TorahBytes: Tell the Story (Pesach)

You shall tell your son on that day, "It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt." (Shemot / Exodus 13:8; ESV)

Pesach (English: Passover) starts this year the evening of April 8. At Pesach we gather together for a Seder (pronounced say'-der) - a ceremonial meal designed to retell the story of our deliverance from being slaves in Egypt many centuries ago. For Jewish people Pesach reinforces this crucial part of our history as our defining moment. Our beginnings are in the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but our peoplehood is defined as those whom God himself delivered from bondage in Egypt.

The events of the past, both good and bad, are what shape us as individuals and communities. Knowing our history provides us with understanding of who we are. Today's overemphasis on the individual gives us the impression that we can define ourselves apart from our history, but that is plain nonsense. Just as we cannot define our own genetic code, but have inherited it from our past through our parents, so we enter this life with our historical background pre-defined, setting the stage for whatever part each one of us will play.

Pesach reminds us that we have a story to tell, a story that reaches far back in time. At Pesach we recite these words verbatim to our children: "It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt." Even though we were not literally in Egypt at the time of the deliverance, these words intimately connect us to this past event. We are the children of the Great Deliverance. We are the descendants of the slaves set free. We are the benefactors of God's rescuing power. We tell the story of Pesach so as not to forget. We tell the story so our children would know who they are.

However, to effectively tell the story, we must do more than simply go through the motions. We may recite the Seder much in the same way as our parents and grandparents did, but do we really grasp that this story really is our story? Whether we do or not doesn't change the reality of our past, nor does it change our true identity. Yet failure to effectively tell the story cuts us off from the impact of that reality. We are slaves set free. More than that! We are slaves set free not due to our own ingenuity, strength, or popularity, but rather we are slaves set free by the hand of God. What a story to tell!

But there's more! This story, however wonderful it is, is the backdrop of an even greater story of deliverance. What God did by rescuing us from slavery in Egypt foreshadows our deliverance from slavery to sin and death. What we as a people experienced in Egypt is a taste of what all people may experience through the Messiah.

Just as we need to retell the story of our deliverance from slavery in Egypt, so we need to retell the story of our greater deliverance in the Messiah. It is fitting that Yeshua directed us to do just that when he celebrated his last Pesach with his disciples. The matza (English: unleavened bread), the wine and the other elements of the Seder, which were designed to be part of the retelling of the earlier deliverance, now also retell the story of the greater deliverance.

Through the Messiah these stories of deliverance can become the stories of everyone, Jew and non-Jew alike, who trusts in him. God invites us to make these stories our stories. And once these stories are truly our stories, then we will truly have a story to tell.

TorahBytes: Preparation (Zav)

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. (Malachi 3:24 [English 4:5]; ESV)

According to the synagogue calendar, the Sabbath before Passover (Passover this year begins the evening of April 8) is a special Sabbath called "Shabbat Hagadol" (the Great Sabbath). Shabbat Hagadol commemorates God's command four days before the first Passover in which all Israelite households were to take into their homes the lamb they would slaughter.

Effectively fulfilling a task often requires significant preparation. Whether it be a meal, a trip, a test, or a meeting, neglecting sufficient preparation almost certainly guarantees failure. Good preparation, on the other hand, is basic to success. Note that preparation is not just about being aware of the future task. Worry requires awareness, but produces nothing of value. Similarly just busying oneself in the name of preparation doesn't do any good. Effective preparation requires appropriate and thorough attention to whatever might be required in advance of the future task.

The chapter in which this week's special Haftarah reading for Shabbat Hagadol is found speaks of preparation. It tells of how God would send a messenger, Elijah, who will prepare the way before him. This is like when a dignitary or celebrity sends an advance team prior to his arrival to ensure that everything is ready before he arrives, so that when he does arrive he is able to most effectively accomplish the desired outcome.

Effective preparation puts us in a state of readiness. In this passage, God whose way was to be prepared before him, would arrive suddenly. This suggests that even though preparations would be made, God's arrival would still be somewhat unexpected. This makes the preparations that much more important. In order to receive God's coming properly the people would need to be prepared and remain prepared. A picture that comes to mind is of getting a fancy dinner ready for very important guests and then having to wait for their arrival. We know they are coming, but we don't know exactly when. As the minutes go by, we wonder if something may have gone wrong. At that point we have the choice to either keep everything prepared as is, so that everything will be as it should be when they arrive, or we can go on with the dinner without them and risk the embarrassment of their arrival, no longer prepared as we should be. Worse than that, we may give up on waiting altogether and miss their arrival.

Celebrating Passover is the reminder of God's provision of a lamb so that his people could escape his judgment and be set free to journey to the Promised Land. Sufficient preparation was absolutely necessary to ensure the people's participation in their deliverance. Passover is also the reminder of God's provision of another Lamb - the Messiah - whose preparation was spoken of by the prophet. Sadly many were not prepared for his sudden arrival. Now we prepare for his return. The words of the prophet remain relevant, but how long before he returns, we don't know. Yeshua is coming again, let's be prepared.

TorahBytes: Idolatry (Vayikra)

Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, "Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!" And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god!" (Isaiah 44:16,17; ESV)

In this passage, God through the prophet is mocking the practice of idolatry. The picture is of a person taking a piece of wood, using some of it to meet his personal needs (cooking and heating) and constructing a god from what's left over. It is possible that people in Isaiah's day wouldn't really use the exact same piece of wood for idols, cooking and heating, but rather this may be a humorous way to challenge people to realize that wood is just wood. How could anyone consider worshipping something made with their own hands? That the same material out of which idols are made is also used to meet basic human needs just makes the whole idea appear that much more ridiculous.

I would assume that even people who would consider themselves atheist or agnostic would agree with Bible believers on this one. Bowing before a statue and asking it for help is truly ridiculous. For sophisticated thinkers, we look at such religious practices from an enlightened perspective. Unlike people of old who believed that they had to perform all sorts of rituals to appease the gods in order to prevent disaster and ensure prosperity, we think that we possess the correct understanding of the forces of nature and have learned to effectively manipulate them to our advantage.

The scientifically minded person, especially of the agnostic or atheistic sort, looks at the natural universe and says, "That's all there is!" For these people living life is about interacting with the natural forces and that's all.

Bible believers disagree, since the Bible clearly teaches that there is more to the universe than what can be perceived by our senses. Besides God himself, the Bible speaks of such creatures as angels and demons. Supernatural spiritual forces affect life on earth. The Bible also teaches us how to properly relate to these spiritual forces, not in the manner common in many counterfeit religions, but through the humble service of the God of Israel in the name of the Messiah.

If we accept the Bible's view of life, then the natural universe is not "all there is". In fact, the natural universe is just one part - although a highly significant part - of something of great purpose and meaning. For the atheistic or agnostic naturalist on the other hand, meaning is completely arbitrary based on personal preferences, which is the same as saying there is no meaning at all. Instead of meaning and purpose, material things are all there is.

Since the Bible teaches that material things are only one part of God's plans and purposes in the universe, stuff should be kept in balance with other areas of life and should be regarded as tools in the service of God. Material things should never be our focus.

While we don't literally bow down to material things, once we grasp the reality of God and the true meaning of life, then our obsession with things begins to look as ridiculous as the idol worshipper Isaiah describes. The idol worshipper uses some of his stuff for his basic needs of cooking and heat and then he pleads to the stuff left over for help. Is that so very different from us? Even if we don't actually plead with our stuff to deliver us, in what do we find our security and well being? Are they based on our relationship to God or on material things?

What would Isaiah say to us today? Perhaps something like this: "With some of his income he buys food for himself and his family and pays the heating bill. With the rest he fills his home with all sorts of things to which he gives his heart and soul, saying, 'Thank you for delivering me.'"

