Tag: yeshau

Rosh HaShanah 2017 Message

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Rosh HaShanah began Wednesday evening (the only holy day to occur the same night as the new moon) and the traditional reading is the Akedah, Genesis 22, which is the story of the Binding of Isaac. Even though we have Ha’azinu (the Song of Moses) as this Shabbat’s Parashah, I am going to talk about the Akedah.

The story, as I am sure you all know, starts with God telling Abraham to sacrifice Isaac to Him. Abraham sets off the very next morning to do so, and they walk three days until they come to Mount Moriah, where Abraham takes Isaac, binds him, places him on the wood and is about to slaughter him with a knife when the angel of the Lord calls and stops Abraham. God tells Abraham this was a test of his loyalty and faith; Abraham sees a ram with it’s horns stuck in a bush and sacrifices the ram to God. Then he and Isaac go back home.

NOTE: because it was a ram that was substituted for Isaac, the shofar is usually a ram’s horn to honor that ram.

This reading is considered a Messianic passage by both Jews and Christians, alike. From the Christian (and Messianic) viewpoint, we see the father of the nation of Jews sacrificing his only son (Isaac, who is the “son of the promise”) as a foreshadow of the Father of the Universe sacrificing His only son, Yeshua.

From the Jewish side, I have seen too many different messages from this to even start to say this one is what it means, or that one is why it is considered messianic. The only thing agreed is that the Akedah it is the most read passage in the Torah, since it is repeated daily before the Shacharit (morning) prayer and again on the second day of Rosh Hashannah. In some circles it is even thought that Isaac did die and was resurrected, but the bible is clear he did not die.

I am just going to say the Akedah is considered a Messianic passage by Jews, and leave it at that.

The point I want to make today, though, has nothing to do with it’s messianic foreshadowing. What I want to talk about is how sometimes we hear from God, and we know what He wants from us, but then things change just as we are doing what we thought He wanted us to do!

For instance, in the Akedah (which means “binding”) Abraham was sure that God told him to sacrifice Isaac, but at the last moment God changed that. Abraham was told why things changed, that this was only a test of his faith, but often we may not be told why things suddenly change. They just will.

By the way, God didn’t even tell Abraham to substitute the ram- Abraham took that upon himself to do. I believe it was a thanksgiving sacrifice, for I am certain Abraham was very, VERY thankful to God that the sacrifice of Isaac was not required.

If, and when, we hear God’s calling in our lives, (hopefully) we answer that calling. But what about when after we answer it we find out that what we are doing isn’t working out? Here’s an example: where I have been worshiping, a place I know God called me to go, we are going to be disbanded in a few months. This is currently a Hebraic Roots church which is a sovereign Assemblies of God church; the first Senior Pastor left almost immediately after I joined to pursue his corporate calling (Ezra International) and the current Senior Pastor is quitting to pursue a Masters his employer (Bridges for Peace) is paying for. This leaves the church with no one who has Senior Pastor credentials with the A of G. That means the church will revert to an A of G district church, and that means we can kiss goodbye Friday night Shabbat. It is almost a foregone conclusion that they will go back to Sunday mornings, and even if they send a pastor with a heart for Israel, it is impossible to consider that this will remain a Hebraic Roots congregation. So you see, I am very sure that my calling to this church is about to take a significant turn from what I thought it would be when God told me this is the place for me.

And it has been the place for me. What God sent me here to do wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be, but it turns out that I have been exactly what was needed at that time. And now that time is over. Abraham was looking forward (not in the way of hopeful expectation) to having to kill his only son, and knew that is what God wanted from him.  Both Abraham and I found out that what we thought God told us we were to do didn’t end up being what He had planned for us to do.

When you find yourself following God’s calling in your life and suddenly you have to make a U-Turn, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are under attack from the enemy; it doesn’t have to mean you misunderstood what God was calling you to do; and it doesn’t mean that you have fallen from Grace.  It just might mean when you heard God call you to do something, you thought there was more to it, but there was only what He had planned, and you’ve done it.

Just like Abraham thought God called him to kill Isaac, but all God needed was to test his willingness to kill Isaac.

Just like I thought I could come to this place and only be in the congregation, without the responsibilities or burden of being in leadership, but I ended up holding three positions on the Council and working with the Pastor leading the congregation in liturgy and delivering the weekly messages.

