New Song ~ Yehovah Yeshua

Malachi 3

Malachi 3:5-7 USE98
“And I shall draw near to you for right-ruling. And I shall be a swift witness against the practisers of witchcraft, and against adulterers, and against them that swear to falsehood, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages and widows and the fatherless, and those who turn away a sojourner and do not fear Me,” said יהוה (Yehovah)of hosts. “For I am Yehovah, I shall not change , and you, O sons of Ya‛aqoḇ, (Israel) shall not come to an end. “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My laws (Commandments and Torah/Instructions in righteousness) did not guard them. Turn back to Me, and I shall turn back to you,” said יהוה(Yehovah) of hosts. “But you said, ‘In what shall we turn back?’
Malachi 3:16-18 ISR98
Then shall those who *fear יהוה (Yehovah) speak to one another, and יהוה (Yehovah) (will) listen and hear, and a book of remembrance be written before Him, of those who *fear יהוה, (Yehovah) and those who *think upon His *Name. “And they shall be Mine,” said יהוה of hosts, “on the day that I prepare a treasured possession. And I shall spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. “Then you shall again see the difference between the righteous and the wrong, between one who serves Elohim and one who does not serve Him.
(Malachi 4: 1-6  is a prophetic Last Days Word in which we are presently in)
“For look, the day shall come, burning like a furnace, and all the proud, and every wrongdoer shall be stubble. And the day that shall come shall burn them up,” said יהוה (Yehovah) of hosts, “which leaves to them neither root nor branch. “But to you who fear My Name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings. And you shall go out and leap for joy like calves from the stall. “And you shall trample the wrongdoers, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,” said יהוה (Yehovah) of hosts. “*Remember the Torah (instructions in righteousness and moral conduct) of Mosheh, My servant, which I commanded him in Ḥorĕḇ for all Yisra’ĕl (Who is all Israel? All the scattered tribes of Israel, Yehudah /Judah (Jews) believing in Yeshua HaMashiach, as well as all the gentiles believing in Yeshua Jesus who have been grafted into Isreal / For I speak to you, the gentiles, inasmuch as I am an emissary to the gentiles, I esteem my service, if somehow I might provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their casting away is the restoration to favour of the world, what is their acceptance but life from the dead? Now if the first-fruit is set-apart, the lump is also. And if the root is set-apart, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, have been grafted in among them, and came to share the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. And if you boast, remember : you do not bear the root, but the root bears you!
Romans 11:13‭-‬18 ISR98)
 I am sending you Ěliyah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of יהוה. “And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with utter destruction .”
As I was praying this morning, Yahweh Yehovah led me to the above verses in Malachi 3
The scripture of the day that I subscribed to confirmed what Yah put on my heart which is Joshua 1:8 ~ “Do not let this Book of the Torah depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you guard to do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and act wisely (The Torah does not save, but much of what the Torah says in the Tenak (First 5 books in the Bible) gives us detailed instructions in righteousness in obedience to the 10 COMMANDMENTS (THE  COVENANT contract made to ALL Israel that Yeshua completed by writing the renewed Covenant written outwardly on stone  onto our new and redeemed heart of flesh and inward parts by Yeshua's blood  to be lived out by the power of the Holy Spirit )
There are 4 Words I studied out from the verses in Malachi 3
*Fear ~ Yare, meaning to revere, reverence, ie to be in awe of, worship, highly esteem; regard; respect and honor Yehovah God out of obedience to Him and His Word
*Thought/think ~ chashab which means to weave, regard, consider, esteem, find out, imagine, reckon (to conclude, to rely on)
*Name ~ shem,  which means position, authority, character and renown (fame, condition of being known or talked about by many people)
*Remember ~ zakar which means to make, to keep, properly mark, mention, recount, call to mind and think upon.
What are we, Israel, prophesied in the last days called to *remember? The Torah ~ 10 commandments and instructions in righteousness given to Moses on Mount Horeb)
Matthew 5:16-20
“Let your light so shine before men, so that they see your good works and praise your Father who is in the heavens. “Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to complete. “For truly, I say to you, till the heaven and the earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall by no means pass from the Torah till all be done. “Whoever, then, breaks one of the least of these commands, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the reign of the heavens; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the reign of the heavens. “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall by no means enter into the reign of the heavens. The point of Torah is found in Matthew 22:36-39 ~ "Teacher, which is the greatest command in Torah?" And Yeshua said to him, "You shall love Yehovah with ALL your heart, with ALL your being, and with a ALL your mind.' "This is the first and great command. "And the second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' "In these two commands hang the Torah and the prophets."

