For the week of September 13, 2025 / 20 Elul 5785

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Ki Tavo
Torah: D’varim/Deuteronomy 26:1 – 29:8
Haftarah: Isaiah 60:1-22

Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you. Though in anger I struck you, in favor I will show you compassion. (Isaiah 60:10)

Frankly, I don’t get it! I don’t understand how it could be that so many people who claim to love and respect the Bible are entirely clueless about God’s relationship to the Jewish people. It’s not that I don’t understand, since I have spent so much time—perhaps too much time—grappling with various expressions of Christian antisemitism. I am aware of a significant portion of the historical background and theological dynamics that influence this misguided thinking. But still, it’s not as if God hasn’t made himself clear on this issue.

I admit that some of the ways the people of Israel are characterized and criticized throughout both the Hebrew Scriptures and New Covenant Writings can lead people to draw some fairly negative conclusions. But that’s only if you ignore the rest. About a month ago, I commented on how these misreadings of such passages trouble me. Still, I know that some of these passages are seriously harsh.

This week’s parsha (weekly Torah portion) is one of the sections of Scripture that lists God’s blessings for obedience and his curses for disobedience. That the leaders and people of Israel were under a cloud of God’s disapproval for much of biblical history is clear. The threat of judgment increased over the years, culminating in exile. The return from Babylon provided little comfort as the prophetic warnings didn’t wane.

Israel’s precarious state under the Sinai Covenant, as given through Moses, continued into the New Covenant Writings. If anything, the coming of the Messiah shone an even more intense light upon Israel’s inability to live up to God’s standards. This doesn’t mean that there weren’t exceptions, of course. From Abraham and Joseph to Moses and Joshua, to Samuel and David, to Elijah and Elisha, to Isaiah and Jeremiah, to Peter and Paul, and all the other named and unnamed holy ones, Israel always had a remnant of faithful, godly men and women (see Romans 11:5). Tragically, however, these didn’t prevent God’s wrath from falling upon the nation more than once.

But is that the entire picture of God’s relationship to Israel? God didn’t seem to think so, as is evident in this week’s accompanying reading from the prophet Isaiah. Despite God’s judgment upon Israel, he will restore them. As we read, “Though in anger I struck you, in favor I will show you compassion” (Isaiah 60:10).

I wonder if people simply have a hard time grasping the reality of the tension that exists between God and his ancient covenant people. It’s a lot easier for people to understand a much more straightforward narrative of disobedience and rejection. Moreover, it appears that some regard Israel’s disobedience as proof of their being impostors, as if God was biding his time until the “authentic” Israel would emerge in the Messiah. That might make an interesting story, but it’s not the biblical one.

I am aware of how specific biblical passages are used to support such a notion, but that overlooks the Bible as a whole. Why can’t people see that God’s promises of restoration only make sense if they are spoken to the very people who are under the threat of judgment? God, through Isaiah, is clear: “Though in anger I struck you, in favor I will show you compassion.” The ones guaranteed favor are the ones he is angry with. The threat of judgment due to disobedience under the Sinai Covenant was always in tension with the unconditional promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. No matter how bad things get for Israel and whatever the resulting consequences, God’s covenant loyalty to Israel as a nation continues. If you don’t get that, you don’t get the God of the Bible.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of September 6, 2025 / 13 Elul 5785

Video version available

Ki Teitzei
Torah: D’varim/Deuteronomy 21:10 – 25:19
Haftarah: Isaiah 54:1-10

When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. (D’varim/Deuteronomy 24:10–11)

We often hear of people making a big deal about the Bible—negatively, that is—over its apparent backwards way of thinking. We click and tap on our devices while looking down on these ancients as misogynistic, slave-owning brutes. A compelling case can be made against such a characterization, especially when examining Scripture within its historical context. And it’s not because biblical characters were morally superior to the average person today. Many were not, though I’d say a good number were. It’s far more due to the uniqueness of God’s directives. The morality and justice of God’s commands were more than just good and right; they were so completely unusual for that day anywhere in the world.

