THE ELUL CHECKLIST

The disciples of Yeshua of the first century C.E. believed they would see the return of their Master in their lifetime or that of their children. In Emperor Nero and Domitian, they saw the Antichrists often spoken of by the prophets Daniel and Ezekiel, by Yeshua, Paul, and John. For that reason, much of Paul's writings are in the context of preparing the congregations of Messiah for evil days ahead.

Just like Messiah had His foreshadows in some of the patriarchs and prophets, the Antichrist has his foreshadows in the heads of world Empires and evil dictators of History. Whereas Nero and Domitian were not the 'Antichrist', they were foreshadows of him. 

Today, while we may not live under the 'Antichrist', maybe our children will, and if not them, maybe our grandchildren. Each year we celebrate the Fall Feasts which in Hebrew are called 'rehearsals'. The Fall Feasts speak of the time when the Messiah comes, when Yeshua will return. They are therefore rehearsals for that Blessed Day. In Judaism we do not try to figure out the date of the Messiah but are taught to be ready each year by preparing ourselves for it at the Fall Feasts, especially during the forty days preceding Yom Kippur, the most likely 'time' Yeshua will set His feet on the Mt of Olives. These forty days start with the first of Elul which was in this year's Gregorian calendar last 18^th of September. 

If our grandchildren are to be ready, we better live lives that reflect that readiness in the sight of our children, so they will in turn teach their children, our grand-children. Paul gave to the Thessalonians congregation a readiness class in the form of a 'checklist' for that day. Oddly enough, unlike some to day who urge us to be ready, this 'checklist' did not have anything to do with self-preservation or survival such as changing money to gold, growing beans in their yard, or live outside the city in a self-contained environment. Paul's idea of preparation was first and foremost concerning inter-personal relationship, as well as their relationship with God. Here is what Paul said to prepare the congregations for that Day (my comments in italics): 

1 Thessalonians 5

"Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you (You know the 'season' of the coming of Messiah: the Fall Feasts). For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of Adonai will come like a thief in the night (a Talmudic expression referring to Rosh Hashana, 10 days before Yom Kippur). While people are saying, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.  

But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief (you are enlightened by the knowledge and teachings of the Word about the Fall Feasts, so you will not be surprised like the others).  For you are all children of light (light = knowledge), children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness (darkness = ignorance).  

So then;

·         Let us not sleep, as others do (sleep: a Talmudic expression for being oblivious to our responsibilities towards God's Instruction),

·         But let us keep awake and be sober (a Talmudic expression for being conscious of our responsibilities towards God's Instruction). 

For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.  But since we belong to the day,

·         let us be sober:  

Now the checklist continues: 

·         Having put on the breastplate of faith (like Moses who fled Egypt and put his lot with God, learn to trust the Father for the present and the future, and not trust in the riches of the world)

·          Love (learn to love; may your faith be motivated by love for God and your brothers)

·         And for a helmet the hope of salvation (remember that full redemption is the end of the story; nothing can change that)

·         For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Master Yeshua HaMashiach (we are not destined to suffer the wrath of God as described in Revelations 16) who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him (this time 'awake or sleep' are to be understood literally within the language of the day meaning 'alive or dead').   

Here is more instruction:

Therefore:

·         Encourage one another

·         And build one another up, just as you are doing.

·         We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you,

·         And to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

·         Be at peace among yourselves.  

And we urge you, brothers,  

·         Admonish the idle,

·         Encourage the fainthearted,

·         Help the weak,

·         Be patient with them all.

·         See that no one repays anyone evil for evil,

·         But always seek to do good to one another

·         And to everyone.

·         Rejoice always,

·         Pray without ceasing,

·         Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Yeshua HaMashiach for you.

·         Do not quench the Spirit (let the Holy Spirit speak to you).

·         Do not despise prophecies (use your gift of prophecy),

·         But test everything (but don't believe all of them; test them (1 Cor 14:29).

·         Hold fast what is good (then keep the good one).

·         Abstain from every form of evil (from all disobediences).  

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Master Yeshua HaMashiach. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.  

This was Paul's checklist for the Congregations to be prepared for the Day of Messiah. I think that if it was good for them, it must be good for us to use as a list to check our hearts during the next 40 days to prepare for Yom Kippur! 

He then added:

·         Brothers, pray for us (Pray for the apostles).

·         Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

·         Put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers (that's us too).

·         The grace of our Master Yeshua HaMashiach be with you.

 

 

 

"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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LIVING BY GOD'S RULE; WHAT A CONCEPT!

John 17:17 

 “Your word (Torah) is truth.”

