This seems silly, doesn’t it? To ask how God views sin; I mean, isn’t it obvious that God sees sin as anything we do that he doesn’t approve of.

But what about the laws people make? Does God see doing 75 in a 45 mile per hour zone as a sin?

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When we read the Book of Leviticus, the first 7 chapters are all about the different offerings made to God, such as the sin, guilt, friendship, peace, and burnt offerings. But Chapter 4 has something in it that isn’t anywhere else and gives us the only really clear understanding of how God sees the sins we commit.

In Lev. 4:1 God identifies what offering is needed for a Cohen, for the community, or for an individual. But here is the important thing to note: he says, “If anyone sins inadvertently against any of the mitzvot of Adonai…”. He assumes that any sin we commit is by accident.

To me, this means that the way God sees our sins is that they are a mistake, done accidentally!

It is my belief (which you can agree with or not) that God is so holy, even though he knows and understands our nature, he still just can’t believe that someone would sin on purpose. If you were God, so holy, so powerful, so omniscient and so omnipotent, wouldn’t you find it impossible to think that any mere human would purposefully incur your anger?

I believe God sees sin as something that happens because we are weak and easily led astray by worldly influences, but not as a result of our purposefully ignoring him.

Sadly, I think he might have thought that back then, but today he knows there are so many who reject him, fully aware of what they are doing.

Even when we sin by mistake, even if we don’t know we did so, because God is holy and 1000% trustworthy, when he tells us that when we sin, we are guilty and will be punished, he means it! And if we fail to repent and ask forgiveness, as stipulated in the Book of Leviticus, we will not have a very happy eternity.

Of course, we can’t bring a sacrifice to the temple anymore (thanks to the Romans), but because Yeshua (Jesus) has our back, so to speak, it is through his sacrifice that we can find forgiveness. But we still have to confess, repent, and ask for God’s forgiveness. That part of the sacrificial system has never changed, which means for those who believe their sins are automatically forgiven, you’ve got a really nasty surprise coming to you.

So, there you have it. Sin is something we do, or don’t do, that goes against what God said we should, or should not, do, whether by mistake or on purpose.

Oh, wait a minute! What about my original question regarding how God sees a speeding violation. Hmmmm…. I would have to say that this is also a sin, not because it goes against anything God said, but because it goes against what our authorities have said- authorities which we are told are there because God put them there (Romans 13:1).

For myself, since I know the Torah tells us that as far as God is concerned, any sin we commit, whether we know about it or not, makes us guilty (Lev. 5:17), so every day in the morning, even before I have my first sip of coffee (that’s how important this is), I pray, and in that prayer I ask God for forgiveness of any sins I may have committed against him and also I ask for strength through the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to sin less each day.

We can never be sinless, but we can always sin less.

I will never tell anyone what to believe or what they must do, but if you don’t mind, I think what I do is a good idea, and I strongly recommend it.

That’s it for today. Remember I always welcome your comments, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

In 1st Samuel 19, we are told that Mikhal, David’s wife and daughter of Saul, told David to hide from the assassins Saul had sent, and in verse 13 of that chapter we read that to fool the men sent to kill David, she took the household idol and placed it in his bed.

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So, nu? Here is a man who God, himself, said was a man after his own heart, yet he was violating the second commandment! And this isn’t the first time we read of God’s chosen people having idols in their homes.

Rachel stole the household idols from Laban when she fled with Jacob. Now, we won’t be surprised when we hear Laban had the household gods with him because he wasn’t a fearer of Adonai. Not really. But why did Jacob, who did fear Adonai, allow Rachel to take them? And why don’t we read of him getting rid of them, at least after Rachel died?

And then in the Book of Joshua, we read how when Joshua was ready to die, he told the people he and his house will serve the Lord, and to rid themselves of their idols.

And the prophets told the people to get rid of their idols, even when it is apparent that the people were also worshiping Adonai, since Adonai said (through more than one prophet) that the offerings were no good because the people didn’t really mean it (in other words, they were going through the motions without any real heartfelt desire), or that they had prostituted themselves serving other gods.

Yet, despite this blatant violation of one of the Big Ten, so many times God granted peace to the people and didn’t punish them. If Shaul (Paul) was relating this, he probably would say something like, “So, since the LORD didn’t punish them for having idols, does that mean idol worship is acceptable to God? Heaven forbid!”

