Statutes

      This week's Sabbath reading portion is titled B'chukkotai which means "In My statutes". The title comes from Lev. 26:3-4: "If you walk in My statutes (huqqa/haqaq/hoq - ordinance, prescribed, appointed, manner, enactment, right or privilege/laws being cut into stone, engrave, to beat, strike, cut into or on, sceptre, lawgiver, appointed time, that which is established/limit, portion, statute, boundary) and keep My commandments, and perform them, then I will..." Let's consider the Hebrew root meanings behind the word huqqa, or statutes. Scripture says that the LORD cut His statutes into (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) tablets of stone (eben - includes the meanings head stone, plummet stone, foundation stone, sling stone) with His own hand (see Ex. 24:12). Believers in Christ can find the image of Messiah/Christ in these Hebrew root meanings. Jesus said that the scriptures, including the LORD's huqqa statutes and the prophets, testify of Him (Jn. 5:39). Huqqa statutes, according to the Hebrew root word, also set limits and boundaries, not just for man, but for rulers and spiritual powers, and for all creation: "...the hidden wisdom of God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory..." (see 1 Cor. 2:6-10). The crucifixion: the beating, striking, cutting and engraving of God's huqqa statutes in Messiah/Christ's body, set unshakeable boundaries forever for death and hell (see Rev. 1:18, 1 Cor. 15:54-57, Hos. 13:14) that no other powers in heaven or on earth can change. 

     We see a great example of the limiting or boundary power of the statutes of God when the LORD told Job: "Or who shut in the sea (yam - from the root meaning "to roar, boiling, foaming") with doors, when it burst forth and issued from the womb; when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band; when I fixed My limit (hoq -root for "statute" see above) for it, and set bars and doors; when I said, 'This far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop!" (Job. 38:8-11). When the people of God despise the statutes of God, we are removing the limits and boundaries that He has set that hold back destructive power. Aren't we seeing the results of that today?

     In Lev. 26, the LORD decreed that the keeping or breaking of His statutes would bring about either blessing or destruction. The LORD speaks of His consequential actions by stating, "I will...". For those who do walk and perform His huqqa, statutes, the LORD promises:

• "...then I will give you rain...the land shall yield its produce...the trees of the field shall yield their fruit." (v. 4-5).
• "I will give you peace in the land...I will rid the land of evil beasts, and the sword..." (v. 6).
• "...I will look on you favorably..." (v. 9)
• "I will set My tabernacle among you..." (v. 11).
• "I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people." (v. 12).

     However, if His people despise the LORD's huqqa statutes, the LORD says:

• "I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever..." (v. 16).
• "I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies." (v. 17).
• "I will punish you seven times more for your sins." (v. 18).
• "I will break the pride of your power...I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze." (v. 19).
• "I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins." (v.21).
• "I will also send wild beasts among you..." (v. 22).
• "I also will walk contrary to you..." (v. 24).
• "...I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant." (v. 25).
• "...I will send pestilence among you..." (v. 25).
• "I will destroy your high places...incense altars...idols." (v. 30).
• "I will lay your cities waste...your sanctuaries to desolation." (v. 31).
• "I will bring the land to desolation..." (v. 32).
• "I will scatter you among the nations..." (v. 33).
• "I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies." (v. 36).

     These are terrible consequences, but if we reject the huqqa statutes, we are also rejecting the limits and boundaries that keep these things from overrunning us - "all Hell breaks loose" when the LORD turns His face away from His people because of their sins of despising. However, the LORD also promises to turn back again and remember His covenant if His people will sincerely humble themselves and confess their unfaithfulness (v. 40-42, 45, see also 2 Chron. 7:14). Those who know Jesus Christ may think that these are "Old Testament" penalties, but we need to remember that Jesus identified Himself with these scriptures saying, "...these are they which testify of Me." (see Jn. 5:38-40). He also said that they would never pass away (Mt. 24:35). John Ch. 1 tells us that He is the Word (of God) that became flesh (Jn. 1:14). As we look at the Hebrew meaning of huqqa statues, we can see that Jesus became our grace as these statutes were engraved upon Him, cut into Him and beaten into Him for our sakes as He took upon Himself the penalty for our despising of the huqqa statutes of God (Isa. 53:3-6). These huqqa statutes are supposed to become written within us, on our hearts as we know the LORD and walk in His ways (Jer. 31:31-34).

