For the week of April 09, 2022 / 8 Nisan 5782

Metzora
Torah reading: Vayikra/Leviticus 14:1 – 15:33
Haftarah: Malachi 3:4-24 (English: 3:4 – 4:6)
Originally posted the week of April 5, 2014 / 5 Nisan 5774 (revised)

Download Audio [Right click link to download]

Thus you shall keep the people of Israel separate from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness by defiling my tabernacle that is in their midst. (Vayikra/Leviticus 15:31)

Reading this verse makes me think, “How does this work?” God gave the people of Israel particular directions to follow with regard to how they were to deal with ritual uncleanness. Certain diseases, bodily emissions, and childbirth required people to perform set procedures in order to restore themselves to a state of ritual purity.

I don’t tend to concern myself about how things work with regard to God and his directives. If God says these things result in defilement and tells his people to follow his purification instructions, then that should be good enough. After all, as God’s servants, our job is to obey him. Whether or not we understand how this sort of thing works is beside the point.

That said, I still wonder why the possibility of defilement was so dangerous. Some may suggest that what is going on here is God’s providing effective health principles cloaked in spiritual terms. God’s directions had the people distancing themselves from others as well as washing themselves and any affected objects. Sounds like medically informed precautions and procedures to me. But is that what this is all about? Is the mention of God and things like sacrifice nothing more than coating around otherwise practical procedures to enable a superstitious ancient culture to swallow them?

This kind of perspective is a typical, but cynical, lens through which much of the Bible has been viewed by many modern thinkers. The same collection of writings that has blessed the world with its wisdom on health, as well as justice, government, and morality, also reveals truths about God and spiritual things. To dissect the Bible in order to separate its supposed unreasonable, illogical, superstitious, backward spiritual components from its progressive, wise, and effective practical ones fails to recognize how the practical aspects (that many like) arise from its spiritual foundation (that they don’t like). This approach also provides no control over which practical aspects are to be accepted as valid and which are not. It all comes down to personal preferences.

The warning given by God regarding “uncleanness” is very serious. Failure to carefully follow God’s instructions results in death. While history has shown that ignoring sound principles of hygiene and the like has devastated whole communities, that is not what is going on here. Death was the consequence of defiling the Mishkan (English: tabernacle), the precursor to the temple, where the sacrifices were offered. But how does the defiling of the Mishkan result in death?

I am not going to try to come up with a scientific answer, looking for technical physical connections of cause and effect. For the issue here is not found in the realms of physics, chemistry, or biology. It’s relational. God had determined to dwell among the people of Israel. Think about that for a second. The Master of the Universe took up residency on earth and gave regulations to his Chosen People on how to deal with ritual uncleanness. It was essential to follow these rules. To ignore them led to death.

If they followed God’s instructions, nothing to worry about. However, there’s more to ritual uncleanness than what is addressed in this passage. God’s dwelling with the people placed them in a most precarious situation, since no nation, Israel included, could stay ritually clean. Death is not simply the result of acute ritual uncleanness as described in this week’s Torah reading portion. It is the result of the chronic uncleanness we all have been defiled with since the Garden of Eden. These rituals were designed to help us to see that. The greatest problems of the world are not the result of random, meaningless cause and effect. They are due to the ritual uncleanness of the human family who has defiled what was meant to be a holy and pure world where God lives.

This is why the Messiah came. He is the only one who, through his death and resurrection, provides us with the essential and lasting purity we need in order for God to fellowship with us. To neglect his offer of cleansing is to invite death. How does this work exactly? I still don’t know; but it does.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of April 2, 2022 / 1 Nisan 5782

Tazria & Rosh Hodesh
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 12:1 – 13:59; B’midbar/Numbers 28:9-15; Shemot/Exodus 12:1-20
Haftarah: Ezekiel 45:16-46; Isaiah 66:1 & 24
Originally posted the week of April 2, 2011 / 27 Adar 2 5771

Download Audio [Right click link to download]

And when the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering, and he shall offer it before the LORD and make atonement for her. Then she shall be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, either male or female. (Vayikra/Leviticus 12:6-7)

The Torah does far more than provide lists of rules and regulations. Through the study of Torah, we are drawn into seeing life from God’s perspective. A fancy, popular term for this is “worldview.” Most of us are not aware that we live our lives based on a worldview, but how we see the world controls the way we live. A worldview is something far more caught than taught in that, for the most part, how we see the world is unconsciously derived from our families of origin and the unstated values of the cultures in which we live.

