Racism and Faith–What Walking in Torah With a Circumcised Heart Looks Like—Parashah 134

by | May 29, 2021 | Blog, Podcasts

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

How Yah views race and skin color 

This past week’s interaction with Faith and Race. Not a direct interaction, but an interaction that directly affected friends of this ministry. And these friends ended up having a very troubling experience with a member a black Israelite sect. This gentleman, it turns out, befriended one of our friends, and over time he introduced race as the one thing that would determine her eternal destiny. He used race as a means to control our friend and create fear and uncertainty. The race was coupled with misogynistic verbal abuses that began to directly impact all 3 of our friends. And it turns out, upon our looking into the matter further that this gentleman ‘s understanding of the True Faith once delivered is entirely built upon misogyny and bigotry and outright hatred toward anyone who is not a dark-skinned male. Unfortunately, one of our friends gave into this charlatan’s teachings and has separated herself from her friends and our ministry. 

Racism and Faith have over the centuries co-existed and driven a great number of religious doctrines, beliefs, and vicious behaviors towards anyone who is physically not like them. 

The irony is scripture clearly reveals Yehovah is color blind. He can care less about the color of one’s skin. He is a judge of the hearts and intentions of people. 

No male nor female, no Jew or Greek in Yeshua (Gal. 3:28). We are no longer under the Levitical priesthood, but the Melchizedekian priesthood with Yeshua as our high priest (Heb. 5-7). Our faith walk is no longer founded upon the natural but founded in Spirit and Truth (Joh. 4:23-24). Folks, I have news for some of you and that news might be a surprise and it might be a disappointment, but we’ve left the base of Mount Sinai nor are we still wandering about in the Sinai wilderness. We are supposed to be walking in covenant relationship with the Creator of the Universe who, through His renewed covenant, is in the process of today, inscribing His Torah upon our hearts and in our minds (Jer. 31) and we are all grafted-in members of Yah’s set-apart family—the commonwealth of Yisra’el and are all considered children of the YHVH. Yah remains color and ethnicity blind, as He was from the very beginning, and even more so today within the framework of His renewed covenant. Praise be to YHVH from whom all blessings flow.  

Father did not select a race of people through whom He would work the plan of salvation, restoration and redemption. He selected a man who kept His commandments and instructions, and that man was Avraham. Yah established a covenant with Avraham and His seed and chose to bring Mashiyach through the line of Yitschaq and Yaachov. Yah’s choice in choosing a people to work with and through had nothing to do with their skin color. In fact, Abba made provision for all the goyim to enter into covenant relationship with Him. Unfortunately, Yisra’el never fully learned nor embraced this essential Truth. 

Racism is all the buzz today both within and without Faith communities. It is indeed hasatan’s weapon of choice to foster chaos, hatred and anti-faith among the nation peoples of the world. And we’re seeing a new twist to racism today: any who will not buy into the race gospel are themselves labeled as racists. And those who are labeled as racist are then subject to terrible persecution. 

Racism is of hasatan, be it within the Faith community or without. It is incumbent upon those who find themselves dabbling in racism, to repent and reject racism at every level. Embrace the love of Mashiyach and see the peoples of this world the way Father sees them: potential children of the Most High. He made the various colors and ethnicities of His human creation to His good pleasure and glory.

This foolishness of Torah being based upon race needs to stop and stop right now, while there is still time. Soon, Y’shua will return, and He will judge all peoples. And He will judge the peoples of the world equally. Race will NOT be a factor whatsoever. And those who have set out to make race a factor, will have to face judgment in that arena and as it is written, there will be a lot of gnashing of teeth on that day.

We can’t stop the non-believing world in their racist endeavors. They are blinded to the truth. We, on the other hand, should have the heart and love of Mashiyach within us and we should know the Truth of this matter and walk out that Truth accordingly.

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What Walking in Torah With a Circumcised Heart Looks Like—Parashah 134 

 

Deuteronomy 10:1-11:25; 2 Kings 13:22-25; 1 Thessalonians 1:8-9

Let’s Read Deuteronomy 10:1-5 and see what Father has for us to learn today.

 

The Ark That Housed the Tablets

 

The ark that Moshe had built here (reference verse 1) in this section of our reading (which hearkens back to Exodus 34 and it served to house only the two tablets) is likely NOT the Ark of the Covenant that would be the central element of the Tabernacle that would feature the presence of the Almighty (which goes back to Exodus 37, was built by the artisan Bezalel and overlaid with gold).

 

This being the case, the ark Moshe is referring to here was likely a temporary repository for the tablets of stone. What happened to it once the Ark of the Covenant was built, is uncertain. Jewish tradition says it was “destroyed or hidden away” once the Ark of the Covenant was built (reference t.Sota7.18; y. Shekalim6.149, c; Rashi on Numbers 10:1).

 

The Foreshadowing of the Renewed Covenant

 

What we see portrayed here, albeit portrayed in the roughest, most crude way, is a sneak preview or a foreshadowing of the Renewed Covenant (10:1-5).

 

The writer of Hebrews describes Torah as follows:

 

“For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect them that draw nigh” (Heb 10:1 ASV)

 

This beautiful enactment of Moshe taking a replacement set of stone tablets to Yah to have Yah’s Words written upon them, and then the tablets being placed in a ark to “shamar” or “guard and protect” the Words, points us to the renewed covenant. And the renewed covenant is explained by Yehovah Himself accordingly:

 

 31 Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith Jehovah.

 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:

 34 and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more. (Jer 31:31-34 ASV)

 

So it is, that we, the redeemed of the Most High, when we enter into covenant with Him, bring ourselves to Him—we offer ourselves unto Yah. And Yah takes our circumcised hearts (which we’ll talk about in a few) and He inscribes upon it His Word; His Ways.

 

And so it is through the sanctification process that we begin to walk in Yah’s Way, with the help and guidance of His Ruach HaKodesh. And we walk in His Ways joyfully. We seek to walk in Yah’s Ways because we desire above all else to please Him. And thus we are compelled to walk in a Way of Life that runs contrary to the ways of this corrupt and dying world.

 

We die to self and we trust Yah to do the good work He promises to do in us and to successfully bring us to His promised Land—His Malchut Elohim, His Kingdom. 

 

Our Shamar of Yah’s Eternal Words

 

In addition to this ark and its content–the tables of stone where the 10-Words were written–being a foreshadowing of the Renewed Covenant that is written on our circumcised hearts and in our minds, it emphasizes to us today the importance of guarding and protecting (the word here in the Hebrew is “shamar”) Yah’s Torah in our lives; in our hearts; and in our minds. 

When we guard and protect Yah’s Torah, His Word in every aspect of our lives, we should by default walk in those instructions. Praise Yah. 

The guarding or protecting, rather “shamar” of the Word in our lives, beyond our simply remembering it and walking in it, also carries with it the understanding that we are to ensure that the integrity of Yah’s Word in our lives does not suffer deterioration or destruction. And we should understand this from every aspect of the word “shamar.” For our physical and spiritual wellbeing, we cannot afford for Yah’s Word to be altered or tossed aside as the Church Triumphant has done in many ways throughout the centuries. 

The Psalmist beautifully put the importance of “shamar” of Yah’s Word this way:

 

“Thy word have I laid up in my heart, That I might not sin against thee. (Psa 119:11 ASV)

 

So “shamar” of Yah’s Word in our hearts and minds is not a one-way concern such that we do so only because Yah said to do it. Yes, it is certainly incumbent upon us to do whatever Yah commands us to do. But in this case, Father’s concern that we “shamar” His Word from destruction or deterioration, is also for our wellbeing:

 

“…charge you today (to shamar Yah’s Word) for your own good” (10:13b; Alter)?

 

Therefore, if we desire to walk in the abundant life our Master taught us about in John 10:10; to receive blessings and to walk in the power and might of His Ruach HaKodesh, it is incumbent upon us that we walk in obedience to Yah’s Word. And walk in all of it with unshakable Faith. 

In 10:6-9 we come upon 4-verses that are parenthetical. And since they were added by unknown entities at some point in either it’s translation or in copying of the text, we will bypass it in our discussion here today.

 

The Essence of Torah and its role in the Elect’s life is laid out for us in verses 12-22:

 

Continuing with our Reading, let’s consider verses 12-22.

 

What we see laid here before us in these verses is Yah’s perspective of Torah’s role in the elect’s life.

  1. Fear YHVH (vs. 12, 20).
  2. Walk in YHVH’s Ways (vs. 12).
  3. Love YHVH (vs. 12; 11:1).
  4. Serve YHVH with our whole heart and soul (vs. 12, 20).
  5. Keep Yah’s commandments and statutes always (vs. 13; 11:1).  Yah is the King of the Universe. Yet it was as a result of YHVH’s love for Yisra’el’s fathers that He chose this generation of Hebrews above all the nations’ peoples of the earth to be His.)
  6. Circumcise our hearts, which is the remedy for the nation’s debased character, which is to be a stiffneck people (vs. 16).  Yah is no respecter of person (vs. 17-18; Rom. 2:11).  And being no respecter of person, Yah loves the sojourner or stranger as He loves Yisra’el (vs. 19).
  7. We are to love the stranger among us, as we were once strangers or sojourners in Mitsrayim (vs. 20).
  8. We are to cleave ourselves unto YHVH (vs. 20).
  9. We are to swear oaths by the Name of YHVH (vs. 20).
  10. Yah is to be our praise and our Elohim (vs. 21).

 

Yisra’el was Chosen of Yah to Be His Special Possession in the Earth (10:15)

 

We see here in 10:15 an important Truth that we all must be acutely aware of. For this verse puts our covenant relationship with the Almighty into a proper perspective for us. (And of course, the only perspective any of us should be concerned with in our Walk with Mashiyach is Yehovah’s perspective. I would encourage you, if you are interested in studying the topic and issue of our adherence to Yah’s perspective, to pick-up a copy of my beloved friend and Torah-Teacher, Robert Bill’s book, which is entitled: “The Perspective Factor: Our Perspective vs. Our Creator’s Perspective.” For in this well-written, content-rich book, Robert lays out a case for Yah’s people to adopt and then to always—always—operate in Yah’s perspective in every area and aspect of our lives. It’s a must read for every disciple of Y’shua Messiah. Yes, I just plugged my friend’s book.) 

The perspective that we must have as it relates to our covenant relationship with the Eternal is that Yah chose us to be His set-apart people. Just like our ancient Hebrew cousins that are featured here in our Reading today, Yah is the one who decides who He will enter into and keep covenant with. Entering into and walking in covenant with Yehovah has nothing to do with the perspective believer’s race, creed, ethnicity or station in life (reference my earlier commentary on Race and Faith). It all has to do with Yah’s choice in those He falls in love with. His Ruach HaKodesh is constantly scouring the world in search of those who have the “Right Stuff,” so to speak, to be named as one of His set-apart children. 

Yah chose Avraham out of all the peoples of the earth at that time, to enter into covenant with. Avraham had the right stuff; the stuff Yah was looking for to establish a relationship with him. So close was Yah to Avraham, that he became known as Yehovah’s friend (Jas. 2:23). And so Yah established a covenant with Avraham, and that covenant would be extended to Avraham’s descendants. However, Yah chose which of Avraham’s descendants He would enter into covenant with: He chose Yitschaq (aka, Isaac) over Ishma’el; Ya’achov over Esau; David over his many brothers; and so forth. 

Father reveals to us why He chose Yisra’el to enter into covenant with:

 

 7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:

 8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

 9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;

 10 And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.

 11 Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them. (Deu 7:7-11 KJV)

 

The Heart of a Person is the Criteria YHVH Uses to Enter into Covenant With Them

 

And what criteria is Yah looking for in a perspective set-apart child. Essentially, Abba is a searcher of hearts. The heart of a people is at the crux—the core–of any decision on Yah’s part to enter into a covenant relationship with: 

“But Jehovah said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him: for Jehovah seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but Jehovah looketh on the heart.” (1Sa 16:7 ASV)

 

“I, Jehovah, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” (Jer 17:10 ASV)

 

“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” (Jer 29:13 ASV)

 

Circumcision of the Heart is a Must (10:16)

 

We find in verse 16 of the 10th Chapter of our Reading today that Father requires of those He enters into covenant relationship with, that they possess a circumcised heart. He requires a circumcised heart from His would be people because it leaves open THE door for a true and substantive relationship between Him and His beloved. 

According to Torah Commentator and Teacher Tim Hegg of Torahresource.com:

 

“The heart that is circumcised produces an attitude which is opposite of a “stiff-neck” or stubborn spirit, and unwillingness to submit joyfully to Yah’s leadership and his commands. It is the natural tendency of mankind to make himself the sovereign and to submit to no one. Rebellion, the sin of hasatan and that into which Adam and Chavah fell, is at the root of the sinful bent mankind inherited from our first parents” (Parashah One Hundred Thirty-Four Commentary).

 

For me, defining exactly what circumcision of the heart means is somewhat challenging. But what I can say regarding it is what it involves in the life of a disciple of Y’shua Messiah. 

