As we start the new cycle of Torah readings, the congregation will be focusing on other areas of the Scriptures. Here’s where we’re going next.
Category: Prophets and Writings
These studies cover the ancient grouping of Hebrew Bible writings called Nevi’im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings). These books include from Joshua through Malachi in the conventional Christian canon.
The promiscuous wife of a prophet of Israel and the mother of mankind walk into a Bible lesson…. The joke is on us if we don’t catch why the Hoshea (Hosea) was told to marry a harlot and connect her predicament of being discovered to the test given to Chavah (Eve) at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad (Genesis 3–4).
Here’s a hint: “Nakedness” is an important symbol of a spiritual condition used in teachings in the Hebrew and Apostolic scriptures.
You and I are similar to Gomer. When we sin, we want to “get away with it.” We don’t want our sin revealed. We still have to have control over our desires.
This is the second part of a study on how we go into the Creator’s presence by way of the Messiah and how the Creator’s presence goes into us and through us into the world around us by way of the Messiah. Yeshua’s ministry on Earth fulfilled God’s desire to dwell with us, not to be foreign to us. A heart transformed, such as King David’s, welcomes the Kingdom of God and the fact God can see everything in us. The Holy One provides us a way out of temptation to forsake Him when we cry for help from Heaven’s tag team of comforters, Yeshua the Son of Man and the Spirit.
Teachings of Sukkot and Shemeni Atzeret (Tabernacles and the Eighth Day) and of Yeshua’s ministry on Earth are that God desires His dwelling place to be with us — better, within us — not foreign to us. A heart transformed welcomes the Kingdom of God and the fact God can see everything in us. The Holy One provides us a way out of temptation to forsake Him when we cry for help from Heaven’s tag team of comforters, Yeshua the Son of Man and the Spirit.
What does it mean to be “in Christ,” and what does it mean to have “Christ in you”? We go into the Creator’s presence by way of the Messiah. The Creator’s presence goes into us by way of the Messiah.
Among the biblical symbols of Sukkot (festival of Tabernacles, or Booths) is the tent, the temporary dwelling. It reminds us of who we are, where we’ve been and where we’re going. The sukkah is also a visual representation of how to have “Messiah in us” and to be “in Messiah” at the same time.
Why should we study the offerings of Israel’s Tabernacle and Temple, particularly after the arrival of the ultimate offering, Yeshua the Mashiakh (Jesus the Christ)? Thankfully, the prophets the LORD sent ahead of the Mashiakh help explain why this study is critical to learning more about the heart of the Creator of the heavens and the Earth.
The parallel passage (haftarah in Hebrew) for the Torah passage צו Tzav (“command,” Lev. 6:8–8:36) provides a sobering reminder that the Tabernacle has always been about the heart connection to Heaven and not works-based forgiveness. We learn that we are to forgive the sins, transgressions and iniquities of others completely, as God has forgiven ours. And we are to forget them, as God has forgotten ours, freeing us from our “house of bondage” of guilt. That’s a great prelude to the memorial of Pesakh (Passover).
Yosef (Joseph) a betrayed brother turned slave turned prime minister in Mitzraim (Egypt). Daniel a war captive turned wise man turned second to an emperor in Babylon. יהודה המכבי Yehudah ha-Makabi (Judas Maccabeus) a priest of Yisrael turned leader of a successful insurrection against the Seleucid empire’s campaign of forced conversion. Yeshua ha-Mashiakh (Jesus the Christ) in the Temple during the Festival of Dedication. These four accounts may seem to quite disjointed, but the conjunction of the Torah reading מקצ Miketz/Miqetz (Genesis 41:1-44:14, “from the end”) and the celebration of Chanukah/Hannukah helps underscore that ongoing lessons from both help us understand what Yeshua meant by “the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.” (Matthew 24:13 NASB).
Yom Teruah (Day of Blowing [Trumpets]) has a number of nicknames, such as Rosh haShanah (New Year). Regardless of what you call it, Yom Teruah has a special purpose in God’s calendar. It’s a day of remembrance, a day of gathering, a day of awakening and a day of offerings. But mostly, it’s the Judgment Day. It’s a day when the wicked are judged and the righteous are vindicated by the Mashiakh (Messiah).
Apostles Paul and Yokhanan wrote a lot about this day, as did the prophets.