NEVER ALLOW US INTO TEMPTATION לא תעל נסיונא by Chaim Bentorah

Matthew 6:13: “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”
I recently attended a Catholic mass where towards the end everyone recited the Lord’s prayer and we all said these words, “lead us not into temptation.“  I could not help but think how many others in that congregation wondered the same thing I did.  Does God lead us into temptation such that we must pray and ask Him not to?  Maybe you are ok with that, but I am definitely not. I mean does not James teach in 1:3, “Let no man say he is tempted of God.”  So if God does not tempt us, why in the blazes do millions of people every week pray that God will not lead them into temptation?

Well, one thing about all this is that Yeshua Jesus spoke these words in Aramaic.  Perhaps the Aramaic Bible, the Pershitta might help shed some light on this. By the first century the common language of the Jewish people was Aramaic. Greek was the vernacular of the West and the language of commerce for the West.  Aramaic was the vernacular of the East and the language of commerce for the East. There were basically three different common dialects of Aramaic in the Middle East.  These were the Western dialect (spoken around the old Babylonian area), the Northern Galilean (language that Yeshua Jesus and the disciples spoke) and the Southern dialect (language spoken in Judea and Jerusalem). Classical Hebrew was a dead language by the first century and used only ceremonially and in scholarly writings such as Latin is today.  The synagogue readings and recitation of prayers were all in the Classical Hebrew during the 1st Century.   Although Yeshua Jesus spoke Aramaic, some scholars argue that many of His teachings were in Hebrew as to retain an esoteric nature in His teachings. This becomes even more important with recent discoveries surfacing from the studies of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

One such very recent discovery from the Psalms Scroll sheds some light on this very troubling passage in the Lord’s Prayer, “Lead us not into temptation.” Why would Yahweh God lead us into temptation?  If it was His divine will to lead us into temptation, why would we pray for Him not to lead us into temptation? Was Yeshua actually teaching us to pray and tell Yahweh God to back off? As mentioned earlier, is this in contradiction to the teachings of  James in 1:3?

An identical phrase was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls written in Aramaic which matches that of the Aramaic Bible and follows a certain rhythmic pattern.  Another thing to keep in mind about this culture is that they had no recording devices and most of what was taught by the rabbis was put to a sort of rhythm, meter or rhyme as a memory device.  Although not poetry, it did form a good device to aid in memorization. This would very likely be the case with the Lord’s Prayer as it would be one that Yeshua wanted His disciples to commit to memory.  We do the same when teaching children to pray: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.”  It is easier for a child as well as an adult to memorize something in rhyme. The rhythm and rhyme of the Lord ’s Prayer in Aramaic would be lost when it was translated into the Greek.  However, when transposed into Aramaic and even Hebrew you recapture much of the meter. This is why you will find so many idiomatic expressions in New Testament.  It can be difficult at times to express your thoughts in a rhyme and sometimes the only way to make a thought rhyme is to create an idiomatic expression.

This passage, “Lead us not into temptation” that has been found in the Dead Sea Scrolls which was written in Aramaic carries such a rhythm. When you transpose the phrase in the
Lord ’s Prayer and the passage in James to the Hebrew or Aramaic you get the same meter or rhyme as found with the identical phrase in the Dead Sea Scrolls. This helps to establish this phrase, Lead us not into temptation as an idiomatic expression.

