Posts Tagged ‘Torah’

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Love?

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

Leviticus 19:18  Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

Leviticus 19:34  But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 6:5  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Deuteronomy 10:12  And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,

Deuteronomy 10:19  Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 11:1  Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.

Deuteronomy 13:3  …for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Deuteronomy 30:16  …I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

Joshua 22:5  But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Joshua 23:11  Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the LORD your God.

Nehemiah 1:5  …O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments…

Psalms 31:23  O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.

Psalms 97:10  Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.

Proverbs 10:12  Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.

Proverbs 17:9  He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

Matthew 5:44  …Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.

Matthew 19:19   …Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Mark 12:29-31  And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is,  Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:  (30)  And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.  (31)  And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

Mark 12:33  And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

John 14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

John 15:9  As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

John 15:12  This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

Romans 12:10  Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

Romans 13:9  For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Ephesians 4:2-3  With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;  (3)  Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Ephesians 5:1-2  Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;  (2)  And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

Ephesians 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

1 Thessalonians 3:12  And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:

1 Thessalonians 4:9  But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

1 Timothy 6:11  But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

Titus 2:4  …teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children…

Hebrews 10:24  And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works…

Hebrews 13:1  Let brotherly love continue.

James 2:8  If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well…

1 Peter 1:22  Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.

1 Peter 2:17  Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

1 Peter 3:8-9  Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:  (9)  Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.

1 John 3:11  For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

1 John 3:18  My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

1 John 4:7-8  Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.  (8)  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

1 John 4:21  And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

2 John 1:5-6  And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.  (6)  And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.

Love. Love. Love. Love. Love.

We are commanded over and over again to love, but do we even know what love is? The scriptures are clear to an extent: To love God is to obey his commandments. To love others is to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to heal the sick. We have heard these things so many times that they have become meaningless!

What does it really mean to feed the hungry? Do we all need to go volunteer at the local Rescue Mission? Should we haul a pot of soup under the nearest bridge? What? What if there aren’t any destitute nearby? What if you don’t know where to find them? Should we just give some money to the Salvation Army and let them handle it? Is it enough just to be kind to those closest to you?

What does it really mean to obey God’s commands? Do I love God if I wear my tzitziyot religiously? Do I love him if I read the Torah and teach it to others? What!?

It truly bothers me that I am asking these questions. I feel that I should know without any hesitation what it means to love in every circumstance. I pray for the time when God’s law will be fully written on my heart, but that day isn’t now. There are many things that I don’t understand, many instances in which I have not shown love or even knew what love would be.

I have written a book examining the manual on marital and familial love, and I intend to write a few more, but still my understanding of love has not approached what it ought to be. This will be the focus of my Torah studies from now on because if keeping Torah doesn’t teach you to love, then you are not keeping Torah. “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees you will in no case enter the kingdom of heaven.” The pharisees didn’t love God; they loved their traditions. If you obey all the rules and say all the right things, yet don’t have love, you don’t have anything.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Keeping Torah, Leadership, Love, Marriage, Theology, Torah | No Comments »

What!? God Was Right!? Again!!??

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Biological Risks of Eating Reptiles

02/10/2010 …A study shows that eating these animals can have side effects that call into question the wisdom of eating this ‘delicacy.’

God’s rules for what animals you should eat and what you shouldn’t are not about health. Let me say that again: Eating kosher isn’t about health. It’s about obedience. However, having said that, eating kosher is almost certainly healthier than not.

Exodus 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Keeping Torah, Parsha 26 - Sh'mini, Parsha 47 - Re'eh, Theology, Torah | No Comments »

Yitro 5770 – Father Sky, Mother Earth

Friday, February 5th, 2010

Exodus 20:24-26  You shall make an altar of earth to Me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In all places where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you.  (25)  And if you will make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stone. For if you lift up your tool upon it, you have defiled it.  (26)  And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness be not uncovered on it.

In a very real sense, God is our father and the earth our mother. The God of heaven took a bit of earth and breathed his spirit into it, creating life. This fact in combination with the astounding miracles of reproduction, of putting seeds in the ground so that they will sprout and produce more seeds, of a man and woman joining their bodies to create a new person, could easily lead people into fertility cults. If imitation is the sincerest flattery, how better can we worship the Creator than through an act of creation? The command to make an altar of earth in order to worship the God of heaven re-emphasizes our descent from these two. However, there are two more commands attached to this one that strongly imply God does not approve of sex as an act of worship.

