Here’s a key point in Moshe’s talk with the second generation of Israel freed from Mitzraim (Egypt), as recorded in עקב Ekev/Eikev (“consequence,” Deut. 7:12-11:25): Teach the next generation how to be righteous, or they will slip into sin and corruption.
Discover how this is fundamental to Heaven’s mission through Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ), that the righteousness of One can save the many who have suffered since the sin of one, Adam.
The prophet Bilam (Balaam), described in the Torah reading בָּלָק Balak (Numbers 22:2–25:9), was a gentile prophet from the ancient country of Aram. We see that even though Bilam was a Gentile, he was a prophet of God.
God did not only send prophets to Israel. God, in His mercy, sent prophets to all the nations of the world.
Unfortunately, we meet with Bilam, not in his early years when God first called him to prophetic office, when his heart was open to God. Instead, we are meeting Bilam at the point when his evil inclination has overtaken the good in him. We follow along with him as his greed, corruption and vanity lead him to his downfall, which was so complete, that his story is given to us a template of how the Antichrist will one day function in the world, deceiving, if possible, the elect.
It is human nature to engage in confirmation bias. We have certain closely cherished beliefs, and we will give more weight to facts that confirm those beliefs versus facts that contradict those beliefs.
The Torah reading שלח Shelakh (“send,” Numbers 13–15) recounts how 10 “spies” of ancient Israel returned from the Promised Land with an “evil report.” They brought back the same basic facts about the geography, agriculture and social structure of the people currently living there.
The only difference was their interpretation of those facts. They looked at land through the bias of the world, while Joshua and Caleb looked at the same facts and view them through their bias of faith in the power of God.
In Joshua 2, Rahab of Jericho overlooked her bias to see which deity was truly worth following. And in Matthew 10, Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) sent out His closest students with instructions to not be biased by the opposition they faced.
We easily and often fall into the same trap.
The Torah reading בְּהַר Behar (“on mount” [Sinai]; Leviticus 25) teaches us how to be a kinsman-redeemer. It’s a beautiful ancient role for a family member with the character to step up and bail out a relative who has fallen on hard times.
The Bible book of Ruth provides an example of such a redeemer in action, and the Messiah is foretold to be the ultimate one for the world.
In the greater family of God on Earth, the lessons of the annual festivals of Shavuot (Pentecost) and Sukkot (Tabernacles) plus the multiyear cycles of Shemitah (sabbatical year) and Yobel (Jubilee) instruct us in how to be of service to the less fortunate within our sphere of influence.
A successful kinsman-redeemer helps others with the blessing of means that God has provided. We are not called to go into debt to help others, we are not compelled by God to drown ourselves to save someone else.
From these cyclical memorials of God in action past, present and future, we also can learn how God is building up His Kingdom. It starts with the call of individuals then nations into His Kingdom to live as citizens in His presence.
If you faithfully follow the news, you have heard that an early draft of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked to the media, which has created a firestorm of media attention. A 1973 Supreme Court decision that created a “right” to abortion, Roe was contentious at the time, and the prospect of its overturn is equally contentious.
In our day, we pretend that we are more sophisticated than our ancestors millennia ago, because we kill our children while they are yet unborn, in the privacy of a clinic. Medical personnel dispatch the unborn modern sophistication.
In the Torah reading Kedoshim, we discover that the excuses for killing the unborn today are the same as those given by pagan priests for the infanticidal sacrifices to the god Molech several thousand years ago.
A common caricature of Heaven is that God is obsessed with killing the wicked. Rather, the Bible talks about a better way to both rid the Earth of wickedness and increase the number of righteous. And that’s one of the key lessons of the festivals of Pesach (Passover), Matzot (Unleavened Bread) and Shavuot (Pentecost), lessons brought to their fullness in Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus). Here’s how that works.
To those of us who have not grown up on a farm, a donkey is merely a beast of burden, and a stubborn, cantankerous one at that. For those who have lived on farms and have raised donkeys, they know that donkeys are more brains than brawn. They are intelligent and protective of their territory and those who live on it.
It also holds a unique position among the unclean animals listed in the Torah. It’s the only animal that the Torah requires the owner of to redeem its firstborn. What makes the firstborn donkeys so special that they have to be redeemed or killed in connection with Passover? Why is a donkey connected with the Messiah in the Prophets and Gospels? It’s all about our iniquities that the Lamb of God took upon Himself.