Shabbat Bible Study for 24 April 2021
©2021 Mark Pitrone & Fulfilling Torah Ministries
Year 3, Shabbat 7, Triennial Portion
B’Midbar (Num.)14, 2Chron.36.5-23, Tehellim 106, 1Cor.10.1-17
B’Midbar 14 – Last week we saw 12 spies sent into the land to do some recon. 12 spies went in, at least 2 of whom were considered ‘tougher’ military men than Kalev and 1 more ‘tougher’ than Yehoshua. What came out were 2 military leaders ready to kick tail and the names be damned, and 10 tourists who brought back some unusual souvenirs. Even worse, the average tourist gives a glowing report of where they’ve been. These guys were more like modern, ‘mainstream media’ news reporters, putting the most Godless spin on the whole experience. What the newsmen saw was the danger. What the leaders saw was the opportunity. Yehoshua and Kalev never saw anything other than Yhwh’s promise of their tribe’s inheritance. 10 of 12 spies brought an evil report, causing Yisrael to fear the people of Canaan more than Y’hovah and to murmur against Moshe and Aharon.
Also, remember the last time they wanted to go back to Egypt. They demanded flesh and, in their lust for it, cared not that it had died of itself and was, therefore, unclean. This was looking like a full-fledged mutiny, as they appointed a leader to take them back. This was the kahal, the ‘church in the wilderness’ as seen in
Acts 7:35-38 (KJV)
“This Moshe whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did Elohim send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. [36] He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years. [37] This is that Moshe, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Y’hovah Elohecha raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. [38] This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel (Yeshua, the Law-Giver) which spake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:”
I’m not sure, but I don’t think any good is going to come of this for the ‘church’.
Kalev and Yehoshua came to Moshe and Aharon’s defense and pled w/Israel to not rebel against Y’hovah, but were nearly stoned for their trouble. But as the ‘church’ bent over to pick up the stones, the kavod of Y’hovah appeared over the Tabernacle. I think Moshe knew that judgment was coming swift and sure. He once again placed himself between Y’hovah and his people to save their faithless hides. He appealed to Y’hovah’s mercy and the set-apartness of his Name and the tifereth of his power, which the Egyptians will blaspheme if he smites Israel in the desert.
Moshe represented the nation as does a company commander on military parade, or a faithful defense attorney, like Mashiyach Yeshua, does his client, and Y’hovah accepted him in that office. Moshe’s prayer is very interesting. He asks forgiveness for the people, but mitigates that mercy for the ringleaders, I think. See v.18,
Y’hovah is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
Notice the phrase, “by no means clearing the guilty”, which is a direct quote of Yhwh to Moshe as he accepted Moshe’s intercession for Israel’s rebellion in the ‘Golden Calf Affair’.
5 And Yhwh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Yhwh. 6 And Yhwh passed by before him, and proclaimed, Yhwh, Yhwh El, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’ children, unto the third and to the fourth. 8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. 9 And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Adonai, let Adonai, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. (Ex.34.5-9)
Those who are guilty of this sin will be punished. Those who just followed the crowd will obtain mercy and forgiveness, but still not enter the land and rest therein. This does NOT mean they are blameless, only that the ones who instigated the rebellion were held to a more exacting standard than those who merely followed. Those who followed the ones who rebelled got to reap the consequences of their faithlessness, as well. They had the iniquity ‘visited on them.’ They did not pay as their rebellious leaders had, but DID have to suffer what resulted from the rebellion. As an illustration, and not a really good one, in the American Revolution only about 10-20% of the people were committed one way or the other, while 80-90% were ‘wait and see’ followers. The king promised the 5-10% who were loyal to him great rewards for their loyalty, and suffered the 80-90% to remain in their homes in relative ease. But the 5-10% who were active in the rebellion were to be hunted down like rabbits and exterminated. Had we lost the war, you can be assured that their lives, property and honour would have been forfeit, probably to the Tories.
Same kind of thing is about to happen in the wilderness. The leaders of the rebellion; if you remember, these were the zachanim of the tribes all of whom – except Yehoshua [Ephraim] and Kalev [Yehudah] – died in the plague in vv.36-37, and the rest, who followed the unfaithful zachanim, died in the wilderness over the next 40 years. Y’hovah raised up a generation that would not remember Egypt’s ‘luxuries’, the leeks and onions – and the bricks and mortar and backbreaking labor that the other elders seemed to have forgotten. These who were born in the wilderness would enter the land with Yehoshua and Kalev in the lead, but only Y’hoshua and Kalev actually received their entire inheritance … because they were faithful to pursue it.