The Torah is an expression of God’s worldview. The explicit statements we encounter in the Torah arise from how God sees life. God’s view of reality, which I accept to be the only true reality, is not always explained, but rather assumed. The reason for something is not usually given. After all God has no need to explain himself; he is the Creator and Master of the Universe. When he provides a directive, it is based on his correct understanding of life. But as we look closely at what he tells us, we can pick up on his perspective. As we do so, our understanding of life becomes enriched, which in turn puts his directives in their context, enabling us to fulfill them as God intended.

Before we look at a particular example, I want to point out that the context in which to best understand God’s directives is that we live in the messianic age. Unlike the original recipients of the Torah who anticipated Messiah’s coming, we live out God’s directives in these days of messianic fulfillment. Yeshua’s coming and the destruction of the Temple revolutionized how God’s people conduct their lives. Yet the radical differences between the Old and New Covenants should not distract us from God’s perspective on life which we encounter all through his sacred writings.

Now to our example of how the Torah provides us with God’s worldview. This week’s Torah portion begins with a section regarding the purification regulations of childbirth. This is then followed by a lengthy section on infectious skin conditions. There are similarities and dissimilarities between these two sections. What these two conditions have in common is that special attention was to be given to their conditions and certain rituals were to be observed when the conditions were resolved. The state of being unclean in each case placed the person in a special relationship to the things of God and in the community. This was designed to protect the community and the individual during their time of ritual uncleanness. However, the port-partum mother did not pose a risk to the community in the way those who contracted an infectious skin disease did. If it was determined that a person truly had an infectious skin condition, they were to be placed in isolation. There was no such requirement for the specified time period following childbirth. While both the post-partum mother and the person with the skin condition were to be regarded as “unclean”, whatever else unclean meant, childbirth is not a disease.

That childbirth is not a disease is, of course, rooted in God’s overall perspective on children, which is that they are a blessing and a reward (See Bereshit/Genesis 1:28, D’varim/Deuteronomy 7:4, Tehillim/Psalms 127:3, Matthew 19:14). Yet even though many cultures correctly understand the differences between these two conditions, and no one would outright say that giving birth is a disease, the amount of time and effort put in by so many people trying to prevent themselves from having children may expose a worldview very different from that of the God of the Torah.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of March 26, 2022 / 23 Adar II 5782

Shemini
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 9:1 – 11:47 & D’varim/Deuteronomy 25:17-19
Haftarah: Ezekiel 36:16-38
Originally posted the week of March 30, 2019 / 23 Adar II 5779

Download Audio [Right click link to download]

And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. (Ezekiel 36:23)

The story of the Bible is the story of God’s rescue operation of the creation. According to the earliest chapters of the Bible, from the moment God cursed the world in response to our first parents’ rebellion, he determined to put a complete end to evil (see Bereshit/Genesis 3:15). Much of the rest of Scripture is the unfolding of that promise. The intricate interplay of the whole Bible is summed up by Paul when he calls God’s promise of blessing to Abraham, the “gospel,” meaning “good news” (Galatians 3:8; cf. Bereshit/Genesis 12:3). The good news is that the curse would be undone through Abraham’s descendants.

Yeshua followers are quick to point out that the realization of the promise to Abraham is wrapped up in the Messiah. That is certainly true. Yeshua’s death and resurrection provide forgiveness and eternal life to all who repent and put their trust in him. However, Yeshua’s part of the story of God, essential as it is, is not the whole story. In fact, we cannot fully appreciate Yeshua and what he has done unless we see him in the context of the whole Bible.

