Monthly Archives: September 2014

Torah Tidbit – Pentecost

“And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.” Exodus 20:18
This is one of those things you read over and again and then all of a sudden you see something you have never seen before. The English text states ‘they saw the thunderings’. When was the last time you saw ‘thunderings’? The Hebrew text says it a little more clearly. ‘And all the people saw the ‘qol’ – the voices (or sounds) – and the torches (or flames of light) and the voice of the shofar, and the mountain smoking; and all the people saw, and they moved and stood at a distance . . .” There is a specific word in the Hebrew for ‘thunder’. It is the word ‘ra-am’. But the word used in Exodus 20:18 is the Hebrew word ‘qol’ for ‘voice’. And the word ‘lightning’ ? In the Hebrew it is the word ‘baraq’. But the word used in Exodus 20:18 is the Hebrew word lappidim or ‘torches’.                                                                                   Where else in Scripture do we have people in the presence of God seeing flames of fire and voices, if you will ? Acts 2:3 says the people saw ‘tongues of flames or fire settled above the heads of the apostles’ and everyone heard in their own language based on that which the people saw.
Did you ever wonder how the folks in Acts 2 knew to call the event ‘Pentecost’ if the event portrayed was the first one of it’s kind? Simple . . . it was not the first. Exodus 19 and 20 was the first Pentecost, and that which brought the followers together in that upper room was the Memorial Observance commanded by God to remember that which took place on the mountain (Mt. Sinai) some 1500 years earlier.
When Moses came down off that mountain with the written Word of God and encountered the sin of the people, 3000 souls died ( Exo. 32:28). In Acts 2:41, during the memorial events of Pentecost, 3000 souls were added to the body of Messiah. Our Heavenly Father is just and righteous as well as gracious and merciful – and all about restoration.
In Exodus 20, the Word of God was given to the people. “ In the beginning was the Word . . . and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us . . .” In Acts 2 we see the second part of the ‘promise of the Father’ – “And I will pour out My Spirit . . . “ Joel 2:28-29).
“So shall My Word be that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Isa. 55:11
Pentecost . . . the giving of the Word of God . . . and the beginning of the last days.

The Calendar . . . Most calendars projected September 24-25 as Feast of Trumpets this year. Many have planned time off from work and family or group activities with these dates in mind. We are aware of the sightings or lack thereof from Israel and how it may be affecting alot of folks’ plans. First, we always encourage and endeavor to walk according to the Scriptural directives as much as we possibly can, understanding we are still in dispersion and life in the ‘diaspora’ is not always geared towards allowing us free reign in our observances. Also, we do not base our gatherings on the sightings in Israel, not that there is anything wrong with using that basis. But we live in Kentucky. And if it were not for internet and instant news access, we would not know of the sightings in The Land until they were ‘come and gone’. We endeavor to use sightings for where we live, for that is where we observe, walk and teach until the time comes we get to be in the Land. The first new moon sliver in KY was 7:13 AM thursday morning Sept 25th. So observing Yom Teruah today ( thursday) either placed us 12 hours early or 12 hours late . . . For those interested or involved, we will not, at this point, change our dates of observance for Yom Kippur or Sukkot. We are sure there are those that will have issues with our decision. Just remember, we ARE still ‘in the nations’ and many are bound by the inflexibility of our societal set-up. For those that CAN make last minute adjustments, praise the Lord, you are blessed. For those that cannot, grace and ‘no condemnation’ are in order. May this be a festive season, and not a fussy one . . . shalom –

The anticipated date for Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets) is this Wednesday evening through thursday evening (Sept. 24-25). It is a ‘high sabbath’, the beginning of the fall feasts and a picture of the announcement of the return of Messiah. May Abba bless you and yours in this the beginning of the ‘season of our joy’ . . . Chag Sameach – shalom

“ John 8:2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him; and he sat down, and taught them. 3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, 4 They said to him, Teacher, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now Moses in the law commanded us that such as her should be stoned: but what say you ? 6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have cause to accuse him. But Yeshua stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground . . . 7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said to them, He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her. 8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 9 And they which heard, being convicted by conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the eldest, even unto the last: and Yeshua was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 10 When Yeshua stood up, and saw no one but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are your accusers? Does no man condemn you? 11 She said, No man, Lord. And Yeshua said unto her, neither do I condemn you: go, and sin no more.”

