Tag: life

Finally! The long awaited sequel is out, “Son of…..

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If you are a Baby-Boomer like me, you remember the great movies that had sequels. For my younger readers, that’s when you find out what happened after what you are watching. Today they’re all about prequels, finding out what happened before what you are watching occurred.

We had “Son of Kong”, “Son of Paleface”, “Son of Zorn”, “Tarzan Finds a Son”…movies that took the popularity of the original and continued the story line.

To me, that’s exactly what the New Covenant writings are all about. Growing up Jewish, all I ever heard about Jesus and the New Covenant was that Jesus was Jewish, a Rabbi, and he started a new religion called Catholicism. I was also told that the New Covenant is their bible, not ours. Oh, yes- and all the other Gentile religions came out of Catholicism.

Now I know the truth is very, very different. Nearly 20 years ago, when I first started to look for God and wanted to finally decide about what relationship, if any, I was going to have with Him, I researched for myself; I read the New Covenant (a Messianic version, which bold printed everything that was directly from the Old Covenant, so nearly every page had 1/3-1/2 of it bold printed), I talked to mature Christians who were open and knowledgeable about their Hebraic roots (thank the Lord He directed them to me), and eventually (after I decided to believe before I actually did believe) I learned the truth about who Jesus (His real name is Yeshua) was, and is, and who is the real creator of modern day Christianity.

Oh, in case you’re interested, Christianity as it is known and practiced today did not come from Jesus- it came from Constantine and the Council of Nicene.

The Old Covenant is all about God, really. Yes, we learn of the Jewish people, their good times and their bad; we also learn of the other people of those days. We read about the events that happened to both Jews and Gentiles, the destruction of the Northern kingdom of Shomron (Israel), the destruction of the first temple, exile to Babylon and the last king, Zedekiah, which was about 570 some-odd years before Yeshua. After him the only other major event, before the New Covenant events, was the Maccabees and the story of Hanukkah, about 400 years before Yeshua. This is where the OC ends, still waiting for the Messiah to come.

Despite all the events, peoples and kings, the one character in the Old Covenant that is steadily seen and heard throughout the book, who is the progenitor, hero, and star of the show, is God.

The New Covenant also mentions God throughout it, but the real star is Yeshua. Therefore, we could call the Old Covenant the “Story of God” and the New Covenant, “Son of God.”

Now the title to today’s post seems to make sense, doesn’t it?

Just like the old sequels, the first book introduces the hero and leaves us with a promise of more to come. The Messiah never appeared, although He had been mentioned and prophesied about throughout the book. With the NC, we have a culmination of writings about this guy Jesus who claimed to be the Messiah, and also said He was the Son of God.

And if you ask me, He did a pretty good job of proving that what He said was true!

“Jesus” was used for His name because the Greek’s had no reference for a name which meant “God’s salvation”, so they used Jesu, which means nothing in and of itself, but sounds like “Yeshua.” That’s right- “Jesus” is a Latin-ized version of a transliteration that has no etymological root.

The OC promised a Messiah to bring the Jewish people back to God, and also that the Jewish people would be a blessing to the world; eventually, the final promise is of paradise with all the nations of the world worshiping God. That is, worshiping God as He told us we should in the Torah. The NC is the continuation of that story, introducing the promised Messiah, showing how He proved who He was/is, and ending with a number of epilogues (the Epistles) that showed how the truth of Messiah was spread throughout the world. This book has no sequel because the end is eternity with God and Yeshua. All the bad guys are destroyed, the world is created anew, and those that have been faithful to the King have been rewarded with eternal peace and life forever in the presence of the King.

Nice ending; nice “Son of” sequel; all-around nice story. The best part of the whole thing is that it is real-life, and those who accept the truth of it are also part of the story, along with the Father and the Son, and we all end up in Paradise together.

 

 

Parashah Nitzavim (standing) Deuteronomy 29:9 – 30

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Moses foretells the future, and warns the people about turning from God to idols. He tells them that they are making a covenant with God not just for themselves, but for their descendants, as well. The world will offer them opportunity to turn from God, and if they do then all the curses of the book shall come down on them. Yet, after God has justifiably thrown them out of the land and ravaged the land, if they turn back to God with all their heart and soul, God will regather them from the farthest parts of the world and resettle them in the Land. The curses that fell on them will fall on their enemies and the people shall again find favor in God’s sight.

