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.)
We are confronted in this parasha
with the core issue of our walk here on earth – FAITH or THE FAITH. Not faith
as some abstract noun but rather faith as a concrete verb – the kind of faith
the ancient Hebrews taught. Without faith it is impossible to please our
Creator - Heb 11:6
Yahshua had this to say about THE
faith: Luk 18:8
… But when the Son of Aḏam comes, shall He find the belief (“the faith”
using a definite article) on the earth?”
The context of this parable is a
woman begging an unrighteous judge for justice – his message was clear - true
faith to accomplish our righteousness and favour towards YHVH does not come
from our selves but from our Righteous Judge. How bad do we really want to
contend for “the faith?”
There is a sense that genuine faith
comes when the Ruach (Spirit) of YHVH quickens an ancient word into a now
context for us – it’s like the manna our fathers collected daily.
Mat 4:4
But He answering, said, “It has been written, ‘Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of יהוה.’ ”1 Footnote: 1Dt. 8:3.
Rom 10:17
So then (THE) belief comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of
Elohim.
The truth for many of us is that we are so
often overwhelmed by the circumstances of our lives that it is very difficult
to hear the voice of YHVH and to exercise victorious living. In spite of all
the faith teachers and teaching Luke 18:8 still leave us wondering about our
faith.
The evidence of the true faith is rest as evidenced
by observing the Shabbat.
Heb 4:3 For we
who have believed do enter into that rest, as He has said, “As I swore in
My wrath, if they shall enter into My rest...” And yet His works have come into
being from the foundation of the world.
Heb 4:4 For somewhere He has said thus about the
seventh day, “And Elohim rested on the seventh day from all His works,”
Heb 4:5 and in this again, “If they shall enter into
My rest...”
An extremely grave
error has come into most translations of Hebrews 3:11, Hebrews 4:3&5 which
have incorrectly translated from Psalms
95:11. The incorrect translation reads “So I
sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.”
The preposition “if” is used in both the Hebrew and the Greek, yet it is
ignored when translating from these ancient languages.
H518
“im” אם
BDB Definition: 1) if 1a) conditional clauses
1a1) of possible situations 1a2) of impossible situations 1b) oath contexts
1b1) no, not 1c) if...if, whether...or, whether...or...or 1d) when, whenever
1e) since 1f) interrogative particle 1g) but rather Part of Speech:
conditional particle.
Hebrews
3:11 -(KJV) “So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter
into my rest” (incorrectly translated)
- ως ωμοσα εν τη οργη μου ει εισελευσονται εις την καταπαυσιν μου
ει is translated as the negative "no"
instead of "if." In Hebrews 4:3 and 4:5 ει is translated properly as
"if."
The implications are huge. Consider for a moment
what the ORIGINAL plain text is telling us?
“If or whenever” you enter into My Sabbaths
…… Remember the Sabbaths belong to YHVH. Whether we believe it or not for
almost the last 6000 years there has been a Sabbath every seventh day. Whether
we believe it or not we and our ancestors have entered into a Sabbath of YHVH
every seventh day for almost the past 6000 years.
Whether we
like to believe it or not we have either honoured or dishonoured His Covenant
by the way we have conducted ourselves on His Sabbaths.
YHVH is warning us that HE DOES NOT NEGOTIATE THE SABBATH WITH ANYONE AND THE
WAY WE CONDUCT OURSELVES ON HIS SABBATHS COULD DETERMINE WHETHER OR NOT HIS
WRATH WILL COME UPON US.
This Torah portion directly addresses how we are to
observe Sabbath and it teaches some important fundamentals about living in
faith.
Exo 16:25
And Mosheh said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to יהוה, today you do not find it in the field.
Exo
16:26 “Gather it six days, but on the
seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there is none.”
Exo
16:27 And it came to be that some of the
people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none.
Note
how the children of Yisrael immediately disobey YHVH and have been doing so
ever since.
Exo
16:28 And יהוה said to Mosheh, “How long shall you refuse
to guard My commands and My Torot1? Footnote: 1Torot -
plural of Torah, teaching.
It
seems that Sabbath is a key issue for us in understanding and entering into
covenant with YHVH.
Exo
16:29 “See, because יהוה has given you the Sabbath, therefore He is
giving you bread for two days on the sixth day. Let each one stay in his place,
do not let anyone go out of his place on the seventh day.” Exo 16:30 So the people rested on the seventh day1.
Footnote: The seventh day of the week, the weekly Sabbath, was observed before
the Ten Words were given on Mt. Sinai. Exo 16:31 And the house of Yisra’ĕl called its name
Manna. And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like thin
cakes made with honey. Exo 16:32 And
Mosheh said, “This is the word which יהוה has commanded: ‘Fill an omer with it, to
keep for your generations, so that they see the bread with which I fed you in
the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim.’ ” Exo 16:33 And Mosheh said to Aharon, “Take a pot and
put an omer of manna in it, and set it down before יהוה, to keep for your generations.” Exo
16:34 As יהוה commanded Mosheh, so did Aharon set it down
before the Witness, to keep. Exo 16:35
And the children of Yisra’ĕl ate manna forty years, until they came to
an inhabited land. They ate manna until they came to the border of the land of
Kenaʽan. Exo 16:36 And an omer is one-tenth of an ĕphah.
