Shelach- Send Forth (שְׁלַח) Audio Podcast June 17, 2023
Notes
Transcript
Numbers 13:1-15:41
REVIEW
TORAH GPS
We continue to use the Torah as our guide to do our portions
Study Numbers, and God has been at work
We started talking about Bamidbar - in the wilderness / Numbers
So far we can summarize what we have studied by this Summary
Count all who can serve Adonai b’Midbar Sinai. Arrange their tents in the camp.
Naso the clans to serve, assigning each a special task. But all tribes bring identical gifts to dedicate the altar. Then God speaks!
b’Ha’alot’cha, in your making go up the lamps, Aharon is told to focus them to shine brightly. Levites dedicated, Passover kept, trumpets blown, the camp moves! But soon the kvetching starts.
Twelve spies you may Sh’lach l’Cha, send for yourself, but fear of giants can set you back …
We spoke about the concept of order:
AS THEY ENCAMP, SO SHALL THEY SET FORWARD.
The reference is to the camps
EVERY MAN IN HIS PLACE.
The meaning of al yado (in his place) is, in his corner and place.
In the Torah Portion today, this principle has even greater significance
In Badmidbar, we also need to consider the 12 tribes - not always obvious, but if we pay attention
Following the Second Coming, the Messiah will send his angels all over the world to re-gather every Jew and bring them back into their Land.
12 months = 12 fruits = 12 tribes
What happens in the 12 Biblical Months - according to tradition
Month Order (Civil) - Action -Hebrew Name - Gregorian calendar
Note that the CONVENTIONAL/ Biblical
Beha’alotcha
When you step up
Aaron stepping up
When you rise up
Beha’alotcha was divided in two sections, which I believe will be more clearly presented to you than the events:
A - Daily lightening of the menorah -consecration of levim -priests (into service of Mishcan) - Second Pesach - Sheni
B- Organization and The movement of the camp
Menorah
Designed in Heaven, Manufactured with minimal effort, as they forged it in one piece.
The menorah was manufacture to emanate the heavenly light, as God wants to show us that even when He works behind the scenes, He also works with us to kindle the lights in the body of Messiah.
Messiah is symbolized in the golden Menorah:
Picture of Messiah Golden Menorah as taught in Gen ch 1:1
The power of repentance - Techuva
Silver trumpets
The rapture
Light- the importance of walking in light
Introduction
Introduction
In this Torah Portion we are going to find the foundation for many of the letters of Paul
We are going to talk about our relationship with the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit
Talk about how we work with the Lord
As we read the story we will draw principles of relationship with God
We are going to compare 13 points in the Tanakh and the ABCs found in the Brit Hadashah /New Testament
The roadmap
We will develop the Torah portion
Draw some principles from it to learn to obey the Holy Spirit
Consult with the Brit Hadashah
Present some food for thought
Introduction
This Torah Portion is the thirty-seventh reading from the Torah is called Shelach, an imperative verb that means "send out."
The portion is so named from the first few words of the second verse: "Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan" (Numbers 13:2).
The Torah reading tells the tragic story of how the spies returned with a bad report about the Land of Promise and influenced the congregation of Israel to rebel against the LORD.
Consequently, God consigned the generation of Moses to wander in the wilderness for forty years.
Indeed, Moses sends twelve spies to the land of Canaan.
Forty days later they return, carrying a huge cluster of grapes, a pomegranate and a fig, to report on a bountiful land.
But ten of the spies warn that the inhabitants of the land are giants and warriors “more powerful than we”;
only Caleb and Joshua insist that the land can be conquered, as God has commanded.
The people weep that they’d rather return to Egypt.
God decrees that Israel’s entry into the land shall be delayed forty years, during which time that entire generation will die out in the desert.
A group of remorseful Jews storm the mountain on the border of the land, and are routed by the Amalekites and Canaanites.
The laws of Meal Offering - menachot (meal, wine and oil offerings) are given, as well as the mitzvah (commandment ) to consecrate a portion of the dough (challah) to God when making bread.
A man violates the Shabbat by gathering sticks, and is put to death.
