Category Archives: Scripture

Scripture Studies

Was Paul advocating continuing the sacrificial system after Yeshua’s Death?

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Acts 21:23–27, Vow. When Paul offered a sacrifice, is this proof that the sacrificial system is still in force today, even after the death of Yeshua the Messiah on the cross? Some people say yes despite what the writer of Hebrew’s lengthy discussion about how Yeshua’s death replaced the sacrificial and Levitical systems (Heb chapters 8–11; 10:10). 

The rituals that Paul and his fellow Israelites did in Acts 21 actually fits the description of one who is coming out of a Nazirite vow (see Num 6:1–21). This was a sin offering and was the only way that the Torah allows one who has taken a Nazirite vow legally to terminate his vow to Elohim. A sacrifice was to be made at the door of the tabernacle (later the temple) by a priest. 

Today, one can’t technically do a Nazarite vow, since there is no way legally to come out of it Continue reading →

 

The Significance of Blood in the Bible

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Leviticus 17:10, Eats any blood. This prohibition is so serious that the Torah repeats it three other places (Lev 3:17; 7:26; 17:14), and the apostles make it one of the four requirements imposed on new Gentile converts before allowed into the fellowship of believers (Acts 15:29). This law was so serious that not only was it imposed on the children of Israel, but upon the strangers that sojourned with them as well (Lev 17:10). The penalty for doing so was basically capital punishment—to be cut off from Israel (vv. 9, 14).Why is the eating of blood so onerous in the eyes of Elohim? The context of this verse involves prohibitions against the demonic practices of the neighboring Baal-worshiping heathens. Eating and then the letting of blood was something that figured prominently in the demonic religious rituals of the heathens and is something YHVH wanted to keep his people from practicing. (For a further discussion of this, see notes on Lev 17:1–14.) In YHVH’s spiritual economy, blood was to be reserved exclusively for the atonement of sin and was to be respected as such.

Leviticus 17:11. The blood. Long before modern science confirmed this in the seventeenth-century, YHVH revealed in the Torah that the life of flesh is in the blood.

Leviticus 17:11 is a crucial scripture theologically regarding the blood atonement. Presently, the Jewish religion offers no hope for its followers in light of this passage, since they deny the only means by which humans can have their sins atoned, namely, through the blood of Yeshua the Messiah. For believers in Yeshua, the message of Messiah and him crucified addresses this issue. The importance of the blood of the Lamb in the atonement for sins as well as in overcoming sin, sickness (1 Peter 2:24) and the powers of hell (Rev 12:11) cannot be over emphasized. How thorough is your understanding of the power of the blood? Do you appropriate this power on a regular basis in your life? The power of the blood is central to the efficacy of the communion elements and specifically to the concept of redemption. The concept of the blood of Yeshua is central to the gospel message with some 50 references to it in the Testimony of Yeshua. Such terms are used as “blood of the Lamb,” “blood of Messiah,” “precious blood of Messiah,” “blood of the everlasting covenant,” “redemption through Messiah’s blood,” “blood of His cross,” “communion of the blood of Messiah,” “faith in his blood,” and “purchased with his blood.” Is the reality of the blood of Messiah central to your faith walk? How so? If not, why not? (Read and ponder Matt 26:28; Eph 1:7; Heb 9:12, 22; 10:19; 12:24; 1 Pet 1:2, 19; 1 John 1:7; Rev 1:5; 7:14; 12:11.)

 

Blood Drinking and Letting, Human Sacrifice, Tattoos, Cannibalism & Pedophilia

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Leviticus 17:1–14, Exploring the concepts of sacrifice, blood letting and eating blood.

The sacrificing of animals as an act of worship or for any reason is a foreign concept in our modern, secularized society, but this was not the case in the ancient biblical world. Concomitant with sacrifices is the idea of freewill offerings,which, in the ancient world, were often made together as an act of worship to various deities. 

With regard to sacrifices, man’s first act of worship outside the Garden of Eden was to make offerings and sacrifice to Elohim (Gen 4:1–4). Making a sacrifice to Elohim was also Noah’s first act of worship after the flood (Gen 8:20). The same is true of Abraham upon receiving the covenant Continue reading →

 

Blog Scripture Readings for 4-21 thru 4-27-19

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THIS WEEK’S SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION:

Parashat Reading — No Parasha This Week (Passover/Feast)
Haftarah — 
Prophets — Isaiah 55:1 – 61:11
Writings — Job 6:1 – 12:25
Testimony — Acts 15:1 – 18:28

Most of this week’s blog discussion points will be on these passages. If you have general comments or questions on the weekly Scripture readings not addressed in a blog post, here’s a place for you to post those. Just use the “leave a reply” link below.

The full “Read Through The Scriptures In A Year” schedule, broken down by each day, can be found on the right sidebar under “Helpful Links.” There are 4 sections of scripture to read each day: one each from the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings, and from the Testimony of Yeshua. Each week, the Torah and haftarah readings will follow the traditional one-year reading cycle.

Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 4/21/19 through 4/27/19.

 

Examine Yourself Before Taking Communion at Passover

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1 Corinthians 11:23, This is my body. We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Yeshua (Heb 10:10).When we eat the bread of communion, we are “eating” Yeshua who is the incarnate and Living Torah Word of Elohim (John 1:14). We are announcing that Yeshua is the spiritual bread of life from heaven that leads to eternal life (John 6:48–51), and we are announcing our desire to live by the totality of his Word (Matt 4:4). 

