Israel 2012!

 It is the land our Father has chosen to establish his kingdom.  Therefore, as believers, it is the land of our inheritance and so it is our duty to support it.

Examples of using ancient Hebrew to look at scripture

Taking a look at the Name of God, the word Shalom, and other interesting stuff using the ancient Hebrew picture language. Enjoy!

In the beginning, there was covenant Pt. 3

As depicted in the exodus of Israel, Torah was only given to Israel after they came into covenant with God.  At Passover, the blood on the doorposts represented Yeshua’s blood which saved them from the judgment for sin – that being death.  Then God delivered them from Egypt (the house of bondage or sin).  So being delivered from the bondage of sin, they were then baptized in the Red Sea.  The water of the Red Sea represented the Word that renewed the Israelites while exacting judgment upon the Egyptians (sinners) who died therein.  Then, coming out on the other side of the sea, they left behind the old man and were symbolically reborn.  It was following this event that God proposes marriage to Israel at the Mount.  When Israel accepted, it was then that God revealed His Torah to teach them how to be a pleasing bride, how to be a holy nation unto Him. 

From this we can see that Torah does not precede salvation, rather, Torah comes after salvation to sanctify us unto God. It is only when we choose by faith to enter into covenant with Him that the process of sanctification begins.  When God rescued Israel from the bondage of sin and set them free in Him, His Torah was then given to maintain their new found liberty by directing them away from the ways of the world (or sin). We see that God affirms this to be true in the first of the ten commandments, which says: “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Exodus 20:2.  Looking at this commandment from a covenant perspective, it’s clear that God is not only affirming Himself as our deliverer from bondage, but also our Husband. 

In the Hebrew Bible “I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” represents the totality of the first commandment; the second commandment begins with “You are to have no other Gods before me….” What is interesting about this fact is that the first “commandment” does not have a “do” or a “don’t” as the remaining nine commandments.  The first commandment is simply a statement.  You may ask how can a statement be a “commandment” if there is no directive?  Well, if you agree with the premise of the statement, then you are acknowledging, first and foremost, WHO God is to you and WHAT he did for you.  This is an act of faith. When you put your faith in this truth: God is my Husband who saved me from sin, the rest of the commandments fall into place.

So when we think of what a husband is, some descriptions such as: leader, provider, lover, protector, comforter, friend, confidante, and helper, come to mind.  It is interesting to note that God reiterates this phrase “I am the Lord thy God” (i.e I am your Husband) over 30 times throughout the Tanakh (Old Testament).  It’s like God is drilling into our brains that He is our Husband. Why would God see the need to reinforce his role so many times?  Could it be that He wants us to understand that He loves us more than anything and wants the very best for us? If we believe this to be true, then we should never perceive that His teachings (Torah) is the source of any bondage. Remembering that God saved us from the bondage of sin, it would be counter intuitive to believe that he would put us back into any form of bondage after He delivered us from it.

Looking at this from a natural stand point, would a true husband put his spouse in bondage? Absolutely, not! While some may perceive the guidelines within Torah as limiting or constraining, these guidelines are actually designed for our protection, preservation, and prosperity.  I gave an analogy of this concept in my first blog “Faith and Torah” using a parent and child as an example.

Obedience leads to blessing, and Deuteronomy 28 clearly illustrates this concept. When we adhere to what God is teaching us, His blessing follows.  So God made sure to give us an instruction manual to show us the path to optimal health, safety, protection, justice, equality, victory, peace etc. True liberty is not found in exercising one’s own free will, but in subjecting our will to that of our Heavenly Father. And because we have come into union with a Holy God, it naturally requires that we also be holy which is outlined in Leviticus 11:44, 45; 19:2; and 20:7, and later quoted by Kefa (Peter) in chapter 1:16. Accepting the free gift of salvation is only the first step in our journey of covenant with God. From that day forward, we commit to following His teachings wholeheartedly simply because we love for Him.  When we remember who God is to us and what He did for us, obedience to Torah becomes the desire of the heart.

Shalom.

In the beginning, there was covenant Pt. 2

When we enter into a marriage covenant, it would be incumbent upon us to understand what it means to be party to a marriage in order to have a successful union.  If we closely examine the scriptures we see that our Heavenly Father laid out His role and expectation of those who would enter into covenant with Him. 