When Moshe told the people what Y’hovah had decreed, they decided to rebel once more for good measure. They said, “Oy vey! Maybe Y’hovah was serious about helping us take the land. Let’s go do it!” But the blessing was removed from this enterprise, now. Now they were in a different kind of rebellion. First they refrained from action that Y’hovah commanded, now the acted when Y’hovah had commanded them not to. Their hearts were not after Y’hovah.
We need to learn from the mistakes of the people here. When Y’hovah says ‘Go!’, we should go. And when he says, ‘Don’t go’, we should stay put. He rewards obedience with blessing beyond our imagination, and he rewards disobedience with chastisement right to the limits of our endurance. Notice that the children under 20 had to endure the chastisement due their fathers – they were visited with the iniquity of their fathers, as Yisrael had been promised in Ex.20.5. Y’hovah rewards willful disobedience with quick and sure judgment, as the rebellious army soon learned. I think it is quite possible that Yisrael had experienced very few deaths in the wilderness to this point. Now they will be fully replaced over the next 40 years.
In light of this, do not make plans in your own strength to ‘move to Israel’, or Costa Rica or the Riviera, or even across the street. If Y’hovah tells you to go, Go!, where and when he tells you. When he doesn’t, don’t. And, whatever he tells you to do, do it w/o hesitation. He wanted Israel to begin the conquest of Canaan only about 18 months after the Exodus. The bad reports and rebellion caused the removal of that blessing from that entire generation, since their tribal zachanim had rebelled. We make the same kind of mistake every time we walk in the flesh. Remember
Romans 8:1 (KJV)
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Mashiyach Yeshua, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Walk after the Spirit of Y’hovah, not your own way. That is the biblical definition of being ‘in Mashiyach Yeshua’, our Zachan over many brethren. Q&C
2Chron.36.5-23 – The last 3 kings of Yehuda had one thing in common – they did that which was evil in the sight of Y’hovah. This doesn’t mean they were particularly wicked men, only that they didn’t follow Y’hovah or care much for what he said or expected. ‘That which is evil’ means they DIDN’T do as Y’hovah commanded them. This is a perfect description of the generation of adults that came out of Egypt in the Exodus. They were just guys who had no background in Y’hovah worship until Moshe returned from Midian. The fact that they had faith enough to put the lamb’s blood on their doorposts is impressive to me, and I think it was to Y’hovah, as well. However, the fact that they were delivered from Egyptian slavery by some pretty wondrous miracles and yet didn’t believe Y’hovah could deliver them from the Amalekites had to kind of stick in Abba’s craw – well, OK; Y’hovah Yeshua’s craw [throat], since he has one.
Same deal with the last kings of Yehuda. Every time a king has done as Y’hovah told him, even if it was only once in his life, Y’hovah has come through for him, and I don’t mean just for the kings, but for their entire nation, both in Yehuda and Yisrael. Remember that Yehu followed Y’hovah’s instructions to the letter as he rode into town and destroyed Yisavel and her priests of Baal. Yehu’s problem was that he didn’t consult Torah to see how to properly worship Y’hovah in spirit and truth. He left Yir’voam’s altars and images of ‘yhwh’ in Dan and Bethel, and didn’t allow his people to go up to Yerushalayim for the Feasts. As far as he knew, he was serving the TRUE Y’hovah, when in fact he was serving ‘yhwh’s’ pagan images. He was a re-enactment of Yerovoam I of Samaria. And so he did that which was evil in the sight of Y’hovah. But Yah delivered Yisrael by Yehu’s hands. He had had a personal revival to Yisrael’s national religion and forced it on his people.
In the case of Yehuda’s final kings, they had forgotten all that Y’hovah had done for their fathers, probably because they were spoiled king’s kids who had never heard the scriptures read, had not made their own Torah scrolls as Yhwh had commanded for each king to do, and had certainly never paid attention if they did. I think I remember reading that David had written his own copy of Torah. Had that become a tradition for every king in Yisrael, she may never have fallen into idolatry and adultery.
Yehoiachin’s was the shortest reign in Yehuda’s history – 68 or 69 days. His brother replaced him by decree of the emperor, Nevuchadnetzer. Yehoiachin is the king who was decreed childless by Y’hovah through Yirmeyahu the prophet.
As I live, saith Yhwh, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence; [25] And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. [26] And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die. [27] But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return. [28] Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not? [29] O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Yhwh. [30] Thus saith Yhwh, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah. Jeremiah 22:24-30 (KJV)
Notice that it DOESN’T say he won’t have a son reign over Israel. The Parthian Empire of the 3rd C. BCE – 3rd C. CE were descendants of the 10 tribes with bnei David ruling over them, according to Steven M. Collins in his book “Parthia – the Forgotten World Empire”. Yehoiachin is the same Jechoniah we see in Yeshua’s genealogy in Matthew 1.
