Everyone loves a story about talking animals, especially smart ones. But the account in the Torah reading בָּלָק Balak isn’t just fodder for a fun animated kids’ movie. It’s an important lesson that God wants us to recognize false prophets and not follow them.
The Torah reading קֹרַח Korakh/Korach is a study in what it means to rebel against God and opens a window into the destructive power of antichrist.
As the Torah reading בהעלתך Beha’alotcha begins, the menorah and the Levites are dedicated to God’s service, and the Tabernacle is ready for business. However, this reading is permeated with all sorts of ingratitude and complaining, from the people complaining about the manna to Miriam and Aaron complaining about Moses. God doesn’t put up with any of it. Whether it’s sending down a consuming fire or a plague, God doesn’t put up with people grumbling about His provision.
Shavuot and the sabbatical years of the jubilee are based on three ideas: liberty, restoration and acceptance. Both stand on the same foundation.
What foundation does man stand upon? Dirt + water + breath of life = Man. We all began with Adam and Eve without exception. God gave Adam and Eve the Breath of Life and we have all inherited this because of them.
The lessons of rest and release in the biblical sabbatical year (shemitah) and Yobel (Jubilee) teach us how we are to be good masters and how good of a Master our Messiah Yeshua is. Embedded in the lessons of the Torah reading Behar (“on the mountain,” Leviticus 25) is we are to treat each other with the kindness Yeshua gives us — the Golden Rule.
Life starts with contamination. It starts out dirty. Childbirth is messy. It’s not sinful; it’s just a fact of life.
The general Bible term for infections of skin and surfaces is “leprosy,” but it covers a host of conditions. It’s also a good parable for “rot” in our character — if the lesson isn’t taken too far.
The Torah reading תזריע Tazria (“she will conceive,” Leviticus 12–13) is concerned about what is physically dirty vs. clean, but the LORD’s lesson for us is more than skin-deep.
During the course of Israel’s settlements in the wilderness and later in the Promised Land, God’s name rested on several places, including Shiloh and later Jerusalem. The Tabernacle was never desecrated by outside forces but it’s worship was compromised from the outside in.
The Temple, in Jerusalem, on the other hand, was sacked several times by corrupt kings as well as foreign invaders. Sometimes, God blessed the dedications of His temples with a visible sign of His Divine Presence, sometimes he did not. In the Torah reading פקודי Pekudei (“countings,” Exodus 38:21–40:38), we will look at how and why God did or did not visibly show His presence when the various Tabernacles and Temples were dedicated or rededicated through Israel’s history.