Thought for Today: Wednesday July 23
Have you ever known anyone who has a lot of questions about YHVH and the Bible? No matter how many you answer, they always have more. Our faith can stand up to any questions, but sometimes people ask questions -- and keep asking questions -- just to avoid facing their own spiritual needs and acknowledging Who Yeshua really is. Their questions may only be an excuse to keep from turning their lives over to the Moshiach. Make sure your family and friends know what the Gospel is because many may not really understand it. Never give up hope that someday they will give their lives to Yeshua. And of course, never cease praying for them.
Shalom, friends,
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The lesson for the day is titled:
"Chapter 4 - Ivrym (A Concise Commentary on the Book of Hebrews)"
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FROM THIS WEEK’S TORAH PORTION – MASEY:
The words, “in the midst of,” which are found in a verse of this week’s Torah portion, is actually a single Hebrew word in scripture – b’tok (בְּת֖וֹךְ). It can also accurately be translated “inside of” or “within.”
Another word, “dwell,” which directly adjoins it in the same verse, is the Hebrew word – Shekan (שֹׁכֵ֕ן). This word can also be accurately translated as “tabernacle.” In fact, it is a variant of the word Mishkan, which is the scriptural name for the Tabernacle of YHWH in the wilderness, the Dwelling-Place of the Most-High on earth. The same word is the root from which comes the term Shekanyah, which is the physical manifestation of the presence of YHWH, otherwise known as the “Shekaniah Glory.”
If these alternate translations were used, and they surely could be, then this verse from our Torah portion would say,
“And do not defile the land which you inhabit, within which I tabernacle, for I, YHWH, tabernacle within the children of Yisra’el.”
Think about it…
FROM THIS WEEK’S TORAH PORTION – MASEY:
YHWH commands that when the people of Yisrael come into the land of promise, into His kingdom, they are to drive out all the former inhabitants and destroy every remaining vestige of their false religions. Spiritually, we are also to do the same thing when we come to faith in Yehoshua and join with Him and His people Yisrael. We are to follow Him, and live our lives in purity, and fellowship with those of His community. We are not to remain entangled in the ways of the world around us or its people. YHWH says,
“Speak to the children of Yisra’el, and say to them, ‘When you have passed over the Yarden into the land of Kena’an, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and shall destroy all their engraved stones, and shall destroy all their molded images, and lay waste all their high places, and you shall possess the land and dwell in it, for I have given you the land to possess. And you shall divide the land by lot as an inheritance among your clans. To the larger you give a larger inheritance, and to the smaller you give a smaller inheritance. Wherever the lot falls to anyone, that is his. You inherit according to the tribes of your fathers. And if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell. And it shall be that I do to you as I thought to do to them.’”
With an unimpaired vision, this should not be so hard to see – that the people of YHWH cannot hold onto the ways of the world or any other form of religion but His. I guess it is hard to see clearly with thorns in your eyes.
And the people of Israel heard it said, "Behold, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built the altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the people of Israel."
Joshua 22:11
Building an altar on a piece of land could be interpreted as a declaration of ownership. The western tribes' first concern seems to have been that the eastern tribes were attempting to colonize them. They already considered the eastern tribes to be a separate people.
The author divided the people into "Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh" on one side and the "people of Israel" on the other. This wasn't because they were actually separate peoples, but to to emphasize the division that was taking shape in the minds of the ten tribes on the west. Although the complaint began as a territorial dispute, purity of worship became the paramount issue.
The altar had a dual purpose: To keep the west from treating the east as foreigners and to keep the east focused on YHVH.
So the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned home, parting from the people of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, their own land of which they had possessed themselves by command of YHWH through Moses.
Joshua 22:9
What God has promised is already your possession whether or not you occupy it at that moment. God's promises are sure. Sometimes we just have to go get them. Sometimes we have to wait for them.
Each of the tribes of Israel didn't keep the spoils from the territory it occupied, but shared in the spoils from the whole land with all of the other tribes. The eastern tribes "parted from the people of Israel at Shiloh". This reflects an unfortunate reality that geographic separation often precedes cultural, religious, and ideological separation.
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The LLV translation expands the marking found in some English Bibles (such as KJV, ASV) which italicise some of their words which are not literally translated from words in the source text but are added for the needs of English grammar, or to offer a clear interpretation where the text seems otherwise difficult to understand: (round brackets means it’s a Hebrew/Greek thing, that the sense of the enclosed words is understood to be implied by the grammar or syntax in the original language text), whereas [square brackets means it’s an English thing, that the enclose words that seem required by English, or that the words otherwise go beyond the original language text to offer a possible interpretation]. Also, underscores_joining_words_together indicate that these words are translated from a single word in the original language text. All these markings are presently inconsistent, so that there absence should not be taken to mean that they should not be there; the marking should become more complete in future editions, and words remaining in italics will instead be converted into (round bracket) or [square bracket] style.
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Are you Christian, or are you Hebrew?
Abraham, the father of the faithful, was one who left Babylon and crossed over to become a Hebrew. Crossed over from what? Read on…
Most of Numbers 32 is a negotiation between three parties with Moses acting as mediator: 1) Reuben and Gad, 2) The other 10 tribes, 3) God.
Reuben and Gad were camped beside each other in the wilderness, so it's no surprise that they asked for adjoining land in Canaan. I wonder if Reuben's former position as the firstborn left a lingering bitterness and contributed to their desire to be on the opposite side of the Jordan from Judah.
Dathan and Abiram were Reubenites. Were they hoping to set up a separate kingdom one day, perhaps? On the other hand, verse 2 seems to indicate that this was a populist movement rather than an idea of the tribal leadership.
072225 / 26th day of the 4th month 5786
WORD FOR TODAY “what is in your heart that GOD will bless or curse?”: 1Ki 11:4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.
WISDOM FOR TODAY: Pro 27:4 Wrath is fierce and anger is a flood, But who can stand before jealousy?
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When you start asking them "why?" then they quickly realize that their faith is based on false doctrines and quickly becomes shaken when scrutinized. 😪
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Henk Wouters
so when you are making sure that your family and friends know what the Gospel is, you are only making sure that they know what has been revealed to you up till then.
now the point i think you're making, nick, is more that some people question things to avoid committing themselves. and that's a very valid point. i also know some people who in the meantime have built up a very good knowledge of the Gospel, yet still (sing along, one more time...) ask yet another question before 'conceding' to commit. fencesitters.
yet commitment is not dependent on knowledge of the Gospel.
some believe and commit purely on hearing Someone cared enough to die for them, details unimportant (boy, my heart goes out to them), and some will not believe nor commit no matter how much knowledge they garner (shame, my heart goes out to them too).
this should not be a surprise, once one knows that it is the Father who moves hearts, as He chooses, who purposes each vessel He makes, as He chooses..
striving to be used intrumentally in that process is of course desirable (hoping and praying is instrumental too, btw), but do we know who it is who says he is uncommitted yet actually has done so, or who says he has committed yet nothing could be further from the truth?
as a good servant work at being as good an instrument as one can be for the Father,
and, and but, and if only to become as good an instrument as can be, work foremost at the log in your own eye, and that probably starts with a question.
what log?
myself i hope only to have no more questions on that last day.
(ps- love your thoughts for the day, they always get me questioning...)
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