TO LACK OR TO ABOUND

Matthew 6:33 
Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

There are two main ways the Father uses our finances to teach us: He either withholds them, or punishes us with abundance.

On the second month of their exodus the children of Israel complained about their manna diet. They wanted fresh meat. Our fathers‘ desire for meat made them complain about their blessed situation and look back at Egypt with nostalgia (Exodus 16:3). A year later they did it again (Numbers 11:4) and this time the Father from whom all blessings flow did not take too kindly to it and he addressed the issue by punishing them with abundance.

Abundance is not always a sign of God‘s blessing and approval. Abundance has a tendency to steal our hearts from God. In abundance we spend foolishly, become preoccupied with the things of the world, and find it difficult to dedicate to God in the same proportions as we did before. Avarice and greed are quick to follow and a society that has too much usually becomes fat, lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the needs of others. It seems easier to emanate godliness when things are lean. Maybe that is why many of God‘s children are blessed with leanness.

Whether we live in leanness or abundance, we should never complain. The apostle Paul was a good example of this. When addressing his own situation he said, "I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content" (Philippians 4:11). He also taught his disciples to be content with the basics of food and raiment (1Timothy 1:6); housing is not even in the deal. James, the brother of the Master did not hold too much respect for wealth either (James 5:1–6) and the Master himself encouraged us to not worry about our food and raiment but to busy ourselves with the affairs of the Kingdom (Matthew 6:31–34).

May we learn from this lesson from our fathers in the desert and realize that abundance can be a punishment as much as poverty. Poverty usually drives us to desperation and to Hashem; abundance steals our hearts away from he who is the Fountain of everlasting life.

May we not grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer, but remember that these things happened to them as an example, that they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come (1 Corinthians 10:10–11) .

May we pray the wise prayer from King Solomon, Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, "Who is ADONAI?" or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God. (Proverbs 30:8–9).

P. Gabriel Lumbroso

"THOU SHALT NOT" ... WHINE.

1 Corinthians 10:11                                                                            Sivan12/ בסיבן יב

These things happened to them as an example . . .

were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

It seems that few things exacerbate the Father more than his people griping and complaining. He can freely set before us the best food ever concocted in the kitchens of heaven, but we will still complain and would rather have the dainties brought by slavery. And why do we complain? There is really nothing wrong with the food Hashem gives us except that, it is not what we want.

Woe unto us and to our evil inclination! This tendency to complain and always wanting more was the basic lusting nature behind the sin in the Garden of Eden. We always seem to want what Hashem in his goodness and wisdom withholds from us, and like today’s manufacturers of goods, the devil is always happy to oblige. The worst of it is that today’s worldly merchants know about our natural bend to whine and gripe and they constantly play on it in order to make a profit. They constantly tell people, “Aren’t you tired of this or that, behold I have the solution that will help you not to have work so hard, be more comfortable, or here is the food that will delight your palate, all for only $ . . . ! How can you live without it?” They make a profit and feed on our complaining nature.

It is so easy to look at the children of Israel in the desert and wonder how they could complain so much, but in reality, we complain as much as they do and about the same things. Food, hard work, leadership, and the sometimes-monotonous daily grind of life seem to be our main areas of complaint. We feel that the way God does things is not good enough. We must improve on his plan for us and make every decision in our lives from the color and consistency of our hair to whether or not to have children. We even want to decide the day of our death and call it Death with Dignity as if Hashem was not able to do that for us. We always think that we deserve more than the simple life our Father would have us live according to his will, so we enslave ourselves to another master: the Master Card! But Yeshua told us that we cannot serve two masters, that we cannot serve God and Mammon (Matthew 6:24, KJV).

The area of complaint that seems the most destructive in the congregational body of Messiah seems to be each other. Whereas we complain about having to put up with others, we seem to forget that also others have to put up with us. We always feel that people should have learned certain lessons by now so we show ourselves intolerant and impatient. We forget that in the Father’s eyes, we probably should be a bit more advanced ourselves in our spiritual growth and that we only exist by the mercy of his great compassion.

May we learn from the lessons of the children of Israel in the desert and realize that these things happened to them as an example. They were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come (1 Corinthians 10:11).