TorahBytes: The Manifest Presence of God (Va-Yakhel & Pekudei)

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. (Shemot / Exodus 40:34,35; ESV)

An important teaching of the Scriptures is the omnipresence of God, which is another way to say that the God of Israel is everywhere. As King David wrote, "Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!" (Psalm 139:7,8; ESV)

Even though God is everywhere, that doesn't mean that he makes himself known everywhere in the exact same way. This is what we see at the completion of the Mishkan (English: Tabernacle). The cloud was a visible and powerful expression or manifestation of God. The overwhelming nature of God's presence in the cloud was such that Moses could not enter the Mishkan while the cloud was there. This didn't mean that the Creator of the Universe was exclusively contained within this cloud. It is that this was a special and tangible way in which God revealed himself. This type of expression of God's presence is often called "the manifest presence of God."

Some Bible believers deny that God still manifests himself in this way today. They think that legitimate, biblical spirituality is exclusively conceptual, something of thought and faith only. While it is good to celebrate God's tangible reality among people in ancient times, they think we should be satisfied with the Bible stories alone. When we do this we may not realize that we are denying the very stories we claim to hold dear. The Bible attests that God makes his presence known in various tangible ways. To claim that his manifest presence was a reality in Bible times only is to set an arbitrary limit on what God is free to do.

Other people confuse God's manifest presence with his omnipresence. While we should acknowledge that God is everywhere, his manifest presence is special. Yet for some it seems that their awareness of God must always be highly dramatic, emotional and tangible. But since God's manifest presence is not actually evident to the extent they claim, they unknowingly belittle the very reality they seek to affirm.

Having said that, it appears that God does want to make himself known in very tangible ways far more than most of us realize. Just as the cloud filled the Mishkan, so he fills people individually and corporately today. Yeshua said, referring to both his followers of his day and all who would believe in him later, "The glory that you have given me I have given to them..." (John 17:22). The manifest presence of God that was revealed through the Messiah has been given to his people. Note that he didn't say "The glory that you have given me I will give to them", but rather, "The glory that you have given me I have given to them." Just as the glory of the Lord filled the Mishkan, so the glory of the Lord has filled Yeshua's followers. Therefore the manifest presence of God is to be found in and through Yeshua's followers.

God is indeed everywhere, but he wants to makes himself known through his people in very special ways. The more we realize that his manifest presence lives in us, the more his presence will be manifested through us.

TorahBytes: Free Will (Ki Tissa)

Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, "Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:13,14; ESV)

Some of you may understand this sort of thing better than I, but I was really surprised recently when I heard an atheistic scientist claim that his rejection of God or any other supernatural forces led him to conclude that there was no such thing as human free will. I had thought that if someone didn't believe in God, then objective morality didn't exist, thus giving people freedom to do whatever they liked. But if I understand the scientist correctly, he was saying that since we live in an exclusively naturalistic universe, everything is the product of physical forces. Human activity on Earth may appear to be self determining, but that is only an illusion. The whole universe is like a highly complex arrangement of dominos where the falling of one domino causes another one to fall. The patterns and beauty of life are simply the result of absolute randomization.

Until I heard this I had thought that determinism, that is the concept that all of life's outcomes are preset, required the belief in a supernatural force, who asserts sovereign control of the universe. But now I see with the help of this scientist's statement that the existence of human free will is due to God.

There is a lot of confusion among Bible believers over the issue of free will. For some free will is regarded as absolute as if God never takes the upper hand in human affairs. For others free will is made to be nonsense similar to the way atheists understand it. For these people it only looks as if we have free will, when in fact God is working behind the scenes like a puppeteer controlling our every word and action.

One of the problems with all this is the word, "free". It is obvious that humans don't have free will in an absolute sense. We cannot will to do absolutely anything we want. We are limited by all sorts of factors. While most of us can learn to perform well beyond our perceived limitations, on our own we cannot do anything beyond our actual limitations.

The question that remains is if God has given free will to people, how free are we? I don't know if we can say for sure, but the Bible provides us with significant insight.

Purim (the Festival of Esther; see the Book of Esther for details) is a one-day festival that begins this Monday evening (March 9). Purim commemorates the turning of the tables on the Jewish people's enemies in the face of destruction. The story of Esther is a wonderful weaving together of the sovereign work of God and human free will.

As the story goes, the Jewish people were in trouble yet again. The resolution to their predicament came about by a fascinating set of events and the purposeful actions of Mordecai and Esther. One of the unique features of the book of Esther is that it is the only book of the Bible to not have a single explicit reference to God. God's supposed silence is often legitimately interpreted as an emphasis on how God often works on his people's behalf behind the scenes, so to speak.

The effective, yet hidden, working of God doesn't mean that the people involved had no actual part to play. Mordecai's encouragement to Esther to speak on behalf of their people well expresses the interweaving of God's sovereignty and human free will. Mordecai was certain that God would take care of his people. Esther's refusal to be involved would not prevent God's plan for the Jewish people from succeeding. But her refusal would have dire consequences for her and her own family.

There is no sense in this story that every aspect of the outcome of the situation was preset by God and thus could not be affected by people's decisions. At the same time the overall outcome was not dependant on Esther or any other human being. While Esther was God's chosen instrument to save her people, she was free to decide to accept or refuse the challenge.

To think that the outcome of history is dependent on human decisions is ridiculous. Yet God in his sovereignty created human beings whom he calls to freely respond to his will. While we can never force his hand, let us not expect him to twist our arms before we do what's right.

TorahBytes: Putting It On (Tezavveh & Zakhor)

For Aaron’s sons you shall make coats and sashes and caps. You shall make them for glory and beauty. And you shall put them on Aaron your brother, and on his sons with him, and shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. You shall make for them linen undergarments to cover their naked flesh. They shall reach from the hips to the thighs; and they shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they go into the tent of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister in the Holy Place, lest they bear guilt and die. This shall be a statute forever for him and for his offspring after him. (Shemot / Exodus 28:40-43; ESV)

My wife and I were recently treated to a two-night getaway at a lovely manor in the country. The high-quality restaurant had a dress code for the evening meal. It has always struck me how the putting on of nicer clothes makes such a difference in how we feel about ourselves and our surroundings, as well as on how others relate to us.

Years ago I had a friend who was a taxi driver. The company he worked for didn't impose a particular standard of dress, but when he started wearing suits; his customers began to treat him differently, calling him "Sir" for example.

I don't think that the wearing of nice clothes made my wife and I or my friend different people. Wearing nice clothes or a uniform doesn't transform a person into something he or she is not. At the same time how we present ourselves does communicate something about ourselves. It could be anything from our economic situation, the people group to which we belong, our likes and preferences, or our desires and intentions. Of course it is possible that what we wear may not be consistent with who we really are. If I wore a police uniform in public, I would be giving the false impression that I was a police officer. On the other hand, when a police officer wears a uniform, it not only communicates to others his authority, but reminds him to behave accordingly. The uniform communicates something whether it be true or false.

In the days of the Mishkan and the Temple, the priests were required to wear special clothing whenever they performed their duties. To fail to do so would have resulted in dire circumstances. It is not as if they were priests on the basis of their clothing. Not wearing their priestly garments would not make them less of who they were. Still, their clothing was a necessary part of their performing their priestly duty. Priests not only played a special role in the community, they had to look the part as well. They physically and mentally could have performed their duties in regular clothing, but they could not truly represent their position if they didn't take the time to put on their special priestly clothes.

One of the contrasts between the Old and New Covenants is a shift of emphasis from external forms to internal reality. Under both covenants what God is seeking to communicate both to and through us is very much the same, but how he does so is quite different. With the coming of the Messiah and the loss of the Levitical priesthood due to the destruction of the Temple, the external elements of worship and service to God have been internalized in those who trust and follow the Messiah. What was at one time necessary through things such as clothing and other objects is now experienced in and through the living out of our day-to-day lives.

As the priests had to purposely put on special clothing to fulfill their special role in the world, so we too must do the same, but not literally. Rather we are to purposely apply the elements of a godly lifestyle to our behavior (see Colossians 3:1-17). While it is not our deeds that make us God's children, godly living requires decisive, purposeful actions similar to the putting on of special clothing.

