Tag: exile

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Discussions Jubilee Prophets and Writings Sabbatical Year

What happens when we take Heaven’s mercy for granted (Jeremiah 16–17)

What happens when we take Heaven's mercy for granted (Jeremiah 16-17)

“It’s good to be king!” Except when invaders are about to conquer your kingdom because of your predecessors forgot Who put the crown on their heads and Who gave them the Land they ruled. The closing chapters of the Bible book of Vayiqra (Leviticus) foretell of Israel’s dystopian future, but it didn’t have to be that way. The companion passage to the Torah reading בְּהַר Behar / בְּחֻקֹּתַי Bechukotai (“on the mountain” / “in My statutes,” Leviticus 25–27), shows a moment just before that horror arrived when a king tried to reverse centuries of oppression in the Promised Land, Heaven’s mercy for Israel and the world.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Prophets and Writings Torah

Cost of freedom: Why plagues are necessary at the Exodus and Day of the LORD

Cost of freedom: Why the plagues of Egypt were necessary

https://hallel.info/wp-content/uploads/210123-Parashat-Bo-Exodus-10v1-13v16.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:21:45 — 56.2MB)Subscribe: RSS Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 1Corinthians 10:11 NASB The gavel falls, and the sentence is prison. The citizen turned felon doesn’t want to […]

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Appointments With God Chanukah Discussions Prophets and Writings

Haggai and Chanukah: How Messiah fills God’s House with greater glory

Heaven calls us to be “ambassadors” of the Messiah (Christ) and “temple(s) of God” (1Cor. 3:16; 6:19), and Yeshua (Jesus) called His body a temple (John 2:19–22).

The prophet Haggai’s message was that the House of God is not a building, but it does reflect the heart condition of the people. Haggai proclaimed that the glory of God and foretold a time when God will fill His house with a greater glory than He did when Solomon commissioned the first Temple (Hag. 2:9). That greater glory arrived when Yeshua stepped foot into the Temple during the Festival of the Dedication (Chanukah, John 10:22-39) in fulfillment of what that prophet foretold would be a crucial work of the Mashiakh (Christ).

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Discussions Prophets and Writings

Isaiah 60: Feeling lost, alone, forgotten? Grab Heaven’s Lifeline — the Messiah

As Rosh Hashanah (aka Yom Teruah and Day of Blowing Trumpets) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonment) approach, it’s a good reminder to be more forgiving of the small things that others do to annoy us. And what we do to annoy them.

We need to forgive those as we want to be forgiving. The Messiah forgives a massive amount of trespasses. The LORD covers over those egregious sins, so we can at least let go of the much smaller trespasses others do to us. 

We may think we’re far removed from the horror show described in the Torah reading כי תבוא Ki Tavo (“when you come in,” Deut. 26:1-29:8), but each of us encounters stress that pushes off any mask from our true characters.

A key point in this passage is entering and living in the “rest” God gives us, fully realized through the Messiah and the Spirit. Like Israel’s move from Mitsraim (Egypt) to the Land, our entering God’s “rest” (Hebrews 3–4) is all about a change of identity, purpose and character.

This Bible study looks at the parallel reading for Ki Tavo: Isaiah 60, which Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) quoted. The Exile, both literal and spiritual, is a time of darkness and desolation. When the darkness is great, the light is even easier to spot. Unfortunately, we tend to focus on the darkness. Most of our entertainment focuses on the darkness. God has shown us the Light of the world.

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Discussions Jubilee Prophets and Writings Sabbatical Year Torah

Leviticus 25-26: God’s freedom-based economy

The reading בְּהַר Behar (“on mount” [Sinai], Leviticus 25:1-26:2) is the shortest parashah (portion) of the entire Torah cycle, but it gets to the heart of a recurring problem as God has been working to call back mankind from wandering away from the only Source of life. Just as land needs rest from cultivation to produce bounty, how much more do people need to be freed from the burdens weighing on their hearts and minds.

Here’s what true freedom looks like: Yeshua (Jesus) preached it, died in it, rose in it and intercedes for us to make us continue in mercy and grace.

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Discussions Prophets and Writings

Amos 6-9: Only the Messiah can restore Israel’s Northern Tribes

God spoke to Amos about his judgement on the Northern Tribes of Israel through a basket of summer's bounty. Photo by zdelia, Freeimages.com.

Our sins affect other people, including our children and grandchildren or as Scripture says, “to the third and fourth generation.” We aren’t punished for our parent’s sins, but we have been affected by them. We suffer when other people sin.

The ancient House of Israel were so far gone, so utterly unrepentant that God’s only recourse was to send 90% of them to the grave and the other 10% into exile. The exile will end only when Messiah Yeshua returns to the earth.

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Discussions Prophets and Writings

Amos 5: Why are the prudent silent?

There will come a time when prudent judges will remain silent rather than risk hardship. Photo via Creative Commons license by FreeBibleimages.org

Have you ever wondered what the “Wormwood” mentioned in Rev. 8:11 is all about? There is an ongoing lesson in Scripture about the herb wormwood that helps explain what it has to do with God’s actions on the Day of the LORD.