Scott,
I appreciate your thoughts and the struggle you experience. This week’s parasha includes an interesting sub-theme about wrestling. Ultimately, Jacob’s name was changed to Israel because he “wrestled with God and men and he overcame.” I suspect you do a good amount of wrestling on behalf of the BFS group—much of which we are not privy to.
Baruch HaShem for the men of integrity, wisdom, and calmness He has placed in my path to lighten my load. Be blessed, Scott.
I am very familiar with the position you speak against in your recent post because that was my position in the not too distant past. In fact, I can still hear my arguments about how God’s people in the Messianic-era have a greater opportunity for “face to face” encounters with God because of His indwelling Spirit and the “direct line” we have to God. There is no need for rules, just follow the Spirit.
While I still espouse that in principle, I now understand that the manner in which God’s Spirit leads me is intimately connected with my relationship with Torah—His teachings.
John 14:15-17 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you." (ESV)
There is certainly a difference in the way the Spirit works in the Messianic era. Before, He was WITH us. Now, He is WITHIN us. Before, only a select few (i.e. Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist, and others) were filled with the Spirit. Now, all believers have the indwelling presence. The conundrum is that in the previous era, those who lived by the Spirit also walked by the Spirit (Gal 5:25)—for the most part. (Moses is not remembered for his momentary lapses into sin.) In this era, however, the majority of those indwelt by God’s Ruach seem to have constant set-backs in their struggle to overcome. In other words, those who live by the Spirit are not known by their Spirit-walk as much as their flesh-walk. Alas, I am speaking more personally than I care to admit so let’s go back to Moses.
Moses certainly needed the indwelling Spirit to accomplish the writing of Torah. But why did the seventy elders need the Spirit? As judges, they had the standard in written form. All they had to do to decide a case was research the matter and find the applicable teaching. Even the proper consequence was listed right next to the offense. How hard could it be to judge matters when the Law is the law and it’s written right there in black and sheepskin? Evidently it was downright impossible because of the plethora of ways to interpret God’s teaching. So, God gave the Spirit to the seventy elders to enable them to interpret Torah, make judgments, and apply God’s teaching. The Holy Spirit enabled them to know how to use God’s instruction.
I love my wife with all of my heart. The modern usage of the word ‘heart’ means emotion. However, in Hebrew Scripture, ‘heart’ implies a person’s will—their mind and decision-making capacity. In other words, “following my heart” is more weighted by my will than by my emotions. That being said, Jeremiah speaks about the New Covenant days.
“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Jeremiah 31:33 (ESV).
The rest of that passage is relevant, also, but I’ll stop there. Here’s the point, in the age of Messiah, God’s people will be INDWELT with God’s TORAH. (Pardon my shouting.) God will write His law on my heart. In other words, my decision-making capacity will have God’s teaching at its disposal. I will KNOW what God’s will is. In the words of the legendary Billy Mays, “But wait, there’s more…”
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” Ezekiel 36:26-28 (ESV).
Not only do we possess God’s Torah in our heart, we also possess His Spirit—the same Spirit that led the seventy elders to make right judgments and applications of God’s Torah. What a deal! Therefore, in the Messianic era, God’s Spirit will indwell all believers and work hand-in-hand with Torah to conform our will to God’s teaching. I now have the capacity to make right decisions. No longer do I have to go to one of the seventy. I have the same capacity as they did.
The question, then, is: “Will I use this divine capacity or will I continue to use my flesh to make decisions?”
“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Galatians 5:25 (NIV).
Here’s one more verse to consider. I couldn’t fit it in above.
“Whoever keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.” 1 John 3:24 (ESV)
Shabbat Shalom,
Bryan
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
"But We Have The Spirit"
Who do you suppose had a closer relationship with God, Moses or the Apostle Paul?
I gained some insight this past week at Church by a statement that was made to me in the context of discussing the Jewish Roots. The statement was simple and to the point, “but we have the Spirit to guide us”. Its simplicity argues for the entire rejection of the Jewish Roots movement, while at the same time, demonstrating a blindness by implying that men and women of the Jewish nation before Yeshua were not God’s people and had no access to the Holy Spirit. A belief that simply is not true, nor can it be supported by scripture. In fact, the reverse is true.
Paul writing to the Church in Corinth may have been dealing with a similar misconception when he wrote…
For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. (1 Cor 10:1-4)
Paul is telling us that the saints of the Jewish Text “all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.” In other words, the nation had access to God through the same Spirit as we do.
We remember that Moses was unique because he spoke “face to face” (Ex 33:11) with God. What many Christians do not remember, the LORD came down and took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and “put the Spirit on…seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people” (Num 11:16-17). At this point, at least seventy-one people had the Holy Spirit on them.