At times purposely putting on godly behavior can feel like play acting - more like a costume than a uniform. Being kind, generous, disciplined, and merciful - to name a few godly traits - may not seem natural to us. But we shouldn't think that just because we possess the inner reality of God's presence in our lives that godly behavior will automatically spring forth without our participation. It is similar to dressing up to eat in a fancy restaurant. If it is something we haven't done before or only done on rare occasions, it could feel quite strange. But it's not about feelings. Once we realize that we, like the priests of old, have a special place in the world, then we also realize that it requires our putting on special behavior.

TorahBytes: Voluntary Giving (Terumah)

The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me." (Shemot / Exodus 25:1,2; ESV)

Through Moses God initiated a national building project. By voluntary contributions materials were to be collected for the building of the mishkan (English: tabernacle). The mishkan was a large tent-like structure where the sacrifices were performed. It was to be the focal point for the entire nation and the place where, in some sense, God's presence was to reside.

Giving to this project was absolutely voluntary. This is in contrast to the great many obligations God laid upon the Israelites. We are not told why contributing to the mishkan was not compulsory, it just wasn't. What we do know is that this project was so successful, Moses had to tell the people to stop giving (See Shemot / Exodus 36:6).

It is a wonderful thing when God initiates something and his people respond so positively. I don't know what would have happened if the people would not have contributed as they did. Would Moses have given additional appeals? Would God, who originally called for voluntary contributions, oblige the people after all?

I tend to think that since God had determined that this project was to be funded voluntarily that he knew the risk and would not change course. Now, being God he knew how the people would respond, but that brings up the issue of God's foreknowledge, which I don't want to discuss at the moment.

What I do want to discuss is our need to know the difference between obligatory and voluntary giving. These two kinds of giving exist throughout the entire Bible. There are some things to which God obliges us and other things to which he invites us to be involved without obligation.

Caring for our families is obligatory (Matthew 15:1-6; 1 Timothy 5:8). Providing for our leaders both governmental and congregational is part of our God-given duty (Romans 13;6,7; 1 Timothy 5:17). But not all giving is obligatory. While the Bible encourages us to be generous toward those in need, it is wrong to oblige people or attempt to manipulate them in order to extract funds from them (1 Corinthians 9:7). If God's own building project was funded by voluntary contributions, how much more should our projects be?

I wish more congregations would be upfront with their real needs, especially when it comes to the welfare of those who legitimately serve its members. Active congregational members should be adequately informed about the needs of those who serve them and encouraged to do their duty as members to help meet their needs. But when congregational leadership have visions (perhaps from God) to attempt major projects, whether it be for buildings or other things, we would do well to follow God's example: lay out the vision before the people and let those give whose hearts move them in this way. If God hasn't obligated the people to give, who are we to so burden them? God loves a cheerful giver. Those who don't want to give should not give.

Don't get me wrong. As I have already mentioned, in situations when we are truly obliged to give, we must give. I also understand that people need to be taught the value of generosity. But that is not the same as extracting funds from unwilling hearts.

If you are on the receiving end of endless appeals for funds, I suggest you seek to discern if it is really God who is calling you to give. If it is, then you would do well to be generous. Otherwise don't be pressured.

TorahBytes: God's Rules (Mishpatim)

Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. (Shemot / Exodus 21:1; ESV)

This week's Torah portion includes rules regarding personal property liability, the penalties for causing bodily harm, parent-child relationships, behavior towards handicapped persons, equity of the law with regard to non-citizens, the consequences for engaging in certain kinds of illegitimate religious activities, and so on. The wisdom in many of these rules is self evident and can be found in the law codes of many societies throughout the world today.

Those desiring to take the Scriptures seriously typically ask the question, "How do we know which rules still apply in our day?" Traditional Judaism asserts that everything in the Torah (five books of Moses) that was directed to the people of Israel still applies to the people of Israel. The exception would be the elements of the sacrificial system. Some traditionalists look forward to the day when a new Temple will be built and the sacrificial system will be reinstated.

There are some New Covenant believers who have a similar understanding of Torah precepts. They see that the Torah as given at Mt. Sinai is eternal. They may or may not look forward to the reestablishment of the sacrificial system due to their understanding of Yeshua's role in fulfilling that particular aspect of the Torah. They tend to see that one of the purposes (if not the prime purpose) of the Gospel is to bring the Torah to the nations.

This view of the Torah doesn't jive with the teaching of the New Covenant Scriptures, however. In fact, it doesn't jive with the anticipation of the Old Covenant Scriptures either. The Torah as given to the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai was more than a law code. It was a covenant, something similar to a national constitution. It governed more than behavior; it established the relationship between Israel and God. When Israel broke the covenant, God determined to establish a new covenant, not like the old one (see Jeremiah 31:31-34).

This New Covenant was established by the Messiah Yeshua. The New Covenant's foundational difference from the Old Covenant was the basis through which right relationship with God was established and maintained. Under the Old Covenant this was founded on the Levitical priesthood and the Temple and was fundamentally for the people of Israel during the years of preparation until the Messiah's coming. Under the New Covenant right relationship with God is founded upon the person and work of Yeshua and is freely open to the full participation of all people regardless of nationality.

While there is wonderful continuity between the Old and New Covenants, the Old Covenant as a system of regulations is incompatible with the New. Since the basis of relationship with God has been transformed because of what the Messiah has done, the Old Covenant system is obsolete.

This understanding of Torah is actually similar to that of traditional Judaism. The absence of a temple with its priesthood and sacrifices along with the rejection of Yeshua as the Messiah forced a complete overhaul of Judaism. Some may think that Judaism upholds the Torah when the fact is it cannot without its Levitical foundation in place. Attempts by some messianics to make Yeshua the new foundation of the old system is misguided and uninformed.

This leaves us with the question of what do we do with Torah regulations such as many of the ones listed in this week's portion? Just because the system within which these regulations were communicated is transformed doesn't mean that every detail is irrelevant. Certainly when God communicated his ways to Israel of old, while there were elements unique to that covenant, there were also a great many things that apply to all people of all times. Determining which ones those are require humility, spiritual sensitivity, and much study. The New Covenant emphasis of love of God and neighbor should drive us to delve into the Scriptures to discover God's heart for the specifics on how we should live our lives.

TorahBytes: God Is Who He Is (Yitro)

And the LORD said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: 'You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.'" (Shemot / Exodus 20:22,23; ESV)

One of the most basic truths in the Torah that we have difficulty accepting is that God is who he is. That God is who he is and not something else may sound like a simple and reasonable concept, but I am not sure how easy it is to grasp.

Throughout the Hebrew Bible, idolatry was common. The wrongness of idolatry is expressed in two ways. One way is through the creation of false gods. In much of the ancient world and in many places today people worship all sorts of gods in the form of an idol. The idol may either be a god or represent a god other than the one true God. When God said to Israel, "You shall have no other gods before me" (Shemot / Exodus 20:30), he was most likely referring to this kind of idolatry.

The second way idolatry is expressed is by representing the true God in the form of an idol. This is what Moses' brother Aaron did when he crafted the golden calf at Mt. Sinai (see Shemot / Exodus 32). He claimed that the God who delivered them from Egypt was being represented by means of the statue he made.

While both forms of idolatry are evil and dangerous, it's this second form that is more difficult to detect and avoid. It is a form of idolatry that we don't readily notice and when we do, we are slow to reject it. It is this form of idolatry that is being addressed in the verses I read at the beginning. Because God revealed himself to the people, they were not to represent him in ways contrary to who he really was.

It will be quickly apparent that I am using the term "idolatry" not exclusively in the sense of statue or statue-like objects, but in the broader sense of anything that serves the purpose of replacing God. This is especially applicable when dealing with this second form of idolatry. We may not create a physical representation of the true God, but we may conceive of him in all sorts of ways contrary to who he really is. So while we may not bow down to literal statues, we claim to know the true God when we actually don't.

