Author: Daniel

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Discussions Torah

Marginal prophet: Balaam reveals Heaven’s future for Israel and the cause of his fall (Numbers 22–24)

Marginal prophet: Balaam reveals Heaven's future for Israel - and the cause of his fall (Numbers 22-24)

The account of the talking donkey is one of the best known parts of Torah reading בָּלָק Balak (Numbers 22:2–25:9), but it’s only part of the critically important warning for the people of God looking for the coming of the messianic era.

Pagan king Balak and proto-televangelist Bilam (Balaam) tried to marshal higher powers to push back on Israel. Their offering of seven rams and seven bulls did not help them win points with the Holy One of Israel. Bilam had some favor with God — until his intentions and actions turned to evil.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Torah

How to pray for the enemies of Heaven (Leviticus 16–18)

How to pray for Heaven's enemies (Leviticus 16-18)

Korach and his merry band of insurrectionists used populist propaganda, revisionist history, blame shifting and faux humility to instigate a popular uprising against Moses and Aaron to return to Egypt to die there so they could avoid suffering God’s judgement that they would die in the wilderness over the course of 40 years.

The people followed along because they would rather blame Moses and Aaron for their lack of faith and their eventual death sentence than themselves for their failure to take what was promised to them.

Fast-forward about 1,500 years: Israel’s leaders who confronted Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) about His ministry repeated some of the same arguments and found themselves on the wrong side of history, just as Korach, Dathan and Abiram did.

But the real lesson of the Torah reading קֹרַח Korakh (Numbers 16–18) is how Moses, Aaron and Yeshua responded to the attacks on their authority. They didn’t ask God to take out their enemies, but interceded in prayer for them. God asks us to do the same.

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Discussions Jubilee Torah

Why is it so bad to sin against the Land? (Leviticus 25–27)

Why is it so bad to sin against the Land? (Leviticus 25-27)

We often think that the walk of Torah only concerns itself with one’s relationship with God and one’s relationship with others. This is not true. An observant reading of the Torah shows us that God also concerns Himself with how we treat the land that sustains us. That’s a key lesson of the dual Torah reading of בְּהַר Behar (“on mount” [Sinai]) and בְּחֻקֹּתַי Bechukotai (“in My statutes”), which covers the last three chapters of Leviticus.

God promised the land of Israel as a special inheritance to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and they were expected to respond by treating the land itself with dignity as much as He expected them to treat Him and their neighbors with dignity.

Sins against the Land are atoned by exile, not by blood. Learn more through this Bible study.

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Discussions Torah

Don’t do dumb stuff, and don’t be like everyone else (Leviticus 16–20)

Don't do dumb stuff, and don't be like everyone else (Leviticus 16-20)
Don't do dumb stuff, and don't be like everyone else (Leviticus 16-20)

There’s an old saying that is common among parents who are trying to teach their children to resist the temptation to follow their peers into making disastrous life-changing mistakes: “If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?” 

God was preparing the children of Israel to enter the Promised Land, a land where the Canaanites who, by God’s account, lived immoral or amoral lives. Underlying the lessons in the Torah passages אחרי מות Acharei Mot and קדושים Kedoshim (“after (the) death” and “holiness,” Leviticus 16–20) on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) and morality is that God did not want the Israelites to follow His laws on autopilot — not in apathy or indifference — but mindfully and purposefully. Learn more through this Bible study.

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Discussions Torah

Grace and response: What ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ are really about (Leviticus 11; 2Samuel 6)

Grace and response: What 'clean' and 'unclean' are really about (Leviticus 9-11; 2Samuel 6)

What is holy and not holy? What is clean and not clean? Both are defined by God alone. Heaven sets up appointments for His people to meet with Him and how they are to prepare themselves and show up at the appointed times in the appointed ways.

A key lesson of the Torah reading שמיני Shemini (“eighth,” Leviticus 9–11) is the leaders of the people, such as the priests, kings and nobles are called to a higher standard, because of their higher education and proximity to God than the common people.

It is our duty as those who consider ourselves citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven to know our position and to know and follow the Torah instructions that apply to us.

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Discussions Torah

How to be a ‘nation of priests’ to a world that needs closeness to God (Leviticus 6–8)

How to be a ‘nation of priests’ to a world that needs closeness to God (Leviticus 6–8)

We may think the instructions in Torah readings Vayiqra and Tzav (Leviticus 1-8) about Tabernacle/Temple offerings is quaint history, but Kefa (Peter), an apostle of Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) wrote that in the “world to come” the people of God will be a “nation of kings and priests” (1Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10), then we need to put our mind to study Torah to understand the different kinds of offerings and how to properly handle them.

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Discussions Torah

When God shouted 3 times to fight oppression (Exodus 21–23)

When God shouted 3 times to fight oppression (Mishpatim: Exodus 21:1-24:18)

Are “white lies” covered by the Torah prohibition on lying? What does it mean to curse your parents? Does the Torah really contain a time bomb for human slavery? How is that connected to the LORD’s warning about oppression? And was the Angel of the LORD during the Exodus a manifestation of the Messiah? How does this angel compare with Yeshua (Jesus)? These are topics covered in the Torah reading מִשְׁפָּטִים Mishpatim (“judgments,” Ex. 21:1–24:18).