Category: A Drash to Start the Day

When We Trust in the Lord, What are We Trusting?

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Should I show every biblical reference to “Trust in the Lord?” If I did, it would take you longer to read them all then to read the rest of this message! So trust me when I say, there are a lot of references in the Bible telling us to trust in the Lord.

But what, exactly, are we trusting?

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

Do we trust that God is God?

Do we trust that God will keep his word?

Do we trust that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah?

Do we trust there is a Devil?

Do we trust all of the above, and more?

And what if I say I believe in the Lord? Does that mean I trust him, also?

Mr. Webster says that to believe means to accept as true or real, and he goes on to tell us that trust means to have confidence or faith in a person or thing.

This means I can believe that God exists but I don’t have to trust him, as in trust him to punish me if I don’t do as he says, or trust him to forgive me when I ask him to do so.

So, which is more important? To believe in God or to trust him?

Well, you can’t trust something that you don’t even accept as being real, so believing in God is the very first step to trusting him. It seems this isn’t a “One or the other“, but more of a “Once I do, then what?” thing, doesn’t it?

When we are told we should trust in the Lord, for me, that means that I have to accept that whatever God says is true and I should obey him. And when it comes down to Yeshua being the Messiah, or not, it is something I should first believe. If I don’t believe Yeshua is the Messiah, then trust isn’t a factor.

The issue now is if I believe in God, and trust him to do as he says, he did say he would send a Messiah, so trusting him means that Yeshua could be that Messiah.

It comes down to choosing to believe. If I choose to believe Yeshua is the Messiah, for whatever reason, the next step is do I trust in him to… what?

Yeshua said that whatever we ask for in his name, he will do for us (John 16:23), and also that he is the only way to the Father (John 14:6). Those are the two things that I recall being the most important things to trust Yeshua for; other than those two, out trust is first and foremost in the Lord, God.

Hmm… now what? If I trust in God that he means what he says, he told us that we cannot sacrifice (to be forgiven) anywhere but where he places his name (Deuteronomy 12:11), which was the temple that King Solomon built in Jerusalem (1 Kings 9:3). But that temple was destroyed in 73 AD, so what do I do now?

Does that mean no temple, no sacrifice, therefore no forgiveness?

Yes, it does, for those who don’t believe that Yeshua is the Messiah.

Yeshua said that through his sacrifice we can be forgiven, which means I can still trust that God will forgive me if I believe that Yeshua is who he said he is.

Wow, that’s confusing, isn’t it? I don’t know now whether I am trusting or believing, or both? And in whom?

Let’s try to bring this into focus: first, you must believe that God exists. Next, you must trust that he will do as he says he will do; for me, that trust has been earned because I have read (and believe) the narratives in the Tanakh showing how God always came to the rescue of his people, Israel, when they did as he commanded.

The next step is to chose to believe what we read in the Gospels about Yeshua, and when we do that we then trust that through his sacrifice we can be forgiven, because his sacrifice replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple.

In other words, Yeshua is now where God has placed his name, and through Yeshua we can find forgiveness when we are repentant.

Believe in God, believe Yeshua is the Messiah, trust that God will forgive you when you repent and sacrifice, and trust that as the Messiah, Yeshua is the now both where God has placed his name and the substitutionary sacrifice for sin, through which everyone, everywhere, can now find forgiveness and, consequently, salvation.

The temple in Jerusalem used to be the only place we could attain forgiveness from sin, but now that place is the Messiah, Yeshua!

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to my website ministry and my YouTube channel. Like my Facebook page and join my discussion group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules).

And share these messages with everyone! If you care to make a comment, I welcome it.

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

We Have a Spirit of Victory… But Victory Over What?

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Before I start, let me wish Chag Sameach (Happy Holiday) to all those celebrating the very happy holiday of Purim today.

Remember what the Rabbis have said…we should celebrate so much that we get so drunk we can’t tell Mordechai from Haman!

And for all my Irish friends out there, Happy St. Paddy’s Day.

AND…to all my United States Marine Corps Combat Engineer Battalion brothers and sisters, enjoy celebrating this day for St. Paddy is the patron saint of the Combat Engineers!

Okay, enough of that, let’s get down to today’s message.

The other day I posted about faith being able to help us conquer fear, and throughout the Bible we are encouraged to be victorious because God is with us.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

Here are some references to verses that encourage us to be strong and victorious:

1 Corinthians15:57; Deuteronomy 20:4; Romans 8:31; Isaiah 55:11; 2 Tim 1:7

And we can be encouraged to be certain of victory not just by these passages, but by everything in the Bible, from Noah’s victory over evil, to Abraham’s victory over the 5 kings that abducted Lot, to Moses’ victory over Pharaoh and the entire Egyptian army, to Samson over the Phillistines, to…well, you get the picture.

I could go on for a LONG time talking about how we can have a spirit of victory when we are obedient to God.

But these victories were against other people. Isn’t there something more essential and more important than a victory over someone else?

Doesn’t Yeshua warn us not to be concerned about those who can harm the body, but rather against him who can destroy our soul? (Matthew 10:28)

So, what is the one thing we should try to have victory over more than anything else?

Ourselves.

The real victory isn’t over men or women or corporations or even over the Enemy (for the record, he has already lost), but over our own nature, our own iniquity (desire to sin), and of our own fear.

Victory over anything must start with victory over ourselves.

As I discussed the other day (“Fear of Loss Ruins Joy of Having“), faith is what gives us the strength we need to overcome our weaknesses. The real victory we can achieve through God is to stop sinning.

Now, that is so much easier to say than to do, and we will never stop sinning, completely. To strive to be a perfect person is an unreasonable expectation, and can only result in one thing…apostasy.