     From another of this week's Sabbath reading portion from B'chukkotai, or "in My statutes", we see the consequences of despising the LORD's statutes as they fall upon His people, and the land. Amos 8:2b-3 says: "The end has come upon My people Israel; I will not pass by them anymore. And the songs of the temple shall be wailing in that day', says the Lord GOD - 'Many dead bodies everywhere, they shall be thrown out in silence." His people despised the feasts and the Sabbath, cheated to gain a profit and preyed upon the poor and needy (v. 5-6). The LORD said to Israel (the northern kingdom): "Hear this, you who swallow up the needy, and make the poor of the land fail..." (v. 4). The LORD said that He would also remove His Word from them in this time when they would need it the most (v. 11-12), for they despised the prophets like Amos whom the LORD sent to them and forbade him from prophesying in the king's sanctuary and court (see Amos 7:10-13).

     It is interesting as we read the above from Amos 8 that in this assigned reading chapter of Leviticus 26, the LORD brings up three specific statutes:

• "You shall not make idols for yourselves...for I am the LORD your God." (v. 1).
• "You shall keep My (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) Sabbaths..." (v. 2).
• "...and reverence (yare - fear, revere, be afraid, honor, respect, be in awe, to tremble, wonderful illustrious deeds, terrible acts) My sanctuary: I am the LORD." (v. 2).

     For the last two Sabbath reading portions, we have studied the powerful, prophetic and miraculous aspects of the Sabbath that perhaps we had not considered before. Here in Lev. 26:2 is the mention of the Sabbath again. Truly, I cannot help but think because of its prominence in the Word of God, that the foundation of the LORD's relationship with man and the rest of creation is based upon the Sabbath, and Jesus, the Son of Man, is Lord (even) of the Sabbath (Mt. 12:7-8). The true meaning and observance of the Sabbath results in benefits and blessings for us, as well as for all creation: our own delight in the LORD, our own spiritual elevation in the LORD, and our own inheritance in the LORD (see Isa. 58:13-14). We can see from the above reading from Amos 8 that Israel (the northern kingdom) was judged in part for despising the Sabbath.

     Another statute that the LORD brings up in Lev. 26:2 is to "reverence My sanctuary." The word "sanctuary" is the Hebrew word and root miqdas/qadas, and means "hallowed part, holy place, sanctuary, asylum/hallow, dedicate, prepare, set apart, purified, clean." We often view the LORD's sanctuary as a physical place only. However, part of the meaning of miqdas sanctuary is "asylum". The definition of asylum is "a place of refuge and protection, a place providing care and protection to the needy." In the verses from Amos above, we can see that the king had his own miqdas sanctuary, but the poor and needy were left to be victims of the greedy (see Amos 8:4-6). Israel did not reverence the miqdas asylum sanctuary of the LORD, neither the physical place nor the spiritual place, according to His statutes. 

     The spiritual miqdas sanctuary of the LORD, His asylum for the poor and needy, is very precious to Him. We see this as Solomon honored the idea of the miqdas sanctuary as asylum for his wayward brother, Adonijah, who had had himself crowned king, and then took hold of the horns of the altar in fear of repercussions from the rightful (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) King, Solomon. He asked Solomon to swear that he would not put his (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) servant to death. Solomon had his brother removed from the altar and promised him safety if he proved himself to be a worthy man (1 Kings 1:50-53). When there is nowhere left to run, we can run into the asylum sanctuary of the LORD.

     In another example of miqdas asylum sanctuary, Isaiah the prophet had been threatened and hated because of the prophetic Word that he had obediently brought to the people. The LORD said to Isaiah: "...nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. The (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) LORD of hosts, Him you shall hallow (qadas, see above); Let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. He will be as a sanctuary (miqdas, see above)." (Isa. 8:12). The LORD added that while He would be an asylum sanctuary for Isaiah, He would also become "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense" to both of the houses of Israel (v. 14). The terms "a stone of stumbling" and "a rock of offense" are also used to refer to Jesus in scripture (see Mt. 21:42-44, 1 Cor. 1:22-25, 1 Pet. 2:6-8). While it is a gracious God who will be our asylum sanctuary when we are in times of need, the idea of it is often offensive to others and causes them to stumble, because that sanctuary may be extended to those who, like Isaiah, are not accepted by the self-righteous. Jesus was criticized because He ate with "tax collectors and sinners". Jesus answered them saying, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (see Mk. 2:13-17, Mt. 9:9-13).  The huqqa statute of the LORD commands us to reverence His miqdas sanctuary. The miqdas sanctuary cannot help but change the life of the one being saved from destruction. Jesus didn't join the others in their sin, but His presence brought them into the miqdas sanctuary of the Lord, their only hope. The miqdas sanctuary is not just a holy physical place, but a hallowed Person, the (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) LORD. There is a song called "Lord Prepare Me to be a Sanctuary". We cannot lose the truth of the miqdas sanctuary of the LORD, and our being that asylum in His image and walking in the statutes that He has written on our hearts for those who are in need.

