Psalm 91:15-16 He will call upon me and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With a long life I will satisfy him and let him see my salvation. Want to hear something cool? Do you know that the word for salvation is yeshua? Yup, the name of the Son of God literally means salvation! I’m a teacher, and I’ve taught some students with some really unusual names… The name Salvation would have been one of them. Imagine Mary calling Him for dinner, “Salvation! Salvation, it’s time for dinner!” But in this context of this verse, it’s pretty neat, too. We can look back with hindsight and see all he different implications of seeing His Yeshua – His salvation for us. I also think it’s neat to see the things that God does for me: He answers, He’s there, He rescues, He honors, He satisfies, He reveals. I have to call on Him. Sounds like His part of the deal is much more extensive, yet how often do I forget to call? And God is faithful to answer me, to be with me, to rescue me from the midst of the storm, to honor me (this is a little mind boggling), to satisfy me, to reveal His Truth and His Light and His Way – Yeshua. That’s pretty incredible! And I all He asks me to do is call!
This was posted as a comment on Skip Moen’s blog, but I wanted to repost it here because it clarifies a lot of questions I had/have. Granted, it’s one person’s view and since I don’t know much about the Jewish beliefs (other than what’s in the Bible), I don’t know if it’s perfectly, precisely, 100% right. However, it really helps me see much more clearly how the Torah applies to worshiping God. Thanks to Rodney who wrote this post! No-one was ever justified by bringing sacrifices and it was never about removing sin. Torah defines sin; it does not remove it. The 13 sacrifices given in Torah relate to the 13 aspects of the mercy of God. They were given to teach us how to approach God in a right way, not presumptuously but humbly and with reverence. They point us to Messiah and all speak of His ministry and work in us. The outward act of bringing the sacrifice or offering was supposed to teach us how to offer ourselves on the altar of our hearts. Isn’t that what Paul said in Romans 12? “I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God topresent yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship”. The external acts are supposed to be internalised and acted on in our heartsand, as such, are still as valid today as they ever were. What are the 13 sacrifices? 1. Minchah – a meal offering of grain, flour, bread or cakes. Is not Jesus the “bread of life”? Did he not break bread and say, “this bread is my body, broken for you?” 2. Olah – a whole burnt offering, completely given to God, to be lifted up onto the altar. Was not Messiah lifted up for us? Completely given to God? He is our Olah, our Lamb (the Lamb of God), our whole burnt offering. 3. Chata’ah – a sin offering for unintentional sin. Messiah took on himself our sin and is our sin offering. 4. Nesek – a drink offering (of wine). Did not Jesus take the cup and say, “this cup is the blood of the new covenant, my blood poured out for you”? 5. Tenuphah – a wave offering (usually loaves of bread or leafy branches), lifted up and waved before God. Is this not what we do when we lift our hands in worship to our Saviour and King? 6. Asham – a guilt offering (for an unintentional mistake by a leader). Messiah is our true leader, the only perfect leader and example, yet he offered himself as our guilt offering; thus we are made righteous and declared “not guilty” – as Skip has just pointed out in the last couple of days, we are “justified by faith” by believing and acting on God’s declaration of righteousness bestowed on us. 7. Millu – an ordination offering, where priests and kings were anointed. Is not Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One? 8. Shelem – a peace offering. Is He not the Prince of Peace? 9. Todah – a thanksgiving offering (usually at the completion of something). Do we not still give thanks to our Heavenly Father for his strength, provision, sustenance and guidance in our lives? 10. Nedabah – a freewill offering (to celebrate with the Lord or involve Him in a celebration). Do we not still bring gifts to God and offer praise and thanksgiving as part of our celebrations? 11. Neder – a votive offering (in connection with a vow). Has our Father not vowed that “I will never leave you nor forsake you“? Does he not vow to save us through the sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua? He is the votive offering that guarantees and completes God’s vow to us. 12. Terumah – a heave offering (a contribution from the heart). Do we not still give alms as a contribution from our hearts? Messiah taught about this when He said, “Don’t sound a teruah(trumpet) when you make a terumah (give alms)”; in other words, “when you make a true contribution from the heart, don’t make a big noise about it, but do it quietly – you’re giving to God and it is betwen you and Him”. 