Finally, Moses tells them that these laws and commandments, which provide life, abundance and blessing, are not far away or hard to do; they are right there, in reach, and the offer God is making is life or death: life through obedience and death through rejection.

Moses suggests they choose life.

So, Nu? How much more can I say than what Moses has said? Here we are, again, a people blessed by God that are about to receive the greatest blessing that God has for us-life in a land of prosperity. And life forever after that. So what do we do?

We screw it all up. This generation that has seen so much makes the covenant and under Joshua, for the most part, this covenant is kept. But after Joshua dies, very quickly they devolve into a rabble of sinfulness- that is in the Book of Judges. Up and down, love the Lord then love the idols, in and out of sin and rebellion for generations. God raises a Judge to save, they do well under that Judge, the Judge dies and the people fall back into sin.

Today we see the prophetic promise of returning to the land that Moses told of coming to fruition. We see Israel being regathered, and the curses coming down on the nations. America isn’t being left out of those curses, either, because we have stopped being a godly country.

Moses said the people there were making a covenant, but also the people not there- in other words, the children and their children’s children were also to be under this covenant. I think that is where things went wrong.

When I read the bible it seems that for every generation that did well, the next one did poorly. One king does what is evil, the son does what is right, then his son does what is evil. And it seems that there is always some chametz (leaven, representing sin) left over from the evil generation that survives. Either the queen mother, or the wife of the past king, or a relationship with another evil king. The Northern tribes (Israel, later called Shomron, now referred to as the West Bank) never had a righteous king, but the Southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin had a number of “good” kings, whose children weren’t always the same.

My point is that we can’t really make a covenant for someone else. The baptism rights for babies today are, to me, a waste. First of all, I cannot see God sending an infant to hell because his or her parents failed to have a clergyman pour water on their head. Baptism is an outward expression of an inner desire, a desire to be cleansed of sin and turn to God. An infant can’t make that decision, and I think the history of the Jewish people proves that a child’s parents can’t make that decision, either. Godparents standing in for the child and making oaths of servitude to God are never going to be binding on the child because God gave us all Free Will. It is up to the child to make that decision, and only after the age of decision has been reached. Until the child is old enough to make up his (or her) own mind, that child is a child of God and will not be sent to eternal damnation in the event it dies.

That is my opinion- I have nothing in the bible to quote to you to prove it true, but everything I have read and feel and know about God tells me it must be so.

The best way for us to ensure the life (eternal) of our children is to be an example to them of God’s goodness and love, as well as demonstrating the truth regarding His promise of justice. God is all about love, and all about truth, and all about trust and all about faith. That means that as faithful as God is to forgive when someone truly does T’Shuvah (turn from sin), He is just as faithful to punish those who reject Him.

The world wants what it considers to be fair: “If I choose to love and obey You, then bless me. However, if I choose to ignore and reject You, then just leave me alone.” That’s what the world wants, but that isn’t how the game is played. God is supreme, whether or not someone wants to accept that is irrelevant. God reigns supreme: you obey and live or you reject and die: that’s how it is; that’s how He is; that’s why His name is “I am.”

We can’t choose for others, but we can be an example and a light to others. That’s how the covenant we make with God can be applied to others- through our example. It is up to them to choose for themselves.

That’s a hard word to hear, but the history of mankind and the stories in the bible, I believe, prove it to be true. We all are responsible to make up our own minds, and we all will be held accountable for our decisions. If someone else tells you what to do, and you do it, it is your decision to do it. It is your responsibility. Likewise, if you are told not to do something and you don’t, it is, again, ultimately your choice.

I often say that when you go before God, and we all will, and tell Him, “But that’s what the (fill in religious leader title) said I should do”, God will look gently and lovingly upon you and say, “I understand that, My child, but it is what I say that counts. Here’s some SPF 10,000 and a bottle of cold water; take the elevator to your left going down. Next?”