The difficulty now lies in translation of the Aramaic word for temptation nesiona to the Greek word peirasmon. Nesiona in the Dead Sea Scrolls is found in the Hiphal form signifying a causative sense.  Hence if we use the Dead Sea Scrolls as a guide we would find a more proper rendering of this phrase: Lead us not into temptation to be more like: Do not allow us to enter wrongful thinking or testing or even more accurately, keep us from being led into wrongful thinking or testing.

As the Lord’s Prayer is given by Yeshua Jesus we can assume it is an expression of Yahweh’s heart. Yahweh God wants us to pray that we do not enter into wrong thinking or wrong testing.  I just wonder how many of my testing were brought on by myself or by my own lack of submission to God’s will or my own wrong thinking? Or how often do I allow the enemy to bamboozle me into wrong thinking or testing?

 In my disability bus I recently drove an elderly lady to a Catholic mass. Due to a recent stroke she was very unsteady as she walked and I had to assist her to an usher who then assisted her to her seat.  As I passed her off to the usher she momentarily lost her balance and accidently knocked over the holy water. She was absolutely horrified and the first words out of her mouth were, “Oh no, I’m going to hell.”  We all, including a priest, tried to reassure her that knocking over the holy water would not send her to hell but she was not to be comforted.  I knew later in the service she would recite the Lord’s Prayer where she would pray: “Lead me not into temptation or do not allow me to enter wrongful thinking.”  The enemy can make us believe many lies, some not as ridiculous as going to hell for knocking over holy water. Some wrongful thinking can be more subtle like, “If only my church would play the old hymns and not this loud modern music, I could worship God better.”  Worship comes from the heart, not your background music. We know that but we allow wrongful thinking to make an excuse for our lack of taste in music.

 But wrongful thinking is even less obvious. How many of us live in wrongful thinking, thinking God is going to get even with us for the errors of our ways, thinking Yahweh is going to punish us if we do not come up to some standard, fearing we are not good enough to go to heaven when we die when the Bible clearly says that our salvation is not of works but simply the grace of God, Ephesians 2:8-9.

 I know many of us recite the Lord’s Prayer on a daily basis. I do. If you find the rendering, “Lead us not into temptation.”  a bit troubling, you might want to take advantage of the discoveries found in the Dead Sea Scrolls and offer an alternative rendering of  “Don’t allow me to enter into wrong thinking or testing’s.”  The fact is, God does no lead us into wrong thinking or testing, we do that ourselves or we allow the enemy to do it to us. In a very poetic way Yeshua taught us to pray using a Semitic idiom that is saying, “Protect us from ourselves and the enemy who will lead us into wrong thinking or wrong testing.”

Sing, Praise and Dance

I just got a new song recently recorded and downloaded on to my Reverbnation called, "Sing, Dance and Praise." I pray it brings encouragement  and a blessing to all who take the time to listen to it. 

Tumbling Into Joy

INCLINE YOUR EAR – הטו את אזנמ by Chaim

Jeremiah 7:24: “But they harkened not nor inclined their ear.”

I get the part of not harkening unto the Word of Yahweh which is the context here.  I mean Yahweh God spells out in his Word what we are to do and not to do.  The Bible tells us not to steal, so if I steal I am not harkening unto the Word of Yahweh.

But this matter of not inclining one’s ear has me a bit baffled.  This is to suggest that Yahweh is speaking to us and we are not inclining our ear to hear him.  Hey, let me tell  you, if Yahweh is speaking to me, I am inclining my ears to hear Him. My problem is how in the blazes does he speak to us.  Does he speak audibly?  There may be an occasion, but it is not his standard way of speaking. Does Yahweh God use events?  A couple weeks ago I felt a prompting to pray for Haiti and Florida. If you are following the news you heard about the Category 4 Hurricane that is now striking Florida after wrecking devastation on Haiti. Was that the voice of Yahweh?  I did not hear anything audible, I just felt something. Coincidence maybe?

I recall reading about an experience David Wilkerson and his church had before 9-11.   A couple months before 9-11 David Wilkerson and his church felt a strong leading in their spirits to set aside a special time of prayer.  This prayer grew into a deep sense of desperation. On 9-10 David Wilkerson called everyone together to prepare sandwiches and the church went to work preparing hundreds of sandwiches for an event they knew nothing about until the next day, on 9-11. This was surely a church which had inclined their ear to Yahweh God.