Before he died, Moses placed his hands on Joshua and he “was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him” (Deut 34:9). By tradition, this transfer of the Spirit also occurred from the seventy elders to other Godly men who were seen to be elders and leaders. Yet the vast majority of the original seventy men remain unknown to us, as do the myriads who received the Spirit from them by the laying on of hands over the 1500 years from Moses to Yeshua.
In addition to these people and their descendants, the LORD seemed to select others on whom He would pour His Spirit, such as Jeremiah whom the LORD knew and appointed to be a prophet even before his birth. Among the people receiving the Spirit were the prophets, as Peter has testified, “the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow” (1 Pet 1:12).
Further, the Spirit of the LORD was said to come upon most, if not all, of Israel’s leaders from judges like Gideon to kings like David. Even the Gentile Balaam, received “the Spirit of God” (Num 24:2) leading him to proclaim the Messianic prophecy, “A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel” (Num 24:17).
Before the days of Pentecost, the Spirit was said to be on woman and men like Anna and Simeon, who received the word of God and were moved to action by the Holy Spirit (Luke 2:25-27). I believe that many of the Jewish Sages were men like Simeon, filled with the Holy Spirit like the prophets. How can I be sure? I will test the words of these men against scripture to determine if their word is consistent with the inspired word and profitable for instruction. After all, isn’t that the standard that any commentary or word from a brother should be measured?
Any person, who throws out Jewish commentary without consideration, must also throw out Gentile commentary on the same basis, or stand as a hypocrite before others. After all, many Jewish sources are positioned infinitely closer to the historical events and are more enlightened to the cultural context of scripture, then contemporary Gentile writers.
Finally, the argument, “But we have the Spirit to guide us”, fails to explain the continuing division of Christians on issues pertaining to specific areas of our belief. If the Spirit guides us, why are we not united in all things? The best explanation is to quote Paul, “I know in part and we prophesy in part” (1 Cor 13:9) and realize that no single person has complete knowledge even though the Spirit lives in them. God has made us incomplete apart from our brothers and sisters. Yet, for 2000 years the body of Gentiles has been content to separate ourselves from a part of the body that could bring completeness. Who’s idea was that anyway? I guess it was those people who said, “we have the Spirit”, which reminds me of those people who thought their lineage alone was sufficient to save.
So did Paul or Moses have a closer walk with Elohim? I think if you even asked Paul, he would say, Moses because “The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend” (Ex 33:11). This example represents a personal relationship unparalleled in scripture except for that which exists between the Son and the Father. Although Paul talked about receiving the gospel as a revelation from Yeshua the Messiah (Gal 1:12), he seems to characterize our (and his) relationship with God as seeing “a poor reflection as in a mirror”, but in the future we will see “face to face” (1 Cor 13:12). In other words, Paul looked forward to a future time when his relationship with God would reach the intimacy that Moses was able to reach in his lifetime.
Thoughts??? Have a Happy Thanksgiving. Scott
I gained some insight this past week at Church by a statement that was made to me in the context of discussing the Jewish Roots. The statement was simple and to the point, “but we have the Spirit to guide us”. Its simplicity argues for the entire rejection of the Jewish Roots movement, while at the same time, demonstrating a blindness by implying that men and women of the Jewish nation before Yeshua were not God’s people and had no access to the Holy Spirit. A belief that simply is not true, nor can it be supported by scripture. In fact, the reverse is true.
Paul writing to the Church in Corinth may have been dealing with a similar misconception when he wrote…
For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. (1 Cor 10:1-4)
Paul is telling us that the saints of the Jewish Text “all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.” In other words, the nation had access to God through the same Spirit as we do.
We remember that Moses was unique because he spoke “face to face” (Ex 33:11) with God. What many Christians do not remember, the LORD came down and took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and “put the Spirit on…seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people” (Num 11:16-17). At this point, at least seventy-one people had the Holy Spirit on them.
Before he died, Moses placed his hands on Joshua and he “was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him” (Deut 34:9). By tradition, this transfer of the Spirit also occurred from the seventy elders to other Godly men who were seen to be elders and leaders. Yet the vast majority of the original seventy men remain unknown to us, as do the myriads who received the Spirit from them by the laying on of hands over the 1500 years from Moses to Yeshua.
In addition to these people and their descendants, the LORD seemed to select others on whom He would pour His Spirit, such as Jeremiah whom the LORD knew and appointed to be a prophet even before his birth. Among the people receiving the Spirit were the prophets, as Peter has testified, “the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow” (1 Pet 1:12).
Further, the Spirit of the LORD was said to come upon most, if not all, of Israel’s leaders from judges like Gideon to kings like David. Even the Gentile Balaam, received “the Spirit of God” (Num 24:2) leading him to proclaim the Messianic prophecy, “A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel” (Num 24:17).
