Talmidim Netzavim

Talmidim Nitzavim

Revelation chapters 14 and 15

Recall in chapters 12 and 13 we read some vignettes concerning Israel, the birth of Messiah, hasatan, the appearance of the Beast (the False Messiah) and his sidekick, the False Prophet.  Now we have another vignette, of the results of the ministry of the 144,000 Israelite Youths, who traveled and taught Torah and faith in Yeshua HaMashiach during the events of chapter 13 and throughout the rest of the Tribulation.  When it is all over, this will be the fruit of their labors.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 14:1 I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Tziyon, and with him a number, one hundred forty-four thousand, having his name, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads.

Rev 14:2  I heard a sound from heaven, like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of a great thunder. The sound which I heard was like that of harpists playing on their harps.

Rev 14:3  They sing a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the one hundred forty-four thousand, those who had been redeemed out of the earth.

Rev 14:4  These are those who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed by Yeshua from among men, the first fruits to Elohim and to the Lamb.

Rev 14:5  In their mouth was found no lie, for they are blameless.

These will be Yeshua’s personal “staff” during the Millennial Kingdom.  Unlike the participants of the Parousia, who will be sent out to the nations to be immortal kings and priests to rule and teach Torah, and the immortal Tribulation martyrs, who will have earned permanent service in the Heavently Temple (not the earthly copy), the 144,000 will be Yeshua’s personal servants and co-rulers in Jerusalem.

After this vignette, we read a series of quick facts describing events going on during the last half of the Tribulation.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 14:6  I saw an angel flying in mid heaven, having an eternal Good News to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth, and to every nation, tribe, language, and people.

Rev 14:7  He said with a loud voice, “Fear Adonai, and give him glory; for the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and the springs of waters!”

So during the Tribulation the people of earth will have numerous chances to repent, and will have no excuse for not doing so.  First, the Two Witnesses will testify and perform miracles for 3 1/3 years, then this angel will be flying overhead pronouncing the truth to them in opposition to the False Prophet’s lies, and they will also have the 144,000 and all their followers who will be sources of teaching and encouragement.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 14:8  Another, a second angel, followed, saying, “Bavel the great has fallen, which has made all the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality.”

This is where things begin to go wrong for the False Messiah.  Recall, from the midpoint until near the end of the Tribulatiuon everything has been going his way – he has successfully waged war against rebellious nations, persecuted those who opposed him, killed those who would not worship him, and continually blasphemed against Elohim and the Heavenly Court.  Now, however, the tide on earth begins to turn.  His capital city is destroyed in what may be the first successful military against him in nearly 3 ½ years of warfare on earth.  From the description given (below and elsewhere), it sounds like someone successfully nukes his capital.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 14:9  Another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a great voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead, or on his hand,

Rev 14:10  he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of Elohim, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger. He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.

Rev 14:11  The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.

It is possible that this fate can be avoided by those who “change their mind” at this angel’s message, or through the teaching of the 144,000 or their followers.  From what we learned in the last chapter, the “mark” is something in the hand or “forehead” that allows one to buy, sell, and hold a job.  It is frequently considered to be some sort of microchip or biometric scan that allows the False Messiah to electronically control all commerce.  Therefore Yeshua’s words to his talmidim concerning the hand and eye of a penitent are interesting to read in this context:

Mat 5:29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehinnom.   Mat 5:30  If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehinnom.

This could mean that a person who was part of the False Messiah’s economy can renounce the Beast by removing the source of their biometric data or microchips – by cutting off their hand and removing their eye.  Of course, the False Messiah will not be amused, and persecution and martyrdom is likely to result, but either is better than the lake of fire, are they not?

Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the holy ones, those who keep the mitzvot of Elohim, and the faith of Yeshua.”

The Holy Ones, often translated as “the Saints,” are those who OBEY the Torah AND BELIEVE in Yeshua HaMasiach.  This cannot be made more clear.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 14:13  I heard the voice from heaven saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in Adonai from now on.’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them.”

From the time that the Beast’s capital city is obliterated, he will redouble his efforts to smoke out and execute those who will not accept his rule and his claim to be “god.”

Revelation, continued:

Rev 14:14  I looked, and behold, a white cloud; and on the cloud one sitting like a son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

Rev 14:15  Another angel came out from the temple, crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Send forth your sickle, and reap; for the hour to reap has come; for the harvest of the earth is ripe!”

Rev 14:16  He who sat on the cloud thrust his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.

Rev 14:17  Another angel came out from the temple which is in heaven. He also had a sharp sickle.

Rev 14:18  Another angel came out from the altar, he who has power over fire, and he called with a great voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Send forth your sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for the earth’s grapes are fully ripe!”

Rev 14:19  The angel thrust his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vintage of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of Elohim.

Rev 14:20  The winepress was trodden outside of the city, and blood came out from the winepress, even to the bridles of the horses, as far as one thousand six hundred stadia.

This battle is described in numerous places in the Prophets and is generally referred to as the “Battle of Armageddon,” but it is really more of a series of battles than a single event, as the various prophets describe it.  It follows shortly after the destruction of the False Messiah’s capital city.  “The City” here refers to Jerusalem, not the administrative capital of the Beast, referred to previously as “Babylon.”  Recall that in the last days Peak Oil will be a living reality and not something out there on the horizon.  It is very likely that with the False Messiah controlling all the world’s oil reserves, his enemies will have to rely on old-fashioned methods of transportation, even during warfare, to oppose him.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 15:1 I saw another great and marvelous sign in the sky: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them Elohim’s wrath is finished.

We are now in the waning hours of Erev Yom Kippur, 7 years from the start of the Tribulation.  At the time these last judgements take place, apparently, it is now nearly TOO LATE for anyone to do teshuvah and repent.  It may be that those who have not done so by now are simply not going to, and Elohim knows it.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 15:2  I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who overcame the beast, his image, and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of Elohim.

Rev 15:3  They sang the song of Moshe, the servant of Elohim, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are your works, Adonai Elohim, the Almighty! Righteous and true are your ways, you King of the nations.

Rev 15:4  Who wouldn’t fear you, Adonai, and glorify your name? For you only are holy. For all the nations will come and worship before you. For your righteous acts have been revealed.”

These are the Tribulation Martyrs – they receive their resurrection as the day fades and Yom Kippur Begins – the gates of repentance are now shut.  The judgement of those who did not repent is about to be pronounced.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 15:5  After these things I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened.

Rev 15:6  The seven angels who had the seven plagues came out, clothed with pure, bright linen, and wearing golden sashes around their breasts.

Rev 15:7  One of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of Elohim, who lives forever and ever.

Rev 15:8  The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of Elohim, and from his power. No one was able to enter into the temple, until the seven plagues of the seven angels would be finished.

No prayers, no intercessions, and no atonements will be accepted now.  The time for repentance is past, and only punishment remains.

Next:  Epistle Nitzavim.

Haftarah Netzavim

Haftarah Nitzavim

Yeshayahu – Isaiah 61:10-63:9

Isa 61:10  I will greatly rejoice in YHWH, my soul shall be joyful in my Elohim; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Isa 61:11  For as the earth brings forth its bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so Adonai YHWH will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

These are those included in the wedding supper of the Lamb, those who “bud forth” from the earth are those Obedient Believers who have already died, and the “things that are sown” are the current living “plants,” the now living Obedient Believers.   These will be the immortal kings and priests, the leaders of the mortal sheep, in the Messianic Kingdom, led by Yeshua Himself.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 62:1 For Tziyon’s sake will I not hold my shalom, and for Yerushalayim’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her Yeshuah as a lamp that burns.

Isa 62:2  The nations shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of YHWH shall name.

The survivors of WWIII who enter the kingdom as sheep are the righteous gentiles, believers, and Torah True Jews who accept Yeshua’s lordship when he meets with them in the wilderness, and they will behold, finally, the King of Kings in all his glory.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 62:3  You shall also be a crown of beauty in the hand of YHWH, and a royal diadem in the hand of your Elohim.

Isa 62:4  You shall no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall your land any more be termed Desolate: but you shall be called Cheftzi-Bah, and your land Beulah; for YHWH delights in you, and your land shall be married.

Isa 62:5  For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your Elohim rejoice over you.

The Diaspora ends, and each tribe reclaims its land and the people embrace their heritage like a lover embracing their spouse – a long awaited finale.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 62:6  I have set watchmen on your walls, Yerushalayim; they shall never hold their shalom day nor night: you who call on YHWH, take no rest,

Isa 62:7  and give him no rest, until he establishes, and until he makes Yerushalayim a praise in the earth.

It is Sukkot, the Inaguration of the Kingdom, after the goats have been dispatched.

Isaiah, ocntinued:

Isa 62:8  YHWH has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies; and foreigners shall not drink your new wine, for which you have labored:

Isa 62:9  but those who have garnered it shall eat it, and praise YHWH; and those who have gathered it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.

It takes 75 days to cleanse and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple Mount after Armageddon (according to Daniel’s counting) – on Kislev 25^th the Shekinah will return to the Holy of Holies and the world will praise the true Elohim.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 62:10  Go through, go through the gates; prepare you the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a banner for the peoples.

Isa 62:11  Behold, YHWH has proclaimed to the end of the earth, Say you to the daughter of Tziyon, Behold, your Yeshuah comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

Isa 62:12  They shall call them The holy people, The redeemed of YHWH: and you shall be called Sought out, A city not forsaken.

Jerusalem will be the capital of the world and the Kingdom, and every nation will bring their tithes in, and every nations will celebrate the Feasts of YHWH, and those who have earned rewards will receive them with joy.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 63:1 Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Botzrah? this who is glorious in his clothing, marching in the greatness of his strength? I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.

Edom was in what is now Southern Jordan.  We learn in other prophetic passages that this is the place that the False Messiah could not enter nor conquer, probably the environs of Petra, where the Torah True Jews of Jerusalem will flee after the Abomination of Desolation.  Yeshua meets with them there in the wilderness, to plead with them and to begin the separation of the sheep and the goats (judgement always comes to Israel first, then to the nations).

Eze 20:33  As I live, says Adonai YHWH, surely with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, will I be king over you:   Eze 20:34  and I will bring you out from the peoples, and will gather you out of the countries in which you are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out;   Eze 20:35 and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I enter into judgment with you face to face.   Eze 20:36  Like as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I enter into judgment with you, says Adonai YHWH.   Eze 20:37  I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant;   Eze 20:38  and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and those who disobey against me; I will bring them forth out of the land where they sojourn, but they shall not enter into Eretz-Yisra’el: and you shall know that I am YHWH.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 63:2  Why are you red in your clothing, and your garments like him who treads in the wine vat?

Isa 63:3  I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the peoples there was no man with me: yes, I trod them in my anger, and trampled them in my wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments, and I have stained all my clothing.

Isa 63:4  For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.

Isa 63:5  I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore my own arm brought salvation to me; and my wrath, it upheld me.

Isa 63:6  I trod down the peoples in my anger, and made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.

This refers to the Tribulation, the 7 years of Elohim’s wrath poured out on the earth to punish the evildoers and refine, to assay, the new obedient believers who repented after the Parousia.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 63:7  I will make mention of the loving kindnesses of YHWH, [and] the praises of YHWH, according to all that YHWH has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Yisra’el, which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.

Isa 63:8  For he said, Surely, they are my people, children who will not deal falsely: so he was their Savior.

Isa 63:9  In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bore them, and carried them all the days of old.

This refers to the Torah True Jews in the place of safety (i.e. the woman of Revelation 12), the remnant who was protected from the False Messiah and listed to the pleading of Yeshua when he came to liberate them from their place of hiding and lead them triumphantly to Jerusalem across the wilderness, just as he had led them before, out of Egypt.

Next:  Talmidim Netzavim.

Torah Portion Netzavim

Torah Portion Netzavim

Devarim – Deuteronomy 29:10-30:20

Deu 29:10  You stand this day all of you before YHWH your Elohim; your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Yisra’el,

Deu 29:11  your little ones, your wives, and your foreigner who is in the midst of your camps, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water;

Deu 29:12  that you may enter into the covenant of YHWH your Elohim, and into his oath, which YHWH your Elohim makes with you this day;

Deu 29:13  that he may establish you this day to himself for a people, and that he may be to you a Elohim, as he spoke to you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Ya`akov.

This is a renewal of the covenant of Chorev/Sinai.  The terms are exactly the same – as they have always been, from the time Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge until this very day, when the New Covenant has come to write the Torah in our hearts and minds.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 29:14  Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath,

Deu 29:15  but with him who stands here with us this day before YHWH our Elohim, and also with him who is not here with us this day.

Everyone there plus everyone not there equals everybody on earth.  Just as the Levites represent the 12 tribes of Israel before Elohim, the nation of Israel represents the rest of the nations before Elohim.  The Written Torah applies to everyone there and everyone who was not there – in other words, to everybody, period.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 29:16  (for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed;

Deu 29:17  and you have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them);

Deu 29:18  lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from YHWH our Elohim, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood;

Deu 29:19  and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have shalom, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry.

This is what the “church” says to herself today.  She walks in open rebellion against Elohim’s commandments and yet claims to have a covenant relationship.  It’s a delusion.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 29:20  YHWH will not pardon him, but then the anger of YHWH and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this Book shall lie on him, and YHWH will blot out his name from under the sky.

Deu 29:21  YHWH will set him apart to evil out of all the tribes of Yisra’el, according to all the curses of the covenant that is written in this scroll of the Torah.

Even if a person does not believe that the Torah applies to the whole world, and claims that the Torah only applies to the descendants of Israel – is there anyone on earth who can say with a straight face that they don’t have a single Israelite ancestor anywhere in their family tree, all the way back to the Bronze Age?  No, there is not.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 29:22  The generation to come, your children who shall rise up after you, and the foreigner who shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which YHWH has made it sick;

Deu 29:23  [and that] the whole land of it is sulfur, and salt, [and] a burning, [that] it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows therein, like the overthrow of Sedom and `Amorah, Admah and Tzevoyim, which YHWH overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:

Deu 29:24  even all the nations shall say, Why has YHWH done thus to this land? what means the heat of this great anger?

Deu 29:25  Then men shall say, Because they forsook the covenant of YHWH, the Elohim of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt,

Deu 29:26  and went and served other gods, and worshiped them, gods that they didn’t know, and that he had not given to them:

Deu 29:27  therefore the anger of YHWH was kindled against this land, to bring on it all the curse that is written in this book;

Deu 29:28  and YHWH rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as at this day.

While this was obviously a warning to ancient Israel – and this punishment was indeed carried out in its day – it is also a warning both to modern Israel and to the country that claims to be founded as a “christian” nation, a city on a hill, “under God.”  That would be America.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 29:29  The secret things belong to YHWH our Elohim; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this Torah.

The “things that are revealed” to us are given to us not just by way of the prophets of the Tanakh but also of the talmidim of Yeshua HaMashiach – and his talmidim say clearly that “sin is the transgression of the Law (Torah)” in I John 3 and that “grace is NOT license for sin” in Romans chapter 6.  Yet the “church” ignores both of these things that are plainly revealed, and continues to live in sin arrogantly and purposefully.  Those who continue to live in sin are not included in Elohim’s covenant.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 30:1 It shall happen, when all these things are come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations, where YHWH your Elohim has driven you,

Deu 30:2  and shall return to YHWH your Elohim, and shall obey his voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul;

Deu 30:3  that then YHWH your Elohim will turn your captivity, and have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples, where YHWH your Elohim has scattered you.

Some 1900+ years into the most recent Diaspora, people are beginning to do just that – recognize the emptiness of the “church” and her life of sin, and investigate and return to the way Elohim commanded us to live, a fulfilled life of faith and obedience.  The result of this will be the Ingathering at last, after the second advent and the battle of Armageddon.  The Diaspora will be officially rescinded, and the sheep returned to the fold never to be scattered again.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 30:4  If [any of] your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there will YHWH your Elohim gather you, and from there he will bring you back:

Deu 30:5  and YHWH your Elohim will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and he will do you good, and multiply you above your fathers.

This is an interesting statement – apparently it will be that some persons will be in “outer space,” possibly the space station or on the moon,  when the King of Kings returns to earth.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 30:6  YHWH your Elohim will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.

Circumcision of the heart was never meant to replace physical circumcision.  The one is a reflection of the other – a person who refuses to obey a physical commandment is by definition not right in their heart and mind toward Elohim.  A true Believer wants to obey, not to rebel or justify their rebellion.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 30:7  YHWH your Elohim will put all these curses on your enemies, and on those who hate you, who persecuted you.

Deu 30:8  You shall return and obey the voice of YHWH, and do all his mitzvot which I command you this day.

And those who will not obey will not return – they will be the goats thrown into the lake of fire.

Mat 25:31  “But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.   Mat 25:32 Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.   Mat 25:33  He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left…  Mat 25:41  Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; …Mat 25:46  These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 30:9  YHWH your Elohim will make you plenteous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, for good: for YHWH will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers;

Deu 30:10  if you shall obey the voice of YHWH your Elohim, to keep his mitzvot and his statutes which are written in this scroll of the Torah; if you turn to YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul.

As a continuation of the previous passage, these two verses are as much prophetic as they are currently practical.  The sheep enter the kingdom and will live lives of peace and security and happiness, free of the influence of hasatan and the goats, for 1000 years.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 30:11  For this mitzvah which I command you this day, it is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.

This verse is a direct refute to those who try and argue that the Torah is “too difficult” to obey, and that it is “done away with” because it was never meant to be obeyed.  Both of those are FALSE teachings.  The Torah is eternal, and sin (right and wrong) never changes.  Either you choose to live a life of obedience or you choose to live in sin – either way, it is not “too difficult” to obey, unless you don’t actually want to.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 30:12  It is not in heaven, that you should say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?

Deu 30:13  Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?

Deu 30:14  But the word is very near to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it.

We don’t need anyone to “interpret” for us.  Yes, there are precedents and traditions and reams of scholarship, but in the end, each of us needs to read the words and just obey them as best we understand them.  That is all that is required of us.  And it’s not “too difficult.”

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 30:15  Behold, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil;

Deu 30:16  in that I command you this day to love YHWH your Elohim, to walk in his ways, and to keep his mitzvot and his statutes and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that YHWH your Elohim may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it.

If you choose not to obey, then you choose evil and you choose death:  the wages of sin is death.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 30:17  But if your heart turn away, and you will not hear, but shall be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;

Deu 30:18  I denounce to you this day, that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land, where you pass over the Yarden to go in to possess it.

Any land – any property at all – if you want to keep it, if you want your descendants to have it, you must obey Elohim.  Instead, the “church” has brought in the worship of other “gods,” of Mithras and Ishtar, of Samhain and Beltaine, Vishna, Krishna, the “Great Spirit” and other pagan practices and tried to pass them off as worship of YHWH Elohim.  To this, Elohim has nothing good to say.

Deu 12:29  When YHWH your Elohim shall cut off the nations from before you, where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them, and dwell in their land;   Deu 12:30 take heed to yourself that you not be ensnared to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before you; and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, How do these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.   Deu 12:31  You shall not do so to YHWH your Elohim: for every abomination to YHWH, which he hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods.   Deu 12:32  Whatever thing I command you, that shall you observe to do: you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 30:19  I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed;

Deu 30:20  to love YHWH your Elohim, to obey his voice, and to cleave to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days; that you may dwell in the land which YHWH swore to your fathers, to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Ya`akov, to give them.

Anyone who claims to be “grafted in” as an heir of Abraham would do well to heed these words.  Eliminate paganism from your life and return to Torah, or you will have no inheritance at all.

Next:  Haftarah Nitzavim.

Kollel Ki Tavo

Kollel Ki Tavo

Hebrews 9

Continuing the theme of why Jews should accept the authority of Yeshua:

Heb 9:1 Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.

The word “covenant” does not appear in the greek text.  It was added by translators, to follow where they added it to 8:13.  But the context of the latter part of chapter 8 does discuss the new covenant, the one promised through Jeremiah the prophet.  The contents of the “new covenant” are simply the same Torah written on our hearts and minds instead of on stone and paper (Jeremiah 31).  There is no other covenant.   Those who refuse to obey Torah are outside of Elohim’s covenant and Elohim’s will.

Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith YHWH, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:   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 brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith YHWH:   Jer 31:33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith YHWH, I will put my Torah in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their Elohim, and they shall be my people.

We see here that the “new” covenant is simply the same old Torah – the only thing that is “new” is the location.  Whereas before it was just written on paper or stone, now it will be written in our hearts and minds, so that we can remember do all of Elohim’s commandments.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 9:2  For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary.

Heb 9:3  And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;

Heb 9:4  Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant;

Heb 9:5  And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.

The writer could not speak of them particularly because the ark has been missing since the destruction of the first Temple.  No one has any idea where it is – and the Babylonians kept very meticulous records of all the stuff they took from the Temple and the Treasury, records that are avaialble to this day – and the Ark is not listed as being taken.  It is speculated that the priests removed the Ark from the Temple when it was clear the seige was almost upon them.  Currently, it is presumed to be somewhere under the Temple Mount or perhaps spirited out of the city to an undisclosed location by way of the water conduits.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 9:6  Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.

Heb 9:7  But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:

This procedure is proscribed in the book of Leviticus and was applicable to the Tabernacle as well as to the First Temple.  It was Moshe who spoke with Elohim between the Kerubim on the mercy seat, presumably without having to offer a sacrifice first, whenever he needed to.  After him, however, the high priests of the line of Aharon did have to offer a sacrifice first, to  make sure they were pure enough to enter the presence of the Shekinah without being fried.  So Moshe, who was personally appointed by Elohim, had free access, while the priests, who just inherit their positions, did not.  Yeshua has access like Moshe’s, no sacrifice needed.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 9:8  The Ruach HaKodesh this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:

Heb 9:9  Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;

Heb 9:10  Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

The reformation, as we saw in the last parashat, was the re-instatement of the priesthood of the Firstborn in the person of Yeshua.  Yeshua has complete and eternal access – there will be no other high priest than him.

Hebrews, co ntinued:

Heb 9:11  But Messiah being come as high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;

Heb 9:12  Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.

Yeshua has no need to make an offering before he enters the Holy of Holies, because he was his own offering.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 9:13  For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh:

Heb 9:14  How much more shall the blood of Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to Elohim, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living Elohim?

Notice it doesn’t say that the former sacrifices were ineffective – it’s just that Yeshua’s sacrifice is MORE effective, and can be permanently applied by us for as long as we live.  The Temple and the sacrifices will be resumed during the Messianic Era, of course, when the Temple will be available.  Right now, we have to Temple but we don’t have to worry that this somehow makes us unfit, because Faith in Yeshua is even more effective than Temple sacrifices.

The “dead works” are the sins of our past.  Offering a proper sacrifice gave a person a “clean slate” as far as their conscious and the record of sins was concerned.  By proclaiming our Faith in Yeshau, the Living Word, and demonstrating our faith with obedience, we also can live without fear that our past will be held against us.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 9:15  And for this cause he is the mediator of the new [last will and] testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

Heb 9:16  For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

Heb 9:17  For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator lives.

Heb 9:18  Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.

A “testament” is what we would call a “will” today.  It is something that takes effect after the death of the one who establishes it.  Until Yeshua was sacrificed, the “new” covenant of Jeremiah could not be implemented.  But now, it can.  And blood is the still the seal.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 9:19  For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the Torah, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,

Heb 9:20  Saying, This is the blood of the testament which Elohim hath enjoined unto you.

Heb 9:21  Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.

Heb 9:22  And almost all things are by the Torah purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

“The life is in the blood” as Elohim tells us in the Torah (Deut 12:23, et al).

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

Recall, the earthly Temple is an image of the Heavenly one, and was designed to be perfectly congruent with the one in Heaven.  “As above, so below” the sages say.  What we do here is an enactment in our physical world of what is taking place above on the spiritual plane.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 9:24  For Messiah is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of Elohim for us:

Yeshua is currently officiating in the Heavenly Temple, but will return to earth later.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 9:25  Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place every year with blood of others;

Heb 9:26  For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Unlike the line of Levites, the descendents of Aharon who had to keep making an offering to purify themselves prior to entering Elohim’s presence, Yeshua’s sacrifice is a permanent remedy for past sin and past errors.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 9:27  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

No reincarnation.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 9:28  So Messiah was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Our “salvation” is not yet.  It is a future event.  We can mess up our “salvation” in the meantime.  For example, let’s borrow a bit from next weeks parashat:

Heb 10:26  For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,   Heb 10:27  But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

Continuing to live in sin – that is, continuing to violate the Torah – results in judgement and loss of status in the kingdom – those are “the least” described in Matthew.  And we know, already, that the definition of sin is transgression of the Torah commandments (I John 3).  Here is the final word on the subject, from the prophet Ezekiel:

Eze 18:20  The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

Eze 18:21 But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

Eze 18:22  All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.

Eze 18:23  Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith Adonai YHWH: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?

Eze 18:24  But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.

Eze 18:25  Yet ye say, The way of Adonai is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?

Eze 18:26  When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die.

Eze 18:27  Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.

Eze 18:28  Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

Eze 18:29  Yet saith the house of Israel, The way of Adonai is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?

Eze 18:30  Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith Adonai YHWH. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.

Eze 18:31  Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

Eze 18:32  For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith Adonai YHWH: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.

So Choose Life!

Next week:  Parashat Vayelekh.

Epistle Ki Tavo

Epistle Ki Tavo

John 18:19-40

Recall, Yeshua has been arrested and is now being questioned.

John, continued:

Joh 18:19  The high priest then asked Yeshua of his disciples, and of his doctrine.

Joh 18:20  Yeshua answered him, I spoke openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, and wherever the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing.

Joh 18:21  Why do you ask me? ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them: behold, they know what I said.

The politically appointed Sanhedrin either didn’t really understand his teachings or were fishing for grounds to have him executed, probably the latter.

John, continued:

Joh 18:22  And when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by struck Yeshua with the palm of his hand, saying, Do you answer the high priest so?

Joh 18:23  Yeshua answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why do you strike me?

There’s always somebody whose answer for everything is violence.  That is not supposed to be our plan.  Militancy will not solve the problems of the Tribulation.

John, continued:

Joh 18:24  Now Annas had sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest.

Joh 18:25  And Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. They said to him, Are not you also one of his disciples? He denied it, and said, I am not.

Joh 18:26  One of the servants of the high priest, being his kinsman whose ear Peter cut off, said, Did not I see thee in the garden with him?

Joh 18:27  Peter then denied again: and immediately the cock crew.

Poor Keifa.  We read in the other gospels that he wept bitterly upon realizing what he had done.  But even so, Yeshua never condemns him or removes his place among the talmidim.  He made a big mistake – out of fear, under duress – and Yeshua understood.  He asked forgiveness and received it.  So can we.

John, continued:

Joh 18:28  Then led they Yeshua from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover.

Not all sects observed passover on the same day. Yeshua had already observed Pesach with his talmidim the night before, on what was Wednesday evening that year, the sundown beginning Nisan 14^th.  This date is the Biblically ordained time to eat the passover, and this is substantiated in the narrative of Moshe at the first passover, where they were specifically told to kill their lambs and to stay indoors and not come out until sunrise, on pain of death.  They had to be in their homes all night with the blood on the doorpost to be saved from the angel of death.

Lev 23:5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at evening is YHWH’s Passover.  Lev 23:6  And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto YHWH: seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

On the Hebrew calendar a day always starts the evening before, because the “evening and the morning were the first day,” and the second day, and so on.  After sundown on the evening which ends Nisan 14^th it is no longer Nisan 14^th, and you have missed Passover.

But since Yeshua himself was sacrificed on the morning of the daylight hours of Nisan the 14^th – which would have been the daylight hours of Thursday that year – apparently as long as your seder is “between the evenings”, that is, anytime from sundown beginning Nisan 14^th to the sundown ending Nisan 14^th, it is considered acceptable to Elohim.  The sundown beginning Nisan 15^th, of course, is the First Convocation of Unleavened Bread.  The pharisees, however, sacrificed their lambs late on the 14^th and ate their passover seder after sundown on the 15^th – which Rabbinic Judaism still does to this day, conflating the two moedim and invalidating their Passover seders.

John, continued:

Joh 18:29  Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation bring you against this man?

Joh 18:30  They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto you.

Joh 18:31  Then said Pilate unto them, Take him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death:

Joh 18:32  That the saying of Yeshua might be fulfilled, which he spoke, signifying what death he should die.

Yeshua warned them several times that the Kingdom was not going to be set up now, and that he would be killed – but they didn’t want to hear that, so they didn’t hear that.

John, continued:

Joh 18:33  Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Yeshua, and said unto him, Are you the King of the Jews?

Joh 18:34  Yeshua answered him, Do you say this thing of your own accord, or did others tell it to you about me?

Joh 18:35  Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you unto me: what have you done?

Joh 18:36  Yeshua answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Judeanss: but now is my kingdom not from here.

Here we see the gnostic beliefs of the writers of the book of John peeping through.  Prophecy, of course, is clear that the Messianic Kingdom takes place here on earth, and requires the physical obedience of all the nations, as we saw in the Haftarah portion.

John, continued:

Joh 18:37  Pilate therefore said unto him, Are you a king then? Yeshua answered, You say that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth hears my voice.

Joh 18:38  Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Judeans, and said unto them, I find in him no fault.

No fault that could be prosecuted under Roman law.  There was now law against being crazy and thinking you had a kingdom in the sky.

But as has been mentioned previously – there is no record anywhere else of Pilate having an attack of generosity and finding someone “not guilty.”  In Josephus and the writings of then-contemporary roman dignitaries we see that Pilate was such as bloodthirsty terror that he crucified thousands of people during the time he ruled Judea and was eventually recalled to Rome and executed by the Emperor for giving the empire a bad name.  It’s likely this chapter has been edited or glossed over by later redactors, who wanted to portray Rome as the good guys and “Jews” as the bad guys.  However, Jesus and all his followers were themselves Jews – those who opposed him were the Judean politically appointed Roman collaborators, and not for religious reasons.  Their positions of power, influence and money were threatened much more than their religious beliefs.  Yeshua was hardly the first to teach against the traditions and precedents of the Pharisees.

John, continued:

Joh 18:39  But you have a custom, that I should release unto you one [prisoner] at the passover: will you therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews?

Joh 18:40  Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.

The crowd was full of people planted there by the politically appointed Sanhedrin.  We know from reading the gospels that thousands of people loved and followed Yeshua – that’s why he was so dangerous to them in the first place.

It is possible, also, that those in the crowd had become disillusioned with Yeshua’s rather pacifist and spiritual message – it is said by some commentaries that Barabbas was not a robber but a “freedom fighter,” what we would call a terrorist.  The crowd may have felt that his brand of salvation would work better than Yeshua’s.  There are still those today who are not willing to “turn the other cheek” and “kill them with kindness,” and instead intent to resort to violence when persecutions arise.  These plans are doomed to fail.

Next:  Kollel Ki Tavo.

Talmidim Ki Tavo

Talmidim Ki Tavo

Revelation 12 & 13

Chapter 12 offers us a vignette describing what will happen at the midpoint of the Tribulation to certain groups of people.

Rev 12:1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

Rev 12:2  And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

The Woman is Torah True Israel – not the church.  Messiah’s mother is not Christianity, it is Judaism.  And the sun, moon and stars are the family of Jacob.

Gen 37:9 He [Yosef] dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, “Behold, I have dreamed yet another dream: and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me.”   Gen 37:10  He told it to his father and to his brothers. His father [Jacob] rebuked him, and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Will I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves down to you to the earth?”   Gen 37:11  His brothers envied him, but his father kept this saying in mind.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 12:3  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

Rev 12:4  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

We don’t have to guess who the dragon is.  It is interesting to see that 1/3 of Elohim’s angels followed hasatan in his rebellion, though.  It is often taught that angels don’t have free will, but that does not seem to be the case.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto Elohim, and to his throne.

Yeshua HaMashiach, obviously- the Messiah of Israel..

Revelation, continued:

Rev 12:6  And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of Elohim, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

That is 42 months, or 3 ½ years using the standard 30 day months of the Hebrew calendar.  It is likely that this is the second half of the 7 year Time of Jacob’s Trouble (aka the Tribulation) described  by the prophet Daniel – from immediately following the abomination of desolation (when Yeshua tells those in Judea to flee for their lives without even going back to their homes to pack).   The woman here is still Torah True Israel – not Torahless “christians.”  These would be Jews and God-fearers living in the environs of Jerusalem who flee to Southern Jordan (probably Petra).

Revelation, continued:

Rev 12:7  And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

Rev 12:8  And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

Rev 12:9  And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

It is likely that when hasatan is thrown out of heaven, it is at the Passover that is the midpoint of the Tribulation.  The False Messiah will be assassinated, possibly right there on the Temple Mount, on Nisan 14^th.  Then 3 days later (when hasatan is cast down) hasatan will inhabit the body of the Fasle Messiah and give a fine performance of being “resurrected.”   (see below)

Revelation, c ontinued:

Rev 12:10  And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our Elohim, and the power of his Messiah: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our Elohim day and night.

Many people thinki of hasatan as living in “hell” but he is in actuality in heaven right now pointing out every sinful thing that you do.  And if you’re not Torah observant, your list of sins is a mile long by now – because sin, by definition, is the transgression of the Torah (I John 3)..

Revelation, continued:

Rev 12:11  And they [the bretheren] overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

Rev 12:12  Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time.

Only 3 and ½ years, and then he will be chained for 1000 years.  Hasatan knows prophecy as well as if not better than most people.  But he still believes there’s a chance he can “win,” because the Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle is part of the structure of the Universe.  And he’s right, to a point.  But there a force outside of creation, outside the space-time continuum, that can “fix” anything hasatan does – the Ain Sof.  But hasatan doesn’t believe in the Ain Sof or anything outside of creation.  Hasatan believes Elohim is a being like himself,  albeit older and knowing secrets of creation and resurrection that hasatan would love to appropriate.  Therefore he thinks he can acquire the same skills and knowledge if he tries hard enough, and literally “be like the Most High.”  But he also knows prophecy and understands what will happen if he can’t pull it off, and like most megaolmaniacs, it makes him angry that he can’t control everything.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 12:13  And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.

The woman is still Torah True Israel – those who obey Elohim’s written covenant without adding traditions to it or subtracting commandments from it.  These people are Israelites (Jews, mostly) and not “christians.”  As we will see below, and see in the Book of Daniel, there is NO protection for Believers, obedient or otherwise.  The Beast makes war against them and prevails.  They die and die and die.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 12:14  And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

Again, the time is the 3  ½ years of the latter half of the Tribulation, and the place is  identified by the prophets as being in the area that we now call Southern Jordan. Petra seems like an obvious choice.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 12:15  And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

Rev 12:16  And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.

The water is probably symbolic of a flood of troops.  But he is unable to attack the Israelite/Jewish righteous ones in their appointed place of safety.  So instead he turns his attention to those who became believers during the first half of the Tribulation under the influence of the 144,000 sealed youths who have been traveling all over to teach Torah observance and faith in Yeshua HaMashiach.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 12:17  And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of Elohim, and have the testimony of Yeshua HaMashiach.

The seed of the promise – the redeemed – are those who obey Elohim’s Torah AND believe in the death and resurrection of Yeshua HaMashiach.   This is very plain.

Chapter 13 gives us some more information about the False Messiah.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

The “sea” is generally considered to be the mass of peoples of the earth.  He has seven rules under him, and rules 10 nations/territories.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

This man is a worshipper and devotee of hasatan, though that will not be obvious at first.  As we read in Daniel, he at first is a smoothe talking charmer who is the darling of the press and the nations.  But all of his power comes from hasatan.  Hasatan is the prince of this world until Messiah comes – and can bestow privileges on anyone he chooses.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 13:3  And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

This is the Passover event at the Midpoint of the Tribulation.  The False Messiah will, about 30 days prior to the Passover festivities, secretly set up an image of himself, likely placed in the Holy of Holies where no one would see it (since they can’t look there until Yom Kippur, of course).  Then, on Nisan 10^th, this man will enter Jerusalem triumphantly and be accepted by the people.  As Yeshua says:

Joh 5:43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you don’t receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.

However, on Passover itself, on what may be the “grand opening” of the Third Temple, the False Messiah reveals his image and horrifies the world by proclaiming himself ruler of the earth.  He can do this because of his military might and because he has defacto control of the oil fields of the middle east.  But someone in the crowd, probably a devout Jew, is outraged that he has defiled the Temple and assassinates him. There is a riot and the original image is destroyed in the violence.   Three days later, on the Feast of Firstfruits, the False Messiah  is indwelt by hasatan, who has just been cast from heaven, and appears to come back to life.

We can look at Elohim’s calendar and see the basic outline.  The new year which kicks off the Tribulation starts in Tishri, and exactly 3 ½ years later it is obviously Nisan.  The events of the various festivals and appointed times on Elohim’s calendar are a guide to our future as well as our past.  At Tishri, the False Messiah will kick off the Tribulation with his seductive treaty, inagurating what he promises will be a “new world” of peace and prosperity for everyone.  And for a while, it seems to work and people buy into it by the millions.  Then these Passover events are enacted – leading 3 ½ additional years later to the real inaguration of the real kingdom at Tishri.  The calendar goes round, and to understand prophecy we need to study and learn Elohim’s calendar.  The commandments in the Torah to observe these times and events are the “shadows of things to come,” and prophecy makes no sense without them.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

Awe or fear or both – the unsaved choose to save their earthly lives rather than trust Elohim’s eternal promise.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 13:5  And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

The same 3 and ½ years which covers the last half of the Tribulation.  No more Mr. Nice Guy, his true colors are revealed.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 13:6  And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against Elohim, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

Rev 13:7  And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

Many people are under the impression that believers are protected from the False Messiah, the False Prophet and hasatan during the tribulation, but that is simply not so.  We also read in Daniel:

Dan 7:21  I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;   Dan 7:22  Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.

Those who became elievers during the first half of the Tribulation are not protected during those 3 ½ years of persecution and death later.  In fact, 5/6 of the earth’s population will be killed during WWII – that’s over 5 Billion people.  Only a remnant of Torah True Jews are preserved in Southern Jordan, and those who survive the Tribulation elsewhere are only a fraction of those who were alive at its start.  This is a reality people need to understand.  Everyone should be prepared to give their lives for Torah and for Messiah, because that will be the fate of most Believers.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Rev 13:9  If any man have an ear, let him hear.

Rev 13:10  He that leadd into captivity shall go into captivity: he that kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

Survivalists who think the best strategy is to hole up with a mountain of firearms are in view here – their strategy will fail.  Only the meek will inherit the earth, those willing to lay down their lives voluntarily will receive them back again.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 13:11  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon.

Rev 13:12  And he exercises all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

The False Prophet is revealed, the “worship czar” appointed to weed out the “unfaithful” for the False Messiah while he’s busy with his military campaigns.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 13:13  And he does great wonders, so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

Rev 13:14  And deceives them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

Just because someone can do miracles, doesn’t mean they’re from Elohim.  The other camp can do those things, too.  The False Messiah orders a new image to be made to replace the Abomination that was destroyed at the riots of Passover.  And this time, worship of it will not be optional.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 13:15  And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

There are several possibilities here.  Some type of robot seems to be the most likely answer, but a clone or AI hologram could also function in this way.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 13:16  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

Rev 13:17  And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

This is economic terrorism.  Those who swear allegiance to the False Messiah and his kingdom will receive a mark, or possibly a computer chip, that will enable them to transact business.  Those who don’t, won’t.  Note with interest that Yeshua remarks more than once to the crowds when he was speaking:

Mat 5:29  And if your right eye offends you, pluck it out, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into hell.   Mat 5:30 And if your right hand offends you, cut it off, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into hell.

So it may be in fact possible to repent after having received the microchip/mark/biometric scan, but it has to be done before you die, obviously – and death will be running rampant, not just due to the False Messiah’s pogroms against Believers but due to disasters, plagues, famine and other side effects of the war.

Some persons might decide to “sacrifice themselves” and take the mark in order to be able to buy and sell for their family and friends, intending to “get rid of it” at the last minute.  They would know it could be possible for them to be murdered or die accidentally or caught doing this, and not be able to do so, but might decide to take the risk anyway.  I don’t recommend this – don’t get me wrong – but it is possible some people might try it.  If they die with the chip, they are condemned.  In the same manner, people ought to examine their lives right now and see if they are tolerating anything, intending to “clean up their act” later.  This is not the way Elohim wants us to live.  We must choose righteousness every day, because we never know when our last day will be.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 13:18  Here is wisdom. Let him that has understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Many solutions have been proposed to this riddle.  But really, nobody has the foggiest idea what this means.  It’s some sort of gematria, obviously, but without the Hebrew originals of this text we cannot be sure how it was meant to be read.  Also, some manuscripts in the Greek read 616 instead of 666.  It may be something that becomes clear later, at the time the False Messiah is revealed.  At the very least, it is knowledge intended for those living in the Tribulation, and may not be made clear until then .

Next:  Epistle Ki Tavo.

Haftarah Ki Tavo

Haftarah Ki Tavo

Yirmeyahu – Isaiah 60:1-22

Isa 60:1 Arise, shine; for your light is come, and the glory of YHWH is risen upon you.

Isa 60:2  For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but YHWH shall arise upon you, and his glory shall be seen upon you.

This is both literal and metaphoric.  A literal darkness will be on the earth during the Tribulation, and a figurative darkness is on the earth, since the Torah is “the lamp for our feet and the light for our path.”  The darkness will be dispelled with the coming of the King of Kings, YHWH Tzeva’ot.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 60:3  And the Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

Again two applications:  the nations will be taught Torah, and the nations will also be required to come to the Temple and give tribute to Messiah during the kingdom.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 60:4  Lift up your eyes round about, and see: they all gather themselves together, they come to you: your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be nursed at thy side.

Isa 60:5  Then you shall see, and flow together, and your heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto you, the powers of the Gentiles shall come unto you.

This refers to the Ingathering in general and the Inaguration of the Kingdom at Sukkot in specific.  In Ezekiel and other places we learn that those returning will be so many that the environs of Jerusalem and the tribal territories will have to be greatly enlarged.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 60:6  The multitude of camels shall cover you, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall show forth the praises of YHWH.

This has been said to also refer to the Magi who came to visit the infant in Bethlechem at Chanukkah, some 14 months after his birth, but primarily refers to the Tribute the nations will bring for the Inaguration of the Kingdom.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 60:7  All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto you, the rams of Nebaioth shall provide for you: they shall come up with acceptance on my altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.

As well as possibly referring to the shepherds who visited the Sukkah where he was born, near Bethlechem, this shows that sacrifices of animals will still be occurring in the Millennial Kingdom.  We already know that in spite of the fact that through Yeshua the order of the Firstborns will be re-established in the position of Cohen HaGadol, the Levites will still serve as the Priests for the Temple Service in the Messianic Era.

Jer 33:17 For thus says YHWH: David shall never want a man to sit on the throne of the house of Yisra’el;   Jer 33:18  neither shall the Kohanim the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to burn meal offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 60:8  Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?

Isa 60:9  Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of YHWH your Elohim, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he has glorified thee.

The Ingathering continues, and apparently some airplanes will still be operating – or possibly this refers to the return of the Obedient Believers who were included in the Parousia.  They return from the wedding banquet in heaven with Yeshua to rule the earth (the Tribulation Martyrs have permanent service in the Heavenly Temple – they do not return to earth).

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 60:10  And the sons of strangers shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister unto you: for in my wrath I smote you, but in my favour have I had mercy on you.

The mortal subjects of the kingdom labour to repair and expand the city after the war.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 60:11  Therefore your gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto you the wealth of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought.

We know, however, from other verses that those who are uncircumcised in the flesh or in their heart, and any who are unclean, may not enter the city – so the Torah laws will be enforced for all peoples on earth, or else they could not participate in the Temple Services or be part of city life, even as laborers.

Gen 17:14 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 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 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.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 60:12  For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; yes, those nations shall be utterly wasted.

Zechariah tells us they will be devastated by drought if they also fail to observe Sukkot, etc.

Zec 14:16  It will happen that everyone who is left of all the nations that came against Yerushalayim will go up from year to year to worship the King, YHWH Tzeva’ot, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.   Zec 14:17  It will be, that whoever of all the families of the earth doesn’t go up to Yerushalayim to worship the King, YHWH Tzeva’ot, on them there will be no rain.   Zec 14:18  If the family of Egypt doesn’t go up, and doesn’t come, neither will it rain on them. This will be the plague with which YHWH will strike the nations that don’t go up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.   Zec 14:19  This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations that don’t go up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 60:13  The glory of Lebanon shall come unto you, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.

This will take place starting with the Inaguration and lasting until Chanukkah.  An altar, of course, will be set up immediately for the Inaguration.  Then, the Temple Mount wikll be cleansed and repaired and made ready for service.  And on Chanukkah, the rededication will take place and the Shekinah will return.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 60:14  The sons also of them that afflicted you shall come bending [their knees in homage] unto you; and all they that despised you shall bow themselves down at the soles of your feet; and they shall call you, The city of YHWH, The Tzion of the Holy One of Israel.

Isa 60:15  Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through, I will make you an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.

Jerusalem was a stumbling block before, now it will be the jewel of the earth.   Also, due to the escalating tensions, people will hesitate to visit Israel, and during the Tribulation those not allied with the False Messiah will be expelled from the city completely.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 60:16  You shall also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shall suck the breast of sovereigns: and you shall know that I, YHWH am your Saviour and your Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

The “milk” is figurative, of course.  The tribute of the nations supports the city amply.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 60:17  For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron: I will also make your officers peaceful, and your exactors righteous.

Isa 60:18  Violence shall no more be heard in your land, or wasting nor destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.

Isa 60:19  The sun shall be no more your light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto you: but YHWH shall be unto you an everlasting light, and your Elohim [shall be] your glory.

Isa 60:20  Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall your moon withdraw itself: for YHWH shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.

Once the Temple mount is cleansed from the abomination after the war, it will be rededicated at Chanukkah, and the Shekinah will return.  But this time, not just the Cohen HaGadol in the Holy of Holies can see it.  Now it shines over the whole city, night and day, like the pillar of fire did over the Tabernacle.  The language of the sun and moon is figurative, because we know that New Moons and other Yom Tovim, which depend upon counting days correctly (such as Sukkot, above) will still be observed.

Isa 66:23 It shall happen, that from one new moon to another, and from one Shabbat to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, says YHWH.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 60:21  Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.

Isa 60:22  A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I, YHWH, will hasten it in his time.

Elohim defines righteousness as obedience to Torah.

Deu 4:8  And what nation is there so great, that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this Torah, which I set before you this day?

Deu 6:24  YHWH commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear YHWH our Elohim, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as at this day.   Deu 6:25  It shall be righteousness to us, if we observe to do all this mitzvah before YHWH our Elohim, as he has commanded us.

Isa 51:7  Hearken unto me, you that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my Torah; fear you not the reproach of men, neither be you afraid of their revilings.

And when Torah observance is lessened, then righteousness is beseiged:

Hab 1:4  Therefore the Torah is slacked, and judgment never goes forth: for the wicked do  compass about the righteousness; therefore wrong judgment proceeds.

Elohim tells us to be perfect, for He is perfect, and no unrighteousness will enter the kingdom.

Next:  Talmidim Ki Tavo

Torah Portion Ki Tavo

Torah Portion Ki Tavo

Devarim – Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8

Deu 26:1 It shall be, when you are come in to the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you for an inheritance, and possess it, and dwell therein,

Deu 26:2  that you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you shall bring in from your land that YHWH your Elohim gives you; and you shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which YHWH your Elohim shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there.

This is the Feast of Firstfruits, which takes place on the first day of the week following Passover.  From this Sunday we count 50 days to the Festival of Shavu’ot.

Lev 23:10  “Speak to the children of Yisra’el, and tell them, ‘When you have come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap its the harvest, then you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the Kohen:   Lev 23:11  and he shall wave the sheaf before YHWH, to be accepted for you. On the next day after the Shabbat the Kohen shall wave it.   Lev 23:12  On the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb without blemish a year old for a burnt offering to YHWH.   Lev 23:13  The meal offering with it shall be two tenth parts of an efah of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire to YHWH for a sweet savor; and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, the fourth part of a hin.   Lev 23:14 You shall eat neither bread, nor roasted grain, nor fresh grain, until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your Elohim. This is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.   Lev 23:15  “‘You shall count from the next day after the Shabbat, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Shabbatot shall be completed:   Lev 23:16  even to the next day after the seventh Shabbat you shall number fifty days; and you shall offer a new meal offering to YHWH…

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 26:3  You shall come to the Kohen who shall be in those days, and tell him, I profess this day to YHWH your Elohim, that I am come to the land which YHWH swore to our fathers to give us.

Deu 26:4  The Kohen shall take the basket out of your hand, and set it down before the altar of YHWH your Elohim.

Deu 26:5  You shall answer and say before YHWH your Elohim, A Syrian ready to perish was my father; and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there, few in number; and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous.

Deu 26:6  The Egyptians dealt ill with us, and afflicted us, and laid on us hard bondage:

Deu 26:7  and we cried to YHWH, the Elohim of our fathers, and YHWH heard our voice, and saw our affliction, and our toil, and our oppression;

Deu 26:8  and YHWH brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terror, and with signs, and with wonders;

Deu 26:9  and he has brought us into this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Deu 26:10  Now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, YHWH, have given me. You shall set it down before YHWH your Elohim, and worship before YHWH your Elohim.

Deu 26:11  You shall rejoice in all the good which YHWH your Elohim has given to you, and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the foreigner who is in the midst of you.

Traditionally, this procedure takes place at dawn on Bikkurim (Firstfruits), which would have been the same time that the Two Witnesse inspected Yeshua to make sure he was without blemish, Yeshua’s resurrection, and his presentation of himself at the Heavenly Court as the Firstfruit offering of the Dead.  In addition to the words above, Psalm 30 was traditionally recited.  Later Rabbinic commentaries were confused as to why this psalm was associated with Firstfruits, but to us it is obvious.

Psa 30:1 <<A Psalm. A Song for the Dedication of the Temple. By David.>> I will extol you, YHWH, for you have raised me up, and have not made my foes to rejoice over me.   Psa 30:2  YHWH Elohei, I cried to you, and you have healed me.   Psa 30:3  YHWH, you have brought up my soul from She’ol. You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.   Psa 30:4  Sing praise to YHWH, you holy ones of his. Give thanks to his holy name.   Psa 30:5  For his anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning.   Psa 30:6  As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.”   Psa 30:7  You, YHWH, when you favored me, made my mountain stand strong; but when you hid your face, I was troubled.   Psa 30:8  I cried to you, YHWH. To YHWH I made supplication:   Psa 30:9  “What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth?   Psa 30:10  Hear, YHWH, and have mercy on me. YHWH, be my helper.”   Psa 30:11  You have turned my mourning into dancing for me. You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness,   Psa 30:12  To the end that my heart may sing praise to you, and not be silent. YHWH Elohei, I will give thanks to you forever!

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 26:12  When you have made an end of tithing all the tithe of your increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within your gates, and be filled.

This is not a commandment to support teachers and preachers exclusively with your tithe, it is a commandment to open your pantry to the poor of all kinds.  No one person is entitled to your tithe, and monetary donations are not in view here at all.  Teachers, Ministers, Preachers and such are to have “day jobs,” as is described both concerning the Levites and concerning the apostles, especially by Paul.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 26:13  You shall say before YHWH your Elohim, I have put away the holy things out of my house, and also have given them to the Levite, and to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all your mitzvah which you have commanded me: I have not transgressed any of your mitzvot, neither have I forgotten them:

Deu 26:14  I have not eaten of it in my mourning, neither have I put away of it, being unclean, nor given of it for the dead: I have listened to the voice of YHWH my Elohim; I have done according to all that you have commanded me.

Deu 26:15  Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Yisra’el, and the ground which you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.

The tithe of our produce is still in view here – we cannot eat Elohim’s holy portion when we are unclean, when we are in mourning, or in honor of the dead (on the anniversary of their death, for example).  We give the tithe of the the fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices, and flowers that we grow to all the poor alike, not just the leader of our congregation.  And again, no money is in view here and the commandment says clearly once every three years, not continually every year.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 26:16  This day YHWH your Elohim commands you to do these statutes and ordinances: you shall therefore keep and do them with all your heart, and with all your soul.

Deu 26:17  You have declared YHWH this day to be your Elohim, and that you would walk in his ways, and keep his statutes, and his mitzvot, and his ordinances, and listen to his voice:

Deu 26:18  and YHWH has declared you this day to be a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you should keep all his mitzvot;

Deu 26:19  and to make you high above all nations that he has made, in praise, and in name, and in honor; and that you may be a holy people to YHWH your Elohim, as he has spoken.

These are the words of Yeshua HaMashiach, as YHWH Incarnate, and they stand forever.  Sin is, by definition, the transgression of the Torah (I John 3), and Grace is NOT license for sin (Romans 6).  Therefore, anyone who claims to be of the House of Israel, either by birth or by being grafted in, is deluding themselves if they refuse to obey Torah.  They are outside the new covenant, which is nothing more than this same Torah written on their hearts and minds instead of paper and stone (Jeremiah 31).

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 27:1 Moshe and the elders of Yisra’el commanded the people, saying, Keep all the mitzvah which I command you this day.

Deu 27:2  It shall be on the day when you shall pass over the Yarden to the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you, that you shall set yourself up great stones, and plaster them with plaster:

Deu 27:3  and you shall write on them all the words of this Torah, when you are passed over; that you may go in to the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as YHWH, the Elohim of your fathers, has promised you.

Such boundary stele often announced the laws of the land to travelers and strangers during this era.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 27:4  It shall be, when you are passed over the Yarden, that you shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in Mount `Eval, and you shall plaster them with plaster.

Deu 27:5  There shall you build an altar to YHWH your Elohim, an altar of stones: you shall lift up no iron [tool] on them.

Deu 27:6  You shall build the altar of YHWH your Elohim of uncut stones; and you shall offer burnt offerings thereon to YHWH your Elohim:

Deu 27:7  and you shall sacrifice shalom offerings, and shall eat there; and you shall rejoice before YHWH your Elohim.

Deu 27:8  You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.

Iron or steel represent violence and coercion, neither of which are acceptable in regards to an altar.  Offerings must be sincere and voluntary, or they have no meaning.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 27:9  Moshe and the Kohanim the Levites spoke to all Yisra’el, saying, Keep silence, and listen, Yisra’el: this day you are become the people of YHWH your Elohim.

Deu 27:10  You shall therefore obey the voice of YHWH your Elohim, and do his mitzvot and his statutes, which I command you this day.

Deu 27:11  Moshe charged the people the same day, saying,

Deu 27:12  These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you are passed over the Yarden: Shim`on, and Levi, and Yehudah, and Yissakhar, and Yosef, and Binyamin.

Deu 27:13  These shall stand on Mount `Eval for the curse: Re’uven, Gad, and Asher, and Zevulun, Dan, and Naftali.

Reuben lost his birthright as the Firstborn with sexual sin, of course, but the rest of the 6 tribes assigned to give blessings are the four oldest sons of Leah, Jacob’s first and therefore most legitimate wife, along with the two sons of Rachel, the maternal line to  whom he bestowed the double portion of the birthright after Reuven lost it.   Besides Reuben, the rest of the “curse” tribes are the sons of the concubines and Zebulon, Leah’s youngest son and therefore farthest from the “top” of the pack, so to speak.   There is clearly a spiritual order here.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 27:14  The Levites shall answer, and tell all the men of Yisra’el with a loud voice,

Deu 27:15  Cursed be the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to YHWH, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret. All the people shall answer and say, Amein.

Deu 27:16  Cursed be he who sets light by [disregards] his father or his mother. All the people shall say, Amein.

Deu 27:17  Cursed be he who removes his neighbor’s landmark. All the people shall say, Amein.

Deu 27:18  Cursed be he who makes the blind to wander out of the way. All the people shall say, Amein.

Deu 27:19  Cursed be he who wrests the justice [due] to the foreigner, fatherless, and widow. All the people shall say, Amein.

Deu 27:20  Cursed be he who lies with his father’s wife, because he has uncovered his father’s skirt. All the people shall say, Amein.

Deu 27:21  Cursed be he who lies with any manner of animal. All the people shall say, Amein.

Deu 27:22  Cursed be he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother. All the people shall say, Amein.

Deu 27:23  Cursed be he who lies with his mother-in-law. All the people shall say, Amein.

Deu 27:24  Cursed be he who strikes his neighbor in secret. All the people shall say, Amein.

Deu 27:25  Cursed be he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person [in a court of law]. All the people shall say, Amein.

Deu 27:26  Cursed be he who doesn’t confirm the words of this law to do them. All the people shall say, Amein.

These are a general overview of the totality of the commandments, and emphasize to us what Elohim considers to be a just society – failure to have a just society is everyone’s responsibility together, and working toward a just society is everyone’s obligation.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 28:1 It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to the voice of YHWH your Elohim, to observe to do all his mitzvot which I command you this day, that YHWH your Elohim will set you on high above all the nations of the earth:

Deu 28:2  and all these blessings shall come on you, and overtake you, if you shall listen to the voice of YHWH your Elohim.

Deu 28:3  Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.

Deu 28:4  Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your animals, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock.

Deu 28:5  Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading trough.

Deu 28:6  Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

Deu 28:7  YHWH will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you: they shall come out against you one way, and shall flee before you seven ways.

Deu 28:8  YHWH will command the blessing on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to; and he will bless you in the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you.

Deu 28:9  YHWH will establish you for a holy people to himself, as he has sworn to you; if you shall keep the mitzvot of YHWH your Elohim, and walk in his ways.

Deu 28:10  All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of YHWH; and they shall be afraid of you.

Deu 28:11  YHWH will make you plenteous for good, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which YHWH swore to your fathers to give you.

Deu 28:12  YHWH will open to you his good treasure in the sky, to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand: and you shall lend to many nations, and you shall not borrow.

Deu 28:13  YHWH will make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath; if you shall listen to the mitzvot of YHWH your Elohim, which I command you this day, to observe and to do [them],

Deu 28:14  and shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

These are temporal blessings promised for this physcial world, and have nothing to do with the afterlife or end times.  This is not, however, a “name it and claim it” type of situation.  A person must be careful to observe all Torah commandments to qualify for these blessings, and communities cannot tolerate Torahless behavior if they want the community as a whole to receive such blessings.  There is no right to practice pagan religions in Elohim’s jurisprudence.

The curses that follow are certainly prophetic in nature, but may also be chronological. America, supposedly founded as a “Christian” nation (or at least a god-fearing nation) used to more or less enforce the Torah – though they didn’t call it that, of course.  Though they had the day of the week wrong for Shabbat, they at least enforced what they thought was the correct day with “Blue Laws,” and Elohim honored their intention.  Social opinion and pressure was firmly against premarital sex and deviant lifestyles, pagan practices, excessive usury, and unethical behavior.  No, over the past 50 years,  all of that is turned on it’s head – and Elohim’s wrath is sure to follow.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 28:15  But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to the voice of YHWH your Elohim, to observe to do all his mitzvot and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come on you, and overtake you.

Deu 28:16  Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.

Deu 28:17  Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading trough.

Deu 28:18  Cursed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock.

Deu 28:19  Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

Deu 28:20  YHWH will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly; because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me.

Deu 28:21  YHWH will make the pestilence cleave to you, until he has consumed you from off the land, where you go in to possess it.

Deu 28:22  YHWH will strike you with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with fiery heat, and with the sword, and with blight, and with mildew; and they shall pursue you until you perish.

Deu 28:23  Your sky that is over your head shall be brass, and the earth that is under you shall be iron.

Deu 28:24  YHWH will make the rain of your land powder and dust: from the sky shall it come down on you, until you are destroyed.

Deu 28:25  YHWH will cause you to be struck before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them, and shall flee seven ways before them: and you shall be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth.

Deu 28:26  Your dead body shall be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth; and there shall be none to frighten them away.

Deu 28:27  YHWH will strike you with the boil of Egypt, and with the tumors, and with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you can not be healed.

Deu 28:28  YHWH will strike you with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart;

Deu 28:29  and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways: and you shall be only oppressed and robbed always, and there shall be none to save you.

Deu 28:30  You shall betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: you shall build a house, and you shall not dwell therein: you shall plant a vineyard, and shall not use the fruit of it.

Deu 28:31  Your ox shall be slain before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it: your donkey shall be violently taken away from before your face, and shall not be restored to you: your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have none to save you.

Deu 28:32  Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people; and your eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day: and there shall be nothing in the power of your hand.

Deu 28:33  The fruit of your ground, and all your labors, shall a nation which you don’t know eat up; and you shall be only oppressed and crushed always;

Deu 28:34  so that you shall be mad for the sight of your eyes which you shall see.

Deu 28:35  YHWH will strike you in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore boil, of which you can not be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

Deu 28:36  YHWH will bring you, and your king whom you shall set over you, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers; and there shall you serve other gods, wood and stone.

Deu 28:37  You shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples where YHWH shall lead you away.

Deu 28:38  You shall carry much seed out into the field, and shall gather little in; for the arbeh shall consume it.

Deu 28:39  You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine, nor gather [the grapes]; for the worm shall eat them.

Deu 28:40  You shall have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olive shall cast [its fruit].

Deu 28:41  You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity.

Deu 28:42  All your trees and the fruit of your ground shall the arbeh possess.

Deu 28:43  The foreigner who is in the midst of you shall mount up above you higher and higher; and you shall come down lower and lower.

Deu 28:44  He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him: he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

All of these things are now coming to pass in America (as well as Eretz Israel) precisely because we proudly announced to the world at our founding that we were a “city on a hill” as described in Revelation that would establish a godly society and live by Biblical rules.  It is simple cause and effect – we now flout Elohim’s laws, so he is now withdrawing his blessing.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 28:45  All these curses shall come on you, and shall pursue you, and overtake you, until you are destroyed; because you didn’t listen to the voice of YHWH your Elohim, to keep his mitzvot and his statutes which he commanded you:

Deu 28:46  and they shall be on you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your seed forever.

It is telling that there is no nation in the prophecies of the last days that can obviously be identified as the United States – we are no longer going to be in a position to be players in end time events, because we are living in sin and have sided with Israel’s enemies and are attempting to force the State of Israel to give more of the Holy Land away to Torahless aliens.  The American empire is about to fall.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 28:47  Because you didn’t serve YHWH your Elohim with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things;

Deu 28:48  therefore shall you serve your enemies whom YHWH shall send against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron on your neck, until he have destroyed you.

What follows are primarily the events that happened during the seiges when the first and second Temples were destroyed – but they also have an end times application during the Tribulation. About 5/6 of the earth’s populaiton will be killed during WWIII, because by this time, the whole earth should have learned Torah and become obedient.  This was the mission of the “church”  and the Rabbinate, and both have failed.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 28:49  YHWH will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose language you shall not understand;

Deu 28:50  a nation of fierce facial expressions, that shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young,

Deu 28:51  and shall eat the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; that also shall not leave you grain, new wine, or oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.

Deu 28:52  They shall besiege you in all your gates, until your high and fortified walls come down, in which you trusted, throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land, which YHWH your Elohim has given you.

Deu 28:53  You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom YHWH your Elohim has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you.

Deu 28:54  The man who is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children whom he has remaining;

Deu 28:55  so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he has nothing left him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your gates.

Deu 28:56  The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,

Deu 28:57  and toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she shall bear; for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your gates.

Deu 28:58  If you will not observe to do all the words of this Torah that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, YHWH ELOHEINU;

Deu 28:59  then YHWH will make your plagues wonderful, and the plagues of your seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.

Deu 28:60  He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they shall cleave to you.

Deu 28:61  Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will YHWH bring on you, until you are destroyed.

Deu 28:62  You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of the sky for multitude; because you didn’t listen to the voice of YHWH your Elohim.

Deu 28:63  It shall happen that as YHWH rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so YHWH will rejoice over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you; and you shall be plucked from off the land where you go in to possess it.

Deu 28:64  YHWH will scatter you among all peoples, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone.

This was the fate of 10-Israel, the “lost tribes,” who are not lost to Elohim.  They are now largely part of Western nations and the “church,” which is pagan from top to bottom.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 28:65  Among these nations shall you find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of your foot: but YHWH will give you there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul;

Deu 28:66  and your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you shall fear night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life.

Deu 28:67  In the morning you shall say, Would it were even! and at even you shall say, Would it were morning! for the fear of your heart which you shall fear, and for the sight of your eyes which you shall see.

Deu 28:68  YHWH will bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I said to you, You shall see it no more again: and there you shall sell yourselves to your enemies for bondservants and for bondmaids, and no man shall buy you.

After the destruction of the Second Temple, this prophecy came literally true.  There were so many Hebrew slaves on the market that the market collapsed.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 29:1 (28:69) These are the words of the covenant which YHWH commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which He made with them in Horeb.

The Torah covenant was renewed with the generation that was poised to cross the Jordan and enter the promised land.  As the apostles tried to teach, inclusion in Elohim’s covenant is not something you inherit.  Each and every person has to commit to the covenant.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 29:2  (29:1) And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them: You have seen all that YHWH did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land;

Deu 29:3  (29:2) [all] the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and those great wonders;

Deu 29:4  (29:3) but YHWH has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, even to this day.

Deu 29:5  (29:4) And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and your shoe is not waxen old upon your foot.

Deu 29:6  (29:5) You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink; that you might know that I am YHWH your Elohim.

In a sense, the nation of Israel was placed into a Nazarite vow for the 40 years they wandered in the wilderness – a time to purify themselves.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 29:7  (29:6) And when you came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we killed them.

Deu 29:8  (29:7) And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of the Manassites.

Deu 29:9  (29:8) Observe therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may make all that you do to prosper.

Elohim is not going to bless a person – even if they are a Believer – or a family, a community, a town or a state unless Torah is upheld and a just society is established at all levels, with good works and due consideration for the poor and needy.  If you are lacking in any of these aspects then you are not obeying the Torah.   America, in general, can expect to receive harsh treatment during the Birth Pangs and the Tribulation for this very reason.  They have “thrown off” the yoke of Yeshua and become slaves to sin and greed, selfishness and debauchery.  It can’t last.  Elohim will not let it last for us any more than for the ancient Israelites.

Next:  Haftarah Ki Tavo

Kollel Ki Tetze

Kollel Ki Tetze

Hebrews chapters 7 & 8

Heb 7:1 For this Malki-Tzedek, king of Shalem, Kohen of El `Elyon, who met Avraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,

Heb 7:2  to whom also Avraham divided a tenth part of all (being first, by interpretation, king of righteousness, and then also king of Shalem, which is king of peace;

Heb 7:3  without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of Elohim), remains a Kohen continually.

The Sages agree that Shem, Firstborn of Noah, was the founder and king of Salem.  He was born about 100 years prior to the flood, and had a lifespan of 500 years after the flood.  To the much shorter lived-people who were born after the flood, it must have seemed like Shem had been king forever, because he was there from 1657, the year the flood ended, until about 2157, just before the lifetime of the 12 patriarchs.  In other words, Shem was still alive even in Jacob’s day, and Jacob could have studied with him on the way to his uncle Laban’s house.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 7:4  Now consider how great this man was, to whom even Avraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth out of the best spoils.

Heb 7:5  They indeed of the sons of Levi who receive the Kohen’s office have a mitzvah to take tithes of the people according to the Torah, that is, of their brothers, though these have come out of the body of Avraham,

Heb 7:6  but he whose genealogy is not counted from them has accepted tithes from Avraham, and has blessed him who has the promises.

Shem was the high priest under the old order of the Firstborns long before the Levites were appointed to serve in their place.   And it is very clear that he had complete authority as High Priest.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 7:7  But without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater.

Heb 7:8  Here people who die receive tithes, but there one receives tithes of whom it is testified that he lives.

Heb 7:9  We can say that through Avraham even Levi, who receives tithes, has paid tithes,

Heb 7:10  for he was yet in the body of his father when Malki-Tzedek met him.

Abraham himself was a descendant of Shem, by the way.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 7:11  Now if there was perfection through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people have received the Torah), what further need was there for another Kohen to arise after the order of Malki-Tzedek, and not be called after the order of Aharon?

Heb 7:12  For the priesthood being changed, there is of necessity a change made also in the Torah.

The Priesthood of the Firstborns was temporarily set aside at the time of Moses, which represents a substitution from the procedure that was in place from the time of Adam until the time of Moses.  As we now institute divorce for stoning, and as the ancients had to set aside the rules against marrying close kin at the time of creation and again after the flood, there are times when substitutions are made to the Torah.  However, these are understood to be temporary things, only lasting until the situation returns to “normal.”  Once the earth’s population was sufficient, the rules against marrying near relatives began to be enforced.  And once the Messianic Kingdom arrives, the Torah commandment to execute adulterers will be put back into place, among other things.

And, most importantly for this passage, at the time of the Resurrection of Yeshua, the order of the Firstborns was restored to the High Priesthood.  The Levites will henceforth only play a supporting role – their replacement of the Firstborns has ended, and the rules are returned back to their original place.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 7:13  For he of whom these things are said belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar.

The altar he was referring to, of course, was that of the Temple Mount.  During the Priesthood of the Firstborns, a firstborn could establish a valid offer at any clean place, just as Adam did, and just as Abraham and the other patriarchs did.  Shem ruled at Jerusalem but the Temple was not built until much later.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 7:14  For it is evident that Adonai has sprung out of Yehudah, about which tribe Moshe spoke nothing concerning priesthood.

Heb 7:15  This is yet more abundantly evident, if after the likeness of Malki-Tzedek there arises another Kohen,

Heb 7:16  who has been made, not after the Torah of a fleshly mitzvah, but after the power of an endless life:

Heb 7:17  for it is testified, “You are a Kohen forever, according to the order of Malki-Tzedek.”

This passage is from Psalms:

Psa 110:1  <<A Psalm by David.>> YHWH says to Adonai, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.”   Psa 110:2  YHWH will send forth the rod of your strength out of Tziyon. Rule in the midst of your enemies.   Psa 110:3  Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your power, in holy array. Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth.   Psa 110:4 YHWH has sworn, and will not change his mind: “You are a Kohen forever in the order of Malki-Tzedek.”   Psa 110:5  Adonai is at your right hand. He will crush kings in the day of his wrath.   Psa 110:6  He will judge among the nations. He will heap up dead bodies. He will crush the ruler of the whole earth.   Psa 110:7  He will drink of the brook in the way; therefore he will lift up his head.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 7:18  For there is a cancellation of a foregoing mitzvah because of their weakness and uselessness

Heb 7:19  (for the law made nothing perfect), and a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to Elohim.

The commandments that put Aharon and his descendants in the High Priesthood were never meant to be the final word or the perfect solution – they were a temporary deviation from the established order and therefore intended to be set aside when the true order was re-established.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 7:20  Inasmuch as he [Aharon] was not made Kohen without the taking of an oath

Heb 7:21  (for they indeed have been made Kohanim without an oath), but he [Yeshua] with an oath by him [Elohim] that says of him, “Adonai swore and will not change his mind, ‘You are a Kohen forever, according to the order of Malki-Tzedek.’”

Aharon was not promised the High Priesthood in perpetuity, only that as long as his family line lasts they will serve Elohim at the Temple.  And they will – but not as High Priest.

Jer 33:16  In those days shall Yehudah be saved, and Yerushalayim shall dwell safely; and this is [the name] by which she shall be called: YHWH our righteousness.   Jer 33:17 For thus says YHWH: David shall never want a man to sit on the throne of the house of Yisra’el;   Jer 33:18  neither shall the Kohanim the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to burn meal offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.

So their service is changed slightly, but Elohim’s elevation of them to a priesthood, now part of the Torah, stands – but Aharon’s line is no longer High Priest.  That part was abrogated by the fact that the Firstborns were, well, there first and the ultimate Firstborn, Yeshua, reclaimed the High Priesthood legitimately.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 7:22  By so much, Yeshua has become the collateral of a better covenant.

Heb 7:23  Many, indeed, have been made Kohanim, because they are hindered from continuing by death.

Heb 7:24  But he, because he lives forever, has his priesthood unchangeable.

Heb 7:25  Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to Elohim through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.

Heb 7:26  For such a Kohen Gadol was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;

Heb 7:27  who doesn’t need, like those Kohenim Gedolim, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself.

Heb 7:28  For the Torah appoints men as Kohenim Gedolim who have weakness, but the word of the oath which came after the Torah appoints a Son forever who has been perfected.

Heb 8:1 Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this. We have such a Kohen Gadol, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

Heb 8:2  a servant of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which Adonai pitched, not man.

Heb 8:3  For every Kohen Gadol is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this Kohen Gadol also have something to offer.

Heb 8:4  For if he [Yeshua] were on earth, he would not be a Kohen at all, seeing there are Kohanim who offer the gifts according to the Torah;

Heb 8:5  who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moshe was warned by Elohim when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, “See, you shall make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.”

Exo 25:1  YHWH spoke to Moshe, saying… Exo 25:9 According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tent, and the pattern of all of its furniture, even so you shall make it…. Exo 25:40  See that you make them after their pattern, which has been shown to you on the mountain.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 8:6  But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.

Heb 8:7  For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.

Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and learned the Torah.  He passed it down by word of mouth from father to son, but over the generations peoples moved, set up new cities and new cultures developed, and while some kernels of truth remained, the stories became distorted as they were passed down from generation to generation.  By the time of Moses, it was clear that a stable source of information was needed – so the covenant was renewed on stone and paper.  But the Rabbis added their interpretations and traditions, created a thousand page “oral law” monstrosity that distorted Elohim’s true intentions – and the ministers and reverends and priests of the church claimed that the Torah commandments are “done away with” completely, leading millions of people astray.  So paper and stone turned out to be no more effective than word of mouth.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 8:8  For finding fault with them, he said, “Behold, the days come,” says Adonai, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Yisra’el and with the house of Yehudah;

Heb 8:9  not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they didn’t continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them,” says Adonai.

Heb 8:10  “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Yisra’el. After those days,” says the Lord; “I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be to them a Elohim, and they will be to me a people.

Heb 8:11  They will not teach every man his fellow citizen, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.

Heb 8:12  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more.”

This is supposed to be a direct quote from Jeremiah chapter 31, but look:

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:   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.

Elohim says the he will write “MY TORAH” in their minds and write “IT” in their heart.  It is not the content of the Torah that has changed, only the location of it has changed.  No longer can misinformation be passed around, no longer can additions or subtractions or faulty interpretations be made of the written text – the Torah, Elohim’s written Word, will be engraved on our hearts and minds.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 8:13  In that he says, “A new covenant,” he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away.

Yes, paper and stone are becoming obsolete.  We need them now to study and learn, but the day is coming when the Torah will be programmed into your very heart and mind – the “new” covenant, new in strength and effectiveness (not in content).

And it’s very important to understand this, because only Torah observant Believers are “Philadelphians,” included in another promise made after the written Tanakh was completed:  the Parousia.

Next week:  Parashat Ki Tavo. 

Epistle Ki Tetze

Epistle Ki Tetze

John 18:1-18

Joh 18:1 When Yeshua had spoken these words, he went out with his talmidim over the brook Kidron, where was a garden, into which he and his talmidim entered.

Joh 18:2  Now Yehudah, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Yeshua often met there with his talmidim.

Joh 18:3  Yehudah then, having taken a detachment of soldiers and officers from the chief Kohanim and the Perushim, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.

Joh 18:4  Yeshua therefore, knowing all the things that were happening to him, went forth, and said to them, “Who are you looking for?”

Joh 18:5  They answered him, “Yeshua of Natzeret.” Yeshua said to them, “I AM.” Yehudah also, who betrayed him, was standing with them.

Joh 18:6  When therefore he said to them, “I AM,” they went backward, and fell to the ground.

The “Voice of YHWH,” known as Metatron by the Sages.

John, continued:

Joh 18:7  Again therefore he asked them, “Who are you looking for?” They said, “Yeshua of Natzeret.”

Joh 18:8  Yeshua answered, “I told you that I AM. If therefore you seek me, let these go their way,”

Joh 18:9  that the word might be fulfilled which he spoke, “Of those whom you have given me, I have lost none.”

Joh 17:12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you have given me I have kept. None of them is lost, except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

John, continued:

Joh 18:10  Shim`on Kefa therefore, having a sword, drew it, and struck the Kohen Gadol’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Melekh.

Joh 18:11  Yeshua therefore said to Kefa, “Put the sword into its sheath. The cup which the Father has given me, shall I not surely drink it?”

Joh 18:12  So the detachment, the commanding officer, and the officers of the Judeans, seized Yeshua and bound him,

Joh 18:13  and led him to Anan first, for he was father-in-law to Kayafa, who was Kohen Gadol that year.

Joh 18:14  Now it was Kayafa who advised the Judeans that it was expedient that one man should perish for the people.

Joh 11:49  But a certain one of them, Kayafa, being Kohen Gadol that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all,   Joh 11:50 nor do you consider that it is advantageous for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.”   Joh 11:51  Now he didn’t say this of himself, but being Kohen Gadol that year, he prophesied that Yeshua would die for the nation,   Joh 11:52  and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of Elohim who are scattered abroad.

John, continued:

Joh 18:15  Shim`on Kefa followed Yeshua, as did another talmid. Now that talmid was known to the Kohen Gadol, and entered in with Yeshua into the court of the Kohen Gadol;

Joh 18:16  but Kefa was standing at the door outside. So the other talmid, who was known to the Kohen Gadol, went out and spoke to her who kept the door, and brought in Kefa.

Joh 18:17  Then the maid who kept the door said to Kefa, “Are you also one of this man’s talmidim?” He said, “I am not.”

Joh 18:18  Now the servants and the officers were standing there, having made a fire of coals, for it was cold. They were warming themselves. Kefa was with them, standing and warming himself.

Obviously, Peter was not damned to hell for his fear and cowardice, but we should be careful.  If a person is in a situation where they do not with their alliegance to be known, one can certainly obfuscate.  But it is not a good policy to tell an outright lie.  It is permissible to do so to save a life, but an astute person will steer the conversation in such a way as to avoid having to lie.

The prophets spoke of the suffering servant in plain terms, without coming right out and saying that YHWH Incarnate  was that servant.  This mystery was not understood by the prophets.  They knew only two things – a Messiah would come, and that YHWH would come to earth and fight for them.  They did not understand (and the prophets did not make plain) that these two events were one and the same, both at the first advent and at the second.  At the first, YHWH came to earth to defeat the Law of Sin and Death, and to dissolve the marriage bond between himself and the House of Israel so that it could be forged anew.  But they confused this with the events of the second advent, which is why they kept expecting Yeshua to overthrow the Roman government.  As the events of Passover were unfolding, they were scared and confused – but those are not sins, and Elohim forgives us when we are afraid and act in fear, just as he forgave Peter.

Talmidim Ki Tetze

Talmidim Ki Tetze

Revelation chapters 10 & 11

Rev 10:1 I saw a mighty angel coming down out of the sky, clothed with a cloud. A rainbow was on his head. His face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire.

Rev 10:2  He had in his hand a little open book. He set his right foot on the sea, and his left on the land.

Rev 10:3  He cried with a loud voice, as a lion roars. When he cried, the seven thunders uttered their voices.

Rev 10:4  When the seven thunders sounded, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from the sky saying, “Seal up the things which the seven thunders said, and don’t write them.”

There is intense speculation as to what words the angel spoke.  This occurs in the interlude between the events of the limited nuclear exchange and the warfare that followed (chapter 9), represented by the trumpet judgments, and the events of the bowl (sometimes called vial) judgments which follow.  In this interlude, Elohim shows John some of the background information – things happening on earth that lead up to the events of the Trib or things that are happening while the war is going on during the Trib itself.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 10:5  The angel who I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to the sky,

Rev 10:6  and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there will no longer be delay,

Rev 10:7  but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of Elohim is finished, as he declared to his servants, the prophets.

The greek word “mysterion” is not used in the Tanakh, so we need to find out exactly what “mysteries” of the kingdom that are declared to the prophets are in view here.

G3466 μυστήριον   mustērion   moos-tay’-ree-on

From a derivative of μύω muō (to shut the mouth); a secret or “mystery” (through the idea of silence imposed by initiation into religious rites): – mystery.

First of all, what is NOT in view is the Parousia of Yom Teruah prior to the start of the Tribulation.  The Parousia is an event involving the transformation of both dead and living who qualify (the “philadephians” of Revelation chapter 3) into immortality.  There is nothing in the Tanakh about this.  It was simply not told to the ancient Israelites, primarily because it does not apply to them – it is an event specifically reserved for Torah obedient believes in Yeshua HaMashiach.

So, what mystery of Elohim WAS revealed to the prophets of old?  The arrival of YHWH Tzeva’ot IN PERSON to take control of the earth – the King of Kings, YHWH Incarnate, whom we know as Yeshua HaMashiach.  That is the event that the prophets tried to teach people over and over and over, and yet they still say, to this day, “where is the promise of his coming?  Everything goes on like it always did.”  They don’t believe.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 10:8  The voice which I heard from heaven, again speaking with me, said, “Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.”

Rev 10:9  I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. He said to me, “Take it, and eat it up. It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.”

Rev 10:10  I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up. It was as sweet as honey in my mouth. When I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.

Rev 10:11  They told me, “You must prophesy again over many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”

This is a re-enactment of an event by another prophet who prophecied about the Millennial Temple and the Last Days:  Ezekiel.

Eze 2:8  But you, son of man, hear what I tell you; don’t be you rebellious like that rebellious house: open your mouth, and eat that which I give you.   Eze 2:9 When I looked, behold, a hand was put forth to me; and, behold, a scroll of a book was therein;   Eze 2:10  He spread it before me: and it was written within and without; and there were written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.  Eze 3:1 He said to me, Son of man, eat that which you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Yisra’el.   Eze 3:2  So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the scroll.   Eze 3:3  He said to me, Son of man, cause your belly to eat, and fill your bowels with this scroll that I give you. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 11:1 A reed like a rod was given to me. Someone said, “Rise, and measure Elohim’s temple, and the altar, and those who worship in it.

Rev 11:2  Leave out the court which is outside of the temple, and don’t measure it, for it has been given to the nations. They will tread the holy city under foot for forty-two months.

This is 3 ½ standard Hebrew years (each month having 30 days).  It refers to the last half of the Tribulation, after the Abomination of Desolation when the False Messiah (the Beast) has taken over the Temple Mount.

About 30 days before the “grand unveiling” of the new Temple at Passover, (the altar already having been in service for some time) the Beast will have his image installed in the Holy of Holies.  Then, from Nisan 10^th (the day he triumphantly enters Jerusalem in imitation of Yeshua and is accepted by both the crowd and the authorities “in his own name” – John 5:43) it will be 3 ½ years until Yom Kippur, Tishri 10^th, the second advent.  Then, 75 days later, the Shekinah will return to the Temple Mount on Chanukkah.

Dan 12:11  From the time that the continual [burnt offering] shall be taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred ninety days.   Dan 12:12  Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred thirty-five days.   Dan 12:13  But go you your way until the end be; for you shall rest, and shall stand in your lot, at the end of the days.

So we see from these reference to Ezekiel and Daniel that the “mystery” has something to do with the Temple, the defilement, and the second advent (not the Parousia).

Revelation, continued:

Rev 11:3  I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”

Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees and the two menorot, standing before the Adon of the earth.

Rev 11:5  If anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies. If anyone desires to harm them, he must be killed in this way.

Rev 11:6  These have the power to shut up the sky, that it may not rain during the days of their prophecy. They have power over the waters, to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.

Rev 11:7  When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them.

These two witnesses are “witnesses for the prosecution,” namely Enoch and Elijah, both of whom lived on earth and then were taken to Heaven without dying a physical death.  Their job has been to “witness” and “verify” various events in Elohim’s plan.  At the start of the Tribulation they return to earth to preach and teach in Jerusalem.  This lasts for 3 ½ years until the midpoint of the Tribulation – when the False Messiah is assassinated and then “resurrected” by hasatan.  At that point, he has great power (being indwelt by hasatan, of course) and is able to kill the two witnesses.

Rev 11:8  Their dead bodies will be in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sedom and Egypt, where also their Adonai was crucified.

Rev 11:9  From among the peoples, tribes, languages, and nations people will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not allow their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.

Live on CNN, no doubt.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 11:10  Those who dwell on the earth rejoice over them, and they will be glad. They will give gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.

Rev 11:11  After the three and a half days, the breath of life from Elohim entered into them, and they stood on their feet. Great fear fell on those who saw them.

Rev 11:12  I heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” They went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies saw them.

“Come up here!” are the same words Elohim used to enact the Parousia with John at the beginning of chapter 4 – showing that the two witnesses are raised to immortality.  This is their own special resurrection that they have earned with their millennia of service to Elohim’s plan.  The day of their ascent is likely Nisan 21^st, the last sabbath of Unleavened Bread, widely thought to be the day that Elohim parted the Sea of Reeds for Israel.  It is possible that this is the day that Elohim will “make a path through the wilderness” to enable the Torah True Jews of Jerusalem to flee to Southern Jordan (probably Petra) and escape the execution order that the Beast will issue against them.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 11:13  In that day there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified, and gave glory to the Elohim of heaven.

Rev 11:14  The second woe is past. Behold, the third woe comes quickly.

Seven thousand is an oddly specific number.  It may be representative.  The earthquake likely “clears” the way for the Torah True Jews to flee the city unencumbered by the False Messiah’s forces.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 11:15  The seventh angel sounded, and great voices in heaven followed, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of Adonai, and of his Messiah. He will reign forever and ever!”

Rev 11:16  The twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before Elohim’s throne, fell on their faces and worshiped Elohim,

Rev 11:17  saying: “We give you thanks, Adonai Elohim, the Almighty, the one who is and who was; because you have taken your great power, and reigned.

Rev 11:18  The nations were angry, and your wrath came, as did the time for the dead to be judged, and to give your bondservants the prophets, their reward, as well as to the holy ones, and those who fear your name, to the small and the great; and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”

Rev 11:19  Elohim’s temple that is in heaven was opened, and the ark of Adonai’s covenant was seen in his temple. Lightnings, sounds, thunders, an earthquake, and great hail followed.

We have now ended the interlude of midpoint events and jumped back to the chronology of the judgements, up to the last trumpet.  The trumpet sounds in the very last days of the 7^th year of the Tribulation and releases and all-out nuclear exchange which would have extinguished all life on earth if Elohim had not stepped in and returned to earth, as we will see in later chapters.   It is the advent of YHWH Tzeva’ot to fight on Israel’s behalf and set up the Messianic Age that has been the focus of prophecy throughout the Tanakh.  This is the event that everybody is waiting for, the event that will happen when all of the judgements in the scroll have been poured out on the earth – just seven more to go.

Next:  Epistle Ki Tetze

Haftarah Ki Tetze

Haftarah Ki Tetze

Yeshayahu – Isaiah 54:1-10

Isa 54:1 Sing, barren, you who didn’t bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who did not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, says YHWH.

“The desolate” is 10-Israel (Ephrayim) that was divorced from Elohim, and the “married wife” is Judah/Levi, whom Elohim did not directly divorce.  These two are often depicted as “sisters” in Prophecy, both married to Elohim.

Eze 23:4 The names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholivah her sister: and they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Shomron [10-Israel] is Oholah, and Yerushalayim [Judah] Oholivah.

Isa 50:1 Thus says YHWH [to Israel], Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were you sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 54:2  Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitations; don’t spare: lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.

Isa 54:3  For you shall spread aboard on the right hand and on the left; and your seed shall possess the nations, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

Isa 54:4  Don’t be afraid; for you shall not be ashamed: neither be confounded; for you shall not be disappointed: for you shall forget the shame of your youth; and the reproach of your widowhood shall you remember no more.

The “shame” is the idolatry, paganism and athiesm of 10-Israel today.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 54:5  For your Maker is your husband; YHWH Tzeva’ot is his name: and the Holy One of Yisra’el is your Redeemer; the Elohim of the whole earth shall he be called.

Isa 54:6  For YHWH has called you as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off, says your Elohim.

Isa 54:7  For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you.

His death enables him to do this without violating his own Torah.   He divorced her, and she went to live with strange gods, but repented and returned.  Even so, it would not have been enough, because Torah forbids the first husband to remarry a former wife who has been with another man.  Therefore, Elohim chose to die to permanently dissolve the old bond, rather than destroy her and find another wife.  His death was a real death – he was completely de-eminated for 3 days, leaving all of creation (the space-time continuum as we know it) without any vestige of himself (of course, the Ain Sof was still there outside of creation).  Hasatan thought he had won because he, being a created being, does not “believe” in anything outside of creation that can reach back in and change things – like re-emanating the dead.  Obviously, though, the Ain Sof did just that.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 54:8  In overflowing wrath I hid my face from you for a moment; but with everlasting loving kindness will I have mercy on you, says YHWH your Redeemer.

This is a double reference – both to his divorce from 10-Israel and to his death which separated him from everyone and permanently broke his marriage bonds (both to Judah and to Israel, of course.  Even Judah can’t remain married to the dead.  Death breaks all marriage bonds.)

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 54:9  For this is [as] the waters of Noach to me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noach shall no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.

Isa 54:10  For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed; but my loving kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall my covenant of shalom be removed, says YHWH who has mercy on you.

Amein!  Even so, come Adonai Yeshua!

Next:  Talmidim Ke Tetze

Torah Portion Ki Tetze

Torah Portion Ki Tetze

Devarim – Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19

Deu 21:10  When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and YHWH your Elohim delivers them into your hands, and you carry them away captive,

Deu 21:11  and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you have a desire to her, and would take her to you as wife;

Deu 21:12  then you shall bring her home to your house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;

Deu 21:13  and she shall put the clothing of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that you shall go in to her, and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.

This makes it clear that the ridiculous claim that it takes 2 or 3 years to “convert” to Judaism is simply false.  She is his wife after only 30 days – no lengthy “conversion” required.  Presumably, she agrees to learn and obey Torah or he wouldn’t marry her.   Such a declaration appears to be the only requirement, however.  She learns Torah as she goes through the Torah Cycle, just as other prosthelytes do.  It is not a prerequisite to already know Torah and already be “converted” to marry a Jewish man.

This passage clearly supports the Sadducean method of conversion, which the Jerusalem Council adopted as the appropriate method.  The person is considered part of the community at the start of their Torah learning, not at the end of it.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 21:14  It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she will; but you shall not sell her at all for money, you shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.

Presumably, if she refuses to commit to Torah or has some other personality defect, the man simply releases her and that’s the end of it.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 21:15  If a man have two wives, the one beloved, and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers who was hated;

Deu 21:16  then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not make the son of the beloved the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn:

Deu 21:17  but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

The Priesthood of the Firstborns is not negotiable or transferable.  It is conferred upon a man’s firstborn son regardless of who gives birth to that son – in our case, this would mean that a man cannot disinherit a son from his first marriage in favor of a son from a subsequent marriage.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 21:18  If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and, though they chasten him, will not listen to them;

Deu 21:19  then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place;

Deu 21:20  and they shall tell the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.

Deu 21:21  All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones: so shall you put away the evil from the midst of you; and all Yisra’el shall hear, and fear.

In this day and age, the rebellious son or daughter must simply be expelled from the home until they repent – tough love.  A rebellious child cannot be allowed to bring sin and strife into the home, and to negatively influence other children or neighbors.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 21:22  If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and you hang him on a tree;

Deu 21:23  his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of Elohim; that you don’t defile your land which YHWH your Elohim gives you for an inheritance.

This is the origin of the rule that a Jewish person must be buried within 24 hours of their death.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 22:1 You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and hide yourself from them: you shall surely bring them again to your brother.

Deu 22:2  If your brother isn’t near to you, or if you don’t know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother seek after it, and you shall restore it to him.

Deu 22:3  So shall you do with his donkey; and so shall you do with his garment; and so shall you do with every lost thing of your brother’s, which he has lost, and you have found: you may not hide yourself.

There’s no “finders, keepers” in Torah – a person must diligently make every effort to find the true owner of a lost item.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 22:4  You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way, and hide yourself from them: you shall surely help him to lift them up again.

We do not allow animals (or children, or property) to be “punished” simply because we don’t like a person or have something against him or her.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 22:5  A woman shall not wear men’s clothing, neither shall a man put on women’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to YHWH your Elohim.

These are the only words that Torah has to say about clothing.  There is no rule that everyone must go around dressed like “Little House on the Prarie” or “Fiddler on the Roof” or mimic any time period from ancient times to the middle ages in order to be dressed “correctly.”  The styles of clothing that are normal, usual and customary for any culture are just fine as long as the women’s clothes are reasonably modest – and the definition of “modest” does not imply in any way that pants cannot be worn.  “Immodest” clothing reveals too much skin and is too tight – it has nothing to do with the style of clothing.

Pants were in fact invented as women’s clothing about 800 BCE in the Far East and quickly migrated to the Near East.  This is proven in countless artistic artifacts showing far and near eastern women wearing pants and long tunics as their ordinary clothing.  Wealthy European men did not begin wearing pants until the mid 1700s – as any painting of Henry VIII and other historical figures will plainly show.  They wore long tunics with hosen, not pants.

Meanwhile, women in both the near and far east had been wearing pants for nearly 2000 years.  They were in use long before the era of Hellenisation, when Greek togas took over the “style” for women’s clothes.  Then and in later days, Hebrew and other Near Eastern women who migrated to Europe were forced to abandon their native clothing and adopt Greek/Roman/Catholic styles.  The Catholic governments preferred skirts for women – however, near eastern women had always worn caftans or tunics over pants previously, not skirts.  So there is nothing whatsoever authentic or Biblical about skirts for women – they are an imposition of European culture and have nothing to do with original Hebraic custom and practice.  If you want to dress like a real Hebrew woman, wear caftans (what we would consider to be ankle length tunics) or a shirt type tunic (knee-length) with pants – because that’s what near Eastern women  wore then and still wear now.

Deuteronomy

Deu 22:6  If a bird’s nest chance to be before you in the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the hen sitting on the young, or on the eggs, you shall not take the hen with the young:

Deu 22:7  you shall surely let the hen go, but the young you may take to yourself; that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days.

Obviously, by letting the mother bird fly away she can lay more eggs.  This might be a considered an early environmentalist law, or perhaps an early law regarding food sustainability (similar to not killing fruit trees during a seige).

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 22:8  When you build a new house, then you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you don’t bring blood on your house, if any man fall from there.

An early safety regulation – and notice that negligence leading to someone’s death is unacceptable.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 22:9  You shall not sow your garden* with mixed** seed, lest the whole fruit be forfeited, the seed which you have sown, and the increase of the garden.

Often translated as “vinyard,” the more correct interpretation for the first part of this verse is simply “garden.”  Grape vines aren’t sown by seeds, they’re propogated by cuttings and by root stocks.  Therefore intention of this verse is to refer to a garden in general, not a vineyard.

H3754 כּרם   kerem   keh’-rem

From an unused root of uncertain meaning; a garden or vineyard: – vines, (increase of the) vineyard (-s), vintage.

This commandments didn’t make a lot of sense to either ancient or recent commentators, because companion planting and crop rotation are known to be the most effective and sustainable way to grow produce.  However, it may not have truly been intended for ordinary farmers – this may be an example of a commandment that is intended specifically for our day and age.

H3610 כּלאים   kil’ayim   kil-ah’-yim

Dual of H3608 in the original sense of separation; two heterogeneities: – divers seeds (-e kinds), mingled (seed).

H3608 כּלא   kele’   keh’-leh

From H3607; a prison: – prison. Compare H3610, H3628.

H3607 כּלא    kâlâ’   kaw-law’

A primitive root; to restrict, by act (hold back or in) or word (prohibit): – finish, forbid, keep (back), refrain, restrain, retain, shut up, be stayed, withhold.

A seed with two separate hetergeneities imprisoned within it is a seed with DNA from some sorce other than it’s own parents – in other words, a genetically modified seed that did not “reproduce after its kind,” as Genesis informs us food must.   Genetically modified seeds have DNA from other species, including unclean species such as pork and shellfish, inserted into them – and also contain “suicide genes” manufactured by seed companies to prevent the farmers from being able to collect their natural seeds every year to replant.  The “suicide” genes prevent the seeds from germinated, so they cannot “reproduce after their kind.”  Instead, the farmers have to continually buy seed from the manufacturer.

It appears that Elohim is not pleased with this type of “science.”  Eating produce that doesn’t reproduce normally violates Elohim’s instructions for mankind:

Gen 1:29  Elohim said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food.

And of course, genetically modified products that contain animal DNA, especially those of unclean creatures, are an unnatural abomination and should certainly not be considered kosher.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 22:10  You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

This involves being “unequally yoked.”

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 22:11  You shall not wear a mixed stuff*, wool and linen together.

H8162 שׁעטנז   sha‛aṭnêz   shah-at-naze’

Probably of foreign derivation; linsey woolsey, that is, cloth of linen and wool carded and spun together: – garment of divers sorts, linen and woollen.

This appears to be related to the prohibition against genetically modified produce, above.  A single garment should not have threads of both plant and animal origins.  This is no doubt symbolic in some way of the proper separation of the natural orders, which genetically modified organisms are guilty of violating.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 22:12  You shall make you tzitziyot on the four borders of your garment, with which you cover yourself.

Tzitzits are mentioned elsewhere in scripture (Numbers 15:38).  They require having a blue thread (or blue hem, depending on the translation used) and their purpose is to remind the wearer of Elohim’s commandments.  Since its purpose is to be a personal reminder, there is no requirement that the tzitzits actually are visible to others – hence the development of the “tallit kattan,” an undershirt with tzitzits that a man in a secular profession can wear under his regular uniform or clothes.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 22:13  If any man take a wife, and go in to her, and hate her,

Deu 22:14  and lay shameful things to her charge, and bring up an evil name on her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came near to her, I didn’t find in her the tokens of virginity;

Deu 22:15  then shall the father of the young lady, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the young lady’s virginity to the elders of the city in the gate;

Deu 22:16  and the young lady’s father shall tell the elders, I gave my daughter to this man to wife, and he hates her;

Deu 22:17  and behold, he has laid shameful things [to her charge], saying, I didn’t find in your daughter the tokens of virginity; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity. They shall spread the garment before the elders of the city.

Clearly this passage and the passages following cannot be applied to a divorcee or widow, because there would have been no expectation of her having been a virgin in the first place.

Concerning girls who were presented as virgins for marriage, it was apparently the custom in those days to have a white cloth spread out on the bed upon which a couple consummated their marriage – the white cloth then being immediately given to the girl’s parents.  That was the original purpose of the man and woman going off in private for an hour or so during the wedding feast and then returning to party.  Today the “short period of seclusion” still occurs in traditional weddings but the marriage is no longer consumated at that time.  Since in these times the consummation does not take place until later at night after all guests and parents have dispersed, the cloth is no longer used, either (since the witnesses all having left, it would no longer prove the girl was a virgin at the wedding).

Therefore it is not really possible to prove a young woman was a virgin at the time of her wedding unless she receives an examination from a physician immediately prior to the ceremony, which most people are not willing to do.   It is therefore unclear how this passage can be adapted to modern times.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 22:18  The elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him;

Deu 22:19  and they shall fine him one hundred [shekels] of silver, and give them to the father of the young lady, because he has brought up an evil name on a virgin of Yisra’el: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.

This was obviously intended to protect the girl from becoming an indigent outcast, but in this day and age other social safety nets are available.  Such an argument will no doubt degenerate into a “he said/she said” dispute and be unprovable.  It is better if such hatred exists to grant a divorce, since there is no proof either way.

As discussed below:

Deu 24:1 When a man takes a wife, and marries her, then it shall be, if she find no favor in his eyes, because he has found some uncleanness in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.   Deu 24:2  When she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s [wife].

H6172 ערוה   ‛ervâh   er-vaw’

From H6168; nudity, literally (especially the pudenda) or figuratively (disgrace, blemish): – nakedness, shame, unclean (-ness).

H6168 ערה    ‛ârâh   aw-raw’

A primitive root; to be (causatively make) bare; hence to empty, pour out, demolish: – leave destitute, discover, empty, make naked, pour (out), rase, spread self, uncover.

If a girl presented herself as a virgin but is suspected of not being one, then the suspicion of her uncleanness due to “ prior activities” is acceptable grounds for a divorce.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 22:20  But if this thing be true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young lady;

Deu 22:21  then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Yisra’el, to play the prostitute in her father’s house: so shall you put away the evil from the midst of you.

Obviously if the man was prepared to forgive his wife for her youthful indescretions, none of this would ever have come up in public.  As before, in the absence of proof, we cannot declare her guilty – therefore a divorce is the  honorable solution (and, of course, even if it could be proved true “the law of the land is the law” and we cannot impose capital punishment for religious infractions).

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 22:22  If a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman: so shall you put away the evil from Yisra’el.

Adultery is a capital offense to Elohim, but of course this cannot be carried out in modern times.  If the wronged spouse is inclined to forgive – let restitution be made instead.  If the wronged spouse is not inclined to forgive, then let them divorce – this would be considered an “uncleanness” and is therefore a valid reason for a divorce.

Deu 22:23  If there be a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;

Deu 22:24  then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn’t cry, being in the city; and the man, because he has humbled his neighbor’s wife: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.

The premise here is that in the city, building were crowded together and women and elderly people and young children were at home all day – she should have made a racket of some kind to draw attention to the situation.  Clearly this would not apply to today’s sprawling suburbs of single family homes and both spouses working all day.

The intent of the passage is to show that the woman had some responsibility in a reasonably crowded place to not be in a situation where a man could take advantage of her, and if she found herself in such a situation, she is obligated to make every effort to avoid being ravaged.  This would seem to imply that purposefully putting oneself in such a situation implies guilt and sin.  Therefore, wearing immodest clothing is an avoidable enticement and women are, in fact, culpable if their clothes are shamefully immodest.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 22:25  But if the man find the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her; then the man only who lay with her shall die:

Deu 22:26  but to the lady you shall do nothing; there is in the lady no sin worthy of death: for as when a man rises against his neighbor, and kills him, even so is this matter;

Deu 22:27  for he found her in the field, the pledged to be married lady cried, and there was none to save her.

The presumption, again, is that she was too isolated for anyone to realize she was in trouble.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 22:28  If a man find a lady who is a virgin, who is not pledged to be married, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;

Deu 22:29  then the man who lay with her shall give to the lady’s father fifty [shekels] of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has humbled her; he may not put her away all his days.

This was, again, intended to prevent the girl from being outcast and indigent and to insure if she became pregnant the child would have financial support.  As before, we have other social safety nets these days.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 22:30  A man shall not take his father’s wife, and shall not uncover his father’s skirt.

Whether or not she is his mother.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 23:1 He who is wounded in the stones, or has his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the assembly of YHWH.

A man who is disfigured in his genitals may not enter service at the Temple. He is blemished and therefore unfit.  This does not prevent him from worshipping or studying Torah or even teaching – but he cannot enter the Temple (or Tabernacle) itself.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 23:2  A mamzer shall not enter into the assembly of YHWH; even to the tenth generation shall none of his enter into the assembly of YHWH.

Though often translated as “bastard,” that is not the meaning of the word.  A mamzer is the product of an illegal union, such as that of an adulterous affair, or a marriage between person who are not permitted to marry, such as first cousins or other close relatives.

Abraham was born only a couple of hundred years after the flood, at a time when this law was not yet being enforced due to inadequate population – and obviously during Adam’s lifetime such prohibitions were not enforced.  But by the time of Moses, mankind had sufficient population regenerated to implement these types of prohibitions strictly.  Since is had not been put into full force previously, this law was given a stiff penalty to deter those who still intended to follow the old technically improper (but necessary at the time)  ways.

This passage also teaches us that there are some extenuating circumstances that set aside full implementation of Torah laws.  Disregarding laws concerning marriage of siblings and close cousins immediately after creation and after the flood are obvious examples.  Substituting divorce for stoning, as above, would be another such instance.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 23:3  An `Ammonite or a Mo’avite shall not enter into the assembly of YHWH; even to the tenth generation shall none belonging to them enter into the assembly of YHWH forever:

Deu 23:4  because they didn’t meet you with bread and with water in the way, when you came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Bil`am the son of Be’or from Petor of Aram-Naharayim, to curse you.

Deu 23:5  Nevertheless YHWH your Elohim wouldn’t listen to Bil`am; but YHWH your Elohim turned the curse into a blessing to you, because YHWH your Elohim loved you.

Obviously the “ten generations” had passed by the time of Ruth and Boaz, because she was admitted into the assembly and became the grandmother of King David.  Therefore this law is “expired.”

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 23:6  You shall not seek their shalom nor their prosperity all your days forever.

This is a slightly different commandment – giving aid and comfort to enemies is never a good policy, and Ammon and Moav (modern day Jordan) continue to be antagonists to the State of Israel even to this day.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 23:7  You shall not abhor an Edomite; for he is your brother: you shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land.

Deu 23:8  The children of the third generation who are born to them shall enter into the assembly of YHWH.

Again, the three generations have long passed.   This law is also apparently “expired.”

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 23:9  When you go forth in camp against your enemies, then you shall keep you from every evil thing.

The concept of “honorable” warfare is Biblical – a war is not an excuse for unacceptable or illegal behavior or activities.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 23:10  If there be among you any man, who is not clean by reason of that which happens him by night, then shall he go abroad out of the camp, he shall not come within the camp:

Deu 23:11  but it shall be, when evening comes on, he shall bathe himself in water; and when the sun is down, he shall come within the camp.

In the same way a person who has marital relations is required to be unclean and to bathe prior to participating in religious observances.

Lev 15:16  “‘If any man has an emission of semen, then he shall bathe all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the evening.   Lev 15:17  Every garment, and every skin, whereon the semen is, shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the evening.   Lev 15:18  If a man lies with a woman and there is an emission of semen, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the evening.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 23:12  You shall have a place also outside of the camp, where you shall go forth abroad:

Deu 23:13  and you shall have a paddle among your weapons; and it shall be, when you sit down abroad, you shall dig therewith, and shall turn back and cover that which comes from you:

Deu 23:14  for YHWH your Elohim walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you, and to give up your enemies before you; therefore shall your camp be holy, that he may not see an unclean thing in you, and turn away from you.

Natural bodily functions such as marital relations and elimination are not sinful, but they are a reminder of our mortal existence, which is far less holy and perfect that the eternal immortal bodies we will receive at the Parousia or Resurrection.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 23:15  You shall not deliver to his master a servant who is escaped from his master to you:

Deu 23:16  he shall dwell with you, in the midst of you, in the place which he shall choose within one of your gates, where it pleases him best: you shall not oppress him.

This is very clear and concise – an escaped slave is to be given sanctuary, not turned over to the authorities.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 23:17  There shall be no prostitute of the daughters of Yisra’el, neither shall there be a sodomite [male prostitute] of the sons of Yisra’el.

These professions are not acceptable in any way.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 23:18  You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute, or the wages of a dog, into the house of YHWH your Elohim for any vow: for even both these are an abomination to YHWH your Elohim.

The money earned from unclean professions is itself considered unclean, and not fit for offerings, tithes or vows.  There are numerous businesses today for which this prohibition would apply – striptese joints, places that show or rent pornography, drug dens, brothels, etc.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 23:19  You shall not lend on interest to your brother; interest of money, interest of food, interest of anything that is lent on interest:

Deu 23:20  to a foreigner you may lend on interest; but to your brother you shall not lend on interest, that YHWH your Elohim may bless you in all that you put your hand to, in the land where you go in to possess it.

Your “brother” is any Jew or Christian – these claim to be part of the House of Israel and they are therefore our “bretheren.”  A business or profession that charges interest to a fellow Jew or fellow Christian is in violation of this law.  Interest earnings obtained from fellow Jews or Christians is unclean money and not acceptable as offerings, tithes or vows.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 23:21  When you shall vow a vow to YHWH your Elohim, you shall not be slack to pay it: for YHWH your Elohim will surely require it of you; and it would be sin in you.

Deu 23:22  But if you shall forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in you.

Deu 23:23  That which is gone out of your lips you shall observe and do; according as you have vowed to YHWH your Elohim, a freewill offering, which you have promised with your mouth.

If you make a religious vow of any kind, including a financial one, you are bound by it – however, you are not required to make any vows (even if your congregations wants you to).

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 23:24  When you come into your neighbor’s vineyard, then you may eat of grapes your fill at your own pleasure; but you shall not put any in your vessel.

Deu 23:25  When you come into your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the ears with your hand; but you shall not move a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.

You may grap with your hands a fruit or vegetable that you intend to eat immediately, because you are hungry and need it.  Elohim here presumes that your neighbor is a good person and would gladly give you a bite to eat if you asked.  But that does not mean you can presume to share in your neighbor’s harvest without consent.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 24:1 When a man takes a wife, and marries her, then it shall be, if she find no favor in his eyes, because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.

Deu 24:2  When she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s [wife].

Often translated as “uncleanness” or “nakedness” (see above), something “unseemly” would be something contrary to Elohim’s law, such as promiscuity, or idolatry, or Torahlessness.  These are valid reasons for a divorce.  However, “falling out of love,” or “irreconcilable differences” are NOT valid reasons for divorce.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 24:3  If the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, who took her to be his wife;

Deu 24:4  her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before YHWH: and you shall not cause the land to sin, which YHWH your Elohim gives you for an inheritance.

It is this law which constrains how Elohim acts toward his betrothed, the House of Israel.  Israel has been married to other gods – therefore in order to avoid violating his own Torah, Elohim had two choices.  One, destroy Israel entirely and find a new betrothed, or two, die himself to erase the old bond, dissolve it completely, and allow a new marriage bond to be created.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 24:5  When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out in the army, neither shall he be charged with any business: he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer his wife whom he has taken.

Our current army is, of course, blatantly in violation of this law.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 24:6  No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone to pledge; for he takes [a man's] life to pledge.

The general idea is that it is not ethical to take as collateral something which they need to repay the loan you made to them.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 24:7  If a man be found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Yisra’el, and he deal with him as a slave, or sell him; then that thief shall die: so shall you put away the evil from the midst of you.

Kidnapping is a capital offense to Elohim.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 24:8  Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that you observe diligently, and do according to all that the Kohanim the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them, so you shall observe to do.

Deu 24:9  Remember what YHWH your Elohim did to Miryam, by the way as you came forth out of Egypt.

This refers generally to the instructions of Leviticus chapters 13 and 14 concerning various diseases and molds/mildews on property.  During any plague, rules of quarantine and the burning of infected materials MUST be observed to safeguard the health of the community.  It is not being “compassionate” to ignore these rules, it is suicide.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 24:10  When you do lend your neighbor any manner of loan, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge.

Deu 24:11  You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you do lend shall bring forth the pledge outside to you.

Deu 24:12  If he be a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge;

Deu 24:13  you shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment, and bless you: and it shall be righteousness to you before YHWH your Elohim.

It is demeaning to search through someone else’s home or take their belongings that they need to live or earn a living. You must treat your clients with dignity and ethical standards at all times.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 24:14  You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he be of your brothers, or of your foreigners who are in your land within your gates:

Deu 24:15  in his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it: lest he cry against you to YHWH, and it be sin to you.

It has become an unfortunate but common practice in many Rabbinic communities to withhold the pay of teachers or charitable workers because of budgeting problems.  This passage commands that paying wages should be the FIRST priority of a business, not the last.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 24:16  The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

You may recall some passages speak of Elohim’s disfavor lasting to the “third and fourth generations.”   This is not, however, an indication of direct punishment.  It is more correct to say that Elohim will not magically remove the bad circumstances that your sin creates for your children and grandchildren. If you are a drunk, for example, your children and grandchildren will suffer due to your negligence, irresponsibility and violence.  The fault would be 100% yours, however – not Elohim’s.   If you gamble away your money, your family will be homeless – again, your fault.  If you get involved in any sinful activity and get caught, you are sowing the seeds of bad consequences for your children and grandchildren.  Things would have been very different for their lives if you had not lived a life of sin.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 24:17  You shall not wrest the justice [due] to the foreigner, [or] to the fatherless, nor take the widow’s clothing to pledge;

Deu 24:18  but you shall remember that you were a bondservant in Egypt, and YHWH your Elohim redeemed you there: therefore I command you to do this thing.

A just and fair system of courts is a must for any good society.  All cases should be decided on the merits of the fact presented, and not on factors of popularity, wealthy, class, race, etc.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 24:19  When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgot a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow; that YHWH your Elohim may bless you in all the work of your hands.

Deu 24:20  When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

Deu 24:21  When you gather [the grapes of] your vineyard, you shall not glean it after you: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

Deu 24:22  You shall remember that you were a bondservant in the land of Egypt: therefore I command you to do this thing.

The idea here is to provide the poor with an honorable way of earning their food – by coming to your field and working to harvest the portion you leave for them.  This gives them dignity and a sense of control in their lives, and it is much better for them than just receiving a handout.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 25:1 If there be a controversy between men, and they come to judgment, and [the judges] judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked;

Deu 25:2  and it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his wickedness, by number.

Deu 25:3  Forty stripes he may give him, he shall not exceed; lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then your brother should seem vile to you.

The Sages ruled that only 39 stripes could be administered, in case somebody lost count.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 25:4  You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out [the grain].

Like the man who grabs a fruit or veggie from your field (above), Elohim presumes a good person would not withhold food from a hungry animal.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 25:5  If brothers dwell together, and one of them die, and have no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a stranger: her husband’s brother shall go in to her, and take her to him as wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.

Deu 25:6  It shall be, that the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, that his name not be blotted out of Yisra’el.

Deu 25:7  If the man doesn’t want to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, My husband’s brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Yisra’el; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.

Deu 25:8  Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him: and if he stand, and say, I don’t want to take her;

Deu 25:9  then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face; and she shall answer and say, So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.

Deu 25:10  His name shall be called in Yisra’el, The house of him who has his shoe untied.

Inheritance and lineage are very imporant concepts in Hebraic thought.  A man needs heirs for his property and/or business.  If a man were to die childless, that property would pass to distant relatives or be sold to strangers, and be lost to the family.  We know this is not Elohim’s will, since other laws such as the Jubilee (Yovel) require land to be returned to the original family who owned it.  In the Messianic Age, people will receive an inheritance by lot in the Holy Land and it will be passed down from generation to generation, not sold off to strangers.  Elohim intended the economy to be built on irrevocable property ownership – something today’s bankers and mortgage companies don’t seem to understand.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 25:11  When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draws near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him who strikes him, and puts forth her hand, and takes him by the secrets;

Deu 25:12  then you shall cut off her hand, your eye shall have no pity.

Maiming or injuring a man’s genitals renders him unfit for Temple service – effectively cutting him off from Elohim’s presence.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 25:13  You shall not have in your bag diverse weights, a great and a small.

Deu 25:14  You shall not have in your house diverse measures, a great and a small.

Deu 25:15  A perfect and just weight shall you have; a perfect and just measure shall you have: that your days may be long in the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you.

Deu 25:16  For all who do such things, [even] all who do unrighteously, are an abomination to YHWH your Elohim.

Cheating your customers or business partners in any way is unacceptable to Elohim, no matter how good the “cause” supposedly is.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 25:17  Remember what `Amalek did to you by the way as you came forth out of Egypt;

Deu 25:18  how he met you by the way, and struck the hindmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he didn’t fear Elohim.

Deu 25:19  Therefore it shall be, when YHWH your Elohim has given you rest from all your enemies round about, in the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of `Amalek from under the sky; you shall not forget.

Obviously it is impossible to “forget” something written in Torah, so we are not commanded to “forget Amalek,” we are commanded NOT to forget to “blot out the memory” of Amalek.  To blot out the memory is to leave a man with no descendants, as we see above in the passage concerning Levitical marriages.  The commandment of this passage is to put the household of Amalek “under the ban,” leaving no survivors – to “blot” his house out of the Book of Life.

Next:  Haftarah Ki Tetze.

Rosh Chodesh Elul and the Season of Repentance

Two emails have been received concerning the sighting of the New Moon in Jerusalem for Rosh Chodesh Elul:

Karaite Korner Newsletter #408

New Moon Report
Sixth Biblical Month
Part 1

On Friday August 21, 2009 observers looked for the moon from Jerusalem but did not sight it. Visibility was uncertain this evening. Further sighting reports will be posted as they arrive. Barring a positive sighting for Friday evening, new moon will be Saturday night.

Nehemia Gordon
Charlotte, North Carolina

Karaite Korner Newsletter #409

New Moon Report
August 2009
Sixth Biblical Month
Part 2

On Saturday August 22, 2009 the new moon was sighted from Jerusalem by Devorah Gordon at 7:02, by Johan Schutte at 7:10, and by Dina Marcus at 7:22pm. We are still waiting to hear from some observers whether or not they sighted it from Israel on Friday night.

Nehemia Gordon
Charlotte, North Carolina

At the time of this post, it is 4:33pm EDT in the US and there has not been any word of sightings at other locations in Israel concerning the new moon.  Therefore, we must presume that today, Sunday August 23rd, is Rosh Chodesh Elul.

[UPDATE:

Karaite Korner Newsletter #410

New Moon Report
August 2009
Sixth Biblical Month
Part 3

With all of the expected obsevers reporting in we can now confirm that the moon was not sighted on Friday night from Israel and thast Saturday night was new moon day.

Nehemia Gordon
Charlotte, North Carolina

So, the Biblical calendar is once again not aligned with the Rabbinic calendar by a considerable difference.  The Rabbinic Rosh Chodesh Elul was Thursday, August 20th, four days earlier than the actual moon sighting!]

This begins the 40 day Season of Repentance leading up to Yom Kippur.  These are our “last chance” to get ourselves right with Elohim prior to Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpets, on Tishri 1st, also known as Rosh HaShanah, the 6th Day of Creation and birthday of mankind (celebrated together with the following day, Tishri 2nd, which is the anniversary of the first 7th day Shabbat).

According to the Sages, those who became righteous prior to Tishri 1st are sealed for blessings in the coming year.  On Elohim’s prophetic calendar, Tishri 1st and Yom Teruah represent the Parousia, the Awakening Blast, when the dead in Messiah rise first then the living obedient believers follow for the 7 day (year) wedding celebration in Heaven while the Tribulation occurs on earth.

So the seven days of creation then proceeds directly into the seven days of Tribulation. In the Days of Creation, Adam and Eve lived in paradise for 7 years (a parallel to the coming 7 years of Tribulation).   Then, during the Days of Awe (another name for the High Holy Days), they were cast out of the Garden and Elohim’s plan of Redemption was finally set in motion (He had known it was coming, of course.  They didn’t surprise Him at all.).

The Fast of Tishri 3rd marks the beginning of the Tribulation, and erev Yom Kippur on Tishri 9th is the 7th day of Tribulation.   These 7 days are, according to the Sages, the “make-up test” for Repentance and Salvation.  If you missed being sealed on Yom Teruah, you can still receive a blessing for the new year.  Prophetically, this means you can still gain eternal life and service in the Messianic Kingdom by repenting during the Tribulation, as long as you do so by Yom Kippur, Tishri 10th.

Yom Kippur represents the second advent of Yeshua HaMashiach as YHWH Tzeva’ot, the King of Kings, at the end of the 7 year Tribulation.  Returning with him are those immortals of the Parousia, who will serve as the kings and priests on earth during the Messianic Era.  Also at this time, the Tribulation Martyrs are risen and begin their permanent service in the Heavenly Temple above.

What follows is the separation of the sheep and the goats, in which the mortal survivors of WWIII and the Tribulation are judged.  The righteous gentiles and Torah True Jews who qualify will enter the Kingdom as mortal subjects.  They will live long lifespans, but they are not immortal.  They marry, have children, can get sick, and eventually die.  If they sin, they can be accursed.  The rest of the survivors, however -  the goats – are tossed into the Lake of Fire along with the False Messiah and the False prophet and do not enter the Kingdom.

Next, the Kingdom is inaugurated at Sukkot for 7 days beginning on Tishri 15th.  On the 21st day of Tishri, Hoshanah Rabba, the water libation is made on the Temple altar, completing its cleansing and springing forth the River of Life.  The next day, Simchat Torah, begins a new Torah learning cycle in which the whole world, all the sheep, the righteous gentiles and the Israelite believers of the nations, begin learning Torah in earnest.

At Chanukkah, the Temple cleansing is completed and the Shekinah returns, for the most amazing Feast of Dedication ever.

You would think that with perfect government, perfect schools, a perfect economy, etc. that would be the end of sin – but you’d be wrong.  At the end of 1000 years, hasatan is released and he begins to entice the descendants of the mortals who entered the kingdom.  Many follow him, and instigate one final rebellion against Messiah.  They are, of course, easily defeated.

Then the Great White Throne Judgment will occur.  All people who have ever lived who were not included in the Parousia and not included in the Resurrection of the Tribulation Martyrs will now rise and be judged.  Some enter the Olam Haba (the new heavens and the new earth), and some are cast into the Lake of Fire, along with hasatan and Death, finally.   This will happen on some future Yom Kippur, bringing Elohim’s plan of redemption full circle.

This is Elohim’s prophetic calendar, and we rehearse this calendar every year of our lives.   The Fasts of 17 Tammuz and Av 9th, representing disasters involving the Jewish people, and the “Season of Repentance” which follows are often considered to represent the “Birth Pangs” which precede the Tribulation.   So this is where we are now on Elohim’s calendar.  It is time for us to look long and hard at our lives and do teshuvah before Yom Teruah to be sealed for blessing – and who knows, this could be the year that we no longer just enact Yom Teruah, but that the world actually hears the Shofar Blast of the Archangel and the Voice proclaiming the Parousia has arrived!

We are not supposed to be in darkness, not knowing what Elohim has planned.  That is why we rehearse and rehearse and rehearse, so we will be in the right place at the right time when it’s SHOWTIME!

Shalom!

Kollel Shoftim

Kollel Shoftim

Hebrews chapters 5 and 6

Heb 5:1 For every Kohen Gadol, being taken from among men, is appointed for men in things pertaining to Elohim, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

Heb 5:2  The Kohen Gadol can deal gently with those who are ignorant and going astray, because he himself is also surrounded with weakness.

Heb 5:3  Because of this, he must offer sacrifices for sins for the people, as well as for himself.

Heb 5:4  Nobody takes this honor on himself, but he is called by Elohim, just like Aharon was.

The position of Cohen HaGadol is hereditary – it cannot be politically appointed.  The fact that it was politically appointed during the Hellenistic period led to the widespread disregard for the priesthood by the am ha’aretz and several sects who were not shy about voicing their displeasure.  What the writer is telling his audience is that regardless of what’s going on politically at the Temple, they have a valid High Priest, just as Aharon was valid.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 5:5  So also Messiah didn’t glorify himself to be made a Kohen Gadol, but it was he who said to him, “You are my Son. Today I have become your father.”

This comes from Psalms chapter two and specifically refers to the “powers that be” working against Elohim’s hereditary and appointed leadership:

Psa 2:1  Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?   Psa 2:2  The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against YHWH, and against his Messiah, saying,   Psa 2:3  “Let’s break their bonds apart, and cast their cords from us.”   Psa 2:4  He who sits in the heavens will laugh. Adonai will have them in derision.   Psa 2:5  Then he will speak to them in his anger, and terrify them in his wrath:   Psa 2:6  “Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Tziyon.”   Psa 2:7 I will tell of the decree. YHWH said to me, “You are my son. Today I have become your father.   Psa 2:8  Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.   Psa 2:9  You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”   Psa 2:10  Now therefore be wise, you kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth.   Psa 2:11  Serve YHWH with fear, and rejoice with trembling.   Psa 2:12  Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed are all those who take refuge in him.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 5:6  As he says also in another place, “You are a Kohen forever, after the order of Malki-Tzedek.”

Psa 110:1  <<A Psalm by David.>> YHWH says to Adonai, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.”   Psa 110:2  YHWH will send forth the rod of your strength out of Tziyon. Rule in the midst of your enemies.   Psa 110:3  Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your power, in holy array. Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth.   Psa 110:4 YHWH has sworn, and will not change his mind: “You are a Kohen forever in the order of Malki-Tzedek.”   Psa 110:5  Adonai is at your right hand. He will crush kings in the day of his wrath.   Psa 110:6  He will judge among the nations. He will heap up dead bodies. He will crush the ruler of the whole earth.   Psa 110:7  He will drink of the brook in the way; therefore he will lift up his head.

Malkitzedek is widely considered to be Shem, the son of Noah and long-lived High Priest under the order of the Firstborns after the flood.   His lifespan was so long compared to people born after the flood that he ruled as King and Priest in Jerusalem for several generations of the post-deluge lesser lifespans, making his rule seem eternal to them.  He was a typeology of Messiah during the Millennial Kingdom.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 5:7  He [Yeshua], in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear,

Heb 5:8  though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered.

Heb 5:9  Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him the author of eternal salvation,

Heb 5:10  named by Elohim a Kohen Gadol after the order of Malki-Tzedek.

Yeshua was the ultimate Firstborn.  The Levitical priesthood acted in place of the Firstborns but never completely replaced them.  We know this because every Firstborn Male is still expected to be dedicated to Elohim at his birth.   For example:

Exo 13:1  YHWH spoke to Moshe, saying,   Exo 13:2 “Sanctify to me all of the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Yisra’el, both of man and of animal. It is mine.”

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 5:11  About him [Yeshua] we have many words to say, and hard to interpret, seeing you have become dull of hearing.

Heb 5:12  For when by reason of the time you ought to be teachers, you again need to have someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of Elohim. You have come to need milk, and not solid food.

Heb 5:13  For everyone who lives on milk is not experienced in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby.

Heb 5:14  But solid food is for those who are full grown, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.

This is the state of most of the churchgoers today, and even many Messianics, as well as most Jews – they have never studied scripture thoroughly and have only a passing acquaintance with it.  They spend no time reading it or applying it to their lives, relying instead of politically correct motivational blurbs from Rabbis and ministers which in no way challenge them to foresake the world and do teshuvah.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 6:1 Therefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Messiah, let us press on to perfection–not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith toward Elohim,

Heb 6:2  of the teaching of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

The “dead works” are the traditions and precedents taught by the Rabbinate, the Catholic Church, and uncountable protestant ministers and reverends in place of Elohim’s Written Torah.  They are “dead” because they do not lead to life or salvation.  Observing christmas and easter may make you popular with your kids and retailers, but it will never please Elohim.  Elohim’s Torah, by contrast, is not dead at all.  Indeed, just the opposite:

Deu 32:45  Moshe made an end of speaking all these words to all Yisra’el;   Deu 32:46  He said to them, Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you this day, which you shall command your children to observe to do, [even] all the words of this Torah.   Deu 32:47 For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life…

Pro 6:23 For the mitzvah is a lamp, and the Torah is light. Reproofs of instruction are the Way of life…

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 6:3  This will we do, if Elohim permits.

Heb 6:4  For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Ruach HaKodesh,

Heb 6:5  and tasted the good word of Elohim, and the powers of the age to come,

Heb 6:6  and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify the Son of Elohim for themselves again, and put him to open shame.

The doctrine held by many that “once saved, always saved” is here simply shown to be wrong.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 6:7  For the land which has drunk the rain that comes often on it, and brings forth a crop suitable for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receives blessing from Elohim;

Heb 6:8  but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is rejected and near being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

The harvest metaphor is used repeatedly by the prophets.  It’s not what you believe that counts, it’s what you do:  your fruit.  Disboedience is bad fruit, period.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 6:9  But, beloved, we are persuaded of better things for you, and things that accompany salvation, even though we speak like this.

Heb 6:10  For Elohim is not unrighteous, so as to forget your work and the labor of love which you showed toward his name, in that you served the holy ones, and still do serve them.

Heb 6:11  We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end,

Heb 6:12  that you won’t be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherited the promises.

Heb 6:13  For when Elohim made a promise to Avraham, since he could swear by none greater, he swore by himself,

Heb 6:14  saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”

This is the promise Elohim made to Abraham specifically due to his obedience (which is how he demonstrated his faith, of course):

Gen 22:15  The angel of YHWH called to Avraham a second time out of the sky,   Gen 22:16  and said, “I have sworn by myself, says YHWH, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son,   Gen 22:17 that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your seed greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your seed will possess the gate of his enemies.   Gen 22:18  In your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 6:15  Thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

Heb 6:16  For men indeed swear by a greater one, and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation.

Heb 6:17  In this way Elohim, being determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath;

Heb 6:18  that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for Elohim to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us.

Heb 6:19  This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil;

Heb 6:20  where as a forerunner Yeshua entered for us, having become a Kohen Gadol forever after the order of Malki-Tzedek.

The ultimate and irreplacable Firstborn, and Firstfruits of the Dead, whose example assures us that we will also  live again, and be kings and priest in his Kingdom, just as we have been promised, no matter what may happen to us now.

Next week:  Parashat Ki Tetze.

Epistle Shoftim

Epistle Shoftim

John chapter 17

Joh 17:1 Yeshua said these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you;

Joh 17:2  even as you gave him authority over all flesh, he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

Joh 17:3  This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true Elohim, and him whom you sent, Yeshua the Messiah.

The way we “know” Elohim is to study scripture and the way we “love” Elohim is by obeying what we hav read and not being like the rest of the world.  This is how our eternal life is demonstrated to everyone.

1Jo 5:1  Whoever believes that Yeshua is the Messiah is born of Elohim. Whoever loves the father also loves the child who is born of him.   1Jo 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of Elohim, when we love Elohim and keep his mitzvot.   1Jo 5:3  For this is the love of Elohim, that we keep his mitzvot. His mitzvot are not grievous.   1Jo 5:4  For whatever is born of Elohim overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith.

John, continued:

Joh 17:4  I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do.

Joh 17:5  Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.

Joh 17:6  I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word.

Elohim’s Word is the Torah – indeed, all of the teachings and commandments of the Tanakh. These words were written some 200 years before there even was such a thing as the “new testament.”

John, continued:

Joh 17:7  Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you,

Joh 17:8  for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me.

Joh 17:9  I pray for them. I don’t pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

Joh 17:10  All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

Joh 17:11  I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are.

Joh 17:12  While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you have given me I have kept. None of them is lost, except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

Referring, of course, to Judas Iscariot.  If he has not played this part, somebody else would have.  He freely chose his course of action, and is therefore condemned.  The fact that scripture is fulfulled does not take away anyone’s free will.

John, continued:

Joh 17:13  But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves.

Joh 17:14  I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

Joh 17:15  I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one.

This is not a blanket promise that believers will always be protected physically from persecution and execution for their faith.  Indeed, in the Tribulation many millions will be martyred for their faith, and we will all have difficulties and be rejected by the world during the birth pangs.  By keeping us “from the evil one” he simply promises that if we truly have faith, we will not be swayed by any trail or tribulation that is thrown at us – we will win the victory of the spirit and rise again to eternal life.

John, continued:

Joh 17:16  They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.

Joh 17:17  Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.

Psa 119:142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. Your Torah is truth.   Psa 119:143  Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me. Your mitzvot are my delight.

John, continued:

Joh 17:18  As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world.

Joh 17:19  For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

Joh 17:20  Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe in me through their word,

Joh 17:21  that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me.

Joh 17:22  The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one;

Joh 17:23  I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me.

Joh 17:24  Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Yeshua refers here to the Parousia, when Obedient Believers will spend the 7 days (representing years) of the Wedding Feast with Yeshua in Heaven, while Elohim’s wrath is poured out on the earth during the Tribulation.

John, continued:

Joh 17:25  Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me.

Joh 17:26  I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

This is the mystery of the Bride of Messiah, who is one with her Husband and Adonai.

Next:  Kollel Shoftim

Talmidim Shoftim

Talmidim Shoftim

Revelation chapters 8 & 9

If you recall, in chapter 6 the first series of judgements were opened, these being released as each of six seals on the scroll of judgment was opened by the Lamb.  The first seal revealed the False Messiah, the second his main military opponent who engaged him in conventional warfare (and was apparently defeated by him).  What followed were various natural disasters, plagues, economic collapse, and finally at the sixth seal what appears to be a limited nuclear exchange took place. This is widely presumed to follow the fateful events of Passover week at the midpoint of the Tribulation, when the Beast reveals himself for what he is to the world.   In chapter 7, a short silence follows the limited nuclear exchange while the angels will “seal” the 144,000 Israelite youths into Elohim’s service ( and we jump ahead to see the results of their mission at the end of the Tribulation: millions of people learned Torah and faith in Yeshua from them as they traveled around teaching and preaching – most of those millions then were martyred by the False Messiah’s government).

Now, at the beginning of chapter eight, we jump back to what is widely presumed to be immediately after the abomination of desolation at the midpoint of the Tribulation, the limited nuclear exchange between the False Messiah and those whose fear led them to use nuclear weapons after his fake “resurrection” on the Feast of Firstfruits, the Sunday following Passover.  We can’t be sure exactly how long after the events of Passover that those who oppose the False Prophet will act, but it will probably not be very long, a month or two perhaps.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 8:1 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Rev 8:2  I saw the seven angels who stand before Elohim, and seven trumpets were given to them.

Rev 8:3  Another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer. Much incense was given to him, that he should add it to the prayers of all the holy ones on the golden altar which was before the throne.

Rev 8:4  The smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the holy ones, went up before Elohim out of the angel’s hand.

Rev 8:5  The angel took the censer, and he filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it on the earth. There followed thunders, sounds, lightnings, and an earthquake.

The prayers are most likely from those who were duped by the False Messiah during the first 3 ½ years of the Tribulation.  Remember, according to Daniel he will be a very smoothe-talking charmer who will be the darling of the press and be lauded by nearly everyone for his role in bringing “peace” to the middle east.  Those who then witness the awful events at the Abomination of Desolation, his assassination, and his fake resurrection (he is actually indwelt by hasatan, not really resurrected, as we will see later.  Hasatan has no power to actually resurrect anyone) – those who see this will know they have been severly duped and pray to Elohim for forgiveness and protection from the persecutions and executions he has announced against obedient believers.  The earthquake is a sign for believers that their prayer is being returned to earth with efficacy.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 8:6  The seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

Rev 8:7  The first sounded, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. One third of the earth was burnt up, and one third of the trees were burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

This is how we know the nuclear exchange was “limited” and not “all out” (that will come later).  Only 1/3 of the earth is affected.  “All green grass” would include all cereal grains – all wheat, barley, corn, etc. provoking a great food shortage, in addition to the famines already taking place due to climate change and warfare.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 8:8  The second angel sounded, and something like a great burning mountain was thrown into the sea. One third of the sea became blood,

Rev 8:9  and one third of the living creatures which were in the sea died. One third of the ships were destroyed.

We can’t be certain if this is referring to 1/3 of one particular “sea” or 1/3 of sealife in general.  Either way, it will be a large “dead zone” in the water that will no longer sustain life.  The rotting bodies of the dead sea creatures will turn this area into a stinking toxic waste that is too contaminated to recover naturally.  While most consider the “burning mountain” to be a large missile of some sort, it is also possible that a meteor is in view here.  Remember, John was attempting to describe 21^st century events with his 1^st century vocabulary.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 8:10  The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from the sky, burning like a torch, and it fell on one third of the rivers, and on the springs of the waters.

Rev 8:11  The name of the star is called “Wormwood.” One third of the waters became wormwood. Many people died from the waters, because they were made bitter.

This would appear to be radiation, or possibly some sort of chemical or biological warfare aimed at fresh water supplies.  The attack is effective, and 1/3 of the fresh water becomes toxic.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 8:12  The fourth angel sounded, and one third of the sun was struck, and one third of the moon, and one third of the stars; so that one third of them would be darkened, and the day wouldn’t shine for one third of it, and the night in the same way.

This is likely the result of extensive debris in the atmosphere from the fires caused by the limited nuclear exchange and other warfare.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 8:13  I saw, and I heard an eagle, flying in mid heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe! Woe! Woe for those who dwell on the earth, because of the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels, who are yet to sound!”

Rev 9:1 The fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from the sky which had fallen to the earth. The key to the pit of the abyss was given to him.

Rev 9:2  He opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke from a burning furnace. The sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke from the pit.

The “star” here probably refers to some sort of missile or weapon that delves deep into the crust of the earth – possibly reaching near to the earth’s magma layer.  Or it could possibly hit a place where magma is already near the earth’s surface, such as a caldera or active volcano.  Alternately, as we read the following verses it seems that perhaps the target may have been some sort of underground military facility.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 9:3  Then out of the smoke came forth locusts on the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

Rev 9:4  They were told that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those people who don’t have Elohim’s seal on their foreheads.

Now, to this point the only people we know for certain that have Elohim’s seal are the 144,000 youths of chapter 7.  However, we can infer that those who become obedient believers during the Tribulation will also receive a visible seal.  Unlike the “Left Behind” series of books, however, the seal is likely to be visible to everyone – leading most recipients to martyrdom.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 9:5  They [the “locusts”] were given power not to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion, when it strikes a person.

Rev 9:6  In those days people will seek death, and will in no way find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

Rev 9:7  The shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared for war. On their heads were something like golden crowns, and their faces were like people’s faces.

Rev 9:8  They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like those of lions.

Rev 9:9  They had breastplates, like breastplates of iron. The sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, or of many horses rushing to war.

Rev 9:10  They have tails like those of scorpions, and stings. In their tails they have power to harm men for five months.

Rev 9:11  They have over them as king the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is “Avaddon,” but in Greek, he has the name “Apollyon.”

Rev 9:12  The first woe is past. Behold, there are still two woes coming after this.

Here it is again wise to remember that John is trying to describe 21^st century technology with 1^st century words.  Many military persons reading this have remarked how certain military helicopters resemble locusts and could fit this prophecy perfectly.  The “faces” he saw with “golden crowns” could simply be the helmets and faces of the pilots showing through the front glass.  The “women’s hair” would be the delicate look of the rotary blades in flight, their “teeth” some sort of projectile weapon on the front of the helicopters.  Of course, being metal, John would think of iron when he saw them, and they are very noisy.  The “tails” would be the tail rotors, which could also have weaponry deployed there to spray some sort of chemical or biological warfare, which would sting and burn people when it fell on them.

In Proverbs chapter 30 many different types of wildlife are described, and we learn that:

Pro 30:27 The locusts have no king, yet they advance in ranks.

So we can infer that the locusts and their “king” are symbolic of 21^st century military equipment and personnel.  The Hebrew name given to the leader has these  meanings:

G3 Ἀβαδδών   Abaddōn   ab-ad-dohn’

Of Hebrew origin [H11]; a destroying angel: – Abaddon.

H11 אבדּון   ‘ăbaddôn   ab-ad-done’

Intensively from H6; abstractly a perishing; concretely Hades: – destruction.

H6 אבד   ‘âbad   aw-bad’

A primitive root; properly to wander away, that is lose oneself; by implication to perish (causatively, destroy): – break, destroy (-uction), + not escape, fail, lose, (cause to, make) perish, spend, X and surely, take, be undone, X utterly, be void of, have no way to flee.

In Greek, his name has these interpretations:

G623 Ἀπολλύων   Apolluōn  ap-ol-loo’-ohn

Active participle of G622; a destroyer (that is, Satan): – Apollyon.

G622 ἀπόλλυμι   apollumi   ap-ol’-loo-mee

From G575 and the base of G3639; to destroy fully (reflexively to perish, or lose), literally or figuratively: – destroy, die, lose, mar, perish.

G575 ἀπό   apo   apo’

A primary particle; “off”, that is, away (from something near), in various senses (of place, time, or relation; literally or figuratively): – (X here-) after, ago, at, because of, before, by (the space of), for (-th), from, in, (out) of, off, (up-) on (-ce), since, with. In composition (as a prefix) it usually denotes separation, departure, cessation, completion, reversal, etc.

G3639 ὄλεθρος   olethros   ol’-eth-ros

From ὄλλυμι ollumi a primary word (to destroy; a prolonged form); ruin, that is, death, punishment: – destruction.

We can’t be sure how this would translate into Modern English, but no doubt this “king” is a general or other highly ranked and well-known military leader.  The fact that he is named means his name will be known to the public at the time of his campaign.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 9:13  The sixth angel sounded. I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before Elohim,

Rev 9:14  saying to the sixth angel who had one shofar, “Free the four angels who are bound at the great river Perat!”

G2166 Εὐφράτης   Euphratēs   yoo-frat’-ace

Of foreign origin (compare [H6578]); Euphrates, a river of Asia: – Euphrates.

Revelation, continued:

Rev 9:15  The four angels were freed who had been prepared for that hour and day and month and year, so that they might kill one third of mankind.

Rev 9:16  The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million. I heard the number of them.

This refers to the armies of the “kings of the East,” most likely China, which is the only country that can field an army of that size at this present time, and due to their “one child” policy has such a number of expendable military age men who have no real prospects of marriage and family to domesticate them.  China will become involved after the False Messiah reveals his true nature at the Abomination of Desolation, though they may not be the country that initiates the limited nuclear exchange.  Rather, their motive is the oil fields of the middle east.  As long as the False Messiah shows them his reasonable, soothing persona, they will feel like they can deal with him to settle their need for oil importation.  But once he is shown to be a religious nut who thinks he’s a deity, China will decide not to leave the oil reserves of the middle east in the hands of a madman, and march against him.

Rev 9:17  Thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those who sat on them, having breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of lions. Out of their mouths proceed fire, smoke, and sulfur.

Rev 9:18  By these three plagues were one third of mankind killed: by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur, which proceeded out of their mouths.

Rev 9:19  For the power of the horses is in their mouths, and in their tails. For their tails are like serpents, and have heads, and with them they harm.

Again, John is trying to describe what he sees and doesn’t understand 21^st century technology.  Recall during the “four horsemen” judgements that ¼, or  about 1.5 billion people were killed.  We don’t learn specifically how many were killed in the limited nuclear exchange, but 1/3 of the earth was affected and probably half the people in that area died.  So just for round number’s sake, let’s say the present earth population is about 6 billion, then 1.5 (one quarter) died leaving 4.5 billion, and then the limited nuclear exchange killed about half the people in an area resprenting 1/3 of the earth, so that means we lost another 682 million.  So, now we lose another 1/3 of the remaining people meaning about 1.3 billion more people die.   That means that at this point of the Tribulation, on 3.2 billion people remain alive – about half of the world’s population has died at this point.

Revelation,  continued:

Rev 9:20  The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn’t repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn’t worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk.

Rev 9:21  They didn’t repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their sexual immorality, nor of their thefts.

Notice it doesn’t say that they are dazed and confused and have no idea why this is happening.  It says they refuse to repent.  The 144,000 witnesses are still out there, teaching and preaching, as are the uncountable millions who become obedient believers due to their teachings, and the righteous gentiles who help hide them from the Beast’s government agents.   The others also know now that the world is experiencing Elohim’s wrath – but they don’t repent.  They refuse to believe and refuse to obey – the follow the False Messiah (either enthusiastically or out of fear of the consequences to standing up to him).

Next:  Epistle Shoftim

Haftarah Shoftim

Haftarah Shoftim

Yeshayahu – Isaiah 51:12-52:12

Isa 51:12  I, even I, am he who comforts you: who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who shall be made as grass;

Isa 51:13  and have forgotten YHWH your Maker, who stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and fear continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he makes ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?

Isa 51:14  The captive exile shall speedily be freed; and he shall not die [and go down] into the pit, neither shall his bread fail.

Isa 51:15  For I am YHWH your Elohim, who stirs up the sea, so that the waves of it roar: YHWH Tzeva’ot is his name.

That we trust in Elohim is one of the main things that he desires of us.  A lack of trust leads to all sorts of other sins.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 51:16  I have put my words in your mouth, and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Tziyon, You are my people.

Isa 51:17  Awake, awake, stand up, Yerushalayim, that have drunk at the hand of YHWH the cup of his wrath; you have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.

Isa 51:18  There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any who takes her by the hand among all the sons who she has brought up.

Isa 51:19  These two things have happened to you. Who will bemoan you? Desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword; how shall I comfort you?

Isa 51:20  Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of YHWH, the rebuke of your Elohim.

Isa 51:21  Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but now with wine:

Isa 51:22  Thus says your Adonai YHWH, and your Elohim who pleads the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath; you shall no more drink it again:

Isa 51:23  and I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, Bow down, that we may go over; and you have laid your back as the ground, and as the street, to those who go over.

The primary application for this prophecy will occur at the end of the Tribulation, when Elohim has finished refining his people like an assay of gold, and turns instead to punish those who afflicted his people.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 52:1 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.

The primary application for this is the Millennial Kingdom, though the Judeans implemented this procedure at the Temple Mount from its very outset.  Everyone entering the Temple grounds was required to pass through the miqvah, naked.  Such will be the procedure for the entire city during the Millennial Kingdom.  No one who is physically uncircumcised will even be able to enter the city, much less worship at the Temple.  Ezekiel confirms this prophec in his chapters discussing the Millennial Temple:

Eze 44:6  You shall tell the rebellious, even to the house of Yisra’el, Thus says Adonai YHWH: you house of Yisra’el, let it suffice you of all your abominations,   Eze 44:7  in that you have brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to profane it, even my house, when you offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant, [to add] to all your abominations.   Eze 44:8  You have not kept the charge of my holy things; but you have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves.   Eze 44:9 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.

Many Messianic and Rabbinic congregations think they are doing good by inviting the community (or churchgoers) to participate with them at Passover, especially – when we are specifically commanded to EXCLUDE the uncircumcised (Exodus chp 12).   It was not an oversight on Yeshua’s part that he instituted his covenant kiddush of the new covenant at Passover when no uncircumcised persons may be present – it is a deep truth of theology that those who are in violation of the Torah commandments are not part of the Kingdom, period.  They may not even enter the city, much less the Temple, as Isaiah here affirms for us.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 52:2  Shake yourself from the dust; arise, sit [on your throne], Yerushalayim: loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Tziyon.

Isa 52:3  For thus says YHWH, You were sold for nothing; and you shall be redeemed without money.

Redeemed with blood.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 52:4  For thus says Adonai YHWH, My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there: and the Ashur has oppressed them without cause.

Isa 52:5  Now therefore, what do I here, says YHWH, seeing that my people is taken away for nothing? those who rule over them do howl, says YHWH, and my name continually all the day is blasphemed.

Isa 52:6  Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore [they shall know] in that day that I am he who does speak; behold, it is I.

Not only do people who claim to be Elohim’s people continually call him by pagan names and tell lies of Torahlessness to those who seek him, but their actions prove their uncleanness all day long with selfishness and worldliness.

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 52:7  How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes shalom, who brings good news of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Tziyon, Your Elohim reigns!

Isa 52:8  The voice of your watchmen! they lift up the voice, together do they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when YHWH returns to Tziyon.

When Yeshua returns to Jerusalem, he will not be “Yeshua” any longer, but will be fully manifested as YHWH Tzeva’ot.  There is only one Deity, not three.  “YHWH will be sovereign over all the earth.  And in that day, YHWH will be one, and His name will be one.” (Zech 14:9)

Isaiah, continued:

Isa 52:9  Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Yerushalayim; for YHWH has comforted his people, he has redeemed Yerushalayim.

Isa 52:10  YHWH has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth have seen the Yeshuah of our Elohim.

Isa 52:11  Depart you, depart you, go you out from there, touch no unclean thing; go you out of the midst of her; cleanse yourselves, you who bear the vessels of YHWH.

Isa 52:12  For you shall not go out in haste, neither shall you go by flight: for YHWH will go before you; and the Elohim of Yisra’el will be your rearguard.

“Touch no unclean thing” including pork and shellfish, and “cleanse yourself” of your violations of family purity laws including relations during menstruation, and pagan observances such as christmas and easter  – these are Elohim’s commandments for us as we prepare for the Inaguration of the Kingdom.  Ignore them at your own peril, for no unclean or uncircumcised person will be a king or priest in Elohim’s kingdom.  No, the door will be shut in your face.

So repent, and be saved.

Next:  Talmidim Shoftim.

Torah Portion Shoftim

Torah Portion Shoftim

Devarim – Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9

Deu 16:18  Shofetim and officers shall you make you in all your gates, which YHWH your Elohim gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.

Deu 16:19  You shall not wrest justice: you shall not respect persons; neither shall you take a bribe; for a bribe does blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.

Deu 16:20  That which is altogether just shall you follow, that you may live, and inherit the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you.

A fair court system is the most important feature of a just society.  Everyone needs to feel confident that cases are decided on the merits of the facts and evidence presented and not decided on factors of race, wealth, social position, or popularity.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 16:21  You shall not plant you an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of YHWH your Elohim, which you shall make you.

Deu 16:22  Neither shall you set yourself up a pillar; which YHWH your Elohim hates.

Mixing elements of pagan worship, such as christmas trees and easter eggs, in with worship of Adonia Elohim is not permitted, period.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 17:1 You shall not sacrifice to YHWH your Elohim an ox, or a sheep, in which is a blemish, [or] anything evil; for that is an abomination to YHWH your Elohim.

Our gifts and offerings to Elohim are supposed to be our best things, not our leftover dregs.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 17:2  If there be found in the midst of you, within any of your gates which YHWH your Elohim gives you, man or woman, who does that which is evil in the sight of YHWH your Elohim, in transgressing his covenant,

Deu 17:3  and has gone and served other gods, and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the army of the sky, which I have not commanded;

Deu 17:4  and it be told you, and you have heard of it, then shall you inquire diligently; and behold, if it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Yisra’el,

Deu 17:5  then shall you bring forth that man or that woman, who has done this evil thing, to your gates, even the man or the woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones.

Of course, “the law of the land is the law,” and we cannot carry out this edict today because we do not have religious authority for capital punishment.  We must respect the civil and secular laws of the country where we live – “submit” to all appointed authority, which is set in place because Elohim allows it to be.

However, that doesn’t mean we ignore this commandment altogether.  Such persons must be expelled from our homes and congregations if they refuse to repent.  We must not allow pagan practices to be brought in to contaminate our children and the sanctity of our homes and shuls.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 17:6  At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he who is to die be put to death; at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.

Deu 17:7  The hand of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.

For us today, that means a single person may not accuse or make public such a claim of paganism or idolatry.  Instead, the proper proceure was outlined by Yeshua:

Mat 18:15 “If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother.   Mat 18:16  But if he doesn’t listen, take one or two more with you, that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.   Mat 18:17  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the assembly. If he refuses to hear the assembly also, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector.

First, the single person confronts the suspected sinner alone.  If they repent, the matter must remain private between them.  If, however, the person involved in pagan or idolatrous practices or whatever sin does not repent, then two more trusted witnesses are brought to again confront the wayward person.  Only if they still refuse to repent is the matter made public.  And if at that point the person still refuses to repent, then they are expelled and shunned.  This is what we are to do in this day and age, as we live under the civil laws of secular governments.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 17:8  If there arise a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates; then shall you arise, and go up to the place which YHWH your Elohim shall choose;

Deu 17:9  and you shall come to the Kohanim the Levites, and to the judge who shall be in those days: and you shall inquire; and they shall show you the sentence of judgment.

To “inquire” these days means to submit the matter to a bet din, since the Temple is not standing.  If a decision could not be reached by the Levites, then they would have used the Urim and Thummin, to receive a “yes/innocent” or “no/guilty” answer from the Cohen HaGadol.    We do not have these available to us today, so there is in essence no court of appeals from the decision of a bet din.  A person who refuses to abide by the ruling of the bet din must be expelled and shunned until they repent.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 17:10  You shall do according to the tenor of the sentence which they shall show you from that place which YHWH shall choose; and you shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach you:

Deu 17:11  according to the tenor of the Torah which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the sentence which they shall show you, to the right hand, nor to the left.

Deu 17:12  The man who does presumptuously, in not listening to the Kohen who stands to minister there before YHWH your Elohim, or to the judge, even that man shall die: and you shall put away the evil from Yisra’el.

Deu 17:13  All the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

Again, all we can do today is shun such a person until they repent.  However, we must not be lax in doing so, or else sinners will be convinced that they do not need to repent and that their sins will be tolerated by the community.  If the community does intend to tolerate some sins, for whatever reason, a meeting must be held and this judgment must be publicly declared – to indicate that the elders have considered some “extenuating circumstances” and made a decision of some sort.  Sin should never be just ignored, even if the community intends to tolerate it.  It sets a bad precedent to turn a blind eye – ignoring sins a community intends to tolerate leads to ignoring sins the community should not and cannot tolerate.   Therefore the elders should make clear that they are not ignoring any sin in the community, no matter how small it appears to be.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 17:14  When you are come to the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shall say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are round about me;

Deu 17:15  you shall surely set him king over you, whom YHWH your Elohim shall choose: one from among your brothers shall you set king over you; you may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.

Deu 17:16  Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because YHWH has said to you, You shall henceforth return no more that way.

Deu 17:17  Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

The point of having a King is not to let some person indulge in wealth and privilege.  The point is to have a unifying force, a leader, someone who can speak for the nation to other nations.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 17:18  It shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of [that which is] before the Kohanim the Levites:

Deu 17:19  and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear YHWH his Elohim, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them;

Deu 17:20  that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn aside from the mitzvah, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Yisra’el.

A King is not above the Torah, he is below it.  He sits on his throne at Elohin’s sufferance, and Elohim can and will remove a King who exploits the people and acts brazenly against Torah.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 18:1 The Kohanim the Levites, [even] all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion nor inheritance with Yisra’el: they shall eat the offerings of YHWH made by fire, and his inheritance.

Deu 18:2  They shall have no inheritance among their brothers: YHWH is their inheritance, as he has spoken to them.

They have no territorial land.  However, they do have cities that are their own, where they have shops and businesses and small farms for livlihood.  They serve two weeks of regular duty at the Temple and, of course, duty during the festivals.  At other times, they lived and worked in their towns.  Their portion of the offerings at the Temple were never enough to sustain them all year round – and were never meant to be.  Levites had “day jobs” for those times when they were not on their rotation for Temple duty.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 18:3  This shall be the Kohanim’ due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, that they shall give to the Kohen the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw.

Deu 18:4  The first fruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, shall you give him.

Deu 18:5  For YHWH your Elohim has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand to minister in the name of YHWH, him and his sons for ever.

Deu 18:6  If a Levite comes from any of your gates out of all Yisra’el, where he lives as a foreigner, and comes with all the desire of his soul to the place which YHWH shall choose;

Deu 18:7  then he shall minister in the name of YHWH his Elohim, as all his brothers the Levites do, who stand there before YHWH.

Deu 18:8  They shall have like portions to eat, besides that which comes of the sale of his patrimony.

A Levite that has not been raised in a Levite town or village has the same rights to enter service as other Levites.  There are limits, however.  Elsewhere we are informed that a Levite must be at least 25 years of age to begin an apprenticeship in Temple Duties, and must be at least 30 years of age to enter the Temple Service proper, and must retire from service at age 50.   A Levite of the Cohen HaGadol’s line may not marry a non-Levite woman, a divorcee or widow, even if he was not raised in a Levite town or village.  If he does, he is disqualified from the lineage of the Cohen HaGadol.  (He can, however, still serve as a regular priest.)

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 18:9  When you are come into the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.

Deu 18:10  There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices sorcery, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer,

Deu 18:11  or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

Deu 18:12  For whoever does these things is an abomination to YHWH: and because of these abominations YHWH your Elohim does drive them out from before you.

Deu 18:13  You shall be perfect with YHWH your Elohim.

Deu 18:14  For these nations, that you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice sorcery, and to diviners; but as for you, YHWH your Elohim has not allowed you so to do.

When someone seeks out the occult arts, it is because they do not trust Elohim to guide them, or they want to change what Elohim has set forth in their lives.   Both are a de facto rebellion against the leadership and sovereignty of Elohim.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 18:15  YHWH your Elohim will raise up to you a prophet from the midst of you, of your brothers, like me; to him you shall listen;

Deu 18:16  according to all that you desired of YHWH your Elohim in Chorev in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of YHWH my Elohim, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die.

Deu 18:17  YHWH said to me, They have well said that which they have spoken.

Deu 18:18  I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him.

Deu 18:19  It shall happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

While this is true of the prophets in general, this passage was understood by the sages to refer to one particular prophet, who would become the Messiah of Israel.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 18:20  But the prophet, who shall speak a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.

Deu 18:21  If you say in your heart, How shall we know the word which YHWH has not spoken?

Deu 18:22  when a prophet speaks in the name of YHWH, if the thing doesn’t follow, nor happen, that is the thing which YHWH has not spoken: the prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you shall not be afraid of him.

The Sages realized that in the case of punishments or negative events, Elohim can and does relent if a person repents of their sins (as we see on a large scale in the book of Jonah, for example).  Therefore it was understood that this passage referred to promises of blessings or predictions of positive events.  If a supposed prophets makes such a statement and it does not come to pass, then that person is a false prophet.  Elsewhere we learn that a supposed prophet or dreamer who claims any part of the Torah is “done away with” is also a false prophet (Deuteronomy chapter 13).

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 19:1 When YHWH your Elohim shall cut off the nations, whose land YHWH your Elohim gives you, and you succeed them, and dwell in their cities, and in their houses;

Deu 19:2  you shall set apart three cities for you in the midst of your land, which YHWH your Elohim gives you to possess it.

Deu 19:3  You shall prepare you the way, and divide the borders of your land, which YHWH your Elohim causes you to inherit, into three parts, that every manslayer may flee there.

Prison is not a Biblical concept.  The person who commits manslaughter could flee to a City of Refuge, and live and work there until the death of the Cohen HaGadol who was presiding at the time of his mishap.  The person’s family could follow him there, and they set up their shop or business or trade the same as if they always had done.  This type of “little exile” did not separate families, did not impoverish the wife and children or elderly parents who depended on his support, and kept society stable.  Modern prisons do the exact opposite.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 19:4  This is the case of the manslayer, that shall flee there and live: whoever kills his neighbor unawares, and didn’t hate him in time past;

Deu 19:5  as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to hew wood, and his hand fetches a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle, and lights on his neighbor, so that he dies; he shall flee to one of these cities and live:

Deu 19:6  lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him mortally; whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he didn’t hate him in time past.

Deu 19:7  Therefore I command you, saying, You shall set apart three cities for you.

Killing someone for an unintentional accident is not justice – neither is destroying his family with poverty and confining him in unnatural conditions.  None of these is Elohim’s will.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 19:8  If YHWH your Elohim enlarge your border, as he has sworn to your fathers, and give you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers;

Deu 19:9  if you shall keep all this mitzvah to do it, which I command you this day, to love YHWH your Elohim, and to walk ever in his ways; then shall you add three cities more for you, besides these three:

Deu 19:10  that innocent blood not be shed in the midst of your land, which YHWH your Elohim gives you for an inheritance, and so blood be on you.

The Cities of Refuge should be numerous enough and close enough together to not make it impossible for a man to reach them before being killed by the Kinsman Redeemer of the deceased fellow.  Again, shedding blood is always wrong, but it should not be an automatic death sentence for someone who had no intention of killing someone.  Only true cold-blooded murder deserves an automatic sentence of death.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 19:11  But if any man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and strike him mortally so that he dies, and he flee into one of these cities;

Deu 19:12  then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.

Deu 19:13  Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the innocent blood from Yisra’el, that it may go well with you.

Our current system of capital punishment does not work because there are decades of appeals and the procedure is not effective as a deterrent.  In anciet Israel, a death sentence was carried out immediately after the bet din proceedings (and there had to be at least two witnesses to the crime for a capital punishment).

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 19:14  You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that YHWH your Elohim gives you to possess it.

Moving a landmark or boundary marker is the same as stealing land.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 19:15  One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.

Again, a single person may not make a public accusation against someone suspected of sinning.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 19:16  If an unrighteous witness rise up against any man to testify against him of wrong-doing,

Deu 19:17  then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before YHWH, before the Kohanim and the judges who shall be in those days;

Deu 19:18  and the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother;

Deu 19:19  then shall you do to him, as he had thought to do to his brother: so shall you put away the evil from the midst of you.

Deu 19:20  Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil in the midst of you.

Deu 19:21  Your eyes shall not pity; life [shall go] for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

A person who testifies against someone simply because they hate them, or for financial gain, or for political or social reasons having nothing to do with being an actual witness of the supposed sin the defendant is accused of, that person is a false witness.  Whatever punishment would have befalled the defendant should be implemented against the false witness.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 20:1 When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and see horses, and chariots, [and] a people more than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for YHWH your Elohim is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

Deu 20:2  It shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the Kohen shall approach and speak to the people,

Deu 20:3  and shall tell them, Hear, Yisra’el, you draw near this day to battle against your enemies: don’t let your heart faint; don’t be afraid, nor tremble, neither be scared of them;

Deu 20:4  for YHWH your Elohim is he who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.

It is not superior weaponry or superior numbers that win a battle.  A force that is outmanned and outgunned can still win if Elohim is on their side.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 20:5  The officers shall speak to the people, saying, What man is there who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it.

Deu 20:6  What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not used the fruit of it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use the fruit of it.

Deu 20:7  What man is there who has pledged to be married a wife, and has not taken her? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.

Deu 20:8  The officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? let him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart melt as his heart.

Deu 20:9  It shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, that they shall appoint captains of armies at the head of the people.

Military service is largely optional, not mandatory – there was no “draft” as we know it in ancient Israel, as we see here.  There were numerous exceptions to military service, including unwillingness to fight.  We also learn from the various military census accounts in the Tanakh that the minimum age for military service is 20 years old.  A person younger than 20 is not, in Elohim’s law, elegible for combat duty.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 20:10  When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim shalom to it.

Deu 20:11  It shall be, if it make you answer of shalom, and open to you, then it shall be, that all the people who are found therein shall become tributary to you, and shall serve you.

A just army always makes an offer of peace to a city or village prior to attacking.  If the city or town surrenders, no one is to be killed.  Therefore their blood is on their own hands if they choose not to surrender.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 20:12  If it will make no shalom with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it:

Deu 20:13  and when YHWH your Elohim delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword:

Deu 20:14  but the women, and the little ones, and the livestock, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil of it, shall you take for a prey to yourself; and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies, which YHWH your Elohim has given you.

Deu 20:15  Thus shall you do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.

Cities outside of Eretz Israel that became a military threat were to be subjugated, not exterminated.  Only the men were to be killed – war against women and children was absolutely not permitted.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 20:16  But of the cities of these peoples, that YHWH your Elohim gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes;

Deu 20:17  but you shall utterly destroy them: the Chittite, and the Amori, the Kena`ani, and the Perizzi, the Chivvi, and the Yevusi; as YHWH your Elohim has commanded you;

Deu 20:18  that they not teach you to do after all their abominations, which they have done to their gods; so would you sin against YHWH your Elohim.

Contrary to the assertions of modern historians with an anti-Biblical agenda, this is not a commandment to engage in genocide.  As the story of Rahav at Jerico shows, the Cana’anites knew Israel was coming and knew Elohim had given them the land – all they had to do was pack up and leave ahead of Joshua’s army, and not a single person would have died.  There were no passports or visas in those days – they could go anywhere they wanted outside of Eretz Israel to live, and nothing was stopping them from doing so.  Most likely, many thousands of people did just that – and lived happily ever after.  The ones who stayed did so knowing full well what the consequences would be.  They chose to defy YHWH Elohim anyway.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 20:19  When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy the trees of it by wielding an axe against them; for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down; for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged of you?

Deu 20:20  Only the trees of which you know that they are not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down; and you shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it fall.

Just like the army was commanded not to make war against women and children, the army was also commanded not to make war against the environment.  A “scorched earth” policy was therefore against Elohim’s commandment.  Trees and vineyards and fields with food were not to be destroyed.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 21:1 If one be found slain in the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you to possess it, lying in the field, and it isn’t known who has struck him;

Deu 21:2  then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure to the cities which are round about him who is slain:

Deu 21:3  and it shall be, that the city which is nearest to the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn’t been worked with, and which has not drawn in the yoke;

Deu 21:4  and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.

Deu 21:5  The Kohanim the sons of Levi shall come near; for them YHWH your Elohim has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in the name of YHWH; and according to their word shall every controversy and every stroke be.

Deu 21:6  All the elders of that city, who are nearest to the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley;

Deu 21:7  and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.

Deu 21:8  Forgive, YHWH, your people Yisra’el, whom you have redeemed, and don’t allow innocent blood [to remain] in the midst of your people Yisra’el. The blood shall be forgiven them.

Deu 21:9  So shall you put away the innocent blood from the midst of you, when you shall do that which is right in the eyes of YHWH.

Shedding blood always requires blood to be shed in return – the sentence is death.  A manslayer may flee to a City of Refuge to have his sentence suspended (but not eliminated, since if he leaves the City of Refuge the deceased person’s kinsman redeemer may still kill him).  But a murder is always a capital offence to be carried out immediately.  In this case, since the murderer is unknown, a sacrifice if offered in his place.  That will balance the “blood for blood” equation required to have peace and fertility in the land.  However, it will not do away with the “Law of Sin and Death” which will still apply to the killer.  “The soul that sins, it shall die.”

Next:  Haftarah Shoftim

Kollel Reh

Kollel Reh

Hebrews chapters 3 and 4

If you have not already read the introduction to Hebrews from last week’s Parashat, please do so.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and Kohen Gadol of our confession, Yeshua;

Heb 3:2  who was faithful to him who appointed him, as also was Moshe in all his house.

Heb 3:3  For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moshe, inasmuch as he who built the house has more honor than the house.

Heb 3:4  For every house is built by someone; but he who built all things is God.

Heb 3:5  Moshe indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken,

Heb 3:6  but Messiah is faithful as a Son over his house; whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end.

“Our Hope” is resurrection and inclusion in the Messianic Kingdom.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 3:7  Therefore, even as the Ruach HaKodesh says,  “Today if you will hear his voice,

Heb 3:8  don’t harden your hearts, as in the provocation, like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness,

Heb 3:9  where your fathers tested me by proving me, and saw my works for forty years.

Heb 3:10  Therefore I was displeased with that generation, and said, ‘They always err in their heart, but they didn’t know my ways;’

Heb 3:11  as I swore in my wrath, ‘They will not enter into my rest.’”

This passage comes from the Psalms and is based on several passages, including:

Exo 17:7  He called the name of the place Massah, and Merivah, because the children of Yisra’el quarreled, and because they tested YHWH, saying, “Is YHWH among us, or not?”

And…

Deu 8:1  All the mitzvah which I command you this day shall you observe to do, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which YHWH swore to your fathers.   Deu 8:2 You shall remember all the way which YHWH your Elohim has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his mitzvot, or not.

And finally:

Psa 95:6  Oh come, let’s worship and bow down. Let’s kneel before YHWH, our Maker,   Psa 95:7  for he is our Elohim. We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep in his care. Today, oh that you would hear his voice!   Psa 95:8  Don’t harden your heart, as at Merivah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,   Psa 95:9  when your fathers tempted me, tested me, and saw my work.   Psa 95:10 Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, and said, “It is a people that errs in their heart. They have not known my ways.”   Psa 95:11  Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They won’t enter into my rest.”

“My rest” is synonymous with “my sabbath,” referring prophetically to the 7th day (that is, the 7th millennium) which is the Messianic Kingdom.  Those who will not keep his mitzvot, his commandments, will not enter it.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 3:12  Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living Elohim;

Heb 3:13  but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called “today;” lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

“Falling away from Elohim” has no other definition than throwing off His Torah and living in sin.  Sin is the transgression of the Torah (I John 3).  “Today” is the present apostolic age, the “church” age, since Yeshua’s ascent to Heaven.  This age will end when He descends again to call his Obedient Believers to their marriage feast with him, resulting in immortality and service as kings and priests in the Messianic Age.  Sin, that is, violating Torah, will absolutely prevent you from being included in the Parousia.  As in the parable of the 10 virgins, who went out to buy oil on the Sabbath/Festival (representing Yom Teruah), those who refuse to conform their life to Elohim’s commandments will have the door slammed in their face, with Yeshua inside saying “I never knew you” (Matthew 7 and Matthew 25).

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 3:14  For we have become partakers of Messiah, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm to the end:

Heb 3:15  while it is said, “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.”

Heb 3:16  For who, when they heard, rebelled? No, didn’t all those who came out of Egypt by Moshe?

Heb 3:17  With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

Heb 3:18  To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient?

Heb 3:19  We see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.

Sin and unbelief are deeply linked and intertwined.  Obviously, a person who doesn’t believe isn’t going to obey, but more subtly a person who won’t obey doesn’t really believe, either.    If they say they “don’t have” to obey Torah, aren’t they basically saying that yes, they know the way that Elohim prefers people to live, since He gave those commandments, but they aren’t willing to live the way they know Elohim prefers?  They are saying other considerations in their life, such as fitting in with the world, are more important to them than pleasing Elohim!  A person can’t build a life of faith on such an attitude of disobedience and rebellion.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 4:1 Let us fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest.

Heb 4:2  For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed with faith by those who heard.

Heb 4:3  For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest;” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

Heb 4:4  For he has said this somewhere about the seventh day, “Elohim rested on the seventh day from all his works;”

Heb 4:5  and in this place again, “They will not enter into my rest.”

Here the link with the prophecy of the 7th prophetic day and a necessity for obedience to qualify are indeed linked.  Someone who doesn’t observe the weekly 7th day Sabbath isn’t going to be included in the 7th millennium sabbath.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 4:6  Seeing therefore it remains that some should enter therein, and they to whom the good news was before preached failed to enter in because of disobedience,

Heb 4:7  he again defines a certain day, “today,” saying through David so long a time afterward (just as has been said), “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”

Heb 4:8  For if Yehoshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day.

Joshua led them to a temporary kingdom.  Yeshua HaMasiach will lead us to a permanent one.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 4:9  There remains therefore a Shabbat rest for the people of Elohim.

Heb 4:10  For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as Elohim did from his.

Heb 4:11  Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.

The audience here are believers – therefore we can presume some were in danger of not obeying Elohim’s Written Torah commandments, which would disqualify them for the kingdom.  Just “believing” in Yeshua as a fact in your head is not Hebraic “belief.”  In Hebraic thought, “belief” is the basis for a course of action in the physical world, not a virtual reality only in your thoughts.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 4:12  For the Word of Elohim is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The Torah and the teachings of the rest of the Tanakh are the plumb line, the measuring stick by which we are measured.  If we are failing to obey any part, we are shown to be crooked and not in alignment with Elohim.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 4:13  There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Heb 4:14  Having then a great Kohen Gadol, who has passed through the heavens, Yeshua, the Son of Elohim, let us hold tightly to our confession.

Heb 4:15  For we don’t have a Kohen Gadol who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.

Heb 4:16  Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need.

Amen, let us all do just that – confess our transgressions of Torah, our sins, and repent.  Only then will we gain admittance to the Kingdom.

Next week:  Parashat Shoftim.