THE TORAH PENTECOST CONNECTION

Act 2:3

And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.

The English narrative that concludes God’s uttering of His Ten Statements at Mt. Horeb tells us, Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking … (Exodus 20:18). The Hebrew on the other hand literally reads, “And all the people 'saw' the voices and the torches”. One may see a ‘torch’, but how does one see a “voice”? The question may have pushed English translators to stray from a literal rendition of the verse, but not the Hebrew sages. Also, the congregation at Horeb was composed of people from many nations, so for everyone to ‘understand’ them (a Hebrew synonym for ‘seeing’), the Ten Statements would have had to be uttered in several languages.

How do you see a voice, and how does a single voice speak in many languages?  When Moses recounts these events to the second generation of the Children of Israel in the desert he says, Then Adonai spoke to you out of the midst of the fire (Deuteronomy 4:12). One of the sages saw this verse through the lenses of the following passage, Is not my word like fire, declares Adonai, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces (Jeremiah 23:29)? The sages of Israel have always described these events as the Voice of God splitting into seventy voices speaking seventy different tongues and that these voices were actually like hot sparks flying forth from a hammer’s blow on a stone and becoming tongues of fire. This may sound farfetched, but is it really?

Fourteen hundred years after these events Yeshua, the Prophet 'like unto Moses', (Deuteronomy 18:15) came to give His elucidation of the Heavenly Voices. When He was on earth, like Moses He climbed a mountain and His disciples came to Him (Exodus 24:9; Matthew 5:1-2). Later, on the same Jewish calendar date as the Horeb events (Pentecost, or fifty days after the resurrection) as the disciples were celebrating the festival of Pentecost they saw these voices in the form of tongues of fire that gave them ability to speak in the languages of all the foreign pilgrims then present for the festival in Jerusalem (Acts 2:1-5).  These ‘voices’ were later to be sent to the whole world to reach out to the lost sheep of the House of Israel and to the nations with their message.

Today we, followers of the Jewish Messiah Yeshua HaMashiach, are these ‘Voices’ of fire from Sinai. Today, from where ever we are in the world we are Hashem's emissaries and apostles of the great message spoken at Sinai. I usually teach my students that the Words of the Ten Statements uttered at Horeb elucidated by God’s Agent Yeshua, constitute the solution to all of the world’s social problems.

But the people must not only hear the message, they must also see it. They must see it in the exemplary walk of our lives. A tall order maybe, but a lot is at stake and His Spirit is ever present to help us. Truly, Yeshua ever lives to make intercession off us (John 14:26; Hebrews 7:25). May we not fail in our mission!

SLAVES TO THE 'COMPASS'

John 8:36

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 

Our fathers were slaves in Egypt. Pharaoh ordered their lives. He told them what to work, where to work, and how to work. He told them to serve him and no one else.  Pharaoh was to be obeyed and worshipped under pain of death. When they cried under the cruel oppression, the Almighty El-Shaddai heard them and by His mighty Right Hand delivered them. He delivered them, brought them to a mountain and bound them to Him and to His Laws. Hashem’s Law then ordered our father’s lives. It told them what to work, where to work, and how to work; to serve Adonai and no-one else.  Adonai was to be obeyed and worshipped under pain of death.

For those who have a tendency to think that living under the Torah is a form of bondage, it could be concluded that the Children of Israel went from one bondage to another; from slavery under Pharaoh to slavery under God. Indeed, judging by the way living under the commandments of Torah is viewed by many people today, these conclusions are inevitable.

Let me indulge in a mariner’s analogy. A sailor is at sea. He is in charge of an expensive vessel. He is also responsible for the life of a crew and he has a mission to accomplish. He is at the helm. He has a serious look on his face and does not make a move. He does not take one decision without checking his compass. This reliance on the compass determines the success or failure of his mission, the safety of his vessel; the life and death of his crew. I heard it said that if a sailor wants to enjoy the high seas, he must become 'slave' to the compass.

My friend, thus it is with life. To keep our traveling vessel worthy, to preserve the life of those entrusted in our care, and to accomplish the goal for which we were sent on the high-seas of life, we also must become slave to the ‘Compass’, and in this case, the ‘Compass’ is the Torah.

A famous American folk singer used to sing the words, "You’re gonna have to serve somebody; whether it may the devil or whether it may be the Lord, you’re gonna have to serve somebody!" This is so true. In the end, we truly always have to serve somebody. We either serve the idolatrous King of the land or we serve Hashem. And even if our lives are not regulated by external forces, we eventually become slaves to the worse bondage of all: the bondage to our own passions.  

Serving God under His Torah is the most wonderful freedom of all. It means freedom from human slavery, self-imposed or otherwise. It is the wings that free us from even the bondage of gravity to take us to higher ground. It is the very substance that delivers us from the fear of death to bring us to eternal life. If that is bondage, may I live under it all the days of my life. 

