IT'S  SAbbath
 The Laws Concerning

THE GOSPEL MESSAGE THAT Paul preached

 Blessed art thou, L-rd our G-d,
King of the Universe, who has sanctified
Us with Thy commandments, and
Commanded us to study the Torah
 

Chapter 24

1 Then He said to Moses, "Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and you shall worship at a distance. 2 "Moses alone, however, shall come near to the LORD, but they shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him." 3 Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the LORD and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, "All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do!" 4 Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. Then he arose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!" 8 So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words." 9 Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, 10 and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. 11 Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they saw God, and they ate and drank. 12 Now the LORD said to Moses, "Come up to Me on the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandment which I have written for their instruction." 13 So Moses arose with Joshua his servant, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. 14 But to the elders he said, "Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a legal matter, let him approach them." 15 Then Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. 17 And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountain top. 18 Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

It is my opinion this morning that there was a cloud in which Moshe entered to scale the mountain that day and the other cloud was one that was waiting to descend upon the mind and hearts of the people as they would later grow restless while waiting for their leader to return to them. But I’m digging into next week’s events and I really don’t want to do that just yet. 26 "There shall be no one miscarrying or barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. I just want to stop here for a moment and consider this statement that Father God was going to do for the Israelites in the new land. This is a blockbuster statement all in itself and do we really know what this means? It means that no person would get cut off in the prime of their life because of a stinking disease! It would mean that there wouldn’t be any stigma of childlessness for Israelite women. And the babies that were born to them would be healthy! Let me interject a little slice of reality about that topic as it is in a modern infant and pediatric unit. I have a bird’s eye view into that world because of a daughter who nurses in the intensive care unit for infant deliveries. There is a manner in which nurses can debrief about stressful situations and incidents that occur in their world without divulging names or any information that would identify their patients. The stories that leak out are sometimes so sad they make me weep. Are folks really aware of how many mothers deliver drug-addicted babies these days in city hospitals? It’s a worldwide phenomenon. 2 There have been times when staff’s pleading for children’s protection people to take a child and put them in foster care have gone unheeded and in a year or so there is a child who is dead or permanently maimed from parental abuse. Terminal diseases take out another percentage of their little charges. And then some mothers still suddenly die in or right after childbirth because of circumstances that are only able to be revealed at the autopsy. There are those other little ones all across North America who are born ill and disfigured due to birth defects because their fathers served overseas in either Viet Nam, Afghanistan or Iraq. Agent Orange, additives to the vaccines that were injected prior to deployment and the latest trouble to come to surface are the effects of depleted uranium in the ammunition3. Despite the rising incidence of these cases, there are still a percentage of healthy babies who go home in “happy” and “secure” circumstances. When I compare the slice of reality that I’m aware of now with the scenario that Israel could have had back then it is just too sad that they were so jubilant in making their promises to God and yet within forty days they’d be breaking those same promises. Look at all the list in the last verses of chapter twenty three of those “I will” statements by Yahweh that would belong to Israel for her obedience and loyalty! It’s amazing!

Then we see Moses officiate in this blood covenant. It may well have been the completion of that covenant struck between God and Abraham when Yah came down in flame and walked between the severed portions of the sacrificial animals in Genesis chapter fifteen. Abraham declared his own personal part in this agreement and now it would be the voice of the people who would give their consent. And then another amazing event! 9 Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, 10 and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. 11 Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they saw God, and they ate and drank.

Special dispensation at that time for the elders to be in The Very Presence! I tend to wonder that they actually saw God’s actual form, since the description is focused towards what was under His feet. But whatever they did see: God didn’t “stretch out His hand” against them. They all lived to tell the account to the rest of the folks down below. So there would be at least seventy besides Moses who would testify to the greatness and glory of The Ancient of Days. 17 And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountain top. In time, after this banquet that was partaken Moses separated from the rest and went higher upon the mountain. I have to wonder about that banquet though. What was the main course?

1 “Scripture quotations taken from the NASB." www.lockman.org Unless otherwise stated all Scriptures quoted from New American Standard Bible
2 http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20120216/HEALTH/302160005/Born-into-addiction http://news.ninemsn.com.au/health/805188/more-babies-born-to-drug-addicted-mums?rss=yes http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/new-health/conditions/addiction/health-addiction/treating-the-tiny-victims-of-canadasfastest-growing-addiction/article2294564/singlepage/
3 http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-06-03-vets-birth-defects_x.htm http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_n2_v31/ai_15920447/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/europe/2001/depleted_uranium/default.stm (I had to settle for a BBC report, since I could find no actual US news stories regarding this topic in fifteen minutes of searching)

