Even the Small Things Matter to God-A Messianic Study of Exodus 4:22-26-STAR-48

by | Sep 3, 2022 | Podcasts

by Rod Thomas | The Messianic Torah Observer's Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections

Introduction

 

This is “Even the Small Things Matter to God.” This is the 48th Reading of our 3-year Torah Reading Cycle. It is contained in Exodus/Shemot 4:14-6:1. But we will be focusing just on verses 22 to 26.

 Looking Back to STAR-47, entitled “God’s Holy Character, a Messianic Study of Exodus 3:1-4:14,” we discussed Moshe’s commission which included Yah revealing to Moshe a bit about His holy character and sovereignty. Moshe’s commissioning would involve Yah imbuing Moshe with His authority and power for purposes of delivering the Hebrew nation out of the Land of Egypt (aka Mitsrayim) and onto Canaan, the Land of Promise.

 

Much of the conversation that took place between Moshe and Yehovah on the Mountain of Elohim—Mount Sinai—involved Moshe expressing to Yah every excuse he could come up with why he was not the man for the job. But Yah had already—probably before He was even born—established that Moshe was indeed the man for the job. Yah had in fact chosen Moshe for this task prior to this historic meeting. He already knew Moshe’s strengths and deficiencies. And so, Moshe was essentially kicking at the prick, just as Yeshua mentioned to Shaul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:5). And we acknowledged that this incident was just another example of the very thing that most of us who come into this Faith of ours experience: We kick against the true commissioning of Yah to work for His Kingdom.

 

But ultimately, Yah convinces Moshe, as He does us, that His (Yah’s) Way is the only way. And it’s too our detriment to reject the call and commissioning of Yah.

 

So, as the story goes, Moshe goes to his father-in-law Jethro (aka Yitro/Yethro) and receives his blessing to go to Egypt and see to his people.

 

And this is where our reading picks up this week, and I want to focus only on verses 22 to 26 which reads as follows:

 

 

 22 You must say70 to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says71 the LORD, “Israel is my son, my firstborn,

 

 23 and I said to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve73 me,’ but since you have refused to let him go,74 I will surely kill75 your son, your firstborn!”‘”

 

 24 Now on the way, at a place where they stopped for the night,76 the LORD met Moses and sought to kill him.77

 

 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off the foreskin of her son and touched it to Moses’ feet,78 and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood79 to me.”

 

 26 So the LORD80 let him alone. (At that time81 she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” referring to82 the circumcision.)

(Exo 4:22-26 NET)

 

Now, I will tell you that this is one of the most difficult and mysterious passages to be found in Torah. For everything that took place leading up to our focus verses makes complete sense. But here in passage, we run into an event that makes little sense:

 

  1. Moshe receives some last-minute instructions from Yah regarding the very words he was to say to Pharaoh related to the release of Moshe’s people from Egyptian/Mitsriy bondage: “Thus Says Yehovah, Yisra’el is My son, My firstborn…Let my son Yisra’el go that he may serve me. But because you’ve refused to let my first-born son go, I will kill your son, even your firstborn son” (verses 22-23).

 

  1. It would then appear that Moshe, along with his young family, stop along the way to Egypt/Mitsrayim at an “inn;” some rest area. It’s uncertain. I’m surprised that there was such a thing back in that day. But I guess we should never underestimate the power of commerce, even around 1,500 BCE in the middle of a desert.

 

But during Moshe’s family stopping for the night, the text tells us that Yehovah met Moshe and sought to kill him (verse 24).

 

What? Wait a minute. Yah just hires/commissions Moshe to lead the greatest relocation of Yah’s people in all human history, and in the very next minute, He seeks to take Moshe out. Why? Well, maybe the following verses will clear up the mystery.

 

  1. Zipporah realizing the existential threat to Moshe’s life, she takes a piece of flint and circumcises her son, or one of her sons (verse 25). Some translations assert that Moshe and Zipporah had just the one son, Gershom, while other translations and Jewish tradition assert that the couple had two-sons, Gershom, and Eliezer, with Eliezer being the youngest. Interestingly, it is held in some Jewish teachings that the couple did in fact have a second son on the way to Egypt/Mitsrayim by the name of Eliezer and that it was Eliezer who had not be circumcised by Moshe because circumcision of infants in the wilderness and on journeys was believed to present an existential threat to the life of the infant (b. Ned 32a; Mid. Rab. Exodus 5.8). And thus, in that case, Moshe put off circumcising Eliezer.

 

But other Jewish thinkers such as Ramban (aka Maimonides) and Saadi Ben Yosef Gaon (a 10th c. BCE Arabic Rabbi) remain steadfast in their belief that it was Gershom that Moshe had neglected to circumcise, which again, assuming this was the central issue that led to Moshe being nearly killed, it would be consistent with the content of verses 22 and 23 of our reading where Yah talks to Moshe about Yisra’el being His firstborn and Pharaoh’s firstborn son being killed because Pharaoh would not let Yah’s firstborn son go. Firstborn seems to be an important consideration here. And this issue of Moshe possibly neglecting to circumcise his own firstborn after being Commission by Yah to lead the great nation Yisra’el whom Yah called His firstborn son, out of Egyptian/Mitsriy bondage and to bring Yisra’el into a covenant relationship with the Creator of the Universe, all the while he (Moshe) had for whatever reason decided not to circumcise his firstborn son in violation of the Avrahamic Covenant. It would have been scandalous and disrespectful to not only to Yah, the giver of the Avrahamic Covenant, but also to the very Hebrews he (Moshe) was commissioned to lead out of Egypt and on to the Promised Land. Imagine the questions and conflict that would erupt against Moshe once the people discovered that He’d not circumcised his own first-born son, he being the chosen leader of the nation. It could have erupted into a problematic situation and maybe Yah set about to make sure that Moshe would not put himself and the nation into such a precarious situation.

 

I personally believe that Yah instructed Moshe to circumcise his son prior to the start of the family’s journey to Egypt/Mitsrayim, but Moshe, for whatever reason failed to obey Yah’s command.

 

But again, this is Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections. We are still thinking and reflecting on these amazing things and allowing Yah’s Ruach/Spirit to speak to us as Yah sees fit.

 

Regardless, Zipporah circumcises one of her sons, and throws the circumcised foreskin, some translations such as the NET here say, touched Moshe’s feet with his son’s circumcised foreskin. Other translations leave out entirely that the foreskin was put in the vicinity of Moshe’s feet at all.

 

As an aside, the Hebrew word that is normally used to describe the act of circumcision—” muwl”—is not used to describe that which Zipporah did to her son. But rather, the Hebrew term used is “karath,” which means “to cut.”

 

Messianic teacher and author Tim Hegg, in his commentary on this passage, suggests there exists some parallels with Zipporah’s act of using a flint stone to circumcise her son—to cut off her son’s foreskin—with the Hebrew expression for making a covenant, which in Hebrew is “karat brit,” or “to cut a covenant.” And add to this thinking, the thinking that the blood that was spilled from the circumcision had the same effect as the blood that would be smeared over the Hebrews’ doorpost in Egypt/Mitsrayim for purposes of staving off the “death angel” that would go throughout the Land of Egypt and take the life of Egypt’s firstborn. The blood of the firstborn staving off the death angel (presuming it was indeed a death angel) and saving Moshe from certain death. And Hegg suggests that Zipporah’s statement of “surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me” to either Moshe or her circumcised son or Yehovah could have implied that it was the blood of their son’s circumcision that brought about Moshe’s salvation.

 

Her statement here is one of those great mysteries that we can only speculate about. But it certainly gives us material to think and reflect upon.

 

  1. That which Zipporah did to one of her sons clearly stopped the execution death of her husband Moshe. For the text states that Yehovah let him, Moshe, alone” (verse 26). But the text once more records Zipporah’s statement that “You are a bridegroom of blood.”

 

Possibilities

 

This portion of Moshe’s journey to lead his people to freedom is indeed mysterious and because so much of the story is left out—there are so many holes that need to be filled in—it virtually impossible to sort out exactly what was happening here. What would cause Yehovah, who just a few hours or days ago commissioned Moshe for the task of leading the Hebrew nation out of Egyptian bondage and on to freedom in Canaan, now seeks to execute His chosen one?

 

To be honest, there aren’t too many possibilities to consider here. (A) Yah or one of His Mal’ak/Angels intercepted Moshe at the inn that is on the path towards Egypt and intended to kill him for an unspecified reason. (B) A divine creature, possibly an agent of the enemy (hasatan), knowing the mission Moshe was one, intercepted Moshe with the intent of killing him in anticipation of halting the exodus of the Hebrew nation out of Egypt/Mitsrayim (Jubilees/Yovelim 48).

 

 

The most widely accepted theory in both Judaism and denominationalism is that Yah, or perhaps the Angel of the LORD/Mal’ak Yehovah, intercepted Moshe at the inn on the way to Egypt. And that it was Yah’s intent to kill Moshe. Interestingly, verse 24 of the Onkelos (rabbinic interpretations of Torah written in the first century C.E.) reads as follows:

 

“And it was in the way, at the place of lodging, that the Angel of the LORD met him, and sought to kill him.”

 

The Septuagint or LXX reads:

 

“And it came to pass that the Angel of the LORD met him by the way in the inn and sought to slay him.”

 

Rashi (aka Shlomo Yitzchaki, a medieval French rabbi and contributor to the Talmud) takes what I believe to be an extreme flight of fantasy here, writing that this supposed angel turned into a serpent and swallowed Moshe whole, and it fell to Zipporah to circumcise their son Eliezer (the youngest of the two sons) to halt Moshe’s death.

 

Beloved, I call that a bit of pure rabbinic gibberish.

 

But some believe that the reason Yah or the Angel of Yehovah intended to kill Moshe was that Moshe was dragging his feet and had not carried out a commandment that had been given to him. And that it was this dragging of his feet—his procrastination in not accomplishing the given commandment or task that incited the ire of Yah.

 

What could that assignment, task, or commandment have been?

 

It’s possible that verses 22 and 23 provide us an important clue to this mystery.

 

In these verses, Yah instructs Moshe to tell Pharaoh that because he had refused to release Yah’s first son, Yisra’el from Egyptian/Mitsriy bondage, then Pharaoh’s firstborn son would die. And then we immediately get into the mysterious circumcision situation in the very next verse.

 

Could that which Moshe had neglect or put off doing related to something Yah had tasked him to do to or for his son(s), Gershom and or Eliezer? Could it have been something that Moshe had put off doing until he decided to get around to doing it?

 

Could that assignment or task or commandment have been to circumcise his son(s)?

 

J.H. Hertz, author of “Torah and Haftarah” suggests that Moshe, because he’d failed, or outright refused to circumcise his son, even his firstborn son Gershom, was the thing that resulted in Moshe falling into a dire illness. And why would a failure on Moshe’s part lead to him being killed by Yehovah?

 

We know from previous Torah studies that circumcision was a critical element of the Avrahamic Covenant:

 

9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.

 

 10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

 

 11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

 

 12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

 

 13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

 

 14 And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant. (Gen 17:9-14 KJV)

 

Clearly, any Hebrew that broke this element of the covenant would be subject to being cut off from the House of Yisra’el. And being cut off can be manifested in the community of Yisra’el physically ejects the violator of the covenant—in this case, the violator of the covenant would have to be the father of the uncircumcised child. Or the cutting off may be manifested in Yah Himself cutting off that soul: I.e., ending that soul’s life. In this case, the responsible soul would be Moshe, assuming this was a case of Moshe not circumcising His son, and thus, violating the terms of the covenant, making him subject to being cut off from his people.

 

 

Traditional Reasons Why Moshe Broke Covenant

 

Unnamed rabbinic sources suggests that Midian/Bedouin ritual circumcision practices involved their sons being circumcised in their 13th year, which is an extreme contradiction to Torah’s circumcision instructions which had sons of Yisra’el circumcised on the 8th day of their lives.

 

What does Midian/Bedouin religious or ritual practices have to do with Moshe? Well, Moshe’s father-in-law Jethro/Yitro was the Cohen/Priest of Midian/Midyan (Exodus/Shemot 2:16). Moshe married Jethro’s/Yitro’s daughter Zipporah.

 

It’s likely that Moshe, being a man without a country, had decided to live as a Midianite, which would mean that he gave into and followed his wife Zipporah’s way of life, which meant that he raised his son(s) in the Midianite ways. So, it seems quite reasonable to surmise that maybe Moshe’s reasoning for not circumcising his son in accordance with Yah’s covenant instruction had to do with this conflict in cultures: Hebrew versus Midianite. It’s unclear, given the severe lack of clarifying information in the text. And I would submit that maybe Yah intended it to be this way. To force us, the readers of Torah, to think these things through. Not so much that we attempt to fill in the missing elements to the various stories and teachings that Torah provides, but rather, that we contemplate the meaning, importance, and the multitudinous facets that make up Yah’s Torah and the original covenants.

 

The Book of Jasher/Yashar supports the thinking that Moshe failed to circumcise his son, in particular Gershom, because Jethro/Yitro convince Moshe that he shouldn’t, for an unspecified reason (chapter 78).

 

 

The other thing to consider in thinking about and reflecting on the possibilities of Moshe not circumcising his son(s) in accordance with the provisions of the covenant is the instructions that Yah gave to Moshe regarding Pharaoh:

 

“You tell Pharaoh that because you refuse to let My son Yisra’el go, there will be dire consequences involving your son” (paraphrasing mine).

 

Other reasons offered as to why Moshe may have broken covenant has to do with the dangers associated with circumcising an infant while on a journey in ancient times. Apparently, subjecting an infant to circumcision while on a journey back in the day could result in the infant’s death. Thus, some thoughtful rabbis introduced such a practical theory to explain why such a man as Moshe would have neglected to circumcise Gershom or Eliezer. Again, if a failure to circumcise his sons was the reason Moshe almost lost his life.

 

Interesting, it was Zipporah who circumcised the couple’s son. Not Moshe. This is certainly an eyebrow raiser, as it always fell to the father to see to it that his 8-day old son was circumcised by the appropriate leader of the tribe, in accordance with the stipulated provisions of the covenant.

 

Bridegroom of Blood

 

So, what did Zipporah mean by her statement, either directed towards Moshe, Yehovah, or her newly circumcised son that that individual was a bridegroom of blood to her?

 

I’ll tell you right now: Zipporah’s statement regarding someone being a bridegroom of blood to her is not supported by any other scriptural mention in the whole of scripture. And for any of to say what that statement meant would be pure speculation on our part.

 

But the phrase “bridegroom of blood” in the Hebrew is “chathan damim.”

 

Now, one rabbinic way of explaining this phrase/statement is to attach it to the ritual of circumcision, which is a sign of the covenant between the son, Yisra’el, and his Father, Yehovah. That being the case, the son may be considered the bridegroom of the covenant.

 

I’ve thought long and hard on this explanation, but I cannot make heads nor tails on this one, and I personally doubt that this is a plausible explanation for the phrase.

 

We have Ibn Ezra (aka Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra, a middle-age Jewish biblical commentator and philosopher) who proposed that Zipporah’s statement was directed towards her newly circumcised son. In other words, according to Ibn Ezra, in Zipporah making such a statement, she was casting dispersion or anger toward her son. In other words, it was her son and his uncircumcised state that almost led to Zipporah’s husband, Moshe, being killed by Yehovah.

 

Okay. Well, I will say that Ezra’s explanation contradicts the conventional understanding of this passage, that the statement was directed to Moshe by an exasperated Zipporah who had to see her husband almost killed and to save his life, being forced to circumcise their son. I don’t know. Again, there isn’t enough background information to say either way I’m afraid.