THE FIRST AND THE LAST TRUMPET

1 Corinthians 15:52

… At the last trumpet.

Paul, Yeshua’s emissary speaks to us about the ‘last blow of the shofar’ (1 Corinthians 15:52).  If there is a last blow there must also be a first. Through the passage of time, the last blow of the shofar is an echo of the first shofar blown at Horeb.

The first shofar is blown to herald the grand entrance of the King in the lives of men. The King entered the created dimension and His feet touched the mountain (Exodus 19:11). Later, He whom they saw as Hashem and who did not lay His hand on them also enjoyed a meal with the elders of Israel sitting at His feet (Exodus 24:9-11; Exodus 33:20). In the same manner, the last shofar will herald the arrival of Hashem's King whose feet will touch the mountain. He will also recline for a meal with His true followers, with those who cared not to lose their lives for Him (Zechariah 14:4; Revelations 19:7-9).

At the Exodus, while Egypt drowned and licked its wounds from the results of a series of plagues, our fathers were placed under the legislation of God’s eternal Instruction.  By these, they were to be a light to the rest nations of the world. At the last shofar, while the worlds also licks its wounds from the plagues of God’s judgments, through Instruction flowing from Jerusalem, those of the nations who remain will also be placed under the legislation of the Light of Torah, the constitution of the Word to Come (Micah 4:2).

When a man blows the shofar, he starts out strong then grows weaker as he runs out breath. It is not so with the God whose breath (in Hebrew: ruach meaning: spirit or /breath) is infinite. The mighty El-Shaddai doesn’t run out of breath as the text in Exodus tells us, As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder …(Exodus 19:19).

Looking at our sad world today, it can easily be concluded that all of its problems are the result of breaking the fundamental instruction taught at Mt Horeb. One of the sages of Israel defined that just by keeping the last of Horeb’s Ten Statements we keep all the rest of them. Indeed if we (10) do not covet the things that we do not have or even need, (1) we worship our One God and (2) are not tempted the dainties offered us by idol-worshipping; (3) we do not need to lie so we do not need to take His Name in vain by swearing falsely (Matthew 5:33-37); (4) we do not find it binding to take a day off from lucrative activities to spend it with Hashem and those created in His image such as family and friends, and (5) we have no qualms about morally and financially supporting our aged parents. The absence of covetousness also negates the need for (6) murder, (7) adultery), (8) stealing, and (9) lying. 

Thus is the legislation of the Messianic Era now and in the World to Come.

May it come soon Adon Yeshua, even in our days!

P. Gabriel Lumbroso

For a Kindle edition of my devotional UNDER THE FIG TREE, click HERE.

THE SECOND EXODUS

Luke 1:54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy. Through Moses, Hashem instituted that His people should remember the Passover, the great Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land. In those days the Creator of the universe revealed Himself to His people in the form of a burning, but non-consuming bush; this was His He chose to show His people His great love, care, and power to redeem. At that time Hashem wrought great miracles, miracles we still talk about today, miracles which are even documented with evidence from land and sea. One of those great miracles was that as God redeemed His people, a great multitude of Gentiles cast their lot with Moses and Israel, following them to find refuge from tyrannical, doomed, and destroyed Egypt, and in the God of Israel. During His last Seder, the Master enjoined His disciples to also remember Him at the time of the Passover. For in His days the 'Consuming Fire' (Deuteronomy 4:24), also revealed Himself to His people in a 'non-consuming' manner in order to show them His great love, care, and power to redeem them not only from Rome, but from the ‘world’, from the ungodliness that is in them since the Fall. At that time Hashem wrought great miracles, miracles we still talk about today and are even documented with evidence from land and sea. One of those great miracles was that as God renewed His covenant with His people, a great multitude of Gentiles cast their lot with Yeshua and the disciples, following them to find refuge from tyrannical, doomed, and destroyed Rome, and in the God of Israel. Since the time when Rome expulsed Israel from the country God had given them, Israel sought refuge in those nations that came to know the Messiah of Israel. These nations, for the most important part oppressed them. But even before the days of the Master the prophet Jeremiah uttered the following words, "Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares Adonai, when it shall no longer be said, 'As Adonai lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' but 'As Adonai lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.' For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers (Jeremiah 16:14-15). This will be the second great Exodus, one Yeshua initiated 2,000 years ago. In those days the Creator of the universe will reveal Himself to His people through His Mashiach in order to show them His great love, care and power to redeem them from the nations that will surround them in an attempt to annihilate them. In those days, Hashem will valiantly perform again great miracles, miracles that will be documented and spoken about forever and ever over land and sea. One of those great miracles will be that as God redeems His people, a great multitude of Gentiles will also be redeemed joining Israel in finding refuge in the great Kingdom of God to come. May it be soon Abba, even in our days!