Ever wonder what Yeshua wrote on the ground ? More to the point, is it connected to something else in Scripture ? Numbers 5 tells of a woman suspected of adultery. She is taken to the Priest who presents her before the LORD. This would take place in the Tabernacle and later this potential scenario would take place in the Temple. The Priest would take dust from the floor area of this sacred place, put it in a CUP with mayim kedoshim, or holy water. He would then write down a curse and literally scrap it into the water. If guilty, she would suffer the curse written and then die by stoning. If there was no guilt on her part, she would be exonerated.

There are striking similarities between the Torah passage in Numbers 5:14-ff and the woman caught in adultery in John 8. The woman of John’s gospel was accused of a capital offense and presented to Yeshua in the Temple area, the same place to where the accused would be brought in Numbers 5. Yeshua writes in the dust of the Temple grounds. The Priest uses dust from the Temple grounds and writes a curse. In Numbers, the woman drinks of the cup which either reveals her sin or releases her from comdemnation and judgment. Yeshua confronts the adulteress woman’s accusers for their impure motives, and as they step away one by one, Yeshua gives forgiveness and direction for her future. He saves her from condemnation and death. For in Messiah there is no condemnation. (Rom. 8:11) He freed her from the bondage of her sin and the bondage of her unrighteous ‘head’.

Yeshua is the High Priest (Hebrews 4:14) as well as the Bridegroom. HE demonstrates His love for the Bride by accepting her cup in the garden (Matt. 26:39-42) and taking her guilt upon himself. “ . . . He became sin Who knew no sin . . .” ( 2 Cor. 5:21) “Husbands, love your wives as Messiah loves the church and gave Himself for her;” (Eph. 5:25) If the woman in both pictures can represent Israel, then the Scribes and Pharisees would represent the ‘jealous husband’ in John 8 since they represent the ‘head over the house of Israel’, the religious hierarchy of the day. In Numbers 5 it speaks of a ‘spirit of jealousy’ coming over the husband. In John 8 we have a ‘spirit of jealousy’ of sorts being revealed within the religious leaders. They were jealous of Yeshua’s popularity among the people and feared losing their positions and control over the ‘woman’, if you will. Yeshua overcomes this impure spirit and motive by exposing it for what it was and confronting it with the Truth of the Word and the Purity and Power of the Holy Spirit of God.
Adultery in the flesh is a picture of Idolatry in the spiritual realm. If we are the Bride and He is the Bridegroom, He desires we be bound to no other but Him and to no other ways but His. The woman caught in adultery had sin in her life. But there was other sin exposed that day. It was the sin of oppression by a religious spirit that manifested greater concern for maintaining it’s control than it did concern for a woman’s eternity. She was little more than ‘cannon fodder’ in their battle to hold their positions, ideology and traditions. Yeshua came to change all that. “for I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” (John10:10) and “ he whom the Son sets free is free indeed . . .” (John 8:36). He came NOT to annul the commandments of God. He DID come to deliver us from the bondage of man’s ‘doctrine’ and deliver us from the bondage of sin.

