May I Gently Suggest - iTunes Feed

Reading the story of Balaam, one wonders why it is included in the Torah. Why didn't God simply forbid Balaam from going to Moab the second time he asked? It turns out that Balaam gets mentioned as a bad example all the way from Deuteronomy to Revelation. In this, he serves to emphasize that sex is very often the hook that is used to draw people away from God and in to idol worship.

Some in the Corinthian church questioned if there was to be resurrection from the dead. Starting with the example of Y'shua, Paul explains that resurrection is central to Messianic belief. He also discusses the nature of the resurrection body.

Although a people may be enslaved quickly by means of conquest, more often it is that they abandon their liberty. This abandonment generally begins with an abdication or avoidance of responsibility. They decide they want government to do something that they should be doing by themselves. Having shed responsibility, they then begin to tell themselves comforting lies to justify their situation.

It appears that spiritual gifts, particularly the gift of tongues, were being used pridefully. Paul admonishes the church that spiritual gifts are given to benefit the body, not the person through whom they operate. When the church gathers, it is more important to be understood than it is to be envied by others.

The generation that left Egypt under Moses' leadership fell into bitter disappointment when they believed the bad report of the twelve spies. Korah took advantage of that depression to mount a challenge against Moses and ultimately against God Himself. His dream of assuming leadership was wrecked upon the rock of reality. God had decided and no amount of rabble rousing was going to change anything.

In response to a question on spiritual gifts, Paul admonishes the Corinthians that all of the gifts are necessary for the well being of the body. Apparently there was some status seeking on the basis of having one gift over another.

The journey from slavery to freedom ended for the wilderness generation when the spies brought a bad report about the land. Upon hearing that report, they gave up and asked to return to Egypt (and slavery). This represents one step in God's millennia-long project to develop a good relationship with the people that He created. The project began in the Garden and will culminate in the New Jerusalem.

Among the difficulties in the Corinthian church, there seemed to have been confusion or contention about gender roles. In addressing this, Paul starts with the order of creation and proceeds to then current customs. The upshot is that Scripture forbids dress or behavior that would confuse the two genders.

In the parable of the great banquet, the invited guests all make transparently false and insulting excuses why they cannot attend. This leads the master to cast a wide net and bring others in. In the parable of the wedding feast, the Pharisees assume they will have places of honor in the kingdom. In the parable of the narrow door the Pharisees are assuming that because they are Abraham's descendants, they will be admitted.

In Numbers 11 when the people complain that they are fed up with manna and want Egypt food, Moses has a melt down before God, complaining that he didn't want the job and would rather die than continue. God treats him gently as would a friend or parent and gets him some help. Similarly, Y'shua, who is the physical son of God, tells us to pray to our Father in Heaven. That is we are to have a family relationship with God. This idea of God as a friend or parent is unique to Judaism and Christianity.

After a defense of his apostleship, Paul turns to the generation that died in the wilderness. That generations failures should serve as an example and warning for us today. The temptations that caused them to fall are no different than those we face.

God is not willing that anyone should be lost. The parable of the fig tree warns Israel to bear fruit. The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son indicate the joy in heaven when that which has been lost is restored.

In Mark 3 and 4 Y'shua switches from speaking plainly to speaking in parables. This is after He was accused of having demonic powers. This set of kingdom parables is slightly different from those in Mat 13. After saying that a strong man's goods cannot be stolen unless he is first bound, He begins with the parable of the sower and then gives four more parables. The question is, what is He concealing from His listeners that He then speaks plainly to His disciples?

The question of meat sacrificed to idols was important in a predominantly pagan world. Paul's answer to the problem was a variation of "don't ask, don't tell." If, by whatever means, one discovers that meat has been part of a sacrifice, it is forbidden. Otherwise it is permitted and one need not conduct an investigation.

In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, the rich man's deficiency is not his wealth per se. Rather, he is not handling that wealth as indicated by Moses and the Prophets. Lazarus' condition is evidence that the rich man did not love his neighbor. In the Luke 12 parable of the servants awaiting their master's return, the message is that His return will be at an unexpected time and He wants His servants to be found faithful to their charges.

The parable of the sower marks the point in His ministry where Y'shua gives up on trying to convert Israel's religious establishment because they do not want to believe that He is the Messiah. From that point his public messages are in cryptic parables. In the parable of the sower, there are four regions where seed falls. They represent Satanic interference with the Word, societal hostility, individual distraction and the faithful heart respectively.

Paul continues his advice to live in the expectation that Messiah's return is imminent. In this he speaks of both employment circumstances and marital arrangements. As mentioned in last time, he advises to avoid concentrating on romance unless such might lead to sin.

