Category: Torah

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Discussions Torah

Genesis 18–19: How to show hospitality in an hostile world

Abraham and Lot offer the world concrete examples of radical hospitality. Both of them had an overflowing love for their fellow man that was stronger than the fear and “stranger danger” that holds most of us back from helping those in need.

Many focus on illicit behavior, but Sodom’s utter lack of hospitality and its culture of fear is why God wiped them off the map, destroying them so utterly that their lush valley is now an ocean of salt.

Torah reading וַיֵּרָא Vayera (“[and] he appeared,”) is a fair warning to us in our day. We must be careful when responding to the strangers in our midst with fear rather than love.

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Discussions Torah

Genesis 12:1–17:27: Why God cannot be bribed

When you are called to move, what is your first question? Do I move to the next town, next state, across the country or to a foreign land? We usually want to know our exact destination before we move. 


We also prefer to plan how we will transport ourselves? Will we go by car, train, bus or plane? 


In the Torah section לֶךְ-לְךָ Lech Lecha (“get going,” Gen. 12:1-17:27), Abram was not given a destination. It’s a strange place to be when you don’t know where you’re going. It takes trust to make the first step. And this is the beginning of his journey to become Abraham, father of faith in God (Rom. 4:16-25).

We also learn through this Bible study why all cultures are not equal and what was truly the unforgivable problem in Sodom and Gomorrah.

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Discussions Torah

Deuteronomy 29–30: Is circumcision of the heart too much to bear?

It should be an easy choice: life vs. death. Unfortunately many people willingly choose death rather than life because they don’t want to submit their hearts, souls and minds to God.

It’s important to understand that following Torah is our free choice. It is easy to fall into analysis paralysis of learning God’s instructions, and Deuteronomy 29-30 (Torah reading Netzavim) can bring us back to our center when we fall into that trap.

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Discussions Torah

Deuteronomy 16:18–21:9: Judge shopping and other travesties of justice the LORD hates

Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) said, “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 5:30 NASB). But how do we learn the will of the Father by which Yeshua judges?

As Yeshua lived by “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4; Luke 4:4; Deut. 8:3), so can we. The Torah passage שֹׁפְטִים Shoftim (“judges,” Deut. 16:18–21:9) is all about how judges and officers of justice should conduct themselves. 

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Discussions Torah

Deuteronomy 11–15: Get to know the LORD better by Heaven’s statutes and judgments

Don't Chuck the Torah Getting to Know Yeshua through the Torah

Torah reading רְאֵה Re’eh (“see,” Deut. 11:26–16:17) immediately starts out with Moses’s reminder that God wants to bless the legacy of Israel in the land He provided, but He expects them to act in a certain manner. As His representatives on earth, the descendants of Israel are to act like Him, not like people of the nations around them.

Yeshua (Jesus), the Word of God made flesh, gave His apostles and those who would follow them the same advice: If you want to know how Yeshua walked and how to imitate Him, then all these stories will help you understand Yeshua better.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Prophets and Writings Torah

Deuteronomy 7–11: Having a Messiah-like heart for God’s words

Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) gave three answers to HaSatan (the devil) after His 40 days in the wilderness. What was Yeshua trying to say with, “Man should not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4)? In His refutations of HaSatan while being tempted, Yeshua quoted heavily from the Torah reading עקב Ekev/Eikev (“consequence,” Deuteronomy 7:12–11:25.

What did Yeshua want His disciples to learn from this account, recorded in Matthew 4:1–11? Anytime Yeshua cited scripture, He seemed to referred to the entire context of that verse, not merely the verse itself. Yeshua’s apostles taught in the same manner. They cited a reference, expecting their disciples to go to scripture and read it in context.

When Yeshua confronted HaSatan, He pulled from much of Ekev, not just the small snippets He quoted.

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Discussions Prophets and Writings Torah

Deuteronomy 4; Isaiah 40: Cling to your Savior as He takes you into the Kingdom

Don't fall off: Like a tram clings to the cable as it ascends the mountain, so too Moses appeals to the second generation of Israel to cleave to God, Who took them out of slavery in Egypt (Deuteronomy 4:4).
Just as this tram rides the cable from the Alyeska Resort hotel to the top of the mountain in Girdwood, Alaska, so too we cling to the LORD, Who takes us from our house of bondage, our old way of life, to a second birth as a new creation of the Kingdom of God. (photo by Jeff of Hallel Fellowship, May 2018)

Imagine life’s journey as a cable car. We are trams, and what we ultimately depend on in life is the cable. Moshe (Moses) in the Torah reading ואתחנן Va’etchanan (“and I pleaded,” Deut. 3:23–7:11) appealed to the second generation post-Exodus to remember the One Who carried them patiently from their life in bondage to freedom. Moshe called born-again Israel to forsake all the pretender gods of the Promised Land, to learn the love the LORD has for them and to leave a legacy so their descendants will turn back from foolishness apart from God — even enslaved again in exile.

This same message of faith, grace and mercy communicated through the Torah is what Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) proclaim with power and bring to ultimate reality.