 

Remember Rashi’s contribution to this discussion just a few ago? Well, he suggested that Zipporah’s statement to her newly circumcised son was one of her stating to her son that it was him that caused HER bridegroom to almost be killed: “You (Gershom or Eliezer) are the slayer of MY bridegroom.” (Ned. 32a, Exodus Rabbah 5:5)

 

Interesting huh? In this case, this makes the most sense out of any other explanations of the phrase that I’ve run across, or that I can come up with.

 

We don’t know what we don’t know beloved. Was Zipporah’s statement brought on by issues beyond the near-death incident? Were they having marital strife? Was Zipporah and Moshe in disagreement over Moshe’s commission? Did Moshe even tell Zipporah what his mission was? What unrecorded conversations did Moshe have with Yehovah prior to this incident? Did Yehovah maybe instruct Moshe to circumcise his son before embarking on the mission, and Moshe putting off the task. Which I personally think is what happened. That Moshe was given the instructions offline to abide by the provision and instructions of the covenant. And when Moshe chose, for whatever reason not to comply with Yah’s instructions, then Yah sought to hold Moshe responsible for the violation. Yah was, in effect, cutting Moshe off from his people through this incident.

 

Practical Messianic Halachah

 

There is so much to draw from this Torah Reading, especially from the brief passage we’ve examined and discussed here today.

 

If we are correct in our assessment that Moshe failed to circumcise one of his sons and it took Zipporah’s circumcising her son to save her husband’s life, then I would say that “obedience” is central to the lesson we’re to take from this reading. Obedience. Obedience to Yah’s instructions and obedience to the provisions of the covenant, despite how irrelevant those instructions and provisions may seem at any given time.

 

Clearly, even the seeming small things of our covenant relationship matters to Yah. And to not have that sense of urgency and meticulousness within us to walk out and carry out those instructions and provisions can cause problems in our covenant relationship with Yah. For Yah expects us to pay close attention to His instructions and the provisions of the covenant and walk out those provisions and instructions to the very best of our ability. To refuse or neglect to do so can have unsavory consequences as we’ve seen illustrated in our reading today.

 

That’s why it behooves us to petition Abba often in our prayers, that He show us the areas in our lives and in our walk that are lacking so that we may, through the assistance of His Ruach HaKodesh (aka His Holy Spirit) make the appropriate corrections; effectively and properly fulfill the provisions of the covenant; and walk before Yah blamelessly. Nothing as it relates to Yah’s instructions and covenant provisions is small or nebulous to Abba, and neither should they be to us.

 

I would imagine, assuming that the issue at hand in our reading was Moshe’s failure to circumcise his son, that Moshe viewed the circumcising of his son was a small thing. That it was a task or something that could be put off to a more convenient time, especially given the enormity of the task and commission facing him. But in Yah’s eyes, breakage of the covenant provisions such as circumcision of all sons of Yisra’el on the 8th day was as important as Moshe’s commission to go down to Egypt and lead Yah’s people out of Egyptian bondage and on to the Promised Land.

 

And so, as it applies to us, regardless the major and not-so-major things we face each day in our lives, we must always be cognizant of our responsibilities as it relates to our covenant relationship with Yehovah and not neglect those provisions and instructions such as steadfast prayer; tithing; loving the brethren; keeping Yah’s set-apart days to the best of our understanding and abilities; loving our spouses and not neglecting them; keeping our hearts circumcised; trusting Yah; taking care of our health and treating our bodies as sacred temples in which Yah dwells; to always image Yah in our day-to-day lives; to be a blessing to others who are in need. I’m sure you can make your own list and we all should constantly seek Yah’s Spirit to conduct a frequent and thorough search of our hearts to ensure we follow the provisions of our covenant relationship with Yah.

 

We can always expect Yah’s best for our lives and the lives we will have in His coming Kingdom. And so, in return, Yah expects the very best from each of us always.

 

And yes, even the small things matter to Yah. Let us keep our eyes on the prize and always look upwards as our redemption draws ever so closer each passing day.

 

 

 

 

Paul on Being Under the Law-Part 2-Torah Meets Grace

by | Mar 19, 2021

Goal What I would like to do in today's installment of TMTO is to lay the ground-work or set-the table if you will in our gaining as complete an understanding of what the Apostle Shaul (aka the Apostle Paul) meant when he wrote to his Roman Messianic readers that "sin...

read more

The False Hope of Imitation Christianity

by | Dec 21, 2020

If you've been called and chosen, this message is for you. But it's not for everybody. Questions: What does John 8:32?--You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free. We are to get our information from Scripture. Do you know what you worship? What's the...

read more

Rosh Chodesh 6th Month 2022-The Start of the 6th Biblical Month

by | Aug 28, 2022 | Podcasts

Chag Sameach Rosh Chodesh beloved. Happy and blessed 6th Month to you all.

As I am posting this brief discussion here on The Messianic Torah Observer, the renewed moon will have been sighted by at least two-trained observers in Yisra’el. Thus, wherever we live  on the planet at sunset this evening—8/28/2022—we begin the 6th Month of Abba’s Hebrew Calendar Year.

We call this special day on the Hebrew Calendar “Rosh Chodesh.” Rosh Chodesh simply means “new moon” or “new month.” The Day referred to as “Rosh Chodesh” marks the beginning of every Hebrew month on Yah’s sacred calendar.

There are essentially three calendars that members of our Faith Community follow or keep: (1) what I refer to as the calculated calendar that was devised and put into operation by a group of exiled rabbis in and around 359 C.E., which is based upon precise mathematical calculation to determine the beginning of each month of the Jewish calendar. (2) What I refer to as the observational calendar which is based upon the sighting of the renewed moon each month over the land of Yisra’el by at least two witnesses, and determination of the maturity of the barley crop in the land of Yisra’el at the end of each biblical calendar year. And (3) the Enochian or Essene Calendar, which is based on annual equinoxes and solstices. Both the rabbinic, calculated and observational calendars are luni-solar based (I.e., reckoning of time takes into account the phases of the moon each month and the influence the sun has on Yisra’el’s agriculture each year), while the Enochian/Essennic calendar is strictly solar based (I.e., the reckoning of time is based on the apparent position of the sun to the planet and stars throughout the calendar year).

Hilary and I keep and observe the observational calendar. I discussed reasons why and how the calendar works in one of my recent posts entitled “Why I Keep the Torah (Observational) Calendar and not the Other Popular Messianic Calendars.” (If you are so led, I would encourage you to read or listen to that installment to get a sense of how and why as it relates to our keeping of this calendar.)

Continuing.

Both observational and rabbinic calendars consist of 12-months with an occasional 13th month (some refer to this 13th month as a leap year, but we tend to refer to it as just the 13th month) that is added, similar to the construction and workings of the secular, Gregorian Calendar that the world uses today.

Generally, half the months of the calendar year are 30-days in length, while the other half are just 29-days in length.

The basic calendar framework was established by Yehovah and is recorded in the Book of Exodus/Shemot:

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 a“This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. (Exo 12:1-2 ESV)

 4 This day came ye out in the month Abib. (Exo 13:4 KJV)

And then Numbers/Bemidbar 10:10 establishes Rosh Chodesh itself as a celebration or minor day of observance:

 10 Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the LORD your God. (KJV)

Historically, the Hebrew Calendar was primarily observational. We have no Tanach records as to how the determination of Rosh Chodesh was made back then. But we do have extra-biblical resources such as the Talmud that give a historic sense of how second-temple Jews determined and enacted Rosh Chodesh each month.

It was the Sanhedrin—the Yerushalayim Counsel that declared Rosh Chodesh each month upon their receiving the testimonies of two-reliable witnesses who’d claimed to have sighted the renewed moon.

Certification of Rosh Chodesh each month was spread throughout Yisra’el and Babylonia via the lighting of fires on hilltops, starting with the Mount of Olives. The set flame on a pole would be waved upon each hilltop until an acknowledgment that the flame was see from neighboring hilltops. Those confirmed hilltop sightings would reciprocate by lighting fires and signaling other neighboring hilltops. And so forth, until all jurisdictions acknowledged receipt of the announcement that a new month had begun.

It should be mentioned that the Sanhedrin had possession of a calculated calendar that they would consult toward the end of each month, in order to provide them with a heads up approximation as to when they could expect visual sightings of the next renewed moon.

Confusion with neighboring Samaritan signal fires during the period of Rosh Chodesh forced the Sanhedrin to resort to the dispatching of messengers to relay the announcement that Rosh Chodesh had commenced.

Today, renewed moon searchers, operating out of Yisra’el, communicate their findings to the  world via the electronic fires of the internet. There is no viable Sanhedrin to certify the sightings. Therefore, the renewed moon sightings are only informational. It falls to each Messianic/Netsari to determine for themselves—or the leaders of Messianic congregations to determine the start of each month based upon the information these witnesses provide.

In terms of Jewish observance of Rosh Chodesh, the Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh, a liturgy or prayer called “birkat ha-chodesh is often recited at the conclusion or end of the Shabbat Torah reading (Berakhot 16b).

Jewish tradition as it relates to Rosh Chodesh, some of which has filtered over to the Messianic Faith Community, treats Rosh Chodesh as a “minor holiday” that includes the recitation of certain Jewish liturgies, extra-after meal graces, select Torah Readings, even an extra-synagogal service.

Rosh Chodesh holds special meaning for certain Jewish women who gather each month for planned, social activities in association with their synagogues.

This Rosh Chodesh is the 6th Biblical/Hebrew Month of 6022 F.C. In rabbinic circles, it is referred to as the Month of Elul. Rosh Chodesh according to the rabbinic, calculated calendar was on S-nday, 8/28/2022 this year.

Why is Rosh Chodesh important to us Messianics/Netsari? Well, I have three reasons to pass on to you:

1. It teaches us to be in sync with Father Yah’s reckoning of time. Yah sets the annual calendar. Not people, regardless what their seeming pious intentions may be.

2. Rosh Chodesh is an important element of our Faith and it even bolsters our faith. Since Yah’s reckoning of time is the reckoning of time that is important, the calendar must be central to our day-to-day walk in Mashiyach. Also, the calendar, in particular the observational calendar, is a calendar of faith. We rely upon Yehovah to take us through each month of Yah’s calendar year. We rely upon Yah to tell us when His holy days will take place—when He has set aside the days in which to commune with us—His set apart days.

3. Abba mentions in His Torah that each Rosh Chodesh should be treated as a time of gladness, celebration, acknowledgment of Yah’s greatness and keeping power. It is another opportunity to worship Yah as a Faith Community.

If these three reasons for observing Rosh Chodesh are true and accurate, then how do we as Yah’s set-apart, faithful covenant people keep the day—rabbinic traditions aside?

Well, since Rosh Chodesh is NOT a mandated, set-apart day of the Hebrew Calendar year, I believe we treat it as a notable day of our month. That we use it as a day to worship Yah and if possible, fellowship with like-minded brethren. That we rejoice throughout the day by singing songs of praise and worship, and most importantly, that we blow the shofar, if we are blessed to have one. If not, we make a joyful noise unto Yah with whatever thing we have access to, even our voices.

Especially with this 6th Rosh Chodesh, we must begin in earnest to set our hearts and minds towards the coming Fall Feasts of Yah, the start of which are literally only a month away. Let us make preparations in earnest to receive and keep these set-apart days, especially Sukkot—aka the Feast of Tabernacles—day 15-22nd of the 7th Month. If we haven’t already done so, we need to have made reservations and provisions to attend a feast site. Most feast sites have already closed out their registrations for attendees. So, from this day forward, each passing day leading up to these Fall Feast Days makes getting into a feast site all the more challenging.

So, let us begin praying and seeking Yah’s leading and direction as it relates to how and where He wants us to keep His Fall Feasts.

In the meantime, beloved, I bid you Chag Semeach Rosh Chodesh. Make a joyful noise unto Yah.

Shalom!

God’s Holy Character–A Messianic Study of Exodus 3:1-4:13

by | Aug 27, 2022 | Podcasts

by Rod Thomas | The Messianic Torah Observer's Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections

Introduction

 

This is God’s Holy Character-A Messianic Study of Exodus 3:1-4:13. It is the 47th Torah Portion of our 3-year Torah-reading cycle.

 

Now, despite there being a great many historical and spiritual nuggets that the practical, truth-seeking Messianic/Netzari may draw from this reading, we will find that the theme and point of our text has to do with Yehovah’s holiness. And by the time we part company here today beloved, we will have examined how we as Yah’s chosen are to view and approach our Creator in relation to His holiness.

 

As in previous Sabbath Thoughts and Reflection Torah Reading discussions, we will read portions of the text and then discuss the read text. I will be referencing the English Standard Version for our text.

 

So, if you are so led, grab your bible and maybe your favorite cup of something, and what do you say we get into Yah’s Word today?

 

Let’s begin.

 

 

Moses’ Change in Occupation

 

Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. (Exo 3:1 ESV)

 

Here find that sometime after fleeing to Midian/Midyan and marrying the Cohen of Midyan’s daughter Zipporah (we discussed this story in STAR-46 blog post) Moshe becomes a shepherd. Some extra-biblical sources say that Moshe spent some 40-years in Midyan prior to the events recorded here in our reading. Other extra-biblical sources place Moshe in Africa prior to his time in Midyan. Regardless, what we see here is a turning of the tables if you will, a shifting of fate in the life of Moshe. I would go so far as to suggest that Moshe, in him taking up the shepherding of his father-in-law’s flocks, was being humbled by Abba. Maybe Yah felt Moshe needed humbling before he would be of use to Him. Maybe something in Moshe’s character required that he be brought down a few pegs to be of proper use to Yah. And you know, beloved, such things are not out of the norm when the Kingdom of Yah impinges and eclipses the lives of those who belong to Yehovah.

 

And please don’t misunderstand me beloved. I am in no way disparaging or marginalizing shepherding as a vocation. Shepherding was a respected and important vocation among most ANE peoples. But shepherding, as it relates to Moshe at this juncture of our reading, would have been a huge step-down in terms of profession and background. For here we have Moshe who was reared, no doubt prim and proper, in Pharaoh’s court—conceivably trained and educated in warfare, government, Egyptian culture and the like–who is now made to lower himself to the most menial and humbling of ANE vocations: shepherding.

 

It’s important to know that as far as the ancient Egyptians were concerned, herding flocks and cattle and shepherds themselves were considered abominable. No doubt Moshe having been reared in this Egyptian elitest mindset would no doubt have had to have some level of adjustment made to his sensibilities and comfort level in terms of him becoming a shepherd. In other words, he was humbled.

 

When we are called by Abba to do the work of the Kingdom, He may start us off with some levels of conditioning and deconditioning. He may have to humble us to make us useful instruments in bringing about His divine plans and will. And this is the period where so many who initially come to Faith become discouraged, especially as it relates to their operating or functioning in an assembly or congregation. We may be asked to do things that may not be to our liking or that conflict with our comfort levels or prior experiences. But such humbling experiences are often meant to affect change in us. Possibly to humble us and make us into proper and useable instruments and platforms by which Yah may work through us in bringing about His plans and will.

 

And so, when we find ourselves in events or situations that appear are meant to humble us and prepare us for service, we should look at those events and situations as opportunities to serve the Kingdom, and not bemoan them. Not steer away from them. But embrace them and look forward to seeing what Yah has in store for us in the work of the Kingdom.

 

So, it is through the vocation of shepherding that Moshe will be introduced to Yehovah. Some may not see the humility of shepherding as having anything to do with our present reading. But I would humbly beg to differ. For the encounter that Moshe is about to have with the Creator of the Universe was by no means a thing of happenstance. If anything, scripture shows us that Yah does not operate through happenstance. And so, I believe what we’re seeing here in our text today is Moshe having been conditioned, even humbled by Yah, in preparation for him being commissioned to lead Yisra’el out of Mitsrayim. And we’re talking, not just preparing Moshe to be a useful instrument of His will and plan, but also orchestrating the events and situations that lead to Moshe meeting Yehovah on His holy mountain.