In the first command, God says we are not to build the altar with cut stones. We might have ideas about how to make a more beautiful altar, but God has said he will prepare the stones. We get to select them and place them, but the materials and format are strictly up to him. God wants his worship, his way, not ours. He has told us how he is to be worshiped, and, although we might have a great deal of leeway in some of the details, we are not free to improvise however we choose. Although he commanded us to reproduce, he did not command us to worship him through the reproductive act.

In the second command, God says the altar should be placed so as to avoid even accidental exposure of the priest’s nakedness. If there was any doubt as to whether nudity should or should not be a part of overt worship, that should quell it.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Marriage, Parsha 17 - Yitro, Theology, Torah | No Comments »

Torah Study in Brenham

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

I’ll be hosting a Torah study at the Brenham Music Academy in Brenham, TX, 10:30 AM this Shabbat and just about every Shabbat after that. I know that some people are interested in more than just a Torah reading and midrash, so it may become more. We’ll have to wait and see.

Anyone is welcome. This is not a Messianic Jewish study, not least of all because I’m not Jewish. It’s about God and his will for us, not about traditions.

Brenham Music Academy
107 Martin Luther King Jr Pkwy
Brenham, TX 77833

Email or call if you have questions.
j c @ h i s t o r y c a r p e r . c o m
9 7 9 – 5 3 0 – 2 1 5 0

Tags: , ,
Posted in Keeping Torah, Theology, Torah | No Comments »

Vayera 5770 – Faith in God’s Call

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

Exodus 6:2-9:35
Ezekiel 28:25-29:21
Romans 9:13-26

Exodus 6:29-7:2  YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, I am YHWH. You speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.  (30)  And Moses said before YHWH, Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh listen to me?  (1)  And YHWH said to Moses, See, I have made you a god to Pharaoh. And Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.  (2)  You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh, he will send the sons of Israel out of his land.

When God said, “I am YHWH,” he summed up half the book of Job in a single, short sentence. He said, “I am the God who is, was, and will be. I am the Creator, the Builder, the Founder, and the Destroyer. No one moves or breathes or dies without my knowledge. Nothing is beyond my authority and power.”

God called Moses, the inarticulate, murdering exile, to be the judge of Pharaoh, the most powerful man in his world. And Moses doubted. “But who am I to confront Pharaoh? I’m not a great orator. No one listens to me when I speak.”

Like so many of us, Moses didn’t believe it when God told him who he was. Every one of us have a divinely appointed role, and when we doubt, when we hold back, saying, “I could never do that!” we tell God that we don’t believe in him.

I’m not smart enough.

I have a terrible memory.

I’m not a people person.

I’m afraid.

I’m too shy.

I’m not a leader.

Many others are so much better then me.

It might hurt my business.

I don’t want to offend anyone.

I’m too strange already.

These have been my excuses. To every single one of them, God has the same response: “I am YHWH. Who are you to question me?”

Job 38:2-8  Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?  (3)  Now gird up your loins like a man; for I will ask of you, and you teach Me.  (4)  Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell if you have understanding!  (5)  Who has set its measurements, for you know? Or who has stretched the line on it?  (6)  On what are its bases sunk, or who cast its cornerstone,  (7)  when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?  (8)  Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth as it came from the womb?

Do not fear. Do not hesitate. Do not doubt.

God knows who you are!

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Leadership, Parsha 14 - Va'eira, Theology, Torah | 5 Comments »

Vayigash 5770 – Two Sons, Two Kingdoms

Friday, December 25th, 2009

Genesis 44:27-28 And your servant my father said to us, You know that my wife bore me two sons. (28) And the one went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn in pieces. And I never saw him since. (29) And if you take this one also from me, and mischief befall him, you shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.

I frequently wonder if Jacob knew the details of the future history of his sons. Although he certainly only meant Joseph and Benjamin here, his words and the story that followed prophesied of events centuries away.

In the 8th century BC, the Assyrian armies captured the northern kingdom of Israel and scattered her inhabitants across the Ancient Near East. Many of the old prophets referred to the northern kingdom as Ephraim, the son of Joseph. Ephraim didn’t stop in Persia but continued across the whole globe. In their long diaspora they have forgotten their identity and have become lo ami.

