Get ready!! YHVH Elohim’s spring biblical feasts are coming quickly… Passover/Pesach will be in 14 days and the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread/ChagMatzot will be in 15 days.
Parashat Metzora — Leviticus 14:1 – 15:33
Haftarah — 2 Kings 7:3-20 | Malachi 3:4-24**
Prophets — Isaiah 41:1 – 47:15
Writings — Proverbs 23:1 – 29:27
Testimony — Acts 7:1 – 9:43
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.
** A different Haftarah is read when it is a special sabbath in Jewish tradition. This week it is Shabbat HaGadol on the traditional calendar. The Haftarah read is Malachi 3:4-24. Otherwise, 2 Kings 7:3-20 would be read with Parashat Metzora.
Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 4/7/19 through 4/13/19.
Acts 5:1–11, The deaths of Ananias and Sapphira. Why did Elohim kill them? It is because they committed the unpardonable sin in that they willfully and in a premeditated plot lied to the Elohim. There is no sacrifice or forgiveness for willful sin. YHVH was showing us that even in the age of the New Covenant, the so-called “age of grace,” Elohim’s grace doesn’t cover willful sin. Let us all fear YHVH Elohim and tremble before him all the time!
Some scholars suggest that YHVH killed them because they violated the Torah laws regarding the handling of devoted things, for which there was a death penalty (Lev 27:28–29). Perhaps so. Whatever the case, it’s interesting to note that YHVH struck Ananias and Sapphira dead after the cross in, what many Christians call, the dispensation of grace era when, in their minds, sin doesn’t carry the same severe penalty us under “old covenant,” law of Moses era. What we learn from this is that YHVH still views sin as sin, and the wages of sin is still death (Rom 6:23). This has never changed before or after the cross of Yeshua. Just because one isn’t struck dead immediately upon having sinned doesn’t mean one hasn’t incurred the death penalty. That death penalty is only waived when one repents of their sin and asks for YHVH’s forgiveness through faith in Yeshua whose death paid the death penalty price for our sins.
Likely, such divine judgments still occur in our day more frequently than we realize. It may not involve the death of the individual, but rather sickness, demonic attacks, financial setbacks and other adversities that occur to us. The problem is that because of human pride and spiritual deafness and blindness, most people fail to recognize the cause of their problems. We attribute them instead to random circumstances and time and chance instead of to YHVH’s hand of judgment against us because of our sin, which we fail to recognize and repent of.
Paul addresses this issue in 1 Cor 11:27–32 with regard to those who eat of the communion elements in a careless or indifferent manner.
Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.
For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.
But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
Leviticus 13:4, 5, 11, etc., Isolate him. The laws of quarantine are not merely for ritualistic and ceremonial purposes, which are now obsolete having passed away with the Levitical and sacrificial systems. Were people to follow these laws to this day and quarantine themselves when sick, colds, flus viruses and other infectious diseases would not be as rampant as they are. Thousands of years before modern medical science discovered the importance of cleanliness and the communicable nature of many diseases, the YHVH’s Torah prescribed measures to prevent the spread of such diseases.
Leviticus 13:43, 6, 10, 11, 15, 17, 19, 21, 22 etc. The priest shall examine. As it was the duty of the priests of old to keep the camp of Israel free of disease, so it is now the duty of the ministry to keep the infectious disease of sin outside church and to determine who is clean and unclean; who should be quarantined or put out of the camp and when to let them back in. (See Rom 16:17–18; Tit 3:10; 2 Thess 3:6; 2 Tim 3:5; 1 Cor 5:5, 9–11.)
Leviticus 13:45, Cry, “Unclean, unclean.” A skin disease was like a red flag, which if a person had it was regarded as a judgment from Elohim for the sin of slander, gossip, murder with the mouth, false oaths and pride as well as sexual immorality, robbery and selfishness. That person was considered to be physically and spiritually contagious and so was put outside the camp of Israel until the disease was gone. According to Samson Hirsch, quarantine was a means of shocking the sinner into recognizing his moral shortcomings and his need to repent (The ArtScroll Chumash, p. 613).
What if each time we sinned with our mouth we were quickly struck with a visible sin disease for all to see resulting in our being quarantined and shunned? Perhaps the incidences of lashon hara (the evil tongue) would greatly diminish. If you received heaven’s judgment each time you misspoke, how would you change Continue reading
Acts 2:42, 46, They continued. (See notes at 1 Tim 4:13.) This passage along with 1 Tim 4:13 is a list of activities the early saints did when they gathered together. This included continuing steadfastly in the apostles’s doctrine, which includes “reading [the “Old Testament” Scriptures], exhortation, [studying or teaching] doctrine” (1 Tim 4:13), fellowshipping, eating meals together, praying and praise [and worshipping] Elohim. Expounding on this further, we read in 1 Cor 14:26, “Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.” Spiritual gifts should be exercised when the saints come together as well (1 Cor 14:12). How many modern church gatherings habitually incorporate these elements into their weekly meetings?
The following is a list of activities the first century saints did when they came together on the Shabbat and at other times:
Acts 2:23, Be baptized. (Also see notes at Matt 28:19.) The term baptism in Hebrew is tevilah meaning “immersion,” which occurs at a mikveh meaning “a gathering of waters.” For those coming from a Christian background, baptism is something that occurs at the beginning of a believer’s spiritual walk and involves baptism (immersion) in water for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16; Rom 6:3–6; 1 Cor 15:29; Gal 3:27; Eph 4:5; Col 2:12; 1 Pet 3:21). Yet Paul the apostle talks of baptisms (plural) in Heb 6:2. What are these other baptisms? Evidently, in biblical thought immersion for the remission of sins is but one of many such ritual immersions.
Indeed, in the Testimony of Yeshua we not only read about baptism for the remission of sins, but the baptism of repentance of John the Baptist (Acts 1:5; 10:37; 13:24; 19:4), baptism (immersion) of the Set-Apart Spirit (Luke 3:16; Acts 1:5; 8:16; 11:16), and baptism with fire (Matt 3:11; Luke 3:16). Here we see the four types of immersions spoken of in the Testimony of Yeshua.
The concept of ritual immersion for a variety of reasons stems from commands in the Torah relating to ceremonial washings signifying spiritual and physical cleansing (Lev 14:1–4, 7, 9; Exod 19:10; Lev 8:6; 15:5, 8, 10–13, 16–18, 21; 16:4).
Moreover, the prophet Ezekiel speaks of YHVH sprinkling his people to cleanse them from their impurities, which is a picture of the new spiritual life of which immersion is e a type (Ezek 36:25).