God instructs to place fringes (tzitzit) on the four corners of our garments, so that we should remember to fulfill the mitzvot (divine commandments).
PRESENTATION
Let us go through the Torah Portion and draw some principles on how to obey God
2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.”
Send agents agents Lit. “participants whose involvement defines the (proposed) situation”; trad. “men.” See the Dictionary under ’ish; Agent
1- We are agents who have a choice, and need to get involved - picture
“one man each, etc.” no spy was dispatched from the tribe of Levi, seeing that this tribe would not receive an ancestral portion of land in the Holy Land
These are men, princes, of might - leaders
These are known to be men of mights as it was applicable in:
2 “I go the way of all the earth; be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man.
On whose initiative were the spies sent?
The way the story is told in Numbers 13, it was by divine command:
God spoke to Moses, saying: “Send you men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel. One man, one man per tribe shall you send, each a prince among them . . .”
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.”
But when Moses recounts these events 40 years later, he tells the people of Israel,
22 “And every one of you came near to me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come.’
23 “The plan pleased me well; so I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe.
The commentaries reconcile these two accounts of the sending of the spies by explaining that the initiative indeed came from the people of Israel.
“Moses then consulted with God, who said to him, ‘Send you men . . . ,’ to imply:
Send them as dictated by your understanding. I am not telling you what to do.
Do as you see fit” (Rashi).
Thus, the spies’ mission, while receiving divine consent, was a human endeavour,
born of the desire of the people and dispatched because “the thing was favourable” in Moses’ eyes.
The result was a tragic setback in the course of Jewish history.
The spies brought back a most demoralizing report, and caused the people to lose faith in God’s promise of the Land of Israel as their eternal heritage.
The entire generation was then deemed unfit to inherit the land, and it was decreed that they would live out their lives in the desert.
Only 40 years later did Moses’ successor, Joshua, lead a new generation across the Jordan River and into the Promised Land.
(Joshua and Caleb were the only two spies to speak in favour of conquering the land, and the only two men of that entire generation to enter it.) (Joshua 1:10:18)
Up until that time, God had imparted specific directives to Moses and the people of Israel virtually every step of the way.
The case of the spies was the first instance in which God said, “I’m not telling you what to do; do as you see fit.”
Should this not have set off a warning light in the mind of Moses?
Indeed, it did. The sages say that Moses sent off Joshua with the blessing, “May God deliver you from the conspiracy of the spies” (Rashi to Numbers 13:16).
16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.
So why did he send them? And if, for whatever reason, he thought it necessary to send them, why did he not at least bless them as he blessed Joshua?
Even more amazing is the fact that a generation later, as we mentioned before, as the Jewish people finally stood at the ready (for the second time) to enter the land, Joshua dispatches spies!
This time, it works out fine; but why did he again initiate a process which had ended so tragically in the past?
Obviously, Moses was well aware of the risks involved when embarking on a course of “do as you see fit.”
For man to go out on his own, without precise instructions from on high, and with only his finite and subjective judgment as his compass, is to enter a minefield full with possibilities for error and failure.
Yet Moses also knew that God was opening a new arena of human potential.
Free Choice
A most crucial element of our mission in life is the element of choice.
If God had created man as a creature who cannot do wrong, then He might as well have created a perfect world in the first place, or no world at all.
The entire point of God’s desire in creation is that there exists a non-perfected world, and that we choose to perfect it.
It is precisely the possibility for error on our part that lends significance to our achievements.
The concept of choice exists on two levels.
1- When God issues an explicit instruction to us, we still have the choice to defy His command.
This, however, is choice in a more limited sense, as God has already given us His boundary
But a human being, deep down inside, has but a single desire: to do good. But is not able
Even mass murderers have this deep desire.
In the words of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi: “A Jew is neither willing, nor is he able, to tear himself away from God.” When it comes down to it, each and every one of us desires only to do good, as defined by the will of God.
The only choice we have is whether to suppress our innate will or to express it in our daily life.
Up until the episode of the spies, this was the only choice offered the Jewish people. God provided unequivocal guidelines for each and every issue that confronted their lives. They had the choice to disobey, but to do so would run contrary to their deepest instincts.
