Post by alon on Apr 24, 2019 1:16:26 GMT -8
This week’s readings:
Date of reading- 27 April 2019/22 Nissan 5779
Name of Par’shah- Kedoshim- Holy People
Par’shah- Lev 19:1 – 20:27
Haftara- Amos 9.7-15; Ezekiel 20.2-20
Brit Chadashah- 1 Thessalonians 1:9; Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 3:5;
D’rash: The Bible is full of verses proscribing idolatry:
1 Corinthians 10:14 (NASB) Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
Psalm 81:9 (NASB) “Let there be no strange god among you; Nor shall you worship any foreign god.
Jonah 2:8 (NASB) “Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness,
Ephesians 5:5 (NASB) For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
We are also told in many places idolatry can be more than just making or praying to a statue:
Colossians 3:5 (NASB) Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
And we Meshiachim tend to think the fact we try so hard to root out idolatry in our lives is part of what separates us and makes us different from all pagan religions, as well as most of Christianity and even Judaism and the various cults and crazies who’ve tried to attach themselves to the Messianic movement. However one of the vilest and most evil pagan religions ever made by man is today making huge inroads in the western world with as one of their main tenets forbidding of idolatry:
Sura 039:003 “Is it not to god that sincere devotion is due? But those who take for protectors other than god (say): "We only serve them in order that they may bring us nearer to god." Truly god will judge between them in that wherein they differ. But god guides not such as are false and ungrateful”
Note they translate the term for their demon (itself an idol) as “god,” which they capitalized but I refuse to do. They say he is god and worship of any other is idolatry. And if you read further in the Quran you’ll see they too say idols take many forms. Why? Because ha’satan knows that the world takes note. What does the world see when they compare our lack of sincerity and devotion to El Elohe Yisroel to the extreme devotion demanded to Allah by Islam?
Marcus Terentius Varro, a contemporary of Yeshua (c. 116-27 BCE) was a Roman scholar and writer on jurisprudence, astronomy, geography, education, satires, poems and orations. The great literary critic Quintilian called him “the most learned of the Romans.” He was cited by the church father Augustine:
“He [Varro] also says that for more than 170 years the ancient Romans worshiped the gods without an image. ‘If this usage had continued to our own day,’ he says, ‘our worship of the gods would be more devout. And in support of his opinion he adduces, among other things, the testimony of the Jewish race.’”
Pagans do take note! Keep this in mind as we read from this week’s par’shah:
Leviticus 19:2-4 (NASB) “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father, and you shall keep My sabbaths; I am the Lord your God. Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods; I am the Lord your God.
We are to be holy because we represent a Holy God:
Ezekiel 20:6-7 (NASB) on that day I swore to them, to bring them out from the land of Egypt into a land that I had selected for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands. I said to them, ‘Cast away, each of you, the detestable things of his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.’
Throughout scripture the message is repeated, “I am the Lord your God.” And the world always takes notice:
1 Thessalonians 1:9 (NASB) For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,
Rav Shaul was there speaking of the community at large, not just the believers.
Keeping these things in mind as we go about our daily lives, let us determine to live so that we represent YHWH-Nissi, God Our Banner (Exodus 17:15) in a way befitting Him. Put away idols of all sorts, specially those pesky graven images. You know, the honey bear in your cabinet, or that really nice patch or logo with a raised or embossed image on it. I was recently showing someone some of the leather cases and tool bags I’d made. Many had very obviously been defaced where there was a graven image stamped on them. But I came across one tool bag that had two tool holders with some very nice eagles stamped on them. I told him I would have to cut them off, or at least the heads. I’ll see him again next week and we’ll be doing some work. You can bet those are already defaced now! As we’ve learned in recent par’shot, even unintentional sin is still sin. So yes, I asked forgiveness. However if he came back and saw those eagles still there, that is sin compounding logarithmically! I’d have known they were there, and left them; my witness would have taken a terrible hit, and that could spread in ways I cannot even know! There is also laziness, which itself is sin; as is uncaring. And asking forgiveness then blowing off the sin is, well, another sin.
The message I got this week in our reading is the world is watching how we and others deal with idolatry; of all sorts. We need to get our act together if we are going to counter even pagan religions in a culture where so called servants of God have already taken significant hits.
alon
Mekorot: the Quran I looked up online; JPS Study TNK; Augustine, City of God 4.31; Rav S, my father and others
Date of reading- 27 April 2019/22 Nissan 5779
Name of Par’shah- Kedoshim- Holy People
Par’shah- Lev 19:1 – 20:27
Haftara- Amos 9.7-15; Ezekiel 20.2-20
Brit Chadashah- 1 Thessalonians 1:9; Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 3:5;
D’rash: The Bible is full of verses proscribing idolatry:
1 Corinthians 10:14 (NASB) Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
Psalm 81:9 (NASB) “Let there be no strange god among you; Nor shall you worship any foreign god.
Jonah 2:8 (NASB) “Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness,
Ephesians 5:5 (NASB) For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
We are also told in many places idolatry can be more than just making or praying to a statue:
Colossians 3:5 (NASB) Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
And we Meshiachim tend to think the fact we try so hard to root out idolatry in our lives is part of what separates us and makes us different from all pagan religions, as well as most of Christianity and even Judaism and the various cults and crazies who’ve tried to attach themselves to the Messianic movement. However one of the vilest and most evil pagan religions ever made by man is today making huge inroads in the western world with as one of their main tenets forbidding of idolatry:
Sura 039:003 “Is it not to god that sincere devotion is due? But those who take for protectors other than god (say): "We only serve them in order that they may bring us nearer to god." Truly god will judge between them in that wherein they differ. But god guides not such as are false and ungrateful”
Note they translate the term for their demon (itself an