YahBlog

Shabbat Shalom to all our Mishpatim! (Family)

The beginning of the Sixth month in the Hebrew calendar is at hand. The Babylonian name is Elul. It is during this Sixth month that we solemnly search within ourselves for sin in preparation for the upcoming Day of Atonement. It is believed that it is during this 40 days (1st of Elul to the 10th of Tishri) Yeshua spent his 40 day fast in the wilderness. For those of you who ask the question what would Jesus do? Well, he would spend the next forty days in prayer and fasting to Yahweh. Let’s use His example to live by.

Jewish tradition holds that this is a solemn time to look inward, to seek the face of HaShem and ask him to reveal any hidden and unknown sins so that we might turn from those sins, repent (Teshuvah) and cleans ourselves in preparation for the upcoming High Holy Days. We must make compensation to others for sins against our brother and ask forgiveness. Daily, for the entire month, the Priests sound the trumpet at the evening (beginning of the new day) as a warning to return to Yah and repent. With warning it is implied that judgement is forthcoming. The Days of Awe (between Yom Teruah and Yom Kippur) represent the days of Jacob’s troubles. In the month of Elul, we should remember that we must repent and prepare for the days of Jacob’s troubles that we might be protected during that time by the hand of the Almighty. Daily the Priests watched and waited for the next new moon, Yom Teruah, Feast of Trumpets, ‘the day that no man knoweth’. On Yom Teruah, the Priests would sound the trumpet 100 times to let everyone know it was the High Holy Days and the beginning of the 10 days of Awe. During the next 10 days, any sin you still hold in your heart must be dealt with, sifted if you will, before the Day of Atonement. I will discuss Yom Teruah and Yom Kippur later. Today, let’s look at this month of Elul.

Teshuvah, is from the Hebrew root ’shuv’, meaning to return, repent, turn from.  Let’s look deeper into this word. It is written tav-shin-vav-vet-hey. In the paleo or Hebrew word pictures tav=mark, shin=tooth, vav=nail, vet=house, hey=window. It is interesting that there are 2 /v/ sounds in the word that only has one /v/ sound when it is spoken. One significance of a vav in the midst of a word is that it is nailed, secured, just as our repentance in Yah is secured by a nail that hung him from a tree. This is a common significance throughout the Torah. Looking at the whole word from the paleo perspective we have tav=ownership, to seal, make a covenant, join together, mark or sign. Shin=to devour, to consume, to destroy, something sharp. Vav=to join together (hook), make secure (nail), bound to. Vet (bet)=house or building, tent, a body of someone or something, family or household, inside or within, amid. Hey=window, to show, to reveal, to see or look. Wow! What a revelation! Putting these together…

Make a covenant, come together, joined together and secure, bound to (vav, significance of Yeshua) and reveal what is inside to destroy and devour (sin) - Repentance!

Let’s spend this month of Elul returning to the face of Yah asking him to covenant with us and reveal what is inside and destroy the sin, that we might enter the High Holy Days as a spotless bride, and gain protection from tribulation that will sift us as wheat before Yah’s return.

Shalom Aleichem!

Before I answer this question, let’s look at some things we must conquer in our walk with the Father:

Destroy 7 Nations

Deu 7:1-6 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;

And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:

Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.

For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

So first we are to utterly destroy the 7 nations and not take mercy or they will turn the people away from Yahweh. Let’s take a look at what the names of those nations mean and what we are to fight against when we become believers.

Nations to overcome:

Hittites (Strongs H2845) means terror, fear

We must first destroy fear. Fear stifles us from moving forward and will keep us from conquering any of the other nations that come against us. The enemy uses fear as his first line of defense against us. If the adversary can keep us paralyzed in fear, we will not move and cannot be used. The Father has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind. 2 Tim 4:7

Girgashites (Brown-Driver-Briggs) means a dwelling on clayey soil, weak foundation

Second, we must build a firm foundation, built on the solid Rock, the Author and Finisher of our Faith, the Torah, the Word made Flesh! The adversary’s second line of defense is to deceive us a set us on a brittle foundation. He knows that if our foundation is weak, we will not be able to stand in rough times. Mat 7:26

Amorites (BDB) a sayer, boaster (Strongs H567) publicity, prominence

Amorites were a prideful people. Our third step in our walk must be to overcome pride, boasting, self-importance, seeking attention and recognition. This is one of the biggest tools the enemy uses and loves to use it on believers! Human nature says, ‘I am right’. So pride will easily besets us if we are not watchful and consider the workings of the enemy. Pride comes before a destruction. Prov. 16:18