Over all, circumcision of the heart is a commitment to living a life of Faith. Faith. Trusting and believing Yah. Trusting and believing in who He is (I.e., our all-in-all and our sovereign) and that He will faithfully keep the promises He made to us. 

As it relates to this trusting Faith we’re supposed to possess as Yah’s elect, the writer of Hebrews penned:

 

 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Heb 11:6 KJV)

 

Thus, we as Yah’s uncircumcised hearts elect have shed our stiff-neck ways—we’ve discarded the baggage we brought with us into Faith, and we have cast all our cares upon Him. We enter into a life of seeking the Malchut Elohim (aka the Kingdom of God) and our Elohim’s righteousness. And in so doing, all of our needs and cares are taken care of by our loving and faithful Elohim (Mat. 6:33). Thus, we no longer are reliant upon ours or anyone else’s efforts to take us to the place we need to be. In fact, our whole being and focus shifts from that of satisfying and fulfilling our own desires and even our own needs, to that of pleasing and glorifying our Heavenly Father. We want to get this covenant relationship—this walk we’ve entered into right and we don’t want to take any risks in damaging or impeding that relationship. So we look to the example and teachings of our Master Y’shua to keep us in check and show us how to walk in proper, covenant; in Malchut Elohim (I.e., Kingdom of Elohim) relationship with Yehovah each and every day of our lives. 

With a circumcised heart, it no longer is about us, but it becomes all about Him. 

In a nutshell, circumcision of the heart is “dying to self.” Doing everything Yah’s Way and doing it so that He—Yehovah—receives the glory and honor and praise He so richly deserves. 

 

The Rewards for Obedience (Chapter 11)

 

Moving on into the 11th chapter, let’s consider verses 1-7. 

In verses 1-7, Moshe continues his rehashing—his narrative on Yisra’el’s Exodus journey, but specifically targeting  this second generation that actually saw Yah’s wonders. He reminds them what they witnessed and experienced. Experience and witness are powerful things in anyone’s life. And anyone who is not a witness or who has not experienced what another has, is hard pressed to identify with that individual.  For that experienced individual walks in the power and might of that experience and testimony. And in their preparation  for going in to receive the Land of Promise, Moshe tapped that power–that experience—that witness and testimony brings to one’s walk, and he says to this 2nd generation, you’ve seen first hand what YHVH has and can do. So, from this point forward, walk in that witness in power and might by keeping Yah’s Torah. 

Whenever there is a major outpouring of Yah’s Word and His Ruach (His Spirit), powerful works (aka, the miraculous) often accompanies that outpouring. When Y’shua taught and preached the Gospel, which I view as the Director’s Cut of Torah, He often solidified His teachings with His performing of mighty miracles. This is one of Yah’s many ways of solidifying His Words in the hearts and minds of His people. 

When Yochanan the Immerser was imprisoned, he sent messengers to query of Y’shua, his biological cousin, whether or not Y’shua was indeed The One who was prophesied to come–the Mashiyach. And Y’shua responded to His cousin’s query this way:

 

“…Go relate to Yochanan that you have heard and have seen. The blind are seeing, and the lame are walking, and the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf are hearing and the dead are rising, and the poor are given hope (or the poor are having the gospel preached to them)” (Mat. 11:4-5; AENT).

 

Now, we can only imagine the full impact the personal ministry of Y’shua had on the poor (i.e., the common folk) of His day who heard His preaching of Torah and saw the marvelous works that He wrought through the power and might of His Father’s Ruach HaKodesh. It most certainly left a powerful testimony and impression upon them. 

However, allow me to be clear on the issue of belief and the miraculous: The working of miracles was NOT nor should not be the determining factor for one’s belief. For we know, from the story of the Samaritan Woman at Ya’achov’s well, that the people of Samaria who came to receive Y’shua’s teachings following His talk with the woman at the well, believed Y’shua, not because of what he prophetically spoke to the woman, but because of the Words Y’shua spoke to them:

 

 41 And many more believed because of his own word;  42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. (Joh 4:41-42 KJV)

 

So Moshe cements his admonishment (that is, to keep Torah) to this 2nd generation Hebrews by bringing to their remembrance the miraculous that they themselves witnessed (no doubt as children at the time). These had an advantage over their children–the 3rd generation to have come out of Egypt (aka, Mitsrayim), because they did not witness nor experience the miraculous things their parents witnessed (vs. 7). 

Moshe believed that, if this generation that was hearing his words as revealed to him by Yehovah, if they remembered from whence they’d come and hearkened unto Yah’s Torah, they would be made “strong” (some English translations enhance the strength aspect with, “that you may be strong enough”) such that they will be able to go in and possess the Land of Promise. 

Now, the spiritual extension of this is simply amazing to me. For when we take in the great things–the great events and history and workings of Yah–that are contained in our bibles–when we take them and couple them with our steadfast, faith-based keeping of Yah’s Torah–when we walk in covenant relationship with YHVH our Elohim with full understanding of the miraculous and the workings of the Ruach HaKodesh, both in the lives of Yah’s people in scripture and in our personal lives, we will be made “strong-enough” to go in and possess the Malchut Elohim. What Moshe was essentially telling this 2nd generation of Hebrews, was to put on the whole armor of Yah that the Apostle Shaul is renown for writing to the Ephesian Messianics about. Remember that Shaul wrote:

 

“Finally, my brothers, be strong in our Master (Y’shua), and in the energy of His power: And put on the whole armor of Elohim so that you may be able to stand against the strategies of the Accuser…that you may be able to meet the evil (one); and, being in all respects prepared, may stand firm” (6:10-13; AENT).

 

When you think about it, we find that this is exactly what Moshe was doing to the Hebrews here in our reading: He was preparing them to make a stand against the evil inhabitants of the Land of Canaan, just as Shaul was preparing his Ephesian Messianic readers to prepare to stand against the coming evil–the coming persecution and tribulation of His day, and ultimately receive the Malchut Elohim (aka, the Kingdom of Yah). And we, in the same vein, must be prepared to stand against the enemy and receive the Malchut Elohim. Like our ancient Hebrew cousins, we are not slated to do the fighting: YHVH our Elohim has promised to do the fighting for us, just as He promised to do for our ancient Hebrew cousins. Hearkening back to Shaul, we must keep in mind that our conflict, in all reality, is not against flesh and blood: It is against:

 

“…principalities and with those in authority, and with the possessors of this dark world, and with the evil spirits that are under (subject to) heaven” (Eph. 6:12; AENT).

 

It is my sincerest desire that we all have eyes to see and ears to hear and minds and hearts to recognize the tremendous spiritual applications and implications that these Torah Readings have for us–we who are walking in faithful-obedient covenant relationship with YHVH. We are essentially in the same boat as our ancient Hebrew cousins. So Yah has blessed us with the example and teaching of His Son, Y’shua Messiah, who brought the fullness–the teaching and example–of Torah to us; as well as we have the wisdom that Yah gave to Moshe in passing His Torah down to our ancient Hebrew cousins, preparing us to stand against the enemy and receive the Malchut Elohim. 

You know, beloved, we are set to face the biggest conflict of our lives. And Father is saying to us–Moshe and Y’shua are saying to us–prepare yourselves–remember all that you’ve experienced and witnessed and learned, and walk in obedience to Yah’s instructions in righteousness, so that you may be strong-enough to receive the Kingdom. Praise Yah!

 

Deuteronomy 11:10-15

 

And then from verses 10-15, Moshe extols to the ancients the desirable virtues and characteristics of the Land of Promise. He asserts that the Land in which they were about to receive was a land that YHVH their Elohim was particularly fond of, for His eyes were upon the Land “perpetually…from the year’s beginning to the year’s end” (vss. 11-12). Thus, the land would be a tremendous blessing to the ancients if they remained in obedient covenant relationship with YHVH. 

But in verse 16, once again, Moshe warns the ancients not to be “seduced” and “swerve and worship other gods and bow to them” (vs. 16) lest “Yah’s wrath flare against them” and He withholds from them the Promised Land’s great and bountiful potential and blessings (vs. 17). And we certainly saw this warning come true in 2 Kings 17 when a 3-1/2-year drought came upon the Land because of the nation’s disobedience and their giving themselves over to paganism.  Today, if we falter as Moshe warns the ancient Hebrews and as seen in the Eliyahu (aka Elijah) and Zeraphath story, we may not experience a drought in the sense of not having any water to drink or any food to eat, but we certainly may experience significant spiritual drought which can, if the reason for that spiritual drought is not corrected or healed, lead to our physical and spiritual death.  For just as when we draw near to Yah He draws near to us. When we separate ourselves from Yah, He remains distant from us. He is in fact a jealous Elohim (Exo. 20:5)–His Name is Jealous–He is Yisra’el’s husband—and because we are grafted into the commonwealth of Yisra’el, He is our husband too (Eph. 2:12)–and He will not tolerate the presence of or competition with any other would-be suitors and or lovers of his people.  

It’s quite interesting to find here in our reading that Moshe introduces the concept of the people’s hearts being “seduced” by the demigods of the land (vs. 16). Clearly, Yah takes His relationship with Yisra’el so seriously, that He likens Himself in that relationship to that of a jealous husband. 

And thus, Moshe goes on to expound upon what will happen to the nation when they violate the terms of their marriage agreement with the Eternal  (vs. 17). YHVH would hit his cheating wife, Yisra’el, right where it hurt the most: He would directly threaten the source of their sustenance–their crops–their livestock–by causing the much needed rains to cease in their appointed times. And thus, Moshe sought to impress upon this generation the importance of keeping their relationship with the Almighty–its maintenance and their faithfulness—at the forefront of their lives. 

And we have yet again, laid out before us, an emphasis on having these lessons incessantly taught to their—our  children; written on the doorposts of their—our homes and the gates of their cities; and in their—our thoughts and deeds and utterances throughout every waking hour of the day (vss. 18-19). Only then, according to Moshe, would they stand a chance of not falling prey to the seductions of the Land’s demigods. If Yah’s Word was in every conceivable facet of their day-to-day lives, then and only then, would these people have a fighting chance of overcoming the “wiles [the strategies; even the seductions]of the enemy.” 

The only security one has as it relates to receiving and possessing the Kingdom of Yah–the Malchut Elohim–is remaining faithful and monogamous and obedient to the King of the Universe. For only the righteous of YHVH will inherit the Malchut Elohim (Mat. 25:34-36; 1 Cor. 6:9-10). And again, like our ancient Hebrew cousins, our receipt of the Land of Promise–the Malchut Elohim–is fully contingent on our walking in faithful-obedient covenant relationship with the Eternal (vss. 18-25).

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by | May 22, 2021 | Blog, Podcasts

by Rod Thomas | The Messianic Torah Observer

Our Torah Reading: Deuteronomy 9:1-29—Humility-Pride-Remembering-God’s Grace and Faithfulness—Parashah 133

 

Father’s Faithfulness Stands Despite Our Debased Nature

 

How are we to understand Father’s faithfulness towards us despite our incessant propensity to give into our debased nature and characteristics such as selfishness, arrogance, stubbornness?

 

What I believe we see illustrated in these 29 verses, along with the Haftorah and Apostolic readings for this week is a portrait of many of us today. That portrait reveals to us that despite our debased nature and character, even our breaking covenant with Him, Abba remains faithful to His covenant promises.

 

Our Past Often Gets in the Way of Our Walk With Messiah

 

Each of us received the call to enter covenant [relationship] with the Creator of the Universe. Unfortunately, a significant number of us enter this covenant relationship with a great amount of spiritual, emotional and psychological baggage. And unless that baggage is effectively dealt with, it has the potential of creating stumbling blocks in our walk with Messiah.

 

We Often Create Challenges for Father

 

Despite our ready acceptance of the terms of that covenant relationship we enter, few of us are willing to do what it takes to make the changes in our lives that are necessary to facilitate an upright walk.

 

Thus, so much like our ancient Hebrew cousins, we unwittingly create challenges for Father. In many cases we possess and exercise the same debased characteristics as our ancient (for that matter modern) Hebrew cousins: stubbornness and our propensity towards spiritual apostasy or adultery. Yet, again, like our ancient Hebrew cousins, Abba remains Faithful towards us.

 

Many of Us Suffer Hardships Because of our Debased Character

 

To me, there’s little wonder why so many of us in our Faith Community perpetually suffer hardships and less than the promised abundant life that our Master promised. And I believe the reason for the hardships and the absence of the abundant life is because we, in many cases, have failed to learn the lessons Yah placed in Torah for our spiritual benefits.

We Have An Advantage Over our Hebrew Cousins

 

In a great many ways, we have it made (spiritually and even physically speaking) over our ancient Hebrew cousins as it relates to our covenant relationship and walk with YHVH. For our ancient Hebrew cousins had to live on the fly and learn from the school of hard knocks. What I mean by that is that they often suffered severely, in many cases right on the spot, because of their stubbornness and spiritual adultery. These did not have written, historical examples to refer to and learn from to get their spiritual and physical lives in proper covenant order, so to speak.

