Times... Seasons... fruit and seed....
July 6, 2013 ~ Tammuz 28, 5773
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Parashah 42 and 43 Mattot (Tribes and Masa’ei (stages)
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Sh’ma
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Let’s talk about the Sh’ma briefly...
The Sh’ma is called the watchword of Isra’el.
Daniel would pray three times a day - even in captivity... what do you think he was praying - among other things?
It is what Y’shua was talking about in
Mattityahu 22: 33 - 40 cjb p 1252
According to Rabbi Mattityahu Nolan...
Ivrim /Hebrews 10:24 used to read... “Do not forsake the Sh’ma together.”
Really? !!
Imagine if that had been left in there!!
Saying the Sh’ma together is important.... if you want the Ruach HaKodesh to come..... make the declaration of Sh’ma.
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Now i understand that last week’s Shabbat teaching was a lot of information... so i am going to go back through it...
hopefully condense it and say it clearer... a lot of the teaching came from Brad Scott’s teaching - “As in the days of the tree”...
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I started last week talking about Tammuz 17 - Av 9... the three week mourning period of Jews.
We talked about how the really “bad stuff” of Jewish history seems to happen in this time, particularly on Tish b’Av ... the 9th of Av.
Tish B’Av - 9th of /av
- During the time of Moshe, Hebrews in the desert accepted the slanderous report of 10 of the spies that went in to reconnoiter the Promised Land in 1312 BCE
- The First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians and Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE
- The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans 70 CE (The 10th legion of the Roman army - which was made up of captive soldiers - Islam.) (Dan 9:27)
- The Bar Kochba revolt was crushed by the Roman Emperor Hadrian - 135 CE
- The Temple Mount was plowed under, and Jerusalem was rebuilt as a pagan city
- Expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492
- The outbreak of WWI 1914
- The mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942
- The clearing of the Gaza strip of all Jews 2008 (?)
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We also talked about things going on around us now and how scary it can be....
I talked of a senate bill that was proposing that we would eventually not be able to have gardens.
This did not pass and so right now it is a non issue.
But to me - just the fact that such a stupid thing would even be an option is a big sign.
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We also talked about the Blood Moons coming up: (from Mark Biltz’s teaching)
Remember:
B’resheet 1:14
“Signs” = “oat” = alef, vav, tav = to be used as a signal or waving a flag
“Seasons” = “moed” = Divine appointed times
We need to recognize that there are things going on in the heavens ... but according to B’resheet 1:14 we need to know that when YHWH does things with the sun and moon and stars ON THE MOEDEM / Feasts of YHWH.... we must know that these are important signs when they happen on HIS days.
some things we need to know:
English time - Julian calendar - solar
Muslim time - lunar calendar
Hebrew time - lunar and solar calendar
The Moed/ time clock - add a month 7 times in 19 years....
When an eclipse happens on feast days - YHWH is trying to tell us something.
We know that there are four Blood moons or eclipses coming up... and two complete solar eclipses....
--Pesach /Passover 2014- blood moon - lunar eclipse
--Sukkot/ Tabernacles 2014 - blood moon - lunar eclipse - on first day of Sukkot
--Nissan 1 March 20, 2015 - We have the religious year beginning with a total solar eclipse ... it is also the day Moshe set up tabernacle, fire/glory fell from heaven
--Pesach /Passover of 2015 - blood moon - lunar eclipse
--Yom Teruah 2015 - (Sept 13, 2015) - total solar eclipse - Tishri 1 - the beginning of the calendar year.
--Sukkot /Tabernacles 2015 - blood moon - lunar eclipse
Each of these six times are all on Hebrew holidays ... the “sun will be darkened and the moon will not give her light.”
How often do we get four total lunar eclipses in a row?
We haven’t seen this since the 1500s, when it happened 7 times, but not all of them were on Moeds.
What are the odds of four blood moons on Pesach and Sukkot?
Mark found that we had blood moons on the first day of Pesach and the first day of Sukkot on back to back years - seven times since 1 AD.
Three of these occurrences were connected to
1492 - final year of Spanish Inquisition when Jews kicked out
1948 - state hood for Isra’el and the War of Independence
1967 - the six day war
others were in AD 162/163,, Ad 795/796, and AD 842/843
Bill Koenig says:
Seven back-to-back, blood-red moons have fallen on the first day of Pesach and Sukkot, with the eighth time coming in 2014 and 2015.
