Exodus 34:6-7 6 Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” God is compassionate and gracious and forgives those who ask because His love is abounding. He doesn’t get angry quickly, but he will punish the guilty who are unrepentant. He abounds in truth and lovingkindness (reliability). Numbers 29:13 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? God does not lie (He IS truth). God does not sin, so He doesn’t need to repent (this doesn’t mean that He can’t change His mind and forgive us – remember Ninevah?). What He says, He will do. Deuteronomy 4:24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. God is jealous of His relationship with me. He consumes like fire anything and everything within me until I am His. Deuteronomy 4:31 For the LORD your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them. God is compassionate and doesn’t destroy us. He will not fail me. He won’t forget the covenant that He made with Israel (and if I am grafted into Israel this promise applies to me as well if I fulfill the conditions set in the covenant). Deuteronomy 6:4 Shema (Hear and obey) O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! God is one. I know we have “the Trinity” but that was defined around 300 ad. I think of God, Yeshua, and the Holy Spirit as being kind of like water. Water is water, but it can have many forms – it can be ice, liquid, or vapor. God can take many forms, too. But He is still ONE. Deuteronomy 9:3 Know therefore today that it is the LORD your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out and destroy them quickly, just as the LORD has spoken to you. God is my forward guard. When He sends me somewhere, He goes before me. He is a consuming fire that purifies and drives out anything in His way, or He prepares them for me to be able to drive them out/destroy them quickly. Deuteronomy 10:17 For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. God is God. He is over all other gods, and He is Lord of all other lords. He is over EVERYTHING. He is great. He is mighty. He is awesome. He can’t be bought and is completely fair. Deuteronomy 20:14 for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. God is with me where I go. God fights for me. God saves me. Deuteronomy 33:27 The eternal God is a refuge, And underneath are the everlasting arms; And He drove out the enemy from before you, And said, ‘Destroy! God is a refuge, a place to hide and rest. God is everlasting. His arms never get tired. 2 Samuel 22:33-34 For who is God, besides the LORD? And who is a rock, besides our God? 33 “God is my strong fortress; And He sets the blameless in His way. 34 “He makes my feet like hinds’ feet, And sets me on my high places. God is a rock. Being a rock means He’s also a great place to go when I need defending. He is strong. He directs my path in His way and makes my feet secure so I won’t fall. Psalm 33:11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart from generation to generation. God makes plans and He is not thwarted. Not my mess ups, not time, nothing forces Him to change. Psalm 46:1 God the Refuge of His People. For the choir director. A Psalm of the sons of Korah, [
There are two questions I’ve had a lot: does Torah matter and how were the Gentiles (sons of strangers) supposed to know this law? Skip Moen answers these questions with insight in two posts: Food in the Garden This article discusses the role of Israel. God clearly states (in Hebrew) that all men live by the Torah. This begs the question of how the rest of us are supposed to know about Torah if it was given to the Israelites. The answer is that they are chosen as God’s priestly people whose role is to tell the world how to live according to God’s standard and to return to the Garden. Read the whole article >> The Certificate Many of us wonder, then, what got “nailed to the cross” when Yeshua died? Our Bibles translate it as the Torah… but is that correct? This article explores what the Hebrew text says and clarifies the role of Torah in our lives today. Read the whole article >>
One of the things I’ve struggled with as I’ve dug more deeply into our Hebrew roots is the role of Yeshua and Torah in all of this. Trying to sort out fact from fiction when much of my upbringing has been saturated in tradition isn’t the easiest thing to do. Recently Skip Moen posted several articles on how many of these puzzle pieces fit together. One that really hit home was about accusation. Essentially, Torah states that 2 witnesses are needed to condemn a person. Yeshua took our record of our sin and destroyed it with His blood on the cross, removing one of the witnesses to my sin. The other witness, God, remains but as God is faithful to His Word, His Torah, we are declared innocent by lack of evidence since there is no longer a second witness (of course, if we start agreeing with the accuser – ha-satan – then we become the witness against ourselves!). Pretty amazing, right? Read the full article >>
“And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who sang to the Lord and those who praised in holy attire, as they went out before the army and said, ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.’ And when they began singing and praising, the Lord set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; so they were routed.” 2 Chronicles 20:21-22 Here is another example of how worship paves the way for victory! The worshipers went out before the army, they led the way. And it was when they began singing and praising that God began to work by setting ambushes for their enemy. I think we underestimate the importance of worship in spiritual battle. It isn’t all about shouting and grunting and wielding a sword (although that’s important, too). True worship, singing and praising God, sets things in motion that we can only imagine! So, today, maybe I (and we) need to sing and praise YHWH more, and in so doing, step out before the army, leading the way for God to work on our behalf. It’s not just a pretty song.
“Then the men of Judah raised a war cry, and when the men of Judah raised the war cry, then it was that God routed Jereboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.” 2 Chronicles 13:15 Then it was that God routed Jereboam and all Israel. It wasn’t until the men of Judah raised a war cry, a battle cry, that God routed their attackers. They had been ambushed, so they cried to the Lord, and they sounded the trumpets, but even though all of that was well and good, God didn’t intervene until they raised a war cry. I think the reason the war cry is so important is because it signifies our desire, passion, and holy anger to fight back. We are no longer content to sit idly by or to run around in confusion. The fight is on and we’re going on the offensive! I can cry for help, I can sound the trumpet of alarm to rally the troupes to prayer or in warning, but God is waiting for the warriors’ heart to be stirred. When I pick up my sword, raise my shield, and scream at the forces of evil, it is then that God routes my enemies. So the question today is obvious, have a raised my battle cry? If not, what’s holding me back?
Lately I’ve been fascinated with the idea of walls and masks. Not because I want them, but because I’m ready to break them down and tear them off. I came across this post about breaking down the walls of Jericho after praying through some prayers by Dr. Olukoya about breaking down the walls of Jericho. Here is the link to the article. It is primarily about breaking down our own Jericho walls through obedience to Torah. Here is a link to Dr. Olukoya’s prayer about the walls of Jericho. If you’re interested in learning a bit more about Jericho’s wall, this is an interesting article.
Psalm 36:5-9 5 Your lovingkindness, O LORD, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. 6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; Your judgments are like a great deep. O LORD, You preserve man and beast. 7 How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. 8 They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights. 9 For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light. These are qualities of God: His goodness, kindness and faithfulness (also reliability) extends farther than we can reach. His righteousness (justice) is solid, strong, and firm (unmovable). His judgements are full of wisdom that is deeper than we can comprehend. He preserves us. He is a shelter for us. He provides an abundance from His overflowing (fatness) resources. He lets us “drink” from the torrent (not just a trickle) of eden (It’s interesting that we tend to think of delights as having the things we want, but the word used for delights refers to the garden where Adam and Havvah had unbroken fellowship and relationship with YHWH. I wonder if these delights aren’t physical delights but rather refer to our relationship with YHWH – in other words, we are filled and satisfied with the rushing torrent, the overwhelming flood, of His presence.) He is life He instructs us and gives us light to live by, walk by, and prosper by.