 

And sadly, most never learned from their mistakes, especially those of the generation that came out of Mitsrayim (aka Egypt). That entire generation ended up dying in the Sinai Wilderness, save two—Caleb and Y’shua—because of their stubbornness and idolatrous ways.

 

We are most blessed to have their story written out for us in Torah. Thus, we have the benefit of heeding and learning from their varied and many mistakes. Unfortunately, most folks aren’t interested in getting rid of their baggage; with coming to terms their debased character; in working through and overcoming their stubborn steak and resisting the urge to go a-whoring after false gods and such.

 

Moshe’s Warnings Often Went Unheeded by the People

 

Despite Moshe’s best efforts to warn us not to do this and that but do this other thing instead; or simply to teach us Yah’s ways, we resisted Moshe’s warnings and teachings. And to add insult to injury, we even dabbled in paganality whenever the opportunities presented themselves. It’s not that we didn’t know the consequences for our stubbornness and spiritual adultery. We knew the penalty was always going to be, in one form or another, death and separation from YHVH our Elohim. But we simply could not escape our debased nature and character.

 

Yet, despite our contrary, wayward, and adulterous manner; and despite our breaking Father’s heart and frustrating Him on so many turns—breaking the terms of the covenant over and over again (cf. Exodus 19-24), Yah remained faithful to us. He fed us; kept us; led us; protected us; provided for us.

 

The Hebrews Lived on the Fly and Had to Learn From the School of Hard Knocks

 

Learning on the fly and from the school of hard knocks is never an easy path for one to take in life. There are numerous pitfalls along one’s way. And when one falls, it’s usually pretty painful and frustrating.

 

For the first generation coming out of Mitsrayim, their walking in covenant with YHVH was like a baby learning how to walk.

 

A baby’s struggles with learning how to walk are made easier if they have a loving and caring parent who is always there by their side, encouraging and correcting them as needed throughout their journey. If the child has come to fully trust—to fully believe in their parent, their challenges in learning to walk (even learning to talk; potty training, riding a bicycle; etc.) are made easier, especially if they heed their parents’ teachings.

 

Babylon Reign in the Hebrews’ Members

 

Similarly, YHVH was always there with the first generation, guiding them each step along the way. But they sadly never learned to walk. They never made it easy on themselves. For they never learned from their mistakes. Their falls and failures were made all the more frustrating for both Father and themselves because they did not believe YHVH. They refused to believe Him for a handful of reasons, the most glaring being the baggage they brought with them from Mitsrayim (Egypt). They could not shake Babylon from their systems. Their hearts remained in Egypt. They craved that which Egypt offered them in abundance—the food; the demigods; even their way of life to some degree.

 

Yah’s Way or Yah’s Way

 

But in the new life—the covenant life they agreed to walk in (Exodus 19) with YHVH as their Elohim—the things that Babylon formerly provided them were no longer theirs to possess. Yah set the rules; Yah would be their provider; Yah’s Way of life would be their way of life.

 

But true to human form, the first-generation Hebrews wanted what we wanted. They wanted to do things their way; they preferred Babylon’s Way of life over the Life of Freedom that YHVH was offering them. And so, there was this constant warring between YHVH the nation: Yah says to them, you’re going to do things My way, while the nation insisted on doing things their way. But we know how the story goes: They were either going to do things Yah’s Way or they were going to do things Yah’s Way.

 

The Self-Fulfilling Prophesy

 

Thus, that generation’s baggage—their stubbornness and love of Babylon—stood in the way of them learning from their mistakes, their missteps, and their falls throughout much of their wilderness sojourn. They even developed a twisted impression of what Yah was aiming to do with us, believing that He somehow had it in for them; that He was toying with them and that He had plans to harm them in the end (Num. 20:4; 21:5).

 

But Abba made it clear that He only had plans for their good; plans for their success; plans to prosper and bless them—certainly not to harm them whatsoever (Jer. 29:11).

 

And because they bought so heavily into the enemy’s lie—the lie that YHVH had brought them into the wilderness to destroy them—well Abba allowed for their delusion to become a self-fulfilling prophesy (Num. 26:65).

 

So, they ended up killing themselves; they summarily deprived themselves of the abundant blessings and favored status that were promised to them if they were to simply keep their end of the covenant bargain and allow Yah to work in their lives in accordance with His Plans and Will for them (Exo. 19:5).

 

 

A New Generation of Spiritually Conscious Hebrews Emerges

 

Despite the first generation failing to meet the qualifications for entering the Land of Promise, Yah remained true to the promises He made to the Patriarchs Avraham, Yitschaq and Ya’achov. The second generation came to truly fear YHVH. These no longer had Babylon embedded within them as their parents did.

 

Finally, Yah had a people He could work with.

 

That Fine Line

 

However, Abba realized that this generation would be walking a fine line between succeeding and failing in their covenant walk. And the greatest threat to their succeeding was, ironically, their obedient-covenant walk in the Ways of YHVH.

 

How so?

 

Pride Goes Before Destruction

 

Laying in the wake of most successful human endeavors is “pride.”

 

What was it that the writer of Proverbs wrote regarding this:

 

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Pro 16:18 NET)

 

Father recognized the spiritual dangers facing this second generation. These succeeded where their parents utterly failed. And in order that there not be a repeat of the first generation’s horrendous missteps, Abba, through Moshe, required them to remain humble and to resist the tendency to become prideful in their becoming a blessed and favored nation before YHVH, especially once they succeeded in conquering the inhabitants of the Land of Promise. For they were about to embark on an amazing adventure that involved the take-down, not just of established, military-experienced nations, but also nations of giants (Read Deu. 9:1-4).

 

Moshe Warns the New Generation to Resist Pride

 

The point behind Moshe warning this new generation of the potential of becoming prideful in their impending YHVH-given successes, was not to take away any joy or exuberance that would come because of their conquering the nations of Canaan through YHVH’s strong and mighty arm. The point was to place all of those successes into proper perspective in their hearts and minds.

 

Putting It All into Proper Perspective

 

It was indeed a given that Yah would fight on behalf of His people and deliver on His promises. This promise is recorded in at least 4-places in Deuteronomy (1:30, 42; 3:22; 20:4). Thus, the conquest of the Land would come about solely by the strong arm of the Almighty. The conquest would not be of the nation’s personal doing.

 

The other thing that Moshe could not overlook in his warning to the people was that the nation did NOT deserve to be put into any favored status with YHVH, despite that fact that YHVH was going to do the fighting for them; and despite their succeeding in walking in covenant with the Eternal where their parents failed.

 

The Role Grace and Mercy Plays in the Elects’ Successes

 

The perspective they needed to possess, and embrace was that every good thing that has and would come to this generation, came about because of YHVH’s grace and mercy.

 

Like salvation, Yah’s elect can never earn Yah’s blessings and mercies. These will always come about because of Yah’s unmerited favor—His grace.

 

Of course, one may naturally reason within his/herself the point behind walking in obedient covenant with YHVH if in fact all blessings and salvation comes about because of Yah’s grace and faithfulness. Isn’t this essentially the mindset of Evangelical Christianity and their grace-perversion mindset? Indeed it is.

 

Well, walking in obedient covenant relationship with YHVH is essential to the would-be child of the Most High because there are rewards and incentives to be had when one lives in accordance with Yah’s Ways (Deu. 28—the blessings versus the curses); Yah sets the rules and has told us to walk in His Ways and not walk in the ways of Babylon; and walking in his Ways is simply the right thing to do. When Yah’s people reject or neglect to walk in Yah’s Ways, but instead choose to walk in ways that seem good to them, they end up reaping what they’ve sown, it’s just that simple (Gal. 6:7).

 

The Natural Tendency

 

Nevertheless, when Yah’s elect reap the blessings of walking in obedient covenant with YHVH, the natural tendency of some is to become haughty, judgmental, self-absorbed and such. Recall, we discussed this very thing in our Question of One’s Jewishness Series, “You Are a Jew” installment to be specific. In that post, we examined the characteristics of Shaul’s rhetorical, religious Jew who took great pride in his Jewishness—his heritage, culture, biology, his possession and knowledge of Torah and such. These believed they had it made with YHVH because of their Jewishness, all the while their hearts remained in an uncircumcised state. These were contrary and hypocritical in their ways. The non-Jewish nations naturally recognized their hypocritical ways and blasphemed the Name-the sovereignty-the Person-the character-the holiness and righteousness of YHVH their Elohim.

 

The Scourge of Religiosity

 

What we’re talking about here beloved is religiosity. Religiosity as I see it is that an individual’s focus and sense of fulfillment and purpose is based on his/her own religious endeavors, efforts, perspectives and such. It tends to be self-focused (hey, look at me—see what my pious ways have resulted in—I’m favored of God because I did blah, blah, blah). Religiosity is never Yah-focused; it is not covenant relationship focused. So then, one’s boasting is not based on the fact that he/she knows Yah and that he/she has a true and substantive relationship with the Creator of the Universe. Instead, their boasting is based on themselves and what they perceived they’ve done to earn Yah’s grace; on their accumulation of knowledge; what they’ve achieved for their Faith Community and such.

 

The Insidious Nature of Pride

 

What we’re talking about on more precise grounds here is “pride.” Pride. And it’s no secret that we have a great many folks in our Hebrew Roots/Messianic Faith Community today that sadly fall in the realm of religiosity and or pride.

 

Folks, religiosity or pride for that matter, is dangerous and can, if steps aren’t taken to prevent it in one’s covenant walk, lead to blasphemy of Yah’s Name and then on to physical and spiritual destruction. I guess one could label pride as the gateway spiritual drug, if you will, that leads to a great fall and destruction (Pro. 16:18).

 

Moshe sought to prevent such a scourge among this new generation. And so, we find here in our reading, that he sets out to put the people in their place. Thus, Moshe calls them out for who and what they truly were: a “stiffnecked people”—that is, a rebellious people (vs. 6). And he then proceeds to speak history to them: their parents’ history. And Moshe reminds them that they “infuriated YHVH their Elohim in the wilderness from the very day they came out of the land of Mitsrayim until they came to this place” (vs. 7).

 

Moshe Recites the Nation’s History

 

And so from verses 8 through 29, we see Moshe reciting the nation’s adulterous and rebellious history to the 2nd generation Hebrews who were about to go in and take possession of the Land of Promise. And throughout this whole rehearsing of the nation’s wilderness history, Moshe admonishes his people to “remember.” Remember (Read).

 

Moshe knew, through Yah’s Spirit (I.e., Ruach)—Yah’s wisdom, that the nation was at a somewhat precarious place in their history: They were walking in Yah’s favor and in covenant relationship with the Almighty. Furthermore, they were about to do something so amazing, through Yah’s mighty outstretched arm, that it would boggle the minds, hearts and imaginations of historians for centuries to come. The small nation of Yisra’el, comparatively speaking that is, was about to take on the powerhouse nations that were inhabiting Canaan at that time. Part of those inhabitants were the sons or offspring of the Anakyim and Rephayim—giants, whose biological line can be traced back to the union of the watchers-the sons of Yah—and human women (Genesis 6). These were marked or devoted for destruction (Deuteronomy 7). There was to be no mercy shown to them—because of who they were and what they were known to do—their wickedness and worship practices.

 

Because of their biology-being giants—they would be formidable military opponents, and nothing short of the miraculous would result in their defeat. Consequently, because we’re talking about YHVH defeating these creatures on His people’s behalf, Moshe framed the giants’ defeat as an already done deal.

 

So, Moshe tells the 2nd generation Hebrews preparing to conquer the Land: YHVH’s got you (He’s got your back, your side, your front). Just be warned: don’t get big-headed; haughty; arrogant; full of yourselves because these unbelievable things are about to happen to you. For none of it is happening because you earned it. All that is about to happen in the miraculous, is happening on your behalf because of Yah’s boundless grace. And oh, by the way, you did nothing whatsoever to earn Yah’s favor in their lives. In fact, all that was about to happen in their sight was about YHVH: His holiness, righteousness and Will would be behind the judgment and justice that would be brought down upon the Canaanites. Furthermore, Yah was intent on remaining faithfulness to the promises He made to Avraham, Yitchaq and Ya’achov.

 

Remember from Whence You’ve Come

 

And it is here that Moshe admonishes the people to remember from whence they’ve come. And in that remembering, to remain humble. In fact, these were to humble themselves before YHVH by remembering who and what they were and all that has and will occur on their behalf. For the bottom line of it all was: It’s all about YHVH: not about them.

 

A Clarion Call to Us—Yah’s Elect

 

Moshe’s admonishment to the 2nd Generation Hebrews is a clarion call to us today. For he is warning us to resist the urge to become prideful or haughty because of any perceived favored status that may come to our minds and hearts. For at the end of the day, we are no better than any other human on the planet. Yah is no respecter of person (Act. 10:34; Rom. 2:11). We are His workmanship, chosen to perform good works in Mashiyach (Eph. 2:10). Yah chose us in accordance with His perfect will and purpose. Thus, we are called to humble ourselves before Yah:

 

The Apostle Peter wrote:

 

“…you juniors submit yourselves (humble yourselves) to your seniors; and clothe yourselves, stringently, with lowliness of mind one towards another; because Elohim resists them who exalt themselves, and gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the powerful hand of Elohim: and He will exalt you in due time. And cast all your anxiety upon Elohim; for He cares for you. Be sober and guarded because hasatan, like a lion, roars and goes about and seeks whom he may devour. Therefore, resist him, being steadfast in the Faith: and know that the same sufferings befall your brothers that are in the world” (I Pet. 5:5-9; AENT).