Y'shua was frequently in conflict with the Pharisees who were lovers of money and prestige. The parable of the rich fool who decided to build bigger barns. The parable of the dishonest manager.

At the end of Leviticus, Moses talks about the seventh and the fiftieth years of release. There debts are forgiven, Israelite slaves are freed, the land is allowed to rest and, on the Jubilee, people return to the land that Joshua allotted to their clans. This is not a test of faith, because God promises a bumper crop on the sixth year so there is no fear of hunger. Rather it is a test of people's attitude toward wealth. Will they be satisfied with the blessings that God has promised and provided or will they be greedy and work their land and keep their slaves in the seventh year?

In the 7th chapter, Paul is responding to a question that we can only infer from his answer. In this he sounds lukewarm on marriage. Later in the letter we learn that he expects Y'shua to return very shortly. Hence, the inference is that he believed that spiritual pursuits were more important than romantic ones given the times.

After having being accused of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul, Y'shua's speech becomes more cryptic - except when dealing with the self righteousness of the Pharisees and the Lawyers. Their constant demands for supernatural signs beyond the ones He has shown openly bespeaks a heart that doesn't want to learn the truth.

Leviticus, the central book of the Torah, is where God tells Israel how He wishes to be approached and worshipped. Many believe that those instructions were only for Israel and have been superseded by the Resurrection of Christ. That is not true. Sacrifice is an act of love and is always acceptable in that spirit. God promises that when He regathers Israel and the Temple is rebuilt, He will once again accept sacrifice. That will be both from Israel and from the gentiles.

It appears that some in the Corinthian church mistook the liberty that we have in Messiah for license. In this they had descended into debauchery. Paul writes against this in the strongest of terms, telling the church to expel those who engaged in flagrant sin.

Y'shua's disciples ask Him to teach them how to pray. That means that prayer is a skill that can be taught. The Lord's Prayer, the Friend at Midnight, the Unjust Judge and the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

In Leviticus, God tells Israel to be holy because He is Holy. In the subsequent verses, He gives them laws on the basis of His own authority. The explicit purpose of these laws it to differentiate Israel from the nations that they are to destroy. The reason for those nations' destruction is that they practiced all of the abominations that God forbids. So too, our society has degraded to the point that we have made all of the forbidden abominations commonplace.

As Paul writes to correct the hubris of the Corinthian church, he compares himself and the other Apostles to builders working on the living Tabernacle. In this, he directs merit away from himself and toward God where it rightly belongs.

This set of parables emphasizes the cost of entering the Kingdom of God. Several people desire to follow Him but have things to do before they can begin. Others are encumbered by the things of the world. The Good Samaritan, the Rich Young Ruler, Zacchaeus.

Speech is important.. It can either build up or destroy. In the Torah, leprosy is twice associated with negative speech. This indicates that Biblical leprosy is a physical manifestation of a heart condition. Although Biblical leprosy no longer manifests, a person's speech still can expose his heart condition.

The first four chapters of the letter deal with divisions in the church caused by intellectual pride. Since Paul had planted the church, they had heard the teaching of others and factions had formed. Each of the teachers mentioned were perfectly sound but perhaps each had said things differently. in their inexperience and pride, members of the church had seized on stylistic differences and elevated them to the level of doctrine.

During His final journey to Jerusalem, Y'shua told a series of parables. These parables are arranged as a chiasm. The first and last element of that chiasm concerns a noble who goes away to obtain a kingdom. His subjects try to stop him from becoming their ruler. He also leaves resources with his servants and expects an accounting upon his return. His servants are rewarded or punished according to what they did with the master's resources while he was away.

Mark chapter 1 contains an outline of Y'shua's entire ministry as well as that given to His apostles after His resurrection. The outline boils down to: preach the Gospel, heal the sick, cast out demons. Demons are barely mentioned in the TANAK but have almost 100 references in the New Testament. What changed? What does that mean to us today?

After having described the often unpleasant process of character development, the author returns to the theme that this world is not our permanent home. Rather, there is a better and permanent home for those who are disciples of Y'shua.

The 50 days between Firstfruits and Shavuot is a replay and a rehearsal of the process by which God takes us from slavery to liberty in Him. For the Israelites, it was literal slavery in Egypt. For us it is the slavery to sin and the flesh. Liberty is not learned over night, it is a process that takes time.

Faith is the spiritual quality that allows us to act in the present. Since the future is unknown, we must have faith that the thing we are about to do will have the results we want. This especially applies to our relationship with God. He has promised certain things and we are to live our lives in the trust that those promises are reliable.

