Zion's Voice

Torah Portion for 21st June - 27th June

Torah portion                 Number 19:1 to 22:1

Haftarah portion          Judges 11:1-3

“Ordinance”

God provides the way

What a feast of teaching there is in this week’s Torah portion.

• The death of both Miriam and Aaron.
• Water from the rock.
• Moses actions cause God to deny him access to the Land of Promise.
• The Edomites seal their eternal destiny by denying Israel rite of passage.
• The bronze serpent of Moses.
• The Amorites king, Sihon, also prevents Israel passing through their land. (I had the privilege to visit there late last year, which causes me to marvel at the fact that these millions of people were able to walk in such hostile hilly terrain)

But of all the teaching prospect in many of those incidents, there is another which I find quite irresistible. I refer to the place the Red Heifer has in their ordinances.

In our modern world view, it seems quite bizarre that the ashes of a dead cow, mixed with water, could do anything, let alone absolve someone of ritual uncleanness. BUT, God is God, His ways are not our ways .. are they ??

The very words “Red Heifer” speak of purity. Purity of breeding and purity of self. Unblemished and unused. Then this unblemished animal is taken OUTSIDE the camp and slaughtered. Some of its blood is sprinkled at the door of the Tabernacle and then it is burned to ashes, ALL of it. The one doing the slaughter become unclean. The ashes are placed in a ‘clean’ place and the one touching the ashes becomes unclean.

Miraculously, God ordained that those ashes when mixed with water and sprinkled onto an unclean person makes that person clean. Now there is more to this ritual, which you can read in Numbers 19, but effectively, that is how God chose to have these people act to become ritually clean.

Did you know that the Rabbi’s have determined that since those instructions were given to Moses, there have only EVER been NINE such pure ‘Red Heifers’ found in all of Israel? They did not all appear at the same time, but sequentially and precisely when they were needed !! Breeders in America have now declared that they have managed to breed the TENTH. (Ultra Orthodox Jews see this as the ‘missing link’ in being able to get on with the construction of the next Temple !!)  The importance of this is that the whole system of Temple worship is “Red Heifer” dependent. What a mighty God we serve. As long as the Tabernacle and the Temple stood in Israel, in a PERFECTLY timely manner, exactly when they were needed, God provided those NINE ‘Red Heifers’ as the necessary means of ‘cleanliness’ for these Israelites, without which, the priests could not function.

For our teaching this week there is an even more important lesson. That is to be found in the ‘typology’ of the ‘Red Heifer’ to Messiah Yeshua.

In His PERFECT timing, with no Temple in Jerusalem, and no ‘Red Heifer’ required for Temple service, God provided the means of priestly ‘cleanliness’ before Himself. Yeshua Ha’mashiach.

• He was pure and unblemished.
• He was taken outside the camp and slaughtered.
• He was (metaphorically) reduced to ashes by being buried in the tomb.
• Through Him, is the only means of ‘cleanliness’ acceptable to a Holy God.
• The Temple as a vehicle of worship, is dependent on His sacrifice. Our body is today “the Temple” of the Holy Spirit. Unless we are cleansed by Him, our sacrifice is unacceptable to God.
• Our worship of God is “Yeshua” dependent.

As we said earlier, God is God, isn’t He?  “As for God, His way is perfect” Psalm 18:30 and 2 Sam 22:31

Be blessed as you read the Torah portion this week. You will see other lessons which arise from this unusual ritual of the slaughter of the exceptionally rare “Red Heifer”. Then you may care to share those insights with friends you seek to bless.

Shabbat Shalom

RS

Torah Portion for 14th June - 20th June

Torah portion              Number 16:1 to 18:32

Haftarah portion       1 Samuel 11:14 to12:22

“Korah”

Rebellion

Two weeks ago, we saw the anger God displayed against Miriam and Aaron because of their challenge to the authority of Moses.

Last week, we saw that God instructed Moses to tell the people to sew tassels on the corners of their garment in order to remind themselves of God’s statutes and commandments. Well, it appears that this was just a bit too much for some of them. Korah (name means ‘boldness’ in Hebrew), a descendant of Levi, together with a crowd of 250 that three men from the tribe of Reuben had pulled together, took it upon themselves to again challenge the authority of Moses !!

