Zion's Voice

Haftarah Reflections   30

Torah portion           Leviticus   19 : 1  to 20 : 27

Haftarah portion     Amos  9 : 7 - 15

Listen to the Prophets

Amos, the sheep farmer from Tekoa, a town just south of Bethlehem in Judea, was commissioned by God to take a strong message of warning to the wayward Northern Kingdom of Israel.

Our parashah today is set at a time when, as history records, there was precious little time left, probably less than 40 years, for the tribes of the North to repent of their wickedness and to turn again to the covenant promises which had been made by them and their forefathers before them. We are now in the reign of king Jereboam 2, almost 200 years after the separation of the tribes into North and South.

Jereboam 1, the first king of Israel, had set up two worship centres in that territory, one in the south at Bethel and one in the north at Dan. In both places he set up golden calves as emblems of worship in opposition to the Temple which Solomon had built in Jerusalem, and in defiance of God’s instruction regarding the place where He was to be worshipped.

God had sent several prophets to warn the people that they were heading for disaster. Ahijah, Jehu, Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, Hosea, Amos and Oded specifically. Isaiah, Jeremiah and others also had words of warning to the South, using the behaviour of these Northern neighbours as an example of the righteous judgement of God.

With that background, we may now understand the quite difficult language which Amos uses as he delivers this dire ‘final warning’ to this wayward people. Remember that there were several previous attempts by God to get these folk to change their ways.

“Are you not like the people of Ethiopia to Me, O children of Israel? Says the Lord. Did I not bring up Israel from Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor (Crete), and the Syrians from Kir?”

A strong reminder that God had not only brought Israel to the Land. But also the Philistines and the Syrians !! The message being that NONE of them was given the right to unconditional permanency of possession. Only the Israelites were given the RIGHT to live in the Land, but that was specifically conditional upon adherence to living as God had instructed them. Follow me closely here. God declares that He has His eyes upon them, and unless they change their ways, He intends to remove them from the Land, but will not utterly destroy them. They are to be “sifted” as grain is sifted, yet not destroyed. For many, their disobedient arrogance will result in death (by sword at the hand of their enemies, the Assyrians in this case), because of their defiant response to the voice of the prophets, that “this calamity shall not overtake nor confront us”. (verse 10).

From verse 11, God tells Amos that the “sukkah” of David, now broken down and in desperate need of restoration, will be so restored. This is a direct reference to a future coming of Messiah. Including the return of Messiah which is still ahead of us today. There are some distinguishing characteristics of this dynasty which make it uniquely different to the first Davidic dynasty. It will be a permanent Kingdom. It will include believing Gentiles in its makeup. (the reference to Edom, gentiles, here is related to the prophetic pronouncement in Numbers 24:18)

It will herald substantial prosperity for those who are part of it. It speaks of the Messianic Kingdom. That is what is meant by the ‘plowman overtaking the reaper’ and the ‘hills flowing with sweet wine’. Our parashah concludes with a really up to the minute fulfilment of that prophecy made about 3,000 years ago. We are seeing the beginnings of that fulfilment in our time. God is calling His people back to the Land in unprecedented numbers. Not for their sake, but for His Holy Name’s sake, that the world may know that He is the Lord.

No one could possibly conclude that this is a particularly attractive time for Jews to return to Israel. Quite the opposite. Ebenezer Operation Exodus, a Christian ministry with a mission to assist Jews make Aliyah, was founded in 1991, during ‘the Gulf war’. Everyone trying to leave the Middle East as fast as they could. Gustav Scheller and his team of praying believers, answered the call of God to get into Israel at that very time, to pray there. The result, this God anointed ministry, assisting many tens, even hundreds, of thousands in the last 25 years. Jews who were desperate to escape tyrannical regimes in the former Soviet Union.

Amos couldn’t see this, but he faithfully warned the people of his day about God’s righteous judgement. And in that righteous judgement, God told of the restoration we see today. Amazing.

The word of God is precise. It is unfailing. It is challenging. Just as God warned the people of Israel to ‘get their house in order’, He is telling us today, through His word, ‘get your house in order’. The time is short. The clock of time is running down. No-one knows the timing but God Himself. It was exactly the same for the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom. We ignore the warnings of a righteous Judge at our peril.