P. Gabriel Lumbroso

SECOND CHANCES

Matthew 18:21–22                                                                                                     Sivan 11/ בסון יא

Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?  . . .

Yeshua said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.

As they were leaving Egypt, God gave Israel commands concerning their lives in their Land. One of them was to celebrate the Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread (Exodus 12:19). If this command was already given in Exodus and in Leviticus 23, why is it repeated in Numbers (Numbers 9:1–5)?

The distance from Mt. Horeb to the borders of Israel is not great and at the times of Numbers, the children of Israel should already have been in the Land. The problem was that they were delayed at least three months by the golden calf incident. The Torah allows second chances. We may orchestrate the most elaborate fail-safe plan against sin, but life has a habit of throwing curve balls at us. In spite of our loftier dreams and ideals, at the end of the day, we have to deal with the reality on the ground, and it seems that Hashem is fully aware of it.

In Numbers 9 we also have the case of a family who would miss the precious Passover celebration because of a death. In this case, Hashem again gives them the chance to celebrate Passover on the following month. This case foreshadowed Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. The two men cared for the Master’s body on the night of Passover 2,000 years ago so being ritually contaminated, they could not eat of the Passover lamb that year.  It was a traditional belief with the early Jerusalem believers that the two men reclined at the Passover table on the second month of the year for what is called: Pesach Sheni: The Second Passover.

It takes maturity and godliness to not be frustrated at the way things are compared to the way they should be. I know someone who when things do not work out the way he has dreamed he says, “It is what it is.” I think sometimes that Hashem looks at us with empathy and says, “It is what it is,” and then, he tries to give us a second chance. He tells us that we can celebrate the Passover in the desert instead of in the Land, or that we can celebrate it on the second month if reality kept us from doing it on the first. The whole idea of redemption and atonement is in fact about second chances.

Again we stand in awe at the perfect Almighty God, creator of the universe, as he seems to be able to bend to the bare facts of our lives on earth. He proposes and offers us the great ideals of his Torah with the full knowledge of our imperfectness towards it and seems to say, "It is what it is."

How much more then should we be able to bear with each other’s imperfection? How much patience and forgiveness and bending ability the Father has for each one of us should be the standard of ours towards others? The novice forgets about his own imperfections and looks at others condescendingly wondering how come they don’t toe the line better. The seasoned mature leader and disciple of the Master knows life, that “It is what it is,” and deals with it not according to his lofty dreams but according to the realities on the ground.

May we learn from Hashem, the great Father who loves us so much that he gave us a second chance in his Messiah. May we also have the maturity to accord that second chance to those we meet in this life's journey. 

P. Gabriel Lumbroso

LEADING BY EXAMPLE

1 Peter 1:14                                                                                   
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

One of the laws of holiness, of the laws that set us apart from the world is, “Every one of you shall revere your mother and your father” (Leviticus 19:3). Reverence towards our parents sets us aside from the world so we should be seen honoring and revering our parents. This was the first commandment given with a conditional promise, that your days might be long in the land that Adonai your God is giving you (Exodus 20:12). There are two commandments with a longevity conditional clause, and they are both related to parenthood (Deuteronomy 22:7–8). Yes, to honor and reverence our parents is an integral law of the Kingdom of God; it will also be the rule of law in the world to come under the iron rule of Messiah when he reigns on earth.

It is easy to direct such a commandment towards our Western generation of teenagers. The society we have created around them seems to teach them very little respect for their parents. Could it be though that we need to direct this command towards ourselves? How much honor and reverence do we have for our parents? To honor our parents in the terms of the Torah means to support them. Exodus 20:12 basically says, (my suggested interpretation) "you shall support your parents in their old age, not send them to a government institution to be taken care of by strangers whose sole interest is to get paid for the job." If caring for them and helping to feed and assist them cramps our style, we must remember that they allowed their style to be cramped in order to care for us in the same manner that they now need us. We must also remember that one day we shall be in a similar situation.