Taking a look at this expression in the Hebrew I find the word incline to be natah. The word really has the idea of stretching out, it is used for the tightening of the bow strings on a bow to shoot an arrow or the tightening of the strings on a musical instrument. We call this tuning an instrument. This involves tightening the strings of an instrument to get just the right tension so when the strings are struck they will be in tune or in harmony with all the other instruments.  The word ear is ’azan which means ear, but it is also a word that is sometimes used for a musical instrument.

I believe this is more than just paying attention to hear the voice of Yahweh God, but it is also a picture of tuning a musical instrument.  The writer is illustrating the idea of hearing the voice of Yahweh with that of tuning of instruments, or even the playing of musical instruments so that it is in harmony with all others.  I recall going to a Farmer’s Market.  Off in one area were a group of musicians playing various musical instruments.  They appeared to be just jamming, playing various musical riffs. There were guitars, banjos, an accordion, some sort of drum etc.  Yet they were all in harmony, all playing the same chords with the same rhythm.  When they came to a stopping point one of the members mentioned a favorite song, “In the Sweet Bye and Bye”  The person suggesting the song began to play on her guitar and suddenly all the other musicians with their various instruments joined in.  I was glad I was wearing sunglasses as it could not help but tear up as I heard this precious old song being played by some many different instruments, yet all were perfectly in tune with each other.  That is what it means to incline your ear to Yahweh. I watch the various musicians who were focused on their instruments.  Some were quietly picking away at their instrument, some strumming a few chords, and after about a minute or two all were playing the melody as if they had rehearsed it for days.  As they got into it many were adding creative little runs or riffs, their own little style, yet they still remained in tune with each other. In a way all were doing their own thing, but all the time were keeping in tune and in time with each other. It was almost as if each could go solo and play their own version of the melody while the others played softly in the background as a backup. They all were as one yet each with their own creative identity. It was as if they could anticipate each other’s moves and sounds.  Yet, they all just sat back and played as if they were playing from some gut feeling.

I really believe this is what Jeremiah meant when he said hitu eth ’azenam incline your ear. Having gone through a dark period recently I am making a special effort to be in tune with Yahweh.  Perhaps that is why I began praying for Haiti and Florida long before the storm developed. If we stay in tune with Yahweh God and follow His rhythm then whatever we do we do in accordance to that tune and rhythm, we can even create our own version of the tune so long as it stays in tune with Yahweh God.  Hearing and following Yah’s voice should be as free and flowing as following another musical instrument. I don’t know about you but staying in tune with Yahweh takes a lot of work and discipline but it is so worth it.

ONE LOT FOR THE LORD – גורל אחד ליהוה by Chaim

Leviticus 16:8: “And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat.”

 “We were made to suffer, it’s our lot in life.”  3CPO Star Wars

In less than ten days the Jewish people, (Messianic believers and Yahweh's Remnant people belonging to Yahshua,) will be celebrating Yom Kippur.  This is the Day of Atonement.  One ritual that was performed among the ancient Hebrews is described in Leviticus 16 where two goats were taken before the High Priest, both had to be identical. Many assume the High Priest chose one goat to sacrifice and the other to let go and flee away.  One would live and one would die.

Actually we learn in Leviticus 16:8 that the High Priest, in this case Aaron, cast lots to determine which would live and which would die. I like the way the Scripture phrases this, gurl echod laYHWH or one lot was for the Lord.  The other lot was for the scapegoat.  This word for lot is gurl which means to apportion or allocate.