What does the Lord require of us? “To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God”

Shabbat Shalom

RS

Haftarah Reflections   29

Torah portion           Leviticus   16 : 1  to 18 : 30

Haftarah portion     1 Samuel  20 : 18 - 42   

Listen to the Prophets

This week’s parashah is full of emotion. Lots of different emotions. You may recognize jealousy, envy, anger, pride, gentle caring, love, loyalty, and maybe more. And in each of them, we can see good and bad outcomes.

In brief, Samuel had been a good Judge over the Israelites for about 12 years. As he got older, his sons took on the role, but lacked the honour of their father. They were corrupt, took bribes and perverted the course of justice. So eventually, the people were so dismayed by the situation that they opted to have a king reign over them. Saul was chosen. Very early in his reign, Samuel, (who whilst technically no longer Judge over Israel, continued to exercise an influetial role as elder statesman) became aware of his shortcomings, and told him so. He went further and told Saul that God would choose another to replace him. That one was the youthful David, son of Jesse. At that point, the Scriptures tell us, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.

Then David’s popularity soared, with the conquest of Goliath, and his humble attitude. King Saul, now in the grip of a ‘troubled’ spirit, sought ways to dispose of David. He offered him his daughter in marriage. He reasoned that this would afford him influence in David’s life and plotted that he could then send David into the fierce battles with the Philistines, expecting him not to survive, but he did. And that increased David’s popularity. To cap it all off, Saul’s son, Jonathan became very close friends with David. Saul was extremely angry.

But as our parashah opens this week David had just put Jonathan ‘on the spot’ to find out if it were true that his father wanted to get rid of him. In great caution, and with much wisdom, David decided to absent himself, even though he was now the king’s son-in-law, from the family meal table at the next New Moon festival, whilst he awaited confirmation from Jonathan about Saul’s attitude towards him.

The rest of the story is very well known. Firstly, Jonathan himself almost lost his life when his father, Saul, threw a spear at him. Secondly, that gave Jonathan all the confirmation he needed about his father’s state of mind towards his close friend David. Thirdly, Jonathan warned David by their agreed signal with the arrows. And our parashah ends with the tearful farewell between the two friends.

The lessons we can take from this story are about guarding our emotions, on the one hand, and letting our emotions free on the other.

The problems emerged with Saul becoming inflated with pride. His appointment as king was certainly an honour. He was anointed by Samuel, and approved by God, for the task. But it was not too long before he saw himself as leader in his own right and by his own strength.

We learn an important lesson here. When God approves us for service in His Name, it is paramount that we recognize His authority. In God appointed roles, we have NO authority other than that which He ordains. Obedience to His precepts and commandments is a vital element in maintaining His approval. In Saul’s case, he knew that God had commissioned Samuel to convey His instructions. Saul ignored those instructions, thinking that he knew a better way. His lack of control, or inability to submit his emotions to God in obedience, gave rise to fierce anger. And isn’t Satan ready to jump in and revel in that situation?

When the correction came, Saul again sought to circumvent that outcome by getting rid of the person God had clearly chosen to do His work. Modern day examples of failure of this kind are all around us. And it is all centred in personal pride. Some greatly gifted young men and women have been effectively ‘sidelined’ by pride driven older people in positions of authority within our modern day church scenarios. Shame.

On the opposite side of the ‘coin’, we see great love and loyalty exhibited. Jonathan and David had developed a great friendship. Admiration even. That was birthed, in no small measure, by Jonathan observing the ‘mighty’ acts of courage and achievement which were obvious in David’s life. But in these, Jonathan could see the way God Himself was taking care of David. He recognized the anointing of God on his friend. And Jonathan wanted to be part of that.

Now this provides another lesson. Most of us are sensitive enough to see, and know, when God is at work in a person’s life. There is an aura, a presence, which can be felt when we are in the company of a person who is walking closely with the Lord. An anointing which is palpable. Jonathan knew it. It is a characteristic which cannot be faked. And when faking is attempted, it becomes all the more obvious.

Jonathan risked his life to shield his friend David. Satan is hard at work trying to pull down those who are in God’s holy service. We should try to emulate Jonathan’s example. It is not ‘blind’ loyalty which is required, but a discerning spirit.

