Category: Discussions

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

Loyalty over ancestry: What really matters to God (Ruth 1–4; Exodus 20; John 4)

Loyalty versus ancestry: What really matters to God (Ruth 1-4; Exodus 20; John 4). Adobe Firefly AI image of an young ancient Middle East woman walks along a path holding hands with an older woman, walking past cactus and olive trees.

In this study on Shavuot (Pentecost), we see how we’re reminded annually of Heaven’s mission to call all nations and a promise to do that through His Son as King of Kings over Jew and goy (Gentile) alike. The Book of Ruth depicts a woman of Moab embraced by Israel through her faith: “Your people will be my people; your God my God.”

The Holy One’s promise to bless the world through Abraham was a legacy that stretched through Ruth’s lineage to King David to Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus).

Yeshua’s visit to Samaria (John 4) ignored long-held social barriers and showed that the good news of the Kingdom includes Gentiles. The Ten Commandments given at Sinai points all those called people to righteousness, starting with Israel.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Torah

Numbered but not just a number: The Good Shepherd Who seeks the lost sheep of humanity (Numbers 1; Luke 15)

Numbered but not a number: The Good Shepherd seeks the lost sheep of humanity (Numbers 1; Luke 15). A South American shepherd walks a sheep through a flock toward a sunset over mountains in the distance.

This study on Torah reading בְּמִדְבַּר Bemidbar (“in the wilderness,” Numbers 1:1–4:20) focuses on Heaven’s concern for each individual member of Israel’s tribes. Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) touched on that with His three lost-and-found parables in Luke 15, particularly how a shepherd seeks one lost sheep. Though part of an orderly whole as God’s people, each person is valued. As the tribes were transformed from a multitude to a cohesive unit centered on God’s dwelling — the solution to the world’s anguish — so too may each Israelite accept the role and be renewed to uplift God’s legacy through Messiah. When all work in unison and depend on the Eternal, the salvation promised to the world through Israel will be fulfilled.

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Discussions Torah

Law & grace are diagnosis & cure: Finding Messiah in the Torah (Leviticus 26–27)

Law & grace; diagnosis & cure: Finding Messiah in the Torah (Leviticus 26-27)

The recent discovery of a 3,400-year-old hammered lead tablet on the Bible’s Curse Mountain, which imprecates via the name of God, shows that the covenant curses recorded in Torah reading בְּחֻקֹּתַי Bechukotai (“in My statutes,” Leviticus 26:3–27:34), weren’t the later inventions that critics claim.

More startling is what the mountains of blessing and cursing imply about sin and judgment. As this study reveals, both the blessings of obedience and curses of disobedience in Leviticus 26 mirror suzerain-vassal treaties of the ancient world. This suggests an alarming truth — that left to ourselves under the power of sin, facing God’s perfect standard can only end in curse, destruction and death. Truly only through the Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) covering work of Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) can we find forgiveness and life that brings rest to our deep restlessness.

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Apostolic Writings Appointments With God Atonement Discussions Jubilee Prophets and Writings Sabbatical Year Torah

Cancel debts, free slaves: Radical teachings of Jubilee and Sabbatical Year for modern life (Leviticus 25; Isaiah 58; Matthew 6 and 18)

"Cancel debts, free slaves: Radical teachings of Jubilee and Sabbatical Year for modern life (Leviticus 25; Isaiah 58; Matthew 6 and 18). Adobe Firefly AI artwork of a hand reaching up toward a sunset-toned cloudy sky while a chain extends from each side of the scene and wraps around the wrist.

The Torah reading בְּהַר Behar (“on mount [Sinai],” Leviticus 25:1–26:2) teaches that debts are released after seven-year cycles (Shemitah, sabbatical year) and 49-year cycles (Yobel/Jubilee) to memorialize God’s forgiveness. This pattern is seen in Messiah Yeshua’s (Christ Jesus) teachings on forgiveness in Matthew 18 and manifest in his role as suffering servant who takes our debts (Isaiah 53). By forgiving others as we’ve been forgiven (Matthew 6:12), we reflect the Heavenly economy of releasing debts, underscored via receiving God’s mercy on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement; Leviticus 16; Isaiah 58:1–12).

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Prophets and Writings Torah

Clearing the ‘sins of the fathers’: How repentance breaks generational curses (Leviticus 22; 1Kings 2; 1Samuel 21–22; Matthew 12)

"Clearing the 'sins of the fathers': How repentance breaks generational curses." Brass balance scale has one round stone on one side but nothing on the other side. Two stacks of flat round stones are behind the scale.

God has a grand design unfolding over eons and generations, using even flawed individuals to fulfill prophecy. This study explores how through King Saul’s massacre of the priests who gave fugitive David some of the retired Bread of the Presence, God removed Eli’s sinful priestly line as foretold years earlier. Though Saul faced due punishment, God first used his wickedness to kill Eli’s descendants as promised.

Generations after that promise and hundreds of years after the instructions given in Torah reading אָמַר Emor (“say,” Leviticus 21–24), David felt convicted for the priests’ and neighboring villagers’ death but not for what might be considered a minor Torah breach. Yet Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) affirmed that God held David guiltless. God’s plan surpassed surface events, working through personalities with long-term consequences.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Torah

Ancient wisdom for modern boundaries: Immigration, identity and loving your neighbor (Leviticus 19; Matthew 18)

Ancient wisdom for modern boundaries: Immigration, identity and loving your neighbor (Leviticus 19; Matthew 18). Adobe AI artwork of a sad looking woman with a broken heart next to her.

Though 3,500 years separates us from the instructions of Heaven to Israel in the Torah reading קְדֹשִׁים Kedoshim/Qedoshim (Leviticus 19:1–20:26) and 2,000 years from Messiah Yeshua’s (Christ Jesus’) counsel in Matthew 18, the message is the same today as before: respect God and others. This study explores the surprisingly relevant principles for today’s society include the dangers of Moloch worship, which at its core is the pursuit of personal benefit at the expense of future generations (infants presented as offerings).

Among the parallels between the Ten Commandments and the “Holiness Code” of Leviticus 19 is the tie between the Golden Rule (Lev. 19:18) and the Sixth Commandment, particularly the role of empathy in addressing conflicts and corrections in relationships in the body of believers.

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Apostolic Writings Atonement Discussions Torah

Heaven’s firewall: How Yom Kippur teaches us to filter thoughts through Yeshua (Leviticus 16–18; 1Corinthians 5–6)

Heaven's firewall: How Yom Kippur teaches us to filter thoughts through Yeshua (Leviticus 16-18; 1Corinthians 5-6). Adobe AI artwork of a woman with exposed brain divided between dark and bright hemispheres.

This study of Torah reading אַחֲרֵי מוֹת Acharei Mot (“after the deaths,” Leviticus 16–18) with 1Corinthians 5–6 explores complex modern moral issues, including organ donation, gender identity and spiritual decay. The seemingly paradoxical dual character of God as “high and lifted up” and “God with us” helps us understand the Messiah’s role as high priest and the two covering-removing offerings of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).

These passages emphasize the need for spiritual discernment. Like a firewall against cyberattacks, we must filter thoughts and experiences through God’s words and recognizing whose voice we are listening to as we navigate the complexities of life, be they ancient or modern.