13. Azkarah – a memorial offering (a remembrance). Did Jesus not say to His disciples, “As often as you do this, remember me”? Each of these offerings was called “Qorban” – brought near – to be brought near when we approached the Lord. Only 2 have anything to do with sin and none are for intentional sin. The Torah is clear – there is no sacrifice that a man can bring that atones for intentional, wilfull sin – the penalty for wilfully sinning against God (which we have all done at some time in our lives) is death. The only way out of that is to be passed from death to life and that is only done through the sacrifice brought by God Himself- the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. OurPassover Lamb that passes us from death to life. Oh, by the way, that wasn’t taught by Moses – that one was taught to us by Abraham. Remember? Isaac was to supposed to be up on the altar, but Abraham prophesied that “God will provide Himself a Lamb in this place“. Isaac was passed from death to life in the same way we are; through the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lamb of God. In that place. Mt Moriah. Known later as the Temple Mount. No-one was ever justified by “keeping the Law” (obeying Torah). That was never its purpose. It had two functions – to define sin and to teach us about Messiah. If you remove the definition of sin, then there is no more sin – therefore there can be no judgment for sin (and no-one on earth need fear God’s judgment because God has no grounds for judgment if there is no sin). BTW, Paul said this over and over again. We just twisted his words to say what we wanted them to say because we didn’t like the message. Just one thing to clarify – I said above that the sacrificial system is still just as valid today. It is, but we don’t have an operating Levitical Priesthood to assist with bringing and presenting the sacrifices, we don’t have a consecrated altar on the temple mount nor do we have a temple; therefore we obey Torah by not bringing the sacrifices, except in our hearts. Oh, yes. About the fact that each of the sacrifices was assisted by a priest? Yeshua is our High Priest – He is the one who assists us to bring the sacrifices on the altar of our hearts. We would all do well to study and learn how to apply that to our lives today (and our relationship with our Father will be all the richer for it). How’s that for awesome? I like it! I know there is some controversy over the part about Isaac (due to later comments), but it’s still amazing! God’s pretty incredible to come up with a system that had meaning then and that can continue to have meaning today! Skip’s Original Post is here. Rodney’s website is here.
Deuteronomy 30:1-6 1“So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the LORD your God has banished you, and you return to the LORD your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. The LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.” A poster on Skip Moen’s site (Drew) wrote this: Look at the shift in matters: Moshe tells all Israel “to” love the Lord with all the heart, soul, etc. … however in the verse provided herein … G_D will be providing the necessary heart to actually comply with the mitzvot. G_D will be providing this to us all because of YESHUA! It is a fulfillment because despite Israel’s desire to abide within the covenant … we as people can’t on our own! But with Yeshua abiding on our behalf … we can do it … because it is HIM within us Who is doing it! As YESHUA taught us … without HIM we are powerless! My thought was that we are kind of like a terminal heart patient. We desperately need a heart transplant in order to live, and Yeshua willingly laid down His life – a perfectly healthy, perfectly matched donor – so that we could receive the new heart we require. His sacrifice allows us to live with a heart capable of loving God fully and obeying Him completely. However, until we sign the paperwork to allow the transplant to take place, we limp onwards, missing out on the fullness of life because our diseased, dying hearts are powerless to allow us to truly live. Are you ready for a transplant?
Mark 9:22b-24 … But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” And Jesus said to him, ” ‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, ”I do believe; help my unbelief.” I am so much like this boy’s father. I believe in my mind. I know all things are possible. However, translating my head knowledge into action is often quite difficult. This has been especially apparent recently with all the craziness surrounding my new job. I know that God has always been faithful in the past, yet I struggle not to freak out wondering if or how He’ll come through again in this situation. ”Silly rabbit!” In my honesty, my cry is the same as this father’s, “I do believe! Help my unbelief!” Seems like it would be contradictory, but there’s a huge gap between head knowledge and acting on that knowledge. I may know the bridge is sound because everyone tells me it is, but I truly believe them if I step out onto it and walk across. One step at a time. (Read Skip Moen’s post on this verse)
Due to wakeful children I’m directing you to a post by Dr. Skip Moen. It’s about Jesus’ statement that His kingdom is not [out] of this world. Our translation vs. the Greek. It’s pretty huge. And it totally changes the meaning of what Jesus said. Check it out.