Parashat haShavua

This is the story of a King called Xerxes, who through his own poor choices, choices made through not having the fear or knowledge of the God of Israel, brought great shame to his name and to the name of the great Persian Empire by invading Greece, leading to the defeat of the Persian Empire. Xerxes himself ended up being assassinated by his own friends.

So what is this all about and is it relevant? Yes, it’s relevant, as relevant as God’s Word is, unless neither God nor God’s Word is relevant to you? Well then, if neither God nor His Word is relevant to you, what is?

But wisdom is proved right in the end.

This story of Xerxes, has great relevance to all nations. Did you say all nations? Yes, I did, in case you think you misheard me. To be specific, this story has relevance to those who think lightly of the fact that the government of a nation can take Israel to the International Court of Justice for Israel’s defending its biblical, God-ordained right to exist, even taking it further and accusing Israel of Genocide when it is Israel’s enemies, Hamas, not Israel, who clearly have the intent for genocide.

Let’s get back to the story of Xerxes and see why we should not ignore God’s Word.

This brings us to a prophet called Haggai. Haggai steps in at God’s instruction to tell the people of Israel, who had returned to their own land after seventy years of exile in Babylon, to repent of being overly-concerned about their own panelled (top-billing) houses when the House of God in Jerusalem remained unbuilt and unattended to (Haggai 1:1-15).

Unless we knew the timing of the prophet Haggai’s appearance as documented in the book of Ezra, we would not realize how significant Haggai’s appearance is to Israel.

Only on closer examination of the book of Ezra do we realize that the prophet Haggai’s appearance to Israel is at a time of extreme discouragement.

Let’s stop at that word “discouragement”. Are you feeling discouraged today? And what exactly has discouraged you? Could it be the words of a bully that have taken away your feeling of encouragement? You were doing ok, knowing that you had God’s Word as your backup. You had his instruction, his entitlement to go forward, just as the people of Israel (today’s Jews) feel entitled to the Land of Israel for two main reasons: firstly because God promised that the land of Israel belonged to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and gave Israel (today’s Jews) the title deed to the land of Israel written in none other than His Word (Genesis 15:17-21; Psalm 105:8-11).

Secondly, God FULFILLED that promise in 1948, by returning and restoring the people of Israel (today’s Jews) back to their land for the second time in human history. The fact that this is the second time that Israel has been returned and restored to their own land is according to God’s Word an irrevocable guarantee that Israel (today’s Jews) will NEVER AGAIN be exiled away from their own land (Isaiah 11:11).

Yet here we are, again discouraged. Who has been bullying you now? Who has been lying to you now? Who has been denying you of God’s promises now? Who has been fooling you into thinking that God’s promises were null and void when God has already DEMONSTRATED his faithfulness to you through the irrevocable fulfilling of His promises? Who has stopped you in mid-stride when you were walking confidently in the promises of your faithful God?

Does this sound familiar? Well, Jews all over the world are hearing voices in high places of government that deny Israel its right to exist. They are being told that “from the river to the sea”, a title promised to Abraham for his descendants Isaac and Jacob, is a title given to another people living in the Land of Israel.

This brings us back to Xerxes, who too was such a bully, a person who could literally stop Israel in mid-stride from fulfilling the mandate given to them by the Creator of the Universe Himself (Ezra 4:4-24).

Xerxes got it right to stop Israel in mid-stride (Ezra 4:23-24), when they had already begun the construction of the temple in Jerusalem under the go-ahead and assistance of Cyrus (Ezra 1:14), Xerxes’ predecessor.

It was Haggai the prophet’s commission from God to encourage (as in remove discouragement) precisely at a time that Israel had been discouraged, even stopped in their tracks by Xerxes’ ignorance of the promises of God and by Xerxes’ ignorance of the fact that fulfilment of God’s promises had ALREADY BEEN AUTHORIZED BY GOD HIMSELF (Ezra 5:1-2).

Xerxes’ ignorance of the decree of his predecessor Cyrus, the decree that gave Israel the go-ahead and the assistance to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, not only delayed the people of Israel from fulfilling their God-ordained mandate to build the temple in Jerusalem and for a long time robbed them of the security and assistance to do so, but ultimately led to God’s withdrawing Xerxes’ own security and existence and the security and existence of the great Persian Empire of which he was the head.

Xerxes’ ignorance led to his own downfall and to the downfall of the great Persian Empire.

Through ignorance, well-meaning people can become bullies, discouraging God’s very own people from fulfilling their God-given mandate. But to make matters far worse, that very ignorance and bullying can lead to the downfall of those who acted in ignorance, even if they were well-meaning.

Such was the fate of Xerxes.

Such was the fate of the great Persian Empire.

Beware of acting in ignorance, as Xerxes did and if you want to remain encouraged, beware of the likes and types of Xerxes in the current political arenas in which we may find ourselves. Don’t let yourself be discouraged, but be encouraged by the Word of God.

This week’s Parashah is Exodus 27:20-30:10 and is called “Tetzaveh”, which means “you shall command”, in the context of the Lord telling Moses to command the children of Israel to bring clear Olive oil for the lighting of the menorah, the temple lights, for a “perpetual candle-light” (“neir-tamied” means perpetual candle). This command to keep the temple lights burning perpetually was so necessary that it even necessitated the priests and Levites of the temple to “break” the Sabbath by lighting the menorah lights on the Sabbath. God’s Presence, the light of His Presence, must persist perpetually, because without it even our rest becomes meaningless, for there is no true rest without the Presence of God in our lives.

These chapters bring us intricate detail of the makings of the priestly garments, the anointing oil, the incense and the construction of the altar of incense and the manner in which the sacrifices were to be made upon the altar of sacrifice. Here we learn of how the priest was to “wear” or “carry” the whole of the twelve tribes of Israel upon his own shoulders, in the form of two beautiful Onyx stones attached to the Ephod, each engraved with the names of six tribes of Israel.

There is no other nation on the face of the Earth that was given such commands and regulations for the temple sacrificial system. We are told in Galatians 3:24

Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith.

(Galatians 3:24 NRSV)

This NRSV seems to be a good translation here, because the word for “disciplinarian” or “guardian” (NIV) or “tutor” is translated from a Greek word paidagógos, which means “a trainer of boys”, a boy’s guardian or tutor, a slave who had charge of the life and morals of the boys of a family, not strictly a teacher.

The twelve tribes of Israel, their names carried in precious stones on the shoulders of the high priest, were being trained as no other nation has ever been trained, to understand the mysteries of atonement, propitiation for our sins, the sentence of death on an innocent sacrifice in the place of sinners deserving the penalty of death, the concept that there is no salvation without the shedding of innocent blood.

To literally top it all, the high priest wore a plate of pure gold attached to his turban with these words engraved on it (Exodus 28:36):

HOLY TO YaHuWeH

Holiness, God’s Holiness, is at the centre of this entire temple sacrificial system of which the priests and Levites were guardians and ministers.

There is no other nation on the face of the Earth, the nation of twelve tribes that emerged from the sons of Jacob, that was so tutored, so trained, so disciplined, so prepared to understand the Gospel of Yshua the Messiah, because as Paul says in Galatians, the law and its temple sacrificial system was put in charge as a trainer to lead us to Messiah.

In spite of all this “training”, Israel for the most part rejected their Messiah. Yet this was all part of God’s grand design, so that the gospel, in its rejection by the remaining tribe of Judah, should go to the nations.

the Jewish tribe of Israel may have rejected their Messiah, but God has not rejected them. They, together with the “ten lost tribes”, jointly referred to as “Ephraim – the fullness of the Gentiles” (Genesis 48:19), will once again be reconciled to their God. Jacob’s words to his son Joseph, shortly before Jacob passed from this life on Earth, were that Joseph’s son Ephraim would become the fullness of the Gentiles (m’lo ha-goyim). That does not just mean “many nations” as some translations would put it, but all nations, the fullness of all nations. What this truly means is that all believers in Jesus the Messiah, no matter what nation or tribe they come from, are represented by one of the sons of Israel, namely Ephraim. Whenever a Gentile is born again into the family of God through repentance and faith in Jesus, that person becomes enjoined to the collective family of the tribe of Ephraim. You, Jew or Gentile, have become members of God’s household and your collective name “Ephraim” is born on the shoulder of our High Priest and Messiah Y’shua. He bears also on his shoulder the tribe of Judah, who too shall be reconciled wholesale to their God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

So if you think that the lessons or “tutoring” given through the law of Moses and the sacrificial temple system is relevant only to Jews, then think again. You Gentiles, as the collective tribe of Ephraim, are equally born on the shoulders of your High Priest Y’shua, so that every word of the Old Covenant given to the twelve tribes of Israel for understanding the New Covenant Gospel message is as much relevant to you, as you work out your salvation with fear and trembling in the enabling power of the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus.

Each of the gates of the City for which you long, the New Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that is above and the Jerusalem that is indeed free, has inscribed upon it not the name of your Earthly tribe or nation, but the name of one of those twelve tribes of Israel (Revelation 21:12)

Adopted or not, you are Jacob’s family and household and just as the high priest had HOLY TO YaHuWeH inscribed in gold upon his turban, you too have entered into a life of Holiness to your God.

Timing is on God’s heart. You may not think so, but God has a time for everything. We find ourselves now in the “chol-haMoed” (middle of the appointed time) of Sukkot. There is an aspect of this biblical time that cannot be ignored by those who seek to fully understand Yshua’s (Jesus’) embodiment within us of Torah:

Please bear with me as I grind out some of the issues relating to Torah and then I will get to this above-mentioned point.

As we sift through the Torah, The Law of Moses, so inseparably a part of our bibles, we find ourselves wondering just how much of it finds application in the working out of the salvation that we have in Christ Jesus. Between Paul’s doctrine of Grace and Jesus’ affirmation that nothing in the Torah will be removed (Mathew 5:17-20), we cling to the counsel of the Holy Spirit to discern what is applicable and what is not.

If you are one of those who think that nothing in Torah is applicable to us, then ponder on Mathew 5:17-20, Luke 16:17 and Mathew 13:52. On the other hand, if you are one of those few who think that everything in Torah is applicable to us, read carefully through Numbers 29:12-40 and think again:

Look at the number of bulls that need to be sacrificed, besides the daily quota of two rams and fourteen male lambs. It gets easier as the number of days of Sukkot progress, starting with the sacrifice and burnt offering of thirteen bulls on the first day of Sukkot and progressively reducing that number of bulls so that by the time the seventh and last day of Sukkot has arrived, only seven bulls are to be sacrificed for a burnt offering. If you add up all of those bulls that are to be sacrificed and offered up during the seven days of Sukkot, you will find that they amount to exactly seventy bulls – that is God’s favourite number times ten.

So then, you thought that you “kept” Sukkot? Well, you didn’t keep Sukkot as it was commanded by God through Moses if you didn’t have a high priest, a temple and an altar to do all of that sacrificing for you. Of course you might say “Jesus is my High Priest”. Well, of course, Jesus is our High Priest but it is our High Priest Jesus Himself who said “I have not come to abolish Torah”. And then it is up to you to decide, together with the help of the Holy Spirit, just how much of Torah is applicable and how much of Torah isn’t.

Personally, I would have loved to have celebrated Sukkot by living for seven days in a Sukkah. But I still haven’t got the logistics of that right to this day. We live in a complex which has a common garden and neither the caretaker nor the local residents would be too pleased if I set up a Sukkah on it. There’s something about Sukkot that is enhanced by the community’s support of Sukkah-building and we live in a society where for the most part, “Sukkot” is an unknown.

So then, you “celebrated” Sukkot. Did you celebrate Sukkot by living in a Sukkah? And let’s get back to those seventy bulls. How many of those got sacrificed as per the prescribed sacrifices in Numbers 29:12-40?

Then you might be saying to yourself “I’m not Jewish” so none of this applies to me. But I say to you that everything that Jesus spoke about concerning Torah applies to every believer. It’s a level playing field, whether you are Jewish or Gentile and whatever exists in the Torah that has applicability should apply to both Jews and Gentiles.

This brings me closer to my initial point: an aspect of this biblical time of Sukkot that cannot be ignored by those who seek to fully understand Yshua’s (Jesus’) embodiment within us of Torah:

So here it is: a special day that immediately follows the seven days of Sukkot. This very special day is called “Shemini Atzeret”. And yes, these words are taken straight out of God’s Word and not out of some famous rabbi’s commentary. We find them in Leviticus 23:36 where it says:

For seven days present food offerings to the LORD, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the LORD. It is the closing special assembly; do no regular work.

The word “eighth” is translated from the Hebrew word “Shemini” and those words “closing special assembly” are translated from the Hebrew word “Atzeret”. This Hebrew word is derived from a root Hebrew word “atzar”, which simply means “stop”, but by inference can also mean “prevent” or “restrain” or “hold back”. Because Hebrew for the most part is a rather primitive language, using primitive words that have multiple nuances in meaning depending on their context, we can readily accept the simple meaning of “atzeret”: a “stopping”. That’s like driving along and coming to a stop street. If you don’t stop at that stop street, you will be breaking the law. Even worse, you might get caught by the traffic police. Even worse than that, you might even be putting your life and the lives of others at risk. So then, it’s no coincidence that God calls this day of Shemini Atzeret a “stopping”. It’s a day on which we need to stop everything, stop looking only at our own lives and look at the bigger picture of what God has prepared for those who love Him:

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit.

(1 Corinthians 2:9,10)

What is interesting about Shemini Atzeret is that even though it immediately follows Sukkot as the “eighth day”, it is not a part of Sukkot, which is only seven days. It is a unique day and it finds its fulfilment in a “day” that follows the seven “days”, the seven thousand years, each thousand years being equivalent to a “day” of the existence of this planet Earth upon which we live. That eighth “day” will last for all eternity. It is a day for which we all as believers in Yshua hope for and we strive to obey the words of our Lord and Master, Yshua haMashiach (Jesus the Christ), in order that we may be found to be living according to the faith in Him that saves us from sin and death and transports us into His eternal Kingdom.

So when this special day of Shemini Atzeret arrives, don’t see it as another religious Jewish holiday, but see it as a wonderful opportunity to stop, to gather, to worship, to lovingly set your hearts and your eyes upon things above, things eternal, things that matter for eternity, even as we have caught a glimpse of these things through the Holy Spirit.

“After His suffering, He presented Himself to them with many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a span of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:3)

Jesus appeared to his disciples over a period of forty days, after which he was taken up into Heaven. The number 40 is the numeric value of the Hebrew letter “Mem”. In the original pictographic script, that is the pictorial script from which the ancient Hebrew or Paleo-Hebrew developed, the letter “Mem” resembled waves of water.

Waves of water have much to do with Jesus’ ascension into Heaven for the following reason: In Genesis 1:6-8, God makes a firmament (expanse) to separate the waters below the firmament from the waters above it. God calls this firmament “Sham-mayim”. This Hebrew word “Sham-mayim” is translated into English as “sky” but it is also the Hebrew word for “Heaven”. However, “Sham-mayim” sounds like two Hebrew words: “sham”, which means “there is” and “mayim”, which means “water”. So “Sham-mayim” in actual fact means “there is water”, because the firmament (expanse) is the divide between the waters below it and the waters above it.

Just as the mighty waves of the sea cover the Earth, so too the even mightier waters are above the firmament of the heavens. For Jesus to have ascended into the highest Heaven, he would have had to ascend through this expanse or firmament called Sham-mayim, which is Hebrew for “there is water”.

The 26th of May 2022 was the 40th day of the counting of the Omer, counting from Jesus as firstfruits from amongst the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20) on “the day after the [regular] Shabat”, immediately following Shabat haGadol, the Great and special Shabat day designated for Passover, the eve of which Yshua fulfilled the Passover lamb through His own death on the cross (Leviticus 23:9-11). 40th of Omer is not a religious holiday in Judaism, HOWEVER, to US it is of GREAT significance, as we read in Acts 1:3 “After His suffering, He presented Himself to them with many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a span of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.”

And here is the last thing that Jesus spoke about when He was with His disciples in Bethany, before He ascended into Heaven: Acts 1:6 So when they came together, they asked Him, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

7Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

9After He had said this, they watched as He was taken up, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. 10They were looking intently into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.” 

We know, according to Luke, that Jesus made this last instruction in Bethany, near Jerusalem, AFTER he had met with them in Galilee and given them the Great Commission:

“When Jesus had led them out as far as Bethany, He lifted up His hands and blessed them. 51While He was blessing them, He left them and was carried up into heaven. 52And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53praising God continually in the temple.” (Luke 24:50)

So TODAY is that 40th day and joy fills our hearts, because we who fix our eyes on Yshua, the *pioneer* and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), know that ever since THAT day, he sits at the RIGHT HAND OF THE THRONE OF GOD!!!

Some of us may have seen photos on social media of the charred remains of Russian soldiers in Ukraine. We don’t know if these Russian soldiers had any intent other than to follow instructions given to them from Putin and the powers that be. How grief-stricken their parents would be to see them now.

A grief stricken Aaron looked upon the now charred remains of two of his four sons. The tears welled up in his eyes and his heart tremored with grief. He could barely hold the pain within his heart, knowing that if he or his remaining two sons displayed their sudden grief to the people, if they pulled off their turbans in a public display of the utter despair that had suddenly besieged them, to make their hair “wild”, if they tore their clothes in response to the overwhelming impulse within them to do so, they would end up just as these two of Aaron’s sons.

Yet it had been all so different for the preceding seven days. the dessert night sky was resilient with stars and extraordinarily calm in its silence, so different from the clamour of Egypt. It was the clearest backdrop to the heightened sense of excitement that hung over the camp as the people waited for the seven days of ordination and consecration of Aaron and his sons to end. It had been told to them that YHVH would appear to them at the end of these seven days.