The dust . . . why dust? For it is from dust man was formed (Gen 2:7), the dust was cursed along with all creation and dust represents God’s promise to Abraham concerning his descendants and ultimate restoration. (Gen 13:16).
“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Romans 8:20-21

Shalom –

“1 The wilderness and the parched land shall be glad for them; the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; 2 It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, Even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, The excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of YAHWEH, The excellency of our GOD.” Isaiah 35

SHABBAT SHALOM

                                                                                         Trumpets

September 25th, beginning at sundown the evening before, is the Biblical Feast of Trumpets or Yom Teruah – Day of the Blast. On some calendars it is referred to as Rosh Hashanah (The Head of the Year) or the Jewish New Year. We won’t take time here to address these other titles but will use the Biblical terms ‘Day of the Blast’ or ‘Feast of Trumpets’. We will, however, take a moment and look at this rather obscure-appearing celebration in the Biblical text and see if it has any relevance to non-Jewish folks today.
First, what is the purpose of ‘trumpets’ are ‘the blasts’ according the Scripture ? Leviticus 23:24 reads “ in the seventh ( Biblical) month on the first of the month, you shall have a Sabbath, a reminder or memorial by blowing ( Teruah – Blasts) of trumpets, a holy set-part assembling. ( parentheses added) Numbers chapter 10 indicates trumpets are to summon the camp and direct it’s movement; to summon the leaders to gather; to sound the advance; 9 “When you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you, you shall sound an alarm (Teruah) with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the LORD your God, and you will be saved from your enemies.”   10 “Also in the day of your gladness, in your appointed feasts, and at the beginning of your months, you shall blow the trumpets . . .”    And accordingly, these ‘blasts’ are individual and distinct and each with a purpose. Paul makes mention of this in his first letter to the Corinthians by saying “For if the trumpet produces an indistinct sound, who will know to prepare for battle?” 14:8
In Revelation there are seven trumpets and Psalm 81 mandates we ‘blow (Teqia) the trumpet on each new moon, and at the Full Moon Feast Days ( Passover and Tabernacles). Again Paul speaks to the congregation at Corinth with these words –
“ in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised and those that remain shall be changed.”   In Exodus 19 the trumpet heralded the very Presence of God and preceded His speaking. 1 Thess. 4:16 tells us “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout,(Teruah) with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.” And the Prophet Joel urges to ‘Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sound the alarm . . . for the Day of the Lord is at hand . . .”
We see God using the ‘trumpet’ for a multitude of reasons. He summons His people, assembles them and directs the movements of the camp. The trumpet is used in the time of war as well as in our celebrations and our seasons of joy. The trumpet alerts the people, sounds the alarm and awakens the camp. It even announces the coming, the speaking and the very Presence of the King.    So how does that apply to me today?  Ponder this for a little while until we continue our exploration of ‘Trumpets’.
Until then – Shalom –

The link below is a youtube video by Paul Nison concerning headcoverings that was posted on our FaceBook page. Below the link are our individual comments concerning this ‘teaching’.  Please listen to the video first or the comments obviously won’t make sense. There are other comments on our page concerning this video that we did not post here. We look forward to your comments as well. Shalom

“( ok this Rhonda ). What????!!!!! A man thinks the sexiest part of a woman is her hair? You got to be kidding me!!! If you don’t have the face or the body ( being blunt here) to go along with it a man will not care what your hair looks like!!!! These are purely in the flesh reasons to do something and make it look spiritual! Where is the command in Torah that says….”a woman shall cover her head”…? It is not in there!! The Father is VERY plain and to the point and doesn’t leave us guessing on His commands and what He expects of His children. The problem is what He says is never what we want to do! We either want to add to or take away!! And because of that we start coming up with our own set of rules and then try to convince others that this is right and proper. I see this happening in Christianity and the Hebrew Roots movement. Is what the Father gave us, His commandments, not enough? It surely keeps me busy trying to observe what He said without adding a bunch of my own! I trust Him that He has given me all I need to walk before Him and be pleasing according to all His instructions ( not my own spin on things). This post is from a 63 year old woman that has been on both sides of the fence, that is Christianity and Hebrew Roots and in my younger days ( not proud of it) have been around the block or two. Some of the lame excuses being espoused to put women under bondage to man ( because this IS NOT a Torah principle) is sad and quite dismaying I must say. If this lady or anyone else feels they want to wear a headcovering then that is what THEY need to do. Please don’t be espousing that those that don’t wear one aren’t modest! That is causing and putting condemnation on women for the sake of pleasing man…..IMHO”