To understand Yeshua in the context of the Bible is to come to grips with the centrality of Israel in the plan of God. To start with, Yeshua isn’t portrayed in Scripture simply as the savior from heaven. He is that, but he is first and foremost the promised Messiah of Israel. He couldn’t be the savior of all if he wasn’t the Jewish Messiah. That’s just the beginning. There’s far more to Israel’s role in God’s rescue plan than Yeshua’s Jewish messianic pedigree.

Tragically, Israel’s role has been obscured by deep-seated prejudice towards the Jewish people through the centuries. Ignoring Paul’s warning to the non-Jewish believers in Rome to not be arrogant towards the Jewish people (see Romans 11:17-24), the church did just that. Paul must have sensed that there was a growing “new kid on the block” mentality emerging from the increasing number of Gentile believers in his day. He knew that the outworking of God’s promise to bless the nations that they were experiencing could easily be misinterpreted as a shift of God’s heart – that Israel was “out” and the Church, its non-Jewish component in particular, was “in.” His olive-tree metaphor in Romans chapter eleven is a masterful three-dimensional picture of the complexity of the multi-ethnic makeup of the New Covenant community of faith. The inclusion of non-Jews into God’s family was not to be regarded as a replacement of his earlier commitment to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And yet, that’s exactly what happened.

This anti-Jewish lens filters out the fulness of Scripture. Take this week’s Haftarah portion, for example. When you read Ezekiel’s words, do you hear God’s faithfulness to Israel or his disgust? Israel failed to live up to the standard of being God’s holy people as established at Mt. Sinai through Moses (see Shemot/Exodus 19:5-6). But many have failed to understand that Israel was made an example to demonstrate to the world everyone’s need of God. That should evoke awe and gratefulness, not disdain.

Why then does God himself seem to be so negative on Israel? Isn’t that what’s going on in this week’s Haftarah? He says through the prophet Ezekiel: “It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel” (Ezekiel 36:32). Words like these may appear to reflect God’s supposed rejection of his ancient covenant people. But keep on reading:

Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by. And they will say, “This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.” Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the LORD; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it. (Ezekiel 36:33-36)

God’s response to Israel’s failure is not rejection but restoration – a restoration that’s not only spiritual but physical as it includes a glorious transformation in their ancient homeland. Any version of God’s rescue operation that fails to include God’s ongoing plans and purposes for the Jewish people misrepresents his mission, his word, and himself.

What God began through the faithful remnant of Jewish followers of Yeshua sent out two thousand years ago will culminate in the renewal of the entire creation. When Israel is finally and fully restored, both the people and the land, the curse over the earth will be completely broken and God’s rule and reign will be established forever. God is not finished with Israel; the best is yet to come.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of March 19, 2022 / 16 Adar 5782

Tzav
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 6:1 – 8:36 (English 6:8 – 8:36)
Haftarah: Jeremiah 7:21 – 8:3; 9:22-23 (English 7:21 – 8:3; 9:23-24)

Download Audio [Right click link to download]

Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 9:22-23; English: 9:23-24)

Purim, the Festival of Esther, begins this year Wednesday evening, March 16. These two verses from this week’s Haftarah reading reflects a key component of the amazing turn of events that this festival commemorates.

Before I get into specifics, I want to comment on something in these verses that might be strange for many of us. I am referring to boasting. Older English translations use “glory” or “glorieth,” while newer translations use boast or even brag. I suspect that many Bible readers would expect that when God speaks against boasting as in “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom,” his goal would be that the readers would perhaps boast about God instead. Yet, the reader is called to boast about self. There are certain things about oneself we are not to boast about, but other things we are. We will get into what those things are shortly.

The Hebrew word for glory/boast/brag is “halal.” It’s the same word used in the expression hallelujah, praise the Lord. Hallelujah is often used as an expression of praise, but actually it is an imperative – a command – calling people to praise the Lord. To praise is to declare the goodness of someone or something. While it is common for people to say “hallelujah” or “praise the Lord,” praising the Lord is declaring his attributes or actions in great positive ways. Appropriate praise is not limited to God but can be directed towards others. In these verses from Jeremiah, they are directed at self.