That’s right. When we try to be something we cannot, eventually we become so frustrated and depressed that we decide the entire activity is useless. It is a bit of a paradox: the closer we try to come to perfection, the further away from it we go.

I have constantly said (maybe some of you will recognize this) that we can never be sinless, but we can always sin less.

That is my goal, which is still pretty difficult to attain, but it is attainable.

I still sin, mostly not because I want to but because I am human and weak. And thanks be to God that he sent Yeshua, my Messiah, to make forgiveness of my sins possible through the sacrificial death Yeshua suffered on my behalf.

None of us will ever be sinless, but with faith and prayer and listening to the Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit), we can find victory over ourselves.

I have known many people over the years who have made a complete “180”, a spiritual U-Turn, and become loving, compassionate, and faithful followers of God’s instructions to us about how to worship him and how to treat each other (you can find these only in the Torah).

I can truly hold myself up as one of these people. Not that I am compassionate enough, or loving enough, or even patient enough to be satisfied with my spiritual maturity, but if you knew me before! Oy!

It’s like when I was a kid and people would comment about my sense of humor: I would introduce them to my father (God rest his soul) and then they would say, “Oh, well, you’re not so bad, after all.”

We have the opportunity to develop a spirit of victory, and it can be over the tsouris we have to suffer living in a cursed and fallen world, but the real victory isn’t over our environment, it is over ourselves.

Therefore, work on yourself, read the Bible every day to be encouraged, to know better how others have been victorious with God’s help, and seek him out for your own victory.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website and my YouTube channel, and on Facebook join my group called “Just God’s Word”.

And remember that I always welcome your comments.

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

Fear of Loss Ruins Joy of Having

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Shaul (Paul) wrote a couple of letters to a young and relatively inexperienced Messianic Kehillot leader called Timothy. The intent of these letters was to encourage and support Timothy in leading men that were older and somewhat uncomfortable to being managed, so to speak, by someone much younger than they were.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

In the second letter, Shaul told Timothy this:

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

In other words, stand your ground and don’t allow yourself to be pushed around, but at the same time, be loving, gentle, and humble. And most of all, trust in God and have faith that he will make things work out in the long run.

I have been around the block more than once, and have known many people whose weak faith, or lack thereof, makes them afraid of many things, especially of the loss of people they care for.

This fear of loss controls them, and they become afraid to get close, either in friendly or intimate relationships, because they have lost loved ones in the past.

When we lose someone we love, we never get “over” it, we just get “passed” it. We learn to live with the loss and continue with our lives.

That is what we are supposed to do, but many whom I have known have not been able to work through their loss, and what they end up doing is not getting as close to someone they love as they could. This isn’t because they really don’t like them, but quite the opposite: their love for them makes them fear losing them one day.

They figure like this: if I don’t get so close to this person, then it won’t hurt as bad when they die.

Well, there seems to be some logic to that, but in reality what that attitude results in is that they have already lost that person.

The fear of losing them has reduced the ability to get the most joy out of being with them!

If you ask me, that’s just meshuggah!

Everyone dies, we all suffer the loss of loved ones, and the only thing that remains are the memories we have of the times we were with them. If you ask me, the best way to make losing someone easier to handle is to know, absolutely, that I got the most out of being with them while I could.

The more memories we have, the better it will be, and when someone refuses to regularly get together with friends, or to reduce the level of intimacy with a spouse or partner, or some other form of physical and emotional “cocooning”, that fear of loss is making them lose out right now.

I believe the reason there is so much fear in people, especially the fear of loss, is that they don’t have anything else to fall back on. Not that anyone or anything can replace someone we love, but if we have a deep and abiding faith in God, and trust that he is in charge, we can be comforted and not so fearful because we know he is doing what is best for those who are faithful to him.

But what about those we love who have a weak faith? Or maybe aren’t saved? Or maybe don’t even want to be saved? What about them? If I know that God will not accept into his presence someone who has not atoned for their sins, through Messiah Yeshua, then how can I not feel terrible about their passing?

You will feel terrible for those who you care for and know are not saved, but that is part of living. My parents were never religious, and I know that my father would have refused, had he been conscious, to accept Yeshua on his deathbed. So while he lay comatose, I prayed for him, trying to intercede, but I have to say I am not sure what the result of that will be. So what do I do? I trust in God, and accept that not everyone I care about will be saved. It sucks, but that’s the way it is. After all, when Yeshua said it was the road less traveled and the narrow gate, he wasn’t kidding.

Many people, and maybe even many of the people we care about, will not be in God’s presence throughout eternity, and that is a fact of life (or should I say a fact of afterlife?) that we must accept.

So what do I do? I try to make the most of what ever relationships I have now, so that later I can look back without regret, knowing that I was able to get the most out of my friendships, my family, and especially my marriage.

The last thing I want to feel when I think about someone I cared for who has passed on is regret that I didn’t tell them how I felt about them, or spent as much time with them as could have, or (worse than anything else) not been as intimate and loving to them as I could have been.

So have faith in God that everything will be okay, and with that faith take hold of your relationships today and make the most you can out of them, because when they are gone, they are gone, forever.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website ministry and my YouTube channel, as well, and remember that I always welcome your comments.

If you use Facebook, “Like” my Messianic Moment page and also join my discussion group called “Just God’s Word” (and please make sure you read and agree to the rules).

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

Believing Doesn’t Save Anyone

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Do you believe in God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

Do you believe that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah?

Do you think that is enough for you to be saved?

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

Well, let me tell you something- just believing God exists and that Yeshua is the Messiah won’t get you anywhere, except maybe started on the proper path to salvation.

Do you know who else believes in God and Yeshua? Satan. And not just Satan, but every demon in Hell. Do you think that is going to save them?

