Light In Torah

After the spiritual and physical high of crossing the Reed Sea ( Yam Suf ), receiving the prophetic revelation as a nation, and singing in unison the Song of the Sea (Ex. 15:19; Rev. 15:3), one would think that the spiritual high would last more than just a few days. However, new and never-before-experienced challenges often take our mind away from the One who is our Great Deliverer ( Yeshua ). Why do the emotions flee away like a vapor or mist ( hevel )? Inquiring minds want to know :-) In this week's Torah portion, the Israelites find themselves with no water for three days. God's firstborn children are beginning to murmur against Moses (I don't blame them). They didn't need a drop for their tongue; they needed cool, refreshing, pure water to quench their thirst. Unfortunately, God led them to a murky puddle poisoned by "chemical waste"—the bitter waters of Marah (Ex. 15:22–26). From the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, water was meant to be ut...

Each morning we do a study at the Faith Works clinic to start off our day with the Word of God. It is a 9:00 a.m. study to give us insights into the Torah portion that we would not have time to do during our regular video calls on Monday, Friday, and Shabbat morning.  A full month after leaving Egypt, the people ran out of food in the desert (Ex. 16:1). They had meat—quail—then God provided manna, known in Hebrew as  man . The Lord/YHVH provided this food for forty years until they entered the land after Moses' death (Josh. 5). Because it was "angel's food" (Ps. 78:25), it was said that the taste was anything you desired. This tasty supply of daily bread was hand-delivered from heaven based on where each person stood in their relationship to the Lord/Yahweh. For those seeking to live righteously, the bread was right outside the tent door. For the average person, they had to walk a distance. For the wicked, they had to go a long distance. For the righteous, they receiv...

Every week, I get the privilege of studying the traditional Torah portion for that week, and every Sunday morning, I review the previous week's Torah portion and dig a little deeper :-). This week is   Beshalach   from Exodus 13:17–17:16. Like the daily proverbs that many read on a daily basis (31 proverbs for 31 days per month), this portion saturates our minds on how we respond to current worldwide events. In  Beshalach  there is "water, water, everywhere"! We have the crossing of the Reed Sea ( Yam Suf ), the "bitter" waters at Marah, the abundance of water at the twelve wells and seventy palm trees in Elim, and the striking of the rock at Rephidim where the people contended with Moses. Inserted in the story is the bread from heaven and the Sabbath. Actually, not just this portion, but the whole of Scripture is saturated with water. Water is present before the creation story begins (Gen. 1:2). We find it in the four rivers surrounding the earthly Garden of Ed...

In the Torah portion this week,   Beshalach , we see a desperately needed theme appear where the Israelites recognize the importance of loving, caring for, and treating one another with respect, and maintaining unity in their confession of obedience to their Savior and Deliverer who has redeemed them through the blood of the Lamb and guided them to the place where they would learn obedience (Ex. 3:12; 1 Pet. 1:2). Prior to this mindset, however, the Israelites had to learn to trust God! I know that sounds strange, but it is true. They knew that He was a man of war (Ex. 15:3), but could He be trusted to be there for them in times of crisis (Ex. 17:7)? And would He be a provider for all their needs on the journey that He was leading them in? So he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contention of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?" (Ex. 17:7) By remembering where they had been and taking i...

  Do you see anything a little odd or even backwards with Exodus 10:1? "And God said to Moses: 'Come  (bo)  to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants in order that I might show My signs in their midst...'" (Ex. 10:1) Did you notice the sequence? How does the fact that "I have hardened his heart" merit the reason to "come to Pharaoh"? Compare that with: "You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt." (Ex. 7:2–3) "Come" rather than "go" says, "You are not alone. I will hold your hand and accompany you as we go together to the tyrant." Second, the Lord says, "You ought not to be scared, because it is I who has hardened ( chazak ) his heart. His stubborn will is also from Me." And why would...

I introduced the topic of the firstborn with you this past week in the Torah portion   Bo   ("come") as the focal point of the Shabbat morning Zoom call. I hope you were able to listen to that and get some 21st-century gleanings that are practical for you in preparation for Resurrection Day and the adoption of the firstborn sons of God (Rom. 8:23). There are many challenges that we face in every religious circle. One of the most subtle is using terms that we do not fully understand; and oftentimes we use terms that do not fit the context or culture of God's Word. Let us peel off another layer of what it means to be God's firstborn ( bechor ). If you take just a few minutes to review the entire book of Genesis in your mind, you will notice how obsessed the Torah is with the firstborn ( bechor ). The entire book of Genesis seems to revolve around this question of who gets firstborn status—from Abraham all the way down to Joseph. And what is really strange is that the ac...

  There are so many life lessons to learn through the Exodus story. The Apostle Paul told the Corinthian church that it was the pattern for our journey in Messiah Yeshua (1 Cor. 9:24–10:12). Just as Exodus 12 tells us the story of the Israelites—God's firstborn sons (Ex. 4:22–23)—leaving Egypt by their faith in the blood of the lamb, our deliverance from the bondage of this world (Egypt) begins with our faith in the blood of the Lamb. Whereas God provided a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire to guide them day and night on their wilderness journey, God has also provided us with a Comforter to guide us into all truth (Ex. 13:21–22). Both journeys take us through baptism, obedience, feasts of faith, and the ultimate goal of utilizing the inheritance of the firstborn to influence the nations to worship the King (Deut. 6:23–25; Eph. 1:13–18). But both journeys often overlook a very significant observance:  time . In between the plague of darkness and the death of the firstborn, G...