 

Similarly, the biological brother of our Master Y’shua wrote:

 

“Our Master (Y’shua) has given us more grace. Therefore He said: Master YHVH brings low the arrogant and gives grace to the humble. Subject yourselves therefore to Elohim; and stand firm against the accuser and he will flee from you. Draw near to Elohim and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners: sanctify your hearts, you who are divided in mind (I.e., indecisive ones). Humble yourselves and mourn: let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into grief. Humble yourselves before Master YHVH and He will exalt you (Jam. 4:6-10; AENT).

 

How Do We Humble Ourselves Before YHVH?

 

So, there are a couple ways we go about humbling ourselves. One of the first things we need to do is to “die to self.” In other words, we give ourselves over to the Will of YHVH. We dump—we discard the baggage we brought over into Faith with us from Babylon and we take on the nature of the new man/woman (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; Rev. 18:4).

 

As it relates to dying to self, Shaul wrote to the Galatian Messianics:

 

“For by Torah I am dead, that I might live to Elohim. And I am executed on a stake with Mashiyach, so it is not I that live but Mashiiyach lives in me; and the life I live now in the flesh in faith of the Son of Elohim who loves me and give His life/soul for me. And I do not frustrate the grace of Elohim, for if righteousness came by Torah, then Mashiyach died for nothing” (Gal. 2:19-21; AENT).

 

We do not achieve righteousness nor Yah’s favor—His Salvation and grace-through walking in Torah. Torah and our Master Yeshua Messiah shows us what righteousness looks like. YHVH’s grace—He being our Righteousness—through the work of Yeshua Messiah and the Ruach HaKodesh, makes us righteous before a holy Elohim. When we choose to walk in Torah and in covenant relationship with YHVH our Elohim, as Yah’s Word is embedded in our hearts and minds, we receive Yah’s purifying and salvific grace and we then walk in Yah’s righteousness.

 

But we must first and foremost, deny ourselves—that is die to self, pick-up our respective execution stakes and follow Master Yahoshua HaMashiyach (Mat. 16:24).

 

Pray without ceasing that Yah remove the stony heart and nature that resides in us—left overs from Babylon. Focus on Him and His Ways. Believe Yah. Trust Yah. If we draw near to Him, He will surely draw near to us.

 

The other things we need to do to avoid falling into the trap of becoming jaded and proud, which inevitably leads to falls and destruction, is to remember; to learn from the example of those who came before us, such as in the story of the Hebrews in the wilderness. Learn from their example. Do not repeat or imitate the mistakes they made. With our circumcised hearts, fear YHVH and walk exclusively, solely in His Ways, knowing that everything comes from Him and Him alone.

 

It doesn’t hurt to also remember from whence we came: examine our past; who we were before we came to Faith; the successes and the failures; identifying our weaknesses and our strengths. Assess the integrity of our present spiritual mettle. And based upon that assessment, walk out our Faith accordingly:

 

“Therefore my beloved, as you have at all times obeyed, not only when I was near to you but now when I am far from you, push through the work of your life more abundantly, with fear and with trembling. For our Elohim is operating in you, both to purpose and also to perform that which you desire” (Phi. 2:12-13; AENT).

 

In other words, we must take nothing for granted whatsoever in our Faith Walk. It falls upon us to recognize from “whence cometh our help” (Psm. 121:1). For we have a great work ahead of us as we continue on in these perilous and end times. We have our fair share of giants to slay by the mighty Arm of YHVH our Elohim. For we can be confident that the battle is already won. But we cannot become prideful or haughty in our own accord. All of our successes come from and through YHVH Elohim.

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by | Oct 21, 2018 | ,

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Who and What is Yeshua Messiah-My Personal Perspective on the Person of Yeshua Messiah

by | May 16, 2021 | Blog, Podcasts

by Rod Thomas | The Messianic Torah Observer

Recently, a dear sister discovered this ministry through our website, www.themessianictorahobserver.org. She reached out to me via a couple email messages. And she posed the question: Who or what I believe Yeshua Messiah to be?

 

And she prefaced her question by informing me, along with some other information that I’ll not mention, that she had perused our website, but could not find the answer to her question.

 

I knew immediately what she was asking me. And I realized right then and there that this was a topic or issue I needed to re-address, sooner than later.

 

Now, I actually published two posts that addressed this issue: The first one on 12/3/2016, and that one was entitled simply the Divinity of Yeshua Messiah, Part 1. I apparently did not post a 2nd or concluding part to this post. However, I did another post entitled, “My Last Word on the Cepher Bible and the Divinity of Yeshua Messiah-Till Next Time,” which I posted on 1/4/2019. (If you are so led, I would invite you to check out either or both of those posts.)

 

Obviously, I did not do justice to this topic and that’s probably not acceptable. At least not acceptable to me.

 

My understanding of who and what Yeshua Messiah is, in the grand spiritual scheme of things means nothing. But to you, my listeners and readers, it is important that you understand and know where I presently stand on this topic. It’s important to you because it will give you a reference point and help you understand, in some ways, how and why and from what perspective I frame certain Yeshua-related topics and issues.

 

Now, I will say at this juncture, that my understanding of the Person of Yeshua Messiah does not jive with the understanding that some brethren in our Faith Community have.

 

I would describe my understanding of the Person of Yeshua Messiah as “scripturally pragmatic.” In other words, my understanding of the Person of Yeshua Messiah is based exclusively on the identification He either gave or affirmed of Himself to us, as well as the Creator’s identification of who Yeshua was and is. To me, this is the only criteria I need to establish my understanding of who and what Yeshua Messiah was and is.

 

When I was in Denominational Christianity, I based my understanding of the Person of Yeshua Messiah on the teachings and traditions of the handful of denominations I was a part of. And generally speaking, that understanding was trinitarian based. However, prior to my coming into this beloved Faith of ours, I began having serious doubts about the biblical accuracy of the Trinitarian Concept and my understanding of the Person of Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ at the time) became uncertain.

 

Upon my coming into the fringe area of our Faith Community that houses the splinter groups of Herbert W. Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God—namely United Church of God and the Church of God, International—my understanding of the Person of Yeshua Messiah shifted.

 

It was in these groups that I came to partially accept the so-called Binarian or Binary Nature of God—God the Father and God the Son, although I still struggled with assigning Yeshua the title “God.”

 

 

But it wasn’t until I transitioned out of the Churches of God and began receiving substantive, meat level teachings from some of our Communities most prominent teachers that my understanding of the Person of Yeshua finally moderated. And allow me to just say: My understanding of the Person of Yeshua Messiah didn’t moderate because of the doctrine or teaching of these Messianic/Hebrew Roots teachers. My understanding shifted because I had finally become free from the influence and indoctrination of organized religion for the first time in my life.

 

The other thing I will admit to you is that I am still a student of this critical subject of our Faith. I don’t pretend one bit to think that I know all there is to know about the subject. For the truth of the matter is, I only know what I know.

 

Thus, I don’t feel that I am in any place to criticize brothers or sisters of our Faith as it relates to their understanding of the Person of Messiah, just as long as we can agree on the basic Truths of who He was and is:

 

  • He was born of a virgin through the agency of the Holy Spirit (Mat. 1:20; Luk. 1:35).
  • He is the Son of the Living Elohim (Mat. 16:16; Joh. 6:69).
  • He bled suffered and died for our sins and His Heavenly Father raised Him from the dead on the 3rd day.
  • He has been exalted above all creation where He sits at the right-hand of the Creator and intercedes on our behalf before YHVH (Act. 2:33; 5:31; Phi. 2:9; Heb. 7:25; 9:24).
  • And He was without sin (Heb. 4:15; 9:28).

 

By the way, I did respond to the dear sister’s inquiry. And it is my response to her inquiry that I will frame my discussion here today.

 

I’d like to begin the discussion first and foremost by stating my understanding of the prevailing theories as it relates to the identity of Yeshua. Some of these “theories” are based upon the various rulings by the early Catholic Church (aka the Church Triumphant) through the leadership and influences of the so-called [Patristic] Church fathers.

 

The Trinity=There appears to be at least 2 primary lines of thought regarding Yeshua’s relationship to a Trinity.

 

The first is a Godhead that consists of 3 co-existing Entities or Persons. These Entities or Persons make up this Godhead and they include, of course: The Father, The Son and the Holy Ghost. Each Person in this Godhead is equal in every respect, but they are said to execute different functions in the work of redemption, salvation and restoration.

 

The Trinity is not in any true sense biblical, although those who hold to this understanding of God and Jesus contend that scripture heavily points to the Trinity as the only viable understanding of the Persons of Yeshua and YHVH.

 

Another aspect of The Trinity has the Godhead consisting of One God or Entity. This one God or Entity, however, functions in 3-differing capacities. Those 3-differing capacities are often described separately by employing the title “God” and a definite article such as: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Contrary to the previous iteration of the Trinity where there were 3-separate, but equal Persons or Entities, this form of the trinity has just One Person or Entity who serves 3-roles, depending on which role is at play at any given time in creation history. The visual example that was given to me that best describes how this manifestation of the trinity can be understood involves “water.” We know that water can take on a solid form which we know to be ice; a liquid form which we know to be water; and a gaseous form which we know to be steam. I guess one could say that this iteration of the Trinity is a form of “monotheism,” whereby there is one supreme Being. But this supreme Being functions in varying capacities or roles. 

 

Next we have what can only be labeled as a Binary understanding of Yeshua. The binary theory holds that the Godhead consists of 2 co-existing persons: God the Father or Creator and His Son, the Messiah. These are equal Persons in a 2-Person Godhead, although the Son is said to have willfully subordinated His authority and power to the Father or the Creator. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, is simply the Spirit of God, which is not a Person or Entity of that Godhead. In this theory, Yeshua has always existed and worked with and for the Creator or Father.

 

There seems to be another form of Binarianism, which borders greatly on monotheism. It borders on monotheism because this theory holds that there is just a single God who functions as either the Creator (or Father) or as the Son (or Savior). Sort of like that second form of Trinitarianism. In this form of binarianism, Yeshua is both Messiah and the Creator: or better, Yeshua and Yehovah are one in the same Person. In certain Evangelical circles, this theory was or is known as “Jesus Only.”

 

Lastly there’s Monotheism, which holds that YHVH is the only God or Elohim. Yeshua, on the other hand, is His Son who Yah has exalted to His right hand and given Him His Name (Adoptionism). The thing about Monotheism is that it can be manipulated to include both the trinitarian and binarian theories. And it is capable of housing both theories because the various proponents of these theories hold that there is indeed just One God. However, they will proffer, the One God is manifested in three or two Persons. One version takes the liberty of stating that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost all consist of the same divine substance—cut from the same divine cloth. And so forth.

 

Who and What I Believe Yeshua Not to Be

 

So, having now dispensed of that denominational noise, let me get to the crux of the discussion for today. And I’ll start by discussing who and what I believe Yeshua NOT to be.

 

I believe wholeheartedly that Yahoshua is NOT the Creator of the Universe. He is not YHVH, although YHVH His Father gave Yahoshua His Name. And yes, I get the whole John 1:1 and other similar passages that seem to suggest that our Master was the Creator of the Universe; that He, being the Word from the very beginning; that He was with God; and that He was God, and that He created all things. But my position on such passages is that what many believe these passages are saying regarding Yeshua being the Creator of all things, is not what the original authors meant when they penned their witnesses.

 

I believe to place Yeshua on equal par—equal footing–with YHVH, when neither He nor YHVH attested to such a thing–would run contrary to YHVH’s Torah, in particular Deuteronomy 6:4, 5. (Reference my recent blog post on Parashah 130 where we discussed in some detail the Shema.) 

 

I contend that passages such as John 1:1 that English translators have worded in such a way that supports a multi-Person, co-reigning and co-equal powered Godhead are not what they are perceived by many to reveal about our Master and His relationship with the Eternal. For I truly believe what we have here in these passages are most likely linguistic-challenges (such as phraseology and word order and such) that are often seized upon by savvy teachers and so-called apologists who use these difficult verses to promote their doctrinal agendas such as the Trinity.

 

The nature of our modern English language often runs afoul with the unfamiliar, unique nature of the Hebrew and the Koine Greek. And it is this disparate nature between the languages that often leave room for interpreters to re-imagine for the reader what the original writer was actually trying to convey.

 

Things such as word order, punctuation placement, and archaic turn of phrases, often present challenges and impediments to a true and accurate understanding of scripture. And certainly the best way to overcome these uncertain challenges is to allow the whole of scripture to interpret itself and not read into those challenging passages the things we want them to say.

