Blessing
for the Torah Reading: Baruch
atah YHVH, Eloheynu, Melech ha-O’lam, asher bachar banu m’kol ha-amim, v’natan
lanu eht Torah-to. Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”
(Blessed are you, YHVH, our Elohim , King of the
Universe, you have selected us from among all the peoples,and have given us your Torah.
Blessed are you, YHVH, giver of the Torah. Ameyn.)
You would think that the more
knowledge and wisdom we have of Torah the more blessed and joyful we would be
in this world. However for those who have been on this road of genuine Torah
restoration some time often find themselves in despair over their own state and
the state of those around them. This present world system has always been
hostile against walking in the truth. Messengers of those seeking the truth
also often find themselves persecuted and shunned.
Ecc 1:17 And I set my heart to know wisdom – and to
know madness and folly. I know that this too is feeding on wind.
Ecc 1:18 For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who
increases knowledge increases suffering.
Wesley's
Notes for Ecclesiastes 1:18 (Wesley’s personal experience)
1:18 Grief - Or, displeasure within himself, and against his present
condition. Sorrow - Which he does many ways, because he gets his knowledge with
hard and wearisome labour, both of mind and body, with the consumption of his
spirits, and shortening of his life; because he is often deceived with
knowledge falsely so called, and often mistakes error for truth, and is
perplexed with manifold doubts, from which ignorant men are wholly free;
because he hath the clearer prospect into, and quicker sense of his own
ignorance, and infirmities, and disorders, and withal how vain and ineffectual
all his knowledge is for the prevention or removal of them; and because his
knowledge is very imperfect and unsatisfying, yet increasing his thirst after
more knowledge; lastly, because his knowledge quickly fades and dies with him,
and then leaves him in no better, and possibly in a much worse condition than
the meanest and most unlearned man in the world. End quote.
Once again this week’s Torah portion is about YHVH’s “mishpatim” His assessments
of how we are to live and understand our lives. There can be no greater wisdom
for us – Shaul says we are born to good works, to live fruitful and productive
lives.
This can surely only happen as we walk in YHVH’s Torah.
We are saved by our obedience to Torah – we are saved so that we are
able to walk In the obedience to Torah.
Eph
2:10 For we are His workmanship, created
in Messiah יהושע unto good works, which Elohim prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them.
2Ti 3:10 But you did closely follow my teaching, the
way of life, the purpose, the belief, the patience, the love, the endurance, 2Ti
3:11 the persecutions, the sufferings,
which came to me at Antioch, at Ikonion, and at Lustra – what
persecutions I bore. Yet out of them all the Master delivered me.
2Ti 3:12 And indeed, all those
wishing to live reverently in Messiah יהושע, shall be persecuted.1
Footnote: 1Mt. 5:10.
Joh 16:33 “These words I have spoken to you,
that in Me you might have peace. In the world you have pressure, but take
courage, I have overcome the world.”
Act 14:22 strengthening the beings of the taught ones,
encouraging them to continue in the belief, and that through many pressures we
have to enter the reign of Elohim.
Even Yashua was a man
of sorrows acquainted with grief – yet he endured with joy his suffering. Heb
12:2 looking to the Princely Leader and
Perfecter of our belief, יהושע, who for the
joy that was set before Him endured the stake, having
despised the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the
throne of Elohim. Heb 12:3 For consider
Him who endured such opposition from sinners against Himself, lest you become
weary and faint in your lives.
Heb 12:4 You have
not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
And so our Torah portion begins:
Exo 22:25 “If you do lend silver to any of My people,
the poor among you, you are not to be like one that lends on interest to him.
Do not lay interest on him.
Does this still happen today?
In this present world
system money lending is one of the biggest causes of financial bondage. In fact
the world economy is on the brink of absolute collapse because so much money
has been borrowed and people and even nations are finding it impossible to repay
their debts because of all the interest.