Does this mean to truly know God we need to understand him perfectly? Of course not! As imperfect and finite human beings we don't have the ability to perfectly conceive of the infinite God. But this is no excuse to allow ourselves to introduce false notions about God, when he has adequately revealed himself to us through the Scriptures.

It seems to me that it is has become more and more popular today for those who claim to accept the Bible's authority to mold the God of the Bible into an image with which they feel most comfortable. How we feel about God has replaced who God really is. Perception trumps reality. Preference is valued over truth. We fail to realize that the filters through which we understand God serve to blind us as to who he really is. We pick and choose from the Bible what we like about God and add a sprinkling of pop culture and politically correct ideology in an attempt to make him acceptable and less embarrassing.

God has adequately revealed himself through the Scriptures. Allowing him to dictate to us who he really is and strip away false notions about him - no matter how uncomfortable that may be - is the only way to truly know the one true God.

TorahBytes: Cause and Effect (Be-Shallah)

If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer. (Shemot / Exodus 15:26; ESV)

Through Moses, God promised that if the people of Israel would obey his commandments, they would not be afflicted with the diseases experienced by the Egyptians. I don't know if the reference to disease is limited to the ten plagues or to diseases in general. Either way begs the question: what is the relationship between obedience to God and personal health?

Some think that there is a direct correlation between keeping the commandments and health as if God's regulations are healthy in and of themselves. For example, it is generally agreed that pork is far more prone to certain kinds of harmful bacteria than beef, especially in a culture in which modern hygiene was unknown. Eating biblically defined clean animals would have been healthier than eating biblically defined unclean animals regardless of whether the eater was aware that this distinction had anything to do with God's commandments.

There are other Old Covenant regulations that seem to have a direct correlation to health, such as the handling of human waste. There are still places in the world that don't manage sewage properly and suffer from easily avoidable disease. Also, if societies would follow the biblical sexual laws, they would avoid a great deal (if not all) of sexually transmitted diseases.

It is difficult to deny that at least in some cases a direct correlation between God's regulations and personal health does exist, but there is something about trying to understand God's Word in this way that undermines God's own intention in communicating his will to us.

There is something curious about the verse I quoted. While on one hand it sounds as if keeping God's commandments is the way to avoid disease, the basis of health according to this verse is not adherence to a healthy lifestyle per se, but the activity of God in response to the people's obedience: "I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer." The Torah doesn't say that keeping God's commands will keep the people healthy, but rather that God himself will prevent disease in response to obedience. Moreover, it is instructive that in this context God calls himself "the LORD, your healer," indicating that it is God who makes and keeps his obedient people healthy, not their lifestyle.

Scientifically oriented people (which I believe includes most people reading or listening to this) have difficulty grasping such a concept, since we have been conditioned to look at life through a lens of strict physical cause and effect. Again, I am not saying that direct correlations between God's commands and human health do not exist, but rather that the true basis of how all this works is spiritual, not physical. Therefore a scientific analysis of God's commandments is not the key to health and is certainly not what the Torah is teaching here. What God was seeking to impress upon the people was their need to obey him. It was not an encouragement to discover effective techniques in the achieving of physical health.

This is not to say that we should neglect God's Word. Far from it! As we have read, we should be diligent to listen to God's voice and to do what is right in his eyes, being attentive to his commandments and keeping his statutes. Exactly what this entails under the New Covenant is a different issue, but let's not reduce God's Word to simple practical advice detached from the One who has spoken them. Instead, let us obey God's Word, because we love him who loves us and knows what is best for us.

TorahBytes: Violence (Bo)

So Moses said, "Thus says the LORD: About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle." (Shemot / Exodus 11:4,5; ESV)

I don't like violence. I certainly don't condone it as entertainment and I dissuade my children from playing violent games. I advocate the use of peaceful means in the resolving of conflict on both personal and broader scales.

This is all to say that for me the subject of violence is an uncomfortable one. I take no delight when anyone, friend or foe, is hurt or killed.

I am also uncomfortable with the violence I encounter in the Bible. Death and destruction are found throughout it pages. In fact, according to the Bible, God himself resolves issues with violence. I know that some people think that this depiction of God is confined to the Hebrew Scriptures as if he is characterized there as a God of wrath, while the New Covenant writings depict a God of love. I won't take the time here to debunk that misconception. Let it suffice to say that the depiction of God in both the Old and New Covenant writings is consistent. The God of the whole Bible is a complex, integrated character expressing himself in a great variety of ways. His motive toward his creation is always love, but this does not preclude his resorting to violence to accomplish his purposes.

God's use of violence seems to have become a major stumbling block for many people today. That God would resolve a situation through violent means is sufficient cause to prevent these people from considering the possibility that the God of the Bible might be real.

This extreme distaste for violence also appears to be what influences some people in their approach to societal and international justice. They deplore capital punishment even for the most heinous crimes and seem to think that military action should always be avoided. During the recent crisis in Gaza, I got the impression that some people would have preferred that Israel should have remained passive while bombs indiscriminately fell on their citizens. I am not saying that we should not be grieved over the devastation experienced by the Gazan people, but simplistic, pacifist solutions to conflicts of this nature are no solutions at all. Certain situations call for violent responses. I cannot say whether Israel's tactics in this case were the correct ones, but to completely reject violence as a legitimate means of conflict resolution is certainly not biblical.

I have the impression that the extreme pacifists reject the legitimate use of violence simply because it bothers them. They don't like violence, so they reject it. They fail to see that violence is at times necessary in a world gone wrong. They may accept pain, suffering, and death as part of the human dilemma, but they refuse to accept it as a legitimate aspect of God's justice. That we might struggle with our imperfections is one thing, but that we may be accountable for our sin is too much for them to take. Human evil, if not reckoned with on God's terms, will face a violent end. The violence of our day foreshadows the final judgement for all humankind. Great injustice requires extreme - and at times - violent responses from people of justice. In the same way our sin requires a violent response from the God of justice, unless, of course, we submit to his mercy offered to us in the Messiah.

TorahBytes: Self-Disclosure (Va-Era)

God spoke to Moses and said to him, "I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them." (Shemot / Exodus 6:2,3; ESV)

According to these verses it appears that God is revealing himself to Moses by a name different from the one revealed to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This name in Hebrew is represented by the Hebrew consonants "Yod-Hey-Vav-Heh" (most commonly represented in English Bibles as "the LORD" in full caps) and is a form of the verb "to be." These verses sound as if this name for God is being made known for the very first time. But if we look back to the Torah's accounts of the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we discover that this name is used regularly.

This supposed contradiction is resolved when we understand that the Bible's use of the concept of name is primarily one of the essence of a person's character, not that of a label. This is contrary to how names are used in contemporary English, whereby the name given to a person is one that tends to suit their parents. They may like the sound of that name or want to honor someone else who has that name. But the function of the name is simply to distinguish them from others.

In Bible times and perhaps in other cultures today, while names do have this function, they do far more. A name was meant to describe something of a person. So when God tells Moses that he had not revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as "the LORD", he doesn't mean that they had no awareness of this label, but rather that there were aspects of God that were not known until revealed to Moses.

This is not to say that God had changed or that the forefathers' understanding of God was wrong. It's that God chose not to fully reveal himself previously. God, being God, is far greater than anything we can imagine. He carefully chooses the times and circumstances in which to make aspects of himself known.

Comparing how God dealt with the forefathers with how he dealt with Moses and the people of Israel later on, we do see a fuller revelation of himself. God's involvement with the patriarchs was far more personal and somewhat hidden. There were situations that had a significant effect on others, but, for the most part, the essence of God's reality was experienced by a very few. Based on the workings of God in this earlier time, I don't know what the people of Moses' day may have expected. But what they got was very different from what they had heard of. The God of the Exodus was a God of power, judgement, and law. While this new revelation was consistent with what they had known about God until then, it was much much more.

