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

For the week of June 28, 2025 / 2 Tammuz 5785

Korach
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 16:1 – 18:32
Haftarah: 1 Samuel 11:14 – 12:22
Updated version of “Go to God” from the week of June 23, 2001

They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?” When Moses heard it, he fell on his face… (B’midbar/Numbers 16:3-4)

Moses went through a lot. He didn’t want this job in the first place. Many years earlier, he thought he would try to help his people by taking matters into his own hands. Now that he was older and wiser with the desire to be the Great Deliverer purged from his soul, it was God’s idea to send him back to Egypt. Although he resisted, God prevailed, and Moses became a leader.

I have heard it said that Moses’ being a shepherd in the wilderness was to prepare him to lead the people there one day. That may be true, but not in the way some people think. It wasn’t his knowledge of the wilderness itself that qualified him for the job. It wasn’t the day-in and day-out of sheep herding that taught him the group dynamics necessary to lead two million ex-slaves from bondage to conquest. The primary lesson he learned during those forty years prior to God’s call was to be dependent upon God.

Moses had gone from elite status in Pharaoh’s palace to the life of a fugitive, running for his life. Cut off from everything he knew, at age forty he had to start life all over again, so to speak, working a menial job.

This week’s portion includes an example of how he dealt with the predicaments he faced as God’s chosen leader of his people. When challenged by Korah and company, the Torah says, “When Moses heard it, he fell on his face” (B’midbar/Numbers 16:4). Only after that, did he give them an answer. Over and over again, whether Moses was confronting Pharaoh, speaking to the elders of Israel, or dealing with the people’s virtual incessant grumbling, he looked to God.

What a way to react to being confronted! He fell on his face! He wasn’t showing reverence to Korah, nor was he completely overwhelmed. This was Moses’ leadership posture. He looked to God. Then and only then did he deal with the situation.

We don’t find Moses finding guidance via his vast learning acquired in Pharaoh’s court or from his previous years of wilderness wanderings. Whenever he faced a situation he went to God. And it was God who gave him the wisdom he needed.

Isn’t this what we should all do? As we read in the New Covenant Writings:

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him (James 1:5).

So the next time you are in a situation where you need wisdom, maybe you should do what Moses did and get on your face.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of June 21, 2025 / 25 Sivan 5785

Sh’lach L’kha
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 13:1 – 15:41
Haftarah: Joshua 2:1-24
Originally posted the week of June 20, 2020 / 28 Sivan 5780

Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” (B’midbar/Numbers 14:1-4)

This week’s parsha (Torah reading portion) includes one of the greatest fails in the Torah. The people of Israel are on the cusp of acquiring the land God promised to their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, hundreds of years before. No other people in history had ever experienced the favor and power of God as they did. Having been subjected to the bitter bondage of slavery their whole lives, they saw their God pummel Egypt with devastating plagues until the stubborn king finally allowed them to leave. And that was just the beginning! They were then personally led by God by way of a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. He parted the sea, enabling them to cross to the other side on dry ground, from where they watched that same sea drown the Egyptian army, terminating that threat for good. Each day, except on Shabbat (English: the Sabbath), they woke up to a miraculous nutritious meal of manna. God also provided them with water when none was available be it by transforming poisoned water into fresh or bubbling forth from a rock. The one time they had to endure battle, their victory was in direct relationship to Moses’ prayers despite their complete lack of fighting experience, having been slaves until recently.

Many of these acts of God’s power occurred in the context of a great need or a dangerous situation. Yet, each and every time, God surprisingly and wonderfully came through for them. Now, they face their greatest challenge thus far, the conquest of the Promised Land. While the twelve scouts who were sent in ahead to check out the situation all affirmed God’s claim of the quality of the land, ten of them were overwhelmed by the land’s inhabitants and succeeded in intimidated the people to the point that they weren’t willing to face this challenge at all.

I have no personal quibble with the people. I cannot judge their fear as if I would have done anything different. Their assessment of the situation was reasonable based on the facts on the ground. Yes, God helped them in the other difficult situations, but nothing of this magnitude. They obviously lacked the manpower, the equipment, and the knowhow to face such a challenge.