 

Abba said that He is the only true and living God and that there is no other. And so, why is it that these aforementioned savvy teachers and apologists feel they must work around definitive scriptural passages such as Deuteronomy 6:4, 5 (I.e., the Shema) and the very words our Master used to identify and describe Himself as the Messiah, Son of the (One) Living Elohim, in order to make the man Yeshua Messiah Someone and Something He obviously is and was not?

 

Even Shaul reminded his mentee Timothy:

 

For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus, (1Ti 2:5 ASV)

I have to say that a safe haven for the true student of scripture when it comes to such challenging scriptural topics and issues as the one we’re discussing here today is for him/her to ask him/herself if any of Yeshua’s disciples understood Yeshua to be YHVH or another God in a Godhead? Probably not.

 

And another thing I mention here as well is that I reject this whole idea of progressive revelation card that many well meaning folks have given as their excuse for reading into scripture a Greek or Roman god identity for Yeshua Messiah.

 

Now, Abba willing, sometime in the future I’ll share my understanding of John 1 with you. But for now, in order that we stay on topic and not go down too many rabbit-holes, I’ll simply say, regarding John 1:1, that I do not believe Yochanan is making the definitive statement that Yahoshua and YHVH are one and the same Person. I, in fact, believe quite the opposite: That Yochanan is actually expressing a view that Yeshua and YHVH are NOT one and the same Person or that Yeshua is the Creator of the Universe.

 

Furthermore, I do NOT believe that our Master was the “Angel of the LORD” as mentioned and described throughout Scripture. For nowhere in scripture are we told that Yeshua started out as an angel or messenger. Those who believe Yeshua was the Angel of the LORD are essentially nullifying or dismissing the Trinitarians’ and Binarians’ position that Yeshua co-existed alongside or with YHVH before time began–that He is without beginning nor without end. There are at least two reasons I would argue: (1) Because angels are created beings. And (2), the Angel of the Lord appears in the Brit-Hadashah on a couple occasions contemporaneously with Yahoshua here on earth. The whole Angel of the Lord being Yeshua Messiah just doesn’t work.

 

Along the lines of an angelic origin for our Master, Yeshua is NOT the brother or of any relation to Lucifer. There is No scriptural backing for such blasphemous thinking. This I believe is a doctrine of Mormonism exclusively.

 

And contrary to the thinking of some in modern academia, Yeshua is not the product of a union between Miriam (His mother Mary) and some unnamed Roman soldier. Nor did Yeshua marry Mary Magdalene and produce a line of children as suggested in the popular Dan Brown novels surrounding the DaVinci Code.

 

There are other points as to Who Yeshua is not that I could go into, but I’ll simply leave it at what we’ve just discussed.

 

Where I Stand on the Question of Who or What is Yeshua

 

Moving on: At the further risk of alienating some, I will state emphatically that I am a staunch “Monotheist.” By that I specifically mean the following:

 

I subscribe to the understanding that the so-called “Shema” of Deuteronomy 6:4,5—Hear O’ Yisra’el, YHVH your Elohim is One”—means what it seems to be clearly saying: There is no other God but YHVH. Period. This does not leave any room, in my mind that is, for Yeshua being God—that is, equal to YHVH; co-existing from eternity with YHVH and such. For me, my understanding and position on YHVH as the One True and Living Elohim leaves no room for Yeshua being one and the same Person as YHVH. It leaves no room for three-co-existing, co-equal members of a so-called Godhead. 

So where does that leave Yeshua for me?

Well, my understanding of the Person of Yeshua is built solely upon scripture’s direct description or identification of Who He is. I find the opinions of the Patristic Church Fathers and the various Christian denominations on this subject interesting. But that’s pretty much where I end my affiliations and references to them on this subject.

Yeshua Is Messiah (the Christ)

 

I’ll start off with: Yeshua Himself affirmed and even declared to us that He is the Messiah (aka the Mashiyach; Mat. 16:16-20; Mar. 8:29; Luk. 9:20; 22:64; Joh. 4:42; 10:24-26; 11:25-27).

 

Mashiyach/HaMashiyach or Messiah simply means “the anointed One.” The reference to one being “anointed” simply means that individual has received a special calling or appointment from YHVH. King David was described as an anointed one (Psm. 28:8).

 

No, I do get that Yeshua being the Mashiyach or Messiah carries with it a much higher calling or appointment from Yah than any other human being who has ever lived. His calling or appointment was established from the very beginning of time. (Now, we could get into a detailed study on the concept and term of Mashiyach and anointed, but for the sake of not getting off topic, we will visit that subject at another time.)

 

Yeshua is the Son of the Living God

 

Secondly, scripture affirms that Yahoshua is the Son of the Living God (Mat. 16:16; Joh. 6:69). 

Yehovah certified our Master Yeshua to be His beloved Son, of whom He was well pleased (Mat. 3:17; 17:5; Mar. 1:11; 9:7; Luk. 3:22; 9:35).

 

Son of Man—Lord—I Am Descriptors Can Be Misleading

 

I won’t comment here on the miscellaneous titles and descriptors that were used either by Yahoshua or others to describe or identify Him such as “Son of Man,” “Lord” or “kurios,” and the utterance “I Am.” These elements require a ton more unpacking than I wish to devote here in this discussion. But suffice to say, from my perspective, the lack of clear, truthful/transparent understanding of the context and language in which these elements were used, has led to a great many folks of Faith falling for the various denominationally derived explanations or descriptions of our Master. 

 

Yeshua is the Last Adam

 

Along the lines of Yahoshua being referred to as a Son of Man, the Apostle Paul described Yeshua as the 2nd or “Last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45). And it is this perspective of Yeshua being the Last Adam that we find the Apostle in a handful of his writings describing Yeshua in relation to Adam (the first human) (Rom. 5:14; I Cor. 15:22, 45). And this plays heavily in my understanding of Who and What Yeshua is. For in Shaul’s handful of Adam references in relation to Yeshua, we get this beautiful understanding that Yeshua is the start of a whole new line of humans who have been adopted as children of the Most High. And if Yeshua is YHVH or God (let’s say), there is a major disconnect in this whole stream of understanding of YHVH bringing His human creation into a true and substantive covenant relationship with Him: Not by Him physically putting on flesh and coming down to earth and dying for human-kind’s sins, but through a special human being who would pick-up where Adam utterly failed.

 

The Exalted One at the Right Hand of the Most High

 

Other writings describe Yahoshua as the most unique, special man to have every lived. Special because He was without sin (I.e., sinless) and because of His miraculous birth (He had His mother’s human DNA and His Father’s divine DNA—let’s say). So yes, in a sense, our Master was of divine origin since half of His DNA make-up came from the Creator of the Universe. But let us not forget that the first Adam was also of divine origin as well, having received his life force directly from the breath of YHVH.

 

But getting back to the uniqueness of Master Yeshua, it was his unwavering obedience to His Father’s Will, even unto His death, that Yeshua—the anointed one–was exalted to Yah’s right hand where He also serves as our intercessor and mediator in the heavenly Temple (Psa. 110; Rom. 5:15; Act. 2:33; 5:31; I Tim. 2:5; Heb. 8:6; 9:15; 12:24).

 

Personal Beliefs About the Person of Yeshua Beyond Scripture

 

Outside of scripture, what do I personally believe about Yeshua?

 

Well, I don’t believe He is a member of a so-called Trinity nor Binary Godhead as denominational Christianity teaches. I believe, however, that Yeshua was in the heart, mind and purpose of our Father, Yehovah, from the creation of time (Joh. 1:1). How that actually manifested—whether He existed in some form beyond Father’s thoughts and heart and purpose or plan, scripture does not say. But I do believe He is a created Being, albeit the most unique created being of all creation.

I do not believe that Yeshua and Yehovah are one and the same Being. For YHVH our Elohim (God) is eternal and He cannot die. Our Master died for our sins and it took His Heavenly Father to raise Him from the grave.

Riddle Me This Batman

During His Personal ministry, our Master was adamant that He received His marching orders directly from His Father. Furthermore, He prayed to His Father and clearly stated that He did not know when He would return and establish His millennial kingdom, as that information belonged exclusively to the Father.

So riddle me this batman: If indeed Yeshua and YHVH are somehow one and the same Person in some unified Godhead, was He receiving His marching orders from Himself? Was Master praying to Himself? And if He was the Creator of the Universe, why did He not know the details of His own Plan of Salvation, Restoration and Redemption?

Furthermore, our Elohim cannot be tempted nor does He tempt any human being as recorded in James 1:13. But we know that our Master was tempted in every way by the Enemy. But praise be to Yah the Eternal Yahoshua overcame those temptations and proved worthy of His calling as the Prophet (Deu. 18:15-18), the Mashiyach (Heb. 4:15) and the Lamb that took away the sins of the world (Joh. 1:29, 36).

By virtue of Yeshua—a special, unique human being–being sinless, He was indeed worthy to atone for our sins—to serve as propitiation for sinful human beings; to stand in our stead and take on our sins so that we, members of His human creation, may be restored to a right relationship with our awesome Creator. Praise Yah! Halleluyah!

I see this as the greatest news to have ever come to the hearing of Yah’s human creation. In every sense, it is the Gospel. For if our Master was indeed a human being which I wholly believe Him to be—albeit the most unique human being to ever grace this planet for the above stated reasons—we have the divine opportunity to be like Him—to walk as He did—to resist sin as He did (for we have Father’s Holy Spirit as Yeshua did)—to do great works, even greater than He did declared our Master (Joh. 14:12)—we are even authorized through His mighty, powerful and holy Name to do that which He instructs us to do.

If, on the other hand Yahoshua and YHVH were one and the same Person, we are asked, as Yah’s elect, to fill a very tall-order: to do greater works than that of the Creator of the Universe. Just saying. But if Yeshua was indeed human, we have a very real and workable example in Him: to conform to His image, which is the image that Father has always wanted us to conform to.

Aside from His sinlessness and unwavering righteousness, I believe Yeshua had His Father’s eyes (to borrow from a popular Christian song of I believe the 70’s). While being fully human, He possessed His Daddy’s Ways; His mind, heart and the love He possessed for His human creation. We know from the Gospel record that He was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luk. 4:1). Furthermore, He was the human manifestation or expressed manifestation of His Father’s divine character (Joh. 14:9) as well as He was the Perfect human that Yah requires us all who would be His child to be like (Rom . 8:29).

I, of course, could go on and on. Nevertheless, I recognize that my position on the Person of Yeshua Messiah runs contrary to many peoples’ thinking. And I’m okay with that. And I’ll also add that I’m still searching, like many of you, as to the most complete understanding of the Person of Yeshua that our Heavenly Father would entrust me with. I do believe that to a great extent, much about Who and What He was and is today remains a mystery that will be revealed to us when He comes and establishes His millennial kingdom. But for now, I am resting on this stated understanding until such time Father reveals differently.

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Yeshua-The Bread of Life-Torah Reading-132

by | May 14, 2021 | Blog, Podcasts

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

Introduction to Parashah 132—Yeshua, the Bread of Life

 

Our Parshah this week, under the 3-year Torah Reading cycle, is found in Deuteronomy 8:1-20. The most prominent verse in the reading is verse 3:

 

“Thou shalt not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the Mouth of YHVH.”

 

And we’ll talk more about this verse in just a few.

 

The accompanying Haftorah is Jeremiah 9:22-26. (Read.) It reminds us not to glory in ourselves such as in our accomplishments. Instead, we are to glory in the fact that we know YHVH. Another way of looking at it: Glory that we have a true relationship with the Creator of the Universe.

 

Our Apostolic Passage is found in Yochanan 15:8-10 (Read). Master taught us that when we keep His commandments, we abide in His love. But what does abiding in His love look like? What does He mean by that statement.

 

It essentially means that we are kept safe and security from the dangers and curses that often befall those who are not under His umbrella of spiritual protection and oversight. How this plays out in relation to our Torah Reading today will become evident as we progress, but the bare essential, obvious understanding that must be grasped here is that when Yah’s elect walk steadfastly in obedience to Yah’s covenant through Yeshua Messiah and the work of Yah’s precious Ruach HaKodesh, they are taken care of. They are secure. We are abiding in Master’s love.

 

Now, none of this is to say that we won’t run into life’s problems from time-to-time. We are not entirely immune to life’s issues. However, when we are walking in obedient, faithful covenant—we are abiding in Master’s Love—we are not slaves to the whims of this life. When the whims of this life attempt to overtake us, we have the means to overcome those nuisances. We simply take it to Abba, through Yeshua, and He promises us that He will take care of those things for us.

 

Master instructed us to “Seek first the Kingdom of Yah and His righteousness.” And in so doing, “all these things—the cares and concerns of this life—will be added to us” (Mat. 6:33).

 

But we have to keep His commandments in order for us to walk in His love. And oh by the way: Our Master’s commandments are the exact same commandments as our Father’s Torah Commandments. Master simply took His Father’s commandments and brought them to us in their fullest manifestation and understanding. Praise Yah!

 

Our Torah Reading

 

Found this week in Deuteronomy 8 (Read).

 

We Are to Observe and Do All of His Commandments

 

Torah sustains and perpetuates life (vs. 1). It was THE essential key to our taking possession of the Land of Promise. By default, it is also the key to our receiving and entering the Kingdom of YHVH.