Moses was not pleased! He reminded Korah of the privilege the Levites enjoyed in serving in the Tabernacle of the Lord. “Are you seeking the priesthood as well?” he challenged. (Perhaps a gentle reminder to us today to be content in the role God, in His wisdom, has given us, and not be too ambitious (or envious), to do that in which we see others being successful)

Moses instructed all of them to appear at the entrance to the Tabernacle the next day, each with a censer of hot coals. “Let the Lord decide who has authority here” he said.

If Moses was angry, it is reasonable to think, from His reaction that the Lord was livid!!  The resulting events were staggering. Please read the account in Numbers 16:4-40.

I sometimes ponder if the writer to the Hebrews 10:31, had this incident in mind when he penned those famous, chilling words … “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”

It is so easy in 2015, for each of us, reading that account of the judgment of God, to take the high ground and scoff that we would never have fallen for such a circumstance. It is a ‘natural’ response, because we have the advantage of seeing the end as well as the beginning.

Did you know that the word “torah” in Hebrew comes from an archery term meaning to ‘hit the mark’? Did you also know that the word translated “sin” in our Bibles comes for another archery term in Hebrew, “chata” which means to miss the mark (and it does not specify by how much the mark is missed!)?

It is surely possible to list areas of our walk with a Holy God where we could do better, where we have “missed the mark”.  The prophet Isaiah saw, very clearly, these issues with his generation, and warned them of it. Jeremiah put it best perhaps

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit."The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give Every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

When I was a very young man (almost 70 years ago) I was privileged to be taken by my Sunday School teacher to hear a very young Billy Graham speaking in Pontypridd South Wales. The text of his talk is burned into my memory today, as it seemed he was speaking ONLY to me. It changed my life.

“Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting” Daniel 5:27

Korah and his companions were found wanting, and paid a terrible price for it. May God grant each one of us a desire to search our own hearts and minds  … and approach a loving God for His forgiveness, before He approaches us!!

Shabbat Shalom

RS

Torah Portion for 7th June - 13th June

Torah  portion                  Numbers 13:1 to 15:41

Haftarah portion           Joshua 2:1-24

“shelach”

Who will you follow?

The Israelites have begun their journey to the land of Promise. The ‘shekinah’ of God is with them, but in His mercy and grace, he allows them to partner with Himself in spying out the land. ( they were invited to assess the cost of following His plan for them) It has been noted that the journey would take approximately two weeks by the direct route. He had told them that the ‘pillar of cloud’ and the ‘pillar of fire’ would show them the way. Sounds easy doesn’t it?

We remind ourselves here that our God ‘does not change’. In principle His dealings with these people provides the pattern of His dealings with His people down through the ages, and we find lessons which are as up to date for us today as they were for them when these events actually took place thousands of years ago.

Try to picture the scene. They were in unfamiliar territory. They did not know the way. Their ‘salvation’, their safety, their very survival involved keeping their eyes on the ‘shekinah’ of God. That is following the ‘cloud’ and the ‘fire’. To ignore that, to be indifferent to that, and going their own way would have meant that they would get lost and not survive.

What a picture of man today. ‘Salvation’ is in keeping ones eyes on Him, being diligent, obedient, following, the ‘shekinah’ of God. Too often, ‘salvation’ is projected as just a onetime event in which you give mental assent to faith in Yeshua.  The ‘salvation’ experience, dear friends, is a lifestyle which begins with a onetime event in our lives.

So back to the story in our Torah portion.. The people decided to take the recommendation of the ten ‘spies’ who gave a bad report of conditions in the land. The result of that decision was catastrophic for them. With the exception of the two men who brought the good report about the land, all that generation of people who were deemed to be of decision making age perished in the wilderness wanderings over the next 38 years. In ‘salvation’ language, because of their ‘faithlessness’ they were lost, they did not enter the Promised land. An attempt by them to ‘go it alone’ was equally disastrous (see ch 14:40-45).

There is a salutary lesson there for TODAY for all who have a heart to learn. Being disobedient to the instructions God has provided, or ’ having a go’ on your own, is as impressive to God today as it was at the time of our story in this Torah portion.

In chapter 15 of our portion, there is a change of tone. We are returned to God’s instructions. There is the recognition that the people will make mistakes, will falter, sometime unintentionally and sometimes wilfully. Moses is instructed as to how their relationship with a holy God may be re-established, through sacrifices.