The bread symbolizing the body of Yeshua was unleavened, which is a picture of Yeshua’s sinless life. By eating this bread, we declare our faith in his sinless life by which he was able to pay for our sins. We also declare our identification with his sinlessness as an example for us to follow.

Yeshua took the unleavened bread and broke it signifying our deliverance from our sin nature by the breaking or death of his sinless body. The unleavened bread broken during the Passover meal speaks of our deliverance from the power of sin by the death of our old man. The rite of baptism is a picture of this (Rom 6:4–13). This paves the way for us to live a sanctified (sin-free) life.

We become unleavened or sinless (known as sanctification) because Yeshua our Passover Lamb was sacrificed for us (1 Cor 5:7). Our body of sin died with Yeshua when we were baptized making us unleavened (or sanctified, Rom 6:6). Let us therefore live in accordance with the new man, or new spiritual creation we have become through Yeshua (1 Cor 5:8; 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 2:20). When we eat the unleavened bread at the communion part of the Passover service, we remember that we are sanctified by grace and that the power of sin (or Torahlessness, see 1 John 3:4 cp. John 14:15) has been broken in our lives.

In the first Passover, the children of Israel were delivered from the penalty of their sins by the blood of the lamb on the door, which pointed forward prophetically to Yeshua’s sin-atoning death on the cross. But when they ate the unleavened bread, this speaks of their being delivered from their slavery to sin and oppression in Egypt. They were now to leave Egypt (a spiritual picture of the old man and life) and go toward the Promised Land (a spiritual picture of the new man) taking with them, on their knees, the dough of the unleavened bread. This points to the fact that the redeemed saints are to walk in the newness of a spiritually unleavened or sanctified life as pictured by their eating the communion bread. When we eat the bread of communion, we memorialize the events surrounding the Exodus, and recognize the present reality of freedom from sin in our own lives.

1 Corinthians 11:25, My blood. By the blood of Yeshua we are redeemed, liberated or released from the bondage of sin (Matt 26:28; Rom 3:25; Eph 1:17; Col 1:14; Heb 9:22; 1 Pet 1:18; Rev 5:9) and from sin’s death penalty claim on us (Rom 6:23; Ezek 18:4) brought on by our disobedience to YHVH’s instructions in righteousness, the Torah (which defines sin, 1 John 3:4). His blood also sanctifies (or separates, Heb 9:13–14; 13:12) us from past sin (Rom 3:25) or Continue reading →

 

Why Deleaven for the Feast of Unleavened Bread?

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1 Corinthians 5:6, Purge out. The greater context of this passage is about putting sin out of our life (which is the temple of YHVH’s Holy Spirit, 1 Cor 3:16–17), which collectively form the spiritual body, church or the greater temple of Yeshua’s spiritual body (John 2:21). Therefore, sin that defiles the temple of Elohim must be put out of the church. In this letter to the Corinthians, Paul is especially concerned about the sin of sexual immorality that the church in Coringh had allowed to come into its midsts (1 Cor 5:1ff). From the context of this passage in light of Paul’s discussion about Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, it would appear that he wrote this letter just prior to the spring festivals (1 Cor 5:6–8). He is urging the church to remove the leavening of sin from its midsts prior to keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which he, by the way, urges the Corinthian believers to do. In fact, Paul’s admonition to “keep the Feast [of Unleavened Bread]” in verse eight, is the strongest imperative command in the Testimony of Yeshua (or NT) to keep the biblical festivals, and from this it’s evidence that in the mind of the apostle the biblical festivals were still relevant to Yeshua’s followers well past the middle of the first century, which means they’re relevant to the saints of today as well.

In his admonition to the Corinthian believers, it’s possible that Paul had in mind two examples in the Tanakh where spiritual revivals occurred after Hezekiah and Josiah cleansed the temple in Jerusalem of the filth of idolatry in preparation for Passover. Similarly, Ezra finished completion of the rebuilt temple in time to celebrate Passover (Ezra 6). These examples teach us that YHVH commands us to cleanse or deleaven our spiritual temples (individually and collectively) of sin annually in preparation for celebrating Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This spiritual spring house cleaning at the beginning of the biblical new year sets the tone spiritually for the rest of the year to go forward in a sin-free state. 

1 Corinthians 5:8, Leaven. What specifically is leavening? Leavening is primarily yeast that makes bread rise and, biblically, it  is the symbol for the sin of pride. Leavening is also a symbol of decay. The rising of bread dough is only possible by the natural process of decay. In ancient times, a pinch of fermented or sour dough was Continue reading →

 

New Covenant or Renewed Covenant? What Are Its Terms and Conditions?

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Matthew 26:28, New testament. 

Did you ever wonder where the terms New Testament or New Covenant came from? Yes, you will find these phrases used in the Testimony of Yeshua portion of your English Bible in exactly nine places (Matt 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25; 2 Cor 3:6; Heb 8:8, 13; 9:15; 12:24), but does the English translation do justice to the Hebrew and Greek words behind them and to the biblical concept of the “New Covenant” as it is commonly called? 

Let’s begin to answer this question by first asking a question. When you think of the word new, what comes to your mind? A brand new car? A new house? A new pair of shoes? 

You see, in English there is one common word for new, while Greek and Hebrew have more than one word for new. While English speakers are limited to one word, they nuance the meaning of new by adding qualifiers to the word new (e.g. brand new as opposed to used but it’s new to me) to differentiate between brand new versus new to me, or refurbished or repaired new. 

In the Testimony of Yeshua, there are two Greek words for new: neos and kainos, and each one has Continue reading →