2- The choice from our heart
The choice was introduced with God’s replying to Moses regarding the spies.
When Moses heard God saying, “Do as you see fit,” he understood that God was opening another, even deeper and truer dimension of choice in the life of man.
By creating an area in which He, the creator and absolute master of the world, states, “I am not telling you what to do,” God was imparting an even greater significance to human actions.
Here, and only here, is the choice truly real; here, and only here, is there nothing to compel us in either direction. We chose
When we enter this arena, the risks are greater: the possibility to err is greater, and the consequences of our error more devastating.
But when we succeed in discovering, without instruction and empowerment from above, the optimum manner in which to enter the Holy Land and actualize the divine will, our deed is infinitely more valuable and significant.
The desire of Joshua
This was why Moses dispatched the spies, though fully aware of the hazards of their mission, without so much as a blessing that they be safeguarded from the pitfalls of human endeavour.
If he had blessed them—to have imparted to them of his own spiritual power to succeed in their mission—he would have undermined the uniqueness of the opportunity that God had granted by consenting that their mission be “by your understanding.”
The entire point was that both Moses (in deciding whether to send them) and the spies (in executing their mission) be entirely on their own, guided and empowered solely by their own understanding and humanity.
The only one to receive Moses blessing was Joshua, who was Moses’ “faithful servant . . . never budging from [Moses’] tent”
2- We only have two choices: to obey or disobey - picture
11 So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.
The unique relationship between Moses and Joshua is described by the Talmud by the following metaphor:
“Moses face was like the face of the sun; Joshua’s face was like the face of the moon.”
On the most basic level, this expresses the superiority of Moses over Joshua, the latter being but a pale reflector of the former’s light;
on a deeper level, this alludes to the depth of the bond between the greatest of teachers and the most devoted of disciples.
As the moon has no light of its own, but receives all of its light from the sun, so had Joshua completely surrendered himself to his master, so that everything he had, and everything he was, derived from Moses.
Joshua had been given a ministry to carry on. We find this principle in the following scripture
Remember Moses represents Jesus the Prophet
Principle
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
3- Face to Face to develop relationship with Yeshua - picture
For Moses to bless Joshua was not to empower Joshua with something that was not himself:
Joshua’s entire self was Moses. Armed with Moses’ blessing,
Joshua was truly and fully on his own—this was his essence and self, rather than something imposed on him from without.
The same way we are blessed by Yeshua and empowered by all that is Yeshua
Thus it was Joshua, who had successfully negotiated the arena of true and independent choice, who led the people of Israel into the land of Canaan.
For the conquest of Canaan and its transformation into a “holy land” represents our entry into a place where there are no clearcut divine directives to distinguish good from evil and right from wrong, and our independent discovery of how to sanctify this environment as a home for God.
The same way Joshua was transformed by beholding Moses, we are transformed by beholding Yeshua HaMasiach.
Moses - representation of Yeshua’s first coming
Joshua - representation of Yeshua’s second coming to lead us unto the promised land
Back to Torah Portion
3 So Moses sent them from the Wilderness of Paran according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel.
Moses sends twelve men—one from each of the twelve tribes of Israel—“every one a prince among them.”
Picture of 12 Spies and Tribes Names/Meaning from Numbers chapter 14 four to 15
Behold a son is the one who listens, who is mindful, well remembered and pure.
He hears and obeys to judge.
He is free and noble - the Lord be praised.
He is bold and whole hearted who is cared by God.
He (God) brings rewards.
He will redeem His people.
God shall increase a two fold increase.
Jehovah is Salvation - a fish is to flourish.
The Son of the Right Hand.
The deliverance of of Jehovah is my scape.
Healed to dwell in God given fortune, as a troop of God who is my confidant.
He who causes me to forget brings me to fortune.
Jehovah’s swift horseman to judge the people of God.
The processor of camels, our Happy fortress, hidden - Who is like unto God?
My wrestling is hidden of the Lord’s rich attention, as a good fortunate troop.
