Category Archives: Scripture

Scripture Studies

More Prophetic Allusions to Yeshua and the Ruach

Posted on by
Reply

Genesis 24:4, Take a wife for my son Isaac. Some Bible students see in Abraham’s sending Eliezer his servant an allegory of our Heavenly Father choosing a bride for Yeshua, his Son with the help of the Set-Apart Spirit or Ruach haKadosh.

The analogy goes like this: When speaking to Abraham, YHVH refers to Isaac as “your only son…whom you love” (Gen 22:2). In this statement, it’s hard to miss the similarity with the well-known John 3:16 passage where Yeshua refers to himself as the only begotten Son whom his Father in heaven loves. Isaac is an obvious prophetic picture of Yeshua in that Abraham sacrificed a ram in place of his only son whom he loved on the very spot where, one thousand years later, the Temple of Solomon would be built and where sacrifices were made to atone for men’s sin. This is the same spot later on where Yeshua himself was condemned to death and not far from there became the Lamb of Elohim who was sacrificed to atone for men’s sins.

In addition, the name Eliezer means “my El helps,” which many see as an allusion to the Set-Apart Spirit who helps or comforts us, and to which Yeshua refers to as the Comforter or Helper (e.g. John 14:16). It is the Set-Apart Spirit that is choosing and preparing a bride from among called and redeemed Israelites for Yeshua the Messiah, the Son of Elohim.

 

Video: Genesis 23:1–25:18 Chayei Sarah (A Gospel Oriented Torah Study)

Posted on by
Reply

This is a gospel-oriented Torah study. Our goal is to connect the good news of Yeshua the Messiah (the gospel message) to its Hebraic, pro-Torah roots or foundations. The information given here is more than head knowledge. Understanding and wisdom (the right application of knowledge that is based on truth) is taught thus making biblical truth practical, relevant and applicable to your daily life. The truths of the Bible not only have the power to transform your life here and now for the better, but eventually to take you past the veil of death and into eternity.

This Torah study is subdivided in sections by topic in a magazine format thus making it easy to watch at several sittings.

May you be blessed as you watch this video.

For a free, printable adult and youth Torah study guide on this Torah portion (parashah), please go to http://www.hoshanarabbah.org/parshiot.html

 

Blog Scripture Readings for 11-5 Through 11-11-17

Aside

Reply

THIS WEEK’S SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION:

Parashat Chayei Sarah — Genesis 23:1 – 25:18
Haftarah — 1 Kings 1:1-31
Prophets — Judges 5:1 – 10:18
Writings — Psalms 34:1 – 39:13
Testimony — Matthew 21:23 – 24:51

Our annual Scripture Reading Schedule for 2017-2018 is available to download and print.

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 11/5/17 through 11/11/17.

 

The “Sacrifice” of Isaac at Mount Moriah. 

Posted on by
8

Genesis 22:13, A ram caught in a thicket by his horns.

YHVH credited to Abraham’s spiritual account his willingness to sacrifice Isaac as if he had actually done so. In fact, there is an ancient rabbinical tradition that states Isaac actually died and was resurrected as the midrash comments on this passage: “As the knife reached his throat, Isaac’s soul flew away and left [e.g., he died]. But when a voice went forth from between the angels saying, ‘Do not stretch out your hand against the lad’ (Genesis 22:12), his soul returned to his body” (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 31 as quoted in The ArtScroll Davis Edition Baal HaTurim Chumash Bamidbar, p. 1417) (bracketed comments are in the original).

The Jewish sages also note that Scripture states that both Abraham and Isaac ascended the mountain, but that it is recorded that only Abraham descended (22:19). Isaac’s absence from the Genesis narrative until many years latter (Gen 24:62) has given rise to much speculation on the part of the sages as to Isaac’s whereabouts in the interim (The ArtScroll Bereishis Vol. 1a, pp. 812–813).

Regardless of the rabbinic interpretations, does Scripture leave Isaac out of the narrative as if to highlight his absence, and to give the impression (albeit a prophetic allegorical one) that he was actually sacrificed? After all, what was the ram caught in the thorn bush thicket (wearing a crown of thorns) by its two horns all about? That ram was a substitute sacrifice picturing Yeshua the Messiah dying on the cross while wearing a crown of thorns. And who was it that commanded Abraham to lay down the knife and slaughter the ram instead? It was the Malak or Messenger of YHVH (verse 11–12) who was none other than a pre-incarnate appearance of YHVH-Yeshua some 1900 years before his appearance as the Messiah in human form on earth as the Lamb of Elohim slain from the foundation of the earth.