It takes a LOT more than just saying “I believe in Jesus!” to be saved.

In truth, I don’t think most of the people who use the term “Believe in Jesus” have the slightest idea what that actually means, and not an inkling of what it entails.

If you want to be saved from your sins, you need to do more than accept that God exists and that Yeshua is the Messiah. And Unitarian vs. Trinitarian has no effect at all on your salvation.

And, for the record, pronunciation of whichever name (or names) you use for God and his Messiah have no effect on your salvation.

Now, that being said, of course you DO need to believe that God exists- even more than that, you need to believe he is the only God.

And you DO need to accept that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised to send and that he did die, was resurrected, and as such has proven to be accepted by God as the substitutionary sacrifice through whom we can be forgiven of sin.

But, people, that’s just the start.

What really saves us is being forgiven of sin, and that requires more than asking- first and foremost, you need to repent. Honestly, sincerely, contritely, and humbly repent of the sins you commit.

And that means first acknowledging that you do sin.

We all sin- I sin, you sin, everyone sins because we are all, well… sinners. Born with iniquity, living in a world that is full of sin all around us, tempting us every single moment of every single day we are alive. It’s really impossible for anyone to live a sinless life.

And that’s good news, because if anyone could live a sinless life, then it is possible for us to do and we wouldn’t need a Messiah. So, in the end, there would be three people in Heaven: God, Yeshua, and that one idiot who ruined it for the rest of us.

Joel 2:32 tells us that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved (where do you think Shaul got it from when he repeated it in Romans 10:13?), and that is true, of course, but it takes more than just calling on God’s name.

It takes more than just accepting Yeshua is your Messiah and asking forgiveness in his name.

It takes dedication and obedience to God’s commandments. Not the instructions Shaul gave to Gentile Believers who were first learning about obedience to God’s commandments.

Not to celebrate the holidays Constantine created.

Not to obey the Pope, the Pastor, Minister, or even the Rabbi instructing you in Halacha.

It takes obedience to GOD!

And where does God tell us what he wants us to do? Where does God tells us how to worship him? What days does God say we are to celebrate as a festival to him? What ways does God want us to treat each other? How does God say we should conduct business? What does God tell us with regards to punishing people for crimes they commit?

Where is all this?

I’ll bet you know…yes! It’s in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, that “Jewish” Bible most Christians are told they don’t need to know or follow.

There’s no place anywhere in the New Covenant where God tells anyone how to worship or act, or what days to celebrate. Why? Because he already told us everything we need to know in the Torah.

Yeshua didn’t change any of that (Matthew 5:17), except for one part- instead of bringing an animal to the temple in Jerusalem as a sacrifice for sin, Yeshua’s sacrifice replaced that step in the process of forgiveness.

And good thing, too, because after 73 BCE there was no temple to go to!

That is why Jews were so devastated by the destruction of the temple- according to the Torah, the only place you can present your sin sacrifice is where God places his name (Deuteronomy 16:16), which was the temple Solomon built. When the temple was destroyed, so was any hope of being forgiven.

The Wailing Wall (also known as the Western Wall) is not part of the temple- it was part of a wall surrounding the temple area that Herod built.

That is why I am so glad I have found my Messiah, Yeshua, and pray constantly that my Jewish brothers and sisters will eventually come on board the salvation train to take this ride to eternal joy in God’s presence, with me.

I know that you hear us Messianics’ always talking about how the Torah is still necessary, but this isn’t legalism (when people say that it’s really nothing more than a cop-out), it is faithful obedience that comes from loving God and wanting to do what pleases him.

Faith is necessary but faith without works is dead (James 2:14), meaning simply enough that if you have real faith, and really love the Lord (Deuteronomy 6:5) you will want to do as he tells you to do, if for no other reason than to please him.

Remember that he tell us in Ezekiel 18:23 he doesn’t get any pleasure from seeing sinners die, so to not sin we must obey the rules and instructions in the Torah: both Shaul and James confirm this in their writings!

So, if you really love the Lord, and really accept Yeshua as your Messiah, then your faith will demand that you learn what God wants from you and do it, to the best of your ability. Not to be saved, and not to earn anything, but simply out of love for God and the faithful desire to please him.

One last thing: selfless and humble obedience to God is the result of true faithfulness, which is an emotionally fulfilling thing, but there is another nice perk to obedience: read Deuteronomy, Chapter 28 to see all the wonderful blessings you receive here on earth when you obey God.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know; like my Facebook page, join my Facebook group “Just God’s Word”, buy my books and subscribe to both my YouTube channel and website.

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

We Can’t Understand Why There is Evil in the World

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There is just so much evil in the world, isn’t there? Murders, sexual assaults, invasions, drunk drivers killing innocent children, drug abuse, bullying…there’s seemingly no end to the ways people can do harm to other people.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

Yet, what is evil to some is not evil to others.

There are those who love to watch two people beat each other to death in a boxing ring, but deplore bullfighting in Spain.

There are some who find certain cultural activities horrible and sinful, but the culture that performs those activities finds them not just acceptable, but comforting!

When Satan, that old devil, was thrown out of heaven he didn’t go to hell, he went to the earth: there are biblical reference to this in Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:12-18, and also Yeshua, himself, told us he saw Satan fall to earth in Luke 10:18.

Maybe that is why there is so much evil in the world- the originator of evil lives here! He has dominion over this world, and it shows, doesn’t it?

But what about God? Isn’t God in charge? Doesn’t God control everything and isn’t he more powerful than Satan?

Well, DUH! Of course he is! But, if so, then why does he allow this to happen? It’s the old question: “If God is a loving and compassionate God, who loves his children, how can he allow all of the suffering that we see in the world to continue?”

