Tag: Moses

Parashah Tzav (Order) Leviticus 6:1 – 8:36

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This parashah covers sacrifice and ordination rules, but that is not what I want to talk about today.

The Torah is more than just a “book”- it is a narrative (that archaeological discoveries are proving to be historically accurate), it is a Ketubah (marriage certificate) between God and His people, it is a national constitution which outlines and sets the foundation for a nation, and it is a penal code.

It also tells us who God is, who we are, how this all started and how it will all end.

Leviticus is the most legalistic (if I may use that word) book of the Torah. In this book we are told all the laws, commandments, regulations, and ordinances that we must obey in order to receive the blessings of God and salvation. It separates the Jews from the Gentiles, sin from righteousness and death from salvation. Although Torah is often misinterpreted to mean “Law” when it really means “Teaching”, Leviticus is a very legal book. It not only covers laws regarding sacrifice, but also health code, restitution for theft and negligence, penal codes outlining the punishments for these crimes (which, by the way, was at that time the most humane of all penal codes) and generally how we should treat each other.

Too many Christian teachings are that the Torah is not valid for Christians, but how can they say that when Torah outlines how human beings are supposed to live together? Does the blood of Jesus Christ overrule common decency? Does the sacrifice of the Messiah mean that we don’t have to obey laws? Does the promise of salvation through Jesus’s death mean that we can ignore everything else God told us to do?

I don’t think so! Christians are always saying, “Do as Jesus did” but there are almost none who do. Hey! Get with the program, Folks- what Jesus did was to follow the Torah! He kept every single commandment, and (like it or not) He also taught everyone else to keep every single commandment. That’s right- He never once preached anything against or in lieu of Torah.

Jesus is called the Living Word, is He not? Well, what “word” do you think He is? Torah! That was the only “word” that existed, that was the “word” He taught from, that was the “word” He taught about, and that is the “word” He was. Jesus was Torah in the flesh.

Yeshua (that’s Jesus’s real name, in case you didn’t know) also said that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. If that is true, and He is the Living Torah, then for Him to preach or teach or even suggest doing anything against or in opposition to all that is in the Torah would be preaching against Himself, and if that is what He did then His kingdom cannot stand.

But that can’t be, because His kingdom will always stand, our words will fade away but His words will never fade away, and He built His kingdom on a rock (Kefa) that the gates of Hell cannot overpower.

Read Isaiah 40:8; read Daniel 2:44; Read 1 Peter 1:25; for that matter, read any part of the Bible where it talks about the kingdom of God and you will see that God will place all kingdoms under the feet of the Messiah, and that he will rule forever.

It is impossible for us humans to be perfect according to the Torah. That is why Yeshua had to do what He did, so that we could have this eternal “Get Out of Jail Free” card. But that doesn’t mean we can ignore the Torah. The Torah is where God tells us how He wants us to live: how we are to worship Him, how we are to treat each other, what is good for us, what is not good for us, and how to live long, fruitful, and joyful lives.

Why would anyone want to ignore that?

If you have been told that you are saved by the Blood of Jesus and that the Jews are saved by their Torah, you have been led down the path to destruction. Torah is for everyone and everyone who professes to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not to mention accept His son, Yeshua, as their Messiah and Savior, is required to honor and follow the way God says we should live, which is (you guessed it!) in the Torah.

Here is the Torah, in a nutshell:

  • Genesis and Exodus take us from the beginning of existence to God giving us His rulings and instructions regarding how we are to worship Him and live together.
  • Leviticus specifies and explains those instructions.
  • Numbers is the historical narrative of the things that happened while in the desert
  • Deuteronomy is a recap of everything up to just before they enter the Land God promised, ending with the promise of the Messiah to come.

Read Leviticus. It is somewhat long, a little boring in parts (I can’t believe how many different things that skin disease can infect) and very detailed, but it is important to know because, well, it is what God tells us to do. It is what Moses did, it is what the Prophets did, it is what (most of) the Kings of Judah did, and it is what Yeshua did.

And it is what we should do, too!

Parashah Vayyakhel (and he assembled) Exodus 35 – 38:20

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Moses calls all the people to him and asks that they offer up, each according to his or her own desire, the materials needed to build the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle. Everything from wood to precious metals, base metals and gemstones were required, as well as cloth and people to do the work. God names Bezalel and Oholiab, from the tribes of Judah and Dan (respectively) to oversee the work because of their skills, and to teach others how to do the work needed. They were to be both the skilled craftsmen and skilled instructors.

The rest of this parashah, in fact, most of the rest of the book of Exodus,  is a very detailed and exacting narration about the construction of the Tabernacle and the Ark, and of the other items associated with the Tabernacle.

There is always a message, even in what seems to be a simple description of constructing the Tabernacle. The contributions came from the old, from the young, from men, from women, from the common people and from the nobles. In chapter 35 we read about how every man who had wood brought it, every woman who could spin spun the linen, and the rulers brought the stones needed for the ephod.  Both common and ruler, men and women, any and all who had what was needed brought their possessions (much of which they received when they left Egypt) and didn’t just hand them over, but gave them to the workers, gladly and eagerly. Shaul tells us in 2 Corinthians, 9:7 (which he is quoting from the Septuagint) that God loves a cheerful giver, and all the people gave cheerfully. So much so, in fact, that in 36:5 the workers ask Moshe to tell the people to stop bringing stuff- they already have way too much!

Yet, what? Only a month or so before this these same people who are happily and faithfully obeying the Lord, were dancing and reveling before a Golden Calf! Can they really be as faithful as they appear, given their proclivity to change faith and belief with the changing of the wind?

Yes, they can. Yes, they do, and yes, they did. I am not a “people person”- I have been in customer service in one form or another most of my career, and I have been (and am, now) in a position of leadership at the place where I worship, yet I am not really all that interested in “people.” A friend once told me that humanity is a wonderful thing: it’s the people that screw it all up! I couldn’t agree more.

And after having confessed my lack of compassion for and trust in people, I am still happy to say that I believe the message (at least, for me) in this parashah is not so much about the building of the Tabernacle as it is about the people giving so cheerfully and selflessly so soon after such a terrible sin. The difference between then and now is only one thing: they repented. They repented and God forgave them, and now they are cleansed.