 

 

Shamar—Guard Father’s Commandments

 

Father commands us to “guard” (the Hebrew is “shamar” which means to protect or take care of) in order that we may do all of His commandments. There is a strict order at play here. First order of business, we are to protect or guard Father’s commandments. Then, the second order of business is that we simply do them. Guarding/protecting Yah’s commandments are as important as doing them.

 

We “shamar” or guard/protect Yah’s commandments in a couple simple ways: (1) We study Yah’s Word. (2) We order our lives in such a way that it is conducive to walking out His Word (e.g., set-aside prayer and study time; preparation for the weekly Sabbath and annual Feasts of YHVH; ridding our homes of ungodly things and creating an environment that is inviting to Yah’s presence; etc).

 

Every Applicable Commandment Must Be Kept

 

The understanding that must be had in Abba’s commandment that we do all of His commandments is that we must be diligent to keep each applicable commandment. No picking and choosing of which commandments we want to keep or not is allowed.

 

Messianic Torah teacher Tim Hegg describes the commandments of Yah as “a single entity, woven together into a single cloth.” Thus, within the Hebrew mindset, it is not unusual for a writer to refer to Torah as simply the “Commandment”:

 

“And He (Yeshua) answered and said to them (the Jewish leaders), ‘Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of YHVH for the sake of your tradition’” (Matt. 15:3)?

 

“So then, the Torah is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” (Rom. 7:12).

 

 

No Division Whatsoever in Torah

 

Contrary to religious conventional wisdom, it is evident that Father desired that His Torah be understood from the perspective of a “unified whole” (Hegg).

 

However, various religious entitles throughout the centuries have taken it upon themselves to break the Torah up into sections or categories:

 

The Book of the Law versus the Book of the Covenant; the moral laws; the civil laws and the ceremonial laws.

 

This is all crazy Tom Foolery stuff in order to fulfill some sort of agenda or religious, denominational purpose that is not of Yah.

 

 

Rehearse—Rehearse—Rehearse

 

Moshe’s recitation of YHVH’s miraculous providence and oversight of Yisra’el during their wilderness wanderings served to bolster our Faith as we prepared to take and receive the Land. The foundation of Faith in YHVH is recognizing and remembering how good He is to us and that He desires to prosper us.

 

But in order for His people to prosper, they must be in His Perfect Will. And to get His people to remain in His Perfect Will, Abba is often forced to exercise tough-love toward them.

 

It is from Jeremiah’s letter to the captive Hebrews in Babylon that we learn why Yah exercises spiritual tough love towards His own:

 

 10 For thus saith YHVH, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.

 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith YHVH, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

 12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.

 13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

 14 And I will be found of you, saith YHVH: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith YHVH; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive. (Jer 29:10-14 KJV)

 

Abba wants nothing but the best for His beloved. However, His beloved must show that they are worthy of His best. And they show their worthiness by their Faithful obedience to His instructions, even in the midst of hardships. Those hardships may or may not, from time-to-time consist of Abba’s tough love discipline and even tests.

 

Therefore, by extension, if we are truly His children, despite the hardships that seem to befall us from time-to-time (for the aforementioned stated reasons), our Faith in Him must cause us to recognize that He orders every aspect of our lives. And it is during those trying times of testing and disciplining that we have the opportunity prove our spiritual mettle. To prove that we fully trust Him to have our very best interests at heart.

 

Shaul wrote to the Roman Messianics:

 

“And we know that Yah causes all things to work together for good to those who love Yah, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

 

The writer of Hebrews wrote the following regarding Yah’s righteous discipling of His children:

 

“For whom YHVH loves He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights” (Heb. 12:6).

 

A Parenting Example

 

Yah chastened His first-born son Yisra’el because He wanted the very best for His chosen ones. As Yisra’el’s parent, it fell to Him to correct the child He loved so much, despite the pain that it no doubt caused Him on each occasion of correction.

 

Today, modern western parenting advocates that the best parents are those who allow their children to behave any way that seems right to the child. Many parents are opting to be their children’s friends instead of their parents. Thus, discipline (I.e., corrective and lifestyle discipline) are often withheld. And what we’re seeing as a result are generations of young people with no sense of morals; no sense of purpose; no sense of respect for themselves or others. It’s truly sad and equally frightening to think that these are the so-called future of our society.

 

A Lack of Discipline Leads to Death (Spare the Rod Spoil the Child)

 

The lack of discipline inevitably leads to death: physical; spiritual; moral death. And Abba of course knows that. Thus, He had no other recourse but to discipline Yisra’el on numerous occasions, for the purpose of bringing them back from the precipice of death.

 

Yah’s example of disciplining Yisra’el serves as an excellent example of how we are to properly train and mold our children.

 

The Reason Yah Disciplines His Own is for His Own’s Well Being

 

The ultimate reason Yah disciplines His beloved can be found in a passage of Hebrews which reads:

 

“For the earthly fathers disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but Yah disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Heb. 12:10-11).

 

Did you catch what the writer said: Yah disciplines us so that we may share His holiness. Holiness cannot be had by Yah’s elect unless they are trained accordingly. And part of that training may involve disciplining and testing. And if Yah’s elect one is pure of heart and acquiesces to the testing and discipline, and allows Yah’s Ruach HaKodesh to do its work in them, he or she ends up successfully walking in righteousness.

 

Successfully Making it Through Yah’s Disciplining

 

The elect’s success in making it through Yah’s disciplining and or testing comes only by his/her “trusting faith” in the righteousness of their Elohim. A trusting faith is one that recognizes Yah as righteous in all that He is doing in one’s life.

 

We trust Abba that His testing and disciplining is for our betterment and that He will keep the promises that He’s made to us.

 

Under Moshe’s leadership, Yah tested us through hunger and thirst. And hunger was the very thing we apparently did not experience in Egypt despite our harsh slavery.

 

Yah Often Uses That Which is Most Dear to Us to Test Us

 

Yah has, from time to time, used the very thing that means the most to us, to test and try His elect.

 

Recall how Yah tested Avraham using the one thing Avraham loved the most: His son Yitchaq (aka Isaac) (Gen. 22:1-16). Upon Avraham obeying the voice of Yah to the point of killing His own son, Yah states that because of Avraham’s steadfast and exacting obedience to His instructions, He then knew that Avraham truly feared Him.

 

And so are we subject to testing as were Avraham and Yisra’el. But Master Y’shua revealed to us that we can petition Father to not put us through testing or trials (I.e., Lead us not to testing, but deliver us from the evil one–Mat. 6:13).

 

Regardless, Abba must be sovereign in our lives. And If He elects to put us through times of testing and disciplining, we must meet those times with faithful obedience, reverence and repentance.

 

Yah Is Always Righteous—There is no Randomness in His Ways

 

Many in our Faith Community, when they come upon hard times (some seemingly having hard times more severely and or frequently than others) believe it’s just their lot in life to suffer. Now, I would be open to acknowledging that the reason Yah has us endure some trials and even tribulations from time to time is for reasons that we are not privy to. He is sovereign. But in His sovereignty, He is righteous. Thus, Yah’s purpose may not become evident to us in this life, but we can rest assured that He has a righteous reason.

 

And one of the best examples of this understanding can be found in the story of Job. For we learn right at the beginning of the cepher the reason why Job was put through testing (Job. 1:8-12). It was a test of cosmic-proportions that ultimately led to Job being blessed beyond that which he was previously blessed.

 

A Faith Beyond the Physical

 

When we talk about or meditate on the theme of this Parshah, that being “The Bread of Life,” we are compelled to really wrestle with the statement Moshe made to us regarding the contrast that exists between physical food and Yah’s Words.

 

“He (YHVH) humbled you and suffered you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you knew not, neither did your fathers know; that He might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of YHVH man lives” (vs. 3).

 

We Are Not to Live by Physical Food Only in this Life

 

I used to always struggle with this verse, never able (on my own that is) to make the connection between manna and Yah’s Word. But it became clear to me some time ago that the manna that Yah gave us in the stark harshness of the Sinai wilderness served two critical purposes: (1) it provided our physical bodies the nourishment it needed to sustain our physical life. (2) The manna was a manifestation of Yah’s Word.

 

Now, the first point is an obvious one. But point two needs a little more unpacking.

 

The Bread and the Word

 

I realize that many have attempted to spiritualize the manna to the point that it becomes some esoteric thing of scripture. Manna has become for some a thing that is beyond what it truly was meant to represent. And to be honest, it seems to me that one should be at liberty to meditate and come to Spirit (Ruach)-led conclusions as to what the manna foreshadowed and meant from a spiritual perspective (e.g., the manna represents Yeshua as the Bread of Life, which of course He is). 

 

The Context of the Manna

 

But from a contextual standpoint, when we trace the first manifestation of the manna, we learn that it was provided to us in the midst of Yah’s testing and proving us through hunger (Exo. 16). If you recall, we demanded of Moshe that he provide us food to satisfy our hunger. The manna (and quail) was Yah’s response to our cry for sustenance. But with that giving of manna, Yah placed very simple rules around its gathering and consumption (cf., the gathering of manna each of the 6 days, but none to be given on the 7th day Shabbat). If we followed Yah’s simple rules around the manna, He would continue to sustain our physical bodies with manna accordingly.

 

Manna Was a Lesson in Obedience

 

Thus the manna not only sustained us physically—miraculously I might add, providing us all the nutrients we needed to survive the harsh wilderness environment—it also served as one of our first lessons in obedience. Obedience to Yah and His Word. And the nexus between the physical manna and Yah’s Word is simply that our very existence is dependent upon our obedient Faith in Father’s providence towards us. Only when we recognize and fully adhere to this critical, but simple spiritual principle, do we find true wholeness and oneness with our Creator.

 

The Dangers of Prosperity

 

We find in Deuteronomy 28 that when we truly adhere to this principle of Faithful obedience to Yah, He will in return prosper us. And because prosperity comes from YHVH, it is of course a good thing.

 

However, because humans have this nasty little tendency of being fickle, or simply forgetful or contrary, that same prosperity that comes from Yah can result in our forgetting or neglecting to remember from whence our prosperity cometh. In many cases we end up erroneously rationalizing that our prosperity came from a source other than YHVH (rather as a result of own efforts or from some random fortune or other).

 

Thus Moshe strongly counsels us:

 

“When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless YHVH Elohayka for the good land which He has given you. Beware that you forget NOT YHVH Elohayka, in not guarding His commandments, and His judgments, and His statutes…”(vss. 10-11).

 

Remember Yah’s Providence by Thanking Him and Obeying Him

 

Thus we are, without failure, commanded to thank Yah for that which He has provided us, in particular for the food He has given to sustain us. The heart of this commanded practice is to bring us to the understanding that Yah is our provider and all that we receive is as a result of His provision only. It is our responsibility to, in response to His provision, thank Him and steadfastly obey Him.

 

Our Torah Reading Points Directly to our Master Yahoshua as the Bread of Life

 

Since Torah points to our Master Y’shua in one way or in others, this whole thought of bread and the Word we must, before we end today, now considered.

 

There are of course a number of ways that one could view our Master from the standpoint or a discussion of bread and the Word. But for me here today, I really want to lay before you the perspective of Yeshua Messiah being the embodiment of the spiritual bread that sustains life and He as the walking, talking Torah.

 

Without Yeshua, we face certain death and separation from YHVH. It is through His personal ministry as the walking, talking Torah that we have the opportunity for abundant eternal life. This is as a result of His atoning sacrifice.

 

Additionally, He is our example for righteous living. He is the  prototypical human being–Son of Adam–that the Creator wants us to imitate. In so doing, we walk as He did and do the works that He did. We please Father in the process and He blesses us in accordance with His covenant promises.

 

The Ruach HaKodesh that He sends to us provides us the wherewithal to walk out our Faith as Father always intended for His children to do. That Spirit embeds Yah’s Torah and the teachings of our Master Yeshua within us so that we may walk uprightly—perfectly–before our Father and make Him proud.

 

The best evidence that I can point to as it relates to our Master being the Bread of Life is found in Master’s very own words—Found in Yochanan 6. And we find, beginning with verse 22, that many who followed Yeshua during His teaching events throughout Judea, did so, not because they truly bought into His teachings. Instead, shockingly so, they followed Him in search of a free meal. And Yeshua discerned this right off the bat and confronted the offenders:

 

“The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, save that one where-into His Talmidiym were entered, and that Yeshua went not with His Talmidiym into the boat, but that His Talmidiym were gone away alone;…When the people therefore saw that Yeshua was not there, neither His Talmidiym, they also took shipping, and came to Kapharnachum, seeking for Yeshua. And when they had found Him on the other side of the sea, they said unto Him, ‘Rabbi, when came you hither?’ Yeshua answered them and said, ‘Amein, Amein, I say unto you, ye seek Me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of Adam shall give unto you: for Him has YHVH the Father sealed.’ Then said they unto Him, ‘What shall we do, that we might work the works of YHVH?’ Yeshua answered and said unto them, ‘This is the work of YHVH, that ye believe on Him whom He has sent.’ They said therefore unto Him, ‘What sign show you then, that we may see, and believe you? What do you work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ Then Yeshua said unto them, Amein, Amein, I say unto you, Moshe gave you not that bread from heaven; but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of Yah is He which comes down from heaven, and gives life unto the world.’ Then said they  unto Him, ‘Adonai, evermore give us this bread.’ And Yeshua said unto them, ‘I am the bread of life: he that comes to Me shall never hunger; and he that believes on Me shall never thirst’” (vss. 22-35).

