• Matthew 22:37-40

'And He said to him, “‘You shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”'

Do you have friends and family in church you’ve tried sharing Torah with and as you’re talking about it, their eyes start to glaze over? Or do they look at you like you’re a toddler struggling to dictate your words? You so badly want them to hear you and understand that the Torah is still relevant in our journey through life, but you get nowhere with them. You now have this new found love for the Father and His Word is jumping off the page in ways you’ve never seen before! You want to scream what you’ve found from the mountain tops so they ‘get it’ and join in on the cycles of the feasts and Shabbat with you! 

Yeah, I’ve been there, too. This is the first blog in a mini-series on how to reach our loved ones we so desperately want to join in on His appointed times.

Unfortunately, our society thinks in a linear manner. 

That line of thought has spilled into the church and it truly limits our ability to see the Creator in His fullness.  As a little girl growing up in church, I was taught all you had to do to go to heaven was accept Jesus in your heart, be filled with the Holy Spirit, live your life as a good person until you die, and then you’ll go to heaven! 

Pretty straightforward and simple, right?  What more could there be?

Well, if you have been on this journey for a while, or even a few months, you know how rich His Word is and you’ve experienced the beauty of the cycle of rest each and every Shabbat. As we walk out Torah, we see cycles everywhere; rest, feasts, weeks, new moons, years, themes, and many more. 

Cycles in this journey are a way for Abba to refine us and test us. 

Each day is like a mini resurrection; another chance to die to our flesh and make the necessary changes to grow and mature into His likeness. 

As we hit each new season of feasts, we are faced with challenges and He is able to see what is truly in our hearts by how we react.  He so graciously gives us the opportunity to develop a more intimate relationship with Him during the feasts, in addition to each day, week, month, season, and year! As we progress through these cycles we are pressed, producing oil to light our entire menorah instead of a few of the cups.

Guess what?

Some of our friends and family in church have begun to put oil in the cups of their menorah with basic concepts found in the Bible. Let's explore some feast themes and some common points of general church theology starting with Passover and salvation.

The main theme of Passover is the salvation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.  A few thousand years later, we see salvation again through the blood of the Lamb, Yeshua.  The church recognizes and celebrates His death and resurrection! They’ve got the first cup, salvation and wisdom, on the outer branch of the menorah lit! In this season, the Israelites learned what it was like to love and trust in Adonai.

The spring season leads up to Pentecost, where Christians celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples and other believers in Jerusalem after Yeshua’s death and resurrection.  Most also don’t know that this was Shavuot, the same day the Torah was given on Mount Sinai 7 weeks after leaving Egypt.  They have the 4th cup on the main branch of the menorah lit and that represents the Holy Spirit and Shavuot! They have access to the Holy Spirit!

After the 10 plagues, Israel leaves Egypt and their first stop is Sukkot (Exodus 13:20). No one knows exactly where this particular Sukkot location was, but we see the direct chiastic connection to Passover. I imagine it was like heaven on earth after all the Israelites had been through in Egypt’s harsh restrictions during their enslavement! We all know one of the main reasons people go to church and accept Yeshua as their savior is to get to heaven.  They’ve lit the cup on the 7th branch of their menorah, representing Shabbat, Sukkot, and the Fear of Adonai! They don’t even realize they’re looking forward to the ultimate Sukkot! During the Israelites’ season of wandering in the wilderness, they had to learn what it was like to love their neighbors in a less than ideal environment, trusting that Adonai was going to provide and make a way for them, even when they didn’t see and understand the plan. 

Do you see that even though they don’t have everything right, they still have access to the Holy Spirit? 

I hope this blog has encouraged you, sister!  In Part 2, we’ll explore Leviticus 19:16-18. We’ll also take a deep dive on the word ‘rebuke’ and see how our modern way of interpreting that word has had a drastic effect on how we deal with our brothers and sisters. I pray you all have a wonderful week!

Be pressed and be blessed!

Danielle 

I want to give a huge thank you to Simonette Cherepanov for midrashing with me about this topic, and Brenda Stroth for helping me gain a deeper understanding of rebuke from a Hebrew perspective!

•  Proverbs 18:21

'Death and life are in the control of the tongue. Those who indulge in it will eat its fruit.'

•  Ephesians 4:29

'Let no harmful word come out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for building others up according to the need, so that it gives grace to those who hear it.'

•  1 Corinthians 9:19-23

'For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win over more of them. To the Jewish people I identified as a Jew, so that I might win over the Jewish people. To those under Torah I became like one under Torah (though not myself being under Torah ), so that I might win over those under Torah ; to those outside Torah , like one outside Torah (though not being outside God’s Torah but in Messiah’s Torah ), so that I might win over those outside Torah . To the weak I became weak, so that I might win over the weak. I have become all things to all men, so that by all means possible I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the Good News, so that I might be a fellow partaker of it. '

•  1 Timothy 5:1-2  NASB1995

'Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers, the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity.'

•  Jacob (James) 3:5-10

'So also the tongue is a small member—yet it boasts of great things. See how so small a fire sets a blaze so great a forest! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is a world of evil placed among our body parts. It pollutes the whole body and sets on fire the course of life—and is set on fire by Gehenna. For every species of beasts and birds, reptiles and sea creatures, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Adonai and Father, and with it we curse people, who are made in the image of God. From the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be.'

*Please Note: the verses used in this blog were taken from the TLV, Tree of Life Version, and may be numbered slightly different in other versions.  Thank you!