Due to the present inexistence of the Temple, Biblical texts on offerings or about the Yom HaKippurim rituals in Leviticus 16 may today seem irrelevant. They may feel to us like texts pertaining to a distant people and past, and as having very little to offer us today. As we wonder in this train of thought, we must remember the words of King David, "The Torah of God is perfect, pure and eternal" (Psalms 19. If these things are part of the divine oracle, they certainly have perpetual pertinence.

There are some who teach that Yeshua initiated a new Temple-less era. This is strange when apostolic texts as well as historical books pertaining to fist-century life in Israel tell us that for forty years after the resurrection of the Master, that is until the roman invasion of Jerusalem, the Jewish disciples of Messiah continued Temple and synagogue attendance as a sect of Judaism. They continued in the Passover traditions, as well as in those pertaining to the atonement rituals of Yom Kippur. If they found relevancy in doing so, shouldn't we? Is there then something that we are missing and should learn from these long descriptions in Leviticus? Stepping aside a little from the realm of the ritual and entering that of the social, much indeed should be learned from Temple and offering protocols.

Here are some examples. The Torah acknowledges that appointed judges can sometimes err in judgment and therefore cause the people to sin. In such a case, a public admission of error is required through an offering (Leviticus 4:13). I am thinking right now of the court which wrongfully condemned our Master. There is a provision for them to eventually confess and publicly acknowledge their error thus atoning for the sin of the people of their day. We also learn that Hashem understands our financial pressures and makes provisions for cheaper offerings to be made (Leviticus 5:1–11). Also, though Hashem understands involuntary mistakes, they still require acknowledgment and retribution. In our system, the punishment for a thief is incarceration. The Torah is concerned with retribution and as such a thief is required to restore that which he had gotten deceitfully, plus a fifth to the person he stole it from. He is also supposed to make amends with God for breaking his commands.  

The offering process is also quite interesting. The person comes to the altar and with his hand on the forehead of the animal to be offered confesses his sins to Hashem, (not to the priest). Doing so, he in fact transfers his sinful identity on the poor animal. Then, except in the case of a bird offering, the offerer is the one who has to kill the animal, hear it die, get splattered with its fluids, and feel its life’s warm blood run through his hands. Along with having to pay for a good quality animal, one of the best of the flock, this becomes to him a very good illustration of the horribleness and cost of disobedience and sin, which should provoke in him a healthy fear of Hashem.

This makes me wonder: Christianity at large claims a theology that affirms they are no more sinners and as a result they invalidate the Torah. When the their sinful reality dawns on them they realize that they need rules, a social structure, moral guidance, and a penal system. This leas them to institute their own sense of law and righteousness. The question is: Why didn’t they keep God’s system in the first place?

 P. Gabriel Lumbroso

www.thelumbrosos.com

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

THE HEART OF THE TORAH

Hebrews 9:28

Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

            The middle verse of the Tanach says, "Now Moses diligently inquired about the goat of the sin offering, and behold, it was burned up!" (Leviticus 10:16).  To understand what happens in this passage we must go back to chapter 9 when the grand-priesthood inauguration begins.

            Hashem, who is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24) had established a very serious protocol whereby Israel was to approach him. Moses gave very specific instructions about it. Nadab and Abihu, two of the sons of Aaron were careless in their application of the protocol and were utterly burned by the fire of God as they approached the Sanctuary in an unauthorized manner (Leviticus 10:1—3). Aaron was obviously devastated and in mourning but he and his other two sons were in the middle of the grand inauguration (Leviticus 9) so they couldn’t stop for mourning; Aaron therefore held his peace (Leviticus 10:3).

            Some may argue that God’s punishment of Nadab and Abihu was out of proportions and could be qualified as the tantrums of a capricious deity, but instead of reviewing God’s actions, maybe we should review our own sense of what is important and what is not. Intersection with God is not to be taken lightly. There may also be more to the event than meets the eye!

            Part of the priesthood’s inauguration was that Aaron and his sons were to eat sections of the goat offered as a olah עולה, burnt offering inside the Tabernacle precinct. Moses couldn’t find that goat so he searched diligently for it until he discovered that it had been fully consumed. The patriarch then got angry and asked for an explanation to which Aaron answered,

Behold, today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before Adonai, and yet such things as these have happened to me! If I had eaten the sin offering today, would Adonai have approved?" (Leviticus 10:19).

            What happens here is that Aaron reminds Moses that it was unpleasing to God for a priest to do office while in sadness or mourning (Deuteronomy 26:14; 16:11), a theme even found later among Semitic kings (Nehemiah 2:1-2). So because he was uncontrollably saddened at the death of his two sons, Aaron felt he could not do proper justice to that part of the service which he then forewent. Moses was pleased with the explanation (Leviticus 10:20).