But those are the facts on the ground. That’s not taking into consideration the facts in heaven. Had not God proved to them that he, the greatest power in the entire universe, was with them? If God had indeed directed them to take the Land, they couldn’t lose. Yet, it would take a level of trust in God that few people, if any, had ever exercised. They decided they wouldn’t either. The result was thirty-eight more years of wilderness wanderings until all the adults among them died out. This extremely difficult faith challenge would wait for the next generation. It would be no less difficult, but unlike their fathers and mothers, they would trust God and succeed.

But why would God subject his people to such a difficult task? While most of us will never face something as daunting as this, we all have to deal with various kinds of difficulties, many of which are extremely overwhelming. Why does life have to be so hard?

There’s no way that I can answer such a question adequately for everyone and every situation. There are all sorts of reasons why we face difficulties in life. Still, there is a universal principle that to ignore or to deny undermines our ability to effectively face such challenges. That universal principle is God is training all of us to be more than we are currently.

Human beings were originally designed by God to represent him and his interests on Planet Earth. When our first parents rebelled against him, the human family broke down. We became twisted, so to speak, and became subject to the very creation we were to rule over. Since then, God has sought to restore us to our assigned role of reflecting him. We haven’t been good at cooperating with his program. Regardless, he continues to work at reconstructing us.

What is true generally for all human beings is far more intense for those who are in close relationship with him. In the current age, that’s especially those who have been reconciled with him by faith in the Messiah. Believers at times tragically assume that “being saved,” puts us in a comfort bubble rather than a war zone. Yeshua followers shouldn’t be surprised or intimidated at finding ourselves on the cusp of battle, not necessarily a literal military one like ancient Israel in this week’s portion, but no less intense. God calls us daily to face down death and so become more and more the kind of people he wants us to be.

Scriptures taken from English Standard Version (ESV)

For the week of June 14, 2025 / 18 Sivan 5785

Beha’alotcha
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 8:1 – 12:16
Haftarah: Zechariah 2:14 – 4:7 (English 2:10 – 4:7)
Originally posted the week of June 10, 2017 / 16 Sivan 5777

I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness. (B’midbar/Numbers 11:14-15)

I think Moses is amazing. I know he didn’t get off to the greatest start, murdering the Egyptian and running for his life as he feared the wrath of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Note that he knew he was someone special, having miraculously survived the murder-all-the-baby-boys decree, rescued by Pharaoh’s own daughter no less. Killing the Egyptian was wrong, but it was the result of a good motive, as he reacted to his people’s ongoing oppression. The Torah doesn’t tell us how he learned he was a Hebrew or knew that he had a key role to fulfill, but like many people of destiny, he walked a twisted road to get there.

I don’t blame him for his resistance to God, when at age eighty he finally received his commission. Even though he was still afraid for his life, and in spite of his attempt to skirt his call, he went back to Egypt anyway. From that point on, with the exception of a couple of misguided actions due to frustration with the people (again no criticism from me about that), he performed magnificently in the face of Pharaoh’s stubborn short-sightedness and a fairly uncooperative, critical people to lead.

What made Moses such an effective leader was how he dealt with the problems he faced. Every time another issue arose, he would go to God for what he should do. Perhaps this is where Paul in the New Covenant Writings derives his encouragement to “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). While some may think Paul intended the believers in Thessalonica to utter barely audible prayers under their breath every waking second – nothing wrong with that if you can sustain such a thing – but more likely he was calling them (and by extension us), to regularly defer to God just as Moses did.

But there is more for us to learn from Moses’s prayers than the frequency thereof. He also “told it like it is,” so to speak. Moses’s prayer I quoted at the start was in response to one of the many occasions of the people’s complaining. This time a bunch of discontents got everyone riled up about the boring nature of their menu. The supernatural provision of the bread-like substance called manna wasn’t good enough for them. They demanded that Moses produce meat. This pushed him to the limit and he told God so, and that he couldn’t take it anymore, saying: “If you will treat me like this, kill me at once” (B’midbar/Numbers 11:15).

That’s not one of the nicest prayers I’ve ever read. It’s pretty confrontational and demanding, don’t you think? Note how he puts the blame squarely on God even though it was the people who were making life so difficult for him. Moses prayed that way because he knew something that we often fail to grasp: while people are responsible for their actions, our lives are ultimately in God’s hands.

His prayer is also pretty drastic: “resolve the problem or kill me!” If God is so in control, why not leave the resolution of the situation with him. But this is how Moses was feeling at the time. So that’s what he prayed. How did God respond? Did Moses get a lecture about appropriate piety and respectability? No; God heeded Moses’s desperate plea.