Every single day, from this moment forward, we each have before us the blessings and the curses, life and death- I have chosen life.

What is your choice?

 

 

If you don’t believe , why get so mad?

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Have you had the same experience I have had when talking to people about God who say they don’t believe in Him? I have found that they first get very edgy, and most of the time they will tell me they don’t want to talk about God, and sometimes they even get downright rude about it and verbally attack me as weak and foolish because I do believe.

Isn’t it strange? If you don’t believe in God, why be so defensive because I do? Why get stressed out and angry that someone else does believe? If I said my favorite baseball team was better than yours, you would argue for hours with all the stats and achievements of your team and it’s stars. You would argue all about how well the team works, it’s accomplishments, and maybe you would attack some of the people on my team, but mostly it’s all about why you love your team.

Yet when I tell you I believe in God, you attack me, you attack God, the bible, et.al..  But do you tell me why you don’t believe? Not a chance. The best I get is, “I just don’t believe, that’s all.”

So, again I ask, if you don’t believe, why get so hot about it?

The answer is simple and the non-believer (alleged, that is) will never admit why: it’s because, deep-down, they do believe. They are scared that God does exist, that what He says is true, that they are sinners, that what they have been told about God being the final judge and about Sheol (hell) is all true. They don’t want to go to hell, and they don’t want to change how they live, so they just stick their head in the sand and say it doesn’t exist.

Then, like someone putting ice down their back, we come along telling them about how God has shown Himself to be real and to exist through the many ways He has acted in our lives, and giving not just our testimony but the testimony of many others we have heard and seen. The truth about God is an attack against their fantasy, their protective wall that blocks out the truth of their sinfulness, lack of control, and the hopelessness of the fact that they are headed for destruction.

When you think about it, no wonder they attack us: professing our belief in God, or any reference to God that so much as implies He might exist, is a direct attack against their protective wall of lies, so it is only natural they would defend themselves by attacking us back.

These are the people living in the dark to whom we are supposed to be a light. The problem is when we start to show that light it hurts their eyes and makes them see, as the little child called out from the crowd, “But the Emperor has no clothes on!”

And they know they are the Emperor.

When we strip bare their lies and ignorance, what can they do other than attack us? In truth, we are attacking them and their beliefs  by professing our love and commitment to God.  Not that we do it on purpose, but from their point of view that’s exactly what we are doing. And so many Believers who try to minister to people don’t have the slightest idea of how to make an argument or sell anything, and they make it even harder for spiritually mature ministers to talk to these people. And yes, we are selling God. We are trying to get the world to invest in it’s own salvation when it rejects the idea that there is any need for salvation.

People only believe half of what you say, but they believe everything that they say. If you want to be a light to those in the darkness, you will never succeed by telling them how dark they are. You need to get them to tell you how dark they are. You need to get them to realize their system of beliefs, which is (basically) not to believe, is not justified. They won’t believe what you tell them so you need to get them to say it, themselves.

“How the heck can I do that?”, you may ask (I just did!): you do it by asking questions. Don’t tell them why you believe in God, ask them why they don’t. And when you get the answers, which are always (trust me, they always are) weak and unsupported by much more than “just because “,  you keep asking why. For instance:

“I know why I believe in God, would you tell me why you don’t?”

“I just don’t.”

“Then if I understand you correctly, you are saying  you don’t believe in God because you don’t want to?”

“Yes. I have the right to my opinion, don’t I?”

“Absolutely, everyone does. So, then, you don’t believe pretty much because you choose not to, right?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, so if you don’t believe because you choose not to, then God very well could exist, but you choose to reject that idea for yourself.”

“Yes, that’s it.”

“So you say God doesn’t exist but only because you don’t want to believe, which means you have no proof  that God doesn’t exist. I have no proof that He does, so  when it comes dowm to it, you say He doesn’t and I say He does, but neither of us can prove our point. Do you agree?”

“Yes.”

That puts us on equal footing, and the next step is to ask:

“If we both believe just because we choose to, doesn’t it make more sense to believe in something that is wonderful and has hope for the future than something that has no hope and can lead to nothing but living your whole life just to die?”

Silence.