The Majesty of God - the Salvation of God is my decrease (I must decrease, that He may increase).
4- Our name is our character - picture
Let me bring to attention two names: Caleb and Joshua
First Name: Caleb
6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh;
Caleb - from Judah - bold whole hearted - Cared for by God
30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”
24 But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.
30 Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.
What happens to Caleb? - receives inheritance
13 And Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance.
14 Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.
Caleb represents Israel - Judah
Joshua - Ephraim
Second Name: Joshua
8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun;
Joshua from Ephraim - Jehovah is Salvation - a fish to flourish
Moses changes the name of Joshua
16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.
Midrash to explain
Picture Sarai and Joshua
SARAI = שרי
SARAH = שרה
HOSHEA = הושע
JOSHUA = יהושע
The letter yod (Historically and traditionally the letter of God: the name of God and Israel start with YOD), which had been removed from Sarai’s name (when she was renamed “Sarah”—cf. Genesis 17:15), was soaring and flying before the divine throne all those years, and saying before God: “Because I am the smallest of the letters, I was taken out of the righteous Sarah?” Until she was added to Joshua.
(Midrash Rabbah)
David pleaded before God: “Sovereign of the Universe! Who can understand his errors?” God: “They are forgiven you.” . . . Implored David: “May my sin (i.e., the incident of Bathsheba) not be recorded in the Torah.” Said God: “That is impossible. If the single letter yud I removed from Sarai continuously protested for many years, until Joshua came and I added it to his name . . . how much more so a complete section in Torah!”
(Talmud, Sanhedrin 107a)
5- God changes our character/ name - picture
More of this in our closing:
Who is Joshua?
9 And Moses said to Joshua, “Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.”
13 So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.”
Assistant - in Exodus chapter 24- verse 13
13 So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God.
Devoted
11 So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.
Servant
14 On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they had feared Moses, all the days of his life.
Blessed
13 So the sun stood still, And the moon stopped, Till the people had revenge Upon their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day.
14 And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord heeded the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel.
Faithful to God
23 “Now therefore,” he said, “put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel.”
24 And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey!”
Back to our Torah Portion
Of both names:
30 Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.
38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land.
What did Joshua, Caleb and David have in common?
A heart for God
A different Spirit
They all chose God
6- We need a new heart, spirit, and always choose God - picture
Remember:
The concept of choice exists on two levels.
1- When God issues an explicit instruction to us, we still have the choice to defy His command.
2- The choice from the heart
But not everyone had the strength to obey
Moses prays for the power of God which comes from asking for forgiveness, being forgiven by His mercy, and according to what we proclaim the Lord does:
17 And now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying,
18 ‘The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’
19 Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”
20 Then the Lord said: “I have pardoned, according to your word;
Moses - representation of Yeshua’s first coming
Joshua - representation of Yeshua’s second coming to lead us unto the promised land
Back to the Torah Portion
17 Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way into the South, and go up to the mountains,
18 and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many;
19 whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds;
20 whether the land is rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.
21 So they went up and spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near the entrance of Hamath.
Go up by the Negev (13:17)
That was the worst part of the land.
Such is the manner of merchants: first they show the lesser-quality merchandise, and then they show the prime merchandise.
(Rashi; Midrash Tanchuma)
See the land, what it is (13:18)
Of what sort is it.
For there are lands that produce strong people,
and lands that produce weak people;
lands that produce large populations,
and lands that produce small populations.
(Rashi; Midrash Tanchuma)
22 And they went up through the South and came to Hebron; Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
I would propose we need to consider the power of prayer not to join in rebellion against the Lord:
7-Pray not to enter in temptation - picture
it was Caleb alone who went to Hebron, to pray at the graves of the Patriarchs that he not be enticed to join in the conspiracy of the spies. As it is written
35 ‘Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers,
36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, because he wholly followed the Lord.’
and it says
20 And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said. Then he expelled from there the three sons of Anak.
“To Caleb they gave Hebron” (as his portion in the Land of Israel).
(Rashi; Talmud, Sotah 34b)
We need the help of same Spirit that Caleb, Joshua and David had to accomplish our goal
8- Call the help of the Holy Spirit - picture
So they go up and bring a bad report. The main reason for this is found in verse 32
32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.