In Exodus chapter 19: 3-6 God proposes marriage to Israel through Moshe (Moses), in that He promises Israel shall be a “peculiar treasure unto me above all people”, “a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” if they accept the conditions of the marriage which are “obey[ing] [his] voice” and “keep[ing] [his] covenant.”  Once Moshe relayed this proposal to Israel (vs. 7) and the people accepted (vs. 8), God immediately prepared to come to earth to meet with Israel to make His vows and seal the covenant (vs. 9-25). 

Through the next four chapters of Exodus (20-23), God lays out to Moshe the terms and conditions required for entering into covenant with Him. In chapter 24, Moshe relays God’s instructions and statutes to Israel, who agree in verse 3 to abide by all they heard.  It’s important to note that once Israel vocalized their acceptance of the terms of the marriage contract, God has oxen sacrificed.  What is significant about this act is that in the ancient Hebrew picture language, the first letter of the Aleph-bet represents God and is depicted by an ox head.   Therefore, we see that God demonstrates His entering into covenant with Israel through the symbolic slaying of Himself, the shedding of His own blood.  This sacrifice displayed that the promise He made to be a husband unto Israel was sealed by His own blood.  This is seen in verse 6 when Moshe took “half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.”  Following which he took “the book of the covenant” [that is the writings of all the words God spoke to Moshe in the preceding chapters 20-23) and read all the words to Israel. When Israel agreed to abide by all these words (vs. 7), “Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words” (vs. 8). In that moment, God and Israel entered into covenant, with God as their Husband, their Father, their Lord.

To give a little background on the significance of blood covenant, the cutting of an animal and walking through its separated parts represented the integrity of one’s word.  It was understood that by walking through the pieces of an animal, the individual was submitting themselves to be slaughtered (as displayed) if they didn’t keep their word.  For example, in Genesis 15:8-21, when Abram asks God how will he know that His promises are sure, God has Abram divide several animals through which God later walks in the midst of,  thus signifying that His promise to Abram is unbreakable.

And from this covenant that God made with Abraham, God made another covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai.  With Abraham we saw the cutting of several animals to seal the promise that a nation (Israel) would come who would inhabit a land where God would establish his kingdom; this promise was symbolized by circumcision. Then when Israel is delivered from bondage, God enters into a marriage covenant with them to make Israel His people.  This vow is sealed by God shedding His own blood (the sacrifice of the oxen) at the mount. 

Following these events, God calls Moshe up into the mount to give instructions on how to build a tabernacle for God to dwell with His bride on earth.  We understand that it took 40 days for all the instructions regarding the construction, sanctification, and priestly service of the earthly tabernacle to be relayed, then God concluded by explaining that His Sabbath would stand as an eternal symbol of their marriage covenant (Gen 31:12-17). In other words, the observance of God’s Sabbath would be akin to wearing a wedding band as an outward sign of your commitment to your spouse.

Torah continues to expand on the terms of the marriage contract between God and His people by outlining what was required to make the union fruitful and prosperous while Israel learned about the character of their God.  Torah can also be seen as an instruction manual that a father gives to a child to help them grow and develop, or it can be viewed as our constitution for governance, for morality, equality, and justice. 

In essence, when we choose to enter into covenant relationship with God, we subject ourselves to learn the truth of His ways as found in His teachings, which is Torah.  As covenant partners we look to please Him in our lifestyle and worship of Him, but we cannot know how to do these things without instruction from God himself.  Indeed, this is what Torah is all about; it represents the very foundation of our relationship with God.  Without Torah we cannot properly serve Him or please Him for we would not know what He requires of us.

So when we say yes to the Lord to take up our cross and follow Him, it’s not just about the benefits we can reap from our relationship with God, but rather, our focus ought to be how we can serve Him.  We are already saved by grace, but once we become a part of the family of God, we begin the process of learning how to please our Heavenly Father and Husband.

In the final segment of this series we’ll look at the first commandment from a covenant perspective and uncover why it’s integral to understanding who God is to us.

Shalom.