Exo 22:26 “If you take your neighbour’s garment as a
pledge at all, you are to return it to him before the sun goes down.
Exo 22:27 “For that is his only covering, it is his
garment for his skin. What does he sleep in? And it shall be that when he cries to Me, I shall hear, for I show
favour.
How do we treat people
who have reached rock bottom in their lives? This is a warning to us not to
take advantage of someone who is extremely desperate because of their poverty.
You must make sure that they can at least sleep warmly. YHVH may show them
favour one day and you might be in need of their favour.
Exo 22:28 “Do not revile Elohim, nor curse a ruler of
your people.
Do not treat with
contempt rulers of this world and the world we cannot see. – Elohim can also be
translated “mighty ones” We are to “resist the ha satan” and pull down his
strongholds by discerning his lies. Ha Satan is the father of all lies. He is a
defeated foe but he can still operate where there is spiritual darkness and
deception. He has not yet been cast into the eternal lake of fire because he is
an instrument of YHVH’s purposes on earth.
From personal
experience and my own understanding I don’t believe we are equipped or called
upon to engage the enemy so that we can go to battle against ha satan and
demons.
Jud 1:8 In the same way, indeed, these dreamers
defile the flesh, and reject authority, and speak evil of esteemed ones.
Jud 1:9 But Miḵa’ĕl
the chief messenger, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the
body of Mosheh, presumed not to bring against him a blasphemous accusation, but
said, “יהוה rebuke you!”
Exo 22:29 “Do not delay giving your harvest and
your vintage. Give Me the first-born of your sons.
Do we follow
the custom of the “Pidyon Ha Ben”?
Most of
struggle to give YHVH the firstfruits of our increase.
It’s not important
firstly because the priesthood need it – ITS IMPORTANT BECAUSE HE SAID IT.
Exo 22:30 “Likewise you are to do with your oxen, with
your sheep. It is to be with its mother seven days. On the eighth day you give
it to Me.
Exo 22:31 “And you are set-apart men to Me, and you do
not eat any meat which is torn to pieces in the field, you throw it to the
dogs.
Exo 23:1 “Do not bring a false report. Do not put your
hand with the wrong to be a malicious witness.
Exo 23:2 “Do not follow a crowd to do evil, nor bear
witness in a strife so as to turn aside after many, to turn aside what is
right.
Civil Disobedience?
Rom 13:1 Let every being be in subjection to the
governing authorities. For there is no authority except from Elohim, and the
authorities that exist are appointed by Elohim. Rom 13:2 So he who opposes the authority withstands
the institution of Elohim, and those who withstand shall bring judgment on
themselves.
“It is my
contention that Paul’s instructions in 13:1-7 are not concerned with the state,
empire, or any other such organization of secular government. His concern was
rather to address the obligation of Christians, particularly Christian gentiles
associating with the synagogues of Rome for the practice of their new “faith,”
to subordinate themselves to the leaders of the synagogues and to the customary
“rules of behavior” that had been developed in Diaspora synagogues for defining
the appropriate behavior of “righteous gentiles” seeking association with Jews
and their God. However, their leaders are to be obeyed, for their authority is
from God and is recognized even by the Roman emperor for the execution of their
responsibility to oversee the behavior of the Jewish communities, to which
these Christian gentiles were now attached through synagogue attendance and
when meeting in their homes under the authority granted the synagogues. ” –
Nanos.
Today this is
very difficult because there are no Jewish synagogues that preach Yashua as
Mashiach as some of these early synagogues were doing.
1Pe 2:13 Be subject to every institution of man
because of the Master, whether to the sovereign as supreme, 1Pe 2:14 or to governors, as to those who are sent by
him for the punishment of doers of evil, and a praise for those who do good.
I don’t believe we are
called to overthrow governments or to be part of those who so wish.
Often self seeking
leaders stir up the masses to unseat existing authorities so that they may be
placed in those positions of authority. These usurpers have a hidden agenda to fill
the void and their pockets.