What about you? Have you found yourself in a position where you could have sworn God called you to, and now it seems that you might have been wrong about it? Are you currently experiencing troubles (tsouris) in your life that you can’t explain, and you are doubting your calling with God? Are you thinking , “Maybe I’m not doing what God wants of me?” You could be right, or you could be done with what God really wanted of you and you just don’t know that yet. Maybe you are being pruned and the real reason for your current troubles is that you aren’t trying to listen to God because you think you already know what He wants?

Overall, the only way to know what God wants for you is to ask Him to show you. Always expect the unexpected from God because He doesn’t have to tell you any more than what you need to know, when you need to know it. That means things may change at any time, so be alert, be watchful, be ready.

And always be listening to the Spirit.

Are You a Flashlight in the Daytime or a Candle in the Evening?

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What the heck kind of question is that?

Well, let’s see: what do a candle and a flashlight have in common? Right- they both put out light. And aren’t we told that we should be a light unto the world? (Matthew 5:14-16)

“Yes, Steve, that’s right, so if both are a light, why worry about the difference? Whether I am a flashlight or a candle, aren’t I still being “a light” to people?” 

Yes, you’re still a light. But which is more effective?

That’s the point- if I shine a flashlight on something that is in the sunlight, how effective is the light I add? Obviously, it won’t make a very big difference, if any.

But a candle in the dark of evening can be seen by the unaided human eye from over a mile away! And the closer the candle, the more effective the candle light becomes.

Here’s what I want to say….many of us are doing our best at being good representatives of God, trying to be separated (i.e., holy) from the world while living in it (John 17:16), but we aren’t really going where we are needed to be a more effective light. It’s easy to talk with other Believers, and it’s easy (and safe) to hang out with all the people we know are righteous and trustworthy. But when we do that we are no better than a flashlight in the bright midday sun. 

We need (and I am preaching to myself here) to get out into the darkness- to talk with people who do not believe as we do, to demonstrate the way the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit) affects us and helps us be more like God, and to go where we are needed most. 

Now, don’t get me wrong- I am not saying to go to the nearest biker bar and preach the Word, or to walk the streets at night in the worst parts of town and hand out tracts. That’s not being a light, that’s being suicidal!

What I do mean is that we need to have the courage to talk about God and our beliefs to people we meet everyday. Don’t become one of those “Bible Thumpers” who can’t hold a normal conversation, but do try to fit something God-related into the discussion every now and then.  

For instance, when I know I can relate a biblical saying or story to the conversation, I just say something to the effect of, “You know, there was this book I read that said this…” or “I once heard a story about ….” and not even imply it’s from the bible. Then, when I am done, if I see so much as a spark of interest, I will ask if they know where that came from. Now they are leading me into the discussion, and I have their permission to talk about God, even though they didn’t necessarily mean to let me.

And when that happens, go slow.  Don’t jump down their throats about God and Hell and all that stuff, just follow their lead and ask, “Have you ever heard that story? Where did you hear it? Oh, you heard it when you were a kid in Sunday School? Why did you stop going? Do you still go to church/synagogue? ” Again, don’t non-stop grill them, just let them take the lead, and dance them around to what you want to get to, which is how much God has helped you in your everyday life.

 Missionary work is hard, selling is hard, and if you don’t like the idea that as a missionary you are selling, then you need to have an attitude adjustment. Read Og Mandino’s book, “The Greatest Salesman In the World” and it will make your missionary work much more effective.

Today’s message is really a simple message, it’s not too hard to understand, and it takes guts to act on it. We need to make sure that every moment of every day we are candles in the darkness, because being a flashlight in the sunshine is easy, but useless. 

Here is a wonderful paradox: in the real world fruit can’t grow without sunshine, but spiritually you can only produce fruit in the darkness. 

Think about it. 

Parashah V’yishlach (and he sent) Genesis 32:4 – 36

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There’s so much in here: Jacob becomes Israel; Jacob and Esau are reunited; Rachel gives birth to Benjamin and dies; Dinah (Jacob’s daughter) is raped and after forcing the entire town to have every man circumcised, Simeon and Levi slaughter them all as they are recovering and weakened, forcing Jacob to leave Shechem; we learn that the wives and children of Jacob have foreign gods with them (Genesis 35:2-4) which they have to remove from among them, indicating they were still influenced by the religion of Laban (remember that Rachel stole the family gods when they fled); Isaac dies; we are given the generations of Esau and the kings that ruled his land.