Revering parents speaks of respect. It is understandable that some of us may have had abusive parents who seem unworthy of respect or even of the title but these are different situations that are outside of this commandment. Whereas our parents may not be respectable, our children should not hear negative feelings towards them out of our mouths. If they do, these same words will most certainly come back to us in their mouths because we are not perfect parents either. Forgiveness is not an option; it’s a commandment from the Master who himself followed Hashem’s commands to forgive by forgiving the abuse of his persecutors (Luke 19:18; Mark 11:25–26; Luke 23:24). Sad to say, in too many homes children hear their parents speak negatively, disparagingly, disrespectfully, or even mockingly about their older parents.

We often think of teaching as speaking, and of learning as listening, and as a result many of us try to teach others by telling them how to live. This was not the way of the Master. Like the rabbis of the day, the Master taught by exemplifying the Torah, by living it and encouraging his disciples to follow his example. Paul was cradled in the same pedagogy and taught it (1 Corinthians 11:1). Teaching is by doing, and learning is by emulating.

The way we react towards our parents is closely tied to the way we react to God. If we know how to trust our wiser parents, we will know how to trust the wiser leadership of the Master. 


 P. Gabriel Lumbroso
www.thelumbrosos.com

For P. Gabriel Lumbroso's devotional UNDER THE FIG TREE in Kindle edition click here.

SAMSON AND MESSIAH

John 3:14                                                                                             

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

When Jacob blessed his twelve sons, he told them each what would happen in the future. When it came to Dan, the old patriarch said,

Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse's heels so that his rider falls backward. For your salvation I wait for your salvation, Adonai. (Genesis 49:16–18)

The text of the prophecy seems to be disjointed. The sages of Judaism commented on this and said, "Our forefather Jacob foresaw Samson and thought that he was the Messiah. But when he saw his death he exclaimed, ' For your salvation I wait for your salvation, Adonai.'"

Samson was a descendant from the tribe of Dan and a Nazirite by birth. He is the fruit of a miraculous birth announced to his parents by an angel (Judges 13:3); his ways left his people wondering about him; he even lived outside of Israel with the Gentile Philistines for a while. He was a Nazirite but seemed to carelessly come in contact with what should be considered unclean to him. In the end, Samson vanquished the Philistines, the powerful enemy of Israel, by giving his life. 

Jacob was not out of his mind when he thought he saw Messiah in Samson. As iconoclastic as he was, Samson foreshadowed David's victory over Goliath. David did not die in battle giving his life, but he did spend some time living with the Philistines when he was in disfavor with Saul.

Further down the messianic genealogies, Samson does foreshadow Messiah, Messiah whose miraculous birth was announced to his parents by an angel, who spent some time ministering outside of Israel, who took a nazirite vow before he died, and who gave his life defeating the enemy of our souls forever.

What about the snake in the prophecy?

Jacob may have seen how through Jeroboam, the tribe of Dan led the Northern Kingdom to idolatry and heresy. They even used the brazen snake Moses was asked to make in the desert (Numbers 21:9).

Come to think of it, Yeshua also compared himself to that snake. As we look up to him raised on the wooden pole, we live (John 3:14).

P. Gabriel Lumbroso

www.thelumbrosos.com

For P. Gabriel Lumbroso's devotional UNDER THE FIG TREE in Kindle edition click here.

HOREB IN JERUSALEM

Act 2:3
And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.

I would like you to stand with me now at Mt. Horeb. It has been fifty days now that Israel left Egypt. They have learned to trust Hashem for their deliverance from oppression, for their food, for their water, for their military might, and also to make a way for them though the wilderness and even through the sea if necessary. Now they are getting ready to meet the mighty one who did all this for them.

For two days the children of Israel have been getting ready. They have obeyed everything Hashem asked them to do. They washed their clothes, immersed themselves regularly, and refrained from intimacy with their spouses. The camp is becoming completely ritually sanctified. The spirits are high, the anticipation is great, and everybody is wondering what will happen next. Hashem did tell them to,

Be ready for the third day. For on the third day Adonai will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, 'Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death (Exodus 19:11–12). 

All of a sudden it happens. Hashem reveals himself. How does he reveal himself? With words. He starts speaking and everybody listens. Not only do the people hear the words but they see them, each one in his own language in flames of fire amidst the sound of the loud trumpet, of the wind, and of the quaking earth. The Torah tells us that the people could not bear it so they ask Moses to hear for them.