Ever get so dirty that you can’t remember what clean felt like? I have, many times. Not just working around the house for a day, but when I was in the Marine Corps and we did training in the field. I was in woods, in desert, covered with dirt, sweat, and camouflage paint. You get used to it, and when you get back home you spend a good amount of time in the shower, cleaning everything two or three times. Then, when you come out all squeaky clean and neat, you feel GREAT!!

I imagine that is how the people felt, after they did T’Shuvah (turning from sin) and Moshe told them that God had forgiven them and would maintain His presence among them.

Sin is like a crust of foul smelling and filthy dirt that covers us, and when we are in it long enough we don’t smell it anymore. It’s only after being cleansed that we remember how good it feels to be clean. So, even after a terrible sin such as the one with the Golden Calf, being cleansed can make us more joyful and faithful than we thought possible.

The more we live in dirt the less we remember what it feels like to be clean. The more we allow sin to rule our lives, the dirtier we get, and the further from the joy and peacefulness we can feel only when in God’s presence. We may not smell the sin, but God does. He will not associate with sin and will not allow sinfulness in His presence, so when we stink from sin we can’t get close to God.

The Grace He provided through Yeshua is what cleans us so that we can come into His presence, and allows us to experience the joy and peace His “touch” brings.

We all sin, we are sinners from our birth, but we can also be cleansed. Yes, this is a job for Clorox- spiritual Clorox, that is. And that Clorox of the spirit is called Grace, and it is delivered by the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit). This Clorox isn’t bleach- it is the blood of the Messiah, Yeshua. And whereas bleach cleans your clothes, the blood of Yeshua cleans your soul. Whiter than Clorox could ever get it, too!

We will sin, we will fall, but we can also get up. That is what happened at Mt. Sinai. They learned the temporary nice feeling we get from sinning is nothing compared to the complete and overflowing joy we get from obeying the Lord.

Sin feels nice for a little while, but the joy of the Lord feels great all the time. Which would you prefer?

Parashah Ki Thissa (When you take) Exodus 30:11 – 34

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Big stuff in here: the sin of the Golden Calf and the 13 Divine Attributes of God (announced when He passes by Moshe), which make up the major restrains of almost every Jewish prayer of repentance. Also we are told what spices to use for anointing oil and incense before the Lord, and it ends with Moses coming down (the second time) from the mountain with the Ten Words, his face beaming so much that from then on he wears a veil, except when he goes in the Tabernacle to talk to the Lord.

I asked myself why this time?  Why didn’t his face beam after being 40 days on the mountain the first time? My answer to myself was that there was one major difference between the first meeting with God and the second one: the second time Moses saw the Glory of God. In Exodus 34:5-7 God walks by Moses, covering Moses’ face as He passes so Moses can only see His back. God actually, physically was there, close enough to cover the face of Moses. I believe that Moses’ face shone from that day on because he was so close to the Glory of the Lord that the Shekinah glory infused his body. That’s why his face shone, and from what I read it sounds like his face shone for the rest of his life.

What I find of interest is not the great story of the Golden Calf- there is so much for us to learn there. What I want to talk about today is much simpler, much “smaller”, but no less important.

The parashah starts out with God telling Moses that everyone who is called up to fight in a war must pay a ransom for their soul of a 1/2 Shekel. Now the word of God is very clear that there shall be no ransom for a murderer, that is, someone who has committed murder purposefully. But this ransom is for those who have murdered during a war. Even though the wars the people of Israel performed were not just sanctioned  by God, but actually commanded by Him in many cases, they were still guilty of murder.

This shows us that God is true to His word, that His laws are always laws, that forgiveness is possible but only with real repentance. Those who go to a “holy” war for God and kill those God says should die (effectively being the executioner of the Lord) are still murderers. They have killed, and God said we shall not kill, but unlike the murderer who kills for passion or gain, and does so on purpose, this “murder” is different, so a ransom is acceptable. Again, even though this form of murder is commanded by God, we must ransom our soul to the Lord. The monies were to be used exclusively for the maintenance of the Tabernacle, so that this ransom did go, wholly, to the Lord.

God is always willing to forgive a repentant sinner, but He is also more than willing, and frighteningly able, to punish those who are unrepentant. And God must punish the wrongdoer. If God doesn’t punish those who do wrong and do not repent, then His promise of salvation is empty. God said that the guilty will be punished- He says it over and over throughout the Tanakh; He has the Prophets tell us over and over that we shall suffer if we do not obey the Lord (and we did, too!), and Yeshua also tells us this. At the end of the Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6:14, Yeshua tells us that if we do not forgive on Earth, then we will not be forgiven by God in heaven.

Torah is valid: it was valid when God gave it to us, it was valid when David was king, it was valid when Herod ruled, it was valid during and after Yeshua’s ministry, and it is valid, today. Not just to Jews, but to everyone.  Just because we can be forgiven doesn’t mean we can ignore God’s word: God told us to ransom our soul even though we were doing what He commanded, so even when we obey Him we can still be guilty! His laws are absolute.

Christianity has been teaching for centuries that the Jews have Torah and Christians have the blood of Christ. That is totally wrong- everyone has Torah, and everyone has the blood of Christ! The Torah was given to the Jewish people so they could live it as an example for everyone else to learn from, and follow. The blood of Messiah was shed so that everyone could have salvation because no one can live perfectly in accordance to Torah. How absolutely inane to say that Christians have the blood of Christ, as if they were the only ones He died for! He died for Jews, He died for Buddhists, He died for Muslims, He died for Devil worshipers, He died for E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E!!!   

And Torah was given to the Jews, but Torah is also for everyone. Torah tells us how God wants us to worship Him and treat each other, Yeshua told us the deeper meanings of the Torah and that we shouldn’t try to just follow it legalistically (i.e., just obey the letter of the law), but that we need to follow it spiritually. Jeremiah 31:31 tells us that the New Covenant will be that God will write His Torah on our hearts, which is exactly what Yeshua was telling us to do! It will be more than words to follow, it will be the very thing we are!

The Torah was given to guide us, Yeshua died for us because we can’t follow Torah perfectly (but NOT in place of the Torah) and the blood of Christ is for everyone to be able to have their sins washed away and be reconciled to God. God isn’t stupid- if you call upon His name and hold up the blood of Christ as your means of forgiveness, but you are unrepentant, you will not be accepted. And the proof that you are repentant, or that you are not repentant, will be by your fruits, by how you act towards others and towards God.