(Because this is the way Shaul wrote to his congregations that he has been so misunderstood, with Christian scholars teaching the question as doctrine and ignoring the response.)

Putting this situation in modern terms, are there household idols in people’s houses, today? What about the TV? The computer? Cell phones? Have these replaced having dinner as a family, sharing experiences with each other? Or are we just people eating food while staring at our technological toys?

Being a Baby Boomer I grew up eating dinner with the family while watching TV (generally, it was “Superman”, followed by “Batman”) and I confess I have never really broken that habit. Donna and I still have our dinner watching TV. But when we are out together on a Date Night, we do a quick “Check in” on Facebook, then the phones are put away. And when we are cruising or on vacation, the phones are left in the safe in the stateroom, taken out only to take pictures with when at some port or on an excursion.

Maybe there are more idols in our lives than we care to admit, or even recognize since so much of what we do every day becomes habit, as we “auto pilot” our way through life. So, I would ask you to take a moment and look around- do you see anything, or do you do anything that in some way interferes with your worship of God (which must include close relationship with family and friends)?

I am not saying to Deep Six the 72″ HDTV, or to throw the cell phones in the river, but maybe, just maybe, once in a while we can all have a dinner without interruption, or spend time playing a board game with the family instead of binge watching “The Walking Dead”.

Who knows? You might find out you all have something in common.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages. Remember that I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

I read a little in my Bible every day. I start at Genesis and go through to Revelation, then I start all over again. Recently, going through the Book of Joshua, I have seen some very discomforting similarities between what happened in those days, and what is happening today.

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When I read about the way the Israelites destroyed the enemies of God when they entered Canaan, killing men, women, and children, as well as their animals, then totally destroying what was left, I can’t help but think that it isn’t any different than what Hamas has been doing in Israel, today; even the taking of hostages is the same as back in ancient days, except that the men were never taken hostage, only the women.

So why is it that these things were OK in the Bible, but when Hamas does them today, they are atrocities?

Don’t get me wrong! I hate Hamas, and all terrorists who are doing these terrible things. They aren’t doing anything out of a sense of justice or to regain property, all they want to do is murder Jews. They aren’t freedom fighters, they aren’t doing God’s work (they are working for the Enemy of God), and they are nothing more than cowards and murderers.

I believe that if the Jews never got back to Israel, that land today would be just as fallow and barren as it was when we first came back in the late 1940s.

The enemies of Israel do not want peace, they want genocide.

When God has the Israelites destroy the people in Canaan some 3500 years ago, it was to cleanse the land of paganism and allow them to reclaim the land that was theirs, by God’s promise. If Joshua had done as he was told to do, we wouldn’t have these problems, today. But what Hamas is doing is very different. They aren’t trying to reclaim land promised to them; instead, their only desire is the destruction of all Jews.

Yes, 3500 years ago, when the world was a different place and societies were ruled by different laws of ethics, the Israelites did things as terrible and horrible as what is being done today, but it was done to rid the land of pagans who worshipped gods that required human sacrifice, were sexually debased, and cruel.

The need for total destruction of the people, even the children, was to rid the land of an infection of evil. Even so, God restricted this destruction to only those who were living in the land God had promised to Abraham. The surrounding lands and people were just as bad, but they were not on God’s “Hit List” because they didn’t live on the promised property; as such, they were allowed to remain (unless they came out against God chosen; if they did, they were decimated).

So, thinking more about it, I realize there is a difference, and that difference is the Jews destroyed pagans who were polluting the land, and they did so not from hate or desire to kill them, but to recover the land that was promised to them by God, and cleanse it of sinfulness.

But Hamas is destroying homes, schools, hospitals, and killing innocent people of all ages, not for land or to cleanse it of sin: NO! They are performing these atrocities just for fun.

I have it from a source living in Israel that the atrocities they have performed while killing babies includes accosting the mothers who were forced to watch. That is way more horrible than anything ever done by the Israelites of old.

The only motivation behind what Hamas is doing is not for land, or money, or religious cleansing- it is genocide, pure and simple. They don’t want the land: how do I know? Because they had it for centuries and they did nothing with it!