God grant that we too may seek His face, be faithful to His calling, and supportive of those who are doing the will of Almighty God.

Shabbat Shalom

RS

Haftarah Reflections   28

Torah portion              Leviticus 12 : 1  to 13 : 59

Haftarah portion      2 Kings  7 : 3 - 20   

Listen to the Prophets

We need to understand the background to this parashah.

Elisha was prophesying in Samaria, the capital city of the Northern kingdom. God had given him insight into the thoughts of the king of Syria, so that all his plans were laid open to Elisha. The city was besieged by the Syrians, and that resulted in a severe famine there. We do not know how long this siege lasted, but we do know it brought the inhabitants to a perilous state. The price of the little food which was available was astronomic. Then the king of Israel was told that some were even resorting to cannibalism. He was distraught. And he blamed Elisha for their predicament, threatening to put Elisha to death if he could find him.

Then the king of Israel uttered words which have been oft repeated by those who are ready to blame Him for everything that goes wrong in society. In paraphrase he said “What sort of God is it that brings such things on us. I cannot worship a god like that”.

Elisha knows what the king has just said, and he counters with this:- “Tomorrow,  at about this time, a seah of fine flour will sell for one shekel, and two seahs of barley for one shekel”. Cheap as chips so to speak. (it is difficult to be precise, but my research suggests that a ‘seah’ COULD be about 5 Kg.)

An officer of the king heard Elisha’s prophecy and ridiculed him. “even if it fell out of the sky it would never be that cheap”. Elisha, never shy or short of a comment, told the officer that he would see it with his own eyes, but he would not eat any of it. Another bold prophecy, since everyone was hungry.

So to the story, and the lesson, in this week’s parashah.

Four unfortunate men, stricken with leprosy, had been sent outside the gates of the city. This was strictly in accord with the Levitical law in order to prevent the spread of the disease. They were just as hungry as the people inside the walls of the city, and relied on those inside for their food. They had not eaten for some considerable time, and were obviously approaching desperation. They reasoned together. If we stay here, we die. If we go into the city, we die. If we surrender ourselves to the besieging Syrian army, they might feed us, if so, we live. If they don’t, we die. Better for us to take the one chance we have to survive. So they did.

When they arrived at the Syrian camp, it was empty of people. God had caused the Syrians to hear the sounds of a great advancing army. So they left in great haste and left everything behind. The four lepers set about eating the plenteous supply of food, and plundering the valuables. A short while into their binge, one of them stopped, called the others and said “what we are doing is not right”. The Spirit of God moved on them to see that they had found the means of survival available for the besieged city, but they were selfishly contenting themselves, and remaining silent. This was a day of good news, but they were keeping it to themselves.

An important lesson.

We might consider ourselves analogous to those lepers. We were lost, outside the camp, every option we had led to death, except one. In that analogy, the well-stocked Syrian camp, may be likened to the boundless grace of God, in Yeshua, who provided the means of our salvation. Many of us are content to ‘plunder’ the camp for all the goodies we can get, getting fatter, but not growing!  The voice of the Holy Spirit is prompting us in this parashah to consider if what we are doing is right. Should we keep this good news to ourselves, or should we, like the lepers in our parashah, go back to the city, and give them the good news that salvation is available to any who wish to step out of the starving city, and receive it.

Of course, in our story, eventually, the people heard the good news and rushed out to receive the food which was available.

The parashah ends with the confirmation of Elisha’s prophecy. In the gateway of the city, one seah of fine flour sold for one shekel, and two seahs of barley for the same. Such was the rush at the gate of the city that the king’s officer, who had been so sceptical, saw it all with his own eyes, but was trampled to death in the stampede of people.

Another important lesson.

God speaks as clearly today as He did in the days of Elisha. Often, that word comes as a still small voice, sometimes as a ‘rhema’ from the Holy Scriptures.  It could even be through a ‘reflection’ on this parashah! Occasionally it may come from a person with a prophetic gifting, but that is quite rare in our day, and we are cautioned in Scripture to test such prophets before we take notice of them. But however that word is received, it is very unwise to treat it with contempt. God’s Word will always accomplish the purpose for which it is sent.

Shabbat Shalom

RS