The Three Trumpets

The first and last trumpets relate to the two horns of the ram caught in the thicket on Mount Moriah. The ram represents Yeshua the Sacrificial Lamb. The thicket represents human sinfulness. Humanity is entangled in the thicket of sin from which it needs to be freed. Yeshua the Messiah is the Lamb (or ram) slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8), who, while hanging on the cross, wore a crown of thorns. Is this not a picture of the “ram caught in the thicket” (Gen 22:13) of the man’s sins? After all, the Scriptures say that the sins of man were laid upon Yeshua (Isa 53:6). The crown of thorns is a picture of this. Furthermore, in Matthew 13, in Yeshua’s Parable of the Sower, we see that some of the seed was cast into the thorns, which Yeshua explained represents the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches that choke out the word of YHVH. These references to thorns and thicket are a picture of sin. The wages of sin is death.

In Genesis 22, Isaac was about to die, but the ram caught in the thicket that YHVH provided was a prophetic picture of Yeshua (a Hebrew word meaning “salvation”) that became a substitute sacrifice for Isaac. Isaac was set free and the ram was sacrificed instead. This ram was a prophetic picture of Yeshua’s death on the cross for man’s sins.

In Hebraic thought and prophetically-speaking, the left horn of the ram signifies mercy and grace. This is also a picture of the left (or weaker) hand of YHVH, which symbolizes grace, or the feminine side of Elohim. Furthermore, the left horn of the redemptive ram signifies the purpose of the first coming of Messiah Yeshua as the Suffering Savior, as one bringing mercy and grace, and who refused to quench a smoking flax or breaking a bruised reed as a meek and quiet lamb going to its slaughter (Matt 12:20; John 12:47; Isa 53:7).

The right horn of the ram caught in the thicket represents judgment picturing Elohim’s stronger right hand of power, might and judgment (Ps 89:10,13–14). Thus, this horn represents the second coming of Messiah, who is seated at the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:32–33), and who will come this time in power as King of kings to rule with a rod of iron and to judge the living and the dead, and to destroy all his enemies (Rev 17:14; 19:15).

That is why the first trumpet (representing the left horn of the ram) is sounded on Shavuot representing YHVH’s grace and mercy upon his people from Abraham until the Yeshua’s second coming—a time for his people to repent and return to him.

Genesis 22:4 says that Abraham saw the “place” (i.e. Mount Moriah) afar off “on the third day”. This is scriptural prophetic code for something significant. Mount Moriah was the place of Messiah’s crucifixion. Abraham saw—by faith—the place and work of Yeshua’s death afar off. “On the third day” signifies two things. First, a day in Scripture and in Jewish thought, in this instance, symbolizes 1000 years (2 Pet 3:8), and so it may represent the third one-thousand-year period from the time of Abraham (ca. 1872 B.C.). Messiah would come as the sacrificial Lamb in three days or in the third millennia from Abraham’s time. Yeshua was born and died in the first millennia A.D., or the third millennia from Abraham. Second, the phrase, “third day” can represent the time or millennia of Messiah’s second coming as well, as we shall see.

 The Messenger of YHVH at the Binding of Isaac

In Genesis 22:11, 15–17 we read the following,

11 And the Messenger/Malak of YHVH called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I … 15 And the Messenger/Malak of YHVH called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, 16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith YHVH, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: 17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven.

In this passage, there is no mention of the Messenger of YHVH appearing to Abraham in some bodily form, only his voice calling from heaven. What we want to emphasize in this passage is that the Messenger of YHVH is equating himself with YHVH (verse 16). The biblical passages where the Malak of YHVH equates himself with YHVH while appearing in human form have perennially defied reasonable explanation by the Jewish sages.

Notwithstanding, the ancient Targum Jerusalem (the pre-Christian Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Scriptures) equates the Malak of YHVH with “the Word of Elohim” in verse eight implying that YHVH and the Word of YHVH are in some way different from each other:

And Abraham said, The Word of Elohim will prepare for me a lamb; and if not, then thou art the offering, my son! And they went both of them together with a contrite heart.