That’s scripted, of course, and a real conversation may not take that exact course, but I hope you get the idea. We need to show that their rejection of the existence of God is not based on anything other than opinion, and opinions should be based on facts, yet there aren’t any. Just as we cannot prove, scientifically, that God does exist, they can’t prove He doesn’t. And accepting that there is a chance God does exist puts a little hole in their protective wall.

Once they admit their reason for not believing is based only on their choice not to believe, then you can offer, gently, why you do believe. One or two examples, something that made you absolutely certain God exists.

As for me, I tell how I felt His Ruach (Spirit) literally coming into my body when it happened. I had a totally physical and real-life experience. I have seen answers to prayers that are hard to explain away. I have heard the testimony of many people of miraculous events, healings, release from addictions, all very hard to explain away as just coincidence.

You can’t tell someone what they should believe, but you can tell them why you do. First, though, you have to get them to see their own reasons as weak and unsupported. And that has to be done patiently, gently and compassionately.

In the sales world, we learn that you never sell the quality of the steak: you sell the sizzle! Looking at a steak, reading the nutritional value, getting a good deal- none of that is why people buy a steak. They buy a steak because it tastes great and even more, because it sounds and smells absolutely wonderful when it is cooking. Just picture a steak on the grill, the browning of the fat as it is gently melting, the flames coming up around the edges, the aroma of the steak as it broils….

That’s what sells the steak- not how good it is, but how good it makes you feel.

God is good (all the time) and we love Him for who and what He is as much as what He has done for us. Well, maybe more for what He has done for us. That is why we need to get people who don’t believe to realize that their belief system has done absolutely nothing for them except suck out all the hope they could ever have in their life, and leave no hope for anything better after this life.

That is the selling point, that is what you need to bring them to realize: they choose to have no hope for no reason other than that’s what they choose. We choose to have hope in the resurrection and eternal joy, and if we want to believe that for no other reason that that’s what we choose to believe, then our belief that God exists is just as justified as their belief He doesn’t exist.

So the question is now, “Why would anyone choose to have no hope for anything wonderful in their life?”

If they don’t have a snappy comeback for that one, you are on your way to saving a soul.

The Best Diet in the World

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In today’s world, when we hear the word “diet” used, it usually means someone is trying to lose weight. That isn’t what diet really means, though- a diet is simply a kind of regimen. It doesn’t even necessarily have to do with food. The Greek word, diaita, means “a way of life.”

If we work with the Greek meaning, which was one of the earliest uses of the word, we should then ask ourselves, “If I am going to diet as a way of life, what is the best diet I can choose?”

What comes to mind for me is not just a means of living, but is a (sort of) food, too, and I found it in the Bible:

Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

A diet, to be successful, has to become your “way of life”; it has to be done according to the rules, and even though every now and then we all “pig out” on something (that would be Chicken Wings, for me) we get back to the diet the next day.

My diet is God. Every day I read a chapter or two from His word. In fact, to make sure I have 10 minutes or so of uninterrupted peace and solitude, I keep my Bible in the bathroom. No one comes in and bothers me there, no one knocks on the door, it is quiet and serene; it is the only ‘throne room’ where no one asks for an audience.

I start at the beginning and go to the end, which for a nice Messianic Jewish boy such as myself, means from Genesis 1:1 to Revelations 22:21. I even look at the maps and glossary. Then, when I am done, I go back to the beginning and start all over.

What’s your diet? Are you eating Wonder bread, or the Bread of Life? Do you drink bottled water, or the Everlasting Water? Do you hunger for Burger King, or the Eternal King?

They say that to make something a habit, do it 21 times in a row. So, then, here is a challenge: read a chapter of the Bible for the next 21 days in a row. I strongly recommend you follow my example of leaving it in the bathroom, right there with the crossword puzzle and silly jokes books. Read just one chapter every day while you are sitting there with not much else to do. I don’t think it’s disrespectful to have a Bible in the bathroom. In fact, I think the most disrespectful thing we can do with our Bible is to leave it unread. So long as we are reading it, who cares where we store it?

There’s your challenge: who’s up to it?