     In a final example of the miqdas asylum sanctuary of the LORD, He promised the Israelites whom He had dispersed among the Gentile nations: "...yet I shall be a little sanctuary (miqdas/qadas - see above) for them in the countries where they have gone. Therefore...I will gather you from the peoples...where you have been scattered, and I will give you the (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) land of Israel." (Ezek. 11:16-17). The people were scattered by the LORD, but He still offered to be their little sanctuary while they were in exile. Part of that little miqdas sanctuary carried the promise of "return".

     If you would like to know more about keeping the LORD's statutes, you can join me in my prayer: "Dear LORD of all, write Your statutes and all of Your Word in and upon my heart, even as the Living Word, Jesus, dwells within me. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit whom You have sent to guide me into all truth and to declare to me what is the Lord's. Help me to walk in Your statutes and to love Your Word. Let them become my manner of living because You have exalted even them above even Your own name (Ps. 138:2) for my sake. Forgive me when I have not observed Your statutes, and cleanse me from sin. I ask this in Jesus' name. AMEN."

*NOTE: aleph-tav written in Hebrew as אֶת, are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The meaning of the two pictographic Hebrew letters can also be interpreted "Adonai (Lord) of the Cross/Covenant". In the New Testament, these letters are translated as Alpha and Omega written as Α Ω , the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. These letters are those by which Jesus Christ identifies Himself in the Book of Revelation: see Rev. 1:8, Rev. 21:6, Rev. 22:13.

     