So, as horrible as the destruction done to the people who were the enemies of God back in the days when Israel first entered and recaptured their land may have been similar to the types of atrocities being done by Hamas, today, there is a significant difference: back then, they did what they were told to do by God in order to reclaim the land that belonged to them and cleanse the land of sinfulness.

What Hamas is doing today, and what the surrounding peoples have been doing to Israel ever since we came back into our land, has no justifiable reason, religious or otherwise- it is, pure and simple, murder for the sake of murder.

Hamas does not want anything other than to see every Jew in the world, starting with Israel, dead. Why? Just because we are Jews.

And, sad to say, that isn’t any different than what we Jews have heard for millennia: from the Crusades to the Inquisition to Nazi Germany to the Middle East, today. Hatred of the Jews will never end as long as HaSatan (the Devil) exists.

There is one thing, though, that also will never end- the God of Israel will not allow his chosen people to be destroyed, and when God has had his fill of these atrocities, he will send the Messiah back to finish off his enemies, for all eternity.

That’s it for today. Remember that I always welcome your comments, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

In the Book of D’varim (Deuteronomy), Moses is recounting the last 40 years to the people, and in Chapter 11 he reviews all the miraculous events that God performed, including the blessings that he will give for continued obedience, and the curses that he will send for disobedience.

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Moses reminds them that God had commanded that after they enter the land they are to split up, with half the tribes going on Mount Gerizim, and the other half on Mount Eival, and then to proclaim these blessings and curses.

So, nu? What could possibly be the reason for this? Well, maybe I can give you one.

These mountains are known as the Shoulder Mountains. They are positioned next to each other, and between them lies the Shechem Valley. When you have half a million people on each of these two mountains, shouting out these blessings and curses, the sound will reverberate down the mountain sides and throughout the valley, where (it just so happened) many of the people they were to destroy were living.

The result of this is that the people who were already there heard that there was a new sheriff in town.

Now, was this a means of giving them the chance to repent? I don’t think so, since God had already ordered the Israelites to totally destroy the peoples there, so those living in the Shechem Valley were not going to be there much longer. Maybe God was giving them a chance to get the heck outta Dodge before the fecal matter hit the air circulation unit?

I don’t know, but I am certain that by having the people repeat these blessings and curses on the Shoulder Mountains, it was a way to reinforce the covenant they made with God, way back when, when they were at Sinai some 40 years before, and also again when Moses reviewed the laws with the people just before they entered the land.

I was fortunate to be able to see those mountains, even though the Shechem Valley and area is forbidden to Jews, when I was there in 2016. When you see how they form a perfect echo chamber, you can imagine how the sound of those thousands of voices must have shaken the ground, and given the people living there a start, as well.

What a shame that this event was as soon forgotten as it was performed. If only we had gotten rid of all the people living there, as God commanded, we wouldn’t have the problems in the Middle East that we have today.

Thank you for being here and please remember that I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

PS: Please pray for a speedy end to the war in Israel right now, and for the total destruction of Hamas.

I think we all know the 5 covenants that God made with us, all of which are found in the Tanakh: the Noahide, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and New covenant. But in the book of D’varim (Deuteronomy), Moses states that the people there, that day who are listening to him, are also making a covenant with God.

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Throughout D’varim, Moses reiterates to love and obey God, and not to follow other gods. He reviews the Big Ten, he reminds the people that they are being given this land because of God’s promises to their ancestors, and not because they deserve it. In fact, he tells them they are stiff-necked and rebellious, and have been since he took them out of Egypt.

Moses tells the people that they are the ones- not their children- who saw with their own eyes all the miraculous works of the Lord that he did to the Egyptians, and that the covenant they are making that day with God will also be applicable to their children, as well.

This hidden covenant is found here:

D’varim 29:12-15: You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God, a covenant the Lord is making with you this day and sealing with an oath, to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  I am making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God but also with those who are not here today.

The Torah has all the commandments, regulations, laws, and ordinances that we are to follow, but D’varim is the recap of the previous 4 books. The first 4 give us the details on how to obey these laws, but D’varim is the one that pulls it all together and, as such, I believe that is why Moses treats agreeing to what he is saying in this one book as a separate covenant.

