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Midrash for Shabbat of October 8, 2005
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Midrash for Shabbat of October 8, 2005 |
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Midrash for Shabbat October 8, 2005 All scripture quotations are from the Restoration Scritures, ©2000, Moshe Koniuchowski
Of course, there is no worry about this with our Kohen haMoshiach, who is and always will be sinless. The Kohen haGadol was to accurately portray the sinless Kohen ha Moshiach, Yeshua. This offering was for inadvertent or ignorant sins. There was no atonement for a priest's willful sins, especially a High Priest's, as attested to by the immediate deaths of Aharon's eldest sons, Nadab and Abihu (Lev.10.1-3), for offering strange fire in their censers. The kohen Moshiach would then place some of the blood
on the horns of the altar of incense. Easton's Bible Dictionary says
Rev.9.13 "And the sixth heavenly
malach sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden
altar that is before YHWH, 14 Saying to the sixth heavenly malach who
had the shofar, Loose the four heavenly malachim which are bound in
the great River Euphrates. 15 And the four heavenly malachim were loosed,
who were prepared for the hour and day and month and year, in which
to slay a third of mankind. 16 And the number of the army of the horsemen
were two hundred million, and I heard the number of them."
Then he would pour out the remainder of the blood at the bottom of the altar of burnt offering, perhaps symbolizing the blood Yeshua shed on the tree and poured out before Yah. Yeshua was our burnt offering, as symbolized in the carcass of the bull being taken without the camp and burnt. He was also our atonement and our peace offering, and our trespass offering and.... I think you get the picture. Q&C Vv.13 - 21 - It was possible for the entire congregation to sin in ignorance, too. So Yah gave us a sin offering to take care of our corporate sins of ignorance. I can't put my finger on a specific instance of a corporate sin of ignorance, except perhaps when Achan kept an idol from Yericho and troubled Yisrael thereby. The camp knew nothing of Achan's sin and yet suffered the consequences for it. Achan made Yisrael to sin. When the priest sinned, he placed his hands on the head of the bull and confessed the sin to Yah. When the people sinned, the elders of the tribes ALL placed their hands on the bull's head and confessed to Yah. In all the other offerings up to this one, the people
or the priests got to eat what wasn't offered to YHWH. But in the sin
offering, nothing was to be eaten. The whole bull was to be burnt. The
bull had 'become' sin and we were not to partake of sin. To eat of the
bull of the sin offering would be to partake willfully again
of the sin we'd just confessed willingly. It negates the repentance
just made and shows that it was not from the heart. There is no atonement
for this type of willful sin. Vv.22-26 - deals with the king's sins of ignorance. The big difference here is that the king offers a male kid of the goats. This calls to mind the sacrifice of Yom Kippur (which is 5th day {Thursday} this week on the Hillel II Calendar). The word translated 'goats' is the Hebrew 'ez' and literally means 'strength', and points to the superior strength of the goat compared to sheep. I think that the decreasing strength of the animals as we go along shows the importance of the position of the people offering the animal. First is the priest, with congregation on the same level of importance or power positionally. The priest as representative of Yah and of the people are listed first, like the father is the head of the home, but actually of equal importance and rank to the family as the mother is. Then the king is of inferior strength and importance to the people and the priest. And finally the individual is of lesser strength and position than the king. Also, in Yah's scheme of things, the king is to answer to both the priest in matters of 'religion' and to the people in matters of policy and 'politics,' and the individual is to answer to the king in matters delegated to him by Yah or the people. Vv.27-35 deal with an inadvertent sin by 'just a guy', like you or me. He was to offer a Female kid of the goats, once again inferior in strength to the male goat of the king's offering. This idea of position and personal power and prestige dictating the type of animal to be offered has come out of my mind, not any rabbi or writing, and it could be wrong. But I doubt it. Q&C Yechezkel 18.4-17 - "The being (soul) that sins, it shall die." "The wages of sin is death…" There is no mitigation here. There is nothing that says that the soul that sins will have another chance after this life is over, as some are moral enough to claim. YHWH HATES morality. Morality is what we inherited from Adam because he partook of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (morality). Now we know about who is more evil than we are, and than whom we are less righteous, and it is the root of all manner of holier-than-thou CRAP, mainly due to jealousy. It is very difficult to NOT judge others' actions because we KNOW what's good and what's evil… in our subjective opinions (and you know what opinions are like). If we had NOT partaken, we could be truly OBJECTIVE and bring righteous judgment. I think this will be the REALLY big difference between our lives now and our lives in the Kingdom and ages beyond. We will be truly able to think Yah's thoughts after him - and they are not moral in the least, but RIGHTEOUS! I COULD be wrong… but… Ah, you know! This passage goes on to say, and I summarize, that 1).
a man is responsible for his own halacha; 2). the son is not responsible
for the father's sin, 3). nor the father for the son's. It also takes
into account the genetic curse (I think that YHWH may actually change
the genetic structure of 'career sinners', like alcoholics and sex offender.
