Category Archives: Scripture

Scripture Studies

Blog Scripture Readings for 10-9 Through 10-15-16

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THIS WEEK’S SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION:

Parashat Ha’Azinu — Deuteronomy 32:1–52
Haftarah — 2 Samuel 22:1–51
Prophets — Zechariah 5:1 – 11:17
Writings — 2 Chronicles 23:1 – 29:36
Testimony — Revelation 11:1 – 17:18

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 10/9 through 10/15/16.

 

What is pharmakeia and how does it affect you?

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Revelation 9:21, Sorceries. Gr. pharmakeia. Pharmakeia is a methodology to circumvent Elohim and to open the doorways into the supernatural. It is the mix of science along with magical arts, occultic or hidden, demonic, angelic or paranormal realm and medicine, potions, or herbs for sorcerous reasons to open the mind so you can put yourself in contact with what is beyond the gate or the boundaries YHVH has established between the natural and supernatural (including the demonic) realm.

The Satanic spirits in Revelation chapter nine inhabit the pit, and those who resort to pharmakaia are coming into contact with spiritual entities either from the pit, or from realm of darkness beyond this earth. Satan is both the angel of the bottomless pit (Rev 9:11) and the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2).

There are gateways or portals down to the pit and out into the universe in either case to contact beings from other dimensions. There are good and evil portals. YHVH revealed to Jacob a good portal or gateway to heaven at the site of the future Temple Mount when he dreamed of the ladder to heaven. Yeshua is the gateway or doorway to the Father in heaven (John 1:51). But there are evil gateways that men an open up illicitly through pharmakeia or drug induced states.

Biblical examples of individuals illicitly opening up gateways into the evil realm beyond man’s perception include the witch of Endor who summoned the dead (1 Sam 28:3ff). We also see this with the slave girl who was possessed with a spirit of divination and who followed Paul in Macedonia (Acts 16:16–18).

Those who come under the influence of pharmakeia put themselves into a drug-induced state to activate gateways into the supernatural. It’s a form of rebellion against YHVH’s established boundaries that man is not supposed to cross. Witchcraft is also taking something holy and exploiting it for personal purposes. This is what Samuel accused Saul of doing when he kept the cattle he was supposed to kill, so that he could at a later time offer up an illicit sacrifices without going through the proper levitical protocols. Samuel equated this act of rebellion with witchcraft (1 Sam 15:23). Saul had this proclivity, for he had offered up a witchcraft sacrifice once before (1 Sam 13:9–13). Samuel rebuked him for it, yet Saul was willing knowingly to repeat the same mistake again, which was strictly forbidden.

Taking that which YHVH has ordained to be used legally one way and defiantly using it another way for one’s own selfish purposes is an act of rebellion and witchcraft.

 

Are You Feeding from the Tree of Knowledge (through your “smart phone”)?

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Are you addicted to your smart phone (and computer)? Think about it for a minute. Maybe, in reality, you’re addicted to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Everywhere I go I see it…and so do you. People walking down sidewalks, smart phone in hand, hunched over their device. Just the other day, I saw four mom’s crossing a busy street on their way to pick up their kids from school. The eyes of three of the four were glued to their smart phones. They didn’t even look up see if traffic was coming!

“Smart  phone” may be the oxymoronic label of the day…don’t you think?

At our finger tips, we have all the knowledge of the world—both good and evil. Sounds like the biblical tree of the knowledge of good and evil to me.

Remember the tree in the Garden of Eden that Elohim told Adam and Eve not to eat from? The same tree that the serpent hid in and lured the first humans into eating from?

We don’t know what kind of fruit it was. The Bible doesn’t tell us. Tradition tells us, however, that it was an apple. Hmm. Apple. The most popular “smart” phone on the planet has as its logo an apple with a bite out of it. Now connect the dots.

Look, I love my Apple I-Phone, my Apple I-Pad and my Apple computer. I don’t exactly live in a cave and grunt my way through life. But do these things master us or do we master them? Do you spend time with your electronic devices that you should be spending with YHVH? Are you spending more time feeding from the tree of knowledge or the tree of life?

I know, no one reading this is guilty of the concerns I’m positing. Each of us has a myriad justifications why the shoe doesn’t fit me. We’re all right in our own eyes. But what does YHVH think about it? We can’t fool him. He sees through our human machinations and excuses.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed YHVH and ate from the tree of knowledge instead of being faithful to his instructions in righteousness, they sinned. This was their first step on the proverbial downward spiral, slippery slope away from the Creator. Do you really think the devil has stopped attempting to deceive humans away from Elohim? Do you really think that in these modern times he’s going to take you to an actual tree that is labeled “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil”? Get real. He’s smarter than that. But I can’t think of anything that fits the bill better than a beautiful device you can hold in your hand, that you can get in any color you want, and that has an apple logo on it (or whatever logo it may be) that more qualifies.

When Adam and Eve ate from the wrong tree, they fell into idolatry. Anything we put above Elohim becomes an idol to us. When our phone or laptop becomes more important to us than our Bible—there’s a problem.

 

What Is the Day of YHVH’s Wrath?

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The Day of YHVH’s Wrath

There comes a time in the chronology of end times events that accompany the return of Yeshua when YHVH will pour out his wrath upon rebellious men. The Bible refers to this as “the day of YHVH” or “the day of his wrath” — a phrase which occurs more than two dozen times in prophetic writings of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Zechariah and Malachi. What is this day?

