Undoubtedly part of the reason for moral failure within the church comes from deceptive theology and the doctrine called "antinomianism," that is, the idea that faith in Yeshua implies that we are no longer "under the law" and therefore we are free to live apart from what the Torah (and by extension, the New Testament) plainly says and teaches...  This is clearly a mistake -- a serious confusion between the terms of the former covenant at Sinai with the timeless truth of God's eternal Torah, or moral will... After all, the New Covenant (ברית חדשׁה) of Yeshua is the one in which the Torah of the LORD would be written upon our hearts (see Jer. 31:31-34).  Genuine followers of Yeshua therefore will love the Torah of the LORD, since God does not lie or change His mind, and Yeshua our Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Num. 23:19; Psalm 33:1; Heb. 13:8).  As it is also written: “Blessed is the person who delights in the law of the LORD (תורת יהוה) and meditates upon its truth day and night (Psalm 1:1-2).  Amen, for the life of the follower of Yeshua "we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the sake of the truth" (2 Cor. 13:8). 

It is frighteningly tragic that many so-called Christian ministers -- many of them perhaps well-meaning enough -- simply do not have the fear of the LORD within their hearts, as evidenced by their double-mindedness regarding sin and their ambivalence about the truth of God's law.  We tremble at these words of the Savior who died upon the cross for our deliverance: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' (Matt. 7:21:23).  

Simply put, those who truly know the Lord Yeshua understand that He is none other than the very Lawgiver and King of Israel, and it was He who spoke to Moses at Sinai regarding the moral will of God.  Yes, he is also our Savior who graciously died for us to be pardoned from the verdict of the law, but he did NOT die so that we should continue to sin but rather to be delivered from sin's power in our lives.... We are never perfected in this life, and each of us will struggle with sin, but we should never allow sin to become a regular practice, and we should never live a secret and double life of hypocrisy... If we struggle, fair enough -- we need to be honest, confess the truth, and get help, but we should never hide the truth about who we really are, since that leads to sickness of the heart and self-destructive despair.  May God have mercy and help us all be on guard from the deceptions of the enemy of our souls.

In this podcast I reflect on Psalm 119:97 and review some of the reasons why the Torah of the LORD is vital for followers of Yeshua the Messiah.  I hope you will find it helpful.

John Parsons
https://hebrew4christians.com

Dangers of Lawlessness...

The Dangers of Lawlessness...

The topic of divine imperatives quite naturally raises the subject of whether a follower of the Messiah should adhere to the lawcode of Moses.  After all, Yeshua Himself was "the Voice of the Living God (קוֹל אֱלהִים חַיִּים) speaking (davar) from the midst of the fire" at Sinai (Deut. 5:26), and surely He lived shomer ha-Torah (שׁוֹמֵר הַתּוֹרָה) as a Torah observant Jew. Should we follow His example by becoming shomer ha-Torah as well?  Why then the law?

For more see https://hebrew4christians.com

Torah and the follower of Messiah...

In our Torah portion for Chanukah week, parashat Miketz (i.e., Gen. 41:1-44:17), we will read how imprisoned Joseph successfully interpreted Pharaoh's dreams and suddenly rose to power in Egypt. Because of a famine in the land of Canaan, however, his brothers (who had earlier betrayed him) came to Egypt in search of food. A disguised Joseph then tested his brothers to see whether they were the same people who had callously sold him into slavery, or whether they had undergone teshuvah (repentance).

The eventual revelation of Joseph and his reconciliation with his brothers is a prophetic picture of acharit ha-yamim (the "End of Days") when Israel, in Great Tribulation, will come to accept Yeshua as Israel's true deliverer.  Presently, the veil is still over the eyes of the Jewish people and they collectively regard Yeshua as an "Egyptian" of sorts.  In this connection, I list some of the ways that Joseph is a "type" or foreshadowing of the coming Yeshua as the Suffering Servant (see “Mashiach ben Yosef” on the H4C site). 

For more see: https://hebrew4christians.com
­

Chanukah / parashat Miketz podcast

In our Torah for this week (i.e., parashat Va'era), the LORD told Moses that He was about to fulfill His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by giving the Israelites the land of Canaan, and that he had heard the "groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians held as slaves" (Exod. 6:5). The showdown between the LORD (יהוה) and the so-called gods of Egypt was imminent, and God therefore encouraged the people with precious promises: "I AM the LORD (אֲנִי יְהוָה) and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgment; and I will take you to me for a people and I will be to you a God" (these are the “four expressions of redemption” we recite during the Passover Seder every year). 

Despite these wonderful promises, however, the people were unable to listen because of their “shortness of breath” (מִקּצֶר רוּחַ) on account of their harsh slavery. The LORD then told Moses: “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land,” and the great showdown between the LORD and the gods of Egypt began. However, even after  repeatedly witnessing the series of miraculous plagues issued in the Name of the LORD, the despot remained proud and unmoved, thereby setting the stage for the final devastating plagues upon the land of Egypt and the great Passover redemption of Israel.