 

And so, here in this verse we read that Moshe leads his father-in-law, Yitro’s (aka, Re’u’el’s; the Cohen of Midian/Midyan’s) flocks to Horeb where the Mountain of Yehovah (aka Mount Sinai) is located. Thus, it stands to reason that Midyan was located somewhere close to Mount Sinai or Horeb. We know from relatively recent discoveries from folks such as Ron Wyatt, Jim and Penny Caldwell, and other adventurers and people of Faith Horeb and the Mount Sinai are not located in modern Isra’el as Constantine’s mother Helena established back in the 4th century A.D. But rather, Mount Sinai, the Mountain of Yah, is in modern day Northwestern Saudi Arabia, where the Saudi government is presently constructing a city called Neom. It is intended to be a major tourist attraction that will feature Mount Sinai and many of the landmarks of the Exodus story. Nevertheless, Horeb and this Mountain of Elohim are featured prominently throughout the Tanach (Exo. 4:27; 17:6; 18:5; 24:13; 1 Kin. 19:8; cf. Gal. 1:17; 4:25).

 

Continuing:

 

And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. (Exo 3:2 ESV)

 

So much to unpack here. But we read that an angel of Yehovah (Heb. mal’ak yhvh) appears to Moshe “in a flame of fire” out of the midst of a bush that was not consumed by the fire. And based upon the wording, it does not appear that the bush itself was afire since it was not consumed by the flame. But rather, it was the entity–the mal’ak YHVH—the Angel of Yehovah that may have been flaming. (See Derek P. Gilbert-The Great Inception) Most bible scholars presume that the bush itself was ablaze, while others, such as Torah scholar and author Tim Hegg believe what Moshe encountered here was “the Shekinah” (the divine presence or settling of Yehovah) in the form of a burning bush” (Parashah 47 commentary). I am open to all arguments on this detail of our reading. But as far as I’m concerned, I believe the Angel of Yah was flaming, not the bush. And I would invite you to check out Derek P. Gilbert’s book entitled “The Great Inception” as it relates to the angelic entities known as “nachash” which will also give you an understanding of why I believe this angel that was in the midst of the bush had a flaming appearance. I’ll also mention a little more about these angelic beings in just a few.

 

Now, many denominationalists and not too few Messianic/Netzari bible enthusiasts contend that this “mal’ak YHVH” was our “pre-incarnate” Master, Yahoshua HaMashiyach. But to be honest with you, I cannot buy into such a claim. To make such a claim is an eisogenic move—eisogenic meaning reading into scripture things that are based and heavily influenced by one’s personal beliefs, preferences, and experiences, which can lead one into gross error in terms of their understanding of certain scriptural passages. So, to say that the “mal’ak YHVH”-this mysterious Angel of the LORD–that is featured throughout scripture is the pre-incarnate Yeshua is reading into–adding to the sacred texts. For Master never once identified Himself as an angel. He identified Himself as Yah’s Son and as the prophesied Messiah/the Mashiyach (Matthew 4:3,6; 8:29; 14:33; 26:63-64; Mark 3:11; Luke 22:70; John 1:49; 3:18; 11:4, 27; Matthew 3:17; 17:5; Mark 1:11; 9:7; Luke 3:22; 9:35; Matthew 16:16).

 See my discussion on the Person of Yeshua Messiah…Who and What is Yeshua Messiah.

I get that many have pointed to Hebrews 2:9 for their support of their claim that Yeshua was made lower than the angels for the time He walked this earth. But this verse in no way states that Yeshua ever existed as an angel/ mal’ak. For if we want to go down that erroneous spiritual alley, we must consider that both Psalm 8:5 and Hebrew 2:7 state that humans too were made lower than angels. The point of these verses is that Yahoshua existed as a mortal man during the time He walked and ministered here on this earth. He is not Yehovah. And scripture does not support that He pre-existed His earthly existence, except in the heart and mind of Yehovah. The Apostle Yochanan declared that Yahoshua was the word of Yehovah–the powerful word that brought all of creation into existence—and that word was made into a perfect man (John/Yochanan 1:14). To say otherwise is, in my humble opinion, reading heavily into Yah’s word.

 

Who then is this “Angel/Mal’ak of Yehovah”? I believe it to be the archangel, Gabriel. Gabri’el identified himself to Yochanan the Immerser’s father, the Cohen Zecharyah/Zechariah, that he stood in the Presence of the Almighty (Luke 1:19). In every sense, Gabri’el would be an “Angel/Mal’ak of Yehovah” or an “Angel of the Presence.” And scripture records that that Yah sent Gabri’el on various missions throughout Yisra’el’s history as a facilitator of Yah’s Will and Plans. Thus, it makes more sense that Gabri’el, as opposed to Yahoshua, would possess the lofty title of Mal’ak Yehovah. It turns out that the Mal’ak Yehovah is referenced some 66-times in the KJV. And it is recorded that when he would appear to humans that his visage/appearance would invoke great fear within them. And at the risk of violating eisogesis rules myself, I would submit that maybe Gabri’el, depending on his Yah-given assignment, would on occasion alter his appearance. He obviously possessed tremendous authority and power, as it related to Yisra’el’s wellbeing and protection (Exodus/Shemot 14:19; 23:20-23; 32:34; 33:2). I would not be surprised if this angelic being was a flaming nachash who also happened to be Gabri’el. (Remember, these are just Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections beloved. It falls upon you to conduct your own study and seek Yah’s truths for yourself. Don’t take what I’m saying as de facto truth. As with most things in life beloved, trust but verify. I could be wrong. But in this case, I don’t think so. Just saying.)

 

Let’s continue.

 

And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” (Exo 3:3 ESV)

 

In seeing this “great sight” (i.e., haggadol mar’eh) as some text render it, Moshe is saying to himself that he will stop what he’s doing–that of tending to his father-in-law’s flocks–and investigate this “haggadol mar’eh,” for it appeared to defy natural logic such that the bush was not consumed by the flames of the Mal’ak Yehovah.

 

Yah from time-to-time will employ the unusual to attract our attention. It then becomes a question as to whether we will drop what we’re doing at the time and respond to the attraction. Unfortunately, too many of us are all too often distracted by the things of this world and are not always in a spiritual place to appreciate such unusual events and occurrences. Some of which are manifested by Yah for our benefit. Thus, it behooves us to always have our spiritual eyes and ears in tune to receive the things of Yah.

 

Continuing.

 

When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, aGod called to him bout of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” (Exo 3:4 ESV)

 

 

Here the text states that it was Yehovah who saw Moshe coming towards the “haggadol mar’eh”/”great sight” and it was Yah Who called out to Moshe with the emphatic calling of “Moshe, Moshe,” indicative of an immediate and direct appeal to him. That it was Moshe, and Moshe alone, that the Creator of the Universe sought to communicate with at this time. And the text indicates that Moshe did in fact have both eyes to see and ears to hear that which came from this “great sight.” For Moshe’s response was: “Hineini,” yes, I am here. You have my undivided attention.

 

Yah at times requires our undivided attention, and it falls to us to listen to His still small voice, even in the midst of the chaos of this evil world. And when we hear it His still small voice calling out to us amid the chaos of this world, it behooves us to respond with a “hinneh/hinneni.” 

 

I find it intriguing that Yah chose to this method to draw Moshe’s attention from his mundane task and call out to him. But maybe this was not an unusual situation as far as the Kingdom of Elohim is concern. This was, after all, the “mountain of Yah” (aka Mount Sinai), which I humbly submit to you was another location for the Kingdom of Yah here on earth. For I believe that wherever Yah’s presence is truly found, is where the Kingdom of Yah is located. The first iteration of the Kingdom was in Gan Eden (aka the Garden of Eden). Now we see the Kingdom of Yah here on Mount Sinai, replete with flaming Mal’ak Yehovah. Later on the Kingdom of Yah will manifest in the midst of the Congregation of Yisra’el, centralized in the Tabernacle, and later on in the Temple. And then with Yahoshua our Master presence here on earth. And from there, the Kingdom of Yah is within each of us who possess a trusting faith in the Person and Ministries of Yahoshua Messiah and who possess a faithful, obedient covenant relationship with Yehovah (Matthew/Mattitiyahu 12:28; Mark 9:1; 10:15; Luke 10:9-11; 11:20; 12:31-32; 17:21; 18:17).

 

Let’s go on to verse 5.

 

Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” (Exo 3:5 ESV)

 

Although Yah intended for Moshe to turn from that which he had been doing (i.e., tending to Yitro’s flocks) and turn his attention fully onto Him, there was the critical matter of Yah’s holiness—Yah’s Qodesh—His set-apartness–that had to be immediately dealt with before this historic encounter could move forward. For Yah is holy–Qodesh. In fact, everything about Yah is Qodesh. And we can safely say that Yah’s very character is Qodesh. Conversely Moshe, just as we were before we entered into covenant with Yah and Yahoshua’s blood was applied to our sins, was not; we were not. He was still a creature who, as the Psalmist wrote, had been “shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin” (51:5). The mountain and the place where Yah’s presence was being manifested was Qodesh, not because the mountain which is a creation of Yah is in and of itself Qodesh, but rather, Yah’s presence on that mountain made it Qodesh. You see: Yah determines what is Qodesh and what is not by either His presence being in or on that thing or by Yehovah Himself determining that an object, a place, or person is Qodesh. And in so establishing that which is Qodesh from that which is not, He-Yah-also establishes the rules around people’s interactions and contact with Himself and those elements and things He has deemed as Qodesh. And as we progress through our Torah Readings in the coming months, we’ll see how the Tabernacle and the implements of worship were deemed Qodesh.

 

Thus, we see here in this verse that Yah establishes restrictions as to how Moshe would come into His Qodesh presence by (1) restricting His distance from His presence, and (2) by requiring that Moshe remove his sandals. Why the removal of Moshe’s sandals? A human’s sandals/shoes are the implements by which one walks about this evil world. It is in effect spiritually infected by the evils of the world upon which they tread. Thus, they are unclean and are not to be worn in Yah’s presence. Essentially, the world outside the Malchut Elohim-Yehovah’s Kingdom—really has no place as it relates to Yah’s presence. And so, if one desires to operate in Yah’s presence, he or she must shed themselves of that which is profane. It behooves us to be ever so cognizant of this fundamental fact whenever we endeavor to enter Yah’s presence. Sin is at the heart of that which is profane. And it is only by the shedding of the blood of an innocent life that will mitigate the effects of sin in this world. Praise Yah for Yahoshua, whose atoning sacrifice covers us and makes our coming into the presence of Father Yah possible.

 

And so, it falls to us who have been called by His Name, to recognize this fundamental character of the Creator—that being His Holiness. And in so doing, act accordingly.

 

I believe given that this was the first encounter Yah had had with His covenant people in centuries, Yah had to re-establish, beginning with Moshe, Who He was and what He was all about. And the first stop along that re-establishing of covenant relationship with His chosen people was to train them on matters of how they were to approach and treat Him; how they were to regard His holiness; how they were to view themselves in light of His presence in their lives. We would be wise to learn this fundamental reality of life, especially in how we conduct ourselves in Yah’s presence: How we worship Him. How we pray to Him. How we address Him. How we approach Him. How we view ourselves in relation to Him. And so forth.

 

In the case of our text, Yah begins His education of Moshe regarding that which is Qodesh, and by extension, His covenant people, and by extension us, by establishing distance and disposition (i.e., what we’re expected to do; how we’re expected to act; what we must leave behind) when in His presence. So, He tells Moshe to stop where He was and remove his footwear since the ground upon which he was treading was Qodesh. Yah’s requirement in maintaining the distinction between Him and Moshe was simply to state the rules. Moshe’s requirement was to recognize who he was in relation to Who he was encountering, obey the rules, and humble himself before his creator.

 

So, the take-away point here is that it is Yah Who establishes and separates the holy (i.e., the Qodesh) from the profane.

 

And we find throughout Scripture this call to treat Yehovah and the things of Yehovah with total respect, reverence, humility, and above all, holiness. Examples include:

 

Leviticus 10:3 Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. 

 

Psalm 89:7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.

 

Habukkah 2:20 But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him. 

 

Continuing.

 

And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. (Exo 3:6 ESV)

 

In this verse Yah officially introduces Himself to Moshe as the Elohim of his father and of the Hebrew patriarchs. In this precise introduction, Yah effectively set Himself apart, at least in the mind of Moshe, from the pantheon of Mitsriy/Egyptian elohim/gods that he’d no doubt been taught in Pharaoh’s court to worship. Counter to this pantheon of Mitriy elohim, Moshe no doubt had been told by his biological father, a Levite, of the One True Elohim–El Shaddai–the Elohim of Avraham, Yitschaq, and Ya’achov, about the God of the Hebrews. Moshe no doubt would have been told that this was the One who’d entered a covenant relationship with each one of the fathers of his people.

 

So, there’d be no confusion whatsoever in Moshe’s mind as to Whose presence he was in.

 

The other thing that we should be acutely aware of here is that in Yah introducing Himself to Moshe as the Elohim of his father and the patriarchs of his kinsmen, Yah was also setting Moshe straight as it related to his personal identity. No more was Moshe to view himself as an Mitsriy/Egyptian, but rather, as a “bene Ya’achov;” a Yisra’elite; even an inheritor of the covenant promises of the Hebrew patriarchs. He was of an established heritage and of a chosen people–a covenant people.

 

And Moshe’s immediate reaction was one of complete and utter fear, as the text asserts that he hid his face or turned his face from Yah.

 

So, I’m led to wonder, beyond natural human fear of things that we don’t understand, what was going on within Moshe to make him fear so? Was it the realization that the God/the Elohim of His forefathers was real and that he was now in His presence?

 

Let’s continue:

 

Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, (Exo 3:7 ESV)

 

Here Yah establishes with Moshe that He hears, sees, and knows of the sufferings and anguish that His covenant people were enduring. He indirectly establishes that He was not like the Mitsriy pantheon of gods that he was no doubt familiar with, who were no gods at all (2 Kings 19:18; Isaiah/Yesha’Yahu 37:19; Jeremiah/Yermi’Yahu 2:11; 5:7; 16:20; Ephesians 19:26; Galatians 4:8).

 

The gods of this world do not respond to that which is going on in the world. These are mal’ak/angels that have failed in their given duties to their Creator:

 

When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. (Deu 32:8 LXA)

 

Yah will deal with those entities who forsook their allegiance to Yah and endeavored to cause their human charges to go astray:

 

I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. 7 But ye shall die like men and fall like one of the princes. (Psa 82:6-7 KJV)

 

But here Yah establishes that He is the Elohim that sees, hears, and knows what is going on with His people. And that He responds to their cries, sufferings, and afflictions according to His perfect Will and timing. Of particular concern to Yah is the role that the Mitsriy taskmasters play in the sufferings and afflictions of His people, which foreshadows some degree of forthcoming recompense and judgment to be meted out upon those that tribulate of His people.

 

Here too we see that Yah is an intimate God. That which happens to His covenant people that is contrary to His Will and Purpose and Character upset Him and He will act to address the problem. And so, what this says to us today is that Yah knows what we may be going through and that He does have our back. He may not act according to our preferred timing or in a way we’d prefer for Him to address our issues. But He will deal with our situation if we remain in an obedient covenant relationship with Him. And like Yisra’el, Yah has a profound stake as it relates to our wellbeing and future.

 

Moving on:

 

8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.  9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. (Exo 3:8-9 ESV)

 

So, we read here that Yah, from an anthropomorphic perspective, reveals to Moshe that He had “come down” to act against the oppression of His people and to bring to fruition the covenant promises associated with Avraham’s descendants taking possession of Canaan/Kena’an. Thus, we take note here that Yehovah is the Elohim Who keeps His promises. He will always accomplish and complete that which He has promised he’ll do:

 

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? (Num 23:19 ESV)

 

3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? 4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. (Rom 3:3-4 KJV)

 

There are a few things to take note of here in this verse.