This would explain recent scientific evidence that such behavioral traits
are genetically inherited - hence the gracious provision of Yah empowering
the breaking of the generational curse, i.e.; justification by the blood
of Yeshua), the sins of the fathers are visited on the children's
children to the 3rd and 4th generation of those who hate YHWH, and shows
that to break that generational curse, all one has to do it repent of
the sins of his fathers and follow after YHWH's prescribed halacha.
From the Restoration scriptures: 10 "If he begets a son that is a robber, a shedder of dahm, or one that does any of these same kind of things… 13 Has lent on interest, and has taken increase: shall he then live? He shall not live: he has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his dahm shall be upon him." 14 "Now, see, if he begets a son, that sees all his abba's sins that he has done, and considers it, and does not do anything like it… 17 That has removed his hand from harming the poor, and has not received interest nor increase, has executed My mishpatim, has had his halacha in My mishpatim; he shall not die for the iniquity of his abba, he shall surely live." Let's discuss a few of the sins mentioned. Vv.6, 11 and 15 speak of eating upon the mountains. What is that? Are we not allowed to have a picnic in the mountains? Now, I know some people who would consider it a sin to have a picnic lunch on a hilltop, but I don't think that's what Yah is getting at here. Mountaintops were the places where the priests of Baal and Ashtoreth and Molech and such held their ritual sacrifices and partook of flesh and blood in worship to their idols. Vv.6 and 15 tell about idolatry in the very same breath, lending credence to what I just said. When Eliyahu did battle with the 450 priests of Baal, it was on the top of Mt. Carmel in one of the numerous groves in Yisrael. He had to repair the altar of Yah, but the Baal priests just danced and screamed and cut themselves to shreds on the perfectly in order altars of Baal. They were no doubt of perfect construction; square, level and plumb, and made of perfectly cut stone, unlike the altars of Yah which were of uncut, natural stone and only as orderly as those could be made. I think that was what Yechezkel was saying here. Vv.6, 11 and 15 also speak of defiling the neighbor's wife. Have you ever noticed how frequently an idolater is also an adulterer or fornicator? The two seem to go hand in hand. Vv.7, 12 and 16 speak of oppressing the poor and needy. I hate to say this, having given 23 years of military service to the USofA, but our government has a large hand in oppressing the poor and needy while looking like Santa Claus to them. It does this via the welfare State, the easy credit system that makes serfs of us who were the freest people on earth, and the manipulation of the fiat money system. And they do it by taking advantage of the inability of most people to obey the 10th Commandment - Thou shalt not covet. Only someone who is sold out to YHWH and indwelt by the Spirit can possibly escape it, because only one empowered by Ruach haKodesh can live by his halacha. Now I'm going to make some
enemies. What is YOUR credit life like? If you want something
and don't have the cash to purchase it, BUT you do have a credit card
that by some strange chance is not maxed out, do you wait until you
can pay cash or use the plastic? Here's an interesting idea to roll
around in your brain. What hand do you usually use to hand the credit
card to the cashier? Your right? What does it say in Rev.13 about the
right hand or the forehead? It says 'IN their right hands…' in
the KJV.
But our psalm goes on to bless the King's son, both
the son of David and the Son of Elohim. The description of the King's
son is exactly what we've been reading about all day. The psalmist (v.1)
asks Yah to give the King's son HIS righteousness. Sounds like Yeshua.
It says he will judge in righteousness without respect of persons (v.2).
