Saturday, February 11, 2017

The Ahhh of Shabbat

While living in Israel with my daughter and her family for a few months I experienced what God means by Shabbat being given to us as a gift. As it always begins on Friday at sundown.  Shops and businesses begin to close around 3:00 p.m. to be home and ready for Shabbat at sundown.  At least in the little town in which she lived flowers were sold on street corners for hubbies to take home to their wives, and even the smell of chicken soup can be detected wafting through the air as wives prepare the Shabbat dinner.  Any tasks that had to be taken care of were completed before sundown. The floors were mopped and the house was clean. There was nothing left that had to be done and all were present at sundown for the beginning of the Day of Rest. Whether you watched the sunset like in the photo or in your home, the Sabbath was always welcomed at sundown with a sense of quiet joy and ....well, relief, of having come to the Shabbat. 

I recall feeling a sense of peace in the day that I almost never experienced otherwise. The only thing I can compare it to is when as a kid when school gets out for the summer and you have nothing - not one thing that is required of you. No homework, no papers to write, not tests to take, no pressures of  competition or achievement. Nothing is demanded of you. As my father would say, you are free from the 'have-to's and the 'musts'. Nothing nags at you waiting to be done. It can all wait.  Ahhhh.

Imagine - I mean really imagine - that you live where the whole city around you gets quiet. No one is driving. The cars aren't honking or whoshing past one another. (Can you feel the release of just that sentence? I did.)  It's a day set apart by God and for God, which also means for those you love to share it with. Often on Saturday, the day of Shabbat, friends or family would walk over to share lunch or we would go there. Living in proximity to one another means you could amble over, no hurry, and don't have to drive. Nor would you. You might even notice things of beauty as you take a walk that you miss in the rush of other days.  Over a lunch of left over chicken sandwiches or such, you would talk about whatever was pleasant, perhaps discuss what the Torah passage for the week meant for our lives. You might even play a game of Scrabble together. Its a day to enjoy!

Here in America it is much harder to maintain that kind of arriving at a 'Shabbat Ahhh,' with nothing nagging at you that should be done when Saturday is so busy all around us.  Even if Saturday is a "day off" it's still packed full of what-to-do. Shabbat is meant to be the one day of the week set apart by God for rest - truly a day off from all the demanding 'have-to's' and the 'must's. It's meant to be a day to meet with the Lord and loved ones in an atmosphere of peace, serenity, rest and delight. I still attempt to keep the day set apart unto the Lord. No rushing through my 'devotions' in the morning, giving Him the allotted half hour or hour in the morning as I might do in a work day. But often spending time reading my Bible to enjoy my relationship with Him, to learn more about Him (selah!).

Or taking time to talk with God about the things in my life, in my mind or heart, to explore or resolve with Him some deep issues in my life which I never get to in the busyness of other days. And then there's the enjoyment of being with folks you love and who love you. This is also restorative. It's affirming. And enlightening as we share our thoughts with one another. Talking with friends about our extraordinary, amazing and wonderful God is one of the greatest joys of my life. I want to know what others know about God, what their lives in God are like.  But there are so many other ways to just enjoy being together. One Shabbat a while ago our whole family, three generations, went to the zoo. It wasn't exactly physical rest, but it was a joy just to see my 3 year old grandson Hudson's wonder as he fed a leaf to a giraffe who leaned toward him for it. It still makes me smile as I remember it, one of Shabbat's lingering joys.

We observe Shabbat, not out of any sense of compulsion, but because we love God. Shabbat is 'of' Him. It is significant enough that He made it one of only two signs of our covenant with Him (1). A day of rest is given to us by God because we are created with a need for it. It's a day when a nice long nap is legal. But also, the Lord wants to be with us. People who spend significant time with God generally carry the peace of Shabbat - His peace - with them throughout the week. I recall Larry King on his TV show interviewing Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Prime Minister. Larry asked him how it was that he who probably had more stress on his shoulders than any other leader in the world, seemed so peaceful. Netanyahu replied, "I take a day off every week," meaning, of course, Shabbat, which, it is known, is partially spent with his teenage son in the Bible.