It might be that glory/boast/brag are not the best ways to express halel here, where the subject is what personal attributes in our lives are praiseworthy from God’s perspective. We might put it another way. What about ourselves should we be proud about? For many, pride is viewed exclusively as negative. But there’s a good pride, one in which we recognize what is truly good about ourselves.

Those who are wise, shouldn’t be proud of their wisdom; the strong man not in his strength; nor the rich man in his wealth. All these are gifts of God, not derived from self. The only thing truly worthy to be proud of is understanding and knowing God. This is a pride about self that ironically isn’t self-focused. But we can feel good about ourselves when we truly know God.

It’s important not to miss, however, that this knowing of God isn’t simply a relationship with little substance. To know God here includes an awareness that he is a doer of love, justice, and righteousness. To know and understand this is not merely intellectual. The one who truly knows God knows that we, who are made in his image, are to reflect these things. In other words, to know God is to do what God does. Those who reflect God in this way have something to be proud about.

Mordecai in the Purim story was such a person. He lived a life of love, justice, and righteousness. Whether he cared for his orphaned cousin, spoke up when the king’s life was in danger, or strategized the protection of his people, his life demonstrated that he knew and understood his God. His confidence in his relationship to God enabled him to effectively discern real need and provide real solutions. He didn’t possess the kind of phony humility that often prevents one from boldly taking on difficult situations. Instead, his positive self-understanding, based on his authentic relationship with God, equipped him to represent God’s interests in his day.

Perhaps it’s time we shed the false humility that prevents us from doing what God is calling us to do, thank God for the gifts he has given us, and if we truly know and understand him, be proud of ourselves.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of March 12, 2022 / 9 Adar II 5782

Vayikra & Zakhor
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26; D’varim 25:17-19
Haftarah: 1 Samuel 15:2-34

Download Audio [Right click link to download]

The LORD called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock.” (Vayikra/Leviticus 1:1-2)

The directives in Torah regarding sacrifices and offerings are far more concerned about the what than the why. God through Moses was speaking to a culture where animal and other sacrifices were the expected norm. Sacrifice goes back to at least Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve. Some think it goes back further when God provided animal skins to cover Adam and Eve to replace the skimpy fig leaf “clothes” they made. Regardless, the Bible assumes sacrifice as a primary human activity without explaining why. The lack of why has not prevented it from being core to many societies throughout human history, continuing until today.

Similar to the why question is what does sacrifice do? It appears that many cultures understood it to be a way to appease the gods. It was believed that the gods were behind the challenges of nature. Somehow the offering up of an animal, often through burning it, transferred it to the domain of the gods. If the gods accepted it, good things would happen. If not, you continued to be a victim of their wrath through drought, famine, floods, and so on.

There are some hints that biblical sacrifice worked in a similar fashion. God speaks of receiving an acceptable sacrifice as a pleasing aroma (e.g. Vayikra/Leviticus 1:9). Torah teaches that blood is imbued with a certain quality that makes sacrifice effective (see Vayikra/Leviticus 17:11). Yet, it is very clear that the Bible rejects any sort of mechanical dynamic regarding sacrifice. For if a person’s attitude toward God wasn’t one of humility and genuine honor, the sacrifices would accomplish nothing (e.g. Hosea 6:6). It was never the sacrifices themselves that made the difference. It always was (as it still is) more to do with how people personally relate to God. Biblically speaking, rituals were always intended to be an outward expression of an inner reality.

The great exception to this is the Messiah. His sacrifice actually made a practical difference by breaking the power of sin in the world. A case could be made that every other sacrifice is a sort of symbolic gesture reflecting the uniqueness of Yeshua’s selfless death.

The call to sacrifice continues despite the effectiveness of Yeshua’s own. I am not referring to the Old Covenant sacrifices established through Moses, for they are now obsolete due to the establishment of the New Covenant as prophesied through Jeremiah (see Jeremiah 31:31-34). This is thoroughly explained in the Book of Hebrews. Under the New Covenant the focus on sacrifice shifts from giving up what we own to the giving up of our very lives. We read, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1). Far from seeking to court favor from the gods in order to reap benefits, we give our whole selves out of gratefulness to the one who graciously restored us to himself.