 

  1. In Yah saying that He had come down to deliver Yisra’el from Egyptian/Mitsriy oppression and to bring them to Canaan/Kena’an, He was not necessarily saying that He in His Person had descended down to earth to directly deliver Yisra’el. But rather, Yah is asserting to Moshe here that the situation involving Yisra’el has come to His immediate attention, and He was about to take personal oversight of the situation. One could look at this from the perspective of Yah taking direct oversight of the situation. And more times than not, this oversight would include some form of judgment against His and His people’s enemies with the goal of delivering His people from their tribulations and keeping the covenant promises He’d made to His people. Yah will in most cases, work out His will and plan using those whom He has chosen, imbuing them with the authority and power they would need to get the job done.

 

Two other events in Torah come to mind when we think about Yah asserting that He has seen, heard, and knows about the evil that His enemies are committing on the earth and against His people:

 

Genesis/Beresheit 11:5-7 talks about Yah hearing, seeing, and learning of the injustices and evil intent of the peoples of Shinar (the builders of the Tower of Babel). And the text talks about Yah coming down to Shinar to destroy the people’s works, bring an end to the injustices the people were committing against the innocent, and bringing judgment against the guilty.

 

Similarly in Genesis/Beresheit 18:20-21 we find Yah stating to Avraham that He’d heard the cries of the innocents of Sodom and Gomorrah, and He knows of the inhabitants of these cities and their sin. Thus, He reveals to Avraham that He came down to confirm for Himself and do what needed to be done to correct the situation.

 

The second thing to take note of here in these verses is that Yah informs Moshe that His response to the hardships that His covenant people were enduring would include deliverance from that hardship, which would likely include judgment against the people and gods of Mitsrayim, and fulfillment of the covenant promise regarding the Land of Promise by delivering the nation to Canaan/Kena’an. A rescue and a bringing to.

 

Regarding His bringing His people to the Land of Promise, Yah identifies the names of the nation peoples that were to be marked for destruction (Exodus/Shemot 23:23; Deuteronomy/Devarim 7:2; 20:17).

 

Thus, we see evidence here that Yah takes personal interest and even actions to deliver and protect His elect. We therefore need not fear the things that humanity throws at us. Yah will come down and deliver us from their evil acts. Yah will lead us to His glorious Kingdom/Malchut. All we need to do is trust and obey Him.

 

Moving on to verse 10, Yah says to Moshe:

 

Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” (Exo 3:10 ESV)

 

A critical concept is contained in this verse which we should pay attention to.

 

What we have going on in this verse is a commissioning. Yah commissions Moshe to do a job. In the previous verses Yah laid out to Moshe His concerns and the need: To deliver Yisra’el from Mitsriy oppression and bring Yisra’el to the Land of Covenant Promise. Thus, Yah tells Moshe that He is “sending” him to Pharaoh with the intent and purpose of bringing Yisra’el out of Mitsrayim. In Hebrew, the verb “to send” is “shalach.” Shalach should be a familiar Hebrew term to us. It is the basis from which we get the term “apostle.” The title “apostle” in Hebrew is “shaliach” or “shaliah.” Shaliach means “messenger” or “emissary.” In Jewish law, a “shaliah” “performs an act of legal significance for the benefit of the sender, as opposed to him or herself.” In its ancient Hebrew form we get this sense of a projectile. The projectile would be a weapon that is sent by the hand of its owner or user. We also have the sense of a plant shoot that is sent out of the ground.

 

So, if we fast forward 1,500 years or so ahead from this event, we come across the Son of Yehovah sending-shalach–His disciples:

 

 16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. (Mat 10:16 KJV)

 

3 Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. 4 Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way. (Luk 10:3-4 KJV)

 

21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. (Joh 20:21 KJV)

 

And of course, Yeshua’s most auspicious sending of his talmidiym (i.e., His disciples) is found in the Great Commission:

 

19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:1 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Mat 28:19-20 KJV)

 

So, we find in scripture that whenever Father and Yahoshua sent their people on a mission, they were essentially sending forth “emissaries” with (1) their authority—their Name, and (2) their power. The fact that these great men and women of Yah were sent on missions that required Yah’s authority and power tells us that the emissary on his or her own would be incapable of accomplishing the mission on their own strengths and skills.

 

Master sent forth his talmidiym to teach and baptize and make disciples of the nation peoples of the world. And when He sent them, He sent them with his authority. The Shlichyim possessed his Name. Whatever they did they’d do it in His Name–His authority. Master also sent them with His power. Master’s power is manifested in the workings of Yah’s Ruach HaKodesh–Yah’s Holy Spirit. The power of the Holy Spirit made healings and other such miracles possible. It made poor Galilean fishermen mighty orators and articulators of the Gospel. It made them prophets–both forthtelling and foretelling prophets.

 

So then, what does this say to us today? When we signed up to be disciples of Yahoshua Messiah, part of our job as disciples is to, in some form or another, carry out the Great Commission. Now, that’s not to say that each of us becomes an “apostle” such as Master’s inner core of disciples and Shaul became. But Master has sent forth apostles and prophets (although I’ve personally not come across any that I would consider true apostles or prophets in my lifetime); evangelists; pastors; teachers (Ephesians 4:11); miracle workers; healers; helpers; organizers; linguists; etc. (1 Corinthians 12:28), all provided by Yah to accomplish the Great Commission and for the “perfecting of the saints and the work of the gospel and edifying the true Body of Mashiyach.

 

That being said, Master has slated each of us to fill one or more of these stated offices or roles in the work of the Kingdom/Malchut. And if by chance we are called to work the fields in the capacity of one or more of these callings, we need not worry whether we’ll be capable of properly wearing those spiritual shoes. For when Master sends us to do the work of the gospel and to edify the Body of Mashiyach, He grants us His authority–His Name–and provides us the power in which to accomplish the mission He has sent us to perform. He fills us with Yah’s precious Ruach HaKodesh. And the Ruach HaKodesh provides us with everything we will need to accomplish our commission and calling.

 

But all of what we’ve been saying as it relates to verse 10 and this concept of Yah sending or commissioning His chosen ones to a mission is indicative of the fact that Yah chooses people like you and me to accomplish His purpose in the earth. In this verse Yah was commissioning Moshe to lead His kinsmen out of Mitsrayim and on to the Promised Land. And my point is simply this: Yah could have simply spoken some words and made the deliverance of Yisra’el happen without any human involvement. But Yah chose instead to commission Moshe for the task. Why does He choose to involve people, as flawed as they might be, to accomplish His will and purpose in the earth? Well, I believe it has to do with Yah doing a work in His people. Yah seeks to bring souls into His family through faithful covenant obedience. And bringing people into Yah’s family is a process that requires faith and obedience. If Yah were to have simply spoken Yisra’el’s deliverance from Mitsriy/Egyptian oppression and have them wake up one day in the Promised Land with all their enemies done away with, the very people that He sought to be in covenant with would still be the same stiffnecked, uncircumcised of hearts, selfish and self-minded people they always were. But by using people to bring about His will and purpose in the earth, Father allows for true change to occur in His children, which would bring them into true deliverance and into His presence.

 

Let’s look at the remaining verses of our reading:

 

11 But Moses said to God, a“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, a“But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, byou shall serve God on this mountain.” 13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.”1 And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, a‘I AM has sent me to you.'” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The LORD,1 the aGod of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is bmy name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. 16 Go and agather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, b“I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, 17 and I promise that aI will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land aflowing with milk and honey.”‘ 18 And athey will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel bshall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has cmet with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt awill not let you go unless compelled bby a mighty hand.1 20 So aI will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with ball the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. 21 And aI will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, 22 but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for asilver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So byou shall plunder the Egyptians.”

 

ESV  Exodus 4:1 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.'” 2 The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, a“A staff.” 3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. 4 But the LORD said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”– so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand– 5 “that they may abelieve that the LORD, bthe God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” 6 Again, the LORD said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.”1 And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was aleprous2 like snow. 7 Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, ait was restored like the rest of his flesh. 8 “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. 9 If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile awill become blood on the dry ground.” 10 But Moses said to the LORD, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but aI am slow of speech and of tongue.” 11 Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 12 Now therefore go, and aI will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” (Exo 3:11-4:12 ESV)

 

So, here we see Moshe’s feeble attempt at pooh poohing Yah’s commission. Moshe does what so many of us do when we’re called to work the fields for the sake of the Kingdom–the Malchut: We come up with a million and one reasons why we can’t do that which Abba has called us to do. In this case, Moshe comes up, according to my count, with four (4) reasons why he was not the person for the job:

 

  1. He was not qualified for the job (3:11-12). Moshe says to Abba: “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh?” And what I find very applicable and all the more fascinating is that Moshe, even after having this intimate encounter with the Creator of the Universe, exalts Pharaoh as someone who is greater than him. Furthermore, Moshe sees the leading of Yisra’el out of Mitsrayim/Egypt as a feat that is beyond his abilities. Interestingly, the Creator of the Universe says you’re the right guy for the job, yet you’re saying you’re not. Who’s right about this? Well, the answer to that question should be an obvious one.

 

But don’t we do the same thing sometimes when Yah commissions us for a work?

 

For our callings are commissions from Yah Himself. And we would be wise to walk in that commission/calling, knowing we have the very backing of Yah Himself to do the thing He’s calling and commissioning us to do. Too many brethren in our Faith Community choose to be benchwarmers, never walking out their calling; never listening for the still small voice of Yah that gives them their marching orders nor having the boldness to say in response to Yah’s call: “hineini”–I am here Abba–you have my undivided attention–here am I send me.

 

So, let us not doubt nor reject our calling as Moshe initially did in our text.

 

  1. Moshe expressed to Yah concerns (he says) he has that the people–his kinsmen would not recognize his authority (3:13-15). That his people would not recognize Yah as the source of his authority. And so, Yah identifies Himself even further to Moshe and He instructs Moshe regarding His eternal, holy Name: tell them that “I Am” sent you. “I Am”–“Heyah aser Heyah”–I am Who I am–I have always been–I exist in the here and now–I shall always be. “I will be what I will be.” The Septuagint renders Yah’s statement of His identity here as simply “I Am the Being.” And then Yah reveals to Moshe His holy Name of Yod-Hey-Vaw-Hey, famously referred to as the tetragrammaton. The three prominent pronunciations of YHVH in our Faith Community today are Yahweh, Yahuah, and Yehovah. Each pronunciation comes with vast amounts of supportive data. But we know that only one pronunciation is proper. That being said, we do the best we can, and we declare and pronounce Yah’s Name to the best of our understanding. This, Yah declared to Moshe, “is My Name forever.”

 

  1. Then Moshe comes up with the excuse that his kinsmen might see him as a fraud (4:1-9). In other words, it would be Moshe’s word against their word and lack of beliefs. And so, in response, Yah imbues Moshe with the power to perform miracles. And the thinking here is that the performing of miracles would certainly grab the peoples’ attention, including that of Pharaoh and his court, bring legitimacy to His claim of being an emissary of Yehovah.

 

We know that our Master performed miracles in the midst of His preaching the gospel. Why? Because miracles are a sign that Yah is somehow involved in the situation at hand, and they legitimize the emissary as being one of Yah’s chosen ones.

 

Oh, that the working of miracles was once again common among Yah’s people such that the peoples of this world may experience Yah in their lives. And coupled with the preaching of the gospel, turn from their wicked ways, and enter a covenant relationship with the Creator of the Universe.

 

  1. Lastly, Moshe expresses concerns that he did not possess eloquence of speech, such that would grab hold of the obedient attention of his kinsmen and Pharaoh and his court (4:10-12). He tells His Creator that he was tongue-tied, as if His Creator did not know his physical limitations. And in patient response, Yah tells Moshe that His Ruach would be with Him and that Yah Himself would give Moshe that which He wanted him to say to the people. If there was any concern for him being tongue-tied, Yah would fix that when the time would come.

 

Lastly, verse 13:

 

 

13 But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” (Exo 4:13 ESV)

 

Finally in our reading, we see Moshe realizing that for every excuse that entered his mind and heart in opposition to the commission that Yah put forth to him, Yah had an answer and solution to. Yah already had each concern thought out and answered before Moshe posed it to Him. Moshe was Yah’s chosen man for the job. Thus, there was no excuse that Moshe could ever come up with that Yah hadn’t already considered and factored into His selection of him for the job.

 

So, Moshe sensing he was not going to get anywhere with Yah on this commissioning issue, throws up his arms and simply pleads with Yah to find someone else to do the job.  He simply didn’t want to do the job.

 

Can we see ourselves in Moshe here?

 

Some have surmised that the best person for the job is the one who never sought after the job in the first place. And in some circumstances, I would presume this to be true. But as humble as it might be to some that one would excuse themselves from Yah-ordained service or commission, it may be a dangerous avenue to take.

 

To deny the commission of Yah is to deny the reality of Who Yah is. Yah is the giver of life. Yah is the sustainer of life. Yah governs the steps of His chosen ones. And to reject Yah’s commission is to reject Yah’s sovereignty in and over our lives. It’s a slap in the face of Yehovah, and He doesn’t take rejection well, as we will see in reading 48.

 

Messianic/Netsari Take-Away From our Reading

 

Let us keep at the forefront of our thoughts and actions that Yehovah is holy—Qodesh. We must never overlook or take for granted this reality. His holiness should serve as a reminder to us of our shortcomings and misgivings and of the places in our lives that the Ruach HaKodesh—the Holy Spirit—needs to clean-up so that we are presentable to Yah. That we provide Yah a suitable dwelling place while we walk this earth.

 

When we came to Faith, our trusting faith in Yahoshua resulted in our being given brand, spanking new, clean white garments. And as we walk this walk in Mashiyach, it falls to us to maintain those garments and keep them spotless.

 

Addressing the Laodiceans, Yahoshua had Yochanan the Revelator write:

 

18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. (Rev 3:18 ESV)

 

Indeed, Yahoshua’s sacrifice—His blood—coupled with our trusting faith in the Person and Ministry of Yeshua Messiah covers over our sins and we are justified before a Holy and Righteous Elohim (Romans 3:20-28). That is why we may come boldly into His Presence—even into the Holy of Holies (Hebrews 4:16; 10:19; Ephesians 3:12).

 

This reality is a gift from Yah. But this gift of Yah—our having direct access to His Presence, doesn’t change the fact that Yah is Qodesh. And knowing the depths of that reality should prompt us to remain in a perpetual state of purity. Purity such that we abstain from and reject every form of impurity. That is, we heed the sage teachings of Shaul to the Messianics in Corinth:

 

5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; (2Co 10:5 KJV)

 

 

It behooves us to always be clean in every area of our lives, such that nothing will impede our coming into Yah’s presence.

 

And speaking of coming into His presence, it is imperative that we treat Yah as Qodesh in our worship; in our approach to prayer and intercession; in how we conduct meditation and study of His precious instructions in righteousness; in how we walk and how we treat our neighbor. That we be Qodesh as He our Elohim is Qodesh (1 Kefa/Peter 1:14-16). This is what seeking out Yah’s righteousness is all about (Matthew 6:33).

 

And lastly beloved, we must keep in mind that Yah orders our steps as the Psalmist wrote:

 

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. (Psa 37:23 KJV)

 

And although Moshe may not have understood that at the time, it was Yehovah that brought him to the Holy Mountain and into His Qodesh presence and into his commission.