Even When We Know Where We’re Going to End Up, We Don’t Know How We Will Get There

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Yesterday I talked about my bike ride and close brush with wiping out. The question I keep asking myself is why didn’t I know about the cement bumpers? Did I forget they were there or are they a new addition? I haven’t been that route for a month or two, so which is it?

Even though I knew where I was going, I didn’t know about the cement bumper. Whether I forgot or not, the end result is the same- BIG surprise at the last moment!

There is a story of a man who tells Yeshua how he is going to make a larger barn, and then do other things to square away his life, and Yeshua says the man is a fool because he spends all that time working for things that he won’t enjoy because his soul will be demanded of him that very night. It’s like the old expression:

If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.

When we accept the truth that Yeshua is the Messiah and do T’Shuvah, we are beginning to walk a path that we think we know, since we have an idea of how to act, the Ruach helps us to know what we should do, and the end is eternity in God’s presence. But the sad truth is that the end is the only part we can be certain of, because the path is not straight, it is very narrow, and there are thorns, brambles, and many rocks along the way.  It is a difficult and treacherous road to take, and Yeshua warns us about this.

Even though I know where I am going to end up, I don’t really know how I will get there, meaning I am not sure what the travel itinerary has in store for me. Jonah thought he would go to Tarshish, and we all know how that turned out. Nebuchadnezzar thought he would rule the world, but he ate grass for 7 years, and Herod thought he would be able to keep the Messiah from being born, and I am sure he didn’t expect to end up the way he did.

Once we have accepted God’s grace and walk in His will we know where we will end up, but we really don’t know where we are going. So be prepared for anything; for friends to abandon you, for family to fall away from you, for workers to distrust you and talk against you, for the world, itself, to seem to come against you at every turn.

It ain’t easy being a real Believer, and it is a constant battle with yourself to stay the course. Especially when you don’t know which direction the course takes. It is easy to take a wrong turn, so always look to the Ruach (Spirit) to lead you (a sort of spiritual GPS), take along the Atlas (Bible) which will show you the way to go, and make sure you read it all the time.

And trust in God, who may not tell you where you are going until you are there, but wherever that is, He is already waiting for you.

Watch where you are going, keep an eye on where you are, and never forget what is at the end of the journey. All the troubles along the way will be like a small mist that evaporates in a second once you are in God’s presence.

It’s Not Where It Is That Matters: It’s What It Says

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How many people do you know that can quote chapter and verse from the Bible? In fact, can’t we all? Isn’t one of the basic training exercises for Bible study to remember a favorite quote or story, and where to find it?

If you read this blog regularly (and thank you, if you do!) you know that I rarely tell you where something is. That’s not because I don’t know, its because I believe two things:

1. Everyone needs to read the Bible, but the way it is taught is to tell you where the quote is from. Now why bother reading it, right? Telling you where to find it almost prevents you from looking for it, which keeps you away from the Bible. Making you look for it brings you closer to the Bible, and what God has for you in there won’t be found by someone else telling you what it says; and

2. It doesn’t matter where it says something in the Bible- what matters is that you know what God wants you to know.

Have you ever had a conversation with a Jehovah’s Witness? If you want to talk to someone who knows where nearly every word of the Bible can be found, that’s the person you want to go to. Unfortunately, the ones I have talked to (even before I knew God) have little or no understanding of what they are quoting. If you ask them about it, they will tell you another quote. If you question them, they will tell you another quote. But they don’t understand the meaning.

I don’t want to insult any JW’s out there, but this is my experience, as well as the experience of other people, knowledgeable of the Bible, who I have talked to about this.

The blood of bulls and sheep is not what God wants. He doesn’t want the circumcision of the flesh without the circumcision of the heart. Yeshua did not teach anything new; in fact, as you have read and heard me say many times, there is nothing new in the New Covenant writings. Yeshua interpreted the Word correctly, which is why it was so powerful. He didn’t tell us where God’s messages and commandments were found, He told us what they really mean. He went beyond just repeating what God says, and transformed our understanding.

Yeshua showed us that performance of God’s commandments is necessary, but living them is what we should be doing. In other words, don’t just repeat what is in the Bible but live it.

That’s all I want to say. I know I usually ramble on a little more, but what else is there, really, to say?