During the settlement of Israel in the Promised Land, land was apportioned to eleven tribes.  The tribe owned the land not the individuals. Every family had their own portion of land to farm, but they did not personally own that land.  Some land was good land with good soil.  Some land was rocky land or difficult land to cultivate and irrigate.   To determine who got the good land and who got the lousy land they drew gurls or lots.  Once a year just before the time when the land had to be prepared for planting all the family heads gathered together and the patriarch of the family or tribe would put the names of each family on a stone and place it in a basket.  Then they would blind fold a child under twelve years of age to draw out each stone.  Before each stone was drawn the division of land that was to be apportioned was announced.  When the stone was drawn the family whose name on that stone would receive that portion of land to be cultivated for that year.  That was their lot for the year or their lot in life. This lottery was held every year so that some years some would get a good portion of land and some years they would receive a bad portion of land.

I read something very interesting this evening in the Talmud Yoma 62b.   A lot was used when one had passed beyond the realm of motive and reason.  Lots were cast when there was no reason or impetus to choose one option over the other, so that the matter must be left to forces that are beyond ones control and comprehension.  This is the reason the lots were used on Yom Kippur.  After all is said and done, no man is worthy in the eyes of God.  We all stand before Him without faults and iniquities and by all rational criteria, we should be found lacking  in His judgement.  So the Talmud teaches that we should throw our lot to God.

I find it very interesting that one lot was cast  LaYHWH for the Lord. One was cast for the goat. Both lots were not cast for the goats only one.  The Talmud goes on to explain that we should cast our lots for the Lord.  But somehow that just does not fit because the goat that got the lot was able to escape.   To me, however,  it is clear that Yahshua is the one who received the lot to die and the scapegoat represents us who are made just as pure as Yahshua through his death and resurrection and thus by the death of Yahshua we are allowed to escape the punishment.  But then again, maybe the way the sages looked at  this lot for the Yahweh is also correct.

The other day I was recovering from pneumonia.  I earlier went to work too soon and relapsed so I prayed for some confirmation that I was not repeating a mistake in going back to work on this day. This particular day on my disability bus I had to take a 62 year old man to the hospital.  He has a very bad heart. He has had a number of heart attacks, wears a pacemaker and is on all the medication that is available.  The doctors told him there was nothing more they could do.  He had only two months to live.  I had to help him out of his house into the bus with his walker.  He could only take a couple steps before he had to stop and catch his breath.  On the bus to the hospital he told his life’s story.  He ran with the street gangs as a teenager.  He learned the martial arts and was a champion body builder.  He fell in with the mob and was a body guard for some of the biggest names in the “business.”  He was noted for being able to knock out a man with one punch. When not working as a body guard for the mob he would work as a bouncer in saloons.  He said the police knew who he was and usually turned a blind eye when he had to work over some scumbag.

He told me: “The things I did were terrible, horrible things. I am getting what I deserve and when I die I will get what I deserve.”  I turned to him and told him a story about  a man who lived 2,000 years ago who also did terrible things. In fact the Romans hung him on a cross next to another man who never did anything wrong. There was a third man who also did many bad things in his life who was hung on a cross next to this good man.  The third man cursed this good Man but the first man, the thief, the man who spent his life doing bad things told the third man to keep his peace that this Man in the middle did not deserve to die, He was a righteous Man, in fact He was indeed the Son of Yahweh God.  Then he turned to this good Man, this Son of Yahweh Elohim and with a heart filled with grief over the bad things he did in life he simply asked Him if He would remember him when He entered Paradise.  This good Man, the Son of Yahweh God, Yahshua said, “This day you will be in Paradise.”  I told this dying man on my bus: “That thief had to do nothing but ask, be sorry and sad about his sins just as you are.  All he did was ask and Yahweh to forgave him of every sin. This thief had no chance to do good deeds or live a better life. He did not even have a chance to be baptized, but he is in Paradise right now, just as you can be.  You are already sorry for all the bad things you did, why not tell Him, ask Him to forgive you and take you to Paradise?”  He said he would and he did.

There is an old song we used to sing when I was a child:

I believe in miracles,

I’ve seen the soul set free

Miraculous the change in one

Redeemed at Calvary.

I saw a soul set free that day, I saw a dying man smile and rejoice. I saw a man who threw his lot his gurl to Jesus. I may not see this man again, but you know what, I will see him, one day I will see him again.

Oh and I did not have a relapse of my pneumonia, I had my confirmation.