 

As Yah’s elect, it is imperative, especially in these dark times, that we stay acutely in tune with Yah. As He orders our steps, He leads us to places and people and situation that He has commissioned us to handle on His behalf. In in that commissioning He will have conferred upon us His Name and imbued us with His power and authority to complete the task. We are His arms and legs on the earth. He uses us to fulfill his purpose and accomplish His will in the earth. It’s what we signed up for. Sometimes we really do have to work for our salvation. (I didn’t say that we work to earn our salvation. I’m simply saying because of our salvation, we work. We do the will and purpose of Yah.)

 

So, with that in mind, let us be acutely aware of our spiritual surroundings and in tune to hear Yah’s voice when He calls. And when He calls, let us be of the mind and heart to say “hineini.”

 

 

Death-the Grave-the Resurrection-Part 2

by | Aug 19, 2022 | Podcasts

by Rod Thomas--The Messianic Torah Observer | Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections (45)

 

Introduction

 

This is part 2 of our discussion on death, the grave, and the resurrection. And we will be picking up where we left off in part 1, which if you haven’t had the opportunity to either read or listen to that post on any of the platforms in which this program is hosted, I would humbly encourage you to do so.

 

But in part 1, we engaged ourselves in a rather broad overview on this subject. But today, this being part 2 of our discussion, we will focus on religiosity’s concept of the “immortal soul” and compare it with the scriptural reality and truth regarding the human soul and what really happens to the soul when a person dies.

 

 

The Origin of the Erroneous Concept of the Immortality of the Soul

 

The conventional wisdom of religiosity today is that humanity is composed of a temporal body and an immortal soul. And according to religiosity, the immortal soul is housed in its temporal body that is composed of flesh and blood. The body serves only as a temporary physical framework or vehicle for the soul. And so, at death, the immortal soul separates from its body. Beyond its physical body the immortal soul exists or dwells in some eternal-conscious ethereal place or location (e.g., purgatory; heaven; hell).

 

So, where did this erroneous understanding of the human soul originate? 

 

 

Well, it turns out  that a James Bonwick, in his book entitled “Egyptian Beliefs and Modern Thought (1956),” lays the blame at the feet of the Greek historian and geographer Herodotus (5th century BC), who in turn said that the concept of the “immortal soul” separating itself from the body at death and existing in some conscious state beyond its body, originated with the ancient Egyptians. Later, contends Herodotus, the Greeks adopted and promoted the “immortal soul paradigm” to the uttermost parts of the world.

 

Who were the primary Greek purveyors of this concept?

Well, it’s believed by some that the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates (~470-399 BC) first picked up on and developed and taught this Egyptian concept during his time in Athens. And then his protégé Plato (~428-348 BC) continued his mentor’s work on the immortal soul paradigm by promoting and teaching it from his thought academy.

 

According to these two ancient Greek philosophers, the soul of man is immortal and indestructible. And so, at death, the immortal, indestructible soul separates and exists independently of its physical body.

 

Plato went even farther by stipulating that after death, all souls are judged according to the deeds done in that soul’s body.

 

The souls that are deemed righteous, I presume by the gods, would go on to heaven, while the souls that are deemed wicked go on to hell or hades (Plato’s “Phaedo,” aka “On the Soul”).

 

And so, the paradigm of the immortal soul spread throughout the known western and eastern world. Shockingly, it was adopted and syncretized into certain sects of the Jewish religion by way of Hellenist Jews. Consequently, the most notable promoter of the immortal soul paradigm that was consistent with the teachings of Socrates and Plato appears to have been the Hellenist Jewish Philosopher and Historian Philo Judaeus—aka Philo of Alexandria (~25 BC-45-50 AD).

 

How and why would a member of the Jewish religion promote such pagan-based foolishness? Well, it turns out that Philo loved and studied Greek philosophy. And this, of course, led to his allegorizing and syncretizing Torah with Greek philosophy. Consequently, Philo’s efforts to marry Hebrew understanding of the Tanach with Greek/Stoic philosophical principles paid off handsomely. His teachings about the immortal soul and the afterlife found a home, as we previously discussed, in various Talmudic/Midrashic writings (content found in the Talmud that is meant to provide textual interpretation, study, and exegesis that date back to the 3rd and 4th centuries AD).

 

It was the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (A.D. 37-~100 A.D.) who said that Philo was influenced by the Alexandrian School. The Alexandrian School was a collective of literary, philosophical, medical, and science thought that originated out Alexandria Egypt/Mitsrayim) during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

 

Conditional Resurrection Versus the Immortal Soul Paradigm

 

Now, as it relates to this Babylonian and Greek derived concept of the immortality of the soul, two perspectives dominated the so-called “inter-testament-years” (I.e., the 400 or so years between the time that the Book of Malachi—~420 BC—was written and the ministry of Yochanan the Immerser began:

 

  1. Judaism of that time, in general, held to the Tanakh-supported and established understanding of a “conditional resurrection” of the righteous. Conditional resurrection holds that eternal life is gifted to the Creator’s righteous ones. Consequently, the Hebraic concept of conditional resurrection is inconsistent with the pagan-based “immortal soul” paradigm. Why? Simply because it doesn’t make sense that the so-called immortal soul of a righteous one would be fluttering about in some temporal, purgatorial, ethereal place, then sent back and reunited with its temporal body in some future resurrection of the dead. Not to mention, the very term “resurrection” and the act of being resurrected, which is the raising of one from the dead, is contradictory to the concept of the immortal soul. For the concept of the immortal soul suggests that there really is no such thing as death. Because the soul—that indestructible element of humanity that makes a person a person—the soul never dies.

 

So, to bridge the chasm that existed between the concepts of a conditional resurrection and the Hellenistic-held belief in the immortal soul, the rabbis produced the idea that it is the soul’s immortality is “conditional.” In other words, the righteous soul is granted immortality at death.

 

Interestingly, some of the writings found in the Dead Sea Scrolls supported this very understanding of the “conditional immortal soul.”

 

  1. 2. The Greek-influenced Jews (aka Hellenistic Jews) began to teach and promote soul immortality as evinced in some of their liturgy and prayers for the dead (e.g., “El Malei Rachamim” or God, Full of Mercy”).

 

It was Judas Maccabeus, who headed the Jewish resistance against the Greeks in the 2nd-century AD, who is recorded to have prayed for the dead as recorded in 2 Maccabees 12:39-48. Consequently, such acts served as a profound refutation, if you will, of a future resurrection of the righteous dead.

 

The Pervasiveness of the Immortal Soul Paradigm

 

From this juncture in history, it is not hard to see how the immortal soul paradigm crept into so-called Roman Christianity. After the passing of the last inner-circle disciple turned apostle, John (aka Yochanan), the “true faith once delivered” began to be overrun by pagan-influenced intellectuals who promoted this Egyptian-Greek-based concept of the “immortal soul.” These thinkers and influencers have been referred to by some as the Patristic Church Fathers. Their writings influenced and shaped what we know today to be Roman-Christianity between the 2nd and 13th centuries AD. These Roman-Christian thinkers and their writings about the soul of man included the following:

 

  • Tertullian (~155-230 AD)—developed and promoted the concept of the “eternal torment of the wicked.” It was in fact Tertullian, who was one of the earliest Patristic Church Fathers, who promoted the concept of hell-fire punishment and torment of the wicked upon their death.

 

  • Augustine (354-430 AD)— who advanced the understanding that the immortal soul of man, depending on its judged moral standing when he walked the earth, would determine whether, after death, he would dwell in either “paradise” or “hell” (”The City of God”).

 

  • Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)— who promoted the “traditional catholic” position on the immortality of the soul, which is the idea that the soul constitutes the “form of the body.” In other words, the human soul makes a person a living thing. And so, according to Aquinas, the soul is independent of the physical body and is destined to exist in an afterlife upon death—not a resurrection mind you–but rather, a temporal, ethereal existence in either “heaven” or “hell.”

 

According to Aquinas, the soul yearns to be joined to its body, for the physical body and its immortal soul form a complete being. This constitutes the fundamental teaching of the Roman Catholic Church even to this day.

 

Fortunately, 1st-century Messianics held to and taught the Tanach-based, “holistic” concept of human nature, which as mentioned in part 1 of this discussion, involves the resurrection of the righteous dead. And this resurrection being a gift of Yah to those found to be righteous based upon their abiding Faith in the Person and Ministry of Yeshua Messiah. Those on the other hand who are judged as wicked will face ultimate and final destruction by the righteous judge of all humanity. And it is this paradigm that was taught, wrote about, and promoted by Yeshua and the “Apostolic Fathers.”

 

The Immortal Soul Paradigm Inextricably Linked to Purgatory and Indulgences

 

It was these and other such expressed perspectives on the soul’s immortality helped fuel the Roman Catholic doctrine of “purgatory.”

 

Just so we’re all on the same page, “purgatory,” according to Roman Catholic teaching, is an ethereal place where the souls of the dead are purified of their sins. It is generally viewed as a temporary abode for the dead before the soul ascends to “paradise.’

 

Now, over the course of time, the Catholic brand of purgatory made provision for the family members of the dearly departed to lessen their loved one’s time in purgatory by the giving of “indulgences” to the Church Triumphant.

 

Indulgences, if you didn’t already know, served, according to the Church Triumphant, as “a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and all of the saints” (Wikipedia-Indulgence).

 

In other words, beloved, the Church Triumphant produced a crazy, biblically unsupported scheme, to rob her members of their hard-earned moneys and fatten the Church’s coffers. Romanism already laid claim to the authority to pardon sin, although the church denies such a claim. But this scheme added to the authority of the Church to lessen a dearly departed one’s penance or time in purgatory. And so, if the family member of a deceased soul was willing to pay the Church some scratch, then the family member’s concerns for their deceased loved one’s state and time in purgatory could be lessened, or altogether erased. The use of indulgences, however, weren’t limited to lessening the length of time a deceased individual spent in purgatory. It also served to address the severity of penance one is required to endure for sins committed anytime during his or her life.

 

Interestingly, the Catholic Church firmly contends that indulgences do not forgive the “guilt of sin, nor does it provide a release from the eternal punishment associated with unrepentant mortal sins.” But rather, indulgences serve only to “relieve the…temporal punishment resulting from the effect of sin.”

 

The whole rigmarole about indulgences proved extremely problematic for several individuals, both within and outside of the Church Triumphant. For many, especially the Protestant Reformers, could see right through the “indulgences” scheme. And so, the doctrine of indulgences became one of the platforms by which the reformers set out to separate themselves and their followers from the Roman Catholic Church.

 

The power that the doctrine of indulgences had over many faithful Catholics was founded primarily upon their steadfast understanding and belief in the immortality of the human soul. For without a firm belief in the immortality of the soul, the practice of indulgences could not stand.

 

Nevertheless, the Protestant Reformers chose to retain and promote the concepts of “soul-consciousness” and the “immortality of the soul” and the erroneous idea that the soul, upon death of its body, took up residence either in heaven or in hell.

 

 

The Lie That Keeps on Giving

 

Beloved, I pray that you have been able to draw from all that we’ve been discussing here today and from part 1 of this discussion, that the immortal soul paradigm is a completely made-up sham—a lie of the enemy, if you will. And that billions of people throughout millennia have been duped into believing it. Some at the risk of losing their opportunity for resurrection and to receive the coming Kingdom of Elohim. And I would go so far as to say that the immortal soul paradigm is an outcropping of the lie that the nachash—what our English bibles translate as “serpent”—assured Chavah (aka Eve) in Gan Eden on that fateful day:

 

“You will not surely die” (Genesis/Beresheit 3:4).

 

The nachash of course knew the truth of this matter. But he had some important goods to sell Adam and Chavah that day. You see, he had to contradict the truths that Adam previously received from Yah regarding his human existence—that they consisted of a codependent body and soul that the Creator animated by breathing into them the breath of life that comes only from Him. And so, it stands to reason that the couple had received some understanding of what death meant for their person. And so, it makes sense that the couple would have had a concern that if they transgressed the Creator’s commandments, their soul and body would cease to function, and Yah’s animating “breath of life” would return to Yah who breathed it into their body and soul (Genesis/Beresheit 2:17; 3:3). There was no indication given by Yah to Adam and Chavah that if they transgressed His Torah that the consequences of their transgression would amount to anything other than the total end to their life. In other words, death meant death. Death did not mean that they would continue to exist in another state of being in another place and time.

 

In other words, Yehovah meant what He meant—You disobey my instructions, you will die. Unlike the nachash, Yah does not lie.

 

Torah is quite clear regarding Yah’s integrity:

 

aGod is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? (Num 23:19 ESV)

 

The Tanach View of Human Nature

 

Torah reveals to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to receive its truths, the reality of human existence on this planet. And that truth is that a human being is a living soul that is meant to exist on this earthly plain:

 

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Hebrew-nephesh). (Gen 2:7 KJV)

 

Those who’ve supported and promoted the immortal soul lie over the centuries have, in many cases, confused Yah’s breathing into Adam the breath of life with a false understanding of Yah placing an immortal soul into the body of man. But the truth of the matter is that the text does not say any such thing. But rather, the text emphatically states that man—Hebrew of “adam”—BECAME A LIVING SOUL (I.e., “wai’hi ha’a’dam le’nephesh hhai’yah” or “the human existed for a living soul” when transliterated from the Hebrew).

 

Thus, contrary to religiosity conventional wisdom, according to scripture, the human body and soul cannot be viewed as two independent elements of a person’s being, such that the body is the mortal framework of a person’s soul, while the soul is an imputed, immortal, “will o’ the wisp” that operates independent of the physical body. But rather the body and soul of a person are two co-dependent elements or characteristics of the one person. The soul does not, nor cannot operate independently of its body.

 

Of this, Danish Old Testament scholar and Semitic philologist Johannes Pedersen (1883-1977) wrote:

 

“The body is the soul in its outward form” (”Israel: Its Life and Culture,” 1926).

 

British theologian Henry Wheeler Robinson (1872-1945) wrote:

 

“The Hebrew idea of personality is that of an animated body, not that of an incarnate soul” (”The Christian Doctrine of Man,” 1952).

 

The Tanach reveals that both humans and animals are “living/animated souls.” The difference between the two, however, is that humans—adam—was created in Yah’s image—His likeness. Animals on the other hand were not.

 

The Soul of a Person is Mortal—Even Needy–in Every Respect

 

Samuele Bacchiocchi, in his book entitled —“Popular Beliefs-Are They Biblical,” described the human soul as “needy,” which is to say that the body and soul of humanity is wholly dependent on its Creator for its existence. For its protection. For its deliverance from harm and danger.

 

The soul is also the seat of a person’s emotions and personality.

 

We find in Micah/Miykah 6:7 that the soul of a person is the source of a person’s sin:

 

aWill the LORD be pleased with1 thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? bShall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (ESV)

 

We further find in Numbers/Bemidbar 15:30 that the soul that sins presumptuously—”ruwm” {room}—with lofty intent—will be “cut off from among his people” (I.e., ultimately killed by divine intervention or at hands of the community of Yisra’el).

 

Of this inextricable connection the human soul has to sin, it was the Prophet Ezekiel/Yecheza’el, through the inspiration of Yah’s Ruach HaKodesh who penned:

 

The soul that sinneth, it shall die.  (Eze 18:20 KJV)

 

Thus, we are forced to recognize the mortality of the human soul given these and so many more testimonies to this fact (cf. Joshua/Yahoshua 10:28-38).

 

When the body is destroyed and consumed so that its features are no longer recognizable, then the soul no longer exists, because the body is the soul in its outward form. On the other hand, when the body is laid to rest in the grave with the fathers, the soul is also at rest and lies undisturbed, awaiting its future resurrection (reference Genesis/Beresheit 15:15; 25:8; Judges 8:32; 1 Chronicles 29:28).

 

The Brit HaDashah’s View of the Human Soul

 

Our English term “soul” is “psuche” in the Greek. In the Brit HaDashah it is a synonym for “person.”

 

Psyche can be defined simply as “life.”

