Rabbi’s Reflections – Monday, September 23, 2019 

Shalom *|FNAME|*,

I want to write a few sentences about a subject that came to my attention earlier today.  I’m writing on Sunday for Monday.  The subject is faithfulness.  What can I tell you about faithfulness that you don’t already know?  Nothing!  

In fact, what can I ever tell you that you don’t already know?  You’ve lived all these years and gotten all this experience.  There is nothing new under the sun.  What I’m going to say here is not new, it’s just review.

The Scriptures ascribe much importance to faithfulness.  1 Corinthians 4:2 In this case, moreover, what is required of stewards is to be found trustworthy.  The word “trustworthy” is frequently translated as “faithful.”

Faithfulness is given as one of God’s attributes (and we are to be like Him).  Deuteronomy 7:9 “Know therefore that Adonai your God, He is God—the faithful God who keeps covenant kindness for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His mitzvot,  

The Hebrew word for “faithful” is “Ne’eman.”  This is partly where we get the English word “Amen,” which means “that is a faithful saying.”  

The reason I brought it up (and what was said to me earlier today) is that, “Faithfulness must be tested before we know if we have it.”  Let’s pray that we will pass the next test of faithfulness.

Read all of Psalm 62.  Here is the chorus to the song.  Psalm 62:3 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress—I will never be moved (shaken).

If we are not shaken, we are eternally faithful.  When considering the full meaning of “Ne’eman,” we must remember there is an eternal component to it.  Faithfulness for a little while is not faithfulness at all.  It’s like saying, “I almost didn’t sin.”  

As stewards of the precious things of God, may we all be found faithful when He (Yeshua) returns.  

Week 39
Memory Verse: Jacob 2:17 So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.

191   9/23  Monday:       Acts 10-11

192   9/24  Tuesday:      Acts 12

193   9/25  Wednesday: Acts 13-14

194   9/26  Thursday:     Jacob 1-2

195   9/27  Friday:          Jacob 3-5

Question of the day:  What was Peter’s vision all about?

Answer:  Oh, here we go again!  Let me set the record straight once and for all (time).  We know what the vision was.  The question is, “What did it mean?”  Even Peter, himself, wondered about its meaning… Acts 10:17a Now while Peter was puzzling about what the vision he had seen might mean,… (paraphrasing) the men Cornelius had sent appeared at the door of Simon the Tanner’s house.

In fact, the appearance of these men was part of the answer to the question of the day.  The vision had nothing to do with eating, but was about with whom a Jewish follower of Yeshua may fellowship.

Acts 10:28 He (Peter) said to them (Cornelius and his family and friends), “You yourselves know that it is not permitted for a Jewish man to associate with a non-Jew or to visit him. Yet God has shown me that I should call no one unholy or unclean.“

So then, Peter’s vision of eating unclean things is not about eating unclean things.  It’s about Jewish people fellowshipping with non-Jews.  Aren’t you glad I could help you with that; I mean once and for all and all?