Some Jewish sages asserts that “the angel speaks in God’s name, in first person” while others maintain that it was “God Himself who opened the heavens and addressed Abraham’ (The ArtScroll Bereishis/Genesis Commentary, p. 808). If the latter is true, than the Malak of Elohim/YHVH here is none other than Elohim himself. And logically, if he is Elohim here, then he must be Elohim/YHVH in the other passages where he is mentioned. And if Elohim can appear in human form, speak to men and eat with them (as in Genesis 18) then the question must be asked: why can’t YHVH appear in human form as the Messiah; namely, Yeshua the Messiah? After all, in Proverbs 30:4 (a passage we will discuss at length later) we read,

Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell? (KJV) (emphasis added)

Additionally, in Isaiah 53, a passage recognized by both Jewish and Christian scholars as referring to Messiah verse one states,

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of YHVH revealed?

Here, the Messiah is called “the Arm of YHVH.” Is the Malak of YHVH/Elohim this “Arm of YHVH” who does the earthly bidding of the One in heaven and who acts as the intermediary between Elohim and man? We believe so.

Genesis 22:15, YHVH called to Abraham. When Abraham was willing to deny himself and to follow YHVH no matter the cost even to the point of sacrificing of his son, it was only then that heaven opened up, Elohim revealed himself to Abraham and blessed him. It is when we’re willing to lose our lives for YHVH, deny ourself and pick up our cross and follow Yeshua that the life of the Spirit is revealed to us and the blessings of heaven open up before us. Abraham a man who had died to himself, realized that nothing he possessed was his, for he was wholly surrendered and obedient to YHVH’s will. Abraham was materially rich and had everything, yet he possessed nothing. At this point, the riches of heaven were opened up to him. For him, the real treasures were inward and eternal.

 

The Garbage Can Lid Is Coming Off—Repent America!

Posted on by
7

YHVH Elohim is currently taking the garbage can lid off of many human institutions in the United States in which modern secular-minded people have put their faith and trust instead of in him. These, in part, are the false gods that the heathen and many deceived religious folks worship instead of the one true Elohim of Bible.

The Almighty Creator, who alone is worthy of all praise, worship and glory, is exposing these false societal gods of to the light of truth. Those wicked and hideous things that have been done under the cover of darkness and under the umbrella of societal acceptability are being revealed for what they really are: They are merely stinking, filthy gilded garbage cans filled with every kind of evil and demonic deed!  Will men repent and turn to him or go back to their “drug” induced intoxicated sleep?

As a result of these revelations, some people will plunge deeper into that darkness while shaking their fists at Elohim. At the same time, others will awaken and begin returning to him. The vast majority of people, however, will look around in confused bewilderment wondering what is going on and then simply return to their mind-numbing daily secular routines and opiate-like pleasure inducing entertainments.

YHVH’s exposing judgments started falling some years back with the mainstream church (judgment begins first at the house of Elohim, 1 Pet 4:17). More recently, Elohim has been exposing those things going on in the darkness of major societal institutions, as well, for all the world to see.

Here are some of the gilded garbage cans whose lids are coming off for all to see the filth, wretchedness and ungodliness that lies within.

