogue of Hasatan, of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.

Replacement theology is a LIE, and, more to the point, it is a damnable LIE.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 3:10  Because you kept my command to endure, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, which is to come on the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

Those who are Obedient Believers in Yeshua HaMashiach are here and in Thessalonians and in Isaiah (notice Isaiah himself expects to be included in the Parousia) are promised that they will not be on earth nor in earth’s “time” when the Tribulation occurs.  You don’t have to believe this is true to be saved, but if you don’t believe it, you will certainly be pleasantly surprised.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 3:11  I am coming quickly! Hold firmly that which you have, so that no one takes your crown.

Rev 3:12  He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my Elohim, and he will go out from there no more. I will write on him the name of my Elohim, and the name of the city of my Elohim, the new Yerushalayim, which comes down out of heaven from my Elohim, and my own new name.

Rev 3:13  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.

As we know from the prophets, those who are uncircumcized physically and spiritually will not enter the Temple.   This is another proof that Torah observance is expected of Believers.  It’s going to be very hard to be a sovereign or a priest in the New Jerusalem if you are uncircumsized, since those who are uncircumsized cannot enter either the city or the Temple.

Gen 17:14 [concerning ALL who are born or bought into the House of Abraham] The uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant.”

Isa 52:1 [concerning the Messianic Kingdom] Awake, awake, put on your strength, Tziyon; put on your beautiful garments, Yerushalayim, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.

Eze 44:9 [concerning the Millennial Temple]  Thus says Adonai YHWH, No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any foreigners who are among the children of Yisra’el.

Hear, O Israel!  There is only one Deity, there is only one Law, and everyone who intends to be part of the House of Israel is bound by it, as Isaiah also tells us:

Isa 56:1 Thus says YHWH, Keep you justice, and do righteousness; for my Yeshuah is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.

Isa 56:2  Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast; who keeps the Shabbat from profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.

Isa 56:3  Neither let the foreigner, who has joined himself to YHWH, speak, saying, YHWH will surely separate me from his people…

Isa 56:6  Also the foreigners who join themselves to YHWH, to minister to him, and to love the name of YHWH, to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Shabbat from profaning it, and holds fast my covenant;

Isa 56:7  even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

Isa 56:8  Adonai YHWH, who gathers the outcasts of Yisra’el, says, Yet will I gather [others] to him, besides his own who are gathered.

Even so, Come Adonai Yeshua!

Next week:  Parashat BeHa’alotcha.