Nations, like people have a life cycle - birth, growth, productivity and death. For Israel, Passover was its birth. Since then it has gone through several life cycles, always being reborn because God has had His hand on them. The United States, like Israel, was also explicitly formed on Biblical principles. We are now undergoing a civilizational crisis. Pray that the current turmoil represents birth pains.

The sin offerings made in the tabernacle were only for unintentional sin and had to be repeated annually, because the people's hearts were not changed. Under the New Covenant God's law will be written on hearts of flesh instead of on tablets of stone. Thus, the offering Messiah made with His own blood needs only to have been done one time, since those cleansed by that offering will have had their hearts circumcised.

The Gospel accounts after the Resurrection are different. Each one gives added instructions for the believer while we await His return. Taken together they form a complete mission statement for the believer - what to do, where to do it, what resources are available, etc.

The Covenant made as Sinai was defective in that one of the parties - Israel - was unable to live according to its terms. That made a New Covenant necessary. Although God's terms are the same for both covenants, the new one is to be written on the heart instead of on tablets of stone. The New Covenant like the one at Sinai must be ratified with the blood of a sacrifice. In this case, the blood was that of the Messiah.

When the Tabernacle in the wilderness was completed Moses had the Levites present an accounting of all the gold, silver and bronze used in its construction - down to the shekel. Moses was perhaps the most powerful and trusted human in the world because he spoke with God face to face. The fact that such a man as Moses felt it necessary to give a public accounting sends a strong message that it is vital for all those in positions of public trust to be honest and transparent in their handling of public funds. This speaks to the corruption being uncovered in our government today.

Having established that Christ is not an angel, but is the human son of God, and that He is able to understand our frailties, the writer then goes on to establish His priesthood. In this, since He is not a descendant of Aaron, the writer must use a different priestly order; that of Melchizedek.

Being made in the image of God, people have the ability to be creative. In building the Tabernacle in the wilderness, many things were specified by God because deviation would have compromised His message. Other things, however, were open for interpretation by the artisans who worked on the project. In allowing this, Israel became more than passive recipients of God's provision. They could now be active contributors to God's purposes.

Just as God rested from His work in creation, there is a rest available to the people of God. This rest is from fear and striving to be good enough to merit salvation. Once we trust in Him, we may enter His rest. This is in contrast to the wilderness generation who were not able to muster that trust and so perished without entering the land.

Between smashing the first set of tablets because of the Golden Calf and ascending the mountain again to get the second set, Moses spent 40 days in the tent of meeting outside the camp. What was the purpose of that time and what did Moses accomplish? (The song referred to is "The Family of God.")

The writer first establishes from the Psalms that the Christ is not an angel and is, in fact, the Son of God. He also establishes that He is fully human and has experienced what all men experience - including death. As one of us, He is able to understand what we go through and treat us sympathetically.

The Hebrew word 'beged' means both clothing and betrayal. This duality is important because we use clothing to communicate - status, sexuality, position, power, etc. Realizing that clothing can lie and betray is an important part of navigating in society. The High Priest's vestments are thus a statement that can either be true of the man or false. So too with others who wear the robes of authority.

The retuning exiles, having completed the Temple and the rebuilding of Jerusalem, have fallen into cynicism because the Messianic age has not started. They see the wicked prosper and wonder what the benefit of walking with God really is. God answers.

In Exodus 25, God tells Moses to request contributions of materials to build the Tabernacle from everyone "whose heart moves him". In this, God gave Israel the gift of being able to contribute something instead of merely receiving. The act of giving allows one to participate in what God is doing in the world. As such, it is a great gift.

Written after the Babylonian exile, Malachi tells of returning Jews and their priests who have the form of temple worship without either reverence or enthusiasm.

After the ten commandments, God gives several chapters of detailed statutes. These laws are intended to implement God's view of how a good society should behave. Following those laws is for our own good and does not generate blessings. Rather blessings come from a relationship with God. We know from history that that relationship can be damaged to the point the He will withdraw those blessings. Similarly, there are two competing visions for the United States. Proponents of each vision are attempting to enact laws to shape society toward their vision.

The new heaven and the new earth where God finally dwells among men. The New Jerusalem and homage of the nations. The tree of life restored to man.

In the Decalogue both the first and the tenth commandments forbid alien gods. The first commandment is obvious - thou shall have no other gods before me. The tenth - thou shall not covet - not quite so much. Why, then does Paul equate covetousness with idol worship?