It is a land that consumes its inhabitants (13:32)
What was the reason that the spies, who were leaders of Israel and men of lofty stature, did not want to enter the Land?
The explanation of the matter is as follows:
A great majority of the physical mitzvot (commandments) can be implemented only in by the Spirit of God
The spies preferred to remain in the desert, where they received all their needs from above
As God was providing
But Joshua and Caleb said, “The Land is very, very good.” It is specifically in the Land of Israel down below, and specifically by means of the mitzvot (commandments) implemented by physical action, that the truly infinite light of God is drawn down—a light that includes both the spiritual and the material, which is why it is “very, very” good.
Thus, they came back with a bad report:
Bu Caleb quieted them:
30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”
9-We need to continue to believe the Lord - picture
But, both Caleb and Joshua continue to believe the Lord
8 If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’
9 Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”
10 And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel.
11 Then the Lord said to Moses: “How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them?
TEN TIMES
22 because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice,
23 they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.
10 Times:
Ten days of Awe - Atonement comes - I’ll come back to this later
Rejection of the Lord is based in unbelief
The same way Yeshua was rejected
Complaining is also unbelief and against God
10- Not to reject His will, and complain about it - it is unbelief - picture
27 “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me.
36 Now the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report of the land,
37 those very men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord.
38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land.
Only the ones who had a different spirit survived.
11-Do not attempt to move on our own w/o the HS of God saying you will obey and do not - picture
39 Then Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.
40 And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned!”
41 And Moses said, “Now why do you transgress the command of the Lord? For this will not succeed.
42 Do not go up, lest you be defeated by your enemies, for the Lord is not among you.
43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword; because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.”
44 But they presumed to go up to the mountaintop. Nevertheless, neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp.
45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that mountain came down and attacked them, and drove them back as far as Hormah.
Hormah = destruction
12-It is not what we say we will do, but obey = doing what He says we need to do. Keep in Peace with God - picture
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you have come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving to you,
An act of God to appease the children of Israel
At that time God said to Moses: “Go appease them, the poor fellows, as their heart has departed them.”
(Seder Eliyahu Rabbah)
When you come into the Land . . . (15:2)
He reassured them that they will, in the end, enter the Land.
(Rashi)
According to Seder Eliyahu Rabbah,
Moses asked the Lord:
“Master, how shall I appease them?”
Said He: "Appease them with words of Torah: 'When you come into the Land . . . and you make a fire-offering to God . . .’”
3 and you make an offering by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering or in your appointed feasts, to make a sweet aroma to the Lord, from the herd or the flock,
16 One law and one custom shall be for you and for the stranger who dwells with you.’ ”
Keeping the Torah requires the HS and knowing the Torah, which is also knowing the kingdom of God
Tassels in the Tallit with blue thread
37 Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
38 “Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners.
39 And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined,
Why is blue singled out from all the varieties of colours?
Because blue resembles the sea, and the sea resembles heaven, and heaven resembles the divine throne, as it is written
10 and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity.
“They saw the God of Israel, and at His feet was as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness."
(Talmud, Sotah 17a)
Three things to keep the commandments:
1-SEE
2-REMEMBER
3-DO
39 And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined,
Harlotry in Hebrew is Zanah:
To abandon someone for fornication- prostitution/ to prostitute oneself.
GREEK word is Porneuo = sexual immorality
In other words is the betrayal of the intimacy we as the bride would have with our bridegroom moving away from His HS and finding other things to engage in the pleasing of our lusts
It is the same as in
1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters,
2 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”
39 And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined,
40 and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God.
27 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
13- Keeping our eyes on the living Torah of God will keep us away from the fornication of Babylon - picture
Tallit with blue thread
You have the choice to look at the law of God and obey or not
CLOSING
Remember
The concept of choice exists on two levels.
1- When God issues an explicit instruction to us, we still have the choice to defy His command.