We take much of biblical morality and values for granted. Principles such as the rule of law, the right to a fair trial, just treatment for immigrants, and care for the poor, although not always adhered to, are so deeply ingrained in the contemporary Western world that we assume they’ve always existed, when in fact they haven’t. These ideas were radical in their day and, in many places, still are.

In this week’s parsha (weekly Torah portion), we have an extraordinary example. In biblical times, as is still common in our day, loans often required a guarantee in case the borrower couldn’t repay. This was usually in the form of collateral, something of value the person owned, that may or may not have been kept in the lender’s possession during the loan period. If the loan was not repaid within the allotted time, the item or items would become the lender’s property.

The Torah example before us envisions the lender at the door of the borrower to receive the collateral. The Hebrew word “avot” is most often translated as “pledge” in English, denoting security for a loan. What isn’t clear is whether this situation occurs at the beginning of the loan agreement, when the lender first receives the collateral, or if the collateral had remained with the borrower but, due to defaulting on the loan, the lender is now coming to claim it.

Either way, due to the loan agreement, the lender has a right to the collateral. However, his right of possession doesn’t give him the right to enter the borrower’s dwelling. The legal right of the one doesn’t automatically override the sanctity of the borrower’s personal living space. Even though the borrower is clearly in a weaker position due to the lender’s claim to their property, the lender is still obligated to respect the borrower’s dignity.

What makes this extraordinary for the modern (and ancient) reader is how God’s directions here reflect the value of human dignity without getting all philosophical about it. Throughout Torah—and the rest of Scripture—God instructs people in his ways. He doesn’t lecture on the whys and wherefores to justify his take on life. For the most part, he provides instructions based on how he designed the world to be. He made it; he knows how it works. This issue, as one example, demonstrates how human dignity reflects our commonality and basic equality, based on the fact that we are all made in God’s image (see Bereshit/Genesis 1:26-27). This connection is not explained. It just is. We learn to be godly through the godliness of God’s directives.

And yet, do we respect the dignity of all, regardless of their life situation? Throughout most of history and in most places, class divisions, ethnic superiority, and economic disparity have been used to devalue those we see as “less than.” Some argue that only by eliminating all types of real and perceived inequality from society can we fully realize our inherent worth as human beings. But that’s not God’s way, however. Each person will experience the dignity we naturally possess when we choose to honor it as the God-given gift it truly is.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of August 30, 2025 / 6 Elul 57

Video version available

Shof’tim
Torah: D’varim/Deuteronomy 16:18 – 21:9
Haftarah: Isaiah 51:12 – 52:12
Originally posted the week of August 18, 2018 / 7 Elul 5778

And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes (D’varim/Deuteronomy 17:19)

When we think of the elite of society, whether it be in our day or in ancient times, we tend to focus on their perks and privileges. Their houses are bigger and nicer, their modes of transportation are the best of the best. Everything about their lives is above and beyond the comforts and pleasures of the rest of us. But that’s not the whole picture. You have most likely heard the saying that goes something like: “With great power comes great responsibility.” Many ascribe this to the fictional Uncle Ben of Spiderman fame, but it’s much older than that, probably going back to the time of the French Revolution (see https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/07/23/great-power/). The truth contained in this statement is rooted in Yeshua’s words: “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more” (Luke 12:48).

Positions of authority include more than privilege, power, and responsibility, however. It is this additional ingredient that makes all the difference between leaders successfully fulfilling their crucial roles and causing unnecessary destruction and harm. It’s the need of a good education. I am not talking about acquiring degrees from prestigious institutions. There are ways to do that while not learning anything useful along the way. I am also not talking about career skills, since those are relatively easy to acquire. I am talking about learning how to become a good person. Without that, all the prestige and skills in the world won’t amount to anything. This is especially the case for those called to positions of authority as their lives have far greater impact on others.

This is why God required kings of Israel to be life-long students of Torah. As a leader, he was not to regard himself as being above the law, but rather be subject to it. In order to do that, he was not to rely upon his advisors and teachers to know God’s written revelation. Not that he wouldn’t have teachers and advisors, but their role was to equip him to be able to read the Torah for himself. That would include not only learning to read the text but reading it intelligently.