Friends of mine, believers in Yeshua though not necessarily Jewish, tell me that keeping Shabbat in some ways influences their lives for good; they can feel the difference in their peace level generally and look forward to the next Shabbat which enables us to put all the demands of the world on hold, and lets our minds and bodies recoup. Often the 'have-to's' and 'musts' take on a different sense of importance or priority when we suspend even thinking about them for a day.

Today being Shabbat, I woke up at a sleepy 9:30 a.m. with a yawning sense of wanting to share Shabbat with you, my dear readers.  - you being whosoever would read this as an invitation from God to you. This invitation is for a day off, for Shabbat, starting Friday evening to Saturday evening, by the way.  If you recall, God created days to begin with rest at sundown. And may I add, being with friends on this day is not a day for discussions of political or other controversial issues that carry negative emotion-stirring unrest. No arguments! I suggest you allow all such issues to be put in God's hands for Him to work out, a least for the day.

In the name of Yeshua, who is Lord over all, I give you permission in the Lord, to take the day off, to put aside all cares and worries, turning them over to God asking for His help and solution. Perhaps you might share a meal with folks you love, or even someone you've wanted to get together with but somehow never do. Wouldn't that be a treat?  

Oh, and one more thing. Shabbat means Saturday (though if your life makes it impossible, then make another day your Shabbat unto God). The Hebrew days of the week are known by numbers: Day 1, Day 2, etc.  Only the 7th day has a name - Shabbat.

I now wish you Shabbat Shalom, a peaceful Sabbath.  I'm going to go make pancakes, one of my Shabbat delights.

(1)  The other 'sign' of the Covenant is circumcision. It is still done in the flesh on every Hebrew/Jewish boy at 8 days old, just as God instructed Abraham.  According to the New Testament, it is now a circumcision of the heart that is required in our relationship with God. That is that we have committed ourselves to a covenant with God that we are His, even as He is our God and we will live accordingly.  As circumcision was a permanent 'sign' of covenant with God, even so Shabbat is meant to be a permanent resting in God as our way of life. 






Saturday, February 4, 2017

ABOUT ISRAEL AND GOD AND HOW TO PRAY

I am now leading a weekly time to pray for Israel. I thought I'd share some notes I put together for the group with you. You might find some information here that you were not aware of before. If you live in or near Jacksonville, FL and care to join us, it is open to the city. We are praying on Fridays from 11-1 in the Prayer Tower at The River Church at 1820 Monument Avenue. We'd be happy to have you join us. Here are my notes.  P.S. that's me with the flag. It seemed appropriate to use it here.

In order to pray wisely for what might be the ultimate issues on God’s heart related to Israel, and even related to the world, we need to understand the greater picture than just today’s politics. We need to see below, to the core, to the foundation, of what causes all this commotion about Israel today. There are many people praying for the day to day events that are taking place related to Israel, and that is most necessary. But in asking God what would be on His heart to pray, it became clear that agreeing with Him on those foundational or core issues would be as helping to bring about the highest expression of the covenant promises of God to Israel which will, in fact, affect the whole world. And more importantly bring Messiah Yeshua back.

What we want to pray are those things that will impact the return of Messiah Yeshua. There are many issues involved in that. Just to name a few today: Israel is God’s time clock to see where we are on the prophetic time line, as to what is taking place that God foretold us regarding Israel.  A great deal indeed.  To really understand God we must understand His ways with Israel – correctly.  We today have inherited an understanding of much that God had given to Israel that is faulty, not just about Israel, but in other ways that have strayed from what God had given to Israel both as how to live in the highest form of life and relationship with Him than any other people on the earth, but also how He revealed Himself to and through Israel. All we understand about God, we understand through Israel.

 It is through Israel that God has revealed Himself ….as Creator, as sustainer, as Lord, as Sovereign over all things, as ultimate Redeemer. As the One to whom we are accountable. As the God who loves us (unlike idols or other gods ).  How many other ‘revelations’ of Him can you add here?

Even Paul’s message to the Gentiles was that of the Hebrew Messiah who lived a Torah-compliant life in every way.  Even that Yeshua died while being nailed a cross of wood is a fulfillment of all the sacrificial system represented, including:  he that is hanged is accursed of God:” (Deut. 21:23). He took the curse from all mankind that whoever comes into faith in His doing so, has new life with the Father. 

