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

HONOR YOUR MA' AND PA'

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 his mother and his 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 may 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 seem 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 changing their diaper cramps our style, we must remember that they allowed their style to be cramped in order to care for us and change our diapers. Will we want strangers to change ours in our old age?

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 mouth because we ourselves 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.

THE UNPAYABLE DEBT!

Matthew 18:35

“So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your

brother from your heart."

Because of an erroneous stubbornly recurring antithesis theology between the Hebrew and the Apostolic Writings, people assume that Yeshua overthrew the retributive Mosaic legal code of, ‘an eye for an eye’ and replaced it with a new law based on love and forgiveness (Exodus 21:24; Matthew 5:38-41). Let’s examine the issues a little closer.

The expressions, ‘eye for an eye’ and, ‘turning the other cheek’ are not to be taken literally. These are Hebrew idioms; legal terms invoking damage restitution by a liable parties. For damage restitution not to be demanded by God’s court of law would be unjust, and Hashem cannot be unjust. ‘An eye for an eye’  is a command for an offender to restitute what is lost, broken, or stolen, as a chance to redeem himself, not for the offended to demand. For a liable party not to ‘beg’ for an opportunity to demonstrate his true repentance for his foolish actions, would show callousness and a total lack of the fear of God.

When reading the Master’s recommended application of the Torah legal code all throughout His teachings, we must realize that Yeshua could not have been changing the Torah. That would automatically make Him a false prophet to be shunned. It is because of that erroneous teaching that until today Jews will not consider Yeshua as the Messiah. What Yeshua did in His teachings was absolutely in line with Rabbinic Judaism. He took the Torah and gave His personal opinion on how to apply Its wise instructions. Most of the Master’s recommended Torah application can be found within Judaism itself. He promoted much of Rabbi Hillel’s teachings (Rabbi Hillel was Gamaliel’s (Paul’s mentor and teacher) Grand-father)).  Of course, since Yeshua is the Mashiach, His chosen applications are the right ones.

The mistake people make when they read the Master’s teachings is the failure to distinguish between obligations pertaining to Torah courts of Law, and imperatives given to individuals. Because of this, people often want to take the ‘law’ in their own hands and apply it in a vigilante style desiring wanting to kill the adulteress, the idolater and the criminals, when actually nothing of the sort can be done outside of a legal Sanhedrin ruling.

What the Master teaches us is greater than requiring the due course of justice. There is no commandment to litigate, and what Yeshua offers here is the idea of not to litigate; to rather to forgive a debt (a sin or an offense) from the heart; to not hold grudges, but instead,to rely upon Hashem for justice. This principle is the one found in the parables of the unjust servant (Matthew 18:21-35).To forgive in the legal code of Torah was not an emotional mental exercise; it was simply not to require retribution.

Come to think of it; could anyone of us be required the full mandate of the Torah for our trespasses against God?