Before the days of Pentecost, the Spirit was said to be on woman and men like Anna and Simeon, who received the word of God and were moved to action by the Holy Spirit (Luke 2:25-27). I believe that many of the Jewish Sages were men like Simeon, filled with the Holy Spirit like the prophets. How can I be sure? I will test the words of these men against scripture to determine if their word is consistent with the inspired word and profitable for instruction. After all, isn’t that the standard that any commentary or word from a brother should be measured?
Any person, who throws out Jewish commentary without consideration, must also throw out Gentile commentary on the same basis, or stand as a hypocrite before others. After all, many Jewish sources are positioned infinitely closer to the historical events and are more enlightened to the cultural context of scripture, then contemporary Gentile writers.
Finally, the argument, “But we have the Spirit to guide us”, fails to explain the continuing division of Christians on issues pertaining to specific areas of our belief. If the Spirit guides us, why are we not united in all things? The best explanation is to quote Paul, “I know in part and we prophesy in part” (1 Cor 13:9) and realize that no single person has complete knowledge even though the Spirit lives in them. God has made us incomplete apart from our brothers and sisters. Yet, for 2000 years the body of Gentiles has been content to separate ourselves from a part of the body that could bring completeness. Who’s idea was that anyway? I guess it was those people who said, “we have the Spirit”, which reminds me of those people who thought their lineage alone was sufficient to save.
So did Paul or Moses have a closer walk with Elohim? I think if you even asked Paul, he would say, Moses because “The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend” (Ex 33:11). This example represents a personal relationship unparalleled in scripture except for that which exists between the Son and the Father. Although Paul talked about receiving the gospel as a revelation from Yeshua the Messiah (Gal 1:12), he seems to characterize our (and his) relationship with God as seeing “a poor reflection as in a mirror”, but in the future we will see “face to face” (1 Cor 13:12). In other words, Paul looked forward to a future time when his relationship with God would reach the intimacy that Moses was able to reach in his lifetime.
Thoughts??? Have a Happy Thanksgiving. Scott
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Ten Ways Toward a Treasure
Got this from Boaz. Ten ways toward treasures.
- Honor your parents
- Acts of kindness and generosity (seek out and administer kind deeds)
- Attendance in the house of study
- Hospitality to guest
- Visit the sick
- Providing for a bride
- Escorting the dead
- Concentration in prayer
- Making peace between men
- The study of Torah
Note: Invest time in study rather than TV
Saturday, November 7, 2009
The Requirement To Be Very Hot
As recorded by Scott, in the name of Teresa bar Abraham, as stated by the Chafetz Chaim.
One day as the Chafetz Chaim was about to immerse himself in the mikveh, he asked R’Yidel the attendant if he had heated the water. R’ Yidel replies, “Of course, Rebbe. Just a short while ago I emptied half of the hot-water tank into the Mikveh.” The Chafetz Chaim went into the water and much to his chagrin, it was very cold. When he came out, he went over to the hot-water tank and stuck his hand inside. Sure enough, it was no more than lukewarm. He then commented to R’ Yidel, “If the hot-water tank itself is lukewarm, then the frigid mikveh will be no more than cool.”
So what is the moral of this parable? “Only people whose commitment to Torah and mitzvos is very “hot” can try to warm others to the cause. One with limited commitment runs the risk of being cooled off by those he tries to inspire.”
One day as the Chafetz Chaim was about to immerse himself in the mikveh, he asked R’Yidel the attendant if he had heated the water. R’ Yidel replies, “Of course, Rebbe. Just a short while ago I emptied half of the hot-water tank into the Mikveh.” The Chafetz Chaim went into the water and much to his chagrin, it was very cold. When he came out, he went over to the hot-water tank and stuck his hand inside. Sure enough, it was no more than lukewarm. He then commented to R’ Yidel, “If the hot-water tank itself is lukewarm, then the frigid mikveh will be no more than cool.”
So what is the moral of this parable? “Only people whose commitment to Torah and mitzvos is very “hot” can try to warm others to the cause. One with limited commitment runs the risk of being cooled off by those he tries to inspire.”
Friday, November 6, 2009
Lessons From the Biven Conference
These are the learnings I gleaned from the Biven conference, but you may already know some of them.
1. The accepted order of the synoptic gospel origins are Luke, Mark, and Matthew. Just remember that they are in alphabetical order. John was written much later and is not a synoptic gospel.
2. Yeshua was the 5th most popular first century Jewish boy name.
3. There is no writing on the Sabbath, which is difficult for me to follow.
4. Jewish worship in the first century was primarily the reading of scripture and, to a much lesser extent, commentary. Compare that with most 21st century churches that have 10% reading of scripture and 90% commentary.