Moreover, in chapter 15, verses 13 to 16, Moses is given a clear instruction regarding the persons who are to be included in these ordinances. There is no ambiguity in the instruction. The instructions are for the ‘native born’ and ‘the stranger within your ‘gates’,  that is those joined to them by choice. One rule for everybody. However, today we have division of views and opinions regarding the application of this instruction. The argument is not with me, but with the author !!

Perhaps, just as God gave the Israelites an invitation to “spy out the land” before entering, He gives us today the same invitation “to spy out the land” in regard to His commandments and statutes before entering into relationship with Him. This is a contentious issue, and one would be well advised, rather than blindly follow the teachings of a seriously malnourished church on issues of this nature, to go before a Holy God, Bible in hand, and ask Him directly “ … to give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened …” Ephesians 1

Finally, in His infinite love, mercy and grace, God provided these people with a tangible, visible, reminder of His instruction for righteous living. Number 15: 37 – 41.

It is a personal matter for me that some years ago I was urged by God, through the reading of His word, to commit myself to observation of some of these more obvious Torah instructions. Not a legalistic, mechanical observance, but out of a sense of living righteously and obediently before Him. I do NOT put that on anyone else. It is quite personal. But that simple observance has become a continuous reminder, like tassels on the edge of a garment, of that which God has asked of me.

Shabbat shalom

RS

Torah Portion for 31th May - 6th June

Torah            Numbers 8:1 to 12:16

Haftarah     Zecharia  2:14 to 4:7

“Beha’lotcha”

Way is Perfect

The title of this week’s portion, “when you light” comes from the instruction to Aaron about the position of the lamp bowls on the Menora in the Holy place.

It is always an amazement to me that God had such detailed instructions for those who were called to serve Him. Could this be the first lesson for us today as we seek to worship and serve a holy God? There is nothing haphazard or casual about service to the living God. It is good to always remember that His dealing with the Israelites provides the pattern for all who are joined to them in faith.

This detail carries on in the instruction to Moses to make silver trumpets for the purpose of calling the people to assemble, to gather, to move, or as a warning of impending danger.

The portion this week details their first ‘movement’ from the place where they had just celebrated the Passover, remembering that they had left Egypt just one year earlier. It was their first experience of moving on, as a new Nation towards the Promised Land. It was to be a journey of only three days. Their first experience of taking the Tabernacle down, packing it for travel, and taking off in their orderly ranks of families, then setting the Tabernacle up again. Amazing spectacle it must have been too.

But the journey was not without complaint!

Read Numbers Chapter 11 for an account of the Lord’s displeasure with them.

For me, the highlight of this Torah portion comes in Numbers Chapter 12.

Miriam and Aaron, for whatever reason they had to dislike Moses wife, chose to challenge Moses authority in the congregation of the people. In truth, this presents itself as a challenge of the authority of God Himself. And that is precisely how God sees it.

In my mind, I imagine a very angry God (see verse 4) calling to them “You three, over here at once !!” Then He carpeted Miriam and Aaron and gave them a lecture about their brother’s attributes, and His relationship with His very humble servant Moses.

Read carefully verses 6 -8. A wonderful tribute from God about this faithful and trustworthy man. It is not possible to read this description of Moses without comparing him to Messiah Yeshua. One with whom God spoke  ‘face to face’. One of whom in Matthew 20:28 it is said “The Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give His life a ransom for many” and of whom the writer to the Hebrews ( ch 3:1-6) says “.. has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses”

Yeshua, King of kings and Lord of lords, Head of ‘the church’, came to SERVE, not to be served. What a contrast that is to the situation in many of our churches today. A church structure in which those called to service present themselves, too often, as the C.E.O. of a commercial enterprise. How sad God must be with us at times.

Then in verse 13, I believe we have the very first example of personal prayer for healing. I have only been able to find THREE occasions in the scriptures (but there may be more) where there was personal prayer for healing by one person for another. There are a numerous cases of the exercise of the GIFT of healing, but it is rare to find such personal intercession in the scriptures.

Today, as we know, the reverse is the case, where personal intercession far exceeds the exercise of the manifest GIFT of healing.

Shabbat shalom

RS