Personal reading of Scripture would have been very rare. Not only were copies of the Torah not in abundance, the people wouldn’t hear it read that often. God directed the cohanim (English: the priests) to read the Torah to the people once every seven years during the Feast of Sukkot (English: Tabernacles or Booths) (see D’varim/Deuteronomy 31:10-11). It would be many centuries before the synagogue would provide weekly Torah readings within Israelite society. This meant that only certain people required the ability to read. Kings may have been the only non-cohanim to personally read the Books of Moses.

The greatest obstacle to having direct interaction with the divine writings was that access to books in general was highly restricted. Not because it was forbidden for common folks to read the sacred text, but because so few copies were available. It’s almost impossible for us, who live almost six hundred years after Gutenberg’s inventing the printing press, to imagine life without books. We have a hard-enough time remembering what it was like to not have ready access to much of the world’s writing in our pockets, let alone the pre-Gutenberg days when owning a copy of a book was the unique domain of royalty and the rich.

But these are not those days. Today we can all live like kings. God’s directive to kings regarding the reading of Torah was not a symbol of privilege or an initiation rite. It had no ceremonial function at all. It was practical. He was to read the Torah “that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes.” To be a good king required being a good person. To be a good person required reading the Torah. We all have the exact same need. The only difference between ancient Israelite kings and ourselves is access.

There’s nothing magical about reading the Bible. It is God’s equipment to enable us to live effective, godly lives. As one of the greatest Torah scholars of all time writes:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

To not take advantage of what was at one time the privilege of the few is to rob ourselves of God’s provision for living an abundant life. So, let’s pick up a Bible and live like kings!

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of August 23, 2025 / 29 Av 5785

Re’eh
Torah: D’varim/Deuteronomy 11:26 – 16:17
Haftarah: Isaiah 54:11 – 55:5 & 1 Samuel 20:18–42
Originally posted the week of August 19, 2017 / 27 Av 5777

All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children. (Isaiah 54:13)

This week’s Haftarah (selection from the Prophets) looks to a future age and the restoration of the creation. One of the central aspects of these wonderful days is shalom (English: peace). Shalom is a personal and societal condition much deeper than the lack of war and strife. It’s a way to describe life in perfect harmony, everything in its place, functioning as it should in right relationship to everything else.

The reference to children here is particularly interesting. The conditions of those days are to result in peace for children. When life is out of sorts, children are greatly impacted. Children suffer when their parents’ individual lives or marriage relationship is dysfunctional. Simply observing their parents, not to mention experiencing direct harm, has long-term, potential devastating effects on the young. Similarly, when the society at large is failing, children most often suffer the most. But one day according to God’s promise to ancient Israel, “great shall be the shalom of your children.”

But notice that their experience of shalom is not just an outcome of general peace upon the adults. It is the direct result of their being taught by God. We shouldn’t get distracted by attempting to figure out the details of what the Bible terms, “the age to come.” To do so would result in missing the point. What God through the prophet is saying is that the children’s peace would be a direct outcome of their being taught by God.

Parents have been mandated by God to be the prime educators of their children. Moses reiterates this at the end of last week’s Torah reading: “You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (D’varim/Deuteronomy 11:19). The educational content referred to is, of course, God’s commandments. But when we understand the broad nature of God’s directives in the Scriptures, it becomes obvious that they are designed to be at the core of all education, not just things spiritual, moral, or religious. Exactly how our children’s education is done, formally and informally, is a serious task every parent needs to address.

That said, no matter how well-meaning, diligent, or capable a parent may be, we live in a broken world, where things don’t work in the way God intends. That doesn’t get us off the hook. Whether it’s our children’s education or anything else in life, we need to do our best. The problem is our best will never be good enough. The taint of sin undermines our efforts to fully meet God’s standards. No matter how well we do regarding education, human dysfunctionality will continue to get in the way of lasting peace. But one day, the barriers preventing God’s direct access to his people will be completely removed and children will no longer be the victims of their parents’ dysfunctions. Instead, the instruction of God himself will be the guiding force for everyone, kids included.

The promised shalom is not only something for a far-off day, however. Through the coming of the Messiah and the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh (English: the Holy Spirit), God has made available to us now the resources of the age to come. This doesn’t only apply to children’s education, but it’s included. Parents who know the God of Israel through faith in Yeshua the Messiah have the opportunity to be conduits of his shalom. The reality of God present in the homes of true believers provides a foretaste of the great shalom to come. The effectiveness of educating our children is not solely due to our experience of God, but that of our children as well. As our children come to know Yeshua for themselves, the same Spirit directly works in their hearts too, thus making God their ultimate teacher. Our role, then, is to cooperate with what he is doing in their lives as he teaches them. The result? Our children’s peace.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of August 16, 2025 / 22 Av 5785

Ekev
Torah: D’varim/Deuteronomy 7:12 – 11:25
Haftarah: Isaiah 49:14 – 51:3

Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. (Isaiah 49:16)

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how troubled I was over the gross misunderstanding of the New Covenant Writings (the New Testament), in how it references Israel and the Jewish people. Historically, it has been assumed that God rejected the Jewish nation in response to their rejection of Yeshua. Further, antagonism on the part of some Jewish leaders toward the proclamation of the Messianic good news has been twisted into a general mischaracterization of all Jewish people for all time. These skewed views undermine the New Covenant Writings’ assertions of the key positive roles played by Jewish people and especially God’s unbreakable commitment to ethnic Israel.

Not only is the stereotype of the Jew as some eternal antichrist completely far-fetched, but the very essence of the New Covenant Writings is so very Jewish that it should make us wonder why non-Jews came to appreciate it at all.

I must admit, however, that a central, if not the central image of the New Testament, that of a crucified Messiah, is taken by most people, Jews or Gentiles, as anything but Jewish. This is mainly because the essence of what Yeshua came to do has been weaponized against the Jewish world from the early centuries of Church history. Yet, this is actually another case of vile misrepresentation of the Bible’s depiction of God’s relationship to the Jewish people.

This week’s Haftarah (weekly reading from the Hebrew Prophets) is the second of seven readings from Isaiah that follow the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, Tisha B’Av (the ninth day of the month Av), a day that commemorates the destruction of the first and second temples and many other disastrous events. These seven Isaiah passages were chosen to bring the people from mourning to hope.

No people group is as aware of their own historical failures and dismal consequences as my people, Israel. But thankfully, our sacred texts don’t just instill in us a sense of overwhelming failure, but are also a reminder of God’s love and faithfulness toward us. This week’s Haftarah includes these words:

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me (Isaiah 49:15-16).

The day would come when the image of a crucified Messiah would be used to undermine the legitimacy of the Jewish people. But who was it that he died for? Jumping to a universal answer like “everyone” or personalizing as in “He died for me” may be appropriate, but often misses how God’s story of redemption unfolded. The Messiah came first and foremost for the people to whom he was promised. Israel was the only nation expecting a Messiah, a God-sent deliverer who would not only rescue them from their enemies, but would also restore the entire world.

The Jewish people’s not understanding that messianic deliverance necessitated Yeshua’s giving of his life for sin takes nothing away from his mission being primarily a Jewish one. For it is God’s unfailing love as first expressed to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the fathers of ethnic Israel, that drives the scriptural narrative. It is Israel’s plight in particular that God determined to resolve through the Messiah, which set up the possibility for his blessing to come to the whole world. It is Israel whom God had engraved on the palms of his hands. It’s not a coincidence, therefore, that his love for them would be expressed through crucifixion.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

Va-etchannan/Nachamu
For the week of August 9, 2025 / 15 Av 5785
Torah D’varim/Deuteronomy 3:23 – 7:11
Haftarah: Isaiah 40:1-26

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. (D’varim/Deuteronomy 6:4)

Perhaps the greatest comedy bit of all time is Who’s On First?, Abbot and Costello’s timeless routine of identity confusion. Now, you might be wondering, if not offended, that I would bring up a comedy sketch after quoting the Shema, one of the most key, not to mention sacred, of all Torah verses. In Jewish tradition, it is the first line of a thrice-daily prayer that continues through verse nine of D’varim/Deuteronomy chapter six, plus chapter eleven, verses thirteen through twenty-one, and B’midbar/Numbers, chapter fifteen, verses thirty-seven through forty-one.

However, there’s something relevant in Who’s On First?, as it provides a profound insight regarding communication in general and this ancient statement specifically. What makes Who’s On First? delightfully funny is that the confusion over the players’ names is understandable to the audience. Even though we know what’s going on, the supposed confusion borders on incredulity. The audience reacts with laughter, because we are privy to the joke.

The problem that the sketch playfully engages is the exaggeration of a common situation, where asking the wrong questions, especially having failed to understand the full context of something, leads to great misunderstanding. While the historical misunderstanding that has arisen over the Shema is no joke, it is interesting that it is due to confusing “who” with “what.”

You may not be aware that in Jewish history, the opening line of the Shema: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one (D’varim/Deuteronomy 6:4), became a statement of defiance. The reference to “one” became a retort to Christian trinitarianism, which the Jewish world took to be a pagan concept to be resisted at all costs. I am aware of attempts to find the concept of “complex unity” in the Hebrew word for “one” here, which is echad. And those arguments are worth considering to show that God never intended to instill in Israel unitarianism or absolute monotheism.

However, here’s where the traditional controversy gets into some, “Who, what, I don’t know” ala Abbot and Costello. It’s because the theological argument isn’t actually based on this scriptural statement. The Shema isn’t about what God is, but rather who God is. Moses wasn’t providing the people of Israel a defense against Christianity. Instead, he was calling the people to strict, exclusive allegiance to their God. The word echad, in this context, is about his being the only God. A better translation would be: “Hear O Israel, the LORD our God is the LORD alone.”

Tragically, in my opinion, historic Christianity has been more obsessed with what God is than who he is, despite the Bible’s being far more interested in “who” than “what.” But when the “what” became the question, the “who” became confused. Instead of a call to truth, the Shema became a misguided battle cry in a religious battle. And that’s not funny!

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of August 2, 2025 / 8 Av 5785

D’varim/Shabbat Chazon
Torah: D’varim/Deuteronomy 1:1 – 3:22
Haftarah: Isaiah 1:1-27

Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity… (Isaiah 1:4)

Does reading the Bible ever trouble you? If it doesn’t, you may not actually be reading it. From Adam and Eve’s disobedience to ongoing violence and betrayal, much within its pages is unsettling. Then there is the challenge of its impossible moral standards, but we’ll leave that subject for another time. What troubles me most right now is the perceived anti-Jewishness of the New Covenant Writings.

This is a vast topic, and I plan to write a book on it one day. For now, I want to address one specific point. But first, let me be clear, I firmly believe the New Covenant Writings (my preferred term for the New Testament) are not antisemitic. On the contrary, they unequivocally affirm God’s unconditional and eternal faithfulness to the Jewish people. This conviction is precisely what leads to what troubles me.

Despite my certainty that the New Covenant Writings affirm God’s everlasting love for the Jewish people, I feel compelled to constantly explain why instances of harsh criticism of Israel within its pages don’t undermine this love. But what truly troubles me, even more than that, is this: Why do similar or even harsher criticisms of Israel in the Hebrew Scriptures (what you might call the Old Testament) not trouble me in the same way?

The Hebrew Scriptures are full of critiques of Israel, including a most intense passage from Isaiah (1:1–27), specially chosen for the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av (the ninth day of the month Av; this year: August 3, 2025), a day of mourning for a long list of tragic events in Israel’s history, including the destruction of both Temples. Isaiah confronts Israel with words such as:

Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged (Isaiah 1:4).

A remarkable aspect of the Hebrew Scriptures is their self-critique. Instead of portraying main characters or the nation in a purely positive light, their failings are highlighted in graphic detail. Think of Moses’ premeditated murder or David’s adultery. Much of the time, Israel falls short. The Scriptural narrator and the prophets repeatedly emphasize Israel’s wrongs. Yet, this doesn’t deeply trouble me. Why? Because the Hebrew Scriptures frame these failings within the context of God’s unfailing love for his covenant people. God’s unshakable faithfulness alleviates significant concern over such critiques.

Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool (Isaiah 1:18)

So, why do I feel differently about similar passages in the New Covenant Writings? It’s partly because I know better. I know there’s no fundamental difference between the critiques in both testaments. And this is apart from how some New Covenant passages have been historically misinterpreted as hostile toward the Jewish people. They may be references to “Jews” in the Gospel and Acts, which is about certain Jewish leaders in a particular time and place, or how the statement, “His blood be on us and on our children!” (Matthew 25:27) has been wrongly used to villainize all Jewish people for all time for the miguided charge of deicide, the murder of God. Don’t Bible readers know what Messiah’s blood is actually about?

Yet, I am aware that just like the Hebrew Scriptures, the New Covenant Writings contain some pretty harsh words for Israel and a significant number of its leaders of that day. Why do these passages bother me, then? It’s because I cannot escape the awareness of how many Christians read them. They confuse critique with rejection; loving concern with hatred. This misunderstanding is then often projected back onto the Hebrew Scriptures, mischaracterizing both Jewish people and God himself.

I am troubled, but not in despair, for I know that God will eventually make His unfailing love for the Jewish people undeniably clear. But this needn’t wait until some grand future event. It can start now with you, once you allow yourself to be embraced by it, as was the great New Covenant emissary Paul. He writes:

I tell the truth in Messiah—I do not lie, my conscience assuring me in the Ruach ha-Kodesh (the Holy Spirit)— that my sorrow is great and the anguish in my heart unending. For I would pray that I myself were cursed, banished from Messiah for the sake of my people—my own flesh and blood, who are Israelites. To them belong the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Torah and the Temple service and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs—and from them, according to the flesh, the Messiah, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen (Romans 9:1–5; Tree of Life Version).

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise indicated

For the week of July 19, 2025 / 23 Tammuz 5785

Pinchas
Torah: B’midbar/ Number 25:10 – 30:1 (English: 25:10 – 29:40)
Haftarah: Jeremiah 1:1 – 2:3
Originally posted the week of July 7, 2018 / 24 Tammuz 5778

But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 1:7-8)

I love to teach about Abraham for many reasons. I’ll get to Jeremiah shortly. Abraham is the biblical exemplar of a person of faith (see Romans 4:16). And with faith so central to having a genuine relationship with God, there is much we can learn from his life. One of the essential lessons we learn from Abraham is that we are never too old to make a positive difference. We don’t meet him until he is seventy-five, well past the normal age for what God called him to: leave family and the familiar for a foreign land and have a baby, the latter not happening until he was one hundred. Abraham is not the only senior citizen that didn’t get going on his God-given mission until later in life. Moses, being the next great example, received his marching orders at eighty.

Unlike our day, old age is highly esteemed in the Bible. We read in Mishlei (English: the book of Proverbs): “Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life” (Mishlei/Proverbs 16:31). The value Scripture places on the elderly may lead some to devalue youth except for its potential. Obviously, there are lessons inaccessible to the young, because they can only be learned through experience over a long period of time.

This is apparently what Jeremiah was thinking when God called him. He disqualifies himself from being God’s spokesperson (that’s what a prophet is) on the basis of his being, in Hebrew, a na-ar, which is a reference to the period of life from infancy through adolescence, pre-adulthood in other words. We can’t determine his exact age, but he was most likely in his latter teens. Even if he was older, it is clear that he saw himself as unable due to his lack of life experience.

From God’s perspective, however, Jeremiah’s experience or lack thereof was irrelevant. Age doesn’t matter, because the God of unlimited resources is the one who equips us to effectively serve him. Because God often calls us unto the impossible, taking personal inventory is not going to encourage us to rise up to the occasion. Does that mean, then, that this is a case of “all of God and nothing of us”? When God enables us to do his bidding, are we no more than empty shells that he animates for his purposes? For him to truly work through us, are we to disengage self and get out of God’s way? Is that what God calls us to do? Is that what he called Jeremiah to do?

Every person’s life, whether acknowledged or not, is completely dependent on God. We wouldn’t be here without him. We wouldn’t survive, much less thrive, without him. That said, are we to be completely passive while he overtakes our person like a body snatcher? Of course not. Obedience to God is accomplished by cooperating with him. He has endowed human beings with all sorts of abilities specially designed to fulfill his purposes on earth. Submitting our abilities to his will allows us to be what he made us to be.

Jeremiah thought he was lacking the necessary experience to be a prophet of God. That he lacked experience is correct. What he didn’t take into account – he may not have been aware of it – was that he did possess a, if not the, foundational qualification: teachability.

God knew that he could teach Jeremiah how to be a prophet during one of the most difficult and confusing times in Israel’s history. His lack of experience likely worked in his favor because the type of message God gave him was so different from the normal prophetic tradition. There was no precedent to tell God’s people to surrender to the enemy as Jeremiah had to do.

The story of Jeremiah may lead you to think that youth are more teachable than the elderly, but that’s not true. Abraham and Moses were two of the most teachable men who have ever lived. In fact, it can take many years of a great variety of life experiences before one finally becomes teachable. As a young person, Jeremiah may actually be an exception. Many young people are know-it-alls. But whether young or old, we will never become what God wants us to be unless we are teachable.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of July 12, 2025 / 16 Tammuz 5785

Balak
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 22:2 – 25:9
Haftarah: Micah 5:6 – 6:8 (English 5:7 – 6:8)
Originally posted the week of July 20, 2019 / 17 Tammuz 5779

Behold, a people has come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the earth, and they are dwelling opposite me. Come now, curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed. (B’midbar/Numbers 22:5-6)

Do you think of the people of Bible times as fundamentally superstitious? Merriam-Webster online defines “superstition” as “a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/superstition). It seems to me that “false conception of causation” really captures it. The superstitious person acts upon a belief that certain happenings occur because of certain other things even though there is no reliable evidence that there is an actual connection between the two. For example, when I was about eleven years old, I was eating lunch at home and somehow dropped my salmon sandwich on the floor. At the time, I thought nothing of it, picked it up, and ate it. By that evening I was sick with a stomach virus. It would be years before I would eat salmon again. Yet even if that which made me sick transferred from the floor to the sandwich to my stomach, which is highly unlikely, there is no reason to think that all salmon from that moment on was a potential threat to my health. I do eat salmon now, but I would be lying if I said, I don’t have to fight through at least a tinge of unreasonable fear to do so. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that “false conception of causation” like this is pretty common. Maybe not you, of course.

In spite of human propensity towards superstition, we tend to think of ancient folks as more superstitious than we are. This is how we would view the story of Balak and Bilam (English: Balaam). Balak was a Moabite king who felt threatened by the presence of the people of Israel. Thinking they were no match for them militarily, he wanted to hire Bilam, a diviner of some sort, to curse them. Balak believed that by Bilam’s pronouncing certain words, Israel’s defenses would be weakened. As it turned out, God stepped in and didn’t allow Bilam to curse Israel. Every time he prepared to recite his incantations, he blessed Israel instead.

I suspect that even Bible fans regard this scene as reflective of a superstitious culture. What difference would it have made if Bilam had cursed Israel anyway? Would God have allowed words of destruction toward his chosen people to have any effect? Do such words have any effect regardless? Isn’t this a case of “false conception of causation”? It’s a great story for ancient people, but we know better than to give any credence to such a worldview, right?

I could spend the time remaining exploring the power of words. So much can be said about words, pun intended. From God’s using words to create the universe to the difference words make in our personal lives, a case could be made for causation with regard to blessings and curses, however the mechanics might work. But instead of analyzing the legitimacy of the power of blessing and curses, I would rather look at a contemporary parallel to the Balak and Bilam story.

When Balak determined that his people’s normal military prowess would be insufficient, he resorted to cursing. Whatever he believed about its dynamics, he thought it would work. In this case, his plan backfired, but that’s not stopping many people today from following his example.

In our increasingly polarized culture, more and more people are resorting to cursing those with whom they disagree. Instead of engaging differences by providing intelligent reasons for a particular viewpoint, it is common to tear the other party down with insults, accusations, and insinuations. Often people are shamed publicly, held up to incessant mockery, and subject to death wishes.

It should be clear that like Balak, these verbal attacks are happening because people really believe they work. We could wish that falsehood when spoken evaporates into the air, but it doesn’t. Negative words potentially destroy lives. The causal relationship between the curses (or whatever you want to call them) and their devastating effects doesn’t matter as much as that it works.

I wonder how many of us are not standing for what is good and right today, because we are afraid of the potential curses we may have to endure. But let’s remember that if we are truly in the Messiah, then like Israel of old, we can be confident that God will not allow negative verbal assaults to have their way in our lives. As we read in Mishlei, the book of Proverbs: “Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, a curse that is causeless does not alight” (Mishlei/Proverbs 26:2).

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of July 5, 2025 / 9 Tammuz 5785

Chukat
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 19:1 – 22:1
Haftarah: Shoftim/Judges 11:1-33
Originally posted the July 13, 2019 / 10 Tammuz 5779

So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. (B’midbar/Numbers 21:9)

One of the prime focuses of the Hebrew Scriptures is the issue of idolatry that was expressed in ancient Israel in two ways: the worship of false gods as represented by an image or claiming that the true God was represented by an image. In either case, the essence of idolatry is it misrepresents reality and especially the reality of the God of Israel. The dynamics of idol worship is captured by the New Covenant Writings through this statement: “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!” (Romans 1:25).

Idolatry, whether it be through an actual figure associated with the true God or false gods, gives undo credence to a created thing instead of to the author of all creation. Putting one’s hope in an idol assumes that goodness can somehow be derived from the experience of engaging the thing, receiving blessing in other words. But blessing, as I just quoted, is derived from God, not things, even though God uses things to bless us. And therein lies the problem. It is so easy to confuse the instruments God uses with God himself.

This is exactly what happened with the Israelites and the bronze serpent, a story that took about eight hundred years to tell. During the wilderness wanderings under Moses, God punished the people for their grumblings by sending deadly snakes among them. In response to their humbling themselves, God prescribed an unusual remedy. He told Moses to set up a bronze serpent on a pole. All anyone bitten by a snake had to do was to look at the bronze serpent and they would be cured.

What we don’t know until the reign of Hezekiah eight centuries later was that not only did they hold on to the bronze serpent, but they made offerings to it, that is until Hezekiah smashed it (see 2 Melachim/2 Kings 18:4). For eight hundred years worship of this object had been tolerated! For eight hundred years “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.”

It isn’t difficult to understand why they did that. They believed, mistakenly so, that there was power in the object. What had begun as an act of faith unto God by following his instructions at the time, became an idol. They confused the source of power through his chosen instrument with the thing itself.

This is what underlies superstition. Superstition is believing that certain objects when related to in particular ways will empower us in some way. This is what happened with the bronze serpent. Looking to it was not originally superstition, since doing so was directed by God. It only became superstitious once the people assumed the power was in the object itself. They may have justified their misguided beliefs by claiming that if God used it in the past, then it’s appropriate to continue using it even after the occasion for which it was made was over and done with.

This is exactly where a lot of people of faith get stuck. We have a legitimate experience of God in the past and insist on revisiting it, thinking that we can continue to derive blessing from it when it’s outlived its intended purpose. We may not be doing this with a tangible object, but the dynamics are the same. Our precious moments with God were for the time allotted to them. To expect to derive the same blessings over and over again from what God did in an earlier time and place is to exchange the truth about God for a lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!

It is the Creator “who is blessed forever.” Blessing resides in God, not objects or experiences. He is free to use whatever he wishes to pour out blessings upon us. But if we confuse the One who blesses with that which he uses to bless, we will find ourselves living a lie and cut off from the very blessings we long for.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version