Why would God do that? Why didn’t he instead put Moses in his place for addressing him that way? Or at least ignore him (which, if we are honest, is probably the way we think God deals with us a good deal of the time)? God answered Moses because this is the kind of prayer God answers: direct and honest. Moses prayed a prayer of desperation because he was desperate. God knew that. Why pretend otherwise? Anything else would have been fake. God sees through fake. He isn’t offended by honesty. Unlike the complainers who put the onus on Moses, who had no ability to grant their request, Moses went to the only one who could do something about his difficult situation. And by baring his heart, he not only got an audience with the Sovereign of the Universe, he got the help he (and the whole community) needed.

The Messiah addresses this in his introduction to his model prayer:

And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him (Matthew 6:7-8).

He is not only addressing meaningless repetition here, but the emptiness of fake prayers as well. We need to tell it like it is when we pray. Anything else is just a show. That doesn’t mean there is no room for formal prayer, especially in public. But it better be sincere or else you’ll find yourself filling up space with “empty phrases” than truly conversing with your Heavenly Father. Perhaps it’s time to tell God how you really feel.

Scriptures taken from English Standard Version (ESV)

For the week of June 7, 2025 / 11 Sivan 5785

Naso
Torah:  B’midbar/Numbers 4:21 – 7:89
Haftarah: Shoftim/Judges 13:2-25

And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the LORD, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim; and it spoke to him. (B’midbar/Numbers 7:89)

I was really touched by something I read in my Scripture reading the other day. I am currently working through the Book of Acts. Chapter nine includes the Lord’s confronting Saul on his way to Damascus as he seeks to quash the fledgling messianic movement. Even though this is a very familiar passage to me, there was something I had never noticed before. It took my reading Richard Longenecker’s commentary (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary Revised Edition, 2007) to see it. When the Lord speaks to Saul, we read in the great majority of English translations, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4). That this happened at all is extraordinary, especially as the story unfolds. The Messiah not only confronts this zealous persecutor, but he does so by name, while revealing the true implications of his misguided actions, and commissions him to be his key spokesperson to the nations.

However, there is a subtle yet powerful element here that these English translations fail to convey. Acts, like the rest of the New Testament, is written in Greek. Rarely are there any indications that a speech or dialogue originated in a different language. For example, most, if not all, of the speeches and conversations by Jewish people, Yeshua included, would have been in Jewish Aramaic or Hebrew. Yet, there are very few instances where that fact is noted in the Greek. The way it’s done here is most fascinating, partly because most English translations ignore it.¹

First, as you are likely aware, personal names in a foreign context are often pronounced very differently from their original. Sometimes the differences can be drastic. For example, the French name Pierre is Peter in English. John in English is Jean in French, derived from the Hebrew Yochanan. We don’t have time to get into all the whys and wherefores of this phenomenon. A couple of factors are that languages don’t always include the sounds of other languages, and rules for word forms differ from one language to another. The Greek name for Saul is “Saulos” (pronounced sow’-los), representing the Hebrew “Shaul” (pronounced sha-ool’). The reason why we say “Saul” in English, even though we have a “sh” sound, is that the biblical names come down to us via Greek, which does not.

That said, there’s an interesting clue embedded in the Greek text of Acts 9:4. The four times prior when Saul is mentioned in Acts, its author, Luke, uses “Saulos,” the expected Greek derivation of his name. But when the Lord addresses him directly, Luke uses a different spelling, “Saoul” (pronounced sah-ool’). Despite the Greek language’s inability to fully represent Hebrew sounds, this is Luke’s way of telling the reader that God said, “Shaul, Shaul.” Thus, speaking to him in his mother tongue.

This form of his name is also used when he is addressed directly by Ananias, when he healed him of his blindness (Acts 9:17; see also 22:13); the one occurance of his namesake, King Saul (Acts 13:21); and the two times he recounts his encounter from chapter nine (Acts 22:7; 26:14). In the second of these retellings, he makes special mention of the language issue I am referring to, indicating that I am not making a big deal out of nothing (and that this language issue should have been more obvious to me)! Luke wanted people to know this. But why?