So, nu? Where to start? And, once I have started, how do I end?

I feel led to talk about what Jacob wrestling with the angel might mean to us, and I will be so bold as to talk about what it means to me and let you consider if you agree or not. That’s just one of the many wonderful things about the word of God- it can mean two totally different things to two totally different people, and both can be correct.

Jacob had striven against men and he did pretty well: he managed to buy the rights to the firstborn, he succeeded in fooling Isaac to give him the blessing that was associated (and rightfully belonged) to the one who had the rights of the firstborn,  and he outsmarted Laban more than once. All of these challenges to Jacob during his life he was able to overcome. Now, as he is about to face a life-threatening challenge, i.e. Esau with 400 men, he calls to God for protection and God sends to him an angel to prevent him from crossing the Jabbok river (Genesis 31-32).

Jacob wrestled with the angel and overcame him, but at the cost of a painful injury to his thigh, which he never recovered from, causing him to limp for the rest of his life.  So, although Jacob won the match, he sustained a life-changing injury which weakened him.

I think of Shaul (Paul) asking God to remove the thorn in his side (2 Corinthians 12:7), which Shaul tells us was there to prevent him from becoming too conceited. Jacob has prevailed against both man and God, so if anyone had a right to be proud, it was Jacob. Yet, here he is- the angel is back in heaven, none the less for wear,  and Jacob will limp for the rest of his life. He may have won that match, but it cost him something, or….maybe the limp was a blessing in disguise? Maybe this limp represents his ego, his self-importance, which God is using as a thorn in Jacob’s side, a reminder that no matter how successful Jacob (now called Israel- another reminder) may be, he is still dependent upon God and it is God who is behind his success.

I know that I need constant reminding that whatever I do that is worthy of praise, it is more the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) which leads me to do good that deserves the glory than anything I do on my own. My nature is to do wrong, to do what I want for selfish and self-serving purposes. I am not saying this to demean myself, I am saying it to remind myself- I was born into sin, and have a sinful nature. Sin is natural for me, as it is for all of us, and only by recognizing this can we overcome it.

An alcoholic or a drug addict can never even start to recover until they hit what is called “rock bottom”, which is the time when they realize they are not in control of the substance but the substance is controlling them. Only when they do their own form of T’shuvah (turning) and “own” their habit can they truly start to overcome it.

And the healthy and sustainable attitude is that they are never cured- they are simply recovering. An alcoholic is always an alcoholic; a drug addict is always a drug addict; what they are while they remain sober/clean is a ‘recovering’ alcoholic or addict. Recovering: not recovered, but recovering. That is a very important attitude they have to have because, like Jacob’s limp and Shaul’s thorn, it is a constant reminder of what they are trying to overcome.

We all have our own thorn or limp; we are all “recovering sinners”, so to speak. The 12 step program for recovery says, “One drink is too many, and two drinks aren’t enough” (or something like that) and the same is true for sinning. We do it unintentionally (I hope!) and, often enough, without even knowing we just committed a sin. That is why the sacrificial system includes a sacrifice for forgiveness for the sins we do that we don’t even know we did. We need a reminder, a limp, a thorn, something to keep us on the straight and narrow.

I wear a mezuzah around my neck as a sign of my faith, and also as a reminder. I also wear a gold bracelet, part of my sales training, to remind me that it is more important to listen than to speak (James 1:19.) At first I didn’t wear a gold bracelet, I wore a rubber band. The lesson was that every time I wanted to say something during a sales pitch, I was to stretch the rubber band and let it snap back onto my wrist. It was a painful lesson, but I learned it well, and my successful sales career demonstrated that. Once I didn’t need to snap the rubber band, I “graduated” to a gold bracelet (being a good salesman, I could afford it then) but it is still a reminder, just a little nicer looking reminder.