Restoration

Do you need restoration from God? We live in an age that cries out day and night for the restoration work of God. As the priesthood of Christ, we are to know that there is a pathway to restoration, which we will read about in this week's Sabbath reading portion. Again we see a double title for this week. The two titles are B'har, meaning "on the mount" and B'chukkotai, meaning "In My statutes". Both of these titles have the addition of the Hebrew letter Beth placed before the words of the titles. The letter Beth, means house or family. The picture that this creates for me is of God building a house. That house is being built on the highest mountain of God, and it is a house built out of His Word (which is Jesus), which includes His statutes (see also Isa. 2:1-3). Jesus said: "In My Father's house are many mansions (mone/meno - dwellings, Holy Spirit indwelling believers/abide, endure, to continue, not to perish) ...I go to prepare a place (topos - space marked off from surrounding space, inhabited place, a passage in a book) for you." (Jn. 14:1-4). Jesus said that this truth that He was revealing also served as a guarantee that He would "come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am , there you may be also." This house is a dwelling place for the Father, the Son, and His people filled with His Holy Spirit of Truth. This house that the Father is building is further described by Paul: "...you are...members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." (Eph. 2:19-22). So, as we study this Sabbath's reading portion, we can keep in mind that a dwelling in the Spirit is being constructed. Both of these titles include readings from Leviticus, the Book of the priesthood, in chapters 25 and 26. These chapters deal with a very powerful form of restoration called the Jubilee. During the Jubilee year, all losses are cancelled, and all is restored back to the original owner. It is the year of liberty. The foundation for the year of liberty, or the Jubilee, is the Sabbath: "And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven tmes seven years...forty-nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to your possession, and each of you shall return to his family. That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you." (Lev. 25:8-11). Jesus, as the Messiah of Israel, identified Himself in the Sabbath and the Jubilee. First of all, He told us that He is the Lord of the Sabbath, the building block of Jubilee, as He added: "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." (Mk. 2:27). The Sabbath is not a legalistic or religious obligation, but a powerful blessing provided by God for His miraculous ways, as Jesus explained to a people who only knew the religious burden of the Sabbath (Jn. 5:17-18). The Word of the LORD to Isaiah was to reveal the truth of the Sabbath: "...call the Sabbath a delight (oneg/anag - pleasant, exquisite delight/delicate, dainty, soft, to be pampered, luxurious, be glad), the holy day of the LORD honorable...Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father The mouth of the LORD has spoken." (Isa. 58:13-14). The Sabbath is to be an exquisite delight - what a concept! That delight multiplies times itself (7 x 7) into liberty and total restoration (Jubilee). Jesus announced Himself as the fulfillment of the Jubilee while reading scripture aloud in the synagogue on a Sabbath (Lk. 4:15-19, Isa. 61:1-2a). The year of Jubilee is announced on the Day of Atonement, as mentioned in the above verses. Again we have the connection to Jesus, who is the fulfillment of our atonement (1 Jn. 2:2, 4:10). The Jubilee is a year of return - return to our possession, and return to our family, according to the above verses. To what possession do we return in Jubilee? God says that we are His possession, His treasured possession (Deut, 7:6-7, Ex. 19:1-8, 1 Pet. 2:9). To what family are we to return? God has told us that we belong to His family, and are named by His name (Jn. 1:12, Eph. 3:14-15, Rom. 8:14-17, Rev. 22:4). In the promise of Jubilee, we are guaranteed to return to our possession and family, which is God, not only after our death, but while we are alive, and also when we are changed and caught up to Him at the sound of the trumpet (1 Thess. 4:15-18, 1 Cor. 15:50-57). This last is the ultimate fulfillment of Jubilee. If God can open up heaven for our sake, caught up to Him in this amazing way, there is nothing that is impossible for Him to restore to us. The law of redemption is also given in Lev. 25, by which a loss of land to debt may be redeemed by a kinsman on behalf of the debtor, again bringing restoration. The LORD will use this concept of restoration provided by the law in the Book of the priests in order to restore a devastating loss to His people. First, here is the law as the LORD gave it to Moses: "The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine...and in all the land of your possession you shall grant redemption of the land. If one of your brethren becomes poor (muk - poor, low, depressed, sink down, pine away as in poverty), and has sold some of his possession, and if his redeeming relative comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother sold." (Lev. 25:23-25). This is the law of the Kinsman Redeemer. The LORD used this law to establish the line of David as was told in the Book of Ruth, and ultimately the line of the Messiah, the Son of David, Jesus, who would be born centuries later. Jesus is our Redeemer as well, paying the price to buy back what we sold away, which was our souls, to darkness, sin and resulting death (1 Cor. 7:23, Gal. 4:4-5, Eph. 1:7, Titus 2:11-14, Heb. 9:12). In this week's Sabbath portion, the LORD used the law of the kinsman redeemer to make a prophetic promise of mercy to His people. Jeremiah, whose name means "whom Jehovah has appointed", was not only a prophet, but he was also a priest, born into the priestly line of his father, Hilkiah (meaning "my portion is Jehovah"). They came from one of the cities designated as belonging to the priests, which was Anathoth, meaning "answer to prayer" (see Jer. 1:1). Because the sins of God's people had polluted the land, God sent a mighty enemy, King Nebuchadnezzar of Assyria/Babylon, to lay siege to Jerusalem. This foreign king would eventually conquer Jerusalem and take its inhabitants a thousand miles away back to Babylon. He would also loot and destroy the temple of God. Jeremiah had been warning and prophesying that God would not give Judah the victory over this enemy. The people and their king would go into exile in a foreign land, according to the prophetic Word brought by Jeremiah (Jer. 32:1-5, Jer. 17:4). While Jeremiah was imprisoned by his king because of the prophetic Word that he spoke, his cousin, Hanamel (meaning "God is gracious"/mercy, favor), the son of Jeremiah's uncle, Shallum (meaning recompense, restore, repay, peace, covenant of peace), asked him to redeem his aleph-tav field (see Mt. 13:44) in Anathoth: "...for the rght of inheritance is yours, and the redemption yours; buy it for yourself." (v. 6-12). Jeremiah did exercise his right of redemption under the law, and bought the field. He redeemed the field even knowing, by the prophetic Word which the LORD had given him, that Judah and Jerusalem were about to fall to the Babylonian king. After Jeremiah redeemed the field, the LORD told him the prophetic significance of what he had just done: "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Take these deeds...and put them in an earthen vessel (see 2 Cor. 4:6-7), that they may last many days.' For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land." (Jer. 32:13-15). The redemption of the priest's field became the prophetic promise of the redemption of the land of Israel. Although the people would be exiled, and the land forced into a Sabbath rest of seventy years, the LORD did not leave His people without a promise of restoration. In another of our Sabbath readings, the prophet Amos spoke of the widespread destruction and death that would come upon Israel. Amos was not a priest like Jeremiah, but, instead, was of humble status. He was a herdsman of sheep (noqed - marked with identifying punctures) from Tekoa (root meaning - drive a nail, strike, smite, thrust a weapon), which was near Bethlehem (see Amos 1:1). Although he was from the southern kingdom of Judah, Amos was called by the LORD to prophesy to the northern kingdom of Israel. A priest went before the king of Israel and accused Amos of being a conspirator because he prophesied that the king would be killed, and the people would be led away into captivity (Amos 7:10-11). One of the reasons that the LORD was bringing this catastrophe upon the land and people was because they resented His Sabbaths, His exquisite delights of restoration. They resented the Sabbaths because the Sabbaths interfered with their buying and selling (Amos 8:5-6). Leviticus 26 from this week's Sabbath reading recorded the blessings that would be received for forsaking idols, and observing and honoring the Sabbath, concluding: "I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright (qommiyut/qum - uprightness, elevation, as a freeman/raise up, arise, establish)." (v. 1-13). The LORD is building a house, and it is a house that inhabits the highest mountain in the Spirit, and is established in His Word (statutes), Jesus. If you would like to know more about what the LORD is building, you can pray with me: "Father in heaven, You are full of grace and mercy to those who love You, and seek You. You call me into Your house, where Jesus, my Kinsman Redeemer, has prepared a place for me. I praise and thank You for Your Sabbaths, made for man, and full of Your restoration glory. Teach me Your Word, and fill me with Your Holy Spirit, so that I can learn and understand Your paths (Ps. 25:4-5). They are paths that will lead me to green pastures of Your righteousness in order to restore my soul (Ps. 23:1-3). I ask this in Jesus' name. AMEN."