God’s covenants are never exclusive, they are always inclusive: each new covenant includes and builds on the previous ones. However, this covenant seems to be separate from the previous covenants.

How is it different?

Even though Moses says that God is making this covenant with the people, to be their God, it seems to me that this covenant isn’t from God to the people, but it is Moses’s idea, and that he is telling the people that they are making this covenant with God, the conditions of the covenant being that it won’t be just those people who are required to obey all that God has told them to do, but their children, as well.

I often think that the book Moses refers to throughout D’varim is just that one book- the book of D’varim, not the entire Torah, and that could make sense if we consider D’varim is a recap of the Torah. It reviews the travels, the miracles, the problems along the way, the giving of the Torah and the different times the people sinned, the Big Ten, the rules of Kashrut (Kosher), and many of the other laws and ordinances in the other books of the Torah.

Not to say that D’varim is all we need, no- the other books give us the detailed instructions on how to follow the laws in D’varim, so they are essential, but D’varim is sort of the entire Torah, in a nutshell. If I was to say what D’varim tells us to do, in 25 words or less, I would say “obey God and do not follow other gods” (that’s only 8 words).

So, there you have it. A separate covenant that is kind of hidden from general knowledge, but one that unquestionably affirms the Mosaic covenant is required for all those who wish to obey God, throughout all our generations.

Thank you for being here: please share these messages and remember that I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

We all know when Israel blessed his 12 children before his death (Genesis 49) that he stated the scepter shall not pass from Judah until Shiloh come, which in many other translations is not “Shiloh” but indicates a specific person to come and rule.

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I agree that “Shiloh” represents the Messiah, and this is easily proven because when Messiah came, the scepter- i.e., the rulership- had been taken from the descendants of the tribe of Judah. Rome was the government and legal authority, and it appointed Herod as king.

As far as we know, Herod was not even born a Jew, or a descendant of Judah; according to one source, Herod’s father was by descent an Edomite with a Jewish mother whose ancestors had converted to Judaism. However, Herod was raised as a Jew.

I was thinking there might be a different interpretation of this prophesy. Not one that denies its meaning as being to indicate the coming of Messiah, but one that might have a dual meaning: one for the immediate future and one for the distant future.

The distant future meaning is the one where Messiah will come when Judah is no longer the leader of the Jewish people. The more immediate meaning is that “when Shiloh come” means when the Ark of the Covenant is located at Shiloh.

I know, I know- that seems to be too literal, but stay with me here.

During the time of the Judges in the 12th to 11th century B.C. the Tabernacle, where the Ark was located, was in the town of Shiloh, and it remained there for around three and a half centuries until it was captured by the Philistines in 1050 B.C. (1 Samuel 4).

Here is why I am thinking this may have been part of the warning about the scepter being removed from Judah- in the book of Judges, we read (no less than three times) that during that time, everyone did as they wanted to because there was no king.

Joshua was alive when the Ark was placed in Shiloh (Joshua 19:51) so there was a rulership of Israel, but it wasn’t Judah at that time. Joshua was the son of Nun, an Ephraimite. Caleb, the only other original spy who did not die in the desert, was from Judah, but he was not the one in charge.

And before this, Moses was the BMOC and he was a Levite. So, wait a minute! Until David took over, the scepter was not in the hand of Judah, at all!

I am writing this off the top of my head, and now I am beginning to see that maybe the prophesy was only about when the Messiah comes, and not really about the town of Shiloh, at all.

So why am I still posting this? I mean, look- I started out with a message and ended up denying my own message! Why would I want all of you to see me prove myself wrong?

It’s because there is now a different message, one that arose from verifying what ended up being an incorrect message, and going through this process of learning is what a true Berean of the Bible should be willing to do.

I had an idea, I thought about it, I started to share it with you all, but as I researched it, I realized that what I was thinking really can’t be substantiated by the Bible, so that means what I thought something meant is not what it means.

So, nu? What started out in my mind as a unique interpretation of a well-known passage, has ended up as a lesson in honest interpretation and proper biblical exegesis. I couldn’t be happier that I found out I was wrong, especially before sharing that wrong idea with others.

That is why I have not just deleted this entire mishigas because I hope sharing this example of the importance of verifying everything you hear or think something in the Bible means with what is actually in the Bible will be of use to you in the future.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!