  • Mainstream Christian Church Leaders: The greed, hypocrisy and licentious lifestyles of some televangelists and other big-name Christian leaders started being exposed in the 1980s and 1990s. This should have been a wake up call to all Christians to stop blindly following their leaders.
  • Roman Catholic Church Leaders: Widespread pedophilia among some priests in the Roman Catholic Church, and the ecumenical and unbiblical globalistic, socialistic agendas of some past popes and the current one began to be exposed many years ago. This should be wake up call to all Catholics to stop blindly following their leaders.
  • Political Leaders: In the past couple of years, YHVH has taken the lid off the garbage can of our political system by exposing to the light what goes on in the secret lives of many of our political leaders and behind the scenes in the government they oversee. Never in recent history has there been more exposure of scandals, criminality, traitorous actions, moral failings, lies, duplicity, hypocrisy than now. On a daily basis, the media is reporting multiple scandals all at the same time. The terms “the deep state,” the dark state,” and “the shadow government” are now common currency in our society as an expression of the hidden agendas going on behind the scenes that are contrary to the will and benefits of the people.
  • International Banking Elite: The rapacious fraud and thievery of the international bankers and banking system has been exposed as never before. The exposure started in 2007 and continues to now.
  • The New World Order: Back in 1990, President George H. W. Bush first mentioned publicly the term, “the New World Order.” Now people are openly taking about it as it applies to globalism and global governance. Additionally, terms like “the shadow government,” “the deep state,” and “the dark state” are commonly bandied about as many people are awaking to the fact that those they elect to political office aren’t really the ones who govern nations and the world. They are simply taking their orders, to one degree or another, from shadowy power and monied elites who really call the shots and whose political, economic and religious agendas are being imposed on the people they govern without their consent through schemes of social engineering that are shifting if not totally destroying the bedrock foundations and traditional biblical-based mores of society.
  • The Mainstream Media: Now called “the Media Industrial Complex” by some who are awake, the major media is being exposed for the propagandists they largely have become as they promote a globalistic, progressive, anti-biblical agendas and the views of the monied elite who own them. The term “fake news” is now common currency from the president on down. The viewership and ratings of the mainstream media is plummeting as more distrusting people look to alternative sources for their news and information.
  • Hollywood: The moral and spiritual cesspool that Hollywood has always been is being exposed. Movie viewership is plummeting.
  • Professional Sports: The lid is being taken off the garbage can of football, which sits at the pinnacle of the idolatry of American sports. This all-American icon, which for many is treated like a religion, is now being politicized and riddled with scandal, the occult and unpatriotism such that Americans are abandoning football stadiums and their television sports by the droves.
  • Educational Institutions: Every day in the news we read about teachers sex scandals involving their students. Now add to this the lie that a college education guarantees one a higher paying career, which is no longer true. The garbage can lid of education is now being removed as more people are losing faith in traditional educational institutions and are looking for alternatives such as home schooling. Most who go to college are graduating with massive financial debts that are putting young people into bondage without delivering on the promise of better paying jobs as a result of a college degree.
  • Law Enforcement Institutions: Police brutality and illegality and corruption in the FBI, CIA is being exposed like never before such that people are losing faith in those in their law enforcement agencies who are supposedly there to protect them and maintain the rule of law.
  • The United Nations: The last ditch hope of mankind to bring peace and order to a chaotic world is being exposed for its graft, misuse of funds and its lack of general effectiveness. This is something that those with their eyes open have seen for decades, but now notable figures such as the president of the U.S. are now publicly calling them out on it.

What’s coming next? A total financial collapse? Civil war? Foreign military attack? Collapse of our electrical grid? Watch and pray!

America, it is time to repent of idolatry and to stop mindlessly giving your trust, time allegiance to any these institution of man including Christian church leaders and their religious institutions, and to seek YHVH Elohim with all your heart by giving him alone the trust, time and devotion that he deserves. Now is the time to rearrange the priorities of your life around him and in service to him like never before. This involves spending more time seeking him in Bible study and prayer, and in learning how to obey him by walking in his pure ways of light and truth by loving him with our all and our neighbors as ourselves as his word, the Bible, instructs.

YHVH Elohim is taking the garbage can lid off of many of the sacred icons of our modern society, so that we can see how truly evil and ungodly they are in hopes that we will turn back to him. He is graciously bringing judgment unto repentance first, and then will come his judgments unto death. Now is the time to repent of sin before he pours out his wrath!

 

“Remember Lot’s Wife!”

Posted on by
11

A Man Called Lot: What We Can Learn from His Life

In Luke 17 32, Yeshua warns end times believers to “Remember Lot’s wife.” What did he mean by this pointed warning? Is Lot not a picture of the typical Western saint whether Christian or Messianic? I believe so. In saying this, as a pastor and having been a watchman on the spiritual wall for many years, I see very little if any differentiation (broadly speaking) between Christians and most Messianics, for the spiritual condition of both groups is fundamentally the same.

Primarily what differentiates the two groups is the religious jargons and nomenclatures each group uses in addition to the outward religious trapping or externals each uses to identify itself. What about Torah, you may ask? Don’t Messianics obey the Torah and Christians do not? My response is that there is not a huge difference between the two—at least not from the Creator’s perspective. YHVH looks at hearts, and not merely the superficiality of outward appearances and the religious trappings by which people identify themselves.

In reality, both born-again Christians and born-again Messianics follow Torah principles to one degree or another. The only difference is that the former group does not claim to follow Torah, but teaches that it was “done away with.” In reality, to a certain degree, many serious Christians do follow the “moral” principles of the Torah along with tithing. On the other hand, a majority of Messianics profess loudly and proudly their Torah-obedience, but largely, in practice (except for an often half-hearted adherence to the observance of the Sabbath, the biblical feasts and the biblical dietary laws) they don’t. If so, they do so only in a way that is copacetic and convenient to the secular, post-Christian society and lifestyle Continue reading →