DrawNear

The sabbath reading scheduled for this week is titled Va-yiggash, meaning "and he drew near". For the third time in scripture, a severe famine has come upon the land. Both Abraham and Isaac were sustained through famine, and now Jacob and his family will be kept through a famine as well. The nature of a famine is strange. Pharaoh's dreams revealed that in a famine the abundant and healthy are devoured by the blighted and ill-favored. The prophet Joel also describes this same "devouring" by worms or locusts and grasshoppers (Joel 1:16-20 and 2:25). Jo-el makes clear that these devouring creatures are the LORD's army. In Joel, the famine comes before the day of the LORD (1:15), and the outpouring of His Spirit (2:26-27, 3:28-29), which is important to note. Another portion from this week's sabbath reading tells us that the LORD sent the famine during Joseph's time in Egypt in order to raise up Joseph: "Moreover He (God) called for a famine in the land; He destroyed all of the provision of bread. He sent a man before them - Joseph - who was sold as a slave. They hurt (ana - afflict, oppress, humiliate, stoop, mishandle, cry out, testify, witness) his feet (regel/ragal - feet, footstool/slander, make false statements about, defame) with fetters, he was laid (bo - bring into, enter, fall upon) in irons (barzel/birzot - iron, harshness, oppression/to pierce, holes, aperture, wounds, choice olive, "well of olives"). Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him." (Ps. 105:16-19). We can see a connection between Joseph and Jesus through the meanings of the words used to describe Joseph's slavery above. Before the return of Jesus, the Messiah, famine will play a major role in prophetic events (Mt. 24:3, 7, Rev. 6:8). In another of this sabbath's readings, one of the prophets wrote of a different kind of famine, not of food, but of the Word of the LORD: "Behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord God, 'That I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; They shall run to and fro seeking the Word of the LORD, but shall not find it." (Amos 8:11-12). In this case, great greed had been attached to the purchasing of food, as well as contempt for the provision of God (v. 1-2). The feasts and sabbaths of the LORD that interfered with the selling of anything and everything, including people, were also treated as an inconvenience (v. 5-6). This situation threw Israel into bitterness and mourning "...like mourning for an only son". (v. 9-10). The prophet Zechariah wrote something very similar: "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a first-born." (Zech 12:10). There was a famine for the hearing of the prophetic Word of God, as Amos wrote above, for four hundred years, which covered the period from the end of the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Tanakh, to the birth of Christ, and the announcement by the prophet of God, John the Baptist speaking of Jesus at Bethabara (meaning "House of Crossing over, passing over, passing before, passing through"): "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!...I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.' And John bore witness saying, 'I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He (the Spirit) remained upon Him....this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God." (Jn. 1:28-34). The prophetic word given to a prophet of God was back after four hundred years of silence, and it was a life and history changing Word! As Christ broke the famine for the hearing of the Word of God, Joseph also broke or ameliorated the famine for bread that had spread across Egypt and Canaan. The prophecy of Amos may see a second fulfillment in the time before Christ's return. The apostles Paul and Peter wrote that in the last days before Christ's return, many will despise the hearing of the Word of God, and prefer lies and fables instead, which we are seeing now (see 2 Tim. 4:3-4, Mt. 24:23-24, 2 Pet. 2:1-2). God said in Psalm 105 above that He brings famine in order to bring forth a chosen servant, like Joseph, and also like Christ, to save the lives of His people, even a remnant. However, Joseph will not only provide for Israel during a famine, but he will seek a reconciliation with his brethren - the same brethren who despised and betrayed him, and sold his life into slavery for twenty shekels of silver. Joseph was so overcome by the sight of his brothers standing before him, as he was now the leader of Egypt under Pharaoh, that Joseph wept aloud. He said to them, "I am Joseph; does my father still live?' But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence. And Joseph said to his brothers, 'Please come near to me.' So they came near. Then he said, 'I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here.; for God sent me before you to preserve (sum - set, appoint, set or make for a sign) life....And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity (seerit/sa'ar - remnant, escaped remainder of wrath/be kept alive) for you in the earth, and to save (haya/hava - save alive, be restored to life, revive from death/breathe (see Jn. 20:21-22), declare, show) your lives by a great deliverance (peleta/palit/palat - escape, escaped portion/deliver(er), to bring into safety or security, to cause to escape, slip away, deliver from danger). So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt." (Gen. 45:1-8). Jesus also said that He was not sent by men but by God, His Father in heaven (Jn. 7:28-29). As Joseph told his brothers that he was sent to Egypt by God to preserve them, according to the meaning of the word (see above), this was also set to be a sign. This