Yeshua called his followers to a lifestyle of sacrifice. He said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25). And yet these words are often misunderstood to refer to the need to reckon with the great difficulty of following him. “Oh, what a heavy cross I have to bear!” one might say. That misses the point, however. Instead, this is in line with the call to be a living sacrifice. Yeshua is saying that his followers must be ready to do God’s will even if it results in giving up our lives just as he did.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of March 5, 2022 / 2 Adar II 5782

Pekudei
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 38:21 – 40:38
Haftarah: 1 Kings 7:40-50
Edited version of message posted the week of March 1, 2014 / 29 Adar 5774

Download Audio [Right click link to download]

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. (Shemot / Exodus 40:34; ESV)

The manifest presence of God is a key component of biblical truth. According to the Bible, God is not simply a philosophical concept. He is an independent, self-defined, self-aware, active, responsive relational being with personality. As a relational being, while invisible, he isn’t cut off from human beings. Rather, he has made himself known and accessible to people. While God has revealed himself in implicit, more subtle ways, through such things as creation, which acts as material evidence for his existence and his creativity, he also has done so in more explicit, dramatic ways, through prophetic utterance and his manifest presence.

The Bible itself is the product of prophetic utterance. The most obvious examples of this are the recorded words of the prophets themselves as they spoke God’s actual words to their hearers in their day. Knowledge of God and his will is not determined by divination and fortune telling, but by God’s intimate communication through people. This also applies to the entire Bible in that its authors wrote under the authority of God’s inspiration.

But God not only reveals himself through words, but also through observable phenomena, whereby he, who is normally invisible and nonphysical, makes himself known in some sort of physical way. The Torah mentions such occurrences, including the burning bush (see Shemot / Exodus 3:2-6) and thunder at Mt. Sinai (see Shemot / Exodus 19:19). God even manifests himself in human form on more than one occasion. He comes in this way to Abraham to announce Isaac’s birth, to warn him about the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (see Bereshit / Genesis 18), and in his life-transforming wrestling match with Jacob (see Bereshit / Genesis 32:22-32). That God would come in a similar fashion in the Messiah should not surprise us.

During Israel’s forty years of wilderness wanderings, God’s manifest presence guided and protected them through a pillar of fire and cloud. When the Mishkan (English: Tabernacle), the center of Israel’s worship, the mobile precursor to the permanent Temple built many years later, was completed, the cloud covered it and the kavod (English: glory) of God filled it. Kavod is one of the ways the Torah refers to God’s manifest presence. Where God was to be worshipped, his presence was really there. Note that this didn’t occur until every detail of the Mishkan’s construction as given by God through Moses was fully completed. It was only then that God’s presence filled the Mishkan.

The filling of the Mishkan foreshadows a much greater event when God’s manifest presence would fill individuals as foretold by the Hebrew prophet Joel:

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit (Joel 3:1-2; English: 2:28-29).

Joel speaks of a day when we could experience God from the inside out due to the indwelling of his very presence through his Spirit. But as in the construction of the Mishkan, every God-ordained detail needed to be completed first. People could not be filled with God’s Spirit until we were made ready.

But we can be ready right now. For the Messiah has done everything necessary in order that we can be filled with the glory of God. The forgiveness of sins through Yeshua’s sacrificial death and the newness of life through his resurrection are all we need to be so filled. All we need to do now is turn to God and put our trust in Yeshua and what he has done for us.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of February 26, 2022 / 25 Adar 5782

Vayakhel & Shekalim
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 35:1 – 38:20; 30:11-16
Haftarah: 2 Kings 12:1-17 (English: 11:21 – 12:16)

Download Audio [Right click link to download]

And he has inspired him to teach (Shemot/Exodus 35:34)