Is the “day of YHVH’s wrath” a literal day, or a time period, since the Hebrew word for day (Heb. yom) can mean both? The prophet Isaiah may give us a clue. In several places, he mentions “the day of YHVH’s vengeance” (or words to this effect). This is the time period when YHVH will judge the nations including Babylon the Great, which is in existence at Yeshua’s second coming (see Rev 17, 18 and 19). In three places, Isaiah indicates that the day of YHVH will last for one year (Isa 34:8; 61:2 and 63:4). Interestingly, in Isaiah 63:4, the prophet couples the idea of the day of YHVH’s vengeance being a year long with the jubilee year — “the year of my redeemed has come.” This occurs as the Messiah (the subject of Isa 63:1–6) judges the enemies of Israel (notably Edom) as he is at the same time about to redeem (i.e., regather and return scattered Israel to its Promised Land inheritance.) It appears that while Yeshua is judging Israel’s enemies at his second coming, he will at the same time begin regathering the lost and scattered 12 tribes of Israel in a major way. Yeshua seems to allude to this in Matthew 24:31

What Is the Wrath of YHVH/Elohim?

In the Book of Revelation, the term wrath of God/Elohim or similar language is found ten times in reference to YHVH’s fierce judgments against unrepentant and rebellious sinners. It is my belief that these judgments are yet to occur and are connected with the end times Continue reading →

 

Are You a Shepherdless Sheep?

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Lone Sheep

Deuteronomy 31:23, He gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge. YHVH is the author of godly leadership. He prepares and trains leaders and then raises them up to lead his people in the paths of righteousness leading to the spiritual Promised Land. Beware of leaders who raise themselves up and promote themselves.

What is the purpose of righteous leadership? (See Eph 4:11–12.) What are the qualifications for leadership ? (See 1 Tim 3:1–13.) What is the premise of true, Spirit-ordained leadership? (See Matt 23:11.)

Many believers have been hurt by kingdom-building, money-grubbing and self-seeking leaders in the church world and now trust no one. They pride themselves on being “independent.” Is this good?

Did Yeshua ever speak of his sheep as being “lone rangers” or did he refer to them as “a flock?” Does he ever speak of his flock as being shepherdless? Of course, Yeshua is the Chief Shepherd, but does he speaks of undershepherds as well? (Read John 10:1–18.) Is a flock that is under the guidance of a servant shepherd a place of safety or harm? Is being outside the flock a place of safety or harm? (See Matt 18:12.)

Yeshua says that those who are outside are “lost” and have “gone astray” and are in danger of perishing (Matt 18:11–14).

Are you part of a literal flock of believers, or have you spiritualized this passage away to justify your independent (rebellious?) spirit against YHVH-ordained authority?

 

What about “I change not!” do we not understand?

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Deuteronomy 31:10–13, You shall read this Torah before all Israel. Verses like this tend to expose the theological confusion that occurs in the minds of many Christian Bible teachers. For example, Christian commentator Matthew Henry on this verse writes about the need to read the Word of Elohim and that doing so will “help us to keep his commandments.” Yet elsewhere he says in the same commentary about the same laws that the commandments or laws of YHVH “are done away with.” Statements like these are representative of a split and incongruous, double-speak thinking on the part of many Christian Bible teachers and people when it comes to the commandments or laws of Elohim. Some laws, they say, we are to keep (e.g., thou shalt not murder, lie, commit adultery, etc.), but other laws we can disobey (e.g., the Sabbath, dietary laws, and biblical feasts). Is it possible to have it both ways: to believe that we need to keep his commandments, yet teach they are done away with? If so, then what is the meaning of such biblical phrases pertaining to YHVH’s Torah or Word as “forever,” “for a thousand generations,” “the same yesterday today and forever,” “till heaven and earth pass away,” “I change not,” and “think not that I came to destroy the Torah-law?” Is ­YHVH’s Word inconsistent and contradictory, or is this, instead, the case with the thinking of men? Is YHVH’s immutable character flawed with regard to keeping his Word, promises and standards or is man the one at fault?

Do we have a high enough view of YHVH Elohim and fear him and tremble at his Word (Isa  66:2), or have we, in reality, to demoted the veracity of his Word by contorting YHVH and his Word to fit the mindset of changeable and inconsistent man (which the Scriptures define as idolatry)? Have we bought into the lie that the serpent proffered at the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden when he told the man and the woman that YHVH really did not mean what he said and that humans can take the “have it your own way” and “pick and choose” approach when it comes to obeying the Word of YHVH (a philosophy that forms the basis for the religious movement called secular humanism, which is at the heart of all the religions of the world—including much of Christianity—except the true religion of the Bible)?

How many aspects of Christian theology are no more than a thinly veiled version of the religion of humanism in disguise? These are tough questions that we as redeemed Israelites need to ponder seriously. Let’s not forget the words of Yeshua in John 14:15, “If you love me, keep my [Torah] commandments” and the words of the apostle in 1 John 2:5–5, “He that says, ‘I know him,’ and does not keep his [Torah] commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whosoever keeps his Word in him truly is the love of Elohim perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.”

The bottom line of why man has a hard time submitting to all of YHVH’s commandments is nowhere stated more concisely in the Bible than in Romans 8:7,

[T]he carnal mind is enmity against Elohim: for it is not subject to the law of Elohim, neither indeed can be.