encounter between Joseph and his brothers, and their preservation through him, was to be a sign declaring something to all of us. We are in the Book of Genesis, or B'reshiet, "Beginning", and a beginning principle of God is being revealed through this sabbath's reading selection. Not only do we have a prophetic image of Christ in Joseph as one who "preserves, saves, and brings a great deliverance" to God's people, Israel, but we also see a prophetic reconciliation that will carry the promise of God for thousands of years, even to this present time. The title of this sabbath's reading is Va-yiggash, or "and he drew near". Upon seeing his brothers standing before him, Joseph was overcome with emotion. and said to them, "Please come near to me." (Gen. 45:4). Joseph, a leader of Egypt, had the authority and every reason to judge and condemn his brothers for their betrayal of him years before (see Gen. 37:4, 8, 18-28). However, Joseph "...fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. Moreover he kissed all his brothers and wept over them, and after that his brother's talked with him." (Gen. 45:14-15). Joseph provided food and safety for his father, Jacob, and his brothers' families in the best land in Egypt, Goshen, meaning "drawing near" (v. 10, 18). Even Pharaoh and all of his servants were pleased that "Joseph's brothers have come" (v. 16), and Pharaoh wanted to meet and speak with them, and told Joseph: "Your father and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you. Have your father and brothers dwell in the best of the land; let them dwell in the land of Goshen..." (Gen. 47:5-6). The fact that Joseph held an almost kingly position of authority in Egypt plays a large role in the reconciliation. This beginning principle of God regarding the reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers, who despised and abused him, will have far-reaching prophetic significance concerning the joining of Israel and the half-Gentile children of Joseph under the subsequent rulership of a kingly figure, and later still, the reconciliation and restoration of Jewish and Gentile branches in the olive tree, in faith, by the Word of God. We also must remember that the Joseph/Jesus figure in our reading immediately, and with tears of joy, received back his brethren who had despised, abused and unjustly treated him. In another reading portion from this sabbath, the power and eternal significance of Joseph's reconciliation with his brothers is seen again in Ezek. 37. By the prophetic Word of God, the two separate sticks that represent Judah/Israel and Joseph/Ephraim (half-Gentile son of Joseph), are joined together in the hand of the prophet, as the LORD declared: "...and I will make them one nation...and one king shall be king over them all...nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again. They shall not defile themselves anymore...but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them, and I will be their God. David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd...My servant David shall be their prince forever." (Ezek. 37:22-25). Because King David had already been dead for many centuries when this prophecy was given, the reconciling factor between Joseph and his brethren in this prophecy is the Messiah, the eternal David, the Son of David, and King forever (2 Sam. 7:12-13, 16, 25, 29, Isa. 9:6-7, Lk. 1:30-33, Lk. 18:35-43, Lk. 19:35-38, 1 Tim. 6:14-16, Rev. 19:16), the one Shepherd and King of the one reconciled people. Paul also wrote of this miraculous but again prophetically guaranteed reconciliation between the Jewish branches and the Gentile branches into the same holy root, the Olive Tree representing the olive oil of anointing, or the Anointed One, the Messiah, Christ (Rom. 11:5, 15-18, 23-27, 29). In fact, the Word and ministry given to the Church of believers is the Ministry of Reconciliation, through Christ, between men and God, and between all creation and its creator (2 Cor. 5:17-21). We see in this Ministry given to us the ultimate manifestation of the Genesis principle of kingly preservation, salvation, great deliverance and reconciliation introduced to us in this week's sabbath reading. Finally, as we look again at the title of this week's sabbath reading portion, "and he drew near", various scriptures tell us to "draw near" to God (incl. Heb. 10:19-22, James 4:8-10, 1 Peter 2:3-4). Often, when Jesus healed and blessed, the people drew near, or came near, to Him (see Mk. 3:7-8, Mk. 10:13-15, Lk. 18:40-42). So great was His desire to draw Jerusalem near to Him in reconciliation, that Jesus wept over that city, because without that reconciliation and His preservation and deliverance into safety, terrible destruction awaited that city (Mt. 23:37-39, Lk. 19:41-44). History noted that this destruction occurred in 70 AD by the Romans. God has raised up His King and Deliverer if we will draw near to Him. If you would like to learn more about our King and Deliverer, you can pray with me: "Heavenly Father, I draw near to You through the preservation and reconcliation provided by Your Son, Jesus. He is the ever-reigning King over all creation. He is the Author and Finisher of all life. He, like the example provided to us by Joseph, desires above all things for His brethren to be reconciled to Him, and through Him, I am kept from destruction by His great deliverance. I pray also for the reconciliation of Judah/Israel and Joseph/Ephraim together into one, under one King and Shepherd from the line of David, and the restoration of the Jewish and the Gentile branches united together in our Messiah, Yeshua, Jesus. I ask these things in Jesus' name. AMEN."