I think we should pay attention... these are clearly signs waving in the breeze....
I don’t know what they mean - but we do know that on the dates we know - they were very significant times for Isra’el and Jewish people.
Remember also that on Nov 28, 2013 - the first day of Chanukah - is when the comet Ison appears.... and it could be the largest and brightest comet in all of history.
Clearly things are happening in these times when we get to be alive!
We might not understand it all yet, but let’s not miss what we are seeing!
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Let’s talk about the SEED and the FRUIT now...
I want to start by reading a bit from Brad Scott’s book “The Principle of the Seed”...(this is an excellent book).
He is talking about the moral, ethical and social decline of “our once great nation.”
He talks about the nation of what was the Soviet Union.... and how the speeches from Nikita Khrushchev in the 50s and Mikhail Gorbachev in the 80s had a consistent theme... and the “bottom line” was....
“The United States of America is going to fall. America will collapse. We will not send a single missile or a single soldier; she will implode because of her immorality.”
(Okay so i wasn’t born in the 50s but I was not ever aware of this! Nor was i aware of Gorbachev saying things like this.
I guess they didn’t put it on CBS and NBC. surprise.)
Scott goes on to talk about how “America leads the world in ...
distribution and consumption of pornography
distribution and consumptions of illegal drugs
distribution and consumption of LEGAL drugs
..... and disease
...... and health care costs
..... and psychological treatment/s
.... .. and suicides
..... ... and sex crimes
... and America leads the world in......
..... churches and
..... seminaries, and
......revivals, and
...... missionaries, and
...... gospel groups and
..... Christian rock stars and
...... purpose driven congregations.”
He goes on to say... “Remember America confesses to be 90% Christian.”
“Well, the dominate religion in this country, in concert with the media, would have us all believe that the reason we lead the world in these immoral activities is because of the 10%.
In other words, these people would have us believe that the tail is wagging the dog here:
that the immoral 10% are controlling the moral 90%.
The dominate religion in America would identify for us who the 10% are.
They would be the atheists, the agnostics, the homosexuals, the Democrats if you are Republican and the Republicans if you are a Democrat. They would include the liberal media and Hollywood, of course. Many would lay the blame entirely on the Clintons, or perhaps a few on sports and beer commercials,
but never, never, never would the “faithful” 90% be involved.
After all, judgment does NOT begin with the house of God, right?
I am going to suggest something that may shock many.
I am going to suggest that the reason our once great country leads the world in these immoral categories is
because we indeed ARE 90% Christian.
Yes, that is what i said,
but bear with me.
Here is what we are not:
We are not 90% God-fearing,
we are not 90% Bible believing, obedient followers of a Jewish Messiah.
We are however, dominantly Christian.
We have done a wonderful job of proliferating Christian doctrine and reproducing more Christians.
But ARE we teaching the Scriptures, all of the Scriptures, or are we teaching and spreading Christianity?
Is it the Scriptures that we are living by,
or is it the message of the products of our great seminaries and the early church fathers that we are reproducing.” (end quote)
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So to summarize - a CORE problem is that
churches are teaching Christianity and not Torah.
They are teaching traditions and opinions of men and not the Word of YHWH...
and it is to the point where the people sitting in the pews don’t even get/ understand this!! ...
they are blind - they can’t see. They can not understand the WORD.
They don’t know.
We sat in pews and didn’t know- not very long ago.
I praise Yah - that i was so hungry that i continued to cry out for more understanding!
The shepherds will be accountable. They are teaching christianity - not the Word of YHWH - the Torah.
They are not teaching the difference between the holy and the profane.
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So what has that got to do with anything?
- EVERYTHING!
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Do you read the Word?
Do you know how it will be in the end of days?....
There will be a famine...
(This is a big key....)
Amos 8:11 cjb p 740
“The time is coming says Adonai YHWH, when I will send famine over the land, not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the WORDS of YHWH.”
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A famine in the land...
- the popular religion is teaching christianity - not Torah....
and we can’t figure out why we have problems!!??!!