The Torah tells us how to show our repentance, so to refuse to follow Torah is to refuse to be repentant.

Look…no one can obey Torah completely, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t supposed to try.

Religion and Roofing

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You’re probably thinking to yourself, “OK. Where is he going with this one?”

I was a Combat Engineer in the Marine Corps, and one of the many things we did was construction. I have also worked in the home remodeling field. When you are building a roof, you carefully measure the length and angle of the rafters, which are the supporting beams for the sheathing the shingles go over. Every single rafter has to be cut at the exact same angle and the exact same length of the roof section it is being used for. The way you do that is to cut and test a rafter, then you use that as the standard model for the other rafters. Every other rafter is measured against that one “master” for accuracy.

If you cut the master, then cut a second rafter from that one, then cut the third from the second, cut the fourth from the third, the fifth from the fourth, and so on, by the time you get to the other end of the roof your rafter will be off by inches. Once you stop using the one “known-good” rafter, your correctness will constantly degrade until what you have isn’t even close to the original.

Are you starting to see where I am going, now? God gave us the Torah- that is the “Master” for how He wants us to worship Him and treat each other. He says it is all we need: it is not too hard to do (Deuteronomy 30:11) , and we shouldn’t add to it or take anything away from it (Deuteronomy 4:2.)

Religion has been born from people trying to do exactly that- add to or detract from the Word of God. God gave us the Master measurement for building His house on earth; the second rafter was cut when Yeshua taught us that it isn’t just the words we need to live by, but the spirit of the Law. Yeshua never changed anything, He simply explained it in more detail. He cut a second rafter that was exactly the same as the first. Then, within Judaism, over the years we cut rafters from the first, ignoring the one Yeshua cut, and the second was different, the third was different, and today we have Hasidim, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Messianic Jews.

Christianity also failed to cut their rafters from the Master. And what has developed, as it is today, is not from the teachings of Yeshua (Jesus) but by the rules instituted by Constantine. He cut the “gentile” master in the Third Century (give or take) at the First Council of Nicaea. Then that rafter was cut up into Eastern, Western, Catholic, Protestant, Episcopalian, Baptist, AME, Amish, Lutherans, and so on and so on.

If we tried to build a House of God today using these “religious rafters” there wouldn’t be any two that matched.  They are all supposed to be cut from the Word of God, but they have been cut from each other, and that is why religion has prevented the worship of God as He said He should be worshiped.

Shaul (Paul) tells us in Galatians 3:28:

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

He is telling us that through the Messiah we are all one, we are all the same in God’s eyes and we are all equal heirs of the Kingdom. We should all be rafters that are exactly the same. Even if you are Jewish and don’t believe Yeshua to be the Messiah, the meaning of this statement is still true- just substitute ‘Mashiach’ for ‘Jesus Christ’ and the message is in perfect alignment with Torah and the Prophets.

That’s why I wrote my book (see side panel to order it) and that’s what this blog is about- it is a ministry of simplicity and solidarity. We are all one in Messiah, and whether you agree and accept that that Messiah is Yeshua (Jesus) or not, it is still in total accordance with Tanakh that the Messiah will bring us back to God, that the Messiah will overcome our sin and that without the Messiah we have no chance of reconciliation.

It is also true that Jew or Gentile, we are commanded by God to worship Him as He says we should, and those rules and regulations are found in the Torah.

The prayers said before and after we read from the Torah thank God for giving us the Torah, setting truth and life in our midst and choosing us to receive it. The Torah, however, wasn’t meant only for the Jews: it was given to the Jews for them to bring to the world (“…you are to be a nation of priests”: Exodus 19:6. Remember?)  Priests bring the word of God to the people and lead the people in the worship of God.

The saddest oxymoron of today is that religions say they worship the one and only God but no two religions worship Him the same way. They have different rules for conduct, different liturgy, and even though we all use the same book, Jews ignore everything after Micah (Chronicles, if you want to be accurate) and many Christian religions ignore much of everything before Matthew. It’s one book, it’s one set of rules directly from God, and it’s one God. It’s also one Messiah, the only one through whom we all can find salvation.

My message to the world is simple: God has no religion, so do what God says, not what people say.

 

 

Parashah Yitro (Jethro) Exodus 18 – 20

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Moses’s father-in-law, Yitro, brings Moses’s wife and two sons to him now that he has taken the people close enough to their home on the way to Sinai. And after staying the night, Jethro (who apparently has converted from paganism after hearing about all that God did) sees Moses all day long judging for the people and advises him to learn to delegate. Moses takes that advice and sets up what is (in today’s world)  a system of circuit courts, with himself being the final court of appeal.

The people come to Sinai and God, in a thunderous cloud of smoke and fire, gives them (and us) the 10 Commandments, first identifying and charging the people to be a nation of priests unto the world. After seeing the majesty and fearsomeness of God, the people tell Moses that they will do as Moses says if only Moses, alone, will speak to God and then tell them what God said. They are too afraid of God to be in His direct, physical presence.

This parashah ends with God instructing Moses the way any altar to God is to be constructed.

The Decalogue is designed to make the people holy, i.e., separated from the rest of the world. Our Priests, Rabbis, Pastors, Ministers- whatever title we give to our religious leaders- are supposed to be above-board in everything they do. We are told in the Torah what kind of people they are to be and how they are to manage their household, and this is repeated in the New Covenant, as well. So, too, those who worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are to be above-board. They are to be holier-than-thou, but not in the usual sense or meaning of that phrase.  The world thinks holier-than-thou means to be self-absorbed, overbearing and conceited. When God (and Yeshua says this too, and often) tells us to be holy He means the opposite of what the world means: God’s holiness is shown by meekness, humility and honoring God above all things. Being holy unto God means never honoring ourselves. We are to be a holy people, priests to the world, and as such we are to be an example of Godliness. We are to be holier in order to demonstrate to everyone else how they are to be; we are to be holier by being humble, meek, unassuming and self-effacing.

Those who worship God are to be an example of how God wants everyone to act. Yeshua told His Talmudim that the people will know they are His Talmudim by how they act (John 13:35).

