Message 5-17-08
Behar-On the Mount
Leviticus 25:1-26:2
Introduction
God instructs Moses to tell Israel that in every seventh year, the land shall observe a Sabbath rest. The land is to be left alone. In addition, after 49 years (seven times seven), a Yovel or Jubilee year is to be celebrated when all the land that had been sold during that time should be returned to its original owners and slaves are to be freed.
Leviticus 25:23
23 'The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.
It would be nice if the state of Israel would read and obey this verse of Scripture. It would nice if those Church’s in Christianity that boycott Israel in favor of the Palestinians would read this Scripture. It would be nice if the Arab countries would read this verse. It would nice if the rest of the nations of the world that come against Israel would understand God’s covenant with Israel. We know that His covenant with Israel extends beyond the Jewish people and is given to all who are part of Israel through grafting in.
Romans 11:17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, 18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, "Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in." 20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.
Romans 11:23 And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
The Apostle/Shaliach Paul (Shaul) writes about grafting in and explains what he means. He is saying that bloodline does not guarantee anyone a place in the Israel of God. That Israel is composed of Believers in Messiah Yeshua, His atoning sacrifice, His resurrection and in the Torah given by God to His people. So, Shaul is saying that the natural branch, referring to the Jewish people, can be removed from the tree that is Israel due to a lack of belief in Messiah Yeshua. Then he goes on to say that if they come to faith in Yeshua they will be grafted back into the tree of Israel again.
The interesting part of what Shaul wrote in this section of Romans is found in verses 18 through 21 where he says that if the natural branches were cut off from the tree and the branches made up of the nations and Ephraimites have been grafted in through their faith in Yeshua they must not become arrogant against the natural branches who have been removed because the natural branches can be added back in again and they the other grafted in branches can be removed from the tree due to arrogance.
It would almost seem like this is a form of the punishment for Lashon Hara. We know from our past Torah portions that the punishment for Lashon Hara is a skin disease. Perhaps being cut off from the tree of Israel is a new punishment that does not involve skin diseases but removal from the tree. As the diseased would be placed outside the camp until they were healed being cut off from the tree of Israel is another way of being cut off from the tree of Israel? Now, I am not a gardener by any means, in fact if I try to plant or cultivate something it stands a 50-50 chance of dying, but I know that when a diseased limb appears in a tree it will be removed to try to save the tree by limiting the spread to the rest of the tree.
This is what the Lord does when someone turns away from Messiah or questions His validity. This is what happens when people choose to reject Torah. They are removed from the tree to try to protect the tree. God does not want poison fruit to infect the rest of His tree of Israel. He cultivates this tree to bring forth new fruit and to grow to new heights but like any gardener He has to prune the tree to keep it healthy so it can grow properly. In our case God waters the tree with the Tree of Life found through Yeshua and through His Torah. God can use sources outside the tree to help Him in His work and He does through the remaining identifiable remnant of Judah. It is through Judah and their holding onto the oracles of God that this is accomplished.
Romans 3:2 Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.
051 lo,gion logion {log'-ee-on}
Meaning: a brief utterance, a divine oracle (doubtless because oracles were generally brief), in the NT, the words or utterances of God, of the contents of the Mosaic law
I am always amused when someone tells me that Shaul (Paul) did away with the Torah. If that were true why does he always, somehow, bring his letters back to his upholding the Torah? In this part of Romans he is speaking about the Jewish people and their part in God’s plan and how they are being used for His purpose. God uses nations, who do not believe in Him, to do His will and to carry out His plan. People always have the right to reject God but that does not stop Him from using them to accomplish His desire.
Psalm 20:4 May He grant you according to your heart's desire, and fulfill all your purpose.
Psalm 21:2 You have given him his heart's desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips.
Romans 10:1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.
God wants to grant your heart’s desire but that desire must be in line with what God has said He will give to those who choose to follow His ways. The end result and greatest gift that God can give is the gift of eternal life. This gift is not a fleeting one, like riches or material possessions that can vanish in a moment. Eternal life is as real as it can get. It is the one thing that keeps me going when things get tough. Faith in Yeshua can only carry you so far. To move further on in your relationship with God you must learn and grow in your understanding of His word found in the Torah and the rest of the Bible.
If you are trying to learn about your walk by reading the Apostolic Scriptures (NT) first you are going about it all wrong. You must have a foundation in the Torah and then you can tackle the writings of the Apostles or Shalichim. If the leaders of Israel and the nations of the world were God-fearing people they would not be doing the things they are doing. This is why it is so important for us to pray for our leaders. We must pray, pray, pray and then pray some more because as our leaders go so does our nation. Whether you live here in the United States or in another country located somewhere else in the world you must pray for your leaders to stop trying to force Israel to do their will and to let God’s will reign supreme but it may not be the case because God has a plan and His plan will not be deterred.
