Categories
Appointments With God Pentecost/Shavuot

Pentecost: When we’re finally sick of it, Heaven’s Bondage-Breaker leads us home (Exodus 19–20; Acts 1–2)

Shavuot, aka Pentecost, is connected historically and ceremonially to the annual memorials of Pesakh (Passover) and Matzot (Unleavened Bread) by the 50 days in between. 

God’s instructions for Shavuot are connected to a harvest, but we can glean deeper meaning from its thematic linkage to Pesakh, to the giving of the Ten Commandments at Sinai and to the widespread outpouring of the Spirit on the 120 believers of Yeshua haMashiakh (Jesus the Christ):
* Pesakh: Be freed from bondage. (Justification)
* Matzot: Be purged of the mindset from the former life. (Sanctification)
* Shavuot: Learn what it means to be be adopted into the family of the Bondage-Breaker, live it out and offer the invitation to others. (Sanctification)

The message of freedom from the past, contentment in the present and strength for the future is for the whole world — not just Israel.

Categories
Discussions Torah

God wants mercy more than rote obedience (Leviticus 21–24)

Our choices can cause irreparable harm to others, including the next generation. That’s a key lesson from the Torah reading אמר Emor (“say,” Leviticus 21-24).

The Holy One of Israel loves mercy more than rote obedience, and He loathes hypocrisy. God looks at our conduct, as well as the heart behind our actions. We can fool those around us, we might even fool ourselves, but we can’t fool God.

Categories
Apostolic Writings Discussions Torah

Yeshua took our sins away so we can enter God’s presence clean (Leviticus 16–20)

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement in the Bible, is a really good illustration of Heaven’s love for humanity. When we’re cleansed, we leave what it is we’re cleansed of behind. Just as ancient Israel was to leave Egypt and the practices of Egypt behind, we are to leave behind our old “chains” when Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) has cleansed us of behaviors that keep us in bondage.

Learn more through this study of the Bible passage Acharei Mot-Kedoshim (Leviticus 16-20) and its close connection to Hebrews 3-10.

Categories
Discussions Torah

How the Messiah breathes life into ‘the walking dead’ (Leviticus 12–15)

Birth and “the walking dead,” aka lepers. The two couldn’t be more different different. The first brings life into the world, and the latter is a mark of life that is headed out of the world. Yet in human body’s sometimes gross processes of fostering the new, we see similarities with the indeed gross processes that unravel the body, making it waste away.

The Torah readings תזריע Tazria (“she will conceive,” Leviticus 12–13) and מְּצֹרָע Metzora (“leper,” Leviticus 14–15) weave a thread of Heaven’s wisdom between the realms of life and death, showing us in stark imagery how Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) indeed is making this happen: “The last enemy that will be abolished is death” (1Corinthians 15:26–27 NASB).

Categories
Apostolic Writings Discussions Torah

How to treat God, ourselves and others with respect (Leviticus 9–11; Mark 7)

The concept of ritual impurity is confusing to the gentile mindset. The Torah says that if one is “ritually impure” one can’t participate in the work of worship that happens in God’s house. It seems like God is punishing us for things that are beyond our control.

However, it is not a sin to be ritually impure, and God isn’t out to punish us for things outside our control. Everything God says in the Torah is there to teach us lessons about Himself — and about ourselves in the process.

In the Torah reading שמיני Shemini (“eighth,” Lev. 9:1–11:47), discover the things Heaven says make one fit and unfit to enter God’s Presence. Some of those things are out of our control living in a world under the curse since Eden, so Heaven has to transform us. Focus on what’s in our control.

Heaven is taking each of us and humanity on a journey to a new beginning: from bondage to rest.

Categories
Appointments With God Passover Torah Unleavened Bread

First-born identity in the Bible: Redemption or death (Lessons from Passover)

There are a lot of symbols in the Bible that God blended together for the redemption of the first-born of the womb, not only of human beings but also donkeys. They all point to the first and only born of Heaven: Yeshua the Mashiakh (Jesus the Christ).

The first part of this Bible study on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread looks into two major lessons from four types leaven. This second part focuses on important lesson of redemption of the first-born.

Categories
Appointments With God Passover Unleavened Bread

4 types of spiritual leavening and how to avoid them (Lessons from Passover)

What is the big deal about unleavened bread during Passover time? If it was only about the practicality of eating on the go during Israel’s exodus from slavery in Mitzraim (Egypt), why does matzah show up in the offerings of God’s House, the teachings of Yeshua the Mashiakh (Jesus the Christ) and in apostle Paul’s writings to early believers? 

The first part of this Bible study on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread looks into two major lessons of matzah.