Author: Richard

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Apostolic Writings Discussions

Matthew 7:1-20 — how to ‘judge’ with mercy and compassion

In Matthew 5-7, Messiah Yeshua gave us a reality check on whether our lives are trending toward the righteousness that God seeks. In Matthew 7, Yeshua tells us how to “judge” with mercy and discernment. Matthew 12, shows us Yeshua’s practical application of this principle.By the strict definition of the Torah, the apostles were guilty of threshing grain on the Shabbat. Yet, Yeshua, rather than confirming the harsh edict of the Pharisees, comes to their defense and turns the tables in favor of mercy.

Many believers in Yeshua — and those who don’t believe in Yeshua who purposefully misappropriate His words to justify their own ends — use Matthew 7:1-5 as a blanket prohibition on using any discernment between good and evil. However the later texts of the same chapter show that Yeshua doesn’t want us to walk around without any sense of judgment or discernment. He wants us to discern and judge with mercy and compassion.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions

Matthew 5-6 — Preparing ourselves to do God’s will

Did the Father give us believers to Yeshua (Jesus), or did we come to Yeshua? What is the “first love” of a Christian? How is this lost, and how can it be reclaimed?

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Discussions Torah

Yeshua the High Priest declares clean and unclean (Leviticus 13–15)

This text could be called the “leprosy” text, except that it’s about more than examining one’s skin. There are spiritual applications, too. An example is the need to examine our hearts to see if we have surface sin or deep ingrained sin that we need our High Priest Yeshua to diagnose and atone. Sometimes we need to isolate ourselves and contemplate the issue deeply for seven to 14 days to wrestle with the issue.

God calls us “priests and kings.” But there is only one true High Priest, Yeshua, and He is the one who declares us “clean” or “unclean.”

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Discussions Torah

Leviticus 11-12 — ‘unclean’ vs. ‘abomination’ in meat; purification of women after childbirth

The phrase “unclean” and “abomination” are different words. The reason that God introduces certain animals clean and fit to eat versus unclean and unfit to eat is a lesson to us to look at the character of the animals. The length of a woman’s purification is twice as long for a female child as a male child. Liberals claim this is about a lack of thankfulness for the female child, but the real issue is the health of the mother after childbirth.

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Discussions Torah

Leviticus 8-10 — Moshe ordains Aharon and his sons as the priesthood

The book of Leviticus is not about laws but about how to be a priest. A lot of these lessons are physical but there’s more of the Spirit in these chapters than a cursory view might suggest.

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Discussions Torah

Leviticus 6-7 — lessons from the sacrifices about thanksgiving and restitution

This chapter seems like a reiteration of the prior chapters but there’s more to this chapter than repetition. Every time the text says, “Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying…,” you have a new edict from the Lord. Many of these edicts were only for the sons of Aaron, and not for the general public.

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Discussions Torah

Leviticus 5 — offerings for hidden sins and walking in the Spirit

When we commit “unintentional” sins and are later made aware of them, this text teaches us that we can’t simply say “oops” and ignore the revelation of that sin. This text shows us that when we become aware of some fault or sin, we must address the issue with repentance, restitution and restoration.