Live the Word of God. The Word became flesh so we can know God better, and so we can be with God in the Olam Haba (World to Come.) God has something in His Word just for you, but if you don’t look for it you will never find it. Seek, and you shall find, and what you find will change your life and the life of others.

You can make a change in people’s lives, as well as your own, but not by sitting still and listening- you need to get off your tuchas and DO something! Reading the Bible is an easy way to start, and the best way.

So go read something now!

Buffet Believers

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You know the type- they say they believe in God, and that they are “saved by the blood”, but when it comes to the totality of the commandments found throughout the Tanakh suddenly there are laws and regulations that are not so important. Some are even just not applicable anymore.

For instance, pork carried diseases so that’s why God said don’t eat it, but we have the USDA now and pork is safe, so I can have it.

Or maybe that culture was very anti-female, and a lot of the laws and ways that women were treated are no longer acceptable or correct. The Bible was written by men, after all, so I don’t have to obey some of their misogynistic laws.

Or maybe they lived in an agrarian culture so tithing was something they could do, but we have state taxes and FICA and tithing only has to be what I can afford to do.

The Bible is God’s word; it is who He is, what He wants from us, and how He wants us to live. It is not a discussion. We can’t “white-wash” these commandments, and God doesn’t really care if we like them or not. In 2 Samuel He tells us Himself that He is no respecter of men (or women). True, He loves us; yes, He is our Father in Heaven and all that stuff but that doesn’t mean that we can just pick and choose what we like and leave the rest for someone else.

If you say you worship God and have the Ruach HaKodesh in you, then you cannot live as you used to. If you haven’t changed your ways, then you are a liar. Maybe you don’t mean to lie, but you are lying to yourself and God isn’t being fooled, not one little bit! It is because I do have the Ruach in me that I know when I am doing what is displeasing to God. I don’t want to and I am trying to do better, and I am doing better. Because I am producing fruit I know that what I am doing is pleasing to God. Not that my fruit can fill a basket, and I am not saying that all my actions are right, but I can say that my heart is right. I can say, truthfully, that I am doing T’Shuvah in my heart, and in my actions (although it’s easier to want to do better than it is to actually do better).

Look, there are so many things in God’s word that I do not understand “why” and there are so many things in His word that I do not really want to do (or not do), but I don’t have a say in this.

Yeshua said that no man can serve two Masters. That means that we have two choices: to serve God or to serve ourselves, which will translate to being a slave to sin. Face it, People! You are a slave! You always have been, you always will be. No options, no escape clause, you are not in control. Never were and never will be.

There are two options: slave to God or slave to sin. If you don’t like that, well…tough! That’s it. Go live in another dimension or universe, and if you can’t do that, then face reality and get with the program.

Yeshua said that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Sin is heavy, Man! Sin weighs you down and doesn’t just affect you but causes pain and strife to the innocents in your life. It hurts you and those you love. When you live to worship God as he wants us to, even when we fail (as we all do) we are doing better, sinning less, and helping ourselves and those we love who are part of our life.

Look at it this way: if I was deep in sin, and I pulled those close to me into sin with me, I am murdering them, spiritually. And because I believe in the afterlife, I am not just murdering them, I am condemning them to eternal suffering. On the other hand, if I live a life devoted to God, although I will most likely ostracize myself from people I care about and love, I will be showing them the way to eternal life. I will not be condemning them with my actions, I will be helping them to live.

Being a slave to Messiah Yeshua and to God is what we need to choose, because it is our choice. You can choose life, you can choose death, but you can’t choose which commandments are valid and which aren’t.

Parashah Ki Tavo (When You Come)

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This parasha continues with the commandments regarding how the people are to behave when they enter the Land (ha Eretz). It tells them to write the entire Torah on plastered rocks and to stand, 6 tribes on one mountain and the other 6 on another one, and pronounce the blessings and curses that the people are subject to while in the Land. Chapters 28 and 29 specify, in somewhat graphic detail, the blessings for obedience and the curses (this is where it gets graphic) for rejecting the laws, thereby rejecting God.