 

There’s just too much content to unpack here and do this passage any true spiritual justice. Abba willing, we’ll come back to this crucial passage and really pick apart the ramifications of what Master was telling these folks and by extension us today, sometime in the future. But we should at least consider the meaning behind that which Master said to the meal-seekers: what it means for yours and mine eternal destiny and place in the Kingdom of Yah?

 

It should be evident that one of the primary things Master was saying here in this passage is the expanded version of the very thing Moshe was saying to Yisra’el here in our Parshah today: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the Mouth of YHVH.”

 

Master Himself declared that He came from Abba Father and He, the walking-talking Torah, is our sustenance. He sustains us through His teachings and example, and more so through His atoning sacrifice and intercessory work in the Heavenly Mishkan.

 

We could go on and on regarding Yeshua and His role as the Bread of Life for humankind. But Yeshua as the bread—our bread—that leads to life must be the thing that we must always consider in our day-to-day Faith-walk. For it’s one thing to wake up every morning, get our personal acts together, maybe say a prayer or two, and then go on about our day, making sure we keep Torah in all that we do. It’s a whole other level when we repeat the same daily ritual, but instead of launching out on our own to walk Torah, we instead, imitate our Master and do exactly what He did; think how He thought; talk like He talked; love Abba and love others as He did. And if we can manage to do that, we stand the chance of succeeding in our respective walks, glorifying and pleasing our Heavenly Father in the process.

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Blaspheming the Name of God-Part-2 of the Series A Question of One’s Jewishness

by | May 9, 2021 | Blog, Podcasts

by Rod Thomas | The Messianic Torah Observer

Picking-Up Where We Left Off 

 

What I want to do this week is to pick-up from where we left off from the last installment of this series within a series which was entitled: “You Are Called a Jew” and move on through verses 19 through 24 in this installment. 

And the title for this week’s post is: “Blaspheming the Name of God.” Still part of this “A Question of One’s Jewishness” series.

 A Challenging Title 

Now, I’m sure that the title “Blaspheming the Name of God” will get the attention of a small number of discerning or rather discriminating folks of Faith who are sensitive to the whole concept of blasphemy. 

I also suspect that most folks who come across this title will bypass or overlook it because it’s not tantalizing—provocative or controversial enough for them. Most folks don’t care to know anything about the subject of blaspheming the Name of our Elohim simply because they feel it’s an act or action that is below them. That is, they are not going to find themselves in a blasphemous state. Or worse, they suspect they’ve may have committed blasphemy at some point in their lives and they simply don’t want to come to terms with the ramification of their having committed such a transgression.

 An Important Topic

Regardless, blaspheming (otherwise referred to as shaming, polluting, defiling, profaning) the Name of Yah is an important subject that we must not shy away from. And it is here in our focus passage of Romans 2:19-24 that Shaul lays the blame for the Goyim’s blaspheming of the Name at the feet of his rhetorical religious figure.

 Not So Much About What We Call Him 

I will tell you right now before we get too much further along into our discussion here today, that Blasphemy of the Name of YHVH is NOT the same as Blasphemy of or against the Holy Spirit. Contextually speaking, they are two different felonies altogether, although the commission of either carries with it severe, even dire consequences.

 Two Separate Transgressions

Scripture affirms that despite the deadly consequences that Father has often attached to these transgressions, He will forgive the one, who for whatever reason blasphemes His Name, if they repent and seek His forgiveness (Matthew 12:31-32).

On the other hand, Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (otherwise known as the “Unpardonable Sin”),” according to our Master, if committed, will never be forgiven, regardless the reason one commits it (Matthew12:31-32; Mark 3:28-29; Luke 12:10). 

Now, because I don’t want to get off-track from our focus topic and passage, we won’t tackle this very hard to take in subject of the Unpardonable Sin. We will tackle it in another installment of this program, Abba willing.

 Our Plan of Attack

 So today we will define exactly what it means to blaspheme or pollute the Name of Yehovah; the consequences for committing such a transgression; and what needs to be done to correct all incidents of this critical sin. 

But before we tackle this particular concern about blaspheming the Name, let’s work our way up to our focus verse of 2:24 by examining verses 19 through 23 first.

 Looking Back

I would ask you to recall from our last installment that much of our discussion centered around our examination of the character of Shaul’s rhetorical religious figure.  (And if you’ve not taken the opportunity to read or listen to that post, I humbly invite you to do so.) The rhetorical figure Shaul was describing in his diatribe was the “religious Jew.” And we saw Shaul begin his literary sketch of the “religious Jew,” who took great pride and comfort, not in his covenant relationship with Yehovah, but in his Jewishness: his heritage; his culture; his biology and such.

 Serious Spiritual Deficiencies

And we didn’t need to go too much deeper into the chapter to realize that in Shaul’s mind, his rhetorical, religious figure was in severe spiritual trouble, especially when we contextually factor into his literary sketch of this figure, Shaul’s earlier assertion that a judgment would be levied upon those who reject the Ways of the Almighty (2:12). Those who claimed Torah but did not walk in Torah would be judged within the framework of Torah, while those who knew nothing of Torah would be judged outside the framework of Torah; namely by the testimony of Yah’s creation. 

So with that, let’s continue our examination of Shaul’s religious figure, beginning with verses 19 and 20.

 Paul Confronts Religious Conceitedness 

 

“And [you religious Jew] are confident (Greek of “peitho” which means to be confident or persuaded) that thou thyself art a guide (Greek of “hodegos” which means a leader of the way; a teacher of the ignorant and inexperienced) of the blind (Greek of “tuphlos” which means of the mentally blind), a light of them which are in darkness (Greek for “skotos” which is a metaphor); an instructor of the foolish (Greek of “aphron” which means those without intelligence and who act rashly), a teacher of babes (Greek for “nepios” which means the untaught and unskilled), which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law (that is, because you have in the law the essential features of knowledge and of the truth).”

 

It should not be too difficult to recognize here that this religious figure is conceited. To be conceited is to be excessively proud of oneself to the point of being vain. Otherwise described in scripture as being wise in one’s own eyes (Pro. 3:7).

 The Dangers of Being Conceited

Throughout scripture we are warned of the dangers of being conceited. We are told that conceit has the potential of bringing one to destruction (Prov. 26:12; Isa. 5:21; Rom. 1:22; 12:16; 1 Cor. 8:1-2). The prophet Isaiah declared:

 

“Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes (I.e., conceited)” (Isa. 5:21; NKJV).

 Conceit Leads to Spiritual Darkness

Master taught that conceitedness leads to spiritual darkness in one’s life. Consequently, spiritual darkness creates a great spiritual tripping or falling hazard (Mat. 6:23; 15:14). Therefore, it stands to reason that conceit can cause one to be blind to their sins. And blindness to our sins creates a separation between us and Yah (Joh. 9:40-41). 

Clearly this is a primary concern the apostle had as it related to such religious figures as described in our focus passage. And sadly, our Faith Community is not lacking her share of conceited persons: each of them primed for a great fall if they do not turn from conceited ways.

 Accumulation of Knowledge Puffs One Up

You know, there’s something about the accumulation of knowledge–be it general knowledge or Torah knowledge–that causes, as the apostle describes, one to become puffed up, or in our modern western parlance: full of themselves; feeling as though they’ve arrived (1 Cor. 8:1). 

There is nothing wrong with being knowledgeable, especially knowledgeable of the Ways of Yah. But that knowledge is problematic when it causes us to take our eyes off the originator of that knowledge and put it on ourselves; when that knowledge becomes the thing that we take pride in and rest our eternal destiny on. For the only thing we should take pride in is our Elohim-our relationship with Elohim. That knowledge that we strive to accumulate and then hoard to ourselves is useless if it’s not properly put to the work of the gospel and promoting the Kingdom of Yah.

 The Religious Jew as a Light and Teacher

Shaul brings up the issue of the religious Jew believing that by virtue of his Jewishness that he is the light and teacher to the blind world. And these are indeed interesting topics that I want to discuss. But we will for now save them for a future installment of this program, Abba willing. 

Moving on to 2:21-22

 

“Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest (the Greek is bdelusso which means to turn oneself away from on account of the stench or metaphorically to detest) idols, does thou commit sacrilege (that is, do you rob temples-speaking of the looting of pagan temple riches)?”

 The Hypocrisy of the Religious One

The central theme or issue of concern here that should be evident to anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear is that of “hypocrisy.” Shaul’s rhetorical figure appears to be, in addition to being conceited, a flaming hypocrite. 

Our Master confronted the conceitedness and hypocrisy that was common among the religious Jews of His day:

 

Matthew 7:3-5–“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?“

 

Matthew 23:3-4–“All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe (that being of Torah), that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.”

 

Shaul earlier in this letter also confronted these conditions when he wrote:

 

“Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same things” (Rom. 2:1).

 Robbing Pagan Temples

Now, Shaul’s reference to “committing sacrilege” is best translated in our modern parlance as “robbing temples.” And the temples in question here are pagan temples, not the Mishkan (or Temple) in Yerushalayim. 

Turns out that despite Torah’s prohibition against Yah’s set-apart people having anything to do with the idolatry and paganistic practices by their neighbors (such as recorded in Deuteronomy 7:25-26), it was not uncommon for certain Jews to steal articles from pagan temples. And these common thieves, if you will, would either adorn their homes with these expensive items, or simply sell them for personal financial gain. This is otherwise known as “Jewish plundering of pagan temples.” And it goes without saying that such acts not only violated Yah’s prohibition against stealing, but also against self-defilement: for one who handles pagan-related objects would by default be made impure or polluted and not eligible for worship.

 The Contrary Nature of the Religious Jew 

So, what we should start to see emerge from our reading of the apostle’s literary description of the religious Jew here is the bottom line or gist to what his diatribe was meant to convey. In effect, Shaul purposed to confront some of his kinsmen’s contrary behavior (but not necessarily against any specific Roman Messianic Jews): their conceitedness; their hypocrisy; their contrariness of heart; their intentional transgressions against Yah’s Torah. For these individuals in particular fail to practice that which they, by calling themselves Jews or Yisra’el or children of Avraham, would be expected to do. And connecting this understanding back to our earlier discussions on this chapter of Romans, such religious personalities, just like the unconverted gentile, were subject to judgment (2:12,16). And because these proudly proclaim they are the keepers and teachers of Torah, they will face judgment within the framework of Torah. In fact, the very thing–Torah–which they customarily use to condemn the gentile will ultimately be the thing that will condemn them. 

Again, this is general rhetoric against Jewish disobedience and sin–better, against all religious disobedience and sin that the apostle is framing here. This is not an indictment against all Jews nor against his Roman Messianic Jewish readers.

Our Focus Passage

And finally, we get to the crux of our focus passage 2:23-24, which reads:

 

“You who make your boast in the Law, do you dishonor (the Greek being “atimazo” which means to treat with insult in word, deed or even thought) God through breaking the Law? For the Name of Yah is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, as it is written” (cf. Eze. 16:27; 36:22 Isa. 52:5)

 Father’s Reputation Is Everything

Father’s reputation means everything to Him. And when His people decide to act a fool and openly transgress His Torah while proudly proclaiming to be one of His, well they grossly dishonor Him. And that dishonoring of Yah leads, most painfully, into “blasphemy of the Name of Yah among the Gentiles (verse 24).” The Gentiles blaspheme Yah on account of Yah’s wayward people’s evident contrariness. The Jew of Shaul’s day made a spectacle of themselves as a result of their blatant disobedience in the sight of the Gentile nation peoples of the world. And their spectacle led to those very Gentile nations blaspheming Yah’s Name.

 

Malachi 1:6–“A son naturally honors his father and a slave respects his master. If I am your father, where is My honor? If I am your master, where is My respect? YHVH who rules over all asks you this, you priests who make light of My Name! But you reply, ‘How have we made light of your Name” (NET)?

 

The primary Tanakh passage that I feel best supports our focus passage is Ezekiel 36, beginning with verse 17:

 

“Son of man, when the house of Israel was living on their own land, they defiled it by their behavior and their deeds. In My sight their behavior was like the uncleanness of a woman having her monthly period. So I poured My anger on them because of the blood they shed on the land and because of the idols with which they defiled it. I scattered them among the nations; they were dispersed throughout foreign countries. In accordance with their behavior and their deeds I judged them. But when they arrived in the nations where they went, they profaned My holy Name. It was said of them, ‘These are the people of YHVH, yet they have departed from His land.’ I was concerned for My holy reputation which the House of Israel profaned among the nations where they went” (17-21; NET).

