Rabbi’s Reflections – Thursday, June 3, 2021
Shalom,
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Thu 3 June-2021 23rd of Sivan, 5781
Nu 15:8-16 Jer 33 Dan 9 (Mk 15) 1 Co 15:1-28
What a privilege it is to write these RR devotionals to you. Today’s Aliyah is only 9 verses long, but there is a critical thought that makes a huge difference. Numbers 15:14 Whenever an outsider resides with you, or whoever is among you for your generations to come,… he must do exactly the same as you are doing. Wait a minute, wait a minute. This “flies in the face” of what many in Messianic Judaism are teaching.
Much of the Messianic movement is cautious about Gentiles doing Jewish things. I’ve never been that way, and don’t plan to start. I’m so glad God’s word agrees with my position (said in all humility), “he must do exactly the same as you are doing.” A non-Jewish person who does anything (with the possible exception of circumcision) that God commands Jewish people to do, will receive the same blessing (for obeying God) that is promised to Jewish people (to whom the commandment was given).
Rabbi Trail: I am willing to make a “possible exception” for circumcision just because I don’t want to discuss it. Talking about circumcision makes me nervous, like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. End RT.
Jewish people are commanded regarding certain things, and God’s blessings are connected to such observance. Although there are over 200 such commands that are relevant today, the conversation always comes down to Shabbat observance, the Feasts of the Lord and Kashrut (keeping kosher). My position is that God’s blessings are tied to observance without regard to what family you were born into or who your parents are.
Maybe I have taken this verse out of context. I don’t think so. Exodus 12:49 “The same Torah applies to the native as well as the outsider who dwells among you.” The key in both of these passages is tied to one who “dwells among you.” Romans 11 applies here as well (just so you won’t get the idea that this is Old Testament only.
Romans 11:17 But if some of the branches were broken off (non-Yeshua following Jewish people) and you—being a wild olive—were grafted in among them (an outsider who resides with Israel) and became a partaker of the root of the olive tree with its richness, (Jewish root… Yeshua relates to every ethnicity, but His ethnicity is Jewish) 18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, it is not you who support the root but the root supports you.
Welcome to the family of God. You don’t have to BE Jewish to be part of the family. Want more blessing? Obey the commandments of God.
Week 23
Memory Verse: 1 Peter 2:23 When He was abused, He did not return the abuse. While suffering, He made no threats. Instead, He kept entrusting Himself to the One who judges righteously. 24 He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we, removed from sins, might live for righteousness. “By His wounds you were healed.”
111 6/3 Monday: Isaiah 6, 9
112 6/4 Tuesday: Isaiah 44, 45
113 6/5 Wednesday: Isaiah 52, 53
* 114 6/6 Thursday: Isaiah 65, 66
115 6/7 Friday: Micah 1; 4:6-13; 5
Question of the day: What theme in Isaiah 65 is often repeated throughout the Bible?
Answer: The new heaven and new earth. Isaiah 65:17 For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered or come to mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating. For behold, I am creating Jerusalem for rejoicing, and her people for joy.
The 66 chapters of Isaiah mirror the 66 books of the Bible. So naturally, you would expect the end of Isaiah to mirror the end of the Bible. Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 I also saw the holy city—the New Jerusalem—coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
The result is always the same. Pain and sorrow shall flee, and there will be no more death. Isaiah 65:19 Then I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in My people. No longer will the voice of weeping or the voice of crying be heard in her. And the echo in Revelation 21:4 (The voice from the throne is speaking) “He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Nor shall there be mourning or crying or pain any longer, for the former things have passed away.”
Get excited my friends, all is not yet fulfilled.