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Discussions Torah

Leviticus 26: Blessings of obedience and curses of disobedience

It is only God Who can restore life from death, not only the death of a person but the death of a nation. God warns Israel and He will destroy their nation if they walk in idolatry but he will also restore their nation if they will humble themselves and accept their guilt.

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Discussions Prophets and Writings

2nd Kings 14: Amaziah allows Yehudah to slide back into idolatry; enter Yonah

Amaziah king of Yehudah (Judah) started out good but didn’t remove the pollution of the land — “high places,” places to worship other gods. This historical account helps provide the backdrop for the messages of a number of prophet-writers in the Bible, such as Yonah (Jonah), Amos and Yeshiyahu (Isaiah).

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Discussions Torah

Levitucus 20:1-5: Molekh vs. priesthood of Israel

The mysterious deity-king Molekh appears in the Bible for the first time. Canaanites and later Israelites sacrificed their babies in fire to Molekh. What power did this worship hold then and does it unsuspectingly hold now?

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Discussions Torah

Ya’acov returns to Beit ’El; messianic last words of Rachel (Genesis 35)

We boast in our pride, we constantly demand our rights, we put our trust in our government to protect these rights, but we don’t ask God to protect us. Ya’akov (Jacob) needed to return to Beit ’El (Bethel) to fulfill the vow he had made to the LORD when he was fleeing from Esau.

God protected Ya’akov and his entourage from being pursued by those who would have wanted to take revenge on Ya’akov’s family for what happened in Shechem (Genesis 34). He put a great terror on those who wanted to pursue them and convinced them to leave them alone.

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Discussions Prophets and Writings

1st Kings 12, part 2: Idolatry of the ego

Idols are actually as prevalent in modern times as they were back in the days of Rehoboam and Yeroboam (Jeroboam). Bowing down to a statue as a representation of a divine is not as common in our world, but what is common is spiritual idolatry — the core of physical idolatry.

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Discussions Prophets and Writings

1st Kings 11: God’s four rules for kings; Solomon broke them all

This chapter shows us Solomon’s faults, which were his eventual downfall. David did not have Solomon’s wisdom but Solomon did not have David’s heart for God, which is why King David is considered the standard by which all the future kings of Israel and Judah are judged, not Solomon.

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Discussions Torah

Deuteronomy 17-18: A Prophet greater than Moses to come; ‘abomination’ defined; punishment for following other gods and a warning against doing that; choosing a king; Levite inheritance

Deuteronomy 17 covers the type of animals to be given for sacrifice, what to do with a person who is worshiping another god and when and how they will chose a king. Deuteronomy 18 explores Levites and their inheritance, a reminder to the children of Israel that they are not allowed to “learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations” and a foretelling of a Prophet will come who is even more powerful than Moses.