Canaanites (Strongs H3669) humiliated

We must overcome humiliation, debasement, feelings of lack of worth. The adversary will cause you to stop trying by telling you that you are not worthy, capable, nor smart enough to do what the Father is asking of you. He will say that the path before you is too difficult, too big, too everything for you to overcome or complete. He will bring you down and stifle you by making you feel hopeless and helpless, not worthy to fulfill your mission. But the Father, creator of all things says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made! Ps 139:14

Perizzites (Strongs H6522) a breach in the wall of a village

We must overcome the breaches in our wall, the breach of our promise to Yahweh to walk in His way, His commands, His right rulings. The enemy will distract us with small fires, busy-ness, activity, worries. These open breaches in the walls, get us off the path, entice us to other places. We must be ‘repairers of the breach’ and ‘restorers of the paths’. Isa 58:12

Hivites (Strongs H2340) dwellers of the high places, their capitol was on Mt. Ba’al Hermon (Strongs H1179) which means lord of destruction!

We must tear down the high places in our lives, idols, images, pagan symbols, false mighty ones, sports, tv, entertainment, video games, computers, ______ (you fill in the blank). The enemy loves to get us to put other things before our Father! He encourages us to be work-aholics, computer-holics, in love with self, in love with our family more than we love the Creator of all things! We are to fight against the principalities and powers in high places! Eph 6:12

 

Jebusites (Strongs H2982) trodden down, threshing, desecrate, utterly reject (Greek form tribulum, where we get the word tribulation)

Finally, cast down rebellion. Once we have conquered the first 6, we must utterly destroy rebellion and its affects: destruction, division, evil toward one another, disputings, witchcraft, tribulation. We need to watch the adversary’s suggestions of rebellion, they are subtle and start out small, creeping in like a small bit of leaven in the air attaching itself to us and growing without our knowledge! It is our responsibility to clear out the leaven regularly so our soul will not be ‘cut off’. Just as the people were to clean the leaven from their houses before the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, we are to clean the leaven out of our lives daily and fill ourselves with the Father’s Word. Exo 12:15

So these different ‘nations’ must be destroyed completely from our lives. Yah gives us a warning.

Deu 7:21 Thou shalt not be frightened at them: for the LORD thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.

And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.

So these changes in our lives, these strongholds, if you will, will not be overcome at once, but gradually, lest the enemy multiplies and comes upon us all at once. Remember if we clean the house and do not refill it, a worse situation will be for that person.(Luk 11:21-26) Father will reveal the enemy to us gradually, we will overcome each ‘nation’ one by one, and refill, regroup, and prepare for the next battle.

Over and over in these passages in Deuteronomy 7-11 we witness Moses’ call to be obedient, to

hear and obey (Sh’ma). Well, as we fight the enemies Yah places before us we must be able to hear Him so that we can obey Him. 1 Kings 19 tells us how to hear the Father. He is the still small voice. But our original question was, ‘What has Yahweh asked of you?’ How can you know the answer if you don’t hear His voice? Now, how do we do this? Well, first of all we start by yielding ourselves completely to Him in all parts of our lives (those steps we discussed above) As we work on each step and listen for the still small voice, seek His face and fill up with His Word, we will begin to hear.

So now let’s look at the answer to the question:

Deu 10:12-21 And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,

To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?

Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD’S thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.

Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.

Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.

For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:

He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.

Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name.

He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen. (emphasis is mine)

We can sum all these words into two words Hear and Obey, or better yet, one word, ‘Shema’. The ultimate promise to us through the Torah Portion this week is that if we Hear and Obey, we will be given the blessings, we will be protected, we will flourish when all else is destroyed.

So, what does the Father ask of us? Only that we Hear and Obey… My question to you is this…

Do you Hear?

Riches and downsizing are not usually two things that are put together. But I concede that they are indeed connected. Today we, Americans, are rich. we live better than many people in the world. Even our poorest live richly by world standards. We have things, things, and more things. I am the first to admit, things in and of themselves are not bad, but I am living a repeat lesson about things and in my experience God provides repeat lessons to me when he is concerned with me getting the message clearly. The repeat of this message has begun to sear into my consciousness the fact that our riches can be hazardous to obtaining the kingdom of God.

 

The “kingdom of God”…is a discussion for another time, but I would challenge you first to consider what that really is. I won’t provide the answer, although I have forced myself to ponder the answer in my own life and come to a God-instructed resolve about what the “kingdom of God” really is. But for the sake of this mental and spiritual exercise, I am assuming that the “kingdom of God” is a good thing and what we are in pursuit of. With that being said…let me give you my lesson in true fairy tale form!