 

We find with the renewed covenant way of thinking that the Greek term “psuche” is expanded in many places to include that which is involved in being in a covenant relationship with Yehovah through a trusting faith in Yahoshua Messiah. This in great part is applied to the concept and understanding of salvation and the promise of eternal life.

 

In one of Master’s most poignant teachings regarding the soul of humankind, we read:

 

34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 35 For whosoever will save his life (I.e., “psuche”) shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life (”psuche”) for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. 36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul (psuche)? 37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. (Mar 8:34-38 KJV)

 

We can see here how the terms life and soul are used interchangeably by our Master. And in His interchanging of life and soul, He is effectively teaching and preaching about the “mortality” of the soul: The soul that must be resurrected by Yah after it dies.

 

Master spoke further on the subject of “soul mortality” when He cautioned His disciples:

 

28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul (psuche): but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Gr. Gheh’-en-nah). (Mat 10:28 KJV)

 

Here, Master reveals that humans have the capability of destroying the human body but are incapable of destroying the human soul—that intangible element that makes one a person. However, Yehovah Elohim can destroy not just a person’s body, but also their soul-psuche. The soul is not tangible, but the soul also ceases to function when its physical body ceases to function. It is not indestructible, nor is it immortal.

 

The Tanach and Brit HaDashah Excludes an Afterlife

 

We have up to this point in our discussion, determined that the Brit HaDashah and the Tanach both reject an independent dualistic make-up of a person’s being—that a person’s being consists of a temporal, physical body that houses an independent, immortal, indestructible soul. And that upon a person’s death that immortal soul departs the body and takes up residence in some form of afterlife.

 

We’ve instead found that the opposite is true:

 

That there is no consciousness or awareness that a person has when they die. That his or her soul in no way goes off to an afterlife to interact and live with other departed souls. That Yah has no interaction with the soul of a deceased person after their death–Psalms 6:5; 30:9; 115:17; 146:4; Ecclesiastes 9:5.

 

 

But rather, scripture only supports this earthly plain as the abode/residence of humanity and of the resurrected righteous in the olam ha ba—the world tomorrow. Which means, beloved, that in the interim of time between death and resurrection, the souls of all humans “rest” or “sleep” in their graves (Genesis/Beresheit 28:11; Deuteronomy/Devarim 31:16; Job/Yob 7:21; 2 Samuel 7:12; 1 Kings 2:10; 2 Peter/Kefa 3:4). Recall from our Torah Reading passage in Part 1 of this discussion that Moshe describes both Ya’achov/Jacob and Yosef/Joseph as both being gathered unto their people when Yah’s breath of life left them (Genesis/Beresheit 49-50). Daniel wrote the following regarding the rest/sleep that humans experience when they die, leading up to their future resurrection:

 

And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. 2 And many of them that sleep (Heb. “Yashen”) in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.1 (Dan 12:1-3 KJV)

 

Job/Yob did not mince words when it came to the subject of death, the grave, and a future resurrection of the dead:

 

10 But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?1 11 As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: 12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep (Heb. “shenah”). 13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! 14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. (Job 14:10-14 KJV)

 

So, throughout the Tanach, we see repeated references to death through the poetic expression of the soul resting or sleeping in its grave as it awaits its future resurrection. And there are at least three-Hebrew terms for our English term “sleep” that are used in this context:

 

  • “Shachav”
  • “Yashen”
  • “Shenah”

 

In the Brit HaDashah, our English verb “sleep” when used in context with death is “koimao”  which means a “sleep of death”:

 

52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept (Gr. “Koimao”) arose, 53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. (Mat 27:52-53 KJV)

 

Our friend Lazarus sleepeth (Gr. “Koimao”); but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep (Gr. “Exunipzo”—to awaken a person from their sleep). 12 Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. 13 Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. 14 Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. (Joh 11:11-14 KJV)

 

What Scripture Says About the Dwelling Place of the Dead

 

We all know that when a person dies, their remains are interred in a grave, tomb, or it is cremated. Regardless the state in which remains are ultimately rendered, scripture refers to any such state as the “grave,” “hell, “or ”pit:

 

(1) Grave—(Hebrew)–qeber/qebuwrah.

 

(2) Grave—(Hebrew)—sheol—Hebraically, the place where the dead are at “rest.” It is also referred to as the place of destruction, or “abaddon” (Psalms 88:12). A realm of darkness (Job 10:21) and silence (Psalms 94:17). Every soul goes to “sheol” when it does, whether that soul is good or evil (Ecclesiastes 9:2). In sheol, there is no work, thought; knowledge; nor wisdom.

 

(3) Grave—(Greek)—hades

 

(4) Hell—(Greek)—gehinnom/gehenna

 

(5) Pit (Greek)—shachath

 

These five-terms are referring to the exact same place—the grave.

 

Both Hebrew and ultimately Greek writers/transcribers understood the grave to be a temporary resting place for the remains of the dead, with the promise of resurrection in the future:

 

 10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (Heb. “Sheol”); neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. (Psa 16:10 KJV)

 

So, when we look back to our Torah Reading 45 where the text states that Ya’achov and Yosef, upon their respective deaths, were gathered unto their people, we can safely say that Moshe/Moses was referring to the concept or paradigm that the dead all join their loved ones and predecessors in “sheol”—grave–in a sleep and rest, and in an unconscious state. And in this poetic mentioning of one being gathered together unto his/her people, there is the unspoken, yet apparent, expectation of a future resurrection, that Job/Yob describes as the dead being roused from their sleep in sheol (14:12).

 

After His crucifixion, our Master Yahoshua was placed in a borrowed grave—hades—hell—tomb–gehinnom/gehenna (Matthew 27:60). But He was found to be victorious over death and the grave, for Yah raised Him—resurrected Him (Acts 2:27). Master’s remains rested 3-days and 3-nights in that borrowed tomb according to His own words. Consequently, His remains did not see corruption. The grave was defeated (1 Corinthians 15:55). Clearly His resurrection was a shadow of what we as the redeemed of Yah have to look forward to. Abba gave Master the keys to death and the grave!

 

 18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (Rev 1:18 KJV)

 

Two Troublesome Biblical Passages that Challenge the Mortal Soul Paradigm

 

The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus—The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16. A well known parable that religiosity has attached a great deal of its understanding of death and the grave to. Lazarus, a beggar who subsisted by the crumbs that fell from a rich man’s table, died and was ushered into Avraham’s Bosom. The Rich Man, conversely, is said to have also died, but instead of finding himself in Avraham’s Bosom or Avraham’s side, the text records that “…in hell—hades—he lifted up his eyes, being in torments…” (Luke 16:23; KJV).

 

Hades, as found in this passage, is unique in its meaning when compared to its use in other Brit HaDashah passages. For its use here denotes a “place of punishment for the ungodly.” Hades as described in this parable by Master Yahoshua, is a place of fiery torment. Lazarus conversely is ushered into Avraham’s Bosom or Avraham’s Side which is only described as providing Lazarus comfort, but also being within view of the Rich Man and the host of hades. Also, Avraham’s Bosom or Side appears to be a gathering place of the righteous, in this case, Lazarus’ fathers.

 

Many believe that this parable is an accurate framework that in some way confirms and describes what happens to people when they die: The righteous go to paradise, while the wicked go straight to a fiery hell.

 

But we must recognize what we’re dealing with here. This is a parable. And a literal interpretation of parables is not always warranted unless it is contextually imperative to do so. The point of Yahoshua’s message is what must be grasped here, not the literal story. We’re talking about the would-be people of Yah heeding the collective messages of the Gospel that Yahoshua taught; Torah; and the Prophets for them to obtain mercy, justification, salvation, and admittance into the Kingdom of Elohim, as opposed to misery and eternal death to those who reject the messages of the Gospel, the Torah and the prophets.

 

Like His Father before Him, Master met people on ground that was familiar to them: culture; terminology; traditions; wives’ tales; and such. And both Abba, in particular Master, used that which was familiar to those whom He was teaching, in order to advance certain spiritual principles.

 

Shaul wrote to the Corinthian Messianic Assembly:

 

46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. (1Co 15:46-49 KJV)

 

You see, in Yahoshua’s day, the “Bosom of Avraham” and fiery “hades” or “hell” had become an accepted belief among many unwitting Jews, who had apparently learned, adopted, and propagated these “old wives’ tales” from back in the days of Yisra’el’s Hellenization by the Greeks—back around the 2nd century B.C.

 

Despite the Bosom of Avraham and Hell—Hades being nothing more than folklore to certain first-century Palestinian Jews, Yahoshua recognized that He could teach the biblical principles of a future paradise abode for the righteous and a terrible destructive end for the wicked using the folktale of Avraham Bosom as a well-known and understood story.

 

The second potential challenge to our Biblically-based mortal soul paradigm is “The Thief on the Cross”—The story of the Thief on the Cross is found in Luke 23. It is a well-known story that again, religiosity has taken unto herself as proof-positive that the moment a saved one dies, their soul or spirit is ushered into heaven or paradise as the text describes:

 

 39 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. 40 But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. 42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. 43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luk 23:39-43 KJV)

 

Some Patristic Church Fathers identified “paradise” as used here as Gan Eden—The Garden of Eden—which no longer exists on this earth but is located or situated somewhere in the ether.

 

The problem that we face with this passage is verse 43, which records Yahoshua promising one of the repentant thieves that hung on a cross alongside Him, that he would be with Him in paradise when they both drew their last breath and died.

 

Here’s the fascinating thing about ancient Greek [scriptural] passages: They have no punctuation. So, as it relates to translators’ efforts to render an accurate interpretation of verse 43 to their readers, the would-be English translator is left to make guesses as to where he or she inserts commas or not insert them at all. In the case of the KJV and virtually every other English translation of this passage I could get my hands on, a comma was inserted into the verse after the word “thee” as opposed to inserting the comma after the word “today.” For the position of a single comma in this case changes the meaning of the whole verse:

 

“Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with Me in paradise…” versus “verily I say unto thee today, thou shalt be with Me in paradise.”

 

The first rendering is a definitive declaration from Yahoshua to the repentant thief that he would enter “paradise” along with Yahoshua on that very day. The second rendering, on the other hand, is also a definitive declaration from Yahoshua to the repentant thief that at that very moment in time—on that historic day in history—he would enter paradise—no doubt the Kingdom of Elohim—at some point in the future as a result of his profession of faith in Yahoshua. And so, with this second rendering, we get a profound declaration from our Master Yeshua of a future resurrection of the righteous dead and a refutation of an immortal human soul. And so, contextually speaking, the second rendering and understanding is the most likely accurate and truthful rendering for a few reasons:

 

  1. Yahoshua Himself prophesied that He would be in the grave for 3-days and 3-nights. Presuming that Yahoshua was truthful in his assertion—and we know that history did in fact bear Him out on this—then it would be impossible for Him to escort the repentant thief into paradise on the same day as His crucifixion.

 

  1. Scripture clearly teaches and promotes that of a future resurrection of the righteous dead, not some spiritual transition that the souls of the “saved” makes to some temporary, purgatorial, heavenly abode, to await its reunification with its body at its resurrection from the dead.

 

  1. Yahoshua never taught or promoted an immortal soul doctrine. He didn’t even lay claim to such a thing for Himself, noting that His soul would rest in a borrowed tomb for 3-days and 3-nights.

 

Beloved, I trust that I did not burst your bubble as it relates to the biblical understanding of death, the grave, and the resurrection. If I by chance did burst your bubble on this subject, I make no apologies for that. You see, as covenant-walking saints of the Most High, we are called to total transparency. And the truth of the matter is that if we dare expect to be numbered among the future resurrected saints that will lay claim to the coming Kingdom of Yehovah, we must be man or woman enough to accept the Truth of the Word, regardless how much it messes with our personal and spiritual fungswae.

 

So, as the Gospel preachers of old used to say: “Don’t get made…you better get glad.”

 

We who are redeemed of the Most High and who are in a covenant-relationship with the Creator of the Universe through the Person and Ministry of Yeshua Messiah, have a glorious future awaiting us in the coming Kingdom of Yehovah. And if by chance as we await our Master’s glorious return we die, we have a blessed hope that removes the sting of the grave from our passing. So, our bodies will peacefully rest in the earth awaiting His blessed return and His call for us to rise from our graves with incorruptible bodies. And we will live and reign with our Master in His Eternal Kingdom for 1,000-years, and then on to eternity on the new earth that follows.

 

The Apostle Shaul brilliantly wrote of this blessed assurance—and we’ll close out this discussion with this:

 

…Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (1Co 2:9 KJV)

 

 

1 Timothy-The Properly Attired Praying Woman-Part-12 of our Paul and Hebrew Roots Series

by | Aug 16, 2019

In this installment of our Paul and Hebrew Roots series, we consider Paul’s instructions regarding properly attired praying woman. We explore the significance of prayer in the early Church and the fact that Paul sought to use prayer as one of his first tactics against the scourge of early Gnosticism that had infiltrated the Ephesian assemblies of Messianic Believers. And we find clearly layed out in 1 Timothy that Paul advocated women leading worship and corporate prayer in the assemblies. Shalom and welcome.

read more

He Was Gathered unto His People-Death-The Grave-The Resurrection–Part-1–STAR-45

by | Aug 13, 2022 | Podcasts

by Rod Thomas | The Messianic Torah Observer's Sabbath Thoughts & Reflections

Introduction

 

This is “He Was Gathered unto His People—Death-The Grave-The Resurrection—Part 1” This will be a discussion on the 45th Torah Reading of our 3-year Torah Reading Cycle. Our focus text is Genesis/Beresheit 49:27-50:26.

 

This passage concludes the book of Genesis/Beresheit. It entails a closing out of the lives of the patriarchs Jacob/Ya’achov and Joseph/Yosef.

 

Now, despite there being so much relevant and applicable content in this reading this Shabbat, I’ve been led to discuss, primarily, just one aspect of the text that I believe will be of great interest to us but will also provide us important information that we all should be equipped with as we walk out this Faith of ours.

 

And what is this relevant content and information I’m talking about? I’m wanting to focus on the aspect of our reading that deals with the issue of death, the grave, and the resurrection.

 

A Most Uncomfortable Subject Matter

 

Despite the blessed assurance we have as covenant-keepers with the Creator of the Universe, the topic of death, the grave, and the resurrection is a generally an uncomfortable subject matter. Especially for those of us identify ourselves as Messianics, Netzarim, Hebrew Rooters, and the like.

 

Why? Because death and dying in and of itself has been hardwired within humanity to be the most terrible thing that will happen to every living being. For the Bible points us to an understanding that humans were never meant to die in the first place. And this understanding for the most part is a pervasive one. So then, rational humans are hardwired to pursue and hold to life—to live life—to yearn for life and to reject death. For the Elohim that created humanity, in whose image Adam was created, is an Elohim of life as opposed to death. Unfortunately, when Adam transgressed the Creator’s Torah—he sinned—every human (with maybe the exception of Enoch and Elijah)—every other human that would subsequently be born of a woman on this earth would experience death. And Yah has informed us that death is the result of sin—sin being the transgression of Yah’s set-apart ways—transgression of Yah’s Torah:

 

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so, death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:1 (Rom 5:12 KJV)

 

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. (1Jo 3:4 KJV)

 

And so, how did sin—the transgression of Yah’s laws—become directly linked to death? Well, we know that Yah warned Adam and Eve (aka Chavah) the following if they transgressed His commandment:

 

…for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.1 (Gen 2:17 KJV)

 

Adam and Eve transgressed the Creator’s commandments. And sure enough, after Adam’s transgression/sin was found out, Yah put forth the following judgment that would profoundly and directly affect all of Adam’s posterity—his descendants, including him:

 

Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;1 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. (Gen 3:17-19 KJV)

 

The Pervasiveness and Inevitability of Death That is Due to Sin

 

And so, because of Adam’s sin—that one trespass—all humanity is condemned to both die—both physically and spiritually (Romans 5:16). In addition, every human who has ever lived is a sinner who has, consequently, fallen short of Yah’s glorious standards (Romans 3:23). Thus, because of the pervasiveness of sin, death is inevitable and inescapable. And it is because of this reality that the writer of Hebrews penned:

 

27 And just as ait is appointed for man to die once, and bafter that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once ato bear the sins of bmany, will appear ca second time, dnot to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly ewaiting for him. (Heb 9:27-28 ESV)

 

 

Because of the profound inevitability and harsh reality of death, it is expected and proper for humans to mourn when death enters their world. Because death is contrary—it is counterintuitive to Yah’s nature and to the purpose for which humans were created.