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Last week i talked about how we can get ourselves focused on the mess in the world around us - and anxiety will come in - like the roaring lion who “prowls around” looking for things it can “steal, kill and destroy.”
Anxiety is a large demon in this nation. (By large - i mean - having a serious effect on a large amount of people.)
We have got to keep our eyes focused on the WORD -
-the TORAH....
-the written WORD and the LIVING WORD - Y’SHUA....
.... == YHWH is salvation!
The popular religion of our day is teaching that we just need to LOVE.
To “love Jesus”... and that is all that goes with that....
We need to know that Biblical love is not a feeling. It is a covenant.
Remember...
the Word says...
Yochanan / John 14:15 cjb p 1350 “If you love me, you will keep my commands.”
Yochanan 14:23 “Y’shua answered him, ‘If someone loves me, he will keep my Word; and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.’”
In the beginning the Father tells us... what it means to keep his commandments.
In D’varim / Deuteronomy 27 and 28- we can read about the blessings we will have if we keep Torah, and the curses we will have if we do not keep Torah.
Last week i talked briefly about a sentence from Scott....
“The seed is our inheritance and the fruit is our responsibility.”
So in review and explaining further .... we are just going to talk about what that one sentence means. :)
We need to understand that -
- “The SEED is our inheritance and
the Fruit is our responsibility.”
“‘Man” and the popular religion of our day - is about the business of focusing on the inheritance.... “just love”
“I love the Messiah.”
“He loves me”
“I am forgiven”....
... While condemning the responsibility.”
--This is really significant. This, spoken over and over from pulpits all over - that---- “we don’t earn our salvation/ deliverance - and that is what they Jews had to do in the Old testament and still do.”
It is absolutely true that we don’t earn our deliverance.... that comes through teshuva /repentance and grace of the shed blood of Messiah Y’shua.
It is absolutely NOT true that the Tanakh (Old Testament) teaches that deliverance is earned. Deliverance came because of the BLOOD.
Keeping Torah is about relationship - being obedient because we LOVE YHWH.
But if you hear something over and over - by people you are taught to respect - that is what you believe.
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So because people of the popular religion do not understand that they have responsibility....
Scott says....”And then we blame God or the Devil for whatever problem we are dealing with and we leave ourselves out of the equation!”
- Most people in the Western culture don’t have a sweet clue that they have anything to do with the end of days.
They are just sitting on the couch, (probably in front of the TV) waiting for his return where “he is going to take them up out of the problems.”
They literally believe - because that is a teaching of Christianity and not the scriptures - that they aren’t going to be here for difficult times... just ask the “Left Behind” series.
So the people on the couches and the pews don’t think they have anything to do but - some still believe that they should repent of their sins and ask “Jesus” to be Lord of their lives.
While others are not even being taught this any more.
BUT - if they kept Torah - they would have gone over and over Scripture in the Feast times, not to mention being taught Torah from a Hebrew perspective ..... and then they would understand the prophecies/ Scripture!
.....but...there is a famine in the land... a famine of the WORD.
and they are just being taught christianity, not the WORD.
So let’s talk about the SEED as our inheritance
and the FRUIT as our responsibility...
What does he mean by this??
Remember Hebrew is based on agriculture... so it is not like Greek...
Greek is abstract ideas.
Hebrew is clear physical things in agriculture... so we can SEE it.
This is amazing.
If we go with Greek - we just have abstract words.
and you know that over time words and the meaning of words change.
But from the beginning of time until the end - there will always be ground and seed and fruit. So what YHWH did by using the one thing that would always be - is He gave us a perfect way to understand by what we see and it will always be there!
So ...
The SEED is our inheritance...
Romans 4:13-16 cjb p 1406
“For the promise to Avraham and his SEED that he would inherit the world did not come through legalism but through the righteousness that trust produces. 14 For if the heirs are produced by legalism, then trust is pointless and the promise worthless. 15 For what law brings is punishment, but where there is no law there is also no violation. 16 The reason the promise is based on trusting is so that it may come as YHWH’s free gift, a promise that can be relied on by all the SEED, not only those who live within the framework of the Torah, but also those with the kind of trust Avraham had - Avraham avinu /our father for all of us.”
Scott says....”Inheritance doesn’t come through the written Word/Torah it comes through the Seed.... and the promise is made of no effect because of the Torah without relationship works wrath in you”....