When all the people saw the flashes of lightning and the mountain smoking and heard the thunder and the sound of the trumpet, they were afraid and trembled. They stood far off and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die" (Exodus 20:18–21).

Let us time travel now 1,400 years later to another sixth of Sivan. This time we are in Jerusalem.

Because of the persecution against the followers of Yeshua, the Nazarene rabbi, Jerusalem is a dangerous place for the disciples. They are only staying in Jerusalem because ten days before, when the Master ascended in front of them, he commanded them

Not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, ‘you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’ (Acts 1:4–5).

For several days the disciples of the Master witnessed the throngs of people coming for the festival of Shavuot/Pentecost. Caravans of people and goods already came from all around Israel and from countries. The city was buzzing with activity but the disciples were quiet in their houses. They had spent the whole previous night studying and reading the Torah, especially the texts about the giving of the Torah at Mt. Horeb on that day 1,400 years before.

Suddenly, a wind blew inside their house. It was blowing in the house but not outside. It got even more exciting when flames of fire appeared on their heads. People from all around heard the commotion so they came to see what was happening. Peter then took the lead and told them not to worry, that it was only the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy (Acts 2:17–21).

And what more, as they started speaking, the disciples realized that they could share what they had to say in all the languages of the many people present. 

The day went on in festivities and joy as is usual on this festival day and in the evening the disciples retired and shared notes about the events of the day. It is then that, as they thought about the tongues of fire, the wind, the earthquake, the speaking in many languages, that they realized that they experienced a repeat of what happened at Mt. Horeb 1,400 years before. As they realized their new boldness and abilities to share their message, they also realized that the promise of the Father had come.


 P. Gabriel Lumbroso
www.thelumbrosos.com

For P. Gabriel Lumbroso's devotional UNDER THE FIG TREE in Kindle edition click here.

THEY WILL BE "INNUMERABLE" HE SAID!

Hebrews 4:1                                                                                                            
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.

Working alongside the idea of a census of Israel in Numbers 1, we have a section in the text of the prophet Hoseah that tells us that Israel, "shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered" (Hoseah 1:10 [2:1]). Today, according to Jewish accounting, there are about 15 million Jews in the world. Despite being one of the smallest religious entities in the world, it is still quite a miracle. We must remember that from the onset of their history, from barren mothers to international threats of annihilation, it seems that the Jewish people were not destined to survive. A friend of mine who has worked much of her life to promote Jewish identity told me once that in the Holocaust it was not 6 million people who were killed, but 100 million. Her notion about this was that along with these people, were destroyed all the generations that should have come out of them. If we applied this principle all the way back to when the Romans killed millions of Jews in the first century C.E., Hoseah's prophecy should have been fulfilled by now.

Moses foresaw the present-day Great Exile when the children of Israel would become few in numbers. He said,

"When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of Adonai your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And Adonai will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where Adonai will drive you. (Deuteronomy 4:25–27)."

But using the promise in Hoseah, Jewish sages concluded that "In the Messianic Age, the sons of Israel will 'be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered'" (Numbers Rabbah 2:14;20:25).

Hoseah tells us in his prophecy that in that day, "The children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land (Ezekiel 37) for great shall be the day of Jezreel" (Hoseah 1:11). This head is none other than Messiah, the only legitimate king to sit on the throne of Jerusalem. Even now he is doing his work that he started 2,000 years ago of re-gathering all the tribes of Israel into one flock to serve Hashem under his command.

As of the 20th century, entire families who have been lost under the forced conversions of the Inquisition rediscovered their Jewish identities. Whole villages of people with Jewish ancestries in places such as India, Ethiopia, Russia, and China are returning to their ancient roots. Through DNA testing, people's lives are being changed as they discover their Jewish lineage. And best of all, is the latest Jewish trend to recognize the head that will lead them to their glorious destiny: Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah.