The Jewish people were chosen to represent God’s system of worship and society. The Jewish people are the Chosen people not because they deserve it or are the greatest. We have proven our unworthiness over and over. It has resulted in the destruction of Shomron and Yehudah, and the disbursing of the Jewish people all over the world. Over the millennia we have proven we are obstinate, stiff-necked and ungrateful. We have proven that the Jewish people are just like everyone else. The one and unique difference why we were chosen is because of the righteousness of Abraham, and that righteousness was also shown by King David. Despite our the sinful and obstinate nature, shown throughout the history of the Jewish people, we are still a nation of priests. Subsequently, any and all who accept that God is God and, now that Yeshua has come into the world, accept that Yeshua is God’s Messiah and accept the grace we have available to us through His sacrificial death, are then inducted into the nation of priests.

And, as a member, you are expected to abide with all the laws that govern that group. Unfortunately, although every “Born Again Believer” is a member of the nation of priests, most Christian teachings have ignored the Torah (at least, most of it) and preached obedience only to the 10 Commandments. They use Yeshua (Jesus) as their excuse for not even trying to obey any of the other 603 commandments.

The bottom line is this: God has no religion. God has rules, regulations, ordinances, and laws. The main ones are here, in this parashah, and the rest are given throughout the Torah. As far as God is concerned, if you violate even a stroke of the Torah, you have violated the entire Torah. It’s that simple, it’s that plain, it’s that awesome. A nation of priests means to be holier than the other people in the world: not ‘above’ them, not ‘better than’ them, just separate from them. We are to be living in the world as a light in the darkness, and we are to be an example of what God wants from everyone.

And because we represent Godliness in a satanic world, we are going to be hated, derided, insulted and persecuted. So, well…it sucks, but it’s the way we must be. The world has only themselves to look to for hope, which means the world has no hope. We have God as our hope, we have Yeshua as the means of our salvation, and we have the Ruach HaKodesh as our Comforter. The job is  hard, the workplace is a horrible place to be, and our clients are mean, ungrateful and uncooperative.

If you want to be a member of the nation of priests, there’s no question about it: the job is tough! The Boss expects a lot from us, there are no vacations or personal days, and the people you are required to deal with will treat you somewhere between ignoring and abusing you to killing you. You really have to ask yourself if it is all worth it.

The answer is: YES!! Absolutely!! True, the job is hard and thankless, but the retirement plan is heavenly!

Parashah Va-Arya (And He spoke) Exodus 6:2 – 9

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Moses had just asked God why He didn’t free the Israelites as He said He would, and God answers that He will. He tells Moses that He is God, He will do what He said he will do, and He lays out the plan for redemption from slavery: God tells Moses what He will do, Moses tells Aaron to tell Pharaoh, and Pharaoh will ignore them.

The plagues come: the river turns to blood, then frogs, next gnats (at this plague the magicians cannot duplicate God’s work), then flies (at this point the land of Goshen is separated and protected whereas everyone else in Egypt is under the plague), next cattle blight, boils (now it’s not just the land and the animals, but the people are afflicted, too) and the last plague in this parashah is the hail that falls as hail from the sky but burns as fire on the ground. This last plague is the worst one yet because so far only animals have died, but now anyone caught in the hail will die. In fact, Moses warns Pharaoh to make sure his people know to protect their property and themselves by staying inside.

What is wonderful about this parashah is that God lays out a plan and works it to perfection. He starts off “Even-Steven” with the magicians, who duplicate the first three miraculous works (rod to snake, Nile to blood, and frogs). I believe this was to make sure everyone was on the same page, to to speak. Then, God upped the ante by creating gnats, which the magicians could not do. Next, he raised the bar with flies that attacked everyone except His people, Israel. Not only did God prove His power to create and destroy, but He also proved His power to save and protect- He attacked the Egyptians and in the very midst of them protected His people. The bar was raised even higher when God attacked the people of Egypt with boils, so badly so that even the magicians (who represented the religion and gods of Egypt) were so stricken they couldn’t even appear in court. The hail took it to a whole new level- now not just the land and the animals were dying, but the people who were caught in the hail died, too.

Except for the Hebrews living in Goshen.

And yet, with all these wondrous miracles, Pharaoh remained unmoved by the power of God.

Many people have a similar problem, which is that they fail to recognize and stand in awe of the miracles God performs, every day. It seems that Pharaoh was looking for reasons to diminish the wonder and awesomeness of God: when the magicians duplicated God’s miracles, Pharaoh brushed Moses and Aaron aside. When the other plagues hit, each time Pharaoh confessed his wrongdoing and conceded to allow the Jews to worship if Moses would only stop the plague. But when the plague stopped, he reneged.

Perhaps one reason he didn’t take these plagues seriously was because he thought that since Moses could turn them on and off, they weren’t so much. They were controllable, they were explainable, so they weren’t really such miraculous things. Maybe?

Today we see miracles everyday, everywhere, yet we don’t acknowledge them as such. Why? Because the new religion of the day, “Science”, can explain how it happens. Human pride and human arrogance makes us believe that if we understand how something works it isn’t a miracle, or even special. Understanding of how God’s miraculous wonders (i.e., life) work lessens God in our sight, and makes us less appreciative and respectful of Him.

There is a story about when the greatest scientists in the world gathered for a meeting to discuss all the advancements in science that have been made. They are talking about how, now that we have been able to map and read the entire human genome, we will soon be able to cure all diseases and infirmities, and how with cloning we will be able to make people in the image we want. They got to the point where they told God He wasn’t needed anymore. God asked them, “Do you think you can make a human being from a lump of clay?” The scientists discussed it and replied, “Yes. We believe we can.” God says, “OK- show me!” and they go out and pick up a large lump of clay. They are about to carry it into their lab when God says, “Oh, you can’t use that- that’s my clay. You have to make your own!”

Just because we can understand how a miracle works doesn’t make it any less of a miracle. For instance, Job 36:26-29 says:

How great is God—beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out. 27 “He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streamsc ; 28 the clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind. 29 Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds, how he thunders from his pavilion?

This verse shows that they understood water goes into the sky, is stored as clouds, then falls back to Earth. Even with this basic understanding of the process, the speaker is still in awe of the fact that it is done!  Today we really don’t understand it all that much better. We know about evaporation, water vapor, electromagnetic forces that cause lightning, the thunder is the rushing of wind back into the vacuum caused by the lightening, etc.  We understand it, we can even create it at will, but does that make it any less miraculous? We can understand it, we can re-create it, but we didn’t create it. We didn’t create any of this. Sure, we can create a lightning bolt, but that’s because we saw the original one and figured out how it can be done. But what about the One who created it first? What about the One who thought it first?