YHVH
sent us Yahshua to embody everything that the Sabbath (Shabbat in Hebrew) was
meant to be for us. Today more than ever before we have no excuse to be
ignorant of the SHABBAT. Yahshua brought life and light to all mankind
regarding YHVH’s Sabbath.
Master of the Sabbath (Mt. 12:8; Mk. 2:28; Lk. 6:5)
In the Tanach (Old Testament), it's mentioned a number of times that the Sabbath is YHVH's.
Ex. 16:23, 25; 20:10; 35:2; Lev. 23:3; Dt. 5:14, etc.
Luk 6:5 And He said to them, “The Son of Aḏam is Master of the Sabbath.”1 Footnote: 1Mt.
12:8.
Yahshua healed on the
Sabbath, his disciples on occasion rubbed grain in their hands and ate on the
Sabbath.
Man was not to be shackled
by the Sabbath.
The Rabbis had similar sayings to what Yahshua said and no Jew had ever thought that the Rabbis were doing away with the Sabbath. In Mihilta on Ex. 31:14 (109b) they say, ‘The Sabbath is given over to you and not you to the Sabbath." Yoma 85b, Rabbi Yonatan ben Yosef said, "For it (Shabbat) is set apart unto you (Ex. 31:14). That is, it is committed into your hands, not you into its hands!"
Both statements reveal that the Sabbath wasn't to enslave the Jew. The same holds true for what Messiah said that day. Yahshua was saying something the Pharisees could certainly identify with. Unfortunately, they had strangled the life out of the Sabbath by some of their rules. The same holds true for Orthodox Judaism today, which is the spiritual descendent of the Pharisees. That's why it's so important for us to scrutinize ‘Jewish" things: we don't want to walk in a wrong understanding of the Scriptures.
(Man’s very first day on earth began on a Shabbat – Yahshua will return and be with us during the millennium or Shabbat of the ages)
Messiah, in telling the Pharisees that the Sabbath was made for Man and not vice-versa, and that YHVH desires chesed (forgiving-loving-kindness) showed them what He thought of picking, rubbing and eating grain on Shabbat—that it wasn't sin in His eyes. (I believe that this was not the practice of Yashua’s talmidim every Shabbat)
On the Sabbath believers get to practice ‘trusting in YHVH" in a very concrete way. When one could work on that day and earn money to live (food, shelter, etc.), but rather chooses to obey YHVH and not to work on that day, one is literally trusting YHVH in a very concrete, practical way. It's only simple math, if one works seven days a week instead of six, they will make more money. Money translates into ‘life" as food, clothes, rent, cars, etc., but YHVH says that if we keep His Sabbath set apart, He will provide wonderful things for us (Is. 58:13-14). It comes down to whether we really believe YHVH or not. It's faith, belief and trust when one doesn't work on Shabbat. Conceptually, it's the same with tithing.
Isa 58:13 “If you do turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My set-apart day, and shall call the Sabbath ‘a delight,’ the set-apart day of יהוה ‘esteemed,’ and shall esteem it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, Isa 58:14 then you shall delight yourself in יהוה. And I shall cause you to ride on the heights of the earth, and feed you with the inheritance of Yaʽaqoḇ your father. For the mouth of יהוה has spoken.
Why does He provide when we don't work? One reason is that Israel (all true believers) is the Bride of Messiah Yahshua. Before that, Israel was ‘married" to YHVH (at Mt. Sinai, which is standard Jewish belief for the event, the true essence of covenant). As any good husband would, YHVH loves to provide for His wife (Ps. 113; Eph. 5:25-33; 1st Pet. 3:7), and the Sabbath pictures a wonderful natural and spiritual provision for her.
When we observe YHVH's Sabbath day we are saying to ourselves, first and foremost, that we truly trust YHVH for our physical provisions. It's a ‘sign" to us that we are walking with, and trusting in Yahshua. It shows Yahshua this too, and all others who know us. Everything in the natural, like the Sabbath, has a spiritual reality ‘behind" it. Just as we must recognize that it's not our intelligence or hard work that earns our daily bread, but that it comes as a gift from the hand of the YHVH (Mt. 6:26), so too with salvation.
As hard as we can ‘work out" our salvation (Phil. 2:12), we can never earn it. It's not our work or doing of good deeds that saves us. It is a Gift from Above, and it's the Sabbath day that causes us to realize this more than anything else, as we stop working and enter into His Day of rest (trusting in Him) and thanking Him for His provision and our freedom. We"re saying that we trust Him to provide for us, both in the physical realm and in the spiritual, and this is truly freeing. When believers, or traditional Jews, work on the Sabbath they are saying in effect, ‘I cannot trust You to provide for my needs, so I must work to do so."