And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon: [12] And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zorobabel; Matthew 1:11-12 (KJV)
I love this part. If Jeconias and Coniah and Yehoichin are one and the same, and they are, how could Shealtiel be his son and how could he be an ancestor of Yeshua? Hadn’t Y’hovah ‘written him childless’ in Yeremeyahu 22.24-30? Indeed, he had. Y’hovah seems to have painted himself into a corner. How can David’s lineage go on forever? How can Y’hovah now keep his covenant with David, that he would never lack a man to sit on his throne? (2Sam.7.12-15)
In Ezra 3.2 we find that Zerubbabel is the son of Shealtiel. Yeshua’s genealogy, as given in Matthew has Zorobabel the son of Salaltiel, but Luke’s genealogy has the same two guys in the same order. But the people on either side of the pair are completely different. We know that the legal royal line of Yoseph, Miriam’s husband and Yeshua’s stepfather, is given in Matthew’s gospel. The genealogy in Luke is traced through Nathan to David and beyond to Adam and Elohim. Zerubbabel and Shealtiel must have been physical descendants of David in Nathan’s lineage who had both performed the service of kinsman redeemer for the lineage of Schlomo, each raising up seed to David to keep the royal line alive. Coniah was absolutely childless, as far as the prophecy is concerned, because his contemporaries, Zerubbabel and Shealtiel had done their Torah commanded duty of raising seed to him. Zerubbabel and Yehoshua, the priest, were contemporaries in the return to Yehuda.
Yoseph, Miriam’s husband and Yeshua’s legal father, was the legal heir to the throne of David. When he named Yeshua at his circumcision, he officially declared the child to be his, even though everyone knew that he and Miriam were only ‘espoused’, betrothed, in the Hebrew tradition when she was found with child. Yeshua became his b’chor, firstborn, with all the rights and privileges that came with the position. IOW, Yeshua was the legal and legitimate heir to the throne of David, even though he was not physically Yoseph’s son. Y’hovah kept the Davidic Covenant by using Zerubbabel and Shealtiel as kinsman redeemers to keep the royal line going.
The Babylonian captivity came upon Yehuda because, even though they had the Torah, they didn’t follow it. Had they let their land lay fallow every 7th year, as commanded, they would never have been deported to Babylon. Had they kept even 1 Yovel in all their time in the land, they might still be there as the oldest living monarchy or government of any kind. I say that because the reason they didn’t keep the sabbaths was that they never consulted the scriptures about it. They despised the word of Y’hovah, as our culture does. If Y’hovah didn’t spare his people the sword when they despised his Word, what makes the contemporary believer think he’ll escape an even more dire punishment seeing his MUCH greater light? “The lies of Satan” is the answer to that last question. Q&C
Tehillim 106 – The verses that really tie into our Torah portion today are in vv.24-27. But the whole psalm is about… EXILE AND REDEMPTION! The psalmist rehearses the history of Yisrael from Exodus to conquest of the land, their repeated failure all along the way, but Y’hovah’s mercy throughout. We had been exiled into Egypt to become a large and powerful nation delivered by Y’hovah, Elohim, when we cried out to him. He carried us through all the miraculous deliverances and we rebelled repeatedly until he finally had to deliver us into captivity so that he could once again make us into a large and powerful nation who will once again cry out for deliverance. When we do, he’ll deliver us once again into the physical Kingdom of his Son. Q&C
1Cor.10.1-17 – Everything that the Psalmist rehearsed was done for OUR admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. V5 begins the telling of outcome of our Torah portion, where we refused to go in to the land until such time as Y’hovah said, “OK you can’t go.” Once he took it away from us, we wanted it, like the spoiled brats we are. Then, even after being warned not to do it, we went in our own strength to get our collective clocks cleaned by the Amalekites, who, BTW, were scared to death of us, or rather, of Y’hovah Elohenu.
Sha’ul enumerates some of the sins that we find it so easy to perform in vv.6-10. Then he tells us that all those sins into which our fathers fell in the wilderness are told in every gory detail for our benefit, so we will know not to do them. A brief note on the difference between ‘ensample’ and ‘example’. An ensample is a miniscule taste of what we will experience, while an example is what we will experience. IOW, when we are given an example, we can expect the same result from the same action. But when we are told something is an ensample, we are being told that we will receive manifold more result for the same action. The reason we will get a bellyful where they only got a taste is that we are recipients of a LOT more light, having Yeshua in our HISTORY rather than our future. We know EXACTLY what he wants, for he came to tell us directly. Therefore, when we FFI (Fail to follow instructions), we can expect a tougher judgment. By the same token, when we FI (follow instructions), we can expect a better reward. They only got a sample of what we’ll receive, and always for our good, if we love Y’hovah and are called according to his purpose.