The Jews in the desert saw manna come from nowhere, they saw water come from rocks, birds come from far way and land at their feet. Their clothes didn’t wear out and their shoes survived walking in the hot, desert sands and rocks. A million or more people, not to mention many millions of animals- all fed and watered, surviving in the most desolate and unforgiving of environments anywhere in the world. And what did they do? They kvetched, over and over, about having to leave Egypt, where they seem to have forgotten how horrible their lives were.

We think that because we see something every day, or because we understand the process, the creator of those things is not so much. Yeah, you make fire fall from the sky but so can I with a plane and a napalm bomb. So what?

So this: God is the Creator and Controller of all things. What we copy, He created. What we try to understand, He originated. What we think we know how it works, He designed from scratch. What we try to manufacture with scientific tools, He made with a thought.

Don’t be a Pharaoh, be a Job. Remain totally awe-struck and appreciative of the miracles that God does, every day. Look for them- a flower opens in the morning and closes at night; the bees know how to dance and communicate better than the most accurate GPS; the surf knows just how far it can come into the land; the prey animals are born able to run within an hour and the predators take years to learn to hunt. There are miracles all around us, inside us, above and underneath us. There are miracles we have been allowed to understand and there are miracles we will never understand. Yet, they all are still miracles and the One who has created these is still totally awesome and powerful beyond any human understanding.

Don’t take God for granted.

There’s no such thing as “waiting in God’s will”

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The great American humorist, Will Rogers, is known to have said:

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

The same is true when doing God’s will. God’s timing is perfect- no one ever really argues that point, but yet how many times do we hear someone (maybe even ourselves?) saying something to the effect of, “Well, I am pretty sure that is what God wants me to do but I am waiting for Him to tell me when to do it.”

Yeshua said that we know how to tell the signs of the weather but we don’t know how to read the signs of the times (Matthew 16:3).

When God gives you a calling, it isn’t for you to consider or to think about. It is a calling, it’s a thing to do, it is an action not a notification. If you are waiting for a sign when it should be done, you’ve already missed it: God doesn’t tell us to do something later.

When He told Abraham to leave Ur, it wasn’t for a later date. When He told Moses to go to Egypt, it wasn’t something for him do after the holidays. When God told Joshua to attack Jericho, he wasn’t supposed to send invitations. When God told Jeremiah to buy the field, He meant now.

The only thing that God delays is His judgement, and we should be very thankful for that delay. Unfortunately, it hasn’t really proven to make a difference. Shomron and Judea both had plenty of time to get their act together, but eventually all that extra time God gave them didn’t help.

The parashah this past Shabbat and for the next two Shabbatot covers the plagues upon Egypt. Last Shabbat Moses received his calling, and (as you probably know) he wasn’t too anxious to do it. He hemmed and hawed, and nearly got himself killed by God on the way to Egypt with his delaying. Moses certainly is an example of hearing God’s call and not heeding it right away. But, he did go, and although he had a slow and stumbling start, he continued to listen to God. And as he did more and more of what God directed him to do, he got stronger in his spirit and more confident in his ability to accomplish God’s plan. By the time Moses had been leading the people for years, he was strong in spirit, confident in his actions, and able to lead a multitude of people through a desert. Imagine: only a few years earlier he told God he wasn’t the man for the job. Guess God was right, after all. Duh!

Our God is a god of action, not a god of sitting around and waiting. As the title says, there is no such thing as waiting in God’s will- it is walking in God’s will; it is being in God’s will; we are to be acting in God’s will.  We are to be, to act, to walk, to serve…all of these are action verbs. We are not to be idle, or waiting, or planning, and we are certainly not supposed to be waiting for a sign when we hear God telling us what to do.

When God tells us to do something, He means N–O–W! The “sign” that God is ready to help us is that He has told us what to do. When God is ready to use us as His vessel, He will let us know what His will is. That’s when we do it. Not later, not when it is a better time (there’s no time like the present, right?) and not when we feel “ready” in our own timing.

I believe, and I will speak for myself here, that I am never going to be ready to do God’s will when I hear Him call me. I am just that confident in my own inability. But that’s OK. In fact, that is what it should be. Moses wasn’t ready, but he was divinely enabled when did as God directed. God’s the quarterback, God’s the pilot, God’s controlling what happens so we don’t need to ask for the fleece to be wet or dry, we just need to do what God tells us to do when we hear Him tell us to do it.

No one is ever really “ready” to do God’s will: are you? You may be willing to do it, you may want to do it, but are you ready? That would imply that you are already filled with all the spirit, the Ruach, that you need. When I read the bible, it seems to me that every disciple of God, from Abraham all the way to the 12 Talmudim of Yeshua, gained their spiritual strength after they started to do what God called them to do. Abraham lied about Sarah to protect his life- not very trusting of God, is it? And he did it twice! And so did Isaac. Jacob sent gifts to appease Esau. Moses needed Aaron to go with him. Gideon threw the fleece before the Lord. Saul hid when called to be anointed as king (Saul’s a good example of what happens when you constantly refuse to follow God’s calling), Elijah hid from Isabel and asked God to kill him, Jonah…well, we all know about Jonah. Kefa (Peter) walked on the water but immediately lost faith, Judas betrayed Yeshua, Shaul (Paul) had to get knocked off his “high horse” to see the truth.

All these biblical characters, all of which did great things when walking in God’s will, still all had to be discipled by God, they had to be taught to draw on His Ruach HaKodesh, they had to “learn the ropes”, so to speak, and none of that started until they began to walk in God’s will and do as He commanded them.

We will never be ready to do God’s calling in our life. God knows that, and I don’t really think He even wants us to be “ready” because He will teach us all we need to know. What God expects is that we are willing to go when called. And don’t worry about what to say (Luke 12:11), don’t worry about what to eat or wear or about where you will sleep (Psalm 37:25) and don’t worry about your safety (Psalm 118:6).

My biggest fear in my spiritual life is that I will hear God’s calling for me, clearly and undeniably, and I will fail to move. I will create excuses, as I already have in many ways, and I am most afraid that I may miss doing as He called me to do because I was waiting to be ready.