 Blasphemy of the Name is a Transgression of Torah

To blaspheme or profane the Name (that is the Name by which we call our Elohim and everything having to do with the Person-the character-authority-glory-presence of the Creator) of YHVH is a transgression of Torah.

 

Leviticus 19:12–“You shall not swear by My Name falsely, and so profane the Name of your Elohim: I am YHVH” (ESV).

 

Leviticus 24:16–“Whoever blasphemes the Name of YHVH shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death” (ESV).

 A Personal Example

Thinking back to my days as an officer in the U.S. Navy: if one were to commit certain crimes or behave in a certain way and just so happened to get caught, tried and convicted of those crimes or misdeeds, he or she stood to lose his/her commission, benefits and retirement on account of behavior that was “unbecoming of an officer of the U.S. Military.” You see, the military officer corps is supposed to represent or image the finest ideals and values of each branch of service. And when an officer acts in a manner contrary to those values and ideals, they bring dishonor to that branch of service. So, in order to ensure that those established ideals and values are reinforced, the leadership of the branch of service that is in question, will charge the offending officer with the crime of “behavior unbecoming of an officer” of whichever branch of service is involved. And because of that charge, the officer pretty much loses everything he or she worked for up to that point in their career.

 Shaming and Dishonoring the Name

This is, in a sense, what we’re talking about when we’re talking about shaming, polluting, dishonoring and blaspheming the Name of YHVH? That is, Yah’s elect bringing shame and dishonor to the Name of YHVH; sullying the reputation of our Elohim before the nation peoples of the world which has the potential of enticing the unbelieving world to also blaspheme His Name.

 The Church Triumphant is Guilty of Blaspheming the Name

The Church Triumphant has done a fine job polluting the Name of Yah and causing the world at large to blaspheme Yah’s holy and righteous Name. And they’ve done so as a result of their failure to uphold and live in accordance with the tenets, ideals and values of the true Faith once delivered. For they fail to teach their people to obey Yah’s Word and to walk in covenant with the Eternal. They instead encourage their people to walk in accordance with the ways and traditions of their religion and organizations, which ideally suits the desires and preferences of their members. And to add insult to injury, these have a tendency of behaving just like their counterparts in the world. Shaul describes these as “having a form of Godliness, but [they-by their contrary living] deny its power…” (2 Tim. 3:5). 

This, of course, happens while the leaders of these organizations, along with their members, proudly claim the Name of YHVH as their own. Consequently, the secular world sees and recognizes the church’s hypocrisy and contrariness and mocks and blasphemes the Name of YHVH. 

Folks, I get that the vast majority of members of the Church Triumphant are generally not of Yah’s elect-His set-apart, covenant walking people. But the fact of the matter is that these have general possession and  knowledge of Yah’s set-apart Word. And thus, they have no excuse for not walking in accordance with Yah’s Way of Life. 

The Apostle Peter expounded upon the consequences of Yah’s so-called elect dishonoring, shaming and blaspheming His Name in his 2nd Epistle:

 

“And many will follow their debauched lifestyles. Because of these false teachers (and by extension, because of the example of the contrary, hypocritical, errant Jew and Messianic or even Christian), the Way of Truth will be slandered (or better, blasphemed, reviled, or even treated with contempt)” (2 Pet. 2:2).

 Our Ancient Cousins Caused the Gentiles to Blaspheme His Name

In the days of the Hebrew Prophets, Yisra’el’s sins led to the nation’s exile and captivity. Going into exile and captivity, the nation’s reputation preceded them. Their Gentile captors and or conquerors knew they claimed themselves to be YHVH’s chosen people. However, those same captors and conquerors knew the Hebrews to be hypocrites and inconsistent in their profession and living out their faith. This naturally led to these belligerent nations openly mocking and dishonoring YHVH–effectively blaspheming His authority, holiness and sovereignty. 

What Do We Really Mean by Blaspheming the Name of God?

So, what’s the real deal when it comes to one blaspheming, defiling, polluting or profaning the Name of YHVH? I think we can all agree that none of us wants to be guilty of such a transgression.

First and foremost, blaspheming or profaning Yah’s Name, in the context of our focus passage, does not necessarily refer to a mispronunciation or misappropriation of that name or title of which we call Him or refer to Him by: Either in one’s prayers, teachings, worship, exhortations or even general conversation. I will concede, however, that any misappropriation or irreverent references to the Name(s) that we refer to Father by, be it intentional or unintentional, is certainly not a wise thing to do. For Abba has declared He will not be mocked in any way, shape or form (Gal. 6:7).

Putting Blasphemy Into Proper Perspective

It seems that a lot of folks who are partial to the Sacred Names movement or similar denominations within the Hebrew Roots Faith, tend to use passages such as our focus passage to teach and promote the erroneous doctrine(s) that anyone who dares not pronounce the Name of Abba as they declare it to be, are guilty of blaspheming or profaning the Name of Yah. 

We will, however, quickly see that blaspheming, profaning, polluting the Name of Yah goes well beyond the realm of pronunciation or articulation of Abba’s Name.

 Blaspheming the Name Delves into the Improper Worship of YHVH

In Malachi 1:11-2:7, we find that Yisra’el failed to worship YHVH as He’d prescribed in His Torah. Malachi described to his readers that the Hebrews had engaged in “deceptive worship” of Yah. In other words, the Hebrews half-heartedly went through the motions of worship as prescribed in Torah, often cutting corners in their sacrifices to Yah. Furthermore, they were being hypocritical in their Faith walk: declaring to the world that they were righteous children of Yah, when in fact they were willfully transgressing Yah’s Torah at every turn. They were essentially engaging in spiritual adultery.

 YHVH Knows the Truth

 Unfortunately for them, the Eternal saw through their shenanigans. And thus, YHVH informed his cheating wife, Yisra’el, that His favor would be removed from them and ultimately passed on to the Goyim, otherwise referred to by the Hebrews as the heathen nations. Malachi prophesied that the Goyim would someday turn to YHVH as their Elohim (Mal. 1:11; Psm. 113:3; Isa. 45:6).

 Father Charges His People

Therefore, Father charged His people with profaning His Holy and Righteous Name. And one of the ways Father describes how Yisra’el profaned or blasphemed His Name was in her sacrificing animals that did not meet Torah’s exacting standards (Mal. 1:12-14; cf. Eze. 36:21-23).

 When we, who are supposed to be His chosen ones, willfully violate YHVH’s instructions that we vowed to keep, we insult Him and show contempt towards Him. It is a form of blaspheming or profaning His Holy Name.

What’s In a Name?

So, what do we mean by His Holy Name? Well, we talked about this earlier: His Name includes His authority; His sovereignty; His presence; His character; His glory; his wisdom; His holiness and righteousness; His Person or His Being.

 We find in the case of the Prophet Amos that profaning the Name of Yah by His people is not limited to their violating the Torah of sacrifices unto YHVH. Amos described the profanation of Yah’s Name as resulting from the mistreatment of the poor and destitute of the Land and gross sexual misconduct (2:7). 

So, we clearly see from these two examples that those who willfully behave contrary to Yah’s Torah bring shame to Yah’s Name. These effectively blaspheme the Name of YHVH. And Yah does not appreciate that at all.

 Torah-Teachers are Most Responsible

Of note are so-called Torah-teachers who willfully violate Yah’s Torah. These will be judged harshly by the very Torah they demand their students obey. 

The Levitical Priests were responsible for guarding and proclaiming Yah’s Name. In fact, Father viewed their worship of Him, when done according to His instructions, was a clear and brilliant manifestation of His Name being upheld, proclaimed and reverenced in the sight of the nation peoples of the world.

 The Levitical Priests of Malachi’s Day

So, we find that in Malachi’s day, that the priests miserably failed to uphold, proclaim and reverence Abba’s Name as they were specially commissioned to do. Given the contemptible nature of the peoples’ behavior and worship, they were scattered among the nations: booted out of the Land. And as a direct result their blaspheming the Name of Yah, the Holy, spiritual Name of the Creator of the Universe was desecrated and disgraced (I.e., profaned) by the nations that they were banished to.

 Abba Does Not Tolerate Disrespect

And Torah reveals that YHVH does not tolerate such gross disrespect, especially from His chosen ones (Lev. 22). And thus Yisra’el reaped what they’d sown by their contempt and irreverence of their Elohim’s Name. 

We find in each example where Yah’s people have profaned His Name, they demonstrated a disregard for the essential elements of purity, holiness and righteousness. Thus, when Yah’s people begin to disregard these essential elements in their worship of Yah or even in their day-to-day Faith walk, complete transgression of Torah and shaming of His Name is an inevitability.

 Righteousness-Holiness-Purity

Thus, righteousness, holiness and purity must be the basis upon which every Netzari’s relationship with the Almighty rests (Lev. 20:7; Psm. 24:4; Mat. 5:8; 1 Tim. 1:5; 2 Tim. 2.22; 1 Pet. 1:15-16). And this applies not only to our day-to-day behavior, but also to every aspect of our worship of Him. 

When a child of the Most High mistreats or holds the things of YHVH in contempt, he/she profanes Yah’s Name before the unbelieving world. And of course, we’ve see this being played out numerous times in denominational Christianity.

 A Recent Revelation

Just recently, revelation of the alleged years’ long corruption of a very prominent Christian apologist and teacher was made known to the world. And the details of this individual’s alleged corrupt ways, apparently now public record, not only brought shame upon his ministry and the many devoted workers of that ministry, but more so, it brought shame to the sacredness and purity that is supposed to be associated with the Christian Faith. Thus, the world has, through the revelation of this man’s corruption, found another excuse to hold the Name of YHVH in contempt. (It should be mentioned that this individual died prior to the details of his corruption being made public.) 

And thus, the Christian world is having to work through this hellacious stigma on several levels. But in the small number of posts that I’ve seen addressing this situation, the expressed concerns were for the reputation of this man’s organization and the well-being of the family. Indeed, these concerns are understandable. But the real concern that this organization needs to have is its role in blaspheming–its profaning the Name of YHVH to the unconverted of this world.

And what makes these matters worse, of course, is when the unbelieving world feels at even greater liberty to utter blasphemous—disrespectful—shameful words against the Creator of the Universe in response to His peoples’ acts of contempt towards and disrespect of their Elohim.

 Judgment is Coming

Is there no wonder why the Apostle Yochanan (John) wrote of a coming Great Tribulation that will overwhelm the nation-peoples of this world? I cannot help but think that a great deal of the tribulation that will be wrought upon the unredeemed population of this world will be in recompense for their widespread transgressing, profanation or blaspheming of Yah’s Name. 

Yah will not be disrespected nor His Name profaned, especially before the unredeemed:

 

“But I wrought for My Name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made Myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt” (Eze. 20:9).

 The Penalty for Blaspheming His Name

Any and all blasphemy of Yah’s Name will ultimately result in the offenders’ shame (ref. Nah. 3:5-6; Isa. 47:3; Jer. 13:27; Mal. 2:3). Yah is emphatic about this. Shaul warns:

 

“Be NOT deceived; Yah is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7).

 

And those who claim to belong to YHVH and are brazen enough to pollute His Name before the heathen, like Yah did with Yisra’el, those blasphemers will lose any protection and well-being that would come to them by virtue of their set-apart status:

 

“Nevertheless, I withdrew mine hand, and wrought for my Name’s sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth” (Eze. 20:22).

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 How Do We Avoid Blaspheming the Name of Yah?

Now, the opposite of defaming, profaning, blaspheming, shaming or polluting the Holy and Righteousness Name of Yah is to sanctify, glorify or proclaim it. And the way we sanctify, glorify and proclaim Yah’s Name is to do exactly the opposite of what people do to profane His Name. We keep His Ways and obey His instructions; we revere Him and magnify Him in every aspect of our lives. We don’t do, say or think of that which runs contrary to His holiness and righteousness, such that any who come into our circle of influence might use as an opportunity to doubt Yah; to scoff at Yah; to deny His sovereignty; to diminish Him in the eyes of others who may be seeking after Him. 

By our profession of Faith and our agreeing to walk in covenant with the Creator of the Universe, we carry within our being Yah’s holy and righteous Name. Anything we do that transgresses His Ways and our elect status, especially in the sight of the unredeemed of this world, blasphemes/profanes His Name.

 Personal Confession

I’ve personally had to repent and seek Abba’s forgiveness for this transgression a few times in My life. For I have been convicted a few times during my time walking in this Faith of ours that I did not represent Yah nor our Faith before those who I interacted with at some level or another. I’m talking neighbors, friends, family and co-workers. I am not proud of those times when I failed to uplift, glorify, magnify the Name of Yah before others; to imitate our Master Yeshua, but instead showed forth to them a less than flattering testimony. But the good news is that Yah’s Ruach (His Spirit) convicted me, and I have made things right with my Redeemer in this respect. Praise Yah.

 Call to Action

So, let’s make a very conscious effort to honor, sanctify and glorify the Name of YHVH in every area of our lives and not give opportunity to the enemy to blaspheme the Name of our loving, awesome and great Elohim. He alone deserves all the glory, honor and praise we can muster.

 

Praise Him! Shalom-shalom.

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