Recently, I was told that my teaching style is uniquely different than anyone they had heard. I took it as a compliment, I think :-). The purpose behind each study is to be a catalyst for a deeper passion for Messiah Yeshua, a lifestyle that models His Spirit-led Torah walk (Deut. 28:1–14), to create a deeper community, and to reach out to individuals who do not know Him or have strayed away. Ultimately, for us, it is the first step in impacting our resident city and beyond. One of the most important concepts to keep in mind as we continue our daily studies is to put ourselves within the context (language, setting, and culture) of the audience receiving the Word. Let us take John 8:26, for example, and relate it to our daily lives and Moses' confrontation with Pharaoh (Ex. 10–12): "I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard  (shema)  from Him, these I speak  (dabar)  to the world." (John 8:26) Ple...

Happy preparation day from chilly-willy Michigan! The plague of hail and fire has come and gone (Ex. 9:18–26). Pharaoh's repentant heart has repented from his repentance (2 Cor. 7:10; Ex. 9:34–35). Life in Egypt has pretty much been destroyed. The GDP has been devastated! In this week's Torah portion,  Bo  ("come") (Ex. 10ff), we start with the plague of locusts to finish what the hail and fire started. The locust swarms are in devastatingly grand numbers. They group together in the millions upon millions, so that even the eye of the earth cannot see the light of day (Ex. 10:15). These locusts know no boundaries. They destroy everything in sight with no regard for property (Ex. 10:15). They only consume without ever contributing anything back. Locusts attack, and in their frenzy they make a lot of noise and attack in numbers. They are loud, intimidating, and lead a life of destroying what others have planted—yet they do not live very long. Their fate is sealed until t...

As we have learned, the book of Exodus ( Shemot   – "names") is much more than a historical narrative. It is a construct of our lives and how to overcome our own personal Egypts, while revealing to us the Pharaoh mindsets of rebellion and hard-headedness that we often display towards the ever-encouraging ( chazak ) Lord! This journey in Messiah, through the Torah, is full of revelation. The life lessons we have learned over the past couple of weeks are enough to chew on for a lifetime. In years past, we have had a strong ( chazak ) focus on how God hardened—literally,  encouraged —Pharaoh's heart to make a decision on his own that there is only one God (Ex. 4:21; 7:13, 22; 8:19; 9:2, 12, 35; 10:20, 27; 11:10; 14:4). Like ourselves, God lets Pharaoh's impenitent heart go its own direction, and through his own hardening ( keved ), God hardens his heart in order to show His signs and wonders so that "you will tell it to your children and your grandchildren how God p...

  In this counterfeit system of Egypt, we have learned that the magicians of Pharaoh were able to replicate the miracle of Aaron. Whatever Aaron did, they did the same thing. This itself is a very symbolic teaching. What if, symbolically, it is teaching us that there are two sources of power? There is direct power from the source—that is true power. And there is borrowed power. A lot of power you see in the world around you is borrowed power. Could that explain passages like Matthew 7:21–23, where those who prophesy, cast out demons, and do many wonderful works are rejected? Could the lying signs and wonders of 2 Thessalonians 2 be more of the same? Borrowed powers are also symbolic powers. What does that mean? It means that the person or the institution does not of itself have this power naturally. But the power is symbolic, and because it is symbolic, it is symbolically attributed to that person, that group, or that organization. So in this case, the borrowed power can imitate re...

I want to continue with some thoughts from last week's Torah portion,   Vaeira   ("and He appeared"), to glean some more fundamental life lessons. Here we have the memorable story of Moses and Aaron when they confront Pharaoh. The first time, they throw down the staff ( matte ) which turns into a serpent ( tannin ). It eats the other serpents (or swallows them), and then it turns back into a staff (Ex. 7:10–12). Our intuition, our radar, is sending out signals that there is way more to the story than we are willing to acknowledge. This is not simply something to be understood at face value. There is so much potent symbolism here screaming for our attention, screaming for our interpretation. There is not a lot of interpretation out there—that is the interesting thing. You have to really dig to truly understand the inner meaning of what is going on. So we are going to approach the text like Sherlock Holmes, and we are going to begin with four major questions on just these f...

I had a wonderful Shabbat this weekend in two different synagogues in Grand Rapids—one Reform and the other a Chabad House. The experience was wonderful and eye-opening in many ways, and I would not trade it for anything. However, in the midst of the joyful experience, the one thing that I missed was our Friday night Zoom call and our Shabbat morning Zoom call. I hope you experienced a little bit of withdrawal 😊 In this week's Torah portion,  Vaeira , God opens the divine aperture, shining a light upon darkest Egypt. God opened His conversation between Himself and Moses following Moses' first encounter with Pharaoh. Moses' response, after the event did not turn out very positive, was that he is unfit for the task. We addressed some of that this week. His feeling of inadequacy centers on his difficulty with speech. The Torah does not identify the nature or origin of Moses' difficulty. It has been suggested that an actual speech impediment—perhaps a stutter or a severe l...

Moses, the future Hebrew deliverer, had the perfect life. Unlike his brethren suffering in slavery, Moses had been raised in the palace of the Pharaoh, and by the king's own daughter, Batya. A favorite of the king, as a child, he was not spared luxury. Moses could have easily chosen to isolate himself in the aristocratic life of a prince, oblivious to the hardship and suffering of the Hebrews targeted for abuse and annihilation. But Moses did not. Moses left the palace, choosing to spend his time comforting and bringing relief to the Hebrew slaves. Quickly, he found himself unable to stand idly in the face of injustice—thanks to the lessons learned from the influence of the five women in his life. He felt compelled to protect an innocent man being beaten senselessly by his Egyptian tax collector. Moses killed the tormenting master, and then, to escape capital punishment, fled to the quiet land of Midian. There, he met his honey bunny, Zipporah, the daughter of one of the wealthiest...