Do you remember reading in the bible about those people whom God called to do wondrous works in His name but didn’t? That’s right- there aren’t any. That’s the point!

God has a plan for all of us- listen for it, be willing to follow God’s lead, and don’t ever expect to be ready to do what He calls you to do. That’s what walking in faith is all about- we can’t see where we’re going, we don’t know what is waiting for us, and we know there isn’t anything we can do to control what is going to happen. But because God is calling us and leading us, we faithfully know that whatever is going to happen will be controlled by God.

As it says in Romans 8:31…if God is for us, who can be against us?

 

Parashah Shemot (the Names) Exodus 1 -1 6:1

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Wow. That’s about all there is to say when reading this parasha; in fact, when reading the next couple of parashot. Wow!

The seeds of the Nation of Israel have been planted in Goshen, seventy souls, and they begin to multiply. Joseph dies, and so, too, the generation of Joseph’s brothers. Later a new ruler, one of ancient Egyptian heritage (the Pharaoh who showed such kindness to Joseph was of the Hyksos and they were replaced by previously ousted Egyptians) is fearful of the multitude of Israelites, so he makes them slaves. As a way to maintain their numbers, he orders the death of the male children but the midwives refuse to do so and make excuses why they can’t get there in time to kill the children. The Israelites continue to prosper, despite the hard labor they are under.

One day a child is born who is kept aside, hidden for three months, then released to God’s care in a basket floating down the river Nile. His sister, Miryam, follows in the reeds (extremely dangerous when you consider that the Nile Crocodile, which can grow to 20 feet or more, likes to sunbathe in the reeds) and when a daughter of the Pharaoh finds the child and shows compassion, Miryam offers to get a Hebrew woman to nurse him. So, Moshe (Moses) is nursed by his own mother for years, and when he is returned to the daughter of Pharaoh he is old enough to have learned of his true heritage, which he remembers during his years under Egyptian study and while living in the Palace.

Moshe as an adult sees an Egyptian TaskMaster beating a Hebrew and in a fit of anger, kills the Egyptian, thinking no one will ever know. But he is discovered, and flees for his life. Living in Midian he takes a wife and becomes a shepherd. He has a son and when he is 80 years old, he sees the burning bush and receives his calling from God.

He didn’t take to it right away, but Moshe does go to Egypt and God has his older brother, Aaron, also go with him. Moshe asks Pharaoh to release the children of Israel. Pharaoh refuses, and to show even more disregard for the people and their God, he orders that they maintain their daily quota of bricks but refuses to give them the straw needed, forcing them to take what little time they have to themselves and use it to gather the straw they need.  The people, understandably, were not too happy with Moshe and Aaron, and this parashah ends with Moshe asking God why He has made things even worse than before when He said He would free the people.

There is a small part of this I want to talk about today- it is in Chapter 3, verses 21 and 22. Here is what the Chumash has:

“And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. And it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty: (22) but every woman shall ask of her neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment; and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians. (Italics added)”

In Deuteronomy 15:12 we are told that when a faithful servant leaves the master that the servant is to be equipped liberally by the master. Therefore, God is saying that the parting from the Egyptian peoples, not the royalty, but the people, should be friendly and compassionate.

Most interpretations are that the despoiling of the Egyptians is thought to be the overdue compensation for centuries of unpaid labor, and there is certainly some validity to that interpretation. However, we are told in Deuteronomy 23:8 that we “shall not abhor an Egyptian.” The hebrew word often translated as “spoil”, נצל , is found 212 times in the Tanakh, and in 210 of those times it is translated as to snatch from danger, to save. The Chumash, therefore, says the proper translation of the end of verse 22 in this chapter is to save the Egyptians, not despoil them. The fact that the children are to be the ones wearing these ornaments and jewels demonstrates that this is an act to be remembered throughout the generations.

I was amazed when I read this, and I believe this is a hermeneutically proper usage of the word “נצל” because God is a God of forgiveness and compassion, and even though there is a very strong argument that the Israelites were due compensation for their labors, it is more important to forgive and reconcile than to revenge and repay. The Israelites were going to save the Egyptians by asking them to provide their former slaves with gifts as they leave their service. How does this “save” the Egyptians? By letting them send away the Israelites with good feelings, with a clean slate, so to speak, and by letting the Israelites have the reminders of the generosity of the Egyptian people so that they will know it was the Pharaoh, not the people, who persecuted the Hebrews.

Saying that the Hebrews despoiled Egypt is to me an anti-Egyptian (if you will) interpretation, no different than the underlying anti-Semitic interpretation of the New Covenant writings, in which it sounds like the entire Jewish nation rejected and hated Yeshua, when in truth the people loved, listened to and followed Him. There were probably tens of thousands of followers of Yeshua at the time of His death and after His resurrection, yet the interpretations of the New Covenant books and letters make it sound like the entire nation wanted Him dead. It was only the political powers that were against Yeshua, not the people, not “the Jews”. It was the leaders, not the led.

This was true of the persecution of the Jewish people under Pharaoh during the time of Moses, and it was true of the persecution of the new Believers, the Messianic Jews, in Jerusalem during the first and second centuries.

Throughout the bible we see how the people suffered as a result of the sins of their leaders, we see this in the (subliminal) anti-Semitic teachings in the Christian world where so many Christians have been taught that Torah is invalid and doesn’t apply to them. Today, thank God, many Christians are becoming more aware of the fact that their Jewish roots are still valid, that Torah is still valid, and that it is not true that Yeshua died a Jew and then was resurrected as a Christian. The Epistles of Shaul are not polemics against the Torah, but apologetics for it. Yes, things will change, but the word of God does not change. Yeshua said that the world will pass away but His words will never pass away (Mark 13:31), and all of His words were in keeping with the Torah. More recently, we have had world wars, terrorism, James Jones, Charles Manson, etc.  People suffering for the sins of their leaders.

What this passage reminds us is this: leaders don’t always speak for the people. That sounds bad, doesn’t it? I mean, if that’s true then we elect people based on what they say they stand for and what they will do, but that doesn’t mean when they are in power they will keep their word. Oh, really? Duh!!

We have to be the leaders, not them. For a government, or for that matter, a company, an organization, even a sports team, to be true to it’s standards, the leadership must be subject to the people, not the other way around.