In the Torah community we are governed by a Theocracy and the Torah and
not a democracy.
Exo 23:3 “And do not favour a poor man in his strife. Exo
23:4 “When you meet your enemy’s ox or
his donkey going astray, you shall certainly return it to him. Exo 23:5 “When you see the donkey of him who hates you
lying under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving it to him, you shall
certainly help him. Exo 23:6 “Do not
turn aside the right-ruling of your poor in his strife. Exo 23:7 “Keep yourself far from a false matter, and
do not kill the innocent and the righteous, for I do not declare the wrong
right. Exo 23:8 “And do not take a
bribe, for a bribe blinds the seeing one and twists the words of the righteous.
Exo 23:9 “And do not oppress a
sojourner, as you yourselves know the heart of a sojourner, because you were
sojourners in the land of Mitsrayim. Exo 23:10
“And for six years you are to sow your land, and shall gather its
increase, Exo 23:11 but the seventh year
you are to let it rest, and shall leave it, and the poor of your people shall
eat. And what they leave, the beasts of the field eat. Do the same with your
vineyard and your oliveyard.
Exo 23:12 “Six days you are to do your work, and on the
seventh day you rest, in order that your ox and your donkey might rest, and the
son of your female servant and the sojourner be refreshed.
Exo 23:13 “And in all that I have
said to you take heed. And make no mention of the name of other mighty ones,
let it not be heard from your mouth.
For example Mo ..day; Tu..day etc
Exo 23:14 “Three1 times in the year you are
to observe a festival to Me: Footnote: 1The Festivals of יהוה are grouped in
three, for three different times of the year. Exo 23:15 “Guard the Festival of Unleavened Bread.
Seven days you eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed
in the month of Aḇiḇ – for in it you came out of Mitsrayim – and do not appear before Me empty-handed;
Exo 23:16 and the Festival of the
Harvest, the first-fruits of your labours which you have sown in the field; and
the Festival of the Ingathering at the outgoing of the year, when you have
gathered in the fruit of your labours from the field. Exo 23:17 “Three times in the year all your males are
to appear before the Master יהוה. Exo
23:18 “Do not offer the blood of My
slaughtering with leavened bread, and the fat of My offering shall not remain
until morning. Exo 23:19 “Bring the
first of the first-fruits of your land into the House of יהוה your Elohim. Do not cook a young goat in
its mother’s milk. Exo 23:20 “See, I am sending a Messenger before you to
guard you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Please
note it is not THE messenger and messenger is not spelled with a capital M.
Exo 23:21 “Be on
guard before Him and obey His voice. Do not rebel against Him, for He is not
going to pardon your transgression, for My Name is in Him.
Note how the name of Elohim is in the name of each of the
following messengers.
“The earliest reference
to a system of seven archangels as a group appears to be in Enoch I (the
Book of Enoch) which is not part of the Jewish Canon but is prevalent in the Judaic
tradition, where they are named as Gabriel, Michael Raphael Gabriel,Michael, Raphael,
Uriel,Raguek and Saraqael, Wiki
Exo 23:22 “But if
you diligently obey His voice and shall do all that I speak, then I shall be an
enemy to your enemies and a distresser to those who distress you. Exo
23:23 “For My Messenger shall go before
you and shall bring you in to the Amorites and the Ḥittites
and the Perizzites and the Kenaʽanites and the Ḥiwwites and the Yeḇusites, and I shall cut them off.
Heb 1:13 And to which of the messengers did He ever
say, “Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your
feet”? Heb 1:14 Are they not all serving
spirits sent out to attend those who are about to inherit deliverance?