Famine

The Sabbath reading for this week deals with a famine. In one portion of the reading, the prophet Amos told Israel about a coming famine directed towards God's people who were consumed with the corrupt love of money. They cheated and oppressed others in order to gain wealth for themselves (Amos 8:1-6). God said that their pride brought them to this condition. This prophesied famine would send Israel into a period of repentance and mourning: "...I will make it like mourning for an only son...". (v. 10, see also Zech. 12:10). The prophetic Word of the LORD to Amos describes the famine to come: "Behold the days are coming says the LORD God, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing (sama - to hear, obey, understand, yield to, diligently, discern, perceive, publish, declare) the words of the LORD...They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, but shall not find it." (v. 11-12). This is describing a spiritual famine, rather than a physical famine. The famine of "hearing" is on our end, not receiving, obeying, nor communicating to others the Word of the Lord. As the famine hits, God's people would try desperately to receive direction from the LORD, but they would not be able to hear it. Another portion from the Sabbath reading deals with famine from another perspective that pertains to God's remnant. No matter how dark and dire a situation looks, God does not forget His remnant. Isaiah said of the remnant: "Unless the LORD of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah." (Isa. 1:9). The LORD had established a whole situation in Egypt over the course of several years so that His remnant would have provision in the middle of a very long famine. Joseph acknowledged to his brothers, who had betrayed him, when he was reunited with them, "But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life...And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity (se'erit - remnant, residue, remainder, escaped, surviving portion) for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt." (Gen. 45:5, 7-8). This provision made by God for the remnant was so unusual that it might have been unrecognizable to Jacob and his family back in Canaan. The family had already been in the famine for two years before the brothers traveled to Egypt in desperation to seek food (v. 6). The family might also have felt great reluctance to seek help in Egypt, because in another Sabbath portion, Egypt is described as "the land of Hsm" (Ps. 105:23). (Previously in scripture, Ham's sin against his father Noah, became a toledot (generational precedent) established in regard to Ham's son, Canaan - Gen. 9:18-27). Another reason that Jacob might have been reluctant to live in Egypt is because he was aware that God's covenant promise to him and his fathers was in the land of Canaan, not Egypt. Also, Jacob had the example of his father Isaac, who sowed seed in the middle of a famine, and reaped one hundred fold in this promised land by the favor of God (Gen. 26:12-14). Jacob was convinced, however, to go into Egypt to live, rather than to just visit his son Joseph, by God's reassurance to him: "Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, "Jacob, Jacob!" And he said, "Here I am." So He said, "I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes." (Gen. 46:1-4). In the midst of famine, Jacob, father of a remnant of God, did not suffer a spiritual famine in the hearing of the Word of God as we read in Amos above. God did indeed make a great nation of Jacob while his family lived in Egypt. Acts 7:14 tells us that Jacob went down to Egypt with 75 people, but we know that by the time the children of Israel left Egypt centuries later under the deliverance of Moses, they numbered over six hundred thousand adult males, plus the Levites, and the women and children (Num. 1:45-47). Joseph set aside the best land in Egypt, Goshen, meaning "drawing near", for his father and brethren, with Pharaoh's favor and consent (Gen. 47:5-6). The title of this Sabbath's reading portion is also "and he drew near", or Va-yiggash. The remnant draws near to Joseph and to God, while others draw near to, and are ruled by, the world and the things of the world. While the remnant of Jacob was favored and made welcome in the worldliest power, Egypt because of Pharaoh's regard and dependence upon Joseph, the difference between Egypt and God's people was marked. Pharaoh asked what the occupation of the brothers was, and they answered "herdsmen", because their true occupation as shepherds was an abomination, or loathsome, in Egypt (Gen. 46:31-34). Yet the kingdom of God values the role of the shepherd, and both the Father, and His Son, the Messiah, identify themselves as being shepherds. Also, the Egyptians would not eat at the same table as Joseph or the Hebrews. God created favor and provision for His remnant in the middle of Egypt, but there was still prejudice towards, and an offense created by, that remnant. The lesson of Joseph, the famine, and the remnant is important to us today. We are seeing, as was prophesied, a famine of the hearing, in all of the meaning of that word, the Words of the LORD. The apostle Paul wrote of the time when people would know God and His Word, but would willfully choose to ignore it, and even suppress it (Rom. 1:18-21). He also wrote: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables." (2 Tim. 4:3-4). Peter also wrote of God's people seeking false teachers, false prophets, and false doctrines in the last days (2 Pet. 2:1-2). The days of famine for the hearing of the words of the LORD are coming, and they are even here now. There is a remnant, however, for whom God will provide. Paul said, "Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace." (Rom. 11:5). This word was given in the context of remembering those of Israel who refused to worship the demonic god of the world, Ba'al (1 Kings 19:18). From these things, we can recognize the famine present now, and the remnant in these current days as well. What about the Josephs? Joseph knew as a youngster that he was set apart by God by the prophetic dreams he was given. His dreams portrayed him as having an exalted position, before which others, including his own family, would have to bow. These dreams were true, but that prophetic vision from the LORD tested Joseph: "Moreover He (the LORD) called for a famine in the land; He destroyed all the provision of bread. He sent a man before them - Joseph - who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with fetters, he was laid in irons. Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him. The king sent and released him, the ruler of the people let him go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his possessions, to bind his princes at his pleasure, and teach his elders wisdom." (Ps. 105:16-22). In this description of his affliction and the oppression used against him, Joseph is a type of Christ. The LORD does not place the survival of His remnant into the hands of just anyone. Many thousands may follow the easy, smiling preacher, but the remnant recognizes the Josephs whom God has provided to preserve them. The Josephs have been tested, changed, and proven by the testing of the very prophetic Word that has called them. The man Joseph was not the same as the lad who couldn't wait to tell his family how they would all be bowing to him. The purpose of the prophetic calling upon Joseph was much larger than who bows to whom. Joseph, having been tested by the prophetic Word, understood that he had been exalted, not for his gifts alone, but in order to "preserve a posterity (remnant)..in the earth", and to save lives. These are the Josephs that the remnant needs in order to survive the famine. If you would like to learn more about God's remnant in the earth, and become one of them, you can pray with me: "Heavenly Father, You have sent Your Son, Jesus, to preserve a remnant in the earth, called by Your name to salvation, even in the middle of a famine for the hearing of Your Word. You sent Jesus to keep us alive forever, through all circumstances. I want to be part of Your remnant. I want to always "hear" the Word of the LORD, and obey your voice. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit to keep me, and seal me, in Your remnant of salvation, and to keep me from seeking after any Word but Yours. You have made provision for Your remnant in the famine, and I thank You for it. I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen."