“Jerry here . . . well, here’s my 2-cents worth. This infuriates me. If a woman feels a personal conviction to wear head coverings, or long-sleeved shirts or no nail polish or whatever, then that woman should follow that personal conviction and we will defend that person’s right to do so. But to use and manipulate this young woman to promote a self-righteous dogma that is NOT biblical doctrine is inexcusable. IF the hair on my wife’s head being exposed causes you to lust, then pardner you’ve got issues and you probably need to sit through a deliverance session or two. This is the biggest bunch of religious drivel I’ve heard in a long time. To question the ‘modesty’ of a woman by whether or not she wears head coverings (or at least puts her hair up) elevates being asinine, insulting and ‘Pharisaic’ to new heights. It propagates condemnation, promotes another form of bondage on women and reveals the fact that ‘religious spirits’ are alive and well in the HR / Messianic camp. “Gee, I thought since we had learned a few hebrew words we were above all that . . .” well I guess we need to think again . . . I challenge anyone to show me one, just one direct command in Torah for a woman to cover her hair. And don’t give me that ‘implied command’ nonsense. We had that in the church about sunday and easter and christmas and it don’t work. I can ‘imply’ anything.”

. . was impressed to re-post this . . . Shalom

Isn’t it neat how you can read passages over and again and suddenly see a connection that you haven’t seen before. Of course, it’s because the WORD is living, breathing and constantly moving to point us where we need to go, showing us what we need to see and speaking what we need to hear.
We were reading in Exodus 39 and ran across the verses describing the turban for the High Priest, a one of a kind article for a one of a kind office. We noticed something that’s always been there . . . just hadn’t seen the connection before.
In Exodus 39:28 and following it speaks of the headdress of the High Priest. They were to fashion a gold plate, engrave it ‘HOLY TO YHWH’ and attach the gold plate to the turban with a ‘blue cord’ ( pathil tekeleth ) . Where else do we see a ‘blue cord’ ?
Numbers 15: 38 describes a ‘blue cord’ ( pathil tekeleth ) in the tzit tzitot
( the tassels ) that are there to remind us to walk according to HIS ways and not our own, to be ‘HOLY TO YHWH’ .
We are not Levites or ‘sons of Aaron’, but we ARE priests after the order of Melchizedek – Yeshua – High Priest forever. We ARE a ‘kingdom of priests’, a holy nation ( Exo. 19:6, 1 Peter 2:5, Rev. 1:6 ) And we are to be in His image, the One Who is the perfect image of our Father ( 2 Cor 4:4 ) . HE is our example ( 1 Peter 2:21 ), literally a document to be copied exactly ( Gr – hupogrammos ) . And what document would that be ? The Word, for HE is the Living Word.
Yeshua kept the Sabbath, kept the feasts, walked according to the ways of His Father, and yes, wore the tzit tziot with the ‘blue cord’. Why ? Because He was Jewish ? No. Because He was and is an obedient Son of the Father, the living, breathing Torah ( the Word became flesh . . . John 1:1 ).
Matt 5:17 “ Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
If we are born again, then we are His children. We can either walk in Yeshua’s example of obedience or walk contrary to His example, which is disobedience.
The ‘blue cord’ . . . a picture of who we are in Messiah Yeshua . . . holy, set-apart . . . ‘a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, high priests after the order of Melchizedek, anointed and appointed by the Blood of the Lamb . . . the whole House of Israel.
Eph 2 11” . . . Therefore remember you were formerly Gentiles by birth . . . 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Messiah, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah.
The wearing of the tzit tziot reminds me I am a child of the covenant . . . and if a child, then an heir . . . and a joint heir with Messiah . . . HOLY TO YHWH.

Blessings & Shalom – Rhonda & Jerry

Thus saith the LORD, “Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, wherein is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls . . .” Jeremiah 6:16
Shabbat Shalom – R&J