Heb 1:1 Elohim, having of old spoken in many portions
and many ways to the fathers by the prophets, Heb 1:2 has in these last days spoken to us by the
Son, whom He has appointed heir of all, through whom also He made the ages,1
Footnote: 1John 1:3.Heb 1:3
who being the brightness of the esteem and the exact representation of
His substance, and sustaining all by the word of His power, having made a
cleansing of our sins through Himself, sat down at the right hand of the
Greatness on high, Heb 1:4 having become
so much better than the messengers, as He has inherited a more excellent Name
than them. Heb 1:5 For to which of the
messengers did He ever say, “You are My Son, today I have brought You forth”?1
And again, “I shall be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son”?2
Footnotes: 1Ps. 2:7. 22 Sa. 7:14.
Heb 1:6 And when He again brings the first-born into
the world, He says, “Let all the messengers of Elohim do reverence to Him.” Heb
1:7 And of the messengers indeed He
says, “... who is making His messengers spirits and His servants a flame of
fire.” Heb 1:8 But to the Son He says,
“Your throne, O Elohim, is forever and ever, a sceptre of straightness is the
sceptre of Your reign.
Exo 23:24 “Do not
bow down to their mighty ones, nor serve them, nor do according to their works,
but without fail overthrow them and without fail break down their pillars. Exo
23:25 “And you shall serve יהוה your Elohim, and He shall bless your bread
and your water. And I shall remove sickness from your midst.
Exo 23:26 “None
shall miscarry or be barren in your land. I shall fill the number of your days.
Exo 23:27 “I shall
send My fear before you, and cause confusion among all the people to whom you
come, and make all your enemies turn their backs to you. Exo 23:28 “And I shall send hornets before you, which
shall drive out the Ḥiwwite, the Kenaʽanite,
and the Ḥittite from before you. Exo 23:29 “I shall not drive them out from before you
in one year, lest the land become a waste and the beast of the field become too
numerous for you. Exo 23:30 “Little by
little I shall drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and
you inherit the land. Exo 23:31 “And I
shall set your border from the Sea of Reeds to the Sea of the Philistines, and
from the wilderness to the River, for I shall give the inhabitants of the land into
your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. Exo 23:32 “Do not make a covenant with them nor with their
mighty ones. Exo 23:33 “Let them not
dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me when you serve their
mighty ones, when it becomes a snare to you.”
No one person will be able to understand all these
mishpatim – they were meant to be worked out in an Elohim fearing Torah
community under the guide of Torah seeking leaders.
Deu 30:11 “For this command which I am commanding you today,
it is not too hard for you, nor is it far off. Deu 30:12 “It is not in the heavens, to say, ‘Who shall
ascend into the heavens for us, and bring it to us, and cause us to hear it, so
that we do it?’ Deu 30:13 “Nor is it
beyond the sea, to say, ‘Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us,
and cause us to hear it, so that we do it?’ Deu 30:14 “For the Word is very near you, in your mouth
and in your heart – to do it.
Deu 30:15 “See, I have set before you today life and
good, and death and evil,
Deu 30:16 in that I am commanding you today to love יהוה your Elohim,
to walk in His ways, and to guard His commands, and His laws, and His
right-rulings (mishpatim). And you shall live and increase, and יהוה your Elohim shall bless you in the land
which you go to possess.
טז אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ, הַיּוֹם, לְאַהֲבָה אֶת-יְהוָה
אֱלֹהֶיךָ לָלֶכֶת בִּדְרָכָיו, וְלִשְׁמֹר מִצְוֹתָיו
וְחֻקֹּתָיו וּמִשְׁפָּטָיו; וְחָיִיתָ וְרָבִיתָ--וּבֵרַכְךָ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ,
בָּאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר-אַתָּה בָא-שָׁמָּה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ.
Baruch atah YHVH, Eloheynu,
Melech ha-‘Olam, asher natan lanu Toraht-emet, v’chay-yeh o’lam nata-b’tochenu.
Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”
(Blessed are you Yahveh, our Elohim, King of the
Universe, you have given us your Torah of truth, and have planted everlasting
life within our midst. Blessed are you, Yahweh giver of the Torah – Ameyn
Please
note these notes are under construction and are subject to correction and are
in no way a final authority on any subject.