Maybe you have something you wear? A mezuzah, a cross, a plastic “WWJD” bracelet? A rubber band around your wrist? Whatever you use to remind yourself to do everything you can to overcome your sinful nature, cherish it because it can save your life. When we can be reminded to do as God wants us to do, and that reminder keeps us from sinning, even if it is just one sin a day less than we would do on our own, it is a blessing from heaven.

And if you limp, have bad knees, suffer from some debilitating disease or physical/mental challenge, accept it not as punishment (too many times I hear people blame God for their problems) but as a reminder of who is in charge, and what is really important.

God is really important. Whatever you have or don’t have or suffer with today, it will mean nothing in eternity. That is the goal, that is the prize- eternal life in God’s presence. So embrace your problem, embrace your challenges, and strive against them as Jacob did, trusting in God to help you overcome them.

That which seems to be a curse can always become a blessing in disguise- it is all up to you and how you deal with it.

free Will or predestination?

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I was reading (in the New Covenant writings) some of the Epistles to the Messianic Communities in the Diaspora this weekend and noticed how Shaul (Paul) and Kefa (Peter) write in a way that seems to indicate God has predestined those who will be saved.

We have Ephesians 1:5 (“Having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,…“) and Romans 8:29-30 (“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”)

Even in Psalm 139: 16 it says, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”

There are other verses in the Bible that seem to indicate we were chosen beforehand, that we are the elect, the special ones who have found favor, yadda-yadda-yadda. It got me wondering if there really is something to the idea of predestination, which says God has already made His decision about who will go and who will not.

But then I came to my senses. I thought that if we are predestined, then the prayers for my children, and everyone else’s prayers for those who are not saved to be saved, are useless. The divine commission to make disciples is a waste of time because those who are chosen will become disciples without us and those who are rejected , well, tough luck! Why waste my breath, why “kick against the goads”  to make Believers out of non-believers if those who are to be will be and those who are not to be are already screwed?

Ridiculous, isn’t it?  All these verses don’t mean that an individual is chosen and another individual is rejected, it means that God has formed the way for everyone to find salvation through Messiah Yeshua. It means that what He has done is to choose life for us and provide the means for us to take hold of it.

In Ezekiel 18 God says that he doesn’t want anyone to die and that He wishes all sinners would turn from their sin, and live. God isn’t a liar, so if He wants people to turn from their sins, then he must have made it possible for us to make our own decisions about what we do or don’t do.

Ergo: Free Will.

Another argument for free will is that God owns everything, He is in control of everything (although that doesn’t mean He does control everything- He can, but He chooses what to control and what to leave alone) and yet, there is one thing that He cannot control or have unless we give it to Him: our love, faithfulness and obedience. If we have the ability to choose to give God our love and faith, then we have the ability to choose to reject Him.

Ability to choose is called Free Will.

Next time you run into a Calvinist, or anyone who says that God has predetermined or predestined those who will be saved, enlighten that person with Ezekiel 18 and the above argument for free will. You can even throw this in, if it comes down to it: if God has chosen who will be saved and who won’t, then why did He need to send Messiah Yeshua to die for our sins?  After all, those chosen are already in and those rejected have no chance, so why provide a means through which your fate can be changed?  If your fate is sealed before you are born, then why tell us that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved?

Without free will, this whole Messiah “thing” makes absolutely no sense.

God has given us free will: it was evident in the Garden, it is clear throughout the history of the Jewish people and the writings of the New Covenant. It is clear from the many times God has stated through the Psalms and the prophets that He wants us to turn from our sin so that we can live. Why ask us to turn if He has already decided?

I’ll tell you who really doesn’t want you to have free will- religion. That thing called “religion” is dogmatic, stoic, and enabling. It doesn’t want you to think, it wants you to follow. It doesn’t want you to question, it wants you to obey, blindly. It doesn’t want you to decide for yourself what is the truth, it wants you accept without question what it tells you is the truth.

God has no religion, only rules. He tells us how to worship Him, and how to treat each other. And we have the right, the God-given right, to decide for ourselves if we will do what God says or not.

Free will is a two-edged sword: it cuts both ways. Do as God says and the world will hate you, do as the world says and you have to reject God (He still loves you, but His judgment will be righteous.) So, whatever you choose, understand that it is your choice. If you choose to do what you are told by religion, without question or investigation, that is a choice.

We all have been given free will to make out own choice- better make sure it’s the right one!