Parsha Phineas

From Rabbi Jack

Matthew 22:{37-39}: {22:37} "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. {22:38} This is the first and great commandment. {22:39} And the second is like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Everything in God's Word comes down to these two simple commandments; receiving God's love and then using His love to love. It all depends on our ability to receive love and share love. 

Many people have trouble receiving love and just as many have trouble expressing love. In fact, there are Believers that demonstrate love to outsiders but they have a hard time demonstrating love to their own families, the ones they are supposed to love the most. Perhaps they cannot demonstrate love to their spouse or their children because they are not comfortable with love and have no concept of what love is. They do works instead of being loving, yet they crave acceptance. They think that somehow, some way, through their self-sacrifice, through working hard and being a good provider, they are demonstrating love. This is what their understanding of love is. Sadly, this reflects on their life as a Believer, because they have a hard time accepting and receiving the type of love that comes from God. Some people mistake sex for love; it is not! Sex without true intimate, godly love, demonstrated in the relationship, is just lust and lust cannot replace to true love. The apostle Paul said that even if you sacrifice everything and do not have love you have nothing. Do you know that when you are uncomfortable with love your walk with God is adversely affected! All of Yeshua’s teaching comes down to our ability to receive love and then to love. 

If you believe that you have to do “things” to feel like you have a place in God’s heart, then you are going to require your spouse and children to earn your love, which will result in them learning not understanding love. A lot of people did not grow up being held and hugged by their parents. That could be because there was a lot of hurt and pain in their home, so they learned to hide their emotions. You need to be willing to forgive whatever it is that caused you to be uncomfortable with love and to start receiving Yeshua’s love so that you can finally give true love.  

From Ellen

We are not praying this so that we could humiliate anyone, although as we know we can and do humiliate ourselves, but to pray against it.  We need to pray against evil continually because this is an evil world!  If you are not recognizing the evil in our world then you are probably not following Yeshua to the fullest.  Ahh there in itself is an error. Following Yeshua when it is convenient is also an error, it is like being almost pregnant or almost saved!  When we accept Yeshua as our Lord and Savior there has to be a decision made that we are all in.  I am not saying that we have to be so pious that most unbelieving people would find us sort of annoying but they do have to see something in us that is different.  If we just line up with the world we show no witness.  I know, I know how hard it is to not look like the world but we must emit something that would entice the world to want what we have.  I will not try to fool myself because I enjoy labels just as much as the next girl.  But I will say this…if we exert energy in trying to be like the next girl what will happen to our witness?   

We need to walk very carefully because the ministry God has given us is to a mixed multitude.  Here in Israel, it is very difficult, so our internal light needs to be very bright.  Sadly, we usually wake up to news that there were fallen soldiers during the nightly battles so our countenance and light is sometimes dimed.  When we are ministering in Africa, we acknowledge that there are many that do not have suitable homes, lack food on the table or are always in need and we ask the Lord to help us help them without instilling an element of enablement.  Bottom line is how we choose our choices. 

There is one choice that needs our attention at all times, that is if we are following Yeshua.  That choice of the wide gate or the narrow gate!  I know that if we have smartphones, we have AI, (artificial intelligence).  I asked my AI concerning the “gates”.  Here is what AI said and I quote… “The narrow gate is a metaphor used by Yeshua in the Bible, particularly in Matthew 7.13-14 to represent the path of discipleship and true life, which is contrasted with a wide gate leading to destruction. This concept emphasizes that following Yeshua requires dedication, sacrifice, and a commitment to His teachings, while the wide gate represents a life of ease and worldly pleasure that ultimately leads to spiritual ruin.” AI went on to say… “The narrow gate is small and few will choose it and it requires denying oneself and following Yeshua…” very challenging do you not think?  Last but not least AI said… “The narrow represents the ONLY way to eternal life and a relationship with God.” This to me is emphasizing the importance of making the right choice. I could not have said it better… 

Links

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CLICK https://youtu.be/TKkGYbAiXfM for Parsha “Balak” by James (Yaacov) Mwangi. CLICK https://youtu.be/t_TNVah2Gqo for sermon “Righteousness, Prayer, Fasting” by Rabbi Jack. 

CLICK https://youtu.be/3y0ouH_L58A for Parsha “Balak” by Rabbi Jack. 

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Titus {2:13} "…while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Messiah Yeshua.” 

Yours in Messiah Yeshua, 

Shabbat Shalom 

Jack & Ellen

Commentary: Phineas

D’VAR TORAH

PINCHAS – PHINEAS

BAMIDBAR (NUMBERS) {25:10} - {30:1}

Numbers {28:1-2}: {28:1} "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, (28:2} Command the children of Israel, and tell them, My offering, My food for My offerings made by fire, of a sweet savor to Me, shall you observe to offer to Me in their due season."

Does He get hungry? Does God need to eat? Even if God did get hungry would He need us to provide Him with food?

Psalm 50:12 "If I were hungry, I would not tell you: for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof."

So obviously God does not need our provisions in order for Him to exist. In any case, God is Spirit and does not need food. So then, what is meant by the statement in the passage I read from Numbers? I will repeat it:

Numbers 28:2 Command the children of Israel, and tell them, My offering, My food for My offerings made by fire, of a sweet savor to Me, shall you observe to offer to Me in their due season.

Your Bible translation may translate the Hebrew word “lechem” as bread instead of as “food,” as my translation does, and this translation is correct as well. However, the implication of the passage is not regarding a bread offering, but in actuality it is any type of grain offering.

The food of the Holy Spirit that takes up residence inside of us at salvation, we’re told in Scripture, lives off of the food of the Word of God.

Luke 4:4 "And Yeshua answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God."

As we read and ingest the Word of God through our daily devotions and reading of the Bible, the Holy Spirit in us grows and we become more Spirit centered and less fleshly/worldly centered. In other words, we receive the power to reject sin and walk in the commandments of God.

Hebrews 4:12 "For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

The soul of man is his thoughts, mind and emotions. Our soul is very powerful. If left unchecked, even after salvation, our soul can dominate our spirit. Our human spirit is what connects us to God. God is Spirit and all the human spirit needs to do is to connect with the Spirit of God in order to overpower the soul. The human spirit requires this connection to the Spirit of God in order to function as we were created to function, as children made in the image of God. Our soul is always drawn towards sin. So, when the human spirit is connected to the Spirit of God it can control our soul and bring it into submission to the Word of God. How does this occur? Through the food of the Word of God, the Holy Spirit in us is strengthened and acts like a two-edged sword that breaks or severs the power the soul has over the human spirit.

Now, just as the Holy Spirit eats the Word of God, God eats the sacrifices of His people. Allow me to explain.

Psalm 51:17 "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise."

It was never the offering of animals that God was after. It was what the offering of animals represented that He truly cared about. Sin separates man from God. The sacrifices restore man to a correct relationship with God. This is food to God!  He eats the humility, brokenness and the restoration of the people He created. Today, our praise, our love and adoration of God, through repentance, is food for Him and a sweet smell in His Nostrils. 

End