 

Once upon a time…(and if you’ve read some of my writings over the past two years you’ll have a clearer picture of what life has looked like for me)…I had a father who was terminally ill and came to live with me so that I could provide care for him. After a peaceful but fatal bout with cancer, my father’s mortal body passed away and was regally laid to rest in the veteran’s memorial cemetery. The history is that in the process of moving my father from California to Georgia, I had to secure a new house. The house was a big house with lots of rooms. I also had to have my loft apartment (a meager 2 bedroom loft with probably only 1000 sq ft) and his California bungelow of 1400 square feet and storage treasures that were all delivered to the new house that had already been outfitted with things and furnishings and stuff of its own. So the convergence of his, mine and our stuff happened. Not only did the convergence happen, but a brand new storage building came in to accomodate the overflow of tools and more “stuff”…all wonderful in its own right.

 

Some of you might be saying “stuff, glorious stuff..” And for a while so was I. I could ignore the stuff, espcially the stuff tucked away in nice boxes in the back yonder storage building. But there came a point where God decided…”this shall be the time to downsize the stuff!” I can almost hear the deep regal voice of God (why does deep and regal sound like God to me…another thought trail to follow on a sunny day while laying on a picnic blanket in the park!) letting me know that a new adventure was coming and that it was time to downsize. Now this had not been the first time I had gotten this set of instructions. Since returning to Georgia, i had downsized several times. The loft was so far the epitome of downsize. I had moved from a 3 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom townhouse to the 2 bedroom loft apartment. I had streamlined the stuff. I had given away the dish sets that had 32 plates. I had gotten rid of many of the clothes that had lingered unseen and unused. I had freecycled the craft projects that had no chance of being completed. I had donated the books taht were only of passing entertainment interest. I had fixed my mind on “less”.

 

But the downsize with my fathers things caused a different level of separation anxiety. There was a lifetime of tings that my father had collected, all which has some specific relevenace to his life at some point. The stuff was overwhelming and I felt myself want to just keep it all. But I was to learn the lesson. So to aid in my education, God provided a wonderful lady to come and help with the sorting, and the ebay selling and the garage selling of the stuff. I would say “sell” and then say “well…maybe not” and she would reiterate the lack of justificaiton for keeping the unneeded. But I remember teh emotional turmoil of simply getting rid of stuff. At one point of breakdown I remember standing in the dark, in the driveway, in the spinkling warm rain…crying. Wondering why I have such an attachment to mere things, especially when God had said to downsize…

 

And then the spiritual lesson hit home.

If there is anything, spelled ANYTHING, that would hinder one from doing the will of God it is an idol.

Ezekiel 14.1-11: Some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat down in front of me.  2Then the word of the Lord came to me:  3“Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all?  4Therefore speak to them and tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When any of the Israelites set up idols in their hearts and put a wicked stumbling block before their faces and then go to a prophet, I the Lord will answer them myself in keeping with their great idolatry.  5I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted me for their idols.’ 6“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Repent! Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices! 7“ ‘When any of the Israelites or any foreigner residing in Israel separate themselves from me and set up idols in their hearts and put a wicked stumbling block before their faces and then go to a prophet to inquire of me, I the Lord will answer them myself.  8I will set my face against them and make them an example and a byword. I will remove them from my people. Then you will know that I am the Lord. 9“ ‘And if the prophet is enticed to utter a prophecy, I the Lord have enticed that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel.  10They will bear their guilt—the prophet will be as guilty as the one who consults him.  11Then the people of Israel will no longer stray from me, nor will they defile themselves anymore with all their sins. They will be my people, and I will be their God, declares the Sovereign Lord.’ ”

Ok so this passage is talking about idols and I know the first thing that comes to my mind is little statues sitting on a fireplace mantle. But our stuff and our clutter has for many of us become our idols. We go out and work at jobs that provide us with a false man-power fueled sense of security. We buy things and more things and horde them in our homes. And then if that wasn’t bad enough, we go out and buy more to add to the collections of stuff we have. 