Could you imagine what would have happened if God's fuller revelation of himself would have been rejected on the basis of how different it was? It was partly the people's acceptance of the fact that the God of their fathers was also the God of their deliverance that was the basis of their following Moses.

Many generations later the people's understanding of God would become so solidified that they would not as easily receive God's coming to them with a new name and fuller revelation. God would come to deliver his people again, but with a name that they had not yet known. The day would come when God would reveal himself in the name of "Yeshua" (salvation). All that the Messiah taught and represented was in keeping with God's revelation of himself up to that point. Yet it was a new day similar to that of Moses' time in that a time of oppression was coming to an end. And just like in the time of Moses, God's salvation through Yeshua would reveal aspects of his character that were not yet known. Sadly, many today continue in their refusal to accept God's fuller revelation of himself in Yeshua, but it is not too late to do so.

Then there are others who, for some reason, believe that God has in recent times revealed himself in a fuller sense again, thinking that he wants us to know him is such ways as "Multi-Faith God", "Mother God", or "God of Absolute Acceptance". But God's names are never based on our own perception of him. This is one of the things we learn from how he revealed himself to Moses. The name "Yod-Hey-Vav-Heh" is derived from "I AM WHO I AM" (Shemot / Exodus 3:14; ESV). God is the self-defining one, whose being and character is beyond human analysis. Accurately understanding God must be based on his self-disclosure, not upon our preferences.

TorahBytes: The Foundation of Anti-Semitism (Shemot)

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, "Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land." (Shemot / Exodus 1:8-10; ESV)

The first recorded expression of anti-Semitism is perhaps the Egyptian oppression of the people of Israel prior to the Exodus. At first glance Pharaoh's fear of the Israelites' potential threat may sound reasonable. What was Pharaoh's guaranty that they would not turn on the Egyptians one day? But why assume the worst, especially when relations between these two peoples were good for so many years? There is no reason to think that Egypt was in danger at that time. The slim chance that Israel would support Egypt's enemies became in Pharaoh's mind an enormous and immediate threat that required extreme and aggressive action by way of methodological oppression through enslavement. Pharaoh's unreasonable fear led to a completely warped view of the people of Israel.

The root cause of Pharaoh's unreasonable behavior is made clear in the Torah's telling of this story: "Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph" (Shemot / Exodus 1:8; ESV). Pharaoh's warped view of the people of Israel stemmed from his disregard of what Joseph represented. The reason that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was because of Joseph's special role many years before. Inspired by God, Joseph foretold of a coming famine and counselled the Pharaoh of his day to adequately prepare for it. Recognizing Joseph's wisdom for what it was, Pharaoh appointed him administrator of both the preparation for the coming famine and the distribution of food during it. When Joseph was eventually reconciled to his family, Pharaoh invited the whole clan to settle in Egypt, where they prospered.

Disregarding this history severed the good relationship enjoyed by Egyptians and Israelites for generations. The presence of the Israelites in Egypt was no longer regarded for what it was: a reminder of God's blessing upon Egypt. Israel's presence in Egypt was unusual. It was something that could only be properly understood by acknowledging the hand of God. Failing to understand this led to Pharaoh's suspicion and fear.

Israel's experience in Egypt foreshadows its entire history. Disregarding God's role in that history is the very foundation of anti-Semitism. Failure to recognize God's hand upon Israel results in the kind of insane abuse encountered in Egypt so long ago. Israel's place in the world will always seem strange when God is not taken into account.

Whether people are aware of it or not, the presence of Israel in the world forces us to deal with God's reality. That is why reactions to Israel and its affairs are so extreme. Through Israel, God exposes our hearts.

Two weeks ago I discussed how Joseph's brothers' resentment of him was actually symptomatic of their disregard for their father (see http://www.torahbytes.org/69-11.htm). In the same way how we view Israel exposes aspects of our relationship to the God of Israel. Israel's unique place in the world is not random, nor is it due to political intrigue, economic manipulation or military might. Just like their presence in Egypt long ago, Israel's existence today is due to God's providential hand.

This is not to say that Israel and the Jewish people are beyond criticism and correction. Israel, like all nations, should be accountable to those who uphold God's justice and righteousness. But this must be done with respect and humility. Not because Israel is better than any other nation, but because of God's vested interest in Israel, for not only does Israel have a special place in the plans and purposes of God, in its prosperity and security is blessing for the entire world.

TorahBytes: Don't Count on Circumstances (Va-Yehi)

When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. And Joseph said to his father, "Not this way, my father; since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head." But his father refused and said, "I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations." (Bereshit / Genesis 48:17-19; ESV)

Do you predict the future? I think most people do - not in the formal sense, but informally. As we face our lives day by day, most of us make plans based on how we think life will be in the near future. We look at weather reports to decide what to wear or to determine travel plans. We believe our heath condition will remain unchanged. We trust that our personal finances will be stable. We assume that if our job is secure today, it will be so tomorrow. We depend upon our relationships. On the basis of these predictions (unconscious as they may be), we plan our lives.

If we stopped to think about it, I am pretty sure that we are aware that nothing in life is for sure, but that doesn't stop us from our tendency to predict that the way things are is the way they will be.

In ancient Israel as in many ancient and modern cultures a person's place in life was determined by several factors, one of these being their birth order. First-born males were given special place. That was the way it was and there was nothing one could do about it. Even in cultures where such customs are not officially practiced, the circumstances into which a person is born still makes a huge difference in their lives. Other factors also influence the kinds of opportunities a person may have in life. While many people have been known to overcome life's limitations, most people most of the time seem to be controlled by their circumstances. The way things are is the way they will always be.

The incident reported in this week's Torah portion undermines this though. Near the end of Jacob's life, Jacob's son Joseph brought his own children to be blessed by their grandfather. Contrary to custom Jacob, in spite of Joseph's protests, gave the younger the greater blessing. This was not the first time this sort of thing occurred in the lives of the patriarchs. In fact, throughout the Bible, we encounter many unlikely people who are drawn into situations contrary to expected societal norms.

In the case of Jacob and his grandchildren, the unexpected turn of events was not by random chance, but by purposeful decision. This reflects the purposeful decisions of God himself as he affects people's personal lives.

This should challenge how we look at life. We cannot accurately predict our future based on analyzing circumstances. Moreover, the unpredictability of our future is not because of the influence of random chance. Rather, unexpected changes in circumstances are due to God's direct involvement in life, not because of good and bad luck.

We cannot count on circumstances - good or bad - continuing as is. Neither can we predict the unexpected changes of life we may suddenly face. The way things are is not necessarily what they will be. Rather than focusing on unreliable circumstances, let us trust God who is greater than our circumstances.

TorahBytes: Roots of Relational Difficulties (Va-Yiggash)

Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father. (Bereshit / Genesis 44:33,34; ESV)

The story of Joseph is one of the longer and more involved narratives in the Bible. It is a wonderful story of God's providential hand at work in the midst of human jealousy and hatred. Every time I read it, one of the things I wonder about is what was Joseph really up to in how he dealt with his brothers during their two excursions to Egypt to buy food?

I don't think that he was just giving them a hard time in order to get back at them for what they had done to him. If that was his motive, he could have done so much more to hurt them and would not have been so generous to them. Yet he did seem to be up to something or else he would have revealed himself to them on their first visit instead of putting them through all he did. It is reasonable to assume that he could have been struggling with his own feelings, but it looks as if he was waiting for something particular to happen before he revealed himself to them. That something may be the very thing that did happen.

Some background: Joseph and his eleven brothers were the offspring of Jacob and four women: Jacob's wives Rachel and Leah and their respective servants Bilah and Zilpah. Joseph and Benjamin were Rachel's two sons and had a special place in Jacob's heart. We don't need to get into why that was right now. Suffice it to say that Joseph and Benjamin were uniquely precious to Jacob - something of which the whole family was well aware.