 

But for those who belong to Mashiyach/Messiah and who are in a covenant relationship with the Creator of the Universe, Yahoshua’s atoning sacrifice brings about the promise of a glorious resurrection and eternal life. And so, it is this promise of a resurrection through Yahoshua Messiah that effectively strips away the power that death has over humanity by removing deaths painful reality:

 

51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?1 (1Co 15:51-55 KJV; cf. Hosea 13:14)

 

So Where Are We Heading with This?

 

I’m probably not telling you anything new or that you didn’t already know as it relates to the overall pervasiveness of death and the blessed hope for the coming resurrection of Yah’s set-apart ones. But having acknowledged all that we’ve mentioned thus far about death and the blessed hope, we still haven’t answered the trillion-dollar questions that rests in every rational human mind—or addressed the set of elephants in the room: What really happens to us when we die? What does the grave hold for us after we die? And how does the resurrection of Yah’s set-apart ones really work? Well, using the backdrop of this week’s Torah Reading, we aim to begin the process of answering these critical questions.

 

I will say at the outset of this discussion that this will not be an exhaustive examination of the topic of death, the grave, and the resurrection. I’m certain you would agree with me in acknowledging that this is one of the most far-reaching spiritual topics and issues that we will ever come across in our walk in Messiah. It is so because these are topics and issues that directly affect each and every person on the planet. So, every individual on the planet has a personal stake on these things whether they choose to acknowledge it or not.

 

But I will also say that before we part company in part-2 of our discussion—yes, I elected to break this discussion into two-parts to make the discussion less taxing and long—that by the time we leave this discussion, we will all have a biblically-sound—a biblically-based understanding of what happens to us and to everyone else when we die.

 

So, let’s get into our reading and see where it takes us on these issues.

 

 

Our Torah Reading

 

We find in our Torah Reading record of the events surrounding Jacob’s/Ya’achov’s death in Goshen of Egypt/Mitsrayim. Surrounded by his 12-sons and two grandsons, the last of the 3-covenant-bearing patriarchs instructs his sons to deliver his remains to Canaan—the Land of Promise—and bury him in the Cave of Machpelah, which his grandfather Avraham originally purchased from a Hittite for purposes of burying Sarah (Genesis/Beresheit 23).

 

Our Reading of this event is as follows:

 

 29 Then he commanded them and said to them, “I am to be agathered to my people; bbury me with my fathers cin the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 in the cave that is in the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, awhich Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. 31 aThere they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There bthey buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah– 32 the field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites.” 33 When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and awas gathered to his people. (Gen 49:29-33 ESV)

 

Why was it so important for Ya’achov to have assurances from his sons that his remains would be transported back to Canaan and buried on the property that belonged to his family and that held the remains of his grandparents and parents and one of his wives? Clearly Ya’achov/Jacob had a profound understanding of what he was about to experience in death. Seems as though Ya’achov recognized or believed that, as part of the covenant that he had with Yah, it was important that his remains be interred in the Land of Promise. For there was no question in this patriarch’s mind and heart that his soul needed to rest in the place that held the remains of his parents. Is it then possible that Ya’achov had some degree of trust and hope that Yehovah would resurrect him and his loved ones—his people—his kinsmen–sometime in the future? Seems as though Ya’achov/Jacob possessed no thought of his soul separating from his body when he died and abiding in some ethereal realm that had no connection whatsoever with the Land of Promise. Because if this was the case, which it wasn’t, why would it matter to him where his remains would be put to rest? It shouldn’t matter, right?

 

Scriptural Basis for the Body and Soul of Humanity

 

Scripture teaches that humans consist of two essential, co-dependent elements: (1) a physical body, and (2) a soul (Psalms/Tehilliym 31:9; Proverbs 16:24; Yesha’Yahu/Isaiah 10:18; Micah 6:7; Matthew 10:28; 1 Thessalonians 5:23).

 

The human body is easily understood to be the frame or physical aspect of our person. The human soul, on the other hand, is a slightly more complex idea or concept to grasp. Now, our English term “soul” in the Hebrew is “nephesh.”  The soul or nephesh is that which defines a person: the self-the mind-the passions, appetites, and emotions of the person.

 

It must be understood at the outset here that the human body and soul are not exclusive of one another. But rather, the body and the soul are inclusive of one another. In other words, one cannot exist without the other. These two-elements are essentially indistinguishable from one another.

 

Interestingly, the Hebrew term “nephesh” is used interchangeably for both “soul” and “body” in the Tanach, which lends to these two-essential, co-dependent elements of a person being wholly dependent one upon the other.

 

From a Hebraic, biblical standpoint, both humans and animals possess souls. But the thing that distinguishes humans and animals in Yah’s sight is that humans were made in Yehovah’s image. And that reality makes humans unique and set-apart from the rest of creation.

 

Now, when we get to the Brit-Hadashah, we find that the English terms body and soul have distinct Greek-terms attached to them. The term “body” in the Greek is “soma.” It is defined quite simply as body. There is a pretty cool definition of soma that fits most appropriately here, such that the soma is that which casts a shadow but is something that is distinguished from the shadow.

 

Then we have the English term “soul” in the Greek as “psuche.” And “psuche” is defined as simply “soul” or “life.”

 

The distinctions that exist between these two-Greek terms, I believe, to some degree, aids in the promotion of the denominationalists’ concepts and teachings on the independence and immortality of the human soul.

 

The added element of the human “spirit”—that being “ruach” in the Hebrew and “pneuma” in the Greek—seems less to do with the actual make-up of a person or human, but more to that animating element that came from the Creator that causes the soul and body to function.

 

The Apostle Paul/Shaul included the term “spirit” or “pneuma” as sort of an added element to describe the definitive wholeness of human:

 

Now may athe God of peace himself bsanctify you completely, and may your cwhole dspirit and soul and body be kept blameless at ethe coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1Th 5:23 ESV)

 

Here the apostle is bestowing upon his Thessalonian readers a “blessing” of sorts, that would ideally bring them as individuals to a sanctified state of existence before Yehovah through the Person and Ministry of Yahoshua Messiah. And contrary to denominationalists’ conventional wisdom, the spirit that Shaul is referring specifically to here in this verse is that living element—Yah’s breath of life—that animates each Thessalonian’s body and soul. Seems the apostle in making such a grand pronouncement to his readers did not want to leave anything related to his reader’s existence out in terms of his blessing and hopeful wishes for their salvation.

 

The spirit of man—that animating element—the breath of life—upon a person’s death returns to the Creator of the Universe (Ecclesiastes 12:7). In and of itself, the spirit of man—that breath of life—has no inherent consciousness.

 

Religion’s Take on the Concepts of the Human Soul and Body

 

Armed with this understanding that humans consist of a body and a soul, both of which is animated by Yah’s “breath of life,” we can now make some important criticisms of religion’s take on these essential concepts. For we know that denominationalism, catholicism, isalm, and most eastern religions teach that the body is the temporal framework or vehicle for its immortal soul and or spirit. And at death, the temporal body ceases to function as a suitable framework or vehicle. So, it ultimately deteriorates and returns to the earth from which it was originally made.

 

The soul on the other hand is the immortal, eternal element of the person that separates from the body at death and goes off to some ethereal destination (e.g., paradise, heaven, purgatory, animals, plants, etc.) that each religion has determined is appropriate for that conscious soul.

 

Are the denominationalists’, catholics’, islamists’, and easterner religions’ claims consistent with scripture as it relates to the question of death and dying? Did Ya’achov and Yosef possess this same understanding of death and dying and the grave? Or did Ya’achov and his son Yosef understand that their death would entail something entirely different, with a hope of “good things to come”—I.e., a future resurrection? If these believed that their souls were immortal, why was it so important for them to have their remains removed from Egypt/Mitsrayim to the Land of Promise—Canaan—where it would await—rest—sleep—in anticipation of a future resurrection? If this scenario was in fact understood by them, why would they care where there were interred/buried? Clearly, there was something important to their being buried alongside their loved ones in the true Faith, in the Land of Promise. For our focus passage records that Ya’achov states to his sons that he was going to be “gathered to my people” (49:29) and then when Ya’achov passed, Moshe writes that Ya’achov breathed his last—I.e., Ya’achov died—and “was gathered to his people” (49:33). Clearly, Ya’achov’s, followed later by Yosef’s deathbed professions, were not just mere last will and testaments, but more so, they were profound professions of their deeply abiding Faith in Yehovah. These were clearly placing their souls in the eternal hands of Yehovah Elohayka, whom they no doubt trusted would resurrect them in the world tomorrow—the “olam ha ba.” These no doubt saw their impending deaths as temporal—some have described it as “sleep,” in anticipation of a resurrection and residence in the Kingdom of Elohim—Gan Eden. In the parlance of death being a time that the soul and body sleep in their graves, there is always associated with that sleep, an implicit insinuation of a future resurrection.

 

Gathered to My People

 

In his giving specific instructions over the disposition of his remains to his sons, Ya’achov makes a mysterious statement that he expresses to his sons as an apparent fact: “I am to be gathered to my people.”

 

What could this possibly mean?

 

When this phrase “I am to be gathered to my people” is read and understood as it is written, Ya’achov believes that when he dies, some part of his being is going to be reunited with his kinsmen who have gone on before him. And the question that must be asked, and hopefully answered, is: Where is this place? Paradise? Heaven? Abraham’s Bosom? Purgatory? Or somewhere else less obvious to our Western, Judeo-Christian, Babylonian influenced sensibilities and worldview?

 

Consequently, the same denominationalists, catholics, islamists, and easterners suggest the understanding that this statement supports their belief in the human soul being immortal and God’s people, upon their death, going to a special place of reward and eternal bliss. But we will find as we explore this issue of death, the grave, and the resurrection from a Messianic/Biblical perspective, that much of what these groups believe and teach is not consistent with that which Scripture reveals on this critical subject.

 

Contextually, we know that Ya’achov as recorded in our reading is dying and he knows he’s dying. And so, in preparation for what is coming, he tells his sons that I’m about to be gathered to my people. In other words, I’m about to go the way of all those who I hold dear. I’m about to die. But die with the covenant promises still intact and with a blessed hope of resurrection in Yah’s good time. That being said, take my body back home and bury me in the family plot as part of my covenant heritage so that I may rest in peaceful anticipation of a restored paradise.

 

 

Defining the Term Gathered

 

Our English term “gathered” in the Hebrew is “’acaph” {aw-saf}. It is a term that is used 199 times in the Tanach.

 

Anciently, the term means an “assembling [together] of people” in a single place. And as it would relate to the content of our reading and our subject matter, we’re talking about Ya’achov’s, and Yosef’s remains being assembled with the remains of their parents and kinsmen. So, clearly there is this sense of reverence and respect and concern Yah’s set-apart people had, not just for their own remains when their time came, but also for the remains of their loved ones that passed before them, regardless the amount of time that may have passed since their deaths. Thus, there remained embedded within every one of them this abiding memory and knowledge that they were made in the image of Yah and that death, and the grave did not change or alter that reality.

 

Thus, “acaph” is used in the tanach to denote one’s death and the disposition of his or her remains (cf., Genesis/Beresheit 25:8, 17; Deuteronomy/Devarim 32:50; 2 Kings Melekiym 22:20).

 

Now, some contend this is a reference to the patriarchs’ life after death experience or some form of afterlife, whereby after their respective deaths, some part of their being—presumably their soul—finds itself in some ethereal location along with the souls of their loved ones that had previously died and gone on before them. This is popularly referred to as the “afterlife,” purgatory, gan eden, Avraham’s Bosom (Luke 16:22), gehinnom, hades, sheol, even heaven.

 

But if we take this term and the phrase in which it is framed contextually, this is an ancient euphemism used to describe the patriarchs’ overall death experience. It adds a poetic flavor to the otherwise ominously sad experience of death, that lovingly and reverentially links one’s passing to the passing of those died before.

 

No doubt those who advocate that this phrase is descriptive of an afterlife that is experienced by our ancient Hebrew cousins will submit the obvious contention that Moshe did not use the word “muwth” {mooth} (I.e., and he died) to describe what was happening to Ya’achov at this point in our reading. And I will contend that this is a valid point.

 

Consequently, some so-called rabbinic sages have insinuated that Ya’achov never died. According to at least one rabbinic source (I.e., Rabbi Schneur Zlaman of Liadi), the life of a “tzaddik” (I.e., a righteous person) is spiritual and their life consists of “faith, awe, and love of Elohim.” So, while the “tzaddik” exists in their earthly, physical body, these 3-attributes are contained therein. Their utterances and thoughts are deemed as holy, which like the rays of the sun, their disciples receive a reflection of these attributes. And once the tzaddik passes, the ones who were close to him receive these 3-attributes. Thus, his positive influence upon others keeps him alive for an indeterminate amount of time after his physical death.

 

In some cases, still according to these fringe sages, the tzaddik is more alive than before their physical death, since there is no physical limitations of time and space (Tanya, Igeret HaKodesh 27). Thus, Torah regards Ya’achov as alive even though our Torah Reading says otherwise.

 

Now, it should not be misconstrued that every so-called rabbinic sage held to such understandings of Ya’achov and other righteous ones living on esoterically after their physical presence passes. A seeming majority of rabbinic sages understood this phrase “and he was gathered to his people” to mean simply that Ya’achov died (Rabbi Yitzchak Rav Nachman). Which is to say that the phrase is a poetic euphemism that carries a sense of reverence with it, which I personally believe to be the case.

 

Suggestions of a Jewish Afterlife

 

Carrying this Jewish understanding of the righteous living beyond their death, we find that several commentators contend that although this statement appears to be an idiom—a euphemism—it seems to reflect a common belief among the ancients that upon their passing, they would be somehow—someway—reunited with loved ones and acquaintances in an afterlife of some type:

 

  • The dead go down to “sheol”, with sheol meaning “the underworld”, the grave, hell, or the pit (Numbers/Bemidbar 16:33; Psalms/Tehilliym 6:6; Isaiah/Yesha’yahu 38:18). Which reminds me of a series of teachings that was given by a prominent Hebrew Roots teacher several years ago, that went to great lengths to promote the existence of this afterlife that the patriarchs experienced when they died. And this very well-read teacher left little room for refutation of his claims, citing dozens of obscure references he claimed supported his teaching. He believed that Yahoshua Messiah, when His remains were placed in that borrowed tomb, descended to this underworld-paradise-the pit-what have you, and preached to the souls that inhabited this realm, ultimately leading them out in the process (I.e., a veiled reference to Ephesians 4:7). We can certainly talk about his thinking in some future discussion. But suffice for now, scripture does not support the existence of an afterlife. For scripture makes it explicitly clear that there is no consciousness or awareness of the soul in “sheol” or rather, the grave (Psalms 6:5—”For in death there is no remembrance of you, in Sheol who will give you praise?”; Psalms 30:9—”What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth?” Psalms 88:10—”Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Isaiah/Yesha’yahu38:18—”For the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit (I.e., sheol) cannot hope for thy truth.” Ecclesiastes 9:5—”For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.”

t

  • Enoch was not…(Genesis/Beresheit 5:24; Hebrews 11:5). Indeed, some ancient sources contend that Enoch was transported from this earthly plain to the illusive Garden (Gan) Eden where he served as sort of this quasi-operative for the Kingdom of God. Indeed, he details of what happened to these two men is a mystery that scripture is silent.