Hoseah speaks of a time when Hashem turned his face and said to the Northern tribes, "You are not my people" but in our Messiah is certainly fulfilled the rest of Hoseah's prophecy, the part when Hashem calls them again, "Children of the living God" (Hoseah 1:10 [2:1]). 
 P. Gabriel Lumbroso
www.thelumbrosos.com

For P. Gabriel Lumbroso's devotional UNDER THE FIG TREE in Kindle edition click here.

FIRSTBORNS AND FIRSTFRUITS

Revelations 14: 4
These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb.

In the beginning of the Book of Numbers, we learn about the redemption of the firstborn (Numbers 3:43–51). Joseph and Miriam brought Yeshua, their firstborn to the Temple to be redeemed. The functioning priest who performed the redemption that day was Simeon (Luke 2:22–26). Since there is no Temple today there cannot be a functioning priest so the redemption ceremony that Jews currently practice is only ceremonial one as they wait for the days of the third Temple. Though non-applicable at this time, the principle is still rich.

Israel, as the biological descent of Jacob is called God’s firstborn (Exodus 4:22), and according to the Torah, the firstborn has a special status in the family. They receive a double inheritance and carry the role of patriarchs of the family, clan, or tribe. The role of firstborn is not necessarily according to chronological birth. God often usurped it because of the unrighteousness of the actual firstborn. We see this principle at work in the cases of Isaac against Ishmael, Jacob against Esau and Joseph against Reuben.

The idea of firstborn is linked to the idea of firstfruit. A harvest is dedicated to God by the waving of the firstfruit, of the first harvested omer. In the very same manner, a family of sheep or goats is consecrated to God by the giving up and consecration of the one who opens the matrix. The Book of Revelation tells us about the consecrated firstborn of the harvest of the earth. They come from the twelve tribes of Israel (Jacob’s descendants). They have been chosen and sealed by Hashem with his name and that of the Lamb. In essence, they are Messiah believers from the twelve tribes of Israel and they represent the harvest of believers from the whole world before the Father (Revelation 7; 14:1–4). Yeshua himself is their firstborn who represents them before the Father (1 Corinthians 15:20).

We are approaching the end of the season of counting the Omer. On the first day of the Counting of the Omer the first sheave of barley was brought to the temple for the dedication of the harvest. Messiah rose on the Day of Firstfruits. Later during the counting of Omer he appointed his intimate disciples, his firstborn harvest from the Land of Israel as his representatives to the rest of the tribes in Diaspora, and to the world (Matthew 28).

The fiftieth and last day of the Omer, which is Pentecost, is the time for the firstfruit of Israel’s wheat to be brought to the Temple.  On that day also, Israelites and God-fearers from other countries brought their firstfruit to Jerusalem, as they did also during the time of the book of Acts. These became the firstfruit of Diaspora Israelites (Acts 2). Through them, the Words of the Master were carried to the rest of the world until today. Hallelu-Yah!


 P. Gabriel Lumbroso
www.thelumbrosos.com

For P. Gabriel Lumbroso's devotional UNDER THE FIG TREE in Kindle edition click her

STAND UP AND BE COUNTED!

Matthew 10:31                                                                                  
Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 

In the first chapter of the Book of Numbers we read about a census taken of the Children of Israel. It is not the first census in the Torah and neither will it be the last. Censuses are conducted with different parameters and for different purposes. This census in the Book of Numbers was a military census (Numbers 1:3).

One could be left to wonder "what is it with God and censuses?" To what can it be compared? It can be compared to a man collecting precious pearls. Each day he dives to the bottom of the abyss to gather oysters. After opening the shell, he puts all the pearl into a box. He then rubs each one against his teeth to verify its purity, and sorts them by sizes. One can go through a ton of pearls to get three or four very valuable ones. These are precious to him. They come at the price of very intense and dangerous labor. In the evening he sets them before him and counts them. He admires and loves his pearls; they are his pride. It is the same with Hashem: censuses are a sign of his affection for his people.

Here is what Rashi, a famous sage of Israel, said about God’s censuses:

Because of Israel’s dearness before Him, he counts them all the time. When they departed from Egypt he counted them (Exodus 12:37). After some fell from the sin of the golden calf, he counted them to determine how many remained (Exodus 38:25–26). And when his Shekinah came to rest upon them, he counted them again.