Right now Russia is attacking the Ukraine, people are leaving the homes and dying in battle, so why does God allow this?

I don’t know.

But I do know this- we cannot understand why God does what he does. In Ecclesiastes, the writer, Kohelet, states that everything is useless. He found everything he did under the sun to be a total waste of time, but why was that? It was because he did it to understand why God does what God does! That is why he found everything to be useless- we cannot understand God. If you remember, he said (no less than three times) that the best we can do is eat, drink, and enjoy the things that God has provided for us, concluding that fear of the LORD (i.e., proper worship) is the beginning of wisdom.

And what about Job? Here was a totally innocent, righteous, God-fearing man who was considered by God to be the most righteous man on earth, yet God allowed so much tsouris to befall him. God allowed Satan to first take away all his children and property, then to take away his health. How could God, who knew how righteous and obedient Job was, cause him to suffer the way he did?

I don’t know.

And I am not even going to go through the suffering God’s own chosen people had to endure during the Holocaust!

Why? Why this evil? Why this suffering? Why does God allow it?

(You know what I am going to say.)

I suppose we should try to come up with an answer, and when I think about it, I realize it may actually be as simple as this: without suffering, there can be no joy.

In Romans 5:13, Shaul tells us that, “Sin was indeed present in the world before Torah was given, but sin is not counted as such when there is no Torah.”  In other words, without the Torah to identify exactly what was sinful and what was righteous, we couldn’t really be certain of either.

So, in the same way, without suffering and evil, we can’t really appreciate what is joyful and good.

Here’s a personal example: my wife tells me that growing up, her mother wasn’t the best cook in the world, and Donna said she never realized how good food could taste until she was working in the city and going to restaurants that served delicious food.

Another example is when you have been driving your car for years, and you are so comfortable in it. You love that car! Then, one day you have to leave it with a garage and they give you a year model loaner. WOW! All of a sudden you say to yourself, “My car stinks!”

Until we do something different, we can never know how good or bad we have it, now.

As a species, we become inured to the way we live. Even growing up in poverty or a war-torn country, we don’t know anything else. It’s not until we experience something better that we realize how terrible out lives were. Yet- remarkable as this may seem- many times even after living a better life, we miss the old life because it is what we feel comfortable with.

I read a book once called “The Dance of Anger” and it said how in bad relationships, because we become used to the interactions, when one of the members tries to better the situation, the other one will go out of their way to return things to the bad relationship. Why? Because that person became used to it, they were inured to the evil and felt uncomfortable when things started to change.

I guess that God allows evil in the world because without the evil, we can’t appreciate all the good that God can do, and does for us.

You know, when I think about it a little more, the evil can be useful to us because it is so terrible, that to avoid it we must stay obedient to God. In Deuteronomy 28, God promises blessings for those who are obedient to his instructions; so, even with the in-born iniquity (desire to sin) that we all have, the prevalence of evil all around us throughout our lives may actually provide incentive for us to be more righteous.

As silly as it may sound, the evil in this world might just scare us into being more obedient to God if, for other reason, self-protection.

So, nu? I don’t have an exact answer to why God allows evil in the world, but I think we can conclude that there are two things we can be sure of:

1– We will never know why God does the things he does, or allows the things he allows, but we must trust that he knows what he is doing; and
2– Although evil is all around us, God will protect us when we are obedient to his instructions and act in accordance with his will.


Thank you for being here and please subscribe to this ministry, on both the website and my YouTube channel (they are different lists but I never sell any names). Also, while on the website consider buying my books- if you like what you get here, you will like my books, as well.

Share these messages with everyone you know, join my Facebook group called “just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rule), and remember that I always welcome your comments.

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

Could Yeshua Have Sinned?

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In the book of Leviticus, the first 7 chapters are the regulations for the sacrificial system, through which we can have our sins forgiven.

And the instructions are quite clear that before the Cohen Hagadol (High Priest) can perform his duties for the people, he must first be cleansed, himself.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

More than that, in Chapter 4 it states that if the anointed Cohen sins, he not only brings guilt on himself, but on the people, too! And the same holds true for when any of the leaders sin.

Whoa!! Hold your horses! Wait a minute! Take a breath! Why should I be guilty if the person in charge sins?

Frankly, I don’t know, and it seems really unfair, doesn’t it? But that’s the way God says it has to happen, so if our leader is in sin, then the people (even the entire country) are also in sin.

That explains why when the kings of Israel (the Northern Kingdom in Shomron) continually sinned, the people were eventually scattered all over the Diaspora.

And when the Judean kings followed suit, the remaining children of Israel were expelled from the land God promised them.

So, before Yeshua was able to submit himself as a sacrifice, being that he is our Cohen HaGadol, he first had to make sure that he was cleansed of sin.

The fact that Yeshua was resurrected, we know his sacrifice was accepted, which proved he was sinless when he died.

I have an interesting question for you, but first we have to review some things:

1. The temple and the sacrificial system existed at the time of Yeshua’s ministry.

2. The Torah guarantees when we repent, bring a sacrifice to the temple and ask for forgiveness, we will be forgiven of our sins.

3. The Bible confirms that when God forgives our sins, it is as if they never existed (read Isaiah 43:25; Jeremiah 31:34; Psalm 103:11, just to name a few places).

So, considering the above, here’s my hypothetical question…could Yeshua have sinned at some point during his lifetime?

If he had committed a sin, but then went to the temple and offered his sacrifice, after that wouldn’t he be sinless? And if he didn’t sin between that time and his crucifixion, then he would still be the sinless Lamb of God, right?

Interesting thought, isn’t it?

The idea that Yeshua did commit a sin or two during his life but, after being cleansed through the sacrificial system, became acceptable as a sacrifice for your life goes against all the rhetoric we have always been told about how Yeshua lived a sinless life.