In the beginning, there was covenant. Pt.1

What is a covenant? The Merrian-Webster dictionary gives the following definition: “a usually formal, solemn, and binding agreement” or “a written agreement or promise usually under seal between two or more parties especially for the performance of some action”

The Hebrew word for covenant is be-reet which is derived from a root meaning “to cut.” Therefore, to enter into a covenant requires the “cutting” or shedding of blood. In essence, covenant can be described as a promise sealed in blood.

For many Christians this action is reflective of Yeshua’s (Jesus’) sacrifice wherein His blood was shed to purchase or seal our salvation. Yet, how many of us consider the fact that God established covenant with man before man was even created? The scriptures show us that from the very beginning, Yeshua was already slain. Revelation 13:8 talks of the book life belonging to the Lamb who was “slain from the foundation of the world.” (KJV) 1 Peter 1:20 also describes the Lamb of God as being “foreordained before the foundation of the world”.

These concepts are more than just figurative. Signs of God’s promise to redeem man are literally encoded within the text of the scriptures. Friends, because the Word of God is the very essence of God, there is no limit to what you can discover within the Word. So I wrote this blog to share some insights regarding this topic which can only be seen by using Hebrew.

If we consider the first words of the Bible as the building block of all creation, or in essence, the chief cornerstone of creation, then we should be able to find signs of Yeshua in these words because Ephesians 2:20 describes that Yeshua is “the chief corner stone.” In addition, we know that Yeshua is the living Word of God and the gospel account of Yochanan (John) 1:1 says “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” So, from these verses we understand that all things exist by Him, which confirms his authority as the chief cornerstone of all creation.

By using Hebrew we find that within the very first verse of the Bible lies a description of the plan of salvation.  Many believe God’s salvation plan is first spoken inGenesis 3:15 after Adam and Eve sin, however, using Hebrew we see it’s actually visible in Genesis 1:1. In English we see the first threes words in Genesis 1:1 as,“in the beginning”, but in Hebrew, the first word is “B’resheet.”

Now, the word B’resheet consists of six Hebrew letters: Beit, Reish, Aleph, Shin, Yod, and Tav =

בראשית

(read from right to left).

With credit to the teaching ministry of Pastor Mark Biltz the following analysis of the word B’resheet is provided:

Within B’resheet we find several other words:

בר=son

א = God

ראש= head or king

שית = thorns

ברש = tree

If we put this together we can see: the Son of God, thorns, head, and tree.  Note the letter Aleph (underlined) which represents God is in the middle of the word B’resheet and on either side of it are the letters for the word tree.  Also, God being a King would wear a crown, but here we see the crown is thorns.  So if we put this together we have: the Son of God with a crown of thorns upon His head while hung on the tree.

בראשית

Other words we find in B’resheet are:

ברית =covenant

שי=gift

The letter tav (underlined above) is the last letter in the Hebrew aleph-bet.  Understanding that the meaning of each Hebrew letter (when read together) proclaims the gospel message, the Tav essentially completes or seals the plan of God. Tav means mark or a sign and in ancient Hebrew script it was written as a cross – it is a covenant letter and identifies ownership.  And it was the mark of the Tav (a cross) that God instructed to be placed on the foreheads of His remnant in Ezekiel 9:4 to protect (or save) them from death. We also know that Yeshua died upon a tree (in the form of a cross) to seal our salvation.

 So when reading B’resheet

בראשית

from right to left we see: the Son of God is the gift of salvation.

Isaiah 46:10 says that God announced the end at the beginning and Yeshua declared in Revelation chapter 1 that He is the beginning and the end (the Aleph and the Tav). We just learned how Genesis 1:1 is literal proof of this truth.

When it was revealed to me that the very first word which God wrote was a depiction of His promise to redeem me, I realized that reading Torah is a window to see the very heart of God. In fact, the first word in Torah, which we just learned, begins with the Hebrew letter Beit ב and the last letter of Torah (Deut. 34:12) is Lamed ל.  Reading right to left,
Lamed+ Beit =  לב which means heart. So, Torah truly is the heart of God.

I will end with this: How do you treat the heart of the one you love? Would you treat it irreverently or forsake it, or would you cherish it, adore it, and respect it?

In my next blog we’ll take a deeper look at this covenant God made with us and whether we really understand what it means to enter into covenant with Him.

Shalom.