One of the most important concepts in the Bible is inspiration. Inspiration is the foundation of the dependability of Scripture as an accurate record of God’s communication. The New Covenant Writings, primarily in reference to the Hebrew Scriptures, express this as follows:

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)

Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (1 Peter 1:20-21)

The English word “inspiration” attempts to capture the idea that Scripture was breathed out by God or that the writers were carried along by God’s Spirit. Either way, the origins of the biblical writings are not found in the human authors but in God. There is no sense that God overrode the consciousness of the writers. Exceptions include, the Ten Commandments, which are particularly unique in that they were handwritten by God himself (see Shemot/Exodus 31:18; D’varim/Deuteronomy 9:10). There are some sections of Scripture that are dictated by God. Much of what Moses taught may have been like that. Also, when the prophets declare, “Thus says the Lord!”, they may have been repeating God’s word verbatim, though there are hints that God gave them something more akin to an impression that they then put into their own words. There are other large sections, such as the Psalms, which arise out of individuals’ own prayers and struggles with God and life but are no less inspired. Then, of course, much of Scripture is narration, describing situations or summarizing events, but are no less “breathed out by God.”

I find the dynamic of inspiration fascinating. That the origins of what Scripture teaches is expressed through a great variety of writing styles demonstrates a remarkable cooperation between God as the ultimate author and the people he chose to record his Word. We see this reflected in this week’s parsha (weekly Torah reading portion). Here, God chose lead craftsmen to equip others in the development of the Mishkan (English: Tabernacle), Israel’s beautiful and intricate, semi-portable, worship center. We read that God filled Bezalel “with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft” (Shemot/Exodus 35:30-33). In the following verse, the Hebrew reads, “he put in his heart to teach” (Shemot/Exodus 35:34). The English Standard Version represents this as “he has inspired him to teach.”

Inspiration is God putting his ideas into people’s hearts. While the inspiration of Scripture is unique in that Scripture is our only authority for faith and life, God continues to put into the hearts of people his influence, moving upon them to fulfil his will in the world. I don’t understand how he does it, but he does.

What has God put into your heart?

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise indicated

For the week of January 29, 2022 / 27 Shevat 5782

Mishpatim
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 21:1 – 24:18
Haftarah: Jeremiah 34:8-22; 33:25-26

Download Audio [Right click link to download]

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to make a proclamation of liberty to them (Jeremiah 34:8)

This week, I would like to address “my home and native land,” to borrow a line from the Canadian national anthem. But first, let me set up the biblical background to the serious situation we find ourselves in today. The Haftarah reading from the prophet Jeremiah has to do with his confronting of King Zedekiah. These readings from the Hebrew prophets are generally chosen based on some connection to the weekly Torah portion. The current portion includes specific instructions about the limited terms of service for Hebrew slaves. They were to only serve six years and be released in the seventh. In Jeremiah’s day, the king made a decree in keeping with these Torah directives only to rescind them soon afterward. This resulted in God’s giving Jeremiah a harsh message of judgement to deliver to the king.

It’s with a sense of caution that I now seek to connect this story to contemporary Canada. Covenant with God is nothing to take lightly. But what does that have to do with Canada? Emblazoned on our coat of arms are the Latin words, “a mari usque ad mare” (“from sea to sea’) taken from Psalm 72:8 (“May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth”). Applying this verse to the fledgling nation was suggested by Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley of New Brunswick. The Psalm originally refers to King Solomon and is his prayer for the establishment of his rule according to borders delineated by God. Tilly was most likely thinking of the eventual expansion of Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Be that as it may, the adopting of “a mari usque ad mare” as the official Canadian motto establishes a connection of our country to the Bible.

These same words, but more fully and in English, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea” (KJV), are also etched into the front of the large clock tower in the center-front of our houses of parliament. On the other two sides of the same tower are the verses: “Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son!” (Psalm 72:1; KJV) and “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he” (Proverbs 29:18, KJV). From what I understand, these Scriptures were not officially mandated by the government of the day but were inscribed by the builders anyway. When they were  unveiled, they weren’t removed. Despite contrary sentiments, our parliamentary houses have declared these truths since 1927 when the tower was inaugurated.