Sounds like Yeshua and our passage from Yechezkel vv.5-9. It says that
his rule will cause the mountains and hills to bring peace BY righteousness
(v.3). Sounds like the Messianic Kingdom ruled by Yeshua, who has seen
the sins of his fathers after the flesh and is following the halacha
of his Father l'shamayim like in Yechezkel vv.14-17. Every description
of the King's son in Ps.72 reflects the righteous man and his son who
turns from the sins of his fathers in Yechezkel 18. David says (v.5) that the people who receive righteous judgment and equity from the King's son will bless Yah as long as the sun and moon endure, to all generations. ALL generations doesn't just mean that there will be some righteous offspring l'olam va'ed. It means that there will be righteous offspring, and nothing BUT righteous offspring, in the ages to come - after the dissolution and recreation of the earth that we'll look at in our Brit portion today. The description of the Millennium and beyond is idyllic, and it is that way because that is how it will be. The rain will be gentle and nourishing to all manner of flora and fauna. V.7 says the King's son will fall down like rain on new mown grass. This is an acknowledgment of the source of all the good that will be on the earth in that day. Vv.9-11 say that he will be the King of kings of the earth. There will be regional rulers over areas of the earth, but they will all bow the knee to HIM. I think that they are servant kings, truly out for the good of the ruled, and not like our rulers who are only interested in what's in it for them, and if by chance it benefits someone else, well I guess that's OK, too. Shlomo was right when he said, "When the righteous is in authority the people rejoice. (Pro.29.2)" But not to worry, He was also right when he said, "The evil bow before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous." The righteous = YHWH Yeshua Tsidkenu. The righteous King is their example in vv.12-14, bearing righteous and equitable judgment to the common folk, the 'rabble'. Any sub-ruler not bearing righteous rule will be put down, for Yeshua will rule with a rod of iron (Ps.2) from Yahrushalayim. Q&C In vv.15-17 we see the plenty that will be the norm in the Millennium. Remember the boom of the late 80's and 90's? Imagine that for 1000 years! There will be no excuse for poverty by the end of the millennium. With the conditions that will exist on earth at that time, NOONE will be able to say 'I'm hungry because the land won't produce for me.' If, in the Kingdom, your land isn't producing, it's because you aren't keeping Torah. That is not necessarily true today, but then it will be a given. The unrighteous will stand out like sore thumbs. Laziness will have to be extreme for you not to have enough because the land will be begging for something to grow, "Please plant something in me! I am aching to be fruitful!" All you'll need to do is plant and keep Torah. The earth will almost spue forth nourishment for us. These are verses that the Rabbis have major trouble
with. In the Tanakh from the Jewish Publication Society these verses
read, But consider this for a second. Grain abundant on the
mountaintops? Have you ever been to the summit of Pikes Peak? There
is no grass to be found anywhere. It is a huge hunk of granite 14,000
feet above sea level. Very little grows at that altitude. Imagine what
it must be like at the top of Everest or K2! Those are over 29,000 feet!
But there WILL be grass on their tops in the Kingdom age and beyond.
Grain crops will look like the cedars of Lebanon! Can you imagine 20-30
foot stalks of barley producing so much grain that it looks like a cedar
tree? And the same with wheat, maize, oats, etc? I guess we'll be regular,
huh? And men will reproduce in their towns like the grasses of the prairie.
Just consider this particular phrase in light of Yeshayahu 9.6-7a, In vv.19-20 David makes one more comparison between the Name of YHWH and the Name of his Son (and David's son). We all know that it was Avinu's plan that was executed by YHWH Yeshua. It was YHWH Yeshua who "bara et shamayim v'haAretz" in Gen.1.1, and who gave Torah to his people Yisrael in Ex.20-24. It is he who sustains the whole creation by the power of his Word, and it is he who will dissolve it and recreate it brand new to eventually be completely inhabited by the 'Camp of the Saints' from Rev.20.9 (and their offspring) after the GWT judgment. So, whose name do you suppose David was talking about? Q&C 2Kefa3 - Kefa says he was reminding his readers of the prophets. I think he was specifically thinking of Ezekiel and David and the portions we looked at today. Whatever the case, he is warning them to NOT be like the scoffers, i.e.; the politicians of all stripes we alluded to before who are out for what they can get, not the greater good for those they are supposedly serving; men who say, "Where is the promise of his coming? Everything is as it has always been." They refuse to see, are willfully ignorant of, the truth of the scriptures account of YHWH Yeshua's creation. Since they don't know him, they go about life sticking it to everyone they have to stick it to so they can get ahead -just exactly the opposite of V'Ahavtah. Kefa confirms the FACT that YHWH created hashamayim v'haAretz and later destroyed all that had breath with a flood. Of course, science and scientists falsely so-called will dispute that fact, but that just proves their own willful ignorance, doesn't it? Rom.1.23-27 shows a progression that starts with men changing Yah into a creature of men's imagination and need for something bigger than himself (even if he made it himself) - idolatry, whether the scientists care to admit it or not. This idol worship is called evolution and psychology. Once Yah is just an imaginary being or one we control, his Word is no longer something to be followed or even consulted. In fact, we can decide whether or not it's true and change it as we