I’m sorry, but to me, the idea that he never once sinned comes under question when we consider he was just like us (Isaiah 53 says he wasn’t anything special, and well acquainted with pain and illness), so he could have succumbed to temptation at one or more times in his life, yet through the sacrificial system still have presented himself as the sinless Lamb of God prior to his arrest and death.

I believe that Yeshua did offer some sacrifices during his life because he was a human man and well acquainted with illness, so he must have had, at one point or another, at least some sort of emission that he needed to be cleansed of, which required a sacrifice. I can’t see any human being not having done something, at least once in his life, whether on purpose or accidentally, that required a sacrifice in order to be clean, let alone forgiven of a sin.

Yes, even one who is totally filled with the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit).

I can only speak for myself, but even with the Ruach indwelling, which I often hear guide me, I still screw up way too often because I am human. And if Isaiah was correct, and the Messiah is well acquainted with illness and pain, I can see him making mistakes, too.

In any event, whether he lived a totally sinless life, or did sin but had been cleansed of his sin through the same sacrificial system that made it possible for him to be our sacrifice for sin, all that really matters is that his resurrection proved his sacrifice was accepted, and through that sacrifice we can have our sins forgiven and receive salvation.

One last thing: if you are in a position of leadership, either in government, corporately, religiously, or just within your family, you need to remember that those who trust you for guidance will suffer the consequences of whatever sins you commit. James 3:1 warns us that those who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

In the first Spiderman movie, Uncle Ben tells Peter Parker (Spiderman) that with great strength comes great responsibility. This warning was to teach Peter the future of others depend on his usage of that gift.

Uncle Ben knew his Bible!

Thank you for being here and please share these messages to help this ministry grow. Subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, join my Facebook discussion group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and accept the rules), buy my books, and remember that I always welcome your comments.

I’m done for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Why is John’s Gospel So Different?

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If you look on the Internet for an answer to this question, you will find many different viewpoints. I have often read that the other three gospels are synoptic, while John’s is spiritual; this seems to be the main explanation for the significant differences between John and the other three gospels. .

But is that really an explanation?

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

One person said that we need to look at the audience, and I think that is somewhat on the right track, in that John is written so differently, with a subtle anti-Semitic tone to it, that I do not believe it was written by the Apostle John, at all. And neither do I believe it was written to Jews.

In fact, I don’t even think it was written by a Jew!

“WHOA!! Hold your horses, Steve! How can you even think that?”

I’ll tell you why.

Here are some of the differences I noted in John that do not appear in the other gospels, are exactly the opposite of the other three, or appear (to me, being a Jew) to not have been written by a Jewish person at that time:

  • When talking to the Pharisees, Yeshua often uses the term “your Torah”. Now, for a Jewish person living then, which is no different than for a Jewish person living now, we do not say “your Torah” when discussing the Torah. We say “the Torah” or just, “Torah”. By emphasizing that the Torah is “theirs”, Yeshua implies that it is not his. Now, if John starts out by saying the Word became flesh, and we have to assume the Word is the Torah (since there was no other “Word” then), how can the living Torah separate himself from the written Torah? The sense one gets from this dichotomy is that Yeshua is teaching something different than the Torah, which is wrong. By using the term “your Torah”, the writer is separating Yeshua from the Torah. No Jewish disciple of Yeshua would ever state or even imply that Yeshua taught anything other than what is in the Torah.
  • The writer often refers to the people who were against Yeshua as “the Judeans”. Sometimes we read the writer differentiate the Judeans from the Jerusalemites, but overall the implication is that all Jews were against Yeshua. Of course, this is not true, and not implied in the other gospels, which indicate that it was the Pharisees and Scribes (also called Torah teachers) who were the main impetus behind having Yeshua arrested. They were also the ones who threatened the people with excommunication if they followed him. This subtle anti-Semitic tone leads one to believe that all the Jews rejected Yeshua, when the truth is that thousands accepted him.
  • One of my major complaints about the gospel of John is that of all the New Covenant writings, this gospel is the only one with any indication that Yeshua is God. Whether you are a Unitarian or a Trinitarian, the fact remains that nowhere else in the entire New Covenant does Yeshua even imply he is God; yet, in just this gospel, his language is so overly spiritual, way too metaphorical, and containing confusing double-talk that leads one to think Yeshua says he is God. For example, there are many instances where Yeshua says something to the effect of he knows the Father and the Father knows him, and if they knew the Father they would know him, but they don’t know the Father, so they don’t know him, but he and the Father are one, so when they reject him they reject the Father, who will reject them because…yadda…yadda…yadda! Too much metaphorical mishigas! Throughout history, these types of statements (which we find only in John) have been used to justify that God and Yeshua are one and the same entity. This is one of the major reasons that Jews cannot accept Yeshua as their Messiah– we Jews have one God, and just one God, and he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He promised to send a Messiah to bring us back into communion with God, gather us back to our homeland, Israel, and re-establish the Temple service. The Messiah, for Jews, is a man with supernatural powers that come from God, but he is not God, himself. The gospel of John is written in such a way as to make it impossible for any Jew to accept Yeshua, and no Jewish disciple of Yeshua would ever write anything like that.
  • Thomas says “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28) when he sees Yeshua after being resurrected. This is not stated in any of the other three gospels.
  • Yeshua gives his disciples the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh by breathing it on them (John 20:22). This happens when he is with them after his resurrection. According to the other three gospels, not only does this not happen, but the complete opposite thing- Yeshua tells them to wait for the Holy Spirit, which will come from God. And in Acts Chapter 2, we are told that the Ruach didn’t come upon the disciples until they were celebrating Shavuot, which was some 50 days after Pesach (Passover).
  • In the other three gospels, Yeshua never clearly states he is the Messiah or the son of God, referring to himself instead as the “Son of Man”. But in John’s gospel, he claims to be the son of God and the Messiah a number of times (John 4:25; 10:36; 18:36).
  • In the other three gospels, Yeshua refuses to help anyone other than the lost tribes of Israel, but in John 4:25 he not only tells the Samaritan woman at the well that he is the Messiah, but stays for two days teaching the people in Samaria!
  • The only gospel that mentions the Apostles going to the grave is Luke, and he says only Kefa (Peter) went. In John’s gospel, it says John and Peter went, and that he got there before Peter (when the writer of John refers to the “talmid that Yeshua loved”, this is a clear reference to John).
  • Finally, we have to remember one of the most important and necessary tools to use in biblical exegesis, which is hermeneutics, and when we review the gospel of John hermeneutically to the other three gospels, the many differences between John’s gospel and the other three MUST indicate that the gospel of John is – at the very least- questionable with regards to its accuracy and trustworthiness.