As we walk in the knowledge of Shabbat, we see a concrete picture of not having to work for our salvation. YHVH commands us to rest, both physically and spiritually, and the Sabbath day is a concrete place to walk that understanding out, and to grow in trust of Messiah Yahshua. All Christians believe in Yahshua, but if they can't trust Him for provision today, what does that say about their level of trust for salvation tomorrow (on Judgement Day)? The Sabbath offers us, among many other things, an opportunity to show ourselves that we truly trust in YHVH for life today and eternity tomorrow, and that we have been freed from the Kingdom of Satan.” End quote.
I would like to add a personal note here. I know that for many believers seeking to return to their Hebraic roots that there are difficult challenges facing us with regards to keeping the Shabbat. There maybe a season or reason that makes it difficult to observe Shabbat – however if this becomes the rule and not the exception I believe we are being disobedient and may face the consequences of our ongoing disobedience. Read again Hebrews chapters three and four and see them in a different light.
Exo 17:1 And all the congregation of the children of
Yisra’ĕl set out on their journey from the Wilderness of Sin, according to the
command of יהוה, and camped in Rephiḏim. And there was no water for the people to drink. Exo
17:2 Therefore the people strove with
Mosheh, and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Mosheh said to them, “Why do
you strive with me? Why do you try יהוה?” Exo 17:3
And the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against
Mosheh, and said, “Why did you bring us out of Mitsrayim, to kill us and our
children and our livestock with thirst?” Exo 17:4 Then Mosheh cried out to יהוה, saying, “What am I to do with this
people? Yet a little and they shall stone me!” Exo 17:5 And יהוה said to Mosheh, “Pass over before the
people, and take with you some of the elders of Yisra’ĕl. And take in your hand
your rod with which you smote the river, and go. Exo 17:6 “See, I am standing before you there on the
rock in Ḥorĕḇ. And you shall smite the rock, and water shall come out
of it, and the people shall drink.” And Mosheh did so before the eyes of the
elders of Yisra’ĕl. Exo 17:7 And he
called the name of the place Massah and Meriḇah, because of the ‘strife’ of the children of Yisra’ĕl,
and because they ‘tried’ יהוה, saying, “Is יהוה in our midst or not?”
This
was the place of testing and has a history of the most tragic consequences of
Yisrael’s unbelief – the 10 spies, Moshe disqualifying himself, Miryams death
and other events which gave rise for remembering the day of tisha b’av. This is
possibly the same place as modern day Petra where it is believed to be a future
place of refuge where the testing in the future may be more severe for a
remnant of Yisrael than ever before.
Exo
17:8 And Amalĕq came and fought with
Yisra’ĕl in Rephiḏim.
It
almost appears that YHVH will hand us over to our oppressors to chastise us for
our unbelief.
Rev 13:7 And it was given to him
to fight with the set-apart ones and to overcome them. And authority was given
to him over every tribe and tongue and nation.
Is it possible for a remnant to overcome the tachat moshiach – anti
messiah?
I believe the only hope is to have the heart and mind of Moshe rabbeinu.
Moshe referred to one who would come after him.
Deu 18:18 ‘I shall raise up for them a Prophet like you
out of the midst of their brothers. And I shall put My Words in His mouth, and
He shall speak to them all that I command Him.
Deu 18:19 ‘And it shall be, the man who does not listen
to My Words which He speaks in My Name, I require it of him.
Hur
when reversed means “ruach” or spirit. Aaron reversed means “nir aleph” and can
refer to the “nir tamid” a light or testimony that never fades or disappears.
When these qualities in Moshe are honoured and embraced by us we will have
victory over Amalek.
Exo
17:9 And Mosheh said to Yehoshua,
“Choose for us men and go out, fight with Amalĕq. Tomorrow I am stationing
myself on the top of the hill with the rod of Elohim in my hand.” Exo
17:10 And Yehoshua did as Mosheh said to
him, to fight with Amalĕq. And Mosheh, Aharon, and Ḥur went up to the top of the hill. Exo 17:11 And it came to be, when Mosheh held up his
hand, that Yisra’ĕl prevailed. And when he let down his hand, Amalĕq prevailed.
Exo 17:12 But Mosheh’s hands were heavy,
so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aharon and Ḥur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on
the other side. And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. Exo
17:13 And Yehoshua defeated Amalĕq and
his people with the edge of the sword. Exo 17:14 And יהוה said to Mosheh, “Write this for a
remembrance in the book and recite it in the hearing of Yehoshua, that I shall
completely blot out the remembrance of Amalĕq from under the heavens.” Exo
17:15 And Mosheh built an altar and
called its name, יהוה Nissi, Exo 17:16 for he
said, “Because a hand is on the throne of Yah, יהוה is to fight against Amalĕq, from
generation to generation.” (Amalek
grandson of Esav Ber 36:12)
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 Yahweh, 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.