What is he talking about??
If all i have is instructions / law/ Torah - and i have no relationship - then i have nothing....
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Judaism was responsible for keeping the Torah... and they did a fantastic job. the Torah/ Tanakh is the oldest and most reliable thing we have... in the whole world
- even if they changed Messianic prophecies 134 times in the Masoretic text....
It is still incomparably more accurate than the B’rit Hadashah - the New Testament
Remember how we have talked many times that when Christians make a new “version” of the scriptures, to get a copyright they have to change the text 20%....!!!
anyway... the truth is......that
- keeping the Torah is not designed to deliver us...
Torah is designed to bless us!
The truth was lost -and mixed up - wicked (the twisting of lies with enough truth to make them believable.)
.... by the religious system of the Second Temple Period Judaism, and in Christianity.
Torah/ law is not responsible for the inheritance - the seed is the inheritance.
The seed is our inheritance - that we have eternal life because of YHWH’s promises and Y’shua’s blood.
The seed - our inheritance - is the relationship.
Avraham - by faith believed YHWH ... and was given the promise of all the seed. He didn’t have Torah when he left UR of the chaldese... the paganism of his family... he left with trust.... just plain simple trust /faith/ emunah. (Later it becomes clear that he was given Torah because the Word says - “because he obeyed YHWH’s mitzvoth ...”)
Most of the people of the seed - were never exposed to the Torah -
they only knew/know the religious systems that have been messed up with the traditions of man.
So Torah without relationship is just about rules and regulations... and if you are only doing that - keeping a religious system of rules - then there is not a seed, so there is not an inheritance...
....and you can’t produce fruit with out seed.
Galatians 3:29 cjb p 1455 “Also, if you belong to the Messiah, you are seed of Avraham and heirs according to the promise.”
In B’resheet 12 - YHWH told him to go... and he did...
B’resheet 26:3-5 cjb p 26 - YHWH to Yitz’chak/Isaac
“Stay in this land, and I will bless you because I will give all these lands to you and to your descendants. I will fulfill the oath which I swore to Avraham your father -- 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, I will give all these lands to your descendants, and by your descendants all the nations of the earth will bless themselves. 5 All this is BECAUSE Avraham heeded what i said and did what i told him to do -- he followed my mitzvot, my regulations and my teachings. “ = Torah.
All nations will be blessed BECAUSE
“BECAUSE” = responsibility.
the Hebrew word for BECAUSE is “akov” = ayin kof bet
if you add a yod it becomes Ya’akov = Jacob = ‘on the heels of something”
“AKOV / BECAUSE = something that follows something
RESPONSIBILITY = TO ANSWER OR TO BE ACCOUNTABLE TO SOMETHING
English - “Responsibility” = in Hebrew =“achraute” = that which follows or that which comes after = the end times...
Think about a field or a garden - the fruit always follows or comes after the seed.
The Fruit is our responsibility....
So think about this....
The Torah doesn’t plant the seed - the “farmer” plants the seed... if there is no seed... there is no roots and no vegetation to hold the ground together ... so when it rains.... there is nothing to hold the ground there and it is just a flood and ground is washed away.
Get this picture. If you can get this then you can begin to make sense of Hebrew language and Hebrew thinking....
There is a seed and it can be planted in the ground. If the seed grows, then roots and plants hold the earth together so the ground is not washed away in the rain.
...The seed holds the earth together...
English Bibles use the term “the curse of the law” - but that doesn’t mean much because it is so abstract...
the “curse of the law” is that --- where there is no seed, no root, no vegetation to hold the earth together - when the rains come - the ground is just washed away.
That is why the Father insists - first you plant the seed = the relationship, the inheritance is only produced by grace through faith...
The rains come and the seed grows... roots and stem ...
then the rains will not wash the ground away....
and you can produce the fruit.
Hoshea 6:3 cjb p 712
“Let us know, let us strive to know YHWH. That he will come is as certain as morning; he will come to us like the the rain, Like the spring rains that water the earth.”
Hoshea 10:12 cjb p 718
“If you sow righteousness for yourselves you will reap according to grace. Break up unused ground for yourselves because it is time to seek YHWH, till he comes and rains down righteousness upon you.”