This connection to God’s written word eventually found itself woven into the foundation of our legal system in 1982, when our current constitution became law. The introductory sentence of the Canadian constitution reads, “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law”.

I am aware that this reference to God is generic, but from this country’s earliest days, there was no question that “God” was the God of the Bible. And since this God is the only God anyway, it is he who is referenced no matter how anyone may try to interpret it.

As for the “rule of law,” whether or not people are aware of it, it is a principle of governance deeply rooted in the Bible.

Samuel Tilley may have been dreaming about a railway system that would one day be the backbone of an ongoing British presence from sea to sea despite American aspirations, yet he drew Canada into an accidental covenant with the God of Israel.

To deny, ignore, or reinterpret, these biblical connections is to undermine the foundations of our country. Even without these accidents of history, God through the Messiah is the true sovereign over all nations. But when a country acknowledges these truths only to later neglect them creates a most precarious situation. It is one thing to dwell in the darkness, it is another to have embraced the light only to close one’s eyes to it.

The very fabric of this great nation is at risk of completely unravelling unless there is a turning back to the biblical truths upon which it once stood. That begins with each and every Canadian upon whose hearts God’s Word is engraved.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise indicated

For the week of January 22, 2022 / 20 Shevat 5782

Yitro
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 18:1 – 20:23 (English: 18:1 – 20:26)
Haftarah: Isaiah 6:1-7:6; 9:5
Originally posted the week of February 15, 2020 / 20 Shevat 5780

Download Audio [Right click link to download]

You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. (Shemot/Exodus 19:4)

This has to be one of the more beautiful metaphors in the entire Bible. Israel, oppressed from generations under Egyptian taskmasters, helpless to alleviate their plight, cry out to the God of their ancestors for deliverance. The years go by and things go from bad to worse. Then the day comes; God to the rescue! Despite all odds, the Master of the Universe swoops down seemingly out of nowhere and miraculously carries the nation on his back to freedom.

Beautiful metaphor indeed, but that’s not what happened. Miraculous, yes. However it was much more of a process and a difficult one at that. From Moses’ first being given the exodus mandate to getting support from the Hebrew elders to Pharaoh’s stubborn refusal to the ten plagues, culminating in the death of Egypt’s firstborn and their departure. Not completely free of their oppressors, they are then pursued by the Egyptian army that drowned in the parting of the Red Sea, while Israel made it safely to the other side. While this finally disconnected the liberated slaves from Egypt for good, the difficult process continued as they were learning to trust God for his miraculous provision and care in an uninhabitable wilderness on their way to Mt. Sinai and the Promised Land.

What is this about eagles’ wings then? I could imagine scholars musing over how such an image is nothing more than a mythic version of the exodus put into God’s mouth centuries after the fact. I am very aware how after a period of time the sting of hardship fades from memory and we just remember the good parts – and then the good parts are remembered so much better than they actually were. The problem with this train of thought is that the painful details weren’t forgotten. They have been well-documented and preserved from then until now.

How then could such an expression as “I bore you on eagles’ wings” be appropriate? Perhaps we picture riding on eagles differently from the Israelites of old. They wouldn’t share our Hollywood-influenced view of such an experience. In my mind I see the film version of Lord of the Rings, where near the end of this epic, Gandalf rescues Frodo and Sam with gigantic eagles that scoop them up with their talons, carrying them to safety as they blissfully soar through the sky. The Israelites, on the other hand, likely have related to “eagles’ wings” differently. Whether they pictured normal-sized eagles which would not be accustomed to carrying such loads or gigantic ones that are more the stuff of nightmares than what we see in Lord of the Rings, the image evoked may not have been a nice one. Instead, it might have included the precarious nature of the process they had to endure.

A more likely possibility is that the eagles’ wing picture of God’s rescue reflects the outcome and purpose of the exodus, not the process. This metaphor evokes an image of God’s intense and personal activity in bringing the people to Mt. Sinai where he would reveal his will to them, constitute them as a nation, and send them on a mission to establish themselves in the Promised Land. While the process was difficult, the outcome was never in question. He did whatever it took to accomplish his will. While the process was never forgotten, the impossibility and success of the exodus makes being carried through the sky an apt image after all.