Three hundred years later, Judah was invaded and scattered by Babylon. When the two kingdoms split during the reign of Rehoboam, Benjamin became part of the southern kingdom known as Judah. Remember that Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin. Unlike Ephraim, Judah never forgot their identity. They have remained a relatively distinct people to this day.

This is the explanation of the prophecy:

Ephraim is Jacob’s first son, Joseph. He was taken away, and, to all appearances was destroyed forever. Judah, including the tribe of Benjamin, is Jacob’s second son. He was also taken away but was never in any real danger of being annihilated. Both of Jacob’s sons were restored to him, and both of the houses of Israel will also be restored to their Heavenly Father. The house of Judah is returning to the Land en masse while the house of Israel is awakening to their identity and bringing much of the rest of the world with them. The first stage of Hosea’s words concerning Israel was fulfilled millennia ago (Hosea 1:9). The second stage is coming to pass right now (Hosea 1:10), and the third stage, the reunification of the entire nation under the singular banner of the Messiah (Hosea 1:11), cannot be far behind!

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in History, Parsha 11 - Vayigash, Theology, Torah | No Comments »

T’ruma 5769 – A Balanced Spirit

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

Exodus 25:35-36
…one beaten work of pure gold. The six side branches of the Menorah were assembled in sets of two, one on the left and one on the right. The pairs of branches were made out of a single piece of gold with a ring in the center connecting it to the stem. Each pair represents a pair of inextricably linked character traits (See verse 32.), and each side balances the other. The fear of God is balanced against knowledge of God’s promises and love. Understanding of God’s creation is balanced against wisdom in its proper use. Strength is moderated by good council. These spirits only engender a right relationship with God if they are in proper union and order. If strength is not complemented by council, then they separately beget tyranny and manipulation. If worldly understanding is not united with wisdom, then they separately beget pride and foolishness. If fear is not united with knowledge, then they separately beget legalism and licentiousness.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Keeping Torah, Parsha 19 - T'ruma, Theology, Torah | Comments Off

The Family Stones

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

Tonight I was reading about Joshua and the parting of the Jordan River when I was struck by the similarity between the twelve men carrying the river stones on their shoulders and the High Priest carrying the two stones on the shoulders of his uniform and the twelve stones on his breastplate. In both cases the stones represent tribes. The Priest’s shoulder stones have the names of six tribes inscribed on each of them. Each of the stones on the breastplate represent an individual tribe as do the stones carried out of the Jordan. It occurred to me that stones might represent tribes or nations in other contexts as well. Take a look at these possibilities:

Gen 28:11-15 Jacob gathers up some stones to use as a pillow. Who uses stones for a pillow? He lays his head on the stones, and in his dream God tells him that his descendants will be as the dust of the earth and will be scattered throughout the world. God also tells him that he will be returned to this land someday. The first part of that prophecy was fulfilled when the two kingdoms were scattered by Assyria, Babylon, and Rome. They have been living among the nations of the world, for the most part as if asleep (the stones for pillows!) and unaware of who they are. The second part of the prophecy was fulfilled in one sense when Jacob personally returned to Canaan. It will be fulfilled much more dramatically when all of Israel is called out of the nations and returned to the Promised Land someday.

Gen 31:51-53 As Jacob left Laban to return to Canaan, Laban chased him across the dessert. When he caught him, they set up a pillar and a pile of stones, proclaiming them to be witnesses to a peace treaty setting a border between their lands. Later, after Israel escaped Pharaoh, the River of Egypt was set as the boundary between their lands, and the events were witnessed by God’s pillar and by the nations of the world.

Lev 14:33-53 There is way too much to talk about in this passage, but here is one very interesting bit: The priest orders the house to be emptied and locked. On the seventh day he returns to judge the stones of the house. Those that are infected are cast into “an unclean place” while fresh stones are brought in to replace them. Sounds like something someone once wrote about olive branches, doesn’t it?

It seems obvious to me that stones, especially in the Torah, represent people groups, whether nations, tribes, cities, or families. Gold is divinity and purity. Silver is blood and atonement. Bronze is judgement. Iron is destruction. Wood is humanity or flesh. Coverings are spiritual authorities. Blue is divine, red is flesh, and purple is God made flesh.