 

I am in another situation where God is showing me the repeated lesson. I am living with a roommate and I am working to get the apartment organized (her stuff). In going through boxes and bags of her collections of stuff, I am noticing things that haven’t been seen in several years. But each time i present her with the option of discarding..she opts to keep. There were several hundred pounds of clothing items to sort and after they were folded for viewing she was given a BIG box and the option of discarding the unwanted, unused items. At he culmination of that activity, the BIG box held four garments. A side note is that every available closet is already packed with clothes on hangers (sometimes two garments on each hanger). There would not be enough hangers or space for the newly sorted stuff, nor the boxes of other stuff that is simply being moved and restacked into a more efficient system. The stuff creates a sense of comfort i suppose. But the lesson has reemerged. What would God have me to do, and how much separation anxiety would it be to walk away from some of my stuff to “do it”. And that is the picture that I am seeing most will have in the days to come.

 

This article was not meant to be a sermon, but old habits die hard. Take a minute to do some personal reflection. Close your eyes if that helps. If you were asked to be ready to leave in 30 minutes and that only what you could take with you in your hands in 30 minutes would be allowed, what would you do? What would you take? How would you feel? I don’t need the answer, but perhaps it is a worthwhile exercise for you to do. If the exercise seems simple, move the challenge to the next step. Take one closet and downsize it accordingly. Discard every clothing item in it that has not been worn in the past three months. Get rid of any box that has not been opened in that same time frame. Sell, give away, throw away or burn it! How comfortable is that? If that seemed simple, increase the challenge and go through your pantry. Look at all of the things on your shelf that are just “there” and give them away. 

 

It’s not the stuff that keeps us out of the kingdom of God. It’s our inability to detach from the stuff that makes it an idol. For some its money for others its simply stuff, tv’s fancy cars, fancy houses.

 

Matthew 5: 29If your right eye causes you to stumble,gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.  30And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

While this verse is referring to adultry specifically, the priniciple that it presents is worthwhile when looking at our lives. If there is anything - any stuff - that would cause us to hesitation in answering the directives of God, we need to get rid of it or get over it!

 

I believe there will be at time coming soon where our nation will be in crisis. For some, many, I think the greater emotional crisis will be the separation anxiety that occurs when we are challenged to leave our things and go. You can prepare for the potential physical threats, but emotionally we must be able to stand strong. I remember my driveway breakdown…the feeling of anxiety and loss at seeing “things” go. But I eperienced that loss perhaps to gain an insight to share with others.

 

Lesson to self #1: Don’t grow emotionally attached to things.

Lesson to self #2: Things are to be used, not loved.

Lesson to self #3: What idols am I holding onto? (I have a few…and I’m working on it….if God said Go and leaveth your laptop…i might have an emotional breakdown!)

Lesson to self #4: God gives us lessons and refresher courses when he wants us to get the point. This is the refresher course.

Lesson to self #5: Letting go of stuff is freeing AFTER the stuff is gone, NOT before or DURING the downsizing.

Lesson to self #6: No one cares how much stuff you have. You only think they care! And who cares what they think? Care more about what God things!

Lesson to self #7: Get more is not always a God thing! Beware not to let stuff become an obstacle

 

Ok. So….

Anytime a thought starts with “ok, so….” it’s bound to be a doosey!

This is just a quick thought I had as I was preparing to post a somewhat choppy, but very relevant blog article. I have been “working” on a few articles and have seemed to be in procrastination mode. I have jotted down thoughts as they enter my mind thinking to elaborate more in writing. I have done a rough draft write of an article (which I will be posting as soon as I follow this mental rabbit trail). And as you can see by the date of this post…none of the thoughts or articles or tidbits have made it to the blog. And as I was fumbling to get onto the blog dashboard, the thought hit me (as thoughts so often do) that I (spelled me, myself and I) might be the obstacle from God’s message for me and others getting to where he wants the message to land. In my frequent moments of perfectionist tendencies, I long for perfectly formed sentences and thoughts rather than the jumbled, jumpy, choppy ones that the random thoughts usually start out being. I want it all nice and neat and in nice little blocks. What if…God wanted the message out more than he wanted an eloquently formed article? What if my hesitation and procrastination to share caused harm to the body, or lack (of knowledge, insight or the lesson) to the body? What if it was my ego getting in the way (surely not me!)? What if I really was “the weakest link” (and you’ve gotta hear that in the true tone that my teen and tween age daughters use with me when they say it to me)?

So the thought hit me…and I learned some lessons in that moment…

Lesson to self #1. God doesn’t need my perfection, he needs my obedience.

Lesson to self #2. God can pretty up even the most vague thought.

Lesson to self #3. God perfects whatever (and whoever) he wants.

Lesson to self #4. It’s a blog…you can always go back and revise!

Lesson to self #5. Just do it!