Tag: curses

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Discussions Torah

Deeper meaning of First Fruits: Give God your first & best (Deuteronomy 26–27)

"Deeper meaning of First Fruits: Give God your first and best (Deuteronomy 26-27)." Adobe Firefly AI image of a woman standing in a vineyard holding a basket full of grain, grapes and other fruit.

The first fruits offering explored in this study of the Torah reading כִּי־תָבוֹא Ki Tavo (Deuteronomy 26:1–29:9) reveals God’s desire for our hearts — not just our outward obedience. The narrative reminds us that despite our struggles and feelings of worthlessness, God values us deeply. Tithing further demonstrates how we are to share our blessings with others.

Yet the sobering curses warn that internal rebellion has severe consequences, even to the point of unthinkable acts.

These passages call us to examine our motives and align our hearts with God’s. For when we do, the prophecies of restoration reveal the bountiful blessings that await those who wholeheartedly return to the LORD.

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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 Discussions Torah

How Heaven’s gardening lessons help us avoid cursed results (Deuteronomy 27–28; Matthew 13)

How Heaven's gardening lessons help us avoid cursed results (Deuteronomy 27-28; Matthew 13)

The Parable of the Sower is one of the most memorable of the Gospel teachings of Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus). The personal lessons of the four types of soil seem far removed from the sobering blessings and warnings for ancient Israel in Torah reading כִּי־תָבוֹא Ki Tavo (“when you come in,” Deut. 26:1–29:8). This study unearths the powerful insights just below the surface in both passages.

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Discussions Torah

How you can recognize the Antichrist (Numbers 22–24)

How to recognize the Antichrist (Numbers 22-24)

The prophet Bilam (Balaam), described in the Torah reading בָּלָק Balak (Numbers 22:2–25:9), was a gentile prophet from the ancient country of Aram. We see that even though Bilam was a Gentile, he was a prophet of God.

God did not only send prophets to Israel. God, in His mercy, sent prophets to all the nations of the world.

Unfortunately, we meet with Bilam, not in his early years when God first called him to prophetic office, when his heart was open to God. Instead, we are meeting Bilam at the point when his evil inclination has overtaken the good in him. We follow along with him as his greed, corruption and vanity lead him to his downfall, which was so complete, that his story is given to us a template of how the Antichrist will one day function in the world, deceiving, if possible, the elect.

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Discussions Torah

Leviticus 25–27: No freedom or redemption without the law

The freedom the world gives is fleeting but the freedom God gives is eternal. (Photo by Freeimages.com/ David Simmonds via Creative Commons License)

There is no freedom in a society without a baseline of laws that help people balance their rights and responsibilities to themselves and to their neighbor. There’s also no freedom in a place where people do not consider each other as brothers and sisters. At Mt. Sinai, God made all those who left Egypt kinsman under the law. At Pentecost, Yeshua made all those who believe in Him heirs of Abraham and the freedom and responsibility that comes with being sons and daughters of God.