Jeremiah 32:22-23
22 'You have given them this land, of which You swore to their fathers to give them -- "a land flowing with milk and honey." 23 'And they came in and took possession of it, but they have not obeyed Your voice or walked in Your Torah. They have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do; therefore You have caused all this calamity to come upon them.
Jeremiah was known as the “Weeping Prophet” because of the tone of most of his prophecies. They showed a dismal future for Israel. In fact when the country was overrun Jeremiah’s own people threw him down into a cistern or well and it was a pagan who removed him from it. Jeremiah’s words came to pass and in this passage he gives the reasons why. God had fulfilled His promise to bring Israel into the Promised Land that He had given to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob and He did this. After Israel took possession of the land they did not continue to follow the ways their ancestors had. They did not obey the voice of the Lord not did they obey His Torah or teachings. They rejected His ways to follow their own ways and the ways of the very nations that God had commended Israel to destroy. They did not heed God’s instructions and the nations of the land became a snare to them and brought Israel down.
Joshua 7:11 "Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. For they have even taken some of the accursed things, and have both stolen and deceived; and they have also put it among their own stuff.
Judges 10:10 And the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, "We have sinned against You, because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals!"
Daniel 9:11 "Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your Torah, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Torah of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him.
Israel transgressed against the Torah of their God and God poured out the curses that were associated with breaking God’s covenant with Israel. Never mind about the rest of the world we need to look to our houses first and get our lives in line with God’s will before we point a finger at anyone else.
Matthew 7:4 "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye?
In other words do not presume to judge another until you have judged yourself. Many of us spend way too much time pointing out what someone else is doing and they are not doing what God has told us to do. If we are not living out the ways of God in our own lives how can we dare to point the fickle finger of fate at someone else? We must be living lights to others and that means we have to learn to follow God’s will and do what we can in our own lives first and then we can try to help someone else in their walk. We can try to help, not judge. The only one who can sit in judgment of anyone else is God. We can point out to someone else that we believe they might be breaking God’s Torah and offer them suggestions on what they can do to fix the problem but we cannot judge them.
Romans 2:1 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.
Romans 14:13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way.
James 4:11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the Torah and judges the Torah. But if you judge the Torah, you are not a doer of the Torah but a judge.
James 4:12 There is one Torah giver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?
When we sit in judgment of our fellow man we are sitting in the place of one true judge – God. We place a stumbling block in the way of others when all we do is criticize someone else. It does no good to constantly criticize someone else. We need to encourage others not demean them. Of course there are times when we need to share the truth with someone when they are doing something against God’s Torah but we must use wisdom and pray for God’s guidance before we take action. We have to know what place a person is in their personal walk. Each and every one of us are in a different place in our walk. We need to learn to heed the voice of God in our lives and to do all that we can to obey Him. We can do this when we have Yeshua in our lives because He leads us in God’s ways.
Ephesians 2:12-16
12 that at that time you were without Messiah, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Messiah Yeshua you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the Torah of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the tree, thereby putting to death the enmity.
Too many people try to use passages like this to show that the Torah has been done away with. My questions would be how that is possible based on what Yeshua had to say about the Torah?
Matthew 5:18 "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the Torah till all is fulfilled.
If you would take what Shaul (Paul) wrote as meaning the Torah has been done away with then how do you take what Yeshua said concerning the Torah? The next point I would make is who the greater authority is, Shaul (Paul) is or Yeshua? What Shaul was discussing in this passage from his letter to the Ephesians was not doing away with the Torah but the rules that the Rabbis had put in place that went against the Torah. God’s intention was to bring His children together and make them into one new man. This new man would be based on the principles of faith in Yeshua and following the Torah as given by God to Israel.
I would even go so far as saying that this one new man is an Israel who follows Messiah and obeys His Torah. To think that it could be anything else does damage to the Torah and is a great disservice to God. God did not give the Torah in order to show us as fallible we were. He already knew that! He gave us the Torah to learn what He expects from His people. God loves us so much He desires nothing but the best for us and God’s best is found in His Son Yeshua. Life is hard enough as it is but it would be even harder if we did not have Yeshua to fall back on. You might look around you and point to this one or that one and say they do not believe in Yeshua or even in God and look at how happy they are?
Maybe they have material success or maybe they appear to be happy but this life is very short and the measure of a man is not found in their material success but in their relationship with God and their fellow man. If you do not have a relationship with God and dislike your fellow man the road you are on will be the road less travelled. My friends, as you pray for the leaders of Israel and the leaders of the nations of the world remember to pray for your fellow man, even those who you may not like, but especially pray for yourselves and your relationship with God.
Father of all being, we give praise: true to Your word, You remember Your covenant with creation.
© 2007 Mordecai Silver -Tree of Life Messianic Ministries. This teaching maybe shared in its entirety as long as proper credit is attributed to the author Mordecai Silver.