I love this stuff. I could be wrong…but I don’t think so.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Theology, Torah | No Comments »

Bereishit 5769 – An Help Meet for Him

Monday, October 20th, 2008

Genesis 2:18, part 2

I will make him an help meet for him. According to Adam Clarke, the Hebrew for “help meet for him,” ezer kenegdo, “implies that the woman was to be a perfect resemblance of the man, possessing neither inferiority nor superiority, but being in all things like and equal to himself.”1 He was right to a certain extent. Eve was like Adam in that she was of mankind, and not animal kind, and in that she possessed both body and spirit while the animals have only body, but was not quite “a perfect resemblance of the man.” The physical differences between men and women are obvious. The spiritual differences are not so obvious, but they are evident in the Creation story, in many other scriptural references to the differently ordained roles of men and women, and in the practical roles into which men and women have almost universally organized their activities.2

Ezer implies more of an ally than a servant. In fact, David used that word several times to refer to God. In Psalm 33, he wrote, “Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.” And in Psalm 70, he wrote, “O God: thou art my help and my deliverer.” The term implies an ally, an indispensable supporter, a rescuer, and a man’s wife is certainly all of these things. There is nothing in the word to imply inferiority, but there is really nothing in the word that implies any kind of relationship at all except one of crucial support. The fact that she was made specifically for Adam’s purposes, and not for her own, however, demonstrates God’s intended purpose for her, to actively serve Adam, just as man’s purpose is to actively serve God. Stephen B. Clark wrote, “The description of the woman as a ‘helper fit for him’ implies that the woman was not simply to be, but to do. Her role is to be an active one in the support of her husband.”3 Eve was not created just to keep Adam company, and both men and women will live happier lives if they focus on their God ordained tasks. Women will be happier if they focus their lives on serving their husbands and rearing their children.

There is also no reason to suppose that women have no other purpose but to serve their husbands and bear their children. God has often used women as prophetesses to convey his words to mankind, and he has also given women the ability to take over leadership roles when men fail either through inability or abdication. Women might have their own missions assigned directly by God, but the vast majority of women will be happier and more fulfilled as wives and mothers, just as the majority of men will be happier as husbands and fathers. And a part of being a godly wife and mother involves willingly submitting to her husband in her role as his subordinate ally.4

1 Clarke, Adam. Commentary on the Bible. e-Sword v7.0.5. Copyright 2000-2003, Rick Meyers. .
2 Goldberg, Stephen. The Inevitability of Patriarchy. New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1974. 228. “…the central fact is that men and women are different from each other from the gene to the thought to the act and that emotions that underpin masculinity and femininity, that make reality as experienced by the male eternally different from that experienced by the female, flow from the biological natures of man and woman…the women of every society have taken the paths they have not because they were forced by men but because they have followed their own imperatives.”
3 Clark, Stephen B. Man and Woman in Christ. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Servant Press, 1980. 20.
4 “Genesis 2:18 describes the man’s problem as being his aloneness, but it describes the solution as being ‘a helper fit for him’. Genesis does not describe woman as a companion to man but as a helper. As Von Rad points out, the phrase is not a romantic evaluation of woman. Rather it presents woman as ‘useful’ to man. A man’s wife is supposed to ‘do something’ for him, just as he is supposed to ‘do something’ for her. If she does not do what she is supposed to do for him (and if he does not do what he is supposed to do for her) deep interpersonal sharing will not make the marriage a good marriage.” Clark. Man and Woman. 22.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Marriage, Men's Rights, Parsha 01 - Bereishit, Theology, Torah | Comments Off

Ha’azinu 5768 – This Is the Way Love Is

Monday, October 6th, 2008

Deuteronomy 32:4-5  He is the Rock; His work is perfect. For all His ways are just, a God of faithfulness, and without evil; just and upright is He. They have corrupted themselves: they are not His sons; it is their blemish; they are a crooked and perverse generation.

God does not violate his own Law, nor does he force anyone else to do so. “They have corrupted themselves,” and they deserve their end. We all do. It is solely by his mercy and his obedience to his own law* that we escape destruction.

* If God keeps his own Law, does that mean he is under the Law? That he is accountable to it? Of course not. He is accountable to no one but himself. Likewise if we keep the Law, neither does it mean that we are under it. We are under the Messiah, and keep the Law for his sake and for the sake of those who see it.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Keeping Torah, Love, Messianica, Parsha 53 - Ha'azinu, Theology, Torah | No Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »