Rabbi’s Reflections – Monday, June 14, 2021
Shalom,
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Mon 14 Jun-2021 4th of Tamuz, 5781
Nu 19:18-20:6 Jer 44-45 Esr 5 (Lk 6:1-26) 2 Co 7
Numbers 19:1 Adonai spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, 2 “This is the statute of the Torah”…. Thus begins the Torah reading for this week (the Parasha) titled “Chukat.” A “Chauk” (pronounced like “hawk” but with a “Ch” – the guttural, back-of-the-throat sound) is a command (ordinance) from God that is not easily understood or explained. There are simple commands (Tzav or Tz’va’ot or Mitzvot) and judgments (Mishpat or Mishpatim).
This particular “Chauk” concerns the ashes of the Red Heifer. The traditional rabbinic explanation misses the mark, because the deeper understanding is found in Messiah Yeshua, and that’s the one place most rabbis refuse to look for answers. Over the next few days, I’ll unravel this one piece at a time as we read through it.
Every offering involves a substitutionary sacrifice on behalf of the offeror. There is a “laying on of hands” that is a transfer of identification from the one making the offering to the offering itself. Yeshua is the once for all time offering. He alone is every offering in One. Hebrews 10:10 By His will we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Messiah Yeshua once for all.
Today, we read this command… Numbers 19:2 “This is the statute of the Torah which Adonai commanded saying: Speak to Bnei-Yisrael that they bring to you a flawless red heifer on which there is no blemish and on which has never been a yoke. A “heifer” is a virgin female bovine.
Right away we see that this a different offering from among so many others. Concerning the Passover offering… Exodus 12:5 Your lamb is to be without blemish, a year old male. Let me ask you a question. “Where else in scripture to we find a virgin female? That’s right, the Bride of Messiah is described in this way. Revelation 19:7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready,
This brings to mind the contrast between the Bride and the Harlot. We just read of the bride in Revelation 19, but before that, we read in Revelation 17… Revelation 17:1b “Come, I will show you the sentencing of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters.”… 3b and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast (that “scarlet beast” is an imitation of the red heifer). 4b full of detestable things and the filth of her immorality, 5 and on her forehead was written a name, a mystery: “Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes and the detestable things of the earth.”
By now you can see where I’m going with this. We followers of Yeshua are His Bride, which is the reality of the Red Heifer. As we keep studying this section of the Torah, we will see that we are a Bride with a purpose that goes beyond looking pretty and loving the Savior. These things are not easily explained, but let’s dig deep to get everything God has for us in it.
Week 25
Memory Verse: Daniel 4:32(35) All the inhabitants of earth are counted as nothing. He does as He wills with the army of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. No one can hold back His hand, or say to Him, ‘What have you done?’
* 121 6/14 Monday: Jeremiah 31:30(31)-39(40),32–33
122 6/15 Tuesday: Jeremiah 52; 2 Kings 24-25
123 6/16 Wednesday: Ezekiel 1:1-3; 36:16-38; 37
124 6/17 Thursday: Daniel 1-2
125 6/18 Friday: Daniel 3-4
Question of the Day: Have you heard the latest anti-Semitic attack?
Answer: It goes like this. “The Jewish people today are not really Jews, they are imposters who are not the relatives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but those who have “glommed on” to the promises made to the real Jews. But alas, the real Jews sinned away their opportunities to be the people of God.”
Over many centuries, Satan has done everything possible to make God a liar. To do so, he, himself, has to lie. Every anti-Semitic attack is intended to discredit God, Who made this promise… Jeremiah 31:34 Thus says Adonai, who gives the sun as a light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars as a light by night, who stirs up the sea so its waves roar, Adonai-Tzva’ot is His Name: 35 “Only if this fixed order departs from before Me” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “then also might Israel’s offspring cease from being a nation before Me—for all time.” Last time I checked, the the sun came up today and the moon and stars are still following their “fixed order.”
The “sea” in Scripture is usually a reference to the “sea of humanity.” When we read of the seas being stirred up, and the waves of the sea roaring, this is a description of what we are seeing in the world today. People are upset. Everyone has a cause. Everyone wants to be heard. And all the hatred toward Jerusalem, Israel, and Jewish people is visible evidence that God is fulfilling all prophesy concerning His beloved, the apple of His eye, the children of Israel (who was Jacob until he had his name changed).
These promises are repeated near the end of our reading today too. It’s a little long (these 3 verses of Scripture), but very relevant to our discussion. Jeremiah 33:23 The word of Adonai came to Jeremiah, saying: 24 “Have you not noticed what this people have spoken, saying: ‘The two families which Adonai did choose, He has rejected them’? Thus they despise My people—no longer a nation before them.” 25 Thus says Adonai: “If I have not made My covenant of day and night firm, and the fixed patterns ordering the heavens and earth, 26 only then would I reject the offspring of Jacob, and of My servant David so that I would not take from his offspring rulers over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore them from their exile, and have compassion on them.”
Who are you going to believe, lying anti-Semites or God?