 

  • The Witch of Endor and the summoning of the spirit of Samuel (1 Samuel 28).

 

  • The Talmud— 90b-91a.

 

Hellenist Jewish Historian, Philo of Alexandria, contended that the soul, which is imprisoned by the body here on earth, returns, if it is the soul of a righteous one, to God; while the wicked suffer eternal death (H.A. Wolfson, Philo, 2 vols.).

 

From the Talmud and Midrash: The soul remains in a purgatorial period for 12-months (Ah…so the Catholics were not the first to postulate the belief in “purgatory”). Therefore, according to certain fringe Jewish Sages, Samuel was able to be raised from the dead within a year after his death (we’ll describe a little more about where this idea originated in part-2 of our discussion). Continuing: But after this purgatorial period, the righteous soul goes to paradise, otherwise known as Gan Eden. The wicked on the other hand go to hell or “gehinnom” (Shab. 152b-1553a; Tanh. Va-Yikra 8).

 

Often when we get into any Rabbinic Jewish discussions of an afterlife, there is mention of the Garden of Eden, or Gan Eden.

 

In the Aggadah, Gan Eden appears as a contradistinction—or alternative–to hell (BT Sotah 22a). According to such rabbinic sources, there are 2-Edens—2 Gan Edens: (1) the earthly Eden which Adam and Eve/Chavah were expelled from, that was beautifully filled with vegetation; and (2) the habitation or abode of the righteous.

 

Still other Hebrew thinkers contended that the souls of the righteous are “hidden under the Throne of Glory” (Shab. 152b).

 

Interestingly, this same thinking is linked to the Hebrew understanding of the Messianic Age. According to certain Jewish sages, when a righteous one is resurrected in the Messianic Age, that soul that had formerly gone to God and had been hidden under the Throne of Glory, that soul reunites with its former physical body and the person is reconstituted—or better, is resurrected.

 

Now, whether this happens to just the righteous or it will include also the wicked is not made clear by these rabbinic thinkers. But it is believed that at some point in history, the wicked will be judged and destroyed. And the ashes of the wicked souls will be scattered upon the ground to be trampled underfoot by Yah’s righteous ones.

 

But despite the lack of biblical support for such rabbinic claims, these rabbis did not buy into the concept of an “immortal soul.” Even these recognized that the Creator of the Universe will ultimately destroy the souls of the wicked, which is a contradiction to the belief/doctrine of the wicked soul burning and suffering in hell’s fire for all eternity. For it was our Master who, in preparing his chosen ones for their missionary work, taught them the following critical spiritual reality:

 

28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Mat 10:28 KJV)

 

 

The Contradiction

 

Despite this forklorish thinking by certain so-called ancients of an “afterlife,” Scripture suggests that our ancient Hebrew cousins were focused on the here and now, not in a life after death. So much so that Levitical Priests were strictly prohibited from coming into contact with dead bodies:

 

And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people: 2 But for his kin, that is near unto him, that is, for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother, 3 And for his sister a virgin, that is nigh unto him, which hath had no husband; for her may he be defiled. 4 But he shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself.1 (Lev 21:1-4 KJV)

 

And consistent with this focus on the here and now—serving Yah in this world—keeping covenant with the Creator of the Universe–that most Hebrews had, especially in Tanach days, held to a “full-dead consciousness” when one dies—that is, when one dies, their soul and body cease to function and these rest in the grave (Ex. R. 52:3; Tanh. Ki Tissa 33; Ket. 77h, 104a; Ber. 18b-19ab). Some went so far as to write:

 

“The only difference between the living and the dead is the power of speech” (PR 12:46; Ber. 18b). Which is simply to say: when one dies, their whole being is dead; silenced. There is no immortal soul that leaves the body and wanders off to some other place and interacts with others who’ve gone on before them.

 

The Jewish Hope of a Resurrection

 

The Talmud discusses and supports the resurrection of the dead in the world to come as being a cornerstone of rabbinic eschatology. There is then a clear distinction between the Pharisaic from the Sadducean (reference: Matthew 22:23—”The same day came to Him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection…”). You see, the Sadducee denied any resurrection of the dead. And that was why they were “sad, you see.”

 

So sharp was the disagreement over the issue of a resurrection between these two sects of Judaism, that the Talmud—which laid claim to victory over this divisive issue—states that Torah:

 

“…excludes those who deny the resurrection doctrine from any portion of the world to come” (Sanh. 10:1; 90b-91a; Jos., Wars, 2:162ff).

 

In other words, any who denies or rejects that the righteous dead will be resurrected in the olam ha ba—the world to come—will be excluded or not admitted into the Kingdom of Elohim.

 

The Talmud and Mishnah describe the coming Messianic Kingdom as being a “political and physical utopia” (Ber. 34b; Shab. 63a).

 

This is a reference to the “olam ha ba.” In the “olam ha ba” the righteous will exist in glory and enjoy the bliss of the Divine Presence in a fully spiritual world (Ber. 17a).

 

Beyond such mentions, the rabbis generally do not speculate too much upon the “olam ha ba.” To these, the olam ha ba—the Messianic Kingdom—is an undeniable reality and unshakable future reality for the religious Jew.

 

Ya’achov’s Last Will and Testimony

 

Now, I’ve thrown a lot of information at you regarding various rabbinic thoughts regarding death, the grave, and the resurrection. And in so doing, I’ve only scratched the surface.

 

But for now, let’s finish looking at our reading and then in part 2, we’ll look at the origin of some of these rabbinic thoughts regarding the soul and death in comparison with what scripture has to say about these elements of the human experience.

 

Returning to our passage—picking up at 49:29, we find that Ya’achov instructs his sons to ensure that his remains be interred in the plot/cave that his grandfather Avraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite (reference Genesis/Beresheit 25):

 

Then he commanded them and said to them, “I am to be agathered to my people; bbury me with my fathers cin the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, (Gen 49:29 ESV)

 

Clearly the heart of Ya’achov, and even Yosef in chapter 50, was to be found in the Land of Canaan, not Egypt/Mitsrayim. And Ya’achov’s last will and testament attests to the reality that Yisra’el’s covenant-backed home is Canaan and Mitsrayim (aka Egypt) was but a temporary abode or sojourn.

 

This death-bed discussion was an administrative—business directive if you will—explicit—without ambiguity. Yisra’el, although not having fully possessed the Land of Promise at that time, had legally acquired a piece of property there that would ultimately be the foundation upon which Yah would tender His covenant promise of giving the whole land to Avraham’s descendants. The last of the original patriarchs, Ya’achov, his remains would rest in the Cave at Machpelah as a memorial—even a testimony of Yehovah’s covenant with Avraham and Yitschaq.

 

In 49:33 we find Ya’achov ending his charging of his sons, laying down upon his bed, and as the text articulates, being “gathered unto his people”:

 

When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and awas gathered to his people. (Gen 49:33 ESV)

 

J.H. Hertz, in his Torah and Haftarah commentary, states that the sense here of the phrase “and was gathered unto his people” is that of Ya’achov’s soul departing his physical body and it going to join the souls of those who had gone on before him.”

 

Clearly J.H.Hertz had drank the Kool-Aide of the teachings and beliefs of those rabbis who bought into the concept of the “immortal soul” and the “afterlife.”

 

But again, is this thinking and belief of an immortal soul that departs the body upon death biblically supported? As we’ve been discussing, it is not biblical. But rather, it is fringe rabbinic gibberish that must be taken within known historic perspective. And we’ll get into the historical perspective of this gibberish in part-2 of this discussion.

 

But suffice to say at this juncture of our discussion, Scripture is very succinct, that is, it is to the point, in its treatment of the subject of death and what happens to every human they die: The body and soul returns to the ground from which it originates, and the breath of life—the ruach—the person’s unconscious spirit–returns to the Elohim that gave it (Ecclesiastes/Qoheleth 12:7; cf. 3:19; Genesis/Beresheit 2:7; 6:17; 7:22). Thus, the soul of man awaits a future resurrection in the grave or wherever his remains are placed. In the interim between death and resurrection, scripture simply does not support any temporal way point—or temporary abode for the dead. Oh, we do run into passages that when read and taken at face value, strongly suggest the existence—or at least a previous existence—of such temporary abodes as purgatory, paradise, the Bosom of Avraham, or heaven to name just a few. But when these passages are examined within known historical, cultural, and biblical context, we find that such thinking was more folklore and tradition than biblical truth. And by the time we get to the end of part-2 of this discussion, we will prove this to be true and we will be on firm footing to be able to understand the realities associated with death, the grave, and the future resurrection. We need not be spiritual slaves to the pagan-based understanding of death and the grave that yesterday’s and today’s organized religion adopted from the Greeks and Egypt.

 

Religion Drank the Immortal Soul Kool-Aide Too

 

Unfortunately, denominationalists have to some greater or lesser degree adopted this same concept of the immortal soul that departs the body upon a person’s death and goes on to heaven or paradise. But religiosity’s spin on this theme is that the righteous or saved individual, upon his or her death, is immediately whisked away to heaven where he or she is afforded the divine opportunity to walk the streets of gold; sing in the Halleluyah Choir; hang out with the patriarchs of our Faith; and gaze into the glorious face of Jesus Christ for all eternity. At least until the rapture, when their souls or spirits as some might have it, rejoins their bodies in the grave, and they are translated into glorious beings who once again re-enter heaven and do what they once did before the rapture.

 

And what happens, pray-tell, to the souls of the wicked. Well according to the denominationalists they are ushered to hell where they will exist in a fiery torment until the Great White Throne judgment in which case their souls will leave hell, stand before Jesus Christ, receive their condemnation, and be once again ushered back to hell to exist in a fiery torment for the rest of eternity.

 

All of this has always sounded confusing to me, and to some extent, this line of thinking is impossible to truly rectify in the light of scripture.

 

 

We find in the apocryphal book of Jubilees/Yoveliym in regard to Ya’achov’s passing:

 

“And he (he being Ya’achov) slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the double-cave in the land of Kena’an, near Avraham his father, in the grave which he dug for himself in the double-cave in the land of Chevron/Hebron” (45:15; Cepher).

 

So, with this thinking of Ya’achov being gathered to his people in his death, Jubilee/Yoveliym introduces to the reader this nuance of death being a form or type of “sleep.” The writer describes Ya’achov here, not as being gathered to his people as described in the authorized versions of our Torah Reading, but rather, of Ya’achov “sleeping” with his fathers in the grave.

 

And although Jubilees/Yoveliym is not considered to be canon, its content does to some degree reflect certain Hebraic perspectives and thoughts on a great many things. In this case, this concept of “sleep” as it relates to death is introduced into our discussion and it is a very important concept that we will discuss further in part 2. And once we grasp the importance of this analogy—death being analogous to sleeping or resting—we will get a better understanding of what happens when we die. It will dispel this erroneous notion that the soul departs its body upon one’s death and goes off someplace to dwell for an indeterminate amount of time.

 

Joseph/Yosef Repeats His Father Jacob’s/Ya’achov’s Example in his Death

 

Continuing with our reading in 50:1-13, we find recorded therein that Joseph/Yosef saw to it that his father Ya’achov’s remains were attended to according to ancient Egyptian embalming practices. Scripture notes that the ancient Egyptian embalming that Ya’achov’s remains underwent was part of a 40-day ritualistic process, while the mourning period was 70-days. Now, whether the embalming process and the mourning period ran concurrently or not, is not clear here. But suffice to say, a great amount of attention was given to the disposition of the patriarch’s remains. The passage records that the whole of Egypt/Mitsrayim mourned the death of Ya’achov along with Yosef and Yosef’s family. This is evidence of divine favor in action beloved.

 

So, after these processes were completed, Yosef petitions Pharaoh to permit him to transport Ya’achov’s remains back to Canaan where it would be interred in the family’s burial cave at Machpelah, in Canaan. Again, this hearkens back to Avraham’s purchase of this property from Ephron the Hittite for purposes of burying the matriarch Sarah, which was recorded in detail in Genesis/Beresheit 25. (We covered this event in our Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections 23 Post entitled “How Do We Know if We’ve Been Chosen of God.” I would humbly encourage you to read or listen to that discussion if you’ve not already done so and if you are so led).

 

Continuing: We see yet another example of the divine favor that Yosef enjoyed among the Egyptian people, as Pharaoh graciously consented to Yosef’s request.

 

Now, if we drop down to 50:24-26 of our reading, we find that Yosef had effectively assumed the role of patriarch over the House of Yisra’el after Ya’achov’s passing and burial. And this of course falls right in line with the dream that Yosef had and revealed to his family prior him being sold into Egyptian servitude/slavery by his brethren (Genesis/Beresheit 37:5-10). Recall that Yosef’s dreams, through the natural elements of creation as depicted therein, foretold of his brethren bowing before him and paying him homage and accepting his patriarchal leadership in the process. And recall that it was the revealing of these dreams back then that led to Yosef’s brethren, incited by profound jealousy, selling him into Egyptian slavery. Indeed, this is quite a story when viewed in its component pieces and as a whole.

 

And so, we find in this latter portion of our reading, Yosef, upon his death bed—the parallels between the deaths of Ya’achov and Yosef are indeed striking—but upon his death bed, Yosef prophesies about the future of the Hebrew nation. Yosef declares to his brethren as he was dying that Yah would come to them as a nation and take them out of Egypt/Mitsrayim and lead them to the Land of Promise—Canaan—the Land that was promised to Avraham, Yitschaq, and Ya’achov.

 

Again, we see this inextricable link between the Land of Promise and the Nation. So important was the Land to its covenant-people, that the patriarch insisted on having his remains buried there as well, despite his many years of prominence and greatness in Egypt/Mitsrayim. Not only are Yah’s people emotionally and spiritually linked to the Land, but Yah also too has an affinity for the Land as revealed by Moshe:

 

 12 A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.1 (Deu 11:12 KJV)

 

Yah’s true, set-apart people know that His Kingdom will originate and operate from this Land, and it is there where the hope of the resurrection of the righteous will unfold (Revelation 3:12; 21:2, 10). Clearly the patriarch had some degree of understanding that the Land was somehow linked to their resurrection, which would explain in part why Ya’achov and Yosef were so adamant about having their remains returned and interred in Canaan.

 

Indeed, we could spend several discussion periods discussing the relevance of the land to Yah’s elect and to the patriarchs of old. But to do so would only take us off track in terms of our focus. Nevertheless, we can surmise that in terms of Ya’achov’s and Yosef’s passing, the location where their remains would be laid to rest was important to them, the nation of Yisra’el, and most importantly, to Yehovah our Elohim.

 

And finally in our text, we find that in the process of delivering his prophesy to Yisra’el, Yosef instructs his family to have his remains accompany the nation when she departed Egypt/Mitsrayim in the future and inter his remains on the family’s property—the same Cave at Machpelah where his parents were interred.

 

We will pick-up this discussion in part 2.

1 Timothy-The Properly Attired Praying Woman-Part-12 of our Paul and Hebrew Roots Series

by | Aug 16, 2019

In this installment of our Paul and Hebrew Roots series, we consider Paul’s instructions regarding properly attired praying woman. We explore the significance of prayer in the early Church and the fact that Paul sought to use prayer as one of his first tactics against the scourge of early Gnosticism that had infiltrated the Ephesian assemblies of Messianic Believers. And we find clearly layed out in 1 Timothy that Paul advocated women leading worship and corporate prayer in the assemblies. Shalom and welcome.

read more