Category Archives: Scripture

Scripture Studies

Blog Scripture Readings for 10/7 through 10/13/12

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Parashat B’reisheet — Genesis 1:1 – 6:8
10/07/12 Genesis 1:1–2:3 Joshua 1 Psalms 1 Matthew 1
10/08/12 Genesis 2:4–19 Joshua 2 Psalms 2 Matthew 2
10/09/12 Genesis 2:20–3:21 Joshua 3 Psalms 3 Matthew 3
10/10/12 Genesis 3:22–4:18 Joshua 4 Psalms 4 Matthew 4
10/11/12 Genesis 4:19–22 Joshua 5 Psalms 5 Matthew 5:1-26
10/12/12 Genesis 4:23–5:24 Joshua 6, 7 Psalms 6 Matthew 5:27-48
10/13/12 Genesis 5:25–6:8 Joshua 8 Psalms 7 Matthew 6:1-15
Haftarah — Isaiah 42:5 – 43:10

Most of this week’s blog discussion points will be on these passages.

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 reading will follow the traditional one-year reading cycle as well as the haftarah. By reading all the scriptures on this schedule each day, you will have read all scriptures from Genesis to Revelation by the end of next Sukkot (2013)!

The new Bible Reading Schedule can be found on the right sidebar under “Helpful Links.”

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.

Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 10/7 through 10/13/2012

 

Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 9/30 thru 10/6/12

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Leviticus 2–8; 2 Chronicles 33–36; Acts 1–10; Matthew 28; and Mark 1–6

Most of this week’s blog discussion points will be on these passages.

Please note:
This will be the final week for this Bible Reading Schedule as we are beginning a new reading schedule that follows the Torah Portion readings, beginning with Parashat B’reisheet (Genesis 1:1–6:8). In order to be in sync with the parashiyot readings, we will end this one early.

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 reading will follow the traditional one-year reading cycle as well as the haftarah. By reading all the scriptures on this schedule each day, you will have read all scriptures from Genesis to Revelation by the end of next Sukkot (2013)!

The new Bible Reading Schedule can be found on the right sidebar under “Helpful Links.”

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.

Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 9/30 through 10/6/2012

 

Beware of Vultures

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Matthew 24:28, Wherever the carcass is. (Gr. carcass literally, “dead body”) Since eagles feed on live prey, not carrion, some Bible commentators take the reference to eagles to mean any scavenger bird such as a vulture, which can resemble vultures.

In Yeshua’s Parable of the Sower (Matt 13:3–9), the birds that came and gathered up the seed that was sown by the wayside metaphorical represent the wicked one (Satan) who steals away the good seed (verse 19). One possible meaning of this enigmatic saying of Yeshua is that as vultures hover over a dead body hoping for a meal, so demonic spirits will hover over the body of Yeshua (i.e. the spiritual body of believers—the congregation of the saints) just before his return waiting to pick off those who are spiritually weak or dead.

The righteous being picked off by the birds of prey hardly seems like an apt metaphor for the resurrection of the righteous, since in the same chapter we learn that the angels will gather in the elect (verse 31), and, as we have already noted, elsewhere Yeshua uses the birds of prey to represent the wicked one (elsewhere called “the prince of the power of the air,” Eph 2:2).

Furthermore, Yeshua gives this illustration just after discussing the trials and spiritual delusion of the great tribulation period prior to his second coming when many people will come under the spiritual deception of false prophets and false messiahs (verses 15–27).

 

The Bible on Divorce (and Remarriage)—A Sticky Wicket!

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Matthew 19:8, Put away your wives. Most churches allow for divorce, but some do not permit remarriage under any circumstances. This is may seem like an extreme position, those who teach this can make a strong case that this is the Bible’s position.

Some churches teach that divorce and remarriage is acceptable in some instances, but not in others. This is where it gets sticky and depends on the interpretations of many clear as well as some unclear biblical passages. The truth is that each marriage and divorce case is unique. Each situation needs to be evaluated case by case based on biblical guidelines. My thoughts (below) on the subject of divorce and remarriage are only general in nature.

Some churches take the approach that all sins can be forgiven except the sin of divorce and remarriage. This would mean that divorce and remarriage is the unpardonable sin for which the blood of Yeshua is ineffective. This is a biblically untenable position.

The Scriptures say that YHVH hates divorce (Mal 2:16). Why? Because he had to divorce his own (spiritual) wife, Israel, because of her adultery against him (e.g., Jer 3:8). But he’s going to remarry her again, but this time it will be to redeemed Israel, which is a new, spiritually regenerated bride. Furthermore, Yeshua died to pay the price for Israel’s capital sin of adultery. On our website (http://www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/divorce.pdf), I have a teaching about the prophetic implications of divorce where I discuss this issue.

