Author: Daniel

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Discussions Jubilee Pentecost/Shavuot Tabernacles Tithe & Finances Torah

How to be a dependable part of Heaven’s rescue mission to Earth (Leviticus 25)

How to be a dependable part of Heaven's rescue mission to Earth (Leviticus 25). Shown is a mountain climber helping another climber to get to the top.

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.

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Discussions Life With God Sexuality Torah

Yes, offering children to an idol is still a thing today. But it doesn’t have to be (Leviticus 20:2)

Torah reading Kedoshim: Leviticus 20. Drawing of the pagan deity Molech with the tagline "offering children is still a thing today, but it doesn't have to be."

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.

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Apostolic Writings Appointments With God Discussions Passover Pentecost/Shavuot Prophets and Writings Torah

How to increase righteousness on the Earth (Isaiah 11; John 20; Ezekiel 18)

How to increase righteousness on the Earth (Isaiah 11; John 20; Ezekiel 18). A sunset with a rainbow of cloud colors is seen from a beach.

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.

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Appointments With God Discussions Unleavened Bread

Passover connection between donkeys and Messiah

Passover connection between donkeys and Messiah

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.

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Discussions Prophets and Writings Torah

Good character is more than skin deep (Leviticus 13)

Good character is more than skin deep (Leviticus 13)

Some people studying the Torah portion תזריע Tazria (“she will conceive,” Leviticus 12–13) enjoy picking apart the descriptions of the צָרַעַת Tzaraat, commonly translated as “leprosy,” to see how they similar to or different from skin ailments that are known in our modern age.

But such speculations distract us from the most important lesson of Tzaraat: It was primarily a spiritual disease, not a physical ailment. God used it to correct those with לשון הרע lashon ha-ra the “evil tongue”: gossips and slanderers. Those actions came either temporarily, as He did to Miriam, the sister of Moses, or as a life sentence as he did to King Uzziah and Gehazi, the servant of Elisha.

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Discussions Prophets and Writings Torah

Get real about faith: God doesn’t want — or need — your virtue signals (Leviticus 6–8; Hosea 6)

Virtue signal: God does not want (or need) yours

We may soothe ourselves by saying, “I’m glad we don’t do that sacrifice stuff anymore!” But at key lesson of the Torah reading צו Tzav (“command,” Lev. 6:8–8:36) is that God is concerned about how we bring our offering of ourselves — who we are on the inside — on top of the instructions for the what and the how of the offerings.

We all need to figure out what our offering to God will be. Will our offerings be of shallow faith, shallow love, shallow actions? Or will our offerings come from a deep faith, deep action, deep love for God?

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Torah

God wants to make you wealthy. It’s just not what you think (Luke 16)

God wants you to be wealthy: It's just not what you think (Luke 16:1-17)

The world doesn’t cancel debts. It seeks vengeance. Only Heaven willingly cancels debts stacked against it. And if we want to be citizens of Heaven, we should willingly cancel the debts against us too. That’s the lesson behind the Torah reading פקודי Pekudei (“accounts” or “countings,” Ex. 38:21–40:38) and the parable by Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) of the unjust steward (Luke 16:1–17).