            What is to be noticed here is that this center verse of the Torah verse tells us to "search diligently" for the goat of the sin offering which is an early representation of Yeshua’s covering. Therefore the central goal of studying to Torah is the search for Messiah's covering.

            The Talmud explains that the death of Aaron’s sons is not really justifiable, so that it can only be counted as the ‘death of the righteous which creates atonement for others’, a very prevalent theme in Biblical text. Whether we agree or not with the Talmud’s interpretation, since Yeshua is our High-Priest as well as our covering (Hebrews 9:25), this is an idea that very much fits the theme of the priestly inauguration.

            May we also spend our lives seeking diligently to approach God through the atonement of Yeshua.

P. Gabriel Lumbroso

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

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. 

REVIVAL?

Proverbs 13:17
A wicked messenger falleth into mischief:
But a faithful ambassador is health.

Many appear today as messengers, prophets, revivalist, healers all claiming to be sent by God. People travel great distances, at great expenses just ‘to get some’. The wealthy, in search of atonement for their ungodly riches, sponsor these modern-day prophets, while poor widows give them their last mite. But at the end of the day, there often remains an obstinate question accompanied with a sinking feeling, something like: ‘This man/woman sure does everything claiming the name of Jesus, but deep down in my heart, I am not really sure they are from God; are they?’

Yahoshua warned us that in the last days, false prophets would come on the world scene and do things in His Name; that by such actions, they will try to deceive even the very elects. Yahoshua even foresaw that these will argue with Him blocking their entry to the final wedding feast saying, ‘haven’t we done thus and thus in Your name?’ So how do we know the difference?

I would think that the Word is pretty clear. Healing and miracles do not prove the presence of God. The devil, who was God’s right-hand man, has no scruples to copy the outward appearance of what God does in order to deceive us poor humans. What he cannot copy though, is the form and format, the heart of God’s actions. Healings and miracles from God are always a means to an end, not an end in themselves. In the Old Testament, healings and miracles are always accompanied with a declaration of faith and repentance; that is the biblical form and format. Healings and miracles without faith declaration and/or true repentance demonstrated by a life change are not from God. They are the devil’s counterfeit; religion versus true faith.

This is the difference (as observed in Hebraic etymology) between the use of the word messenger and the word ambassador in our text today. The messenger was sent by God but went and did his own thing so instead of giving the life-giving message of God he lead people to mischief. The root of the Hebrew word used for ambassador is synonym with the word ‘hinge’ one who is securely attached to its other part, in this case God, through a proper application of His Instruction.

Let us not be fooled nor deceived. Yes life is hard, but difficulty with God has an eternal reward that greatly outshines the devil’s shiny noisy counterfeit. Let us rather judge everything by a proper educated intelligent understanding of God’s will, Words and purposes.

A DESERT JOURNEY

Proverbs 13:16
Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge:
But a fool layeth open his folly.

As walking through a maze inlaid with dangerous inlets and outlets, so is our walk through life in this world, but the Word warns us of pitfalls. If we are to arrive at destination, we are to walk prudently, meaning, in the knowledge of the Word.

Baal Shem Tov, a seventeenth century sage one day said, “The forty-two ‘stations’ from Egypt to the Promised Land are replayed in the life of every individual Jew, as his soul journeys from its descent to earth at birth to its return to its source.” The Torah also mentions that God orchestrated the desert wondering of the Children of Israel to test them; to know what was in their heart, whether they would obey or not.

The desert journey revealed many temptations. There were temptations to murmur; temptations to complain; temptations to disobey; temptations with idolatry; temptations with impatience; temptations with rebellion; you name there it was. Our lives in this world seem to be full of the same temptations. As it was with the Children of Israel, our destiny is decided by the how we respond to these tests.

The prudent, acts in harmony with his knowledge of the Word, thus displaying wisdom.

The foolish acts ignorantly of it, thus spreading to all the depraved fruits of his ignorance.

Up to the second half of the twentieth century, not everyone could learn to read. Only the financially privileged or those who worked very hard could afford an education; illiteracy kept people from reading and studying the Word for themselves. Today, even though most people read and can therefore avail themselves of the knowledge in the Word, the devil found another way to keep them away from It: distraction. We are so distracted by life, by its social demands and its constant broadcast of vanity, that even though knowledge and wisdom are readily available to us, and often free for the getting, we are today more ignorant of the good advice in the Word than when people couldn’t read.

As a result, few are prudent, many are foolish.

May we not be guilty of this.

Let us lay our priorities straight; spend our time wisely and in the study of the Word that can save our soul and bring our heart to its Promised Land destination.