It is important to realize the extent to which God has placed Israel at the center of His Self- revelation to the world and that He continues to reveal Himself through her, even though not all Israel knows the Lord yet.  That He has brought her back into the same land after 1848 years, although still only portions of it. Israel’s land today is only a small sliver of the full promised land area and even that is being contested by her enemies.  Genesis 15 states the land Abraham’s children will ultimately inherit is a plot of land significantly larger than the current State of Israel. In that day Yehova made a covenant with Abraham, saying: ‘Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates." (Genesis 15:18) This Biblical prophecy promises the Children of Abraham all the land from the Nile River to the Euphrates River. This includes all of modern-day Jordan and Lebanon, the majority of Syria and parts of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
However, today, we see that the promise of a wide swath of land in the region is reduced to just the Land of Canaan.  Even so, God is staking Israel’s claim to that limited land:  And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojournings, all the land of Cannan for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God” (Genesis 17:8).  It is even that small portion of the land that is being contested today by the so-called ‘Palestinians’ – a fictitious term, by the way. There has never been a Palestinian people, language, history or culture. 

Palestine was a name Emperor Hadrian gave to Israel’s land 335 A.D. in his attempt to eliminate any trace of Israel’s history. Even then, the devil was trying to obliterate God’s covenant promises to Israel, so as to try to make God appear as the liar that the devil is. In Hebrew the name for Palestine was the Greek pronunciation as Hadrian called it.  It is pronounced in Hebrew as Plishteem which was also the same name of the Philistines (remember Goliath?) who were Israel’s enemies, and who became extinct. So much for bullies.  

However, since Israel was not in her land for many years, the name as Palestine, (which is the Greek pronunciation rather than the Hebrew), remained for the land of Israel for centuries always referring to the Land of the Jews, or Israel.  I have in my possession a copy of the Palestinian Post dated May 14, 1946, the day Israel was declared a nation. It later became the Jerusalem Post. Never did that name Palestine or Palestinian have anything to do with her Arab neighbors – until it was co-opted by the likes of Arafat not so long ago. A factoid is a fact that is not true until it is said so ofter than everyone begins to believe it. This is maybe the world’s biggest factoid.

Ancient Romans, as well as modern so-called Palestinians, have fulfilled the prophesy in the Hebrew Scriptures that declares: "They lay crafty plans against Your People... they say: ‘come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more'." - (Psalm 83:3-4). They failed, as did any other nation that tried to destroy them.  Israel is still alive.  For more on this topic, go to: http://www.imninalu.net/myths-pals.htm .   

COVENANT: God’s covenant(s) with God will always ‘trump’ any attempt to destroy her or obliterate the covenants. The first usage of the word “covenant” occurs in Genesis 6.18 (cf. Genesis 9.9-17) with God’s warning Noah of the coming Flood. The Hebrew word for “covenant” is בְּרִית (pronounced B’reet) and occurs 285 times in the Old Testament. The word for “covenant” in the New Testament is διαθήκη and occurs 33 times (but don’t ask me to pronounce it.)
Our highest goal is to know our God, and the best way to do that, other than personal experience with Him, is to know what He has said regarding Israel. God established all of His covenants, with the exception of the Noahic covenant, with the Jews. Biblically, “covenant theology,” is “Jewish theology” or what might better be termed “Israelology.” Christianity has no covenants. Thus, “covenant theology” with respect to Christianity is meaningless. The chart below illustrates that the covenants God established in the Old Testament applied almost exclusively to Jews. The covenants are in fact promises. For God to no fulfill His covenant promises would be to make Him a liar and too weak to accomplish His promises. We know that’s an impossibility. So we can stand on His covenant promises.  
Note here, please, that the words “new covenant” in Jeremiah 31:31 are in fact in the original Hebrew bible, “renewed covenant.”  God was not starting a new covenant with the Gentiles through Jesus. Rather He was renewing the covenant(s) He had already made with Israel, one they could no longer break because He would write it on the hearts of all  who accepted His covenant, which now the Gentiles were able to partake or enter into.
Divine Covenants
Recipient
First Declared
Noahic
All mankind
Abrahamic
Abraham (Jewish progenitor)
Mosaic
Jews
Sabbatic
Jews
Palestinian (Land)
Jews
Davidic
Jews (Davidic lineage)
New
Jews