2- The choice from our heart
Not everyone can obey - desires to obey
Yeshua exemplifies with one of the greatest gifts God gave us: Free will
As we said before:
Yeshua had an opportunity to respond by choice to the Father’s request. He chose to do according to His will:
41 And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed,
42 saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”
43 Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.
The example was that we need to be strengthened by the HS to be able to obey
Yeshua being strengthened by angel wearing tallit picture
We have only TWO choices:
EITHER GO UP… or GO DOWN! (picture)
You go up with the Lord and do what He says
Or go down on your own
43 Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.
Strengthening General Picture
Strength can be written in many different ways as you can see
We will only focus today on one way: Hazach
One picture of Hazach
2616 חָזַק (ḥā·zǎq): v.; ≡ Str 2388; TWOT 636—1. be harsh, severe, i.e., be in a state of a high degree of intensity (Ge 41:56); 2. be hard, harden (Ex 4:21); 3. LN 74 (qal) be strong, i.e., have the ability to accomplish what is intended, implying an element of resolve is needed as well strengthen, become powerful , strengthen oneself ; 4. conquer, triumph, formally, be strong, i.e., to defeat an enemy and so have authority over them; have power over; be victorious ; establish oneself over; 5. be overpowering,
Picture: Examples of Strengthening
Strengthening
afflicted him instead of strengthening him. 2Ch 28:20 2388
heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. Lk 22:43 1765
strengthening the souls of the disciples, Ac 14:22 1991
Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. Ac 15:41 1991
and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. Ac 18:23 47411
1 Robert L. Thomas, The Lockman Foundation, New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Updated Edition (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, Inc., 1998).
26 My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
5 “Behold, God is mighty, but despises no one; He is mighty in strength of understanding.
Messiah made the access to the Holy Spirit available for all
8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
ABCs of the Spirit in the the Brit Hadashah /New Testament
A- The Spirit Gives strength
9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Explanation of Yod Picture
The letter YOD signifies the number ten. Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) ends 10 days of Awe (Days of Repentance) which come after Feast of Trumpets we taught about last Torah Portion
Sarah’ Yod was taken away because she had repented and the Holy Spirit provided the power for her and Abraham to have a child
It is the only letter that is suspended in midair and singular in form. Just like the Holy Spirit
In its singularity, YOD signifies the Oneness of God, who is indivisible. Just like the Holy Spirit
YOD, being the smallest of all the letters in the Hebrew alphabet, signifies the importance of humility and the power of the arm of God. Just like the Holy Spirit
Paul mentions the Holy Spirit in the Brit Hadashah /New Testament:
Romans=35 times
1 Corinthians= 40
2 Corinthians=17
Galatians=18
Ephesians=16
Philippians=5
Colossians= 2
1 Thessalonians=5
2 Thess= 3
1 Tim = 3
2 Tim = 3
Titus = 2
Philemon = 1
Hebrews = 10
For a total of 160 times
He calls Him:
The Spirit
Spirit of God
Spirit of His Son
Spirit of the Lord
Spirit of Christ (Messiah)
Holy Spirit
Spirit of Grace
Bringing the Father the Son and the HS together as one, in three forms.
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
ABCs of the Spirit
B- If we belong to Him, we will have the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit gets to work when we repent and believe; Paul says it like this:
17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;
19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But you have not so learned Christ,
21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
25 Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another.
26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,
27 nor give place to the devil.
28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.
32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
ABCs of the Spirit
C- We must not grieve Him
ABCs of the Spirit
D- We must obey Him, not reject Him
8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.
ABCs of the Spirit
E- We should not quench Him
19 Do not quench the Spirit.
Preaching and obeying the Gospel strengthens others
ABCs of the Spirit
F- Preach the Gospel
23 After he had spent some time there, he departed and went over the region of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples.
The Spirit strengthens others
ABCs of the Spirit
G- Believe and stir up the Holy Spirit
7 The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise Him.
13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Not that the Torah brings death, but we were death without the Spirit to keep the Torah
13 points from the Torah Portion
ABCs from Paul in the Brit Hadashah /New Testament
Shabbat to remember what He did and celebrate we have the power to chose
Shabbat Shalom