D’varim / Deuteronomy 32:2 cjb p 234
“May my teaching fall like rain, May my speech condense like dew, like light rain on blades of grass, or showers on growing plants.”
Remember --- if there are no plants....
.... the rain just floods the earth and doesn’t produce anything!
The rain is TORAH.
Brad Scott says “His word and His ways are showered upon all the earth and if you don’t have a seed planted - if you don’t have TRUST and RELATIONSHIP --- then it is not doing anything but creating chaos in your life.” because you can’t understand it!
We see this after disasters - the churches get filled up.... but there is no Torah there - no rain (and i don’t think any lechem /bread either), so the plant can not grow...
What happens when there is a famine in the land - when there is no rain - no Torah...???
D’varim / Deut 11:16- 17 cjb p 210
“But be careful not to let yourselves be seduced, so that you turn aside, serving other gods and worshipping them. 17 If you do, the anger of YHWH will blaze up against you. He will shut up the sky, so that there will be no rain. The ground will not yield its produce, and you will quickly pass away from the land YHWH is giving you.”
When someone by grace through faith is reconciled and redeemed and brought into the kingdom... there is much joy in heavenly places...
Then the Father - the one who planted that seed, waits patiently b/c He knows....
... He knows what life on earth is like
and He knows the religious systems...are going to be piled up on top of the people....
... but He has long patience and He knows...that it is going to take awhile for some people.
Did you get that picture?
someone comes to faith in YHWH/ Y’shua... the seed is planted...
but we live in world of much evil - so all sorts of things are like more dirt piled on top the seed.
When we plant seeds in our garden - if we plant the seeds to deep - it takes a longer time for the plant to sprout up out of the ground. Sometimes if we plant way too deep - the plant never makes it to the top of the soil.
Religion adds a LOT of dirt on top of the seeds planted....
This is why we don’t judge people...who aren’t yet getting Torah --
.... because the Avineu /Father is waiting patiently for the rain to come...
not just to give the seed nourishment
but to was some of the extra dirt away that is piled up on top of the seed!!!
Our Father is patiently waiting
.... the Torah... rain..... and for it to sink in past the religious systems and the ways and traditions of man - their comfort zones... and for people to finally study and hear and SEE.
This is why we have a responsibility according to Matt 28 - to go into all the world and teach the instructions of the Father = the Torah.
IE = bring them the seed and the rain!!!
but if you don’t give them the rain it just dies in the earth....
that is why some people wonder away and go back to no faith where they came from - there is no rain - NO TORAH!!!
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Do you understand now - that the seed is our inheritance ?
Our inheritance - if we are of the seed of Avraham by blood or if we have been grafted into the cultivated olive tree... and have done teshuva and came back into covenant - thanks to Messiah Y’shua - Father’s beinyah/ plan for restoration.
The seed is our relationship with HIM.
The fruit is our responsibility... it is something that happens because of what we do and how we live - BECAUSE we love HIM.
The seeds in us had way too much dirt on the top... but we cried out for more of YHWH and understanding His emet /truth/ Torah.... and the rains did come /Torah and washed away the extra dirt of the mess from the world, and false religions... and the seed sprouted and found its way to the surface and the plant grew, and the roots are going deep...... and we have begun to produce fruit....
Our deliverance only comes through Messiah.
Christianity would tell you that we have His grace and so that is all we need to do.
Over and over HE gives us instructions in how to live... how to be holy to serve Him.
and we sat on the couch and just “loved” Him..... but by HIS GRACE - His grace - He loved us so much that despite the fact that we understood hardly anything - He didn’t give up on us. - That is GRACE.
When we had heaps of extra dirt on top of the seed in us.... HE had the love and the grace to send the rain/ Torah - and patiently wash away the extra dirt.
Praise Yah.
And so we can stand and wait patiently with Him who had the patience to wait for us.... for other seeds to have the heaps of extra dirt washed away by the rain/ Torah.
And we can know that He has called us to go into all the world and teach the Gospel - the TRUTH/ Torah.... to begin to wash the heaps of dirt away from the seeds in so many others of Isra’el.... and that, Beloved, will be good fruit. :) Amein.
Seed is our inheritance and
the Fruit is our responsibility.
AMEIN and AMEIN.
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