For more see: https://hebrew4christians.com

Sefer Shemot - Hebrew for Christians

Parashat Vaera

Shavuah Tov for parashat Va'era

The fifth section of the book of Exodus (Exod. 18:1 - 20:23) begins with the account of how Moses’ father-in-law Jethro (Yitro in Hebrew) met up with Moses near Mount Sinai, giving him advice and direction about how to establish a judicial system for the Israelites, and then goes on to provide the account of the revelation of the Ten Commandments by God at Mount Sinai. This event, called mattan Torah, or the giving of the Torah, is central to the entire account of our redemption as the children of God, since it provides revelation not only about our basic spiritual and moral obligations, but also provides the vision of the altar of the lamb of God that was to be offered every day both in remembrance of the Passover redemption and also to foretell the coming our Yeshua our Messiah, the sacrificial "Lamb of God" who takes away the sins of the world.

In in this audio podcast, I discuss the basic narrative of parashat Yitro and explore some of the more prominent themes regarding the giving of the law at Sinai, the meaning of the imperative language and the idea of a commandment, the importance of a heart connection with God, and more.

For more visit www.hebrew4christians.com

Parashat Yitro

Shavuah Tov Yitro

Shavuah Tov for parashat Yitro

Our Torah reading for this week is Ki Tisa (כי תשא), one of the longest of the Torah. It includes the tragic account of the Sin of the Golden Calf (עֵגֶל מַסֵּכָה) and Moses' passionate intercession for Israel. After a period of teshuvah (repentance) for Israel’s idolatry, the LORD graciously revealed the meaning of the Name YHVH (יהוה), that is, the thirty-two words that have become known in Jewish tradition as the Shelosh Esrei Middot, or the “Thirteen Attributes of God’s Mercy.” This was the LORD’s own definition of His compassionate character and attributes to Moses after the breaking of the Sinai covenant. 

For more visit www.hebrew4christians.com

Hebrew for Christians

Shavuah Tov for parashat Ki Tisa

Our Torah portion for this week, parashat Bamidbar (בְּמִדְבַּר), begins the Book of Numbers, where the narrative begins precisely where the Book of Exodus left off, with the glory of the LORD hovering over the Mishkan (Tabernacle) as the Israelites were stationed at Sinai. On the first day of the thirteenth month following the Exodus from Egypt – exactly thirty days after the Tabernacle was first consecrated – God commanded Moses to take a census of all Israelite males over 20 years of age who would bear arms. Moses and the heads of each tribe recorded the results, with 603,550 men in all. This number did not include the Levites, however, since they were designated to take care of the Tabernacle and its furnishings during the journeys.

In addition to an overview of the Book of Numbers, this audio discusses the holiday of Shavuot ("Pentecost") and our journey of faith through the desert of this world...

As always, for more information visit www.hebrew4christians.com.

Shavuah Tov for parashat Bamidbar

Our Torah reading this week (parashat Kedoshim) begins with the call for us to be holy on account of our relationship with God:  "Be ye holy, for I the LORD your God am holy" (Lev. 19:2). Holiness is best understood as a sense of the awe and sacredness inherent in the apprehension of Reality and Grace.  The portion then goes on to define the expression of holiness in our relationship God and with others. For example, though it is inevitable (and psychologically necessary) that we make judgments about other people, the Torah states, be’tzedek tishpot amitekha, "in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor" (see also John 7:24), which implies that we must use the “good eye” (ayin tovah) when we think of other people.  Indeed, the focal point and the very heart of what practical holiness represents is stated as ve’ahavta le’re’akha kamokha - "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Note that the direct object of the verb (ahav - to love) is your neighbor.  But who, exactly, is my neighbor? Some have claimed that the word rea (neighbor) refers only to one's fellow Jew - not to others at large in the world. However this is obviously false, since the “stranger” (ger) is explicitly identified to be an object of our love (Lev 19:34). And note that Yeshua the Mashiach answered this question by turning it around. Instead of attempting to find someone worthy of neighborly love, I am asked to be a worthy and loving neighbor myself (Luke 10:29-37).

For more information about Torah and salvation given in Yeshua, the Messiah and Savior of the world, visit: https://hebrew4christians.com

Shavuah Tov for parashat Kedoshim

We are living in perilous times.  It is lawlessness to reject the Torah of the LORD that commands us to follow Messiah and know him in all our ways - including the ways of our struggles, our calls for justice, and so on...   Yeshua plainly warned us that those who practice lawlessness and anarchy do not know him and therefore they will be judged as outsiders of the truth of God. In this audio podcast, I discuss the meaning and importance of the "law" in the life of those who purport to be followers of the Messiah.

End of Days Lawlessness...

The Spirit of God cries out, “choose life that you may live!” (Deut. 30:19), which implies that is our responsibility to believe in the Reality of God, to trust in his providential care, to affirm that “all is well and all manner of thing shall be well,” and to understand that our present struggle is designed by heaven to help us grow in grace and the knowledge of the truth (1 Pet. 3:16).   

In this Daily Dvar, I discuss the challenge of faith and how we can draw closer to the Lord despite the ambiguity and challenges we regularly face.

Daily Dvar

Daily Dvar: Choosing to Believe

Shalom chaverim.  In this "Daily Dvar" broadcast I discuss what I have called the "blessing of holy desperation," or that very special blessing of needing God so viscerally that you would otherwise fall apart or even self-destruct apart from his ongoing intervention in your life.  I hope you will find it helpful. 

For more information:
https://hebrew4christians.com

Daily Dvar: Blessings of Brokenness

Daily Dvar: Blessing of Holy Desperation

This site lists some of the Hebrew for Christians podcasts from over the years.  It is updated according to the Jewish calendar and holiday cycle.

Shavuah Tov for parashat Bamidbar

Hebrew for Christians

Related tracks