There is an ancient teaching that on ten occasions Israel was numbered. First when they went down to Egypt (Deuteronomy 10:22), second when they came out of Egypt (Exodus 12:37), and a third time after the incident of the golden calf (Exodus 30:12). They were counted twice in the Book of Numbers, once in connection  with the standards, once in connection with the division of the Land, and twice in the days of Saul (1 Samuel 11:8; 15:4). The eight time was in the days of David (2 Samuel 24:9) and the ninth in the days of Ezra after the Babylonian captivity (Ezra 2:64).

Prophet Jeremiah tells us that there will be a tenth census the   in the future,

Thus says Adonai of hosts: In this place that is waste, without man or beast, and in all of its cities, there shall again be habitations of shepherds resting their flocks. In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negeb, in the land of Benjamin, the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, flocks shall again pass under the hands of the one who counts them, says Adonai. "Behold, the days are coming, declares Adonai, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah (Jeremiah 33:12–14).

In those days, the whole of the Israel of God, the last harvest of the souls of the world will be counted. See you there!

 P. Gabriel Lumbroso
www.thelumbrosos.com

For P. Gabriel Lumbroso's devotional UNDER THE FIG TREE in Kindle edition click here.

THE VOICE OF THE WILDERNESS

Matthew 4:1 
Then Yeshua was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness …

"Adonai spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai" (Numbers 1:1). 

Maybe you are going through a dry spiritual season; a time of wilderness. Neither fear nor despair, for it is the creator of your soul who brought you there.

Wildernesses hold special places in our lives. They become reference points in our lives forever. They often are places of refuge (Revelations 12:6), provision (Deuteronomy 8:16), revelation (Revelation 17:3), and maturation (Deuteronomy 8:2–3). 

Our fathers’ crossing the desert was really their honey-moon with Hashem. Relatively speaking they had very little cares or worries. Supplied with a constant provision of the most healthy food you can get on this earth and a fountain of water that followed them, they were under Hashem’s never failing trust fund. . On top of it, through the person of Moses, they had direct access to Hashem. It is no wonder they did not want to enter the Land. They were going to have to start planting and sowing fields, reaping harvests, organize a government as well as an effective army.

Adonai remembers these years in the desert with the nostalgia of a husband remembering his early espousals. Through the prophet Hoseah he speaks of alluring his Bride to a desert place where she could give him her full attention (Hoseah 2:14), then he says, "I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown (Jeremiah 2:2). Each year at the Feast of Tabernacles we are to remember these simple beginnings of our walk Hashem (Leviticus 23:41–43).

Just like our fathers spent forty years in the desert learning to lean and depend on God in obedience and trust for even their daily food, Yeshua spent forty days and forty nights in the wilderness learning the same lessons (Matthew 4:1–12). If both our Fathers and the Master had to go though these things, why should we feel slighted when Hashem decides to have us to endure what seems to be a dry time? 

Cherish your wilderness times. They are times for you to focus your attention on the only things that really matter which are Hashem, his will in your life, and his Words. May we, like our Fathers and our Master also learn, grow, and mature from our wilderness times.

 P. Gabriel Lumbroso
www.thelumbrosos.com

For P. Gabriel Lumbroso's devotional UNDER THE FIG TREE in Kindle edition click here.

THE SON WITH THE BEAUTIFUL COAT

Matthew 23:39                          

For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'

Leviticus 26 tells us the woes Hashem puts on his children for disobedience. The first woe tells of sickness, and, military and agricultural failure. The second woe speaks of the Temple. Then Hashem says,

And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins, and I will break the pride of your power and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit. (Leviticus 26:18–20).

The prophet Ezekiel used that theme just before the destruction of Solomon’s Temple, said, “Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, and the yearning of your soul, and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword "(Ezekiel 24:21). At that time, because of sin in the land, the first temple was destroyed by the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar.

Israel’s history tells us that another Temple was built after the Babylonian exile. It was not as beautiful and glorious as the first one but in an effort to win the favor of the Jewish people, King Herod, the one who tried to have the Master killed at birth, transformed that second temple into one of the marvels of the ancient world. As beautiful as it was, that Temple was also destroyed, this time by Titus, a Roman General. On Titus’ victory arch, you can see engravings of enslaved Jews bringing their riches to Rome. You can even see someone carrying the Temple menorah. What an ironic monument now that Israel had resurrected from the ashes of the Roman extermination.