In fact, the Complete Jewish Bible even points out that many biblical scholars believe one part of this gospel, John 7:53 – 8:11, wasn’t even written by John but possibly by a talmid (student) of his. I say, if the scholars believe that part of this gospel was written by someone else, why stop there?

I think the gospel of John wasn’t written by John, or even by a Jew, because everything about it screams traditional Christian anti-Torah teaching to me!

I don’t think it should even be in the New Covenant.

If it is so wrong, why is it there? I believe it is there because by the time the New Covenant was being canonized, the Christian religion had mutated into a totally anti-Torah religion and the Gentiles putting this “Bible” together needed something to really support their doctrines. The gospel of John does this very well, what with the many references to Yeshua saying that he and God are the same, to “your Torah”, to “the Judeans”, filled with overly spiritual and metaphorically intense sentences designed to confuse the masses, and with a writing style that is so very different from the other Jewish writings that it would appeal to those who are easily fooled into thinking that something sounding spiritual must be true.

I realize that many Christians swear by the gospel of John, and consider it to be the best of the four gospels. When I was first learning about Yeshua, a very spiritually mature Christian I worked with helped me to come to salvation through Messiah Yeshua. However, of all he did to help me, the one thing he did that was not helpful, at all, was to tell me that I should begin my introduction to the New Covenant by reading John’s gospel.

Today, if I wanted to help a Jewish brother or sister know their Messiah, I would direct them to Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, Hebrews, James, and Revelation. I would tell them not to even look at any other writings until they were sure they knew what Yeshua was teaching and only after I was able to prepare them for the true meaning of the Epistles.

And I would tell them to ignore the gospel of John, altogether.

What I am about to say might stun and possibly offend or upset many Christians, but I fully believe the gospel of John was written by someone who was not Jewish, and whose aim in writing it was to support Christian separation from Judaism.

Christianity seems to just brush off the significant differences between John’s gospel and the other gospels, and ignores the fact that these differences are not just “off” a little, but are totally in opposition to what we read in the other gospels and in the book of Acts.

I’m sorry, but I can’t ignore this! John’s gospel is not trustworthy and I believe it should be ignored, completely, because it is not the true representation of Yeshua’s ministry, but rather a propaganda gospel designed to direct Gentiles away from the Torah, and Jews away from their Messiah.

If any of you now want to leave my ministry or block me, that is your decision, and I am sorry to see you go, but I calls ’em as I sees ’em, and this one is so very clear to me I cannot hold back, any more.

The truth is what sets us free, and more often than not, gaining that freedom can be so uncomfortable as to be painful.

Thank you for being here, and especially now if you’ve decided to stay. Please share these messages, subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, buy my books, and remember that I always welcome your comments.

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

Mark 2:22- New Vs. Old

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If you aren’t familiar with this particular passage in the B’rit Chadashah, it is where Yeshua (Jesus) is telling people that new wine cannot go into old wineskins, and a new patch (unshrunk cloth) should not be sewn onto old clothes. Instead, new wine must go into new wineskins.

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In some cases, this passage is used to justify that there is no longer need for Gentile Believers to obey the laws of Moses, in that the Torah is the “old wine” and the “old clothes”. Yeshua’s teachings are the new wine that must go into new wineskins, indicating that any Jew (those are the only people Yeshua was talking to in those days) who still abided with the traditions and commandments as taught by the Pharisees would not be able to accept this new understanding.

But this passage has nothing to do with the law itself because Yeshua wasn’t talking about the performance of the commandments: he was talking about having an open mind to the deeper meaning of the commandments.

There is a Jewish form of exegesis called PaRDeS. The “P stands for P’shat, which is the literal meaning of the laws (i.e., plain language- what you hear is what it is); the “R” is for Remes, a deeper, more spiritual meaning. The “D” is for Drash, a story (or parable, if you will) that has a moral meaning, and the “S” is for Sud, an almost mystical understanding of the law.

Yeshua taught the Remes, which is not what the Pharisees had been teaching. That is why people said that no one ever taught as he did. We see this especially in the Sermon on the Mount when Yeshua said we have been told do not murder (P’shat), but he says do not even hate in your heart (Remes). He also said we have been told do not commit adultery (P’shat), but we should not even lust with our eyes (Remes).

And he taught the people using parables (Drash).

So, when Yeshua talked about not using an unshrunk patch (someone who doesn’t know the existing traditions) on an old cloth (someone who has been indoctrinated into the old ways of understanding) he meant that a new Believer who tried to work within the old traditions would become confused and not be able to maintain his new faith.

I believe this statement was not meant for that time but was a prophecy regarding newly Believing Gentiles who would one day be confused by Jewish Believers who wanted these neophyte Gentile Believers to make a total conversion to both the Torah and the traditions of Judaism overnight (the letter Shaul wrote to the Galatians confirms this problem existed).