But does God really curse us? God is good, all the time! We hear that often during services, and it is in the Manual, too. We also hear that God is the same: yesterday, today and tomorrow. Totally dependable. Loving and compassionate. Patient and forgiving; in fact, more than just willing to forgive, He wants to forgive!

We know God will judge, but we also know His judgments are infused with mercy.

However, He is God, and will do whatever He wants to do, however He wants to do it. We trust, and we should, that what He does is just and holy. God is loving, fair, merciful and compassionate, and he wants us to have only the best there is.

So, nu? With all that going for Him, why would He curse us just because we want to do our own thing? He gave us free will, right? He lets us make our own decisions, right? So, if we decide to ignore some, or all, of His rules why be so vengeful and nasty? I mean, c’mon, God- live, and let live. You go your way and I’ll go my way. No need to be all “up-in-my-face” about it. I’ll leave you alone and you leave me alone. Okay?

Actually…that is exactly what he does.

Remember that the world is a cursed place. It was cursed with the sin that Adam and Eve committed, and has remained cursed. In fact, Satan was thrown not to Sheol (hell), but to Earth. If you sometimes think it is hell on Earth, well- you’re right! It is.

God’s blessings are a kippur, or covering. It is the umbrella that protects us from the raining down curses that we must endure while we live in this world. We have the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, coming soon. Kippur means covering, and that is really what atonement does for us: when we atone before God, when we do T’Shuvah and (literally) turn from our sins, He covers us with His protection from the world, i.e., blessings. You see, things start off lousy- we are born into sin, with a sinful nature (Yetzer Hara) and into a sinful, cursed world. The wonderful things that happen to us are the exception, not the rule. Those exceptions happen because God covers us with His blessings. Yeshua said He wished He could cover Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) like a mother hen covers her chicks under her wings. Often, David used the term “under the wings”, an image of being covered and protected, in his psalms about how God cares for us.

We are given free will, and we can do whatever we want regarding the laws and commandments God has ordered us to obey. But we need to be ready for the consequences.

Does God curse us? I say no, because he doesn’t need to. We start off cursed, in a cursed world. God wants to cover us, to give us His Kippur, and we can choose to go to Him and stand under His protection, or we can choose to say, “Thanks, but no thanks” and stand alone, unprotected in the midst of tsouris.

I think many people just don’t like being told what to do; yes, we are sheep easily led astray. But we are also stiff-necked and stubborn, prideful and egocentric. The way we are easily led astray is that anyone who promises us hedonistic pleasures and autonomy will have a following more numerous than the grains of sand on all the beaches in the world. What God tells us to do is for our best interest and will lead to Eternal pleasure, but (sadly) we prefer to do what feels good now and ignore the Eternal consequences. We like to be “eased” into obedience, but that is not how it works with the Lord. He doesn’t ask, and He doesn’t need to ask, just like when I was a Lieutenant in the Marine Corps I didn’t need to ask an enlisted man to do something. Even the Roman soldier who told Yeshua, by means of servants, that Yeshua did not need to come to his home to cure the sick slave, knew that was true because Yeshua had the authority to do so, wherever He was. God is THE ultimate authority in the Universe. He, and He alone, has the right and the power to enforce telling us what to do. Yes, he could send horrible curses upon us, but he doesn’t use that power- He doesn’t need to. He chooses instead to lovingly, and (I believe from what I read in the Bible) regretfully leave us to our own devices.

People curse each other- we willingly desire that bad things happen to someone else and if we could make it happen, we would. We actively curse each other. God does not actively curse us- His “curses” are passive, in that His curse is the result of us rejecting Him, and thereby throwing off His Kippur from the already cursed world. God doesn’t throw us under the bus- we run into the road and lay down in front of the bus all on our own.

Obey God, believe that Yeshua is the Messiah and accept Him as your Messiah, follow the commandments and you choose life: a life of blessings and an Eternity in the presence of the Almighty. If you prefer to do as you please, reject Yeshua and thereby reject God’s plan of salvation for yourself,  you choose Eternal suffering. You may have one heck of a good life on earth- the sinful know how to get what they want (there’s an interesting parable about that in Luke), but in the end, you are choosing death.

It’s your choice.