I imagine it could have been for accuracy’s sake. That’s what happened. So, tell it like it is. I think there’s more to it. I am writing this on the eve of Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks, one of the three major festivals on the biblical calendar. It was on this particular festival that God took his messianic restoration plan to the next stage, for it was on this holy day that he poured out his Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) on the believers in Jerusalem in fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. God’s plans and purposes, so long incubated within a Jewish context, was going global. This was marked by the miraculous praising of God in a multiplicity of languages. The God of Israel was going to speak to the nations in their own languages.

No one knew, however, that God’s multilingual policy would backfire in that the Jewish Messiah’s Good News to the nations would become incomprehensible to those to whom it originally came. Why bother accurately demonstrating that Luke purposely wrote “Saul” in such a way as to indicate “Shaul,” when the Gospel has been severed from its Jewish roots? I guess few realize that a Gospel that is incomprehensible to the Jewish people is no Gospel at all.

Scriptures from English Standard Version

1. An exception being The Complete Jewish Bible, but wait until the end before checking it out!

For the week of May 31, 2025 / 4 Sivan 5785

B’midbar
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 1:1 – 4:20
Haftarah: Hoshea/Hosea 2:1-22 (English: 1:10 – 2:20)

Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. (Hoshea/Hosea 2:16-17; English 2:14-15)

This week’s Haftarah (selected reading from the Hebrew Prophets) is from Hoshea, Hosea in English. It is a message of extremes, which is not unusual for God’s ancient spokespeople. The extremes are those of Israel’s great unfaithfulness and their eventual restoration to God. I think it is accurate to say that this is a core biblical theme, both in the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Covenant Writings. From a New Covenant perspective, its reasonable to regard God’s restoration of the unfaithful as the theme of all Scripture. Despite the Hebrew Scriptures’ focus on a single nation, the people of Israel, New Covenant adherents tend to universalize God’s workings with Israel to the extent that the depictions of wayward Israel become a prototype of the general waywardness of the human race. For many Christians, the promised Jewish Messiah, the vehicle of Israel’s restoration, becomes the Savior of the whole world.

This connection is not only valid, it’s intentional. It fulfills God’s promise to Abraham, “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Bereshit/Genesis 12:3). However, the fact of fulfillment has been leveraged in misguided ways. Many have concluded that this outworking of God’s covenantal commitment to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob nullifies its implications for its original recipients.

The universalization of God’s restorative work, as vividly depicted in Hoshea’s relationship with his wayward wife, if anything, should emphasize, not detract from, God’s faithfulness to the people Hoshea’s wife symbolized. In fact, denying God’s ongoing faithfulness to Israel undermines the basis of his restoration work among the nations. To deduce that the broader scope of restoring wayward Gentiles in some way makes God’s message through Hoshea to Israel obsolete is to not only deny Scripture but also misrepresents God.

Few seem to be aware of how destructive it is to deny God’s ongoing faithfulness to Israel. It wouldn’t be so bad if people would simply treat the Hebrew Scriptures as obsolete. It’s still wrong, just not as bad. This way of thinking sees God as working among Israel for a time, but whose purpose is complete once the Messiah comes. This approach might continue to use the Hebrew Scriptures for background information and to foreshadow New Covenant fulfillment, but that’s all. Come to think of it, that’s a very common approach. And even though it’s scripturally unsound, I wish it would end there. Yet, tragically, something very insidious usually happens instead, with passages such as our Haftarah being used against the Jewish people. In the name of obsolescence, God’s faithfulness to Israel is denied, while Israel’s waywardness remains.

In our Haftarah, the people of Israel are described in fairly negative terms. That’s pretty much par for the course throughout Hebrew Scripture. But that’s because they are normal people, just like everyone else. God didn’t choose Israel for Israel’s sake alone. He did so as part of his great worldwide restoration plan. A main feature of Israel’s function in the grand scheme of things was to demonstrate everyone’s need for the one true God. We (my being Jewish myself) do that by being both the historical vehicles of God’s Word and by being examples of human beings’ need for God. That’s why the Bible doesn’t only have teaching about God, but includes our stories of failure (and some successes).

But God didn’t broadcast our failures via the world’s all-time best-selling book in order to shame us. Instead, he wanted to vividly display his extraordinary graciousness for all to see. God’s faithfulness to wayward Israel is designed to demonstrate his faithfulness to wayward you! And yet, through the centuries, despite passages like this week’s Haftarah, the Church has denied the enormity of God’s faithful love. You can’t have it both ways. Either his covenantal commitment to Israel is secure or it’s not. And if not, what hope do any of us have?