Joseph's brothers hated him because of their father's preferential treatment of him. Joseph's dreams which predicted his special position over his family further infuriated them. They hated Joseph so much that they sold him into slavery and deceived their father, telling him Joseph was killed by a wild animal. Their father was devastated by this news, which shouldn't have been a surprise given his well-known feelings toward Joseph. But note that the brothers couldn't care less about their father's feelings. So much had their hatred blinded them.

We pick up the story many years later as Joseph is overseeing Egypt's supplying food for the surrounding region during a severe and extended famine. His brothers are on their second excursion to Egypt in the hope of buying food. Joseph pretends to treat them with great suspicion, which results in Benjamin being taken to be Joseph's servant. When their brother Judah offers himself in Benjamin's place, Joseph breaks down and reveals himself to his brothers. But what was it about Judah's offer that touched Joseph's heart? It could have been Judah's willingness to selflessly give himself for Benjamin's sake, but his words indicate something else. What Judah said just before Joseph broke down was, "For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father." (Bereshit / Genesis 44:34; ESV). In other words, Judah couldn't bear what the news of Benjamin's plight would do to his father. Could it be that what Joseph was looking for from his brothers was a change of heart - not so much toward himself - but toward their father? Could it be that the wrongs done to Joseph were actually a result of the more serious wrong of their lack of honor toward and care of their father?

Whatever issues the brothers had with Joseph, if they had loved their father the way they should, they would have controlled their feelings toward Joseph. Don't get hung up on the fact that God used their evil actions toward Joseph for good. That God makes good come out of evil is no excuse for human misbehavior.

I don't know if the brothers ever consciously understood that the abuse of Joseph was rooted in their disregard for their father. In the same way I wonder how much of our relational difficulties actually have to do with issues relating to our own fathers, but we don't know it. God may want to use those difficulties to get us to deal with our relationships with our fathers. And in some cases getting our hearts right with our earthly fathers will also make a huge difference in our relationship with God.

TorahBytes: Light in the Darkness (Mi-Kez)

And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. (Zechariah 4:1; ESV)

As I write this it is the longest night of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere at least). I took a walk early afternoon today and noticed how long the shadows were, with the sun being so low in the sky. I don't know if the ancients really worried every year that the sun would disappear. I suspect they were smarter than that. It is interesting that they would invent rituals regarding this phenomenon. There is something about the ever increasing duration of darkness night by night that is truly ominous.

There are some New Covenant believers that postulate that Christmas is nothing more than a slightly modified version of pagan winter solstice rituals, but I think this is a wonderful time to celebrate the coming into the world of God's marvellous light in the person of his Son, the Messiah.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. (Isaiah 9:1; ESV)

I know that some people have claimed to know what time of year Yeshua was born, but the New Covenant writings don't say. I can't think of a better time of year to celebrate the Light of God.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:4,5; ESV)

As Jewish Believers my family doesn't engage in the trappings of the Christmas season, but I still love to see the beautiful displays of Christmas lights as I drive down our streets on these cold, dark nights. While not knowing the convictions of these people, this is still a great illustration of God's light shining in the darkness of our lives.

Christmas is not the only festival at this time of year that features lights. One of the alternate names of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights (Hanukkah begins this year on the evening of December 21 and continues through the evening of December 28). Hanukkah, meaning "dedication," is the celebration of the rededication of the altar in the Temple in Jerusalem by the Maccabees in 165 BCE following its desecration by pagan oppressors. It is called the Festival of Lights because of the ritual of lighting a special ceremonial lamp called a Hanukkiah. On the first night of Hanukkah one light is lit. On each successive night an additional light is lit, each time by using the "shamash," or the servant light, until on the eighth night all eight lights are lit.

The purpose for the lighting of lights at Hanukkah is to tell forth the miracle of Hanukkah. The miracle that has been popularized through the centuries is the legend of the one day's worth of holy oil that lasted for eight days. But I think the real miracle of Hanukkah, the true light of this joyous celebration, is the faith and courage of the Maccabees to stand against overwhelming odds for the sake of God's truth and his ways.

This season of increasing darkness is a symbol of our moral and spiritual lostness. The economic meltdown in much of the world today is helping us to come to grips with how dark these days really are. We need God's light. Like the Maccabees of old, we again need those who will stand against compromise and falsehood to be a light in the darkness - people of courage, who are not afraid to stand with God's True Light, the Messiah, to shine in an ever increasingly dark world.

TorahBytes: A Wonderful Plan (Va-Yeshev)

Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. (Bereshit / Genesis 37:5; ESV)

Perhaps you have heard the adage "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." In a world of meaninglessness, this is a most profound statement. That there is a personal God, who desires to direct our lives is in sharp contrast to the popular view that we are simply cosmic accidents, products of matter and energy, plus chance. To learn that the events of life are not due to complete randomization, but are actually part of a grand story is wonderful in itself. But to realize that God cares about each and every one of us, inviting us to cooperate with him in fulfilling his good plans for the world, is even more wonderful.

But what does wonderful imply? I would guess that when many of us hear "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life," we think we are being promised fun and excitement. Perhaps God will make us famous or at least successful in the way most of us understand success: health, wealth, ease of living, and at least some level of popularity.

I don't know what the person who first said the words "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life," was trying to say exactly. This statement is not found in the Bible. Presummably it is an attempt to summarize the God of Israel's intentions for people. But how accurate a statement is it?

This week's Torah portion begins the story of Jacob's son Joseph. Joseph had two dreams that seemed to mean that his family would one day bow down to him. His brothers, who were already jealous of him, were incensed by this. Their hatred of him, which led to their selling him into slavery, is what led to the fulfillment of his dreams and his eventual exalted position over them. The process of bringing Joseph to his God-given place and position was a most difficult one. If you have never read the story of Joseph, I encourage you to do so.

Did God love Joseph and have a wonderful plan for his life? He certainly did. Not only did he love Joseph, but the wonderful plan that God had for him was not just an expression of God's love for him alone, but also for his family, the people of Egypt, and the whole region. God had chosen Joseph to help provide sustenance during an extreme famine, thus preserving many lives.

It is a truly wonderful thing to be so used by God. Even in the darkest of times, God was with Joseph, preparing him for the day when he would make such a difference in the world. I don't know if God has this kind of plan for each and every person, though he definitely loves us all. And once we come into right relationship with him through trusting in the Messiah, we have the opportunity to be part of his grand purpose, whatever that part may be.

In order for us to most truly embrace God's wonderful plan for our lives, we need to grasp the nature of what wonderful really means. If we assume that "wonderful" means fun and exciting or that it is a guaranty of personal benefit and convenience, then we are going to be put off by God's plan for us. His plan is indeed wonderful, but it is not necessarily easy and certainly not always fun and exciting. Meaningful, yes. Significant, surely, though that may not always be apparent. God's plans for us, as in the case of Joseph as well as many of the Bible's key characters, also includes great challenges and difficulties. I wonder how our resistance to such challenges and difficulties prevents us from fully participating in God's wonderful plans for our lives.

It seems that the real key to fully embracing both God's love and his wonderful plan for our lives is to allow him to have his way in our lives no matter what. Let's forget about our preconceived notions of what a life with God should include and let him fulfill his wonderful plan.

TorahBytes: Bringing Evil to Light (Va-Yishlah)

So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments." (Bereshit / Genesis 35:2; ESV)

Jacob had gone through a lot. After colluding with his mother to deceive his father in order to steal his father's blessing from his older twin brother, he ran for his life. It would be many years before he would return to the land of his birth and have the encounter with God that changed his life for good. It was in that encounter that God first changed his name to Israel. Sometime later, when God summoned him to the town of Bethel, he conferred this name upon him again. Bethel was the town where God first appeared to Jacob when he was running away from his brother.

In preparation for this meeting with God, Jacob directed his family to rid themselves of foreign gods, purify themselves, and change their garments. Obviously this means that his household had been in possession of idols. This may shake up your impression of Jacob's family. We like to think of the key Bible characters as wonderful examples, but that's often not the case. Jacob himself was not a true follower of the God of his father, Isaac, and his grandfather, Abraham, until his injurious encounter with God not too long before this incident.