please. Once his Word is not absolutely true, the whole concept of sin is done away and anything goes. Evolutionary thinking took hold so quickly, it's completely taken over the schools from grad school to pre-school, because man was looking for ANY excuse to dismiss YHWH and his rigid commandments. Men like their sin more than their creator. And so began the quick decline from a basically righteous political and economic system to a basically wicked one. In v.7 Kefa tells us that the creation is held together by the same Word that created it and that he will dissolve it, as well. V.10 discribes a nuclear fire as the means of dissolution. How will that happen? If we were to detonate every nuke in every arsenal on earth in such a way as to destroy all life as we know it, the earth would still be here. Here's a theory of mine that may help explain it. First a little basic electrical and atomic physics. An atom is a very small thing. All atoms have protons and neutrons in their nuclei and electrons revolving around them, like the earth around the sun or the moon around the earth. The protons have positive electrical charges, the neutrons have no charge and the electrons have negative charges. The 2nd law of Thermodynamics states that everything is working itself toward neutrality and equilibrium, so the negative charges are trying very hard to meet up with those positive charges and reach equilibrium. Left to itself, creation will go from an state of ordered system to a state of no system, just complete equilibrium. It is a law of electricity that opposite charges attract each other - equilibrium, and that like charges repel each other to seek equilibrium with an opposite. So what is it that makes the 238 protons in a uranium atom hold together? And what is it that makes the corresponding 238 electrons NOT dive into the nucleus? Here's the theory. It is the sustaining power of the Word of YHWH Yeshua holding the electrons in their orbits and gluing the protons together (scientists, falsely so-called, actually took to calling the unseen theoretical sub-atomic particles that hold the protons together 'gluons'! They'll do anything to deny Yah). The dissolution will be even simpler for YHWH Yeshua than is the sustaining, because he just needs to stop overpowering the natural laws he set up. This will naturally result in the 'splitting' of every atom in the universe. I believe in the 'Big Bang Theory'. I just don't think it's happened yet. Q&C V.10 speaks of the "Day of YHWH coming 'as a thief in the night'". In 1Cor.15 Sha'ul speaks of 'a moment, the twinkling of an eye.' These passages are not really related, one being about the catching away of believers still living just before the wrath of YHWH, the other of the dissolution of all that physically is. It is the use of terms that relates to what we were saying before. An 'atomic moment' is the time it takes the electron in a Hydrogen atom to orbit the nucleus. The twinkling of an eye is the time it takes for the human eye to move from one point to another and focus on the new sight. Those 'rapture' movies, like 'Thief in the Night' or 'Left Behind' get that part right, even though the rest of their stories are a bunch of hooey. A thief in the night comes without making an appointment with his victim, at a time he doesn't expect a thief will come. Had he expected it, he would have been ready (Lk.12.39-40). The day of Yah is not just one 24 hour period. It is a 1000 year period of time that begins with the catching away of believers on the final Yom Teruah before Yeshua sets his foot on the Mount of Olives. It didn't happen this year. Eddie's Message on Yom Teruah told us that it is the day of the last trump. It is also the day and hour that no man knows. In light of the judgment coming on the earth, including it's total dissolution due to man's sin and corruption, how ought we to live? KJV says 'holy conversation', while Restoration says "Shabbat-keeping piety". Someone has taken a liberty with Yah's Word, because you just can't get holy conversation out of Shabbat-keeping piety, or vice versa. I reserve judgment until I see the Aramaic text. My greek NT has 'agiais anastrosais kai eusesseiais - righteous lifestyle and piety, or 'holy conversation and godliness'. There is nothing in the TR in this verse (12) about Shabbat-keeping. We keep ourselves set-apart in light of our knowledge of the coming reward for faithfulness to Yah's Torah. That promise concerns a new heaven and a new earth. If he is going to dissolve it at the atomic level, he is not just tidying up the surface of the earth, he's making all things NEW! It won't be 'improved' in comparison to the old, which he called 'very good'; it'll just be new, as good as the old before Adam's sin. WE will be improved by the blood of Yeshua and all that his death and resurrection did for us. When Kefa says, 'be diligent to be found at shalom', he is echoing the book of Hebrews that says 'let us labour, therefore, to enter into that rest.' We need to study to show ourselves approved workmen that need not be ashamed. We need to apply what we learn in our lives and make ourselves more like Yeshua by the power of his Ruach haKodesh. And we need to understand that, though we can be somewhat disappointed by his not coming for us yet, the reason is so we can be his witnesses before men who need his message of salvation and peace with YHWH. V.16 speaks of Sha'ul's epistles, which are hard for
the Greco-Roman mind to grasp. Here is what Moshe says in a footnote
on this passage in the Restoration Scriptures: Remember that a text without a context is a pretext.
The context for v.17 is v.16. In light of what we just discussed, v.17
says that since we know about the unstable and wicked twisting Sha'ul's
words, we need to be very careful about how we understand them. We need
to guard ourselves against falling away from Torah. Again, here's Moshe's
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