There is a story in the Talmud that tells of a king who twice gave a beautiful coat to his son but twice the son irresponsibly spoiled the coat. The king then decided that he will again buy for his son the most beautiful coat he could get, but will give it to him when he has learned to be more responsible.

As in the story, the Father has a beautiful third garment in store for Israel (Exodus 4:22). It will be the most glorious of all and it will be given to him, when he has matured and learned to say again, Baruch habah b’shem Adonai  יי בשם הבא ברוך, Blessed is he Who comes in the Name of Adonai (Matthew 23:29).

May it come soon, Abba, even in our days!

  P. Gabriel Lumbroso

www.thelumbrosos.com

For P. Gabriel Lumbroso's devotional UNDER THE FIG TREE in Kindle edition click here.

"BETTER THAN I DESERVE!"

Colossians 2:14                                                                              
Canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

 As much as Leviticus tells us of the blessings incurred by those who walk in Hashem’s instruction, it also tells us of the curses that befall those who don’t (Leviticus 26). There is a common teaching out there that claims that in his death and resurrection, Yeshua conquered and annulled the curse that comes through disobedience and that only the blessings remain. In essence, this would mean that the Torah has lost its teeth; there is no more retribution for sin. 

This view of the Torah is due to misinterpretations of Paul's letters, especially the one written to the believers in Galatia, is mostly due to mistranslation. This misinterpretation in turn is partly due to the influence of a translation done under an erroneous theology that discarded the writings of Leviticus assuming that the ancient Hebrew Scriptures are obsolete. The translators obviously were not familiar with the religious, theological, cultural, and social context of Paul's Letter to the Galatians.

One of the statements in question is, “Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us … (Galatians 3:13)” which most people interpret to mean that the Torah itself is a curse. This  would this fly in the face of its life giving purpose (Psalms 19:7) and eternal status (Psalms 19:9), and  go against everything King David said about it (Psalms 119. In addition, it is also recorded in Biblical and historical records of the life of the disciples, that they actually were very religious. Torah observance was in fact part of their testimony. Either Paul's statement is a forgery, Paul was wrong, the translators got it wrong, or there is a misunderstanding of its meaning. I stand for the two last options.

John the Disciple taught much about the nature of sin. He said that sin was the actual transgression, or breaking of Torah commands (1 John 3:4) and that those who say they don't sin deceive themselves (1 John 1:8). The Torah with its definition of sin is supposed to be life-giving to us (Deuteronomy 4:1). When it does not, could it be that it is because we are wrong? I have travelled to many places, and have very often seen people transform the good that is given to them into a curse or something evil. 

I heard a statement on the news the other day. Some law-maker claimed that crime would go down if they decriminalized a certain activity currently considered against the law.: When the law is altered, the criminal is no more a criminal. On the other hand, it doesn't change the behavior or the heart of the law-breaker, and it endorses criminal activity. In a Roman court of law, a record of debts, or law-breaking activities, is brought to the judge by the prosecutor. It is the same in the heavenly court but this time, it is the Accuser of the saints who brings legal charges against us, and he does so demanding the death penalty according to the. The death mentioned here is not the biological death which we all partake of, but the death that separates us from God forever. We must never forget though that the only reason we do not get the punishment of this death is because Mashiach takes it for us in a settlement out of court. The charges against us are not deleted; they are just paid by someone else! The credit found in the virtue of his innocent suffering is enough to pay for our debt. He is the only one whose righteousness successfully defied death and conquered it. In Yeshua, The prosecutor found its match!

We owe him our lives. Our lives belong to him and we should live in a state of eternal gratitude. When asked "How are you?" A famous radio show host always answers,”Better than I deserve”. That should be the sentiments that runs through our being day and night, for we certainly are “better than we deserve”!

 P. Gabriel Lumbroso
www.thelumbrosos.com

For P. Gabriel Lumbroso's devotional UNDER THE FIG TREE in Kindle edition click here

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