It appears that it was God's summoning of Jacob that prompted him to direct his family to radically deal with the evil in their lives. Why they still had such things we are not told. We are only told that Jacob instructed them to get rid of them and they did.

Have you ever heard God summon you to worship him? Maybe not in the same way that God spoke to Jacob. But perhaps you have felt a tug on your heart to draw close to God, to give him your attention in a much deeper and focused way. It is often in those times that we become more fully aware of the evil in our lives.

I wonder how many people have struggled with the awareness of evil in their lives just as they also found themselves drawing closer to God. We may treat that awareness as a distraction instead of realizing that it is the nearness of God that is bringing to light the evil in our lives. When God draws us closer to himself, his light often shines upon our lives in increasing intensity, revealing areas of darkness that we may not have been aware of. This is a good thing. We should not be quick to worship God until we effectively deal with the evil God is bringing to light.

Additionally, we should not be surprised in these times that God may also prompt us to deal with lingering evil in our households. Many of us tend to think of spirituality as a private matter, but Jacob's role in his household was not just a cultural thing; it was his God-given role. He was responsible to direct his family in God's ways. The idols in his household were not dealt with until Jacob dealt with them. He didn't wait for his wife, children, and servants to figure out godliness on their own. He knew what was right and directed them accordingly.

Fathers especially need to take this responsibility very seriously. In order to lead our families in God's ways, we need to direct our household accordingly. It is not good enough to simply lead our families in worship, we must also lead them in godliness. We should start by taking the lead and deal with the evil in our own lives; then we need to direct our loved ones in doing the same.

TorahBytes: Choices (Va-Yeze)

Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. (Hosea 14:1; ESV [Hebrew 14:2])

Contemporary morality can be expressed by the words "make right choices." What constitutes a right choice for people today is something of personal preference. In fact it is this kind of relative thinking - the conviction that there are no absolutes - that is perhaps the basis of the new morality of right choice making.

Don't get me wrong. I am not against making right choices, but is it really the key to right living? If the world has no meaning as some suppose, then maybe moment-by-moment choices are all we have. But if the world has no meaning, then how meaningful can our choices be? If we really are the product of random occurrence in an accidental universe, then are not our choices just more of the same randomness? Choices may feel meaningful, but unless there is more to life than the material world, what difference do our choices make? Any meaning or morality we apply to our choices are simply arbitrary. If there is no meaning and no objective morality, then you may feel like your choices have meaning, but they don't.

I suspect that most people hearing or reading this actually believe that life has meaning. They believe in absolute truth and an objective, God-given morality. Yet many of you still put an unbiblical emphasis on your personal choices. The Bible doesn't teach that we are the sum of our choices. On the contrary, our choices are the outcome of who we are.

This week's Torah portion illustrates this. Jacob was a choice maker. He strove to be successful in every way he could. When God appeared to him, conferring upon him the same promise given to his father and grandfather, he didn't just accept it, but rather told God that if God would keep his part of the bargain, then he would make him his God. It would take bringing Jacob to a place of desperation before he would become the person he was meant to be.

Jacob's choices didn't define who he was; his nature did. His predisposition to protect himself and strive with others for his own benefit drove him to make the choices he did. It was only once God humbled him that his life changed, resulting in different kinds of choices.

This is well-expressed in our Torah portion's accompanying Haftarah reading. God, through the prophet Hosea, says, "Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity" (Hosea 14:1; ESV [Hebrew 14:2]). The failure of Israel to be faithful to God was not because of their bad choices. Rather their sinful state caused them to stumble or, in other words, to not live rightly.

My guess is that some people are going to respond to this message by quoting from the book of Joshua, where Joshua says to the people, "Choose this day whom you will serve" (Joshua 24:15). But this actually backs up what I am trying to say. The choice that Joshua is calling for is a most basic one. Once the choice to serve God is settled, then the kind of lifestyle we will live is settled. Once we submit to God as Lord, then the details are the outcome of that choice. To claim that we are the sum of our choices gives the impression that every moral decision is up for grabs. We indeed may make some wrong choices, but whether to do right or wrong is no longer a choice for those who truly follow God.

If we find ourselves struggling to do right (and it is a struggle at times), we need to remember that it is God who gives us the power to live godly lives. The stumbling referred to by Hosea is only resolved through the forgiveness brought about by Yeshua the Messiah. It was his choice to give himself for us that makes all the difference.

TorahBytes: Birthright (Toledot)

Jacob said, "Sell me your birthright now." Esau said, "I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?" Jacob said, "Swear to me now." So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. (Bereshit / Genesis 25:31-34;ESV)

The story of Isaac and Rebecca`s twin sons is one of providence over human decisions. God had determined contrary to custom, that Jacob, the younger of the two, would have precedence. He would be the one to whom the promises first given to his grandfather, Abraham, and then to his father, Isaac, would be passed. But as we see throughout the Scriptures, God works through the decisions and actions of people. The incident I quoted was key in the outworking of God`s determination.

By all rights Esau as the older of the two stood to receive a special inheritance. This was his birthright. It is not clear whether or not he or his brother fully understood the details of his birthright, but certainly they had some awareness of it - at least enough to swing a deal for it. We don't know if Esau's despising his birthright was due to his lack of understanding or personal preferences, but as we shall see, either one could lead to the same result.

What we read of Jacob reveals that he was a real go-getter. From birth he strove for place and position, grasping after those things that he wanted. It is interesting that he wanted the very things God had in store for him. Perhaps he would have received them anyway, even without his striving, since God had determined that he would. We don't know for sure. What we do know is that he placed a high value on those things, while his brother did not.

By all rights Esau had first claim on the greater inheritance, but at a point of weakness, he was more than willing to trade off his future to satisfy his immediate hunger. The comment following is "Thus Esau despised his birthright." In other words, he couldn't care less about it. All Esau cared about was himself and his hunger. Was he really at the point of starvation that he was better off trading his birthright for a bowl of stew? One would hope that if he really was dying Jacob would share some of his food with him or that there would be some available somewhere. And if he was really at the point of death? Was his life truly of greater value than his birthright? The fact is that Esau had no ability or desire to see beyond his immediate situation, which was his current felt need. Nothing else mattered. As long as he satisfied his hunger at that moment, he was okay as far as he was concerned.

Esau is a symbol of much of today`s world. All that matters to many of us is ourselves and our immediate satisfaction. Obviously this kind of selfishness has been around for a long time or else we would not have this story to discuss. But this life approach has risen to a level that perhaps has never been seen in history. The "gotta -have-it-now mentality is one of the main contributors to the current world economic crisis. We are willing to jeopardize our future for unprecedented accumulation of possessions.

We are obsessed about self because we have despised our birthright. In fact, most of us aren't even aware that we have one. We have been told that life is just a cosmic accident and that our lives have no real meaning. Why should we care about the future if there is no meaning? Like Esau, the only thing that really matters is satisfying our appetites right now.

Thankfully the story of Jacob and Esau reminds us that there is more to life than self and its desires. There exists a greater purpose beyond ourselves waiting to be grasped. Each human being is made in the image of God and has a birthright to be discovered and cherished. Let us take care not to sell our birthright for momentary satisfaction only to discover later how much we really gave up by doing so.

TorahBytes: Temporary Residents (Hayyei Sarah)

I am a sojourner and foreigner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. (Bereshit / Genesis 23:4; ESV)

Last week I mentioned a contrast between Abraham and his nephew Lot. Abraham had accepted God's call to leave the familiar and the unknown to live as a sojourner (temporary resident) in the land of Canaan. Lot, on the other hand, was drawn to the security of city life and strove for place and position, which, in the end, counted for nothing.

God had promised Abraham to make him into a great nation and to give his descendants the land of Canaan though he was childless in his old age. Abraham lived the remainder of his life anticipating, but never fully realizing, this promise. He knew that the God of the Universe had determined to give him the very land in which he lived as a foreigner until the day he died.