The reason you don’t place new wine in old wineskins is that the new wine will continue to ferment, releasing gases that will expand the wineskin. If an old wineskin (one that has been stretched out already) is used for new wine, the expanding gases will burst it and the wine will be lost.

The Jews who knew the Torah only as a set of rules to be followed to the letter (P’shat) are the old wineskins, and what Yeshua was teaching was new wine (the Remes). He never taught anything against the laws of Moses, only the deeper meaning of them- that is the new wine.

What Yeshua was teaching would eventually expand a person’s understanding of the Torah, so if someone was not open to learning this newer, deeper meaning of the law (being a new wineskin), then what will happen is that being an old wineskin (their minds incapable of accepting this newer meaning) they will “burst”, i.e. reject Yeshua and what he taught and revert to their comfort zone of just doing what the Pharisees taught, what is today the Rabbinic rules in the Talmud called Halacha.

If you are wondering why it is so important to know the Remes, read Jeremiah 31:31, which is the New Covenant God promised to make with us: we are to have the Torah written on our hearts, meaning that it isn’t just doing what the Torah says that matters (P’shat), it is wanting to do it (Remes)!

I think we can all agree that when you really want to do something, it is much easier to do, even if it is difficult or requires sacrifice.

When God gave the Torah to Moses to teach to the children of Israel, he knew this would be hard for them. That is why he allowed us to deal only with the P’shat- we were only able to drink milk.

After a few thousand years with the P’shat, God sent Yeshua to teach us the Remes, the real meat of the law, giving us the opportunity to come closer to God and better understand what he meant. This was necessary for us to complete God’s plan of salvation, which is to be his nation of priests (Exodus 19:6) by bringing the full understanding of the Torah to the Gentiles.

The next time Yeshua comes will be to bring to final completion God’s plan of salvation for the world. That is when those who were able to be new wineskins, Jew and Gentile, will be united with God forever.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know, Believer or not, in order to help this ministry grow. Subscribe (if you haven’t already) to both my website and my YouTube channel, and don’t forget to set notifications so you know when I post.

I have written 4 books, and if you like what you get here you will like my books, as well. They are available on Amazon Books or use the link on my website.

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

Matthew 5:17 and The Beatitudes

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I suppose we are all familiar with the Beatitudes, or as they are also known, the “Be-Attitudes”.

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Many are also familiar with Matthew 5:17, which is where Yeshua says he did not come to change the law, but fulfill it.

The problem with most traditional teaching is they end the verse here, but that is not the end of the verse- Yeshua went on to say nothing in the law will change, not a single stroke or yud until all things have come to pass. This part they like to leave out because it defeats the improper interpretation that Christianity has imposed on their members, that being that to fulfill the law meant it was completed, and thereby, done away with.

So let’s look at that verse in Matthew and identify the true meaning.

First off, whenever we interpret something from the Bible we need to use three tools of exegesis: Hermeneutics, Circles of Context, and the proper historical and cultural usage of the words and terms used.

Hermeneutics is, simply stated, the idea that whatever it says in the Bible here, it also says the same thing there, and everywhere. For example, we are told that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the one and only true God, which is confirmed, hermeneutically, because this is stated again and again throughout not just the Tanakh, but the entire Bible.

If, at some point, someone quoted a verse from the Bible and interpreted that as proving there was another God (not a man-made statue, but an honest-to-goodness real God different from Adonai) then, hermeneutically, we could argue against the validity of that interpretation.

The tool called Circles of Context means that when we interpret a verse or passage, it must be done so within the context of the sentence, the context of the paragraph, and of the entire passage.

With regard to the Epistles in the New Covenant, we also have to include the context of who is writing the letter, to whom, and why.

The third tool, proper cultural usage of the words and terms, brings us back to Matthew 5:17 and the word, “fulfill“.

During the First Century, when the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes talked about “fulfilling the law” it had nothing, whatsoever, to do with performance. It meant interpreting the law correctly.

Just as the use of the word “trespassing” with regard to the law had nothing to do with actually walking on someone’s property, but to misinterpret the law.

In the worst-case scenario, to trespass the law meant to sin.

In this message, I am saying my interpretation of Matthew 5:17 is that Yeshua said he came to properly interpret the law. And, that proper interpretation has nothing to do with performance but to give the people a deeper, spiritual understanding of the law.

Now, I have to justify that interpretation culturally, contextually, and hermeneutically.

Culturally, as I explained above, the word “fulfill” in this usage meant to interpret the law by teaching its spiritual meaning, and had nothing to do with the performance of the law.

Next, let’s look at the context of what Yeshua was saying. Matthew 5 begins with the Beatitudes, where he is telling the people that the meek and the humble will be blessed. Also, those who make peace and who suffer as a result of their pursuit of righteousness.

One very important (contextually, that is) statement Yeshua makes is Matthew 5:6, which says that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will also be blessed. This is important because the use of “fulfill” as a spiritual understanding of the law would, by its very nature, make the desire to obey part of one’s inner being. It would be more than just performance, it would be a deep, spiritual desire: it would feel like a thirst and hunger to obey.

Lastly, a hermeneutic justification can be found in Jeremiah 31:33, where we are told that the Torah will be written on our hearts. As such, the desire to obey would be integral to our being, like our heart pumping blood or breathing.

Not only that, but in Matthew Yeshua goes on to teach about adultery and murder, stating that we heard it said not to do these things, but he went on to say we shouldn’t even WANT to do these things.

Yeshua also talks about how uncleanliness comes from the heart, not what we eat (Mark 7:18), again teaching the law from a spiritual understanding and not just some physical activity.

