Pinchas B’midbar/Numbers 25:10-30:1
Torah Portion: Pinchas B’midbar/Numbers 25:10-30:1
Haftorah Reading: I Kings 18:46-19:21
Today we have an interesting Torah portion and Haftorah portion. I would like to begin with something that has been in my head all week. I pray you will be touched by the verses as I was. Please read I Kings 19:9-12. In the beginning of the Haftorah section we read of the confrontation between Elijah and the priests of Ba’al. Most of us know these verses well. Elijah met 400 of the priests of Ba’al on the top of Mt. Carmel in northern Israel to settle the question of who was G-d. Was it Ba’al or G-d Almighty?
Tetzaveh (You are to command) Exodus/Sh’mot 27:20-30:10
Tetzaveh(You are to command)Exodus/Sh’mot 27:20-30:10
Haftorah Reading: Ezekiel 43:10-27
This Sabbath I have a few points I want to cover with you. I believe each of these points are spiritually relevant to our lives today. They should speak to each of us in our personal walk.
To begin, I want to share an example I read this week from a good friend who lives in Jerusalem. It concerned him buying olive oil for lighting his menorah on the Shabbat. According to scripture, pure pressed olive oil was used to light the candles in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple. This friend lights his Shabbat candles each Friday at sundown to welcome the Sabbath. As he was shopping for oil he found it would be much cheaper to buy sunflower oil or other substitutes for his menorah than pure pressed olive oil. Olive oil was double the price of sunflower oil. After thinking about it he decided to follow scripture and use what was prescribed there and not use a substitute.
Chukat (Statute) B’midbar (Numbers) 19:1-22:1; Balak (Numbers) 22:2-25:9
Torah Portion: Chukat (Statute) B’midbar (Numbers) 19:1-22:1; Balak (Numbers) 22:2-25:9
Haftorah Readings: Judges 11:1-33, Micah 5:6-6:8
Last week we read and studied the Torah portion Korach. Tonight, we look at Chukat and Balak. What is easily overlooked is the time passing between Korach and Chukat. Korach occurred about two years after the crossing of the Reed Sea. Now, here in Chukat, we see the people standing at the doorway to the Promised Land. So our Torah portion takes place 38 years after we last read of the incident of Korach. These people are the children, who are now adults, of the people we last read about. However, as we read this portion we see they had not changed much. Here in our portion we read of the death of Aaron and again of the lack of water. We see a people who rebelled and rose up against Moshe and were punished by the venomous snakes that G-d brought among them. We also see G-d’s provision for them when He instructed Moshe to make a bronze snake. He held the bronze snake up before the people and whomever was bitten could look upon it and be saved. We also see the snake mentioned in John 3:14-15, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up so that whoever believes in Him has eternal life.” Just as the serpent in the desert brought physical salvation from death, whomever looks upon the Messiah and believes in Him receives eternal salvation.
Vayelekh (He Went) D’Varim (Deuteronomy) 31:1-30
Torah Portion: Vayelekh (He Went) D’Varim (Deuteronomy) 31:1-30
Haftorah Reading Hosea 14:1-10, Micah 7:18-20, Joel 2:15-27
Tonight, our Torah reading covers only one chapter in D’Varim. In Judaism this Shabbat is known as Shabbat Shuva because it is the last Shabbat before Yom Kippur. The word shuva means repentance. This time of year calls us to remember, to think back over our life, over the last year and set right anything that stands between us and the Father or anything between us and another person. According to the Jewish faith, on Yom Kippur the book is closed. In the Messianic scriptures we see the same thought in Revelations 20:15. I would pray for all of us to use this time in G-d’s calendar to take a spiritual inventory and set right those things that need our attention.