Gee, doesn’t that sound familiar? Didn’t Yeshua say as much when He told His Talmudim:

“Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,…”   Mattitayu 20:26

The government in Moses’ day was hereditary; the government in Yeshua’s day was comprised of appointed leaders by a despotic ruler, and the legal leadership (Sanhedria) were mostly political “hacks” appointed by Herod and not true Levites. Today, we have elected officials.

But, when it comes down to it, it doesn’t matter if the ones in charge are there by heredity, by appointment, by election or by military coup: the leaders must be subject to the led. The organization, whether political or social or laic, must be an inverted triangle.

That is what God wants, that is how the bible shows us we should be organized. If you are in a position of leadership, you should lead by being an example, not an exception. You must lead by taking care of your people, with compassionate guidance, and by taking the responsibility for what happens. Rulership sucks- you have to do what the people want, and when that happens and something goes wrong, you have to take the responsibility for it. It’s essentially a “lose-lose”or a “win-win”: there is no middle ground.

We are beginning a new year today- although I think it is silly to teach that this is the time for making resolutions to change for the better. We shouldn’t make that an annual thing, it should be a daily thing. In any event, today’s lesson from the Word of God should encourage us to be both more understanding of those in leadership positions, and more attentive to what they do. We need to make sure that our leaders do what they said they would do, and that they be held accountable. The truth is that we, the people, are the leaders and the “leaders” we place in charge of us are just there to help facilitate things. But it’s our responsibility to make sure they do as we expect, and if they don’t, it’s our responsibility to place someone there who will.

I also confess I am as much to blame for this as anyone- I don’t follow politics much at all. I need to change, too.

I guaranty that if we start to successfully impeach and/or vote out of office those government officials who don’t do as we want, the ones that are there will realize their greatest shield against losing their job, which is our apathy, is no longer effective. And the ones we vote in will know they got there because their predecessor didn’t do what he or she was supposed to do and if they don’t, they will be out on their tuchas, too!

I am not preaching anarchy, I am preaching responsibility. As I said, we see throughout history how the people suffer for their government’s actions. If that is to be the case, then we should (at least) make sure those actions are what we want them to be.

God wanted the Egyptians to have the opportunity to be absolved of the horrible things their leaders did. The people certainly suffered much before the Jewish nation was set free, and to ask for gifts upon leaving the service, and to have the Egyptian people give those gifts willingly and generously, did save the people from the wrongdoing of their leaders.

Don’t accept what your government, corporate or (especially) religious leaders tell you without carefully reviewing and justifying the validity of what they say. Too often, for too long, people have been misled by the leaders they trust, so always make sure that you are aware of what you are being told.

Ultimately, it’s your butt on the line so you better make sure the ones you expect to keep it safe are doing their job.

Just what is the “Torah”?

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For many the Torah is an unknown thing- something that Moses got from God with a lot of rules and it looks like a big scroll. The most misunderstood thing about the Torah, which is also a very prominent teaching in the Christian world, is that the Torah is for Jews only. Many are taught that Christians are not to worry about the Torah because they are saved by Jesus’ sacrifice and His love. They don’t need to obey Torah.

WRONG!!!  But, we’ll get to that soon enough. Just leave it at this for now: Jesus is the Living Torah, the Word that became flesh (John said that.) He was there when God gave it to Moses, and all He taught was the Torah (it was the only scripture.) Remember Jesus said a house divided against itself cannot stand?  So…if Jesus is the living Torah, and He can’t teach against what He is (that would be a house divided), then how can He possibly even suggest that we should not obey Torah? Moving on…

Today we are learning about Torah. It is comprised of 5 books, you all should know the names. And Torah doesn’t mean “law”, it means “teaching”, so to ignore the Torah is to ignore not just God’s commandments but His teachings, as well.  There are four basic functions the Torah serves to all of us:

  1. It is a covenant (God says do this and when we do He blesses us)
  2. It is a Ketuba (marriage certificate between us and God)
  3. It is a Constitution (it identifies the penal codes, civil codes and other laws that define a nation)
  4. It teaches us about sin by telling us what is right (Shaul explains this in Romans 3:20 and 4:15)

The Torah is a guide to show us what is right in God’s eyes. There are 613 commandments in the Torah. Some are laws, some are commandments, some are ordinances- it is hard to tell one from the other sometimes. There are three different types of these laws:

  • Mishpatim (judgements)- there are three types of these, as well.
    1. “Mishpatim” are generally considered laws which we can understand the reason for having;
    2. “Dupah” are laws that God explains why we are to follow them; and
    3. “Hucah” are laws that we have no idea why they are given- God says do this this way, and that’s all there is to it.
  • Mitzvot (commandments)- these are easy to understand and usually God specifies them as commandments (like the festivals in Leviticus 23 and the Big Ten, of course)
  • Chukim (ordinances)- these are more along the lines of the civil and penal codes.

The Torah is part of the Old Covenant, which is also referred to as the Tanakh (‘tah-nach’, with a hard ‘ch’ at the end.) Tanakh is an acronym of the names of the different types of books in the Old Covenant: T is for the Torah (the first 5 books), N is for Nevi’im (the writings of the Prophets) and K is for K’tuvim (the other writings and scrolls.)

I should also mention the Talmud, called the “Oral Torah” which is a compilation of Rabbinic writings and commentaries on the Torah. It is a massive writing, a Tome of some magnitude, with some 60-plus volumes split into tractates and orders and all sorts of different names for each part. There is a Babylonian and a Jerusalem Talmud, both are made up of (essentially) a Gemara and a Mishna. Many of the Orthodox Jews believe it to be scripture, or scriptural, and (in my opinion, this is unfortunate) will often go to the Talmud for answers before they go to the Tanakh. It also defines Halakhah, the Way to Walk, which encompasses Rabbinic rules and regulations for everyday living. It is a wonderful and rich compilation of Jewish thought and also contains many Jewish myths and stories that have nothing at all to with the Bible. I have not studied it, but it is essential if you are to create a library of Jewish writings.