Out of the Tent of Meeting, emerged Aaron and his fours sons, all clothed in their beautiful priestly garments that shone brightly in the dessert sun with the newness of their manufacture. Aaron and his sons had been appointed by God and had been anointed with the special anointing oil that was made uniquely for the priesthood.

Emerging from their confinement at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, Aaron, assisted by all four of his sons, sacrificed all the prescribed animal offerings in perfect adherence to the manner prescribed to them by God.

Then, as if to enter into the very heart of the Father, Aaron and Moses entered the Tent of Meeting.

When Moses and Aaron emerged again from the Tent of Meeting to bless the people, the Glory of YHVH appeared and fire came out from the Presence of YHVH to consume the burnt offerings and fat portions that were on the altar. The people sang out with loud voices and fell face down at this remarkable sight.

But the euphoria seemed all too short-lived, because something was about to happen that would change their joy to sorrow. Suddenly, fire came out from the Presence of YHVH to consume two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, whilst they were offering up strange fire from their censors, fire that had been made from incense prescribed only for offering at the altar of incense that stood before the Holy of Holies inside the Tabernacle.

I cannot humanly comprehend the righteous anger of God. Granted, it’s humanly impossible to understand that a God of love could be this same God of wrath. But this does not give us reason to doubt the Scriptures, especially when the Holy Spirit has given His witness to it in our spirits. What I can do is draw lessons from this Parashah. So as I pondered upon the lessons to be drawn, my attention was drawn to the words in Hebrew “asher lo tzivah otam“, which means “which he did not command them” (Leviticus 10:1). It was because God had not commanded these two sons of Aaron to do what they did that the fire of His wrath was poured out upon them.

So then, what equivalent message can we find in the New Testament, a message of fire administered that has the mere appearance of being holy fire, but is nonetheless a fire strange to God, not from God, false fire. Here is one such example to be found in Paul’s letter to the Galatians:

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

(Galatians 1:6-9 NIV)

If you read carefully the ongoing context of these words of Paul to the Galatians, you will see clearly what this false fire is, this false gospel. Paul explains how he was saved from the most radical sect of Judaism, a Jew of Jews, not only practicing Judaism but excelling in it amongst his piers, in addition to this a persecutor of the church. Yet God miraculously saved him out of this, convincing him of what he was once unable to believe: that salvation does not come from observing the law of Moses, but from faith in Jesus the Messiah:

15“We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

(Galatians 2:15-16 NIV)

The false gospel (false fire) that Paul was referring to is a gospel that confuses the grace of God, the message of the cross, the message of Christ crucified, the message of faith that opens a way for us into a life in the Holy Spirit, with a doctrine of salvation through works, a doctrine of salvation through the law.

Paul takes this much further and it would be best for you to read through the rest of Galatians to see that, amongst many of the other letters of Paul.

But let us not be one-sided in our interpretation of what or what isn’t “false fire”.

In the very same letter to the Galatians, Paul warns us that freedom from the law does not spell out freedom to sin:

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh (Galatians 5:13 NIV)

7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8)

You can see then, that false fire, a false gospel, is not just a gospel that deprives one of the message of the cross, a message of God’s grace, kindness, mercy and Holy Spirit obtained through faith in Jesus the Messiah. A false gospel, false fire, is equally a message that deprives one of the message of repentance from sin.

Yet, inasmuch as a false gospel is a gospel that puts people under bondage to the Law of Moses, an equally false gospel is a gospel that diminishes the law, as if to say that the law is invalid and outdated. There is much to be said about this, but I won’t venture into this aspect of false fire, except to give a few examples from Scripture: Mathew 5:17-20; Luke 16:17; Mathew 13:52; Romans 3:31; Romans 8:4.

So then, no matter what aspect of Scripture we tend to make our focus, whether it be grace, repentance, interpretation of Old Testament “treasure” in the light of New Testament revelation, the miraculous and the supernatural, let us be careful to take heed to the instructions of the Holy Spirit, who teaches us all things (John 14:26), giving value to every aspect of the word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

After all, it was of Nadab and Abihu, the two sons of Aaron who were consumed by the fire of God, that God said that they offered up strange fire “which he did not command them“. We want to be careful to find out what God has commanded us to do, so as to not be distracted by the things he did not command us to do.

This was a commentary on Parashat haShavua for Shabat 26th of March 2022: Leviticus 9:1 – 11:47