Blessed art thou, L-rd our G-d,
King of the universe, who has chosen
us from all peoples and given us thy Torah.
Blessed art thou, O L-rd, Giver of the Torah.

ferretcentral@sympatico.ca                                                Anchor-Church@comcast.net
 

Things of Interest From my Computer Desk

Controversy - Controversy

I have finally seen that God does not have two sets of people he calls His people. He started with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and when its all over He will finish up with the same three plus their descendants. Paul says the same thing and calls them ALL ISRAEL in his letter to the Romans. That means, then that Y'shua did not start a new religious order called Christianity. That means then that Sha'ul of Tarsus did not convert to Christianity. That also means like the CJB states, that the believers were first called Messianics in Antioch and not Christians as our English translated Bibles say.

So what about all the non-Jews? Everyone God accepts that approaches Him through the gospel, He in thurns grafts them into the house of Israel just as the New Covenant stated by Y'shua states.

Acts 11:25-26 CJB Then Bar-Nabba went off to Tarsus to look for Sha'ul; (26) and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. They met with the congregation there for a whole year and taught a sizeable crowd. Also it was in Antioch that the talmidim for the first time were called "Messianic."

Romans 11:1-32 LITV I say then, Did not God thrust away His people? Let it not be! For I also am an Israelite, out of Abraham's seed, of the tribe of Benjamin. (2) "God did not thrust away His people" whom He foreknew. Psa. 94:14 Or do you not know what the Scripture said in Elijah, how he pleaded with God against Israel, saying, (3) Lord, "they killed Your prophets," "and they dug down Your altars," "and only I am left, and they seek my life." 1 Kg. 19:10 (4) But what does the Divine answer say to him, "I reserved to Myself seven thousand men who did not bow a knee to Baal." 1 Kg. 19:18 (5) So then, also in the present time a remnant according to election of grace has come into being. (6) But if by grace, no longer is it of works; else grace no longer becomes grace. But if of works, it is no longer grace; else work is no longer work. (7) What then? What Israel seeks, this it did not obtain, but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened; (8) even as it has been written, "God gave to them a spirit of slumber, eyes not seeing and ears not hearing" until this day. Isa. 29:10; Deut. 29:4 (9) And David said, "Let their table become for a snare and a trap, and for a stumbling block," and a repayment to them; (10) "let their eyes be darkened, not to see, and their back always bowing." LXX-68:23, 24; MT-Psa. 69:22, 23 (11) I say, then, Did not they stumble that they fall? Let it not be! But by their slipping away came salvation to the nations, to provoke them to jealousy. (12) But if their slipping away is the riches of the world, and their default the riches of the nations, how much more their fullness? (13) For I speak to you, the nations, since I am an apostle of the nations, (I glorify my ministry), (14) if somehow I may provoke to jealousy my flesh, and may save some of them. (15) For if their casting away is the reconciliation of the world, what is the reception, except life from the dead? (16) Now if the firstfruit is holy, so also the lump. And if the root is holy, so also the branches. (17) But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree were grafted in among them, and became a sharer of the root and the fatness of the olive tree, (18) do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, it is not you that bears the root, but the root bears you. (19) You will say then, The branches were broken off that I might be grafted in. (20) Well! For unbelief they were broken off. And you stand by faith. Do not be highminded, but fear. (21) For if God did not spare the natural branches, fear that it may be He will not spare you either. (22) Behold, then, the kindness and severity of God: On those having fallen, severity. But on you, kindness, if you continue in the kindness. Otherwise, you will also be cut off. (23) And those also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in. For God is able to graft them in again. (24) For if you were cut out of the natural wild olive tree, and against nature were grafted into a good olive tree, how much more these being according to nature will be grafted into their own olive tree? (25) For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be wise within yourselves, that hardness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the nations comes in; (26) and so all Israel will be saved, even as it has been written, "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. (27) And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins." Isa. 59:20, 21 (28) Indeed, as regards the gospel, ones hostile toward you, but as regards the election, beloved for the sake of the fathers. (29) For the free gifts and the calling of God are unregrettable. (30) For as you then also disobeyed God, but now have obtained mercy by the disobedience of these, (31) so also these now have disobeyed, so that they also may obtain mercy by your mercy. (32) For God shut up all into disobedience, that He may show mercy to all.

Therefore it would seem that what Israel is supposed to do according to God then those non-Israelites that get grafted in should need to learn to follow that the blessings of God might come on them too. To walk by faith is to walk according to the ways of the Lord. Y'shua said, "I am the way" . . . . . . . . . . .

"The LORD will bless you and keep you;
The LORD will make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you;
The LORD will lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.