The last thing about the Torah I want to discuss would, and easily can, take a lot more writing than anyone reading a blog would want to deal with. I have had a few posts already about this, and will continue to write about it now and then because it is so important for Christians to understand. And what is so important for Christians to understand about the Torah is this: Jesus did NOT do away with the Torah. He did not finish it, He did not teach against it, and He did not say it was completed and over.  What Yeshua (Jesus) did that no one else has been able to, or ever will be able to do in this plane of existence, is to live according to the Torah perfectly. The Torah identifies what sin is, and Yeshua lived a sinless life. That is the reason His sacrifice was accepted.

In the New Covenant writings there are many sections that have been misinterpreted and wrongfully taught in order to argue against the Torah being relevant to Christians- these are lies from the pit of Sheol! Read Matthew 5:17, or 2nd Timothy 3:16, or Romans 7:12 and you will see that the Torah is absolutely valid and alive. It is still God’s word to all of us, it is God’s instructions for how to worship Him, how to treat each other, and how to earn blessings (not salvation- that is free- but blessings. Blessings can be earned.) Much Christian teaching has used Galatians 3:10, 3:28, 5:1-4 and 2:15-16 as a polemic against the Torah, but that is all wrongful teaching. Galatians is not a polemic, it is an apologetic, just as Romans is. The problem is that Shaul (Paul) writes as a Pharisee does, in a somewhat convoluted way. He makes an argument against the Torah to point out the argument is false. That is why so many people misunderstand- they don’t take the bible in proper cultural perspective, they don’t interpret it using the meanings of the time it was written so they turn  the true meaning around.

The Torah is what God gave to Moses so that the Jewish people could be separated from the surrounding pagans, it sanctifies us, it makes us holy, and it is what God says is the way we should be.

GOD HAS NO RELIGION!! He has rules, He has laws, He has commandments all designed to help us live as He wants us to live, to teach us how to properly worship Him, and to lead us to salvation. And He calls it the Torah.

If you say you worship God and you want to know who God is, what He wants of you, and how to please Him, then you better know the Torah because that is exactly what God gave you so that you can! Yes, God gave the Torah to YOU! It is for each of us, it is who He is, it is who Yeshua is, it is valid, true, and eternal. It is all we need.

Well, Yeshua’s sacrifice is also absolutely necessary because, as I said above, no one (other than Yeshua) has been able to live in accordance to the Torah for more than a few seconds at a time, if that long.

But it is still all we need to know about God, what is right and what is wrong, and how to live with God and with each other.

Yeshua said it all comes down to two things: love God and love each other. The Torah teaches you how to do that, so why would you want to ignore it?

Parashah Chaazinu (Hear), Deuteronomy 32

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This chapter of the Torah is known as “The Song of Moses”, which is really the second song of Moses, since he also sang of God’s great triumph after the people crossed the Sea of Suf (Red Sea.)

Moses also gave us Psalm 90.

The Torah is called the Mosaic Law, but it really was given to Moses by God; Moses just wrote it down and taught it to the people. This song, I believe we can safely say, was also given by God to Moses to write down because we read in the previous parashah where God tells Moses to “write ye this song for you, and teach thou it the children of Israel” (Deut. 31:19.) It seems pretty clear that God gave the song to Moses since He said to write this song: if God had wanted Moses to write a song He would have said, ” write a song”, or “make a song” for them to remember, or something to that effect. However, God said to write this song, implying that the song was already known to God and that Moses was to take dictation.

In any event, the song is supposed to be a conviction of the people- they are to remember it so that when they stray from God and He brings upon them the destruction and Tsouris that they have (really) brought upon themselves, this song will be a testimony for God- a reminder that the people were warned years, even centuries before about the cost of rebellion against their God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, their Rock, their Redeemer, their Salvation. That was the purpose of the song.

How sad that we have forgotten this song, how sad that today we are no different than the people at that time- we do wrong, and we blame everyone else for it. When troubles come upon us we don’t accept the fault but instead find someone else to blame. “Yes, I did wrong but it’s not my fault- it was because (whatever)”; we are all victims, and if we can throw the stench of our own sin on others, it makes them smell as bad as we do, so by comparison we are less guilty. I killed, I committed adultery, I gossiped, BUT they asked me, he made me mad, s/he seduced me. There’s always an excuse.

The difference between people who are godly, trustworthy and respected is that they take accountability for their mistakes. The rest of the world (maybe I should say the majority of the world) is more interested in spreading the blame than accepting it.

This song is to be a conviction against the children of God. Not just the Jewish children, but all His children- the Catholic ones, the Baptist ones, the Buddhist ones, the Islamic ones, ….ALL God’s children, for we are all His children. And like sheep, we have been led astray (by religion) because it is easy to do so. We seek only our own hedonistic desires, and only when we are devoid of help, of hope, of guidance and all the other things we think we can find on our own or from others, only then do we (finally) turn to God.

Or we curse God.

That’s how we roll, as a people- we either turn to God recognizing that our punishment is just and deserved, and ask forgiveness, or we continue, even at the very gates of Sheol, to reject God and His justice and insist that we are innocent.

If you are a God-fearing person, if you readily accept your own sinfulness and have asked God for forgiveness through Messiah Yeshua, and if you demonstrate daily your true T’shuvah, then this song isn’t for you. This song is for the ones who reject God, who ignore or despise His laws, and who say they are OK. This song is for those who think God should do and accept what they want Him to do and accept, that certain sins are not sins (because that’s how they want to live) and that all foods are OK, and it’s not a sin to have sex out of wedlock, and divorce is normal.

Funny- Mosaic law is almost universally ignored, and many Christian religions say Torah was done away with by Yeshua (a total lie!) Yet when it comes to divorce, they ignore Yeshua’s admonition that divorce is hateful to God (Matthew 19 and Mark 10, for example) and eagerly accept the Mosaic law that a man can give his wife a Get (divorce decree) pretty much for no other reason than she displeases him (Deuteronomy 24:1.)  Isn’t that what happens today? The divorce rate is nearly 40% within the first 15 years. God said that they become one flesh, and Yeshua said the only justification for divorce is adultery. Shaul (Paul) said in an unevenly yoked marriage if the unsaved partner wants to divorce, that is an acceptable reason. But other than adultery or unevenly yoked marriage (only where the unsaved wants a divorce), marriage lasts as long as you both are alive. And, for the record, biblically acceptable marriage is for men to women, and women to men.

This song is for those who need it most, and probably will care the least about it.

That’s the sad truth of salvation: it is readily available for anyone who asks for it, and those that need it most are the least likely to want it.