Abraham is the Bible's prototype of a man of faith. Living by faith means relying on the unchanging truths of God no matter how things appear. In the words of the New Covenant Scriptures, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1; ESV). This is how Abraham lived. He believed God's word and followed his lead, albeit not always perfectly, not always without fear. He didn't look to people and circumstances for security. He didn't seek to build his own kingdom. When he, at times, took matters into his own hands, and God would clarify the situation and direct him otherwise, Abraham accepted God's correction.

Abraham's determination to remain true to God prevented him from finding permanence in the Promised Land. God protected and provided for him, but never directed him to acquire the land. This means that he had to live with the tension of knowing that while the land was set apart for him, he remained a stranger in that land. If anyone should have felt entitled to acquire something it was Abraham. Yet he held back. He waited on God and was willing to live with that tension, something that Lot wasn't willing to do.

God calls us to live with that same tension. Receiving God's promises doesn't mean that we will necessarily see the fulfillment of those promises in our lifetime. Yet as we hide his promises in our hearts God will often use the events of our lives and the things that we do like seeds in preparation for a harvest in the future. Just like planting looks very different from harvest, so the circumstances of our lives while we anticipate God's promises may look very different from the days of their fulfillment.

God is preparing us for the Messiah's return when he will set everything to rights. The world in which we live today looks very different from what it will one day be. Yet we are called to live in anticipation and preparation for the day when Yeshua returns. This puts us at odds with the world as we know it, as Abraham was in his day.

Yeshua once said to a religious leader who claimed that he would follow him wherever he would go, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" (Matthew 8:20; ESV). Like Abraham, Yeshua's earthly life lacked the kind of permanence many of us strive for. It is not that we are all called to a literal nomadic existence, but that we are to live as temporary residents in the world as we know it now (see 1 Peter 2:11). Until the Lord returns we can never be fully at home in the societies in which we live, for we are anticipating something much better.

TorahBytes: At Home (Va-Yera)

The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. (Bereshit / Genesis 19:1; ESV)

In the Torah, Abraham's nephew Lot represents people who have close association with God, yet miss out on the fullness of truly knowing him. This might be a difficult concept for those who see people as either in or out with regard to having a right relationship to God. Lot, on one hand knows God and is a recipient of his great mercy on more than one occasion, yet he seems to be drawn away from God's reality.

The process of Lot's relationship to the wicked city of Sodom is interesting. Due to his and Abraham's prosperity, they needed to part company. Lot chose to live in the vicinity of Sodom. We read, "Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the LORD" (Bereshit / Genesis 13:12,13; ESV). At that point he settled near, but not in, Sodom. It was not too long, however, that he moved right into that city (see 14:12). By the time that God was about to destroy Sodom, Lot may have been a city elder, as indicated by his sitting in the city gate (see 19:1).

How Lot felt towards the Sodomites is found in the incident where the men of the city came to his house in order to abuse the angels who were visiting him. The people of Sodom didn't know they were angels of course, since they looked like men. All they knew was that they were newcomers to their town and potential victims for their desires. When Lot pleads with the Sodomites not to act wickedly, he addresses them as "brothers". That they didn't regard him in the same way is evident in their response to him:

But they said, "Stand back!" And they said, "This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them." Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down. (Bereshit / Genesis 19:9; ESV)

A life of faith in God is one that often puts us at odds with the prevailing culture. It forces us to trust in him instead of other people and the false security of earthly things. But it is only as we find our home among those who truly follow God that we can become all that God wants us to be.

Lot lived in Sodom and for some reason or other he felt at home in Sodom, but he was not a Sodomite. The Sodomites didn't regard him as such, and neither did God. Lot didn't belong in Sodom no matter how much at home he may have felt there.

When Lot, his wife, and daughters are rescued, there is an interaction between Lot and one of the angels. Lot's wife, of course, dies during the escape, since she looked back at the city contrary to the angel's instruction. One of the angels told Lot to escape to the hills, but Lot pleads to go to the town of Zoar instead (see 19:19-22). One might wonder with all that was going on, why he would bargain with the angel. Whatever his full reasons were, Lot was scared. He preferred the town over the countryside. Some time after Sodom was destroyed Lot leaves Zoar, goes to the hills after all, and lives in a cave where his life continues to deteriorate.

Lot's insistence to go to Zoar instead of heeding God's direction is in contrast to Abraham's faithfulness to God. God had called Abraham to journey into the unknown (See last week's TorahBytes message). God's word led Abraham to live a nomadic life in his old age, a life of continual reliance upon God. Lot, on the other hand, preferred city life, his heart drawing him to settle down and find place and identity in protective surroundings. How he could ever feel truly at home among such wickedness, we don't know. Yet his desire for place and acceptance enabled him to not only put up with great evil, but allowed him to gain some level of prominence, which in the end proved to be of little value.

Like Lot there are so many today who, even though they have some sort of real relationship with God, think that they could be at home amidst great evil. That these people are not exactly like those who they strive to be with is often evident, yet they find a sense of security and satisfaction in these relationships. In the end these relationship are found to be fake and the source of much grief, pain, and destruction.

TorahBytes: Journey to the Unknown (Lekh Lekha)

Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you." (Bereshit / Genesis 12:1; ESV)

The story of Abraham is foundational for our understanding of biblical spirituality. The first eleven chapters of the Torah vividly explain the human predicament. The reason why life is not all it should be is because our first parents disobeyed God. The reason why we could live on such a beautiful planet, yet be surrounded by violent conflict, sickness, and death is because Adam and Eve chose to do their own thing rather than submit to God's ways.

Bereshit / Genesis 3:15 records God's words to the serpent who tempted Eve to transgress the one restriction that God gave to her and her husband: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Bereshit / Genesis 3:15). This is the first Messianic promise in the Bible: a descendent of Eve would one day destroy evil at a great cost to himself.

It is not until chapter 12 that the outworking of this promise begins to take shape. God calls an old childless man and tells him that he would make him into a great nation through whom blessing would come to the whole world. This promise is the essence of what the New Covenant Scriptures call the good news: "And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel (the good news) beforehand to Abraham, saying, 'In you shall all the nations be blessed'" (Galatians 3:8; ESV). The purpose of God's call upon Abraham was not ultimately for his descendants alone, but for all nations.

Abraham's trust in God's promises stands in contrast to Adam and Eve's disobedience. While Abraham himself is not the promised deliverer, he was foundational in the outworking of God's plan of salvation. Not only is Abraham called the friend of God (see Isaiah 41:8), he is also the father of all who truly trust in the Messiah (see Galatians 3:7). He then is an example of what true faith really is. There is so much we can learn about what faith is all about by looking at Abraham's life.

To begin with, Abraham, or Abram as he was called at this point of his life, was called by God to leave his homeland and relatives to go to the land that God would show him. He was to leave all he was familiar with and journey into the unknown. It is not as if he didn't know the geographical destination to which he was headed. In the previous chapter we read how along with his father they left their homeland to go to the land of Canaan, the region which would eventually be known as the Land of Israel. So Abraham knew that he was going to Canaan. Yet God had said that he was to "go to the land that I will show you." It wasn't so much the geographical destination that was unknown as much as the details of the journey.

True faith is a journey into the unknown. That the journey would include certain known items in some way makes it a greater challenge. When we are in situations that are completely foreign to us, we tend to have no expectations and are highly aware of our need of help. But when we are in unfamiliar situations in which we have some grasp of what is going, we have a tendency to rely on what we think we know. This fools us into thinking that we can effectively rely on ourselves, instead of upon God. Also, that we are not always aware of the depths of the unknown into which we are called prevents us from relying on God the way we should. God never reveals all the details of life. He gives us just enough to lead us in his ways, but never enough to satisfy our desire to control our own lives. We need to learn, as Abraham did, to trust his word without having to know all the details - to journey into the unknown.