Manger

Before leaving the Christmas season, there is a thought that I wanted to consider. I heard a teacher say, "If we want to have Jesus in us, sometimes that means we have to be a manger."
A manger is an insignificant piece of furniture in a stable, or barn. It's only purpose is to hold the grain or feed for livestock. Our English word comes from a French/Latin root, "manger", which means to eat. The Hebrew word can mean a crib, or a stall for an animal.
None of us likes to consider ourselves an insignificant piece of farm furniture, but it is just this kind of container that held the glory of the Son of God:
"And she brought forth her first born Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."   Lk. 2:7
If we are this humble food trough, the Lord Jesus can inhabit us in all His glory, and the world can come to us to feed upon the living Word of God. From this humble farm furniture, the provision of life can be given and sustained. Jesus described Himself as this provision:
"Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world...I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst."   Jn. 6:32-35
The prophet Amos warned:
"Behold the days are coming", says the LORD God, "That I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD...They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, but shall not find it."   Amos 8:11-12
The famine for the Bread of Life, the Word of God, came upon Israel because they cared more about their own pride, wealth and worldly provision, even praying upon the weak and poor, than they cared for the true provision of God (v.5-6). This suggests to us that perhaps one reason the famine came was because no one was interested in being a manger. Do we in the church have this same mindset today? Do we despise being a manger?
Jesus prayed that we would receive the same glory that He has. One way to have that glory is to contain His glory, and not our own. He worded it this way:
"And the glory which You gave Me, I have given them, that they may be one, just as We are one...Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world."  Jn. 17:22, 24
We share the glory, because we share the place of glory. The glory that we have is because of the Glory we contain.
The manger of our Christmas story, had no importance of its own. It had no name, nor reputation. Men didn't come to see this manger because it was the most "special" manger ever made. Lowly animals had eaten from it unaware of any extraordinary quality of that manger. However, the world sings of that nameless, utilitarian manger, and men journeyed from distances to that manger, because of what it contained: the Glory of God, and the Bread of life come down from heaven.

Our Father has called us to be mangers, that His Son may be laid within us.

"Child in a Manger Born"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZkrBC0SZek

"He Made a Way in a Manger"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwe7GDl9-04