Rabbi’s Reflections – Monday, October 30, 2023
Shalom,
God’s promise for Israel… please pray today. Deu 28:1 “Now if you listen obediently to the voice of Adonai your God, taking care to do all His mitzvot that I am commanding you today, Adonai your God will set you on high—above all the nations of the earth. Deu 28:2 Then all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, if you listen to the voice of Adonai your God: Deu 28:7 Adonai will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck down before you. They will come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. Lord, would You bring this to pass, speedily and in our days? In Yeshua’s name, amen.
Life In The Body part 26 – Romans, part 201
Romans 13:9 For the commandments—“You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,” and any other commandment—are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fullness of the Torah.
What Paul is writing here has become a popular message to people from all walks of life, but it loses meaning and focus when removed from the Gospel. We see this most dramatically in Islam. In Hebrew we say, “Shalom.” In Arabic they say the same word only differently, “Salam.” Islam is named for peace, but without Yeshua extremists have hijacked the religion of peace.
God gave us His righteous principles in the Torah. The problem was never His righteous principles, it is our inability to obey them. For that, God had to send His only begotten Son to both teach us and show us how to walk in obedience. To know Yeshua is to know the Father.
John 14:7 “If you have come to know Me, you will know My Father also. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.”
Joh 5:19 Therefore Yeshua answered them, “Amen, amen I tell you, the Son cannot do anything by Himself. He can do only what He sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.
When Paul tells us to “love your neighbor,” that’s nothing new. It is in the Torah… Leviticus 19:18 You are not to take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am Adonai. And remember our definition of “love” from last week, “Seeking the good benefit of another above self.”
This is all consistent with God’s righteous principles. Yeshua set the example… John 15:13 No one has greater love than this: that he lay down his life for his friends. But immediately (in the next verse) Yeshua ties this love back to obedience… John 15:14 You are My friends if you do what I command you. Without this principle, we will stray off course and love (and as a result, enable) sin.
Even rejection of sin (Romans 12:9 Let love be without hypocrisy—detesting what is evil, holding fast to the good.) must be done in love. Jude 1:22 And have mercy on those who are wavering— 23 save them by snatching them out of the fire; but on others have mercy with fear—hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. Anyone can speak the truth, but that’s not the assignment. Ephesians 4:15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all ways into Messiah, who is the Head. We must tell the truth “in love” which encourages growth in the Lord. Shalom shalom.
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Mon 30-Oct-2023 15th of Cheshvan, 5784
Ge 18:15-33 Jos 22 Ps 21 Mt 17 (3 Jn)