No wonder many years later the prophet Isaiah would recall such a picture to encourage his generation of Israelites that their divine rescue was coming: “but they who wait (meaning “hope”) for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:1). In this case the people themselves become eagle-like as the power of God fills them with his powerful presence. But remember eagle-like doesn’t automatically mean easy or simple. Yet, however difficult the process may be, God will get you to where you need to go.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of January 15, 2022 / 13 Shevat 5782

Beshalach
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 13:17 – 17:16
Haftarah: Shoftim/Judges 4:4 – 5:31
Updated version of message originally posted the week of January 23, 2016 / 13 Shevat 5776

Download Audio [Right click link to download]

The LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.” (Shemot/Exodus 14:15)

The people of Israel were between a rock and a hard place, metaphorically speaking. They were actually between an impassible body of water and the Egyptian army keen on dragging them back to Egypt. An interesting interchange ensues between Moses and God. Well, actually, it’s not an interchange. The people freak out, thinking that they are about to be slaughtered, Moses reassures them, but then God tells Moses what to do, contradicting him in the process. Let’s look at this more closely.

Moses said to the people: “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent” (Shemot/Exodus 14:13-14). Based on everything Moses knew about God up to that moment—his character, his power, and his methodology—this sounds so right. Moses knew how fundamentally misguided the people’s freak-out was. God didn’t bring them to this point only to abandon them. Moses knew that he was leading them to Sinai and on to the Promised Land. So, this couldn’t be the end. How God would rescue them, he didn’t know, but after all that had happened with the ten plagues and a reasonable analysis of the situation, Moses concluded that all Israel had to do was to do nothing, except stand. God would take care of the situation all by himself.

But with all due respect to Moses, he was wrong. They were not just to stand there; they were to “go forward.” I know Moses was also told: “Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground” (Shemot/Exodus 14:16), but the people were not to wait for the sea to part first, but rather they were to march toward the sea.

God was calling the people to readjust their orientation to the situation. He had called them to journey in a certain direction, which required getting to the other side of the water. But instead, they were frozen by fear. They needed to refocus and get with God’s program again.

Note that God was not calling them into the water before it parted. He might call people to do that from time to time, but not in this case. They simply had to move in its direction. He also didn’t order them to turn around and confront the enemy nipping at their heels. The day would come when Israel would engage in battle, but not now. In this situation they had to go forward.

I remember a situation I was in where I was called to go forward. It was nowhere near drastic as what the Israelites were facing. But for me at the time the dynamic was similar. I was at a large leaders’ conference, a pretty intense time of seeking God. I was privileged to be part of the core group tasked with discerning direction for the various meetings. I was new to such things and probably a little too excited about it all. In one of the core group meetings, I felt a real burden over something, but once I finally had a chance to speak out, I got the impression (right or wrong) that I was out of line. I felt absolutely terrible and embarrassed. I went to my hotel room, not wanting to show my face in public again (I am being only a little overdramatic!). As I called out to the Lord in my fear and confusion, I had the clear sense that I needed to go forward. That meant joining the others to face whatever might happen, whatever others might think of me, whatever reprimand I might receive, whatever. I had no guaranty of how God would deal with the scary elements ahead of me. I simply had to face them. And as I did, nothing I feared came to pass. My sea had parted as I went forward.

I am concerned that too many of us are frozen in place right now. We’ve have been disoriented by fear of sickness and death along with constantly changing restrictions. Waiting for it all to be over is not God’s will. What is God’s will for you right now, I can’t say. But I do know he wants you to keep moving forward in whatever direction he is calling you to.

We were not to be distracted by the threats and obstacles of life before and we are not to be distracted by them now. Perhaps we were too comfortable with the way things were before the current crisis. We are not used to our lives being so constricted. But God hasn’t changed. With him, there is always a way forward. We just need to find out what that is.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version