The Torah allows for divorce and remarriage following certain protocols (Deut 24:1–4). Yeshua acknowledges this in the Gospels and accepts this fact due to of the hardness of people’s hearts (Mark 10:4–5).

The issue of divorce and remarriage becomes sticky, since in Matthew 5:32 and 19:9 no one knows the exact meaning of the word “fornication.” Even the Jews of Yeshua’s time debated about its meaning, and the two Pharisaical schools of the day defined pornea (Greek) or ervah (Hebrew, see Deut 24:1, uncleanness) differently. Continue reading →

 

Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 9/23 through 9/29/12

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Exodus 35–40; Leviticus 1; 2 Chronicles 19–32; and Matthew 21–27

Most of this week’s blog discussion points will be on these passages. See  Bible Reading Schedule.

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.

Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 9/23 through 9/29/2012

 

The Golden Calf and the Church

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Exodus 32, The Golden Calf Incident: A Prophetic Picture of the Church

On Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost), at Mount Sinai, YHVH entered into a marriage covenant with the children of Israel, but they were not ready to live up to the terms of that covenant.

Those terms, simply stated, involved the Israelites being faithful and obedient only to YHVH, Israel’s Elohim (God) and spiritual husband, and to his instructions in righteousness, the Torah. This Israel quickly demonstrated they were not willing to do, for they had hardly said “I do” to their marriage vows (Exod 24:3,7) when they made and began worshipping a golden calf—a pagan deity from Egypt — and calling it YHVH.

Between the time of the festival of Shavuot and Yom Teruah (the Day of the Awakening Blast) when Moses received the second tablets of stone from YHVH containing the Ten Commandments, the children of Israel, the bride of YHVH, prepared herself not only to receive YHVH’s instructions again, but this time to be faithful to her marriage vows. This Israel did. She remained faithful to YHVH for approximately 38 years while trekking through the wilderness of Sinai, after which she entered the Promised Land and “stayed the course” until after the death of Joshua.

Similarly, redeemed Israel of the first century A.D. era received the Torah on the fleshly tablets of their hearts written by the finger of the Spirit of Elohim on the Day of Pentecost (Shavuot) as recorded in Acts 2. But starting at about A.D. 70 with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and continuing up through the Second Jewish Revolt of A.D.135 until the time of Emperor Constantine (in the fourth century), the first-century spiritual bride of Messiah had, for the most part, abandoned YHVH’s Torah-commandments and turned, to one degree or another, to a mixed form of worship (of which ancient Israel’s worship at the golden calif was a prophetic foreshadow) where some pagan practices were assimilated into the early churches’ belief system (most notably, Sunday replaced the Sabbath, and Christmas and Easter replaced the biblical feasts).

In our day, YHVH is calling out a remnant of people from the church who are leaving behind the pagan traditions of golden calf worship and who are returning to the ancient blessed paths of YHVH’s Torah-instructions in righteousness. Does not the book of Revelation speak of a group of end-time saints who will say “I do” to YHVH, and whose identifying mark is their faith in Yeshua the Messiah (i.e., the gospel message) and yet who faithfully keep YHVH’s Torah-commandments (Rev 12:17 and 14:12)?

When Yeshua returns on or near Yom Teruah (the Day of the Awakening Blast) at the end of the age, he will be ready to marry a bride that is without spot and wrinkle who has come out of the Babylonish religious whore system (Rev 18:4). This bride who will be wearing the robes of righteousness of Torah-obedience (Rev 12:17; 14:12; 19:7–9, and she will be ready to enter into a covenantal agreement—a wedding contract or ketubah—with Yeshua, the Bridegroom ever to remain faithful to him and never again to return to Baal or golden calf worship. He will lead his wife into the Messianic Age or Millennium, even as he in the pillar of fire through Joshua (in Hebrew, Yeshua) led the younger generation of wilderness Israelites into the Promised Land.

 

The Righteous Will Shine Like the Sun

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Matthew 13:43, Shine forth as the sun. The reward of the resurrected righteous will cause them to shine forth like the sun or stars (Dan 12:3), and like Yeshua (1 John 3:2), whose face shines like the sun (Rev 1:16), for he is the Sun of Righteousness (Mal 4:2), who will be the light of the New Jerusalem shining in place of the physical sun (Rev 21:23; 22:5; Isa 60:20).

Paul speaks of the resurrection of the saints or their glorification that will occur at that time, and he also likens the saints’ appearance to the stars. As stars have different levels of brightness, so to will the saints (1 Cor 15:41–43) in accordance with their levels of rewards based on their level of obedience to the Torah (Matt 5:19; 16:27; Rom 2:6–11; 2 Cor 5:10; Eph 6:8; 1 Pet 1:17; Rev 19:8; 22:12–15).