Can you see how the meaning of “fulfill” in Matthew 5:17 makes sense when we consider it to be the spiritual understanding of the law? Yeshua’s statement about fulfilling the law as meaning he will teach us the proper, spiritual understanding is demonstrated throughout his teaching during the Beatitudes and is confirmed by the prophecies in the Tanakh (Jeremiah 31:31 and Ezekiel 36:26), as well as Mark 7:18 and other places throughout the Gospels.

Hopefully, going forward when you hear people say that Yeshua completed and did away with the law in Matthew 5:17, you will be able to help them see the truth. Culturally, hermeneutically, and contextually it is obvious that Yeshua taught the Remes, the deeper, spiritual meaning and understanding of the Torah. That is why so many people said no one ever talked as he did, and that he talked like someone with authority.

There are three types of authority: legal, technical, and assumed.

Yeshua was the son of God and the Messiah- that covers the legal authority.

He knew the Torah, inside and out, and not just what it says but why it says it- that’s as technical as you can get.

And finally, he had an assumed authority because he did miracles that only someone empowered by God could do.

As you continue to study the Bible, no matter how long you have already been at it, if you aren’t already very familiar with the tools I have talked about today (and I would also include learning the Jewish system of exegesis called PaRDeS), then please go to my website and look under the Blogs tab called Series Teachings for a lesson I posted a while ago about how to properly interpret the Bible.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, buy my books and join my Facebook group called Just God’s Word (please make sure to read and agree to the rules).

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

Is Your Need to Know Something Really Something You Need to Know?

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I’m back from a week’s vacation on the Royal Caribbean ship Symphony of the Seas: Donna and I are refreshed and looking forward to going out again in May on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship.

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As some of you already know, I was a First Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, and one of the duties I had while on a 6-month Mediterranean exercise was as the Classified Materials Custodian. That meant all of the classified materials, codes, papers, etc. were my responsibility (if any of you have ever read the book or seen the movie called “The Falcon and the Snowman,”, the classified materials that were stolen and sold to the Russians were the things for which I was in charge of protecting.)

So, why so much about me? It’s just to let you know that one of the things I learned when being trained for that job was the three parts of what having a Top Secret Clearance authorization is all about.

First, you need to have a clearance level, then you need to have access to the information, and finally (here is the thing we will talk about today), you must have a need to know.

By now you should be either falling asleep or asking yourself, “What does any of this have to do with God or the Messiah, or anything biblical?”

That’s a fair question, and here’s my answer: too many people are trying to learn things that God doesn’t want you to know, and even if you have the clearance (meaning biblical knowledge) and the access (meaning given understanding by the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit), you do NOT always have the need to know.

“Need to know what, Steve? What are you talking about?”

What I am talking about is how to pronounce the name of God

What I am talking about is when the Apocalypse will actually begin.

What I am talking about is whether or not Yeshua (Jesus) is also God or a separate entity, altogether.

What I am talking about is any topic or event in the Bible whose details are not given to us.

Will knowing the details of any of the things mentioned above make you any more “saved”?

Will you have a seat of honor at God’s table if you can pronounce the Tetragrammaton the way God pronounced it to Moses?

Whether you know if Yeshua is God or not, will you get extra credit points on your salvation report card?

Can you see why I am so adamant about not needing to know? No? Have you ever heard of Gnosticism? I found many different definitions of it, but my understanding of it (if I am really off-target, someone please correct me) is that Gnostic belief states there is special knowledge that we must have in order to be saved. This is a simplistic understanding, and there is a lot more to it, but generally, they believe that we are ignorant of information, hidden in the Bible, that we must know in order to be saved.

Gnosticism is considered heretical by mainstream Christianity, and as far as Jews are concerned, I’m not sure we care about it at all because, well, it’s a Christian thing. We Jews have enough confusion with HaLacha to also worry about secret knowledge, but I am sure there is some sect or offshoot within Judaism that also believes it is necessary to know about things that aren’t mentioned in the Tanakh. In fact, now that I think about it, the Talmud adds a lot of drek to some biblical events to explain them.

In any case, my suggestion is that when you feel you HAVE to know every little detail regarding a certain event, or when things will happen or how to pronounce a name or the relationship between God and Yeshua or between people… just let it go.

Concentrate on the things that are important, such as what God wants you to do, how God wants you to worship him and treat each other, and what Yeshua said regarding God’s word. Forget about what people say is important or (even worse) no longer important; just concentrate on what God tells you, which you will find ONLY in the Torah!

God had told us all that we need to know, and Moses confirmed this in Deuteronomy 29:29 when he said (CJB):

Things which are hidden belong to Adonai our God. But the things that have
been revealed belong to us and our children forever, so that we can observe
all the words of this Torah.

One last thing: I am not saying do not study the Bible or try to understand God better. That is not what I mean, at all. What I am asking you to do is concentrate on that which affects your salvation and not be turned aside by the pseudo-intellectual pursuit of becoming a biblical scholar. It doesn’t really matter if you can quote a verse exactly from the Bible or where that verse is located; what is important is that you know what that verse is about.

When writing these messages I spend half my time searching for the verse I need to show what I already know the Bible says. It isn’t important to me to know where any verse is located because I can always find it.

Where God says something is not as important as knowing what he says.

All I need to know is what God tells me he wants me to do. I don’t need to know why he says it, I don’t need to know where he says it, and I certainly don’t need to know what some human being says he means by it.

All I need to know is that I should come to God as an innocent, trusting child who doesn’t question but simply believes what God tells me he wants me to do in the Torah, and try my best to do that.

I hope you feel the same way.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, buy my books and join my Facebook discussion group called “Just God’s Word” (please make sure to read and accept the rules).

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