See the wherefore in v.12? What’s that there for? To let you know what I just tried to say. If you think you have standing in Mashiyach, but don’t follow him so closely that the dirt he kicks up lands on your feet, be careful to get back in step. Especially in the days we are entering. The world is trying to take us down from without and within. We need to be circumspect (head on a swivel), looking for sin and avoiding it by the Spirit of Y’hovah (v.13).
All the previous 9 verses are summed up in v.14 – Flee idolatry!
Vv.15-17 are a bit deeper than the last, judging by Sha’ul’s preface about ‘wise men’. These are the Corinthians. Sha’ul has been rebuking them without a break since Ch.1. He didn’t consider them wise in the Spirit. He seems to be changing direction, but he isn’t. He has laid the foundation in vv1-14. His whole point is unity of the body purchased with the blood of Mashiyach. In the days to come, we are going to need each other, for the world religion that is rearing its ugly head is out to wipe out all Biblical Zionists, Christian and Jew alike. I received this via e-mail from a member of the Hebrew group. I think it is very interesting and prophetic of where we are headed.
Christian Zionists
by Hamed Al-Tamimi – Director Inter-Religion Dialogue Department and Member of the Supreme Judicial Council (a Moslem)
Very few people know the truth about this [Christian Zionist] movement, which unconditionally supports the Zionist enemy, and unconditionally opposes Islam and the Muslims… Their association and their organizations, headed by “The International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem,” carry out their criminal activities against the Palestinian issue and the Palestinian people, as Walter Riggans, the Secretary-General of the International Christian Embassy, proudly and defiantly announced: “We are more Zionist than the Israelis” …
And even if the sides of this hated, malicious alliance [of Israelis and Christian Zionists] have different goals, they both agree on hatred of Islam and the Muslims and on [the goal] to destroy them…
The Zionist-Christian motivation, in addition to imperialist motivation, was behind the cursed Balfour Declaration – Balfour and Prime Minister Lloyd George were Christian Zionists – …and the truth is we should not deny [that] these Crusader motivations stand [today] behind the British and American policy in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other Arab and Muslim countries.
We choose [to quote from] the following lecture, by the Doctor Priest Riad Jarjour, the Secretary-General of the Middle-Eastern Churches Committee… to shed light on this destructive [Christian Zionist] movement that together with her Zionist Jewish ally comprise the greatest danger to world truth, justice, and peace.
[From lecture of Riad Jarjour]:
“Hence there is no place in the Middle East for Christian Zionism, it must be expelled by the World Church, since it is a dangerous distortion and a big deviation from the true Christian faith, which concentrates on Jesus, and it [Christian Zionism] defends a national political program which considers the Jewish race supreme…”
[Back to Tamimi]
: They [Christian Zionists] are a group who adopted Satan as God who drives their crazy nature. They have praised depravity and cursed virtue, they have turned the moral scale upside down and have reached [a point] in which forgery, deception, and lying, have turned into descriptions of world policy, which is led by the Zionism on both its branches – the Jewish and the Christian.”
Source: [http://www.kudah.gov.ps/news.asp?tbl=news&id=268]
With the propensity of the ‘world community’ to favor, or rather FEAR, the Muslim Islamofascist extremists, the chances of this anti-Zionist worldview and agenda coming to be are pretty good, much better than the chance that anyone in power in either the American or UN Administrations will adopt a Christian weltangschauung any time soon. We need to be watching for any sin that may be working its way into our lives. Keep your accounts current with Y’hovah and with men, spiritually, physically and financially. If you are tied down to debt, you can’t be ready to go when the order comes from Y’hovah. Some advise on debt. Don’t buy what you can live without. Do you really need that soda pop? Don’t buy anything with a credit card that you can’t pay off when the bill arrives without taxing your finances. Credit card debt is the one that’s killing us the quickest so hit those as soon as possible. Get all your bills together and budget your payments. When you are making revolving credit payments, you are paying the interest first and THEN a few dollars come off the principle. When you pay more than the minimum, ALL of the extra comes off the principle, so your interest the next month is that much less. Take the smallest debt you have and try to double that payment, if you can, until it’s paid off. Once the smallest bill is paid off, use that money to add to the next smallest bill. Keep doing that until you are debt free. It is NOT impossible. Tighten the belt, pay the debt down and get free.
Proverbs 22:7 The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
Who is your Master? Y’hovah or the bank/credit card company? Q&C
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