Light In Torah

It is a couple of days before the Feast of Sukkot. It is a time of celebration. It is a time to let the whole world know who our focus is. It is not a time to be shy; it is a time to shine, not a time to conceal (like the blood-red moon this morning). David said, "We will not conceal them from our children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done." (Psalm 78:4) What parent would even hide something vitally important and beneficial from a child? Actually, I would—and in reality, nearly all parents would. You see, the culture of origin that does not worship the King and pass His instructions to its children essentially deprives those children of life's most valuable treasure. Even worse, those parents sign the death warrant for their children, relegating them to lives of confusion and emptiness, vain hopes and shattered dreams. Why, oh why, would any parent do such a thing? The answer is tangled si...

I have been meditating on one passage in Leviticus chapter 26 for nearly six months. With the fall season two-thirds of the way done, the reality of these thoughts is more relevant than ever before. It is the promise in Leviticus 26 where Moses instructs obedient Israelites who gather in unity around Yahweh's Sabbaths (Lev. 26:2) that they will be able to, with only five individuals, chase away a hundred of their enemies, and a hundred will send ten thousand to flight (Lev. 26:7–8). They also know the odds can be even greater: one faithful individual can cause a thousand to flee (Josh. 23:10). For those who choose disobedience, the opposite will happen. They will flee when no one pursues (Lev. 26:37), and when one of the enemies does pursue, they will put ten thousand to flight (Deut. 32:30). Hmmm… I wonder which side of the fleeing I would rather be on? This is the power of unity! This is the power of a common vision. We see it in the world everywhere. When large businesses merge,...

  Sukkot is a few days away! Wow—I remember when we were counting the Omer together and wondering if day 50 would ever arrive (LOL)! The peaceful, joyous season of Sukkot is upon us, and the world seems to be going to "HE Double Hockey Sticks" in a handbasket. Shootings, earthquakes, floods, mass death, and craziness all around… wow, bring on Sukkot! But before we do, let us take a step back and put all the craziness of the world—and the apparent judgment—into perspective. By doing so, I think it will help us have a season of joy during this final  Moedim  of the year. There is a tendency in me, when I see all the "crazy" happening in the world, to pass judgment from a biblically superior-minded position. Similarly, how individuals might have been with the judgment that came upon Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19). The judgment was catastrophic. Fire and brimstone destroyed that city! Why? The immediate response is… they were such an aggressive homosexual society, and ...

Over the past few days, I have been sharing an overview of the fall  moedim  (appointed times) on God's prophetic calendar. After Trumpets and the Day(s) of Atonement comes the Feast of Sukkot, also known as Tabernacles. It is a time of incredible celebration and feasting for the nations. It requires that the best of the best fruits of the Land are brought for the feasting: the grapes and wine, the wheat, fruits, oils, and livestock. All of these are to be eaten before Yahweh Elohim with the Levites, your family, strangers, widows, orphans, and aliens (and that is not "A.Lee-uns")... all are welcome to taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps. 34:8)! Everyone is invited, and no one is excluded, regardless of tongue, tribe, or nation. Despite the global invitation, there is still room for more (Matt. 22:1–10). Hence, Yeshua continues to stand at the door and knock, desiring to share in the feast with those who have, purposefully or inadvertently, locked Him out (Rev. 3:20)....

Today we will finish connecting our three-word focus to take into the next year. With that focus comes a question: "How do I make that plea to the Author? The Author knows me better than I know myself. What am I going to do—come to the Author and bargain with them, lawyer with them? How do I make the case to include me in the story?" Think about the moment of revelation itself in our national experience. How did we confront the Author? We confronted the Author because we heard His voice; we heard the untrammeled cry, the ethereal sound of a shofar that was not physical but was the sound that the Almighty channeled toward us as a way of reaching out to us and saying, "Here is who I am. This is the deepest way I can represent Myself to you." The most powerful thing we can do is to match voice with voice—to give our voice back to the Almighty in the deepest way we can. Not with words, but with something deeper than words: just our voice. This is who we are. That is the...

Malchuyot ,  Zichronot ,  Shofrot —and the very idea of a  Yom HaDin , a day of judgment itself—all of these would really be the obvious characteristics of a day that commemorates the sound we heard at Sinai. Sinai was the day when we recognized God as our husband; the day we crowned Him as King by stating, "Whatever You tell us to do, we will do" (Ex. 19:8; 24:7). Here they became a kingdom of priests (1 Pet. 2:5–9). There is no such thing as a kingdom without a king. On this day, Pentecost, God became more than a deliverer. He became their Husband and King, who would lead, love, and provide for the rest of their days. You know, kingship is not such an easy concept for us moderns to wrap our minds around. To accept God as King is really to accept Him as our leader. It is to follow Him. To let Him lead us and His ways/Torah, which we gladly accepted. There was a context for that acceptance, and the context goes all the way back to the first time we heard God's wordless vo...

  Malchuyot  (The King),  Zichronot  (Remember),  Shofarot  (Shofar)! The High Holy Days are here (Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles). It is an exciting time, but many do not know much about them. Yom Teruah (the Day of Trumpets) is also known as the Day of Judgment. Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) is also known as the Day of Repentance and the Day of Coverings.  Chag Sukkot  (the Feast of Tabernacles) celebrates a wedding and much more. And though Trumpets is officially over, let us focus again on Trumpets to carry us to our covering and wedding feast! If we read through medieval poetry, we hear about angels trembling, God sifting through all of our deeds from the past year, and inscribing us in one of two books. Scary times! Trumpets, culminating on the Day of Atonement, is a  Yom HaDin  (Day of Judgment)—but where does that idea come from? Scripture does not come right out and say it, so why is it called  Yom HaDin ? Is it j...

It is here! Yom Teruah has arrived. It is time to celebrate with anticipation the resurrection day that is initiated with a shout and the blowing of the shofar (1 Thess. 4:16–17), and the day when we remember the commitment we made when we entered into His covenant (Deut. 29:14–15). Today, we find ourselves halfway between Yom Teruah and Yom HaKippurim. These Ten Days of Awe are significant and super practical for the year ahead—as we put into practice being doers of the word (James 1:19–27). At the same time, we do not want to over-spiritualize these days by leaving out the actions of what Yahweh really wants us to live for mankind to see (Matt. 5:14–16). These days are still about repentance. They are about turning from our faithless actions (Rom. 10:17) that are not pleasing in His sight (Heb. 11:6) and doing the behaviors that are pleasing (Heb. 11:6; Rom. 10:17). How do I know what actions are pleasing and what actions are not? Ah, that is the million-dollar question, is it not!? ...

Traditionally, we are between Yom Teruah and Yom HaKippurim—in the Ten Days of Awe.  Over the past couple of days, we have learned how to go back and peer into the perfection of our soul by traveling back in our minds to the Garden of Eden, before man's sin (Gen. 2:7; 3:1–8), and to Mount Sinai, before the sin of the golden calf (Ex. 19–20). Then we painfully compare that perfection to where we are now (Neh. 8:8–10) and commit to rebuilding the walls and gates of our lives to protect those things of incredible value in our lives. Before you build something—spiritually, emotionally, physically, relationally, or financially—you have to finish the project first! Without going back to the "state of perfection," there is nothing to start building from. Once we honestly evaluate where we are and start the building process, it is easy for unforgiveness to creep in. We begin to recognize the pain inflicted—self-inflicted or otherwise—in our lives, which leads us to a major questi...