5. Stringing pearls is more correctly called “stringing beads”. This was the process of linking two different passages containing the same words to develop a new understanding.
6. According to Biven, 90%+ Jews spoke Hebrew in the first century. Teachers taught in Hebrew. Only a minority associated with outside trade spoke Aramaic. Hillel wrote some Aramaic, but he was originally from Babylon. All known parables were in Hebrew.
7. Called “dualism” or “parallelism”, this common Jewish technique repeats the same thought twice as in “He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good (1), and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (2)” and “I have sinned against heaven (1) and against you (2)”
8. In Jewish thought, if you see a person sinning and don’t tell him, you bear his sin with him. “Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God” (Acts 20:26-27). In Rabbinical thought, the Messiah will come if ever a generation comes that knows how to give rebuke and receive rebuke.
9. There is no early and no late in Torah, which is a way of saying Theology is more important then chronology. It is important for Greeks to have a beginning and an end, but God is without a beginning and end.
10. Jews pray after the meal. Yeshua prayed before the meal, He told the bread, broke it and blessed. The Jewish Sages blessed before and after the meal. In Jewish thinking, anything that is enjoyed requires a blessing.
11. The root word associated with “prayer” means “to judge”. Prayer should be a process of self evaluation judging oneself. “If we judge ourselves, we would not come under judgement” (1 Cor 11:31).
12. The disciples understood that Yeshua was the Messiah (Christ) early on so what makes the proclamation of Peter, “The Christ of God” (Luke 9:20) so powerful? Biven believes the correct translation of Peter's statement from the original Hebrew is not “The Christ of God”, but “The Christ God”. If this interpretation is correct, this would be the first time the disciples realized that the Messiah was God. That is why Yeshua's response to Peter included the phrase, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 16:16).
According to Clifton Payne (Jerusalem Perspective), Jewish tradition holds three keys of heaven not available to man: The key of resurrection, the key of the barren womb, and the key of rain. Only the Almighty Himself held these keys which were not entrusted to any messenger of childbirth. The offering of the keys of the kingdom was a testimony that Yeshua was God since only God held the keys.
1. The accepted order of the synoptic gospel origins are Luke, Mark, and Matthew. Just remember that they are in alphabetical order. John was written much later and is not a synoptic gospel.
2. Yeshua was the 5th most popular first century Jewish boy name.
3. There is no writing on the Sabbath, which is difficult for me to follow.
4. Jewish worship in the first century was primarily the reading of scripture and, to a much lesser extent, commentary. Compare that with most 21st century churches that have 10% reading of scripture and 90% commentary.
5. Stringing pearls is more correctly called “stringing beads”. This was the process of linking two different passages containing the same words to develop a new understanding.
6. According to Biven, 90%+ Jews spoke Hebrew in the first century. Teachers taught in Hebrew. Only a minority associated with outside trade spoke Aramaic. Hillel wrote some Aramaic, but he was originally from Babylon. All known parables were in Hebrew.
7. Called “dualism” or “parallelism”, this common Jewish technique repeats the same thought twice as in “He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good (1), and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (2)” and “I have sinned against heaven (1) and against you (2)”
8. In Jewish thought, if you see a person sinning and don’t tell him, you bear his sin with him. “Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God” (Acts 20:26-27). In Rabbinical thought, the Messiah will come if ever a generation comes that knows how to give rebuke and receive rebuke.
9. There is no early and no late in Torah, which is a way of saying Theology is more important then chronology. It is important for Greeks to have a beginning and an end, but God is without a beginning and end.
10. Jews pray after the meal. Yeshua prayed before the meal, He told the bread, broke it and blessed. The Jewish Sages blessed before and after the meal. In Jewish thinking, anything that is enjoyed requires a blessing.
11. The root word associated with “prayer” means “to judge”. Prayer should be a process of self evaluation judging oneself. “If we judge ourselves, we would not come under judgement” (1 Cor 11:31).
12. The disciples understood that Yeshua was the Messiah (Christ) early on so what makes the proclamation of Peter, “The Christ of God” (Luke 9:20) so powerful? Biven believes the correct translation of Peter's statement from the original Hebrew is not “The Christ of God”, but “The Christ God”. If this interpretation is correct, this would be the first time the disciples realized that the Messiah was God. That is why Yeshua's response to Peter included the phrase, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 16:16).
According to Clifton Payne (Jerusalem Perspective), Jewish tradition holds three keys of heaven not available to man: The key of resurrection, the key of the barren womb, and the key of rain. Only the Almighty Himself held these keys which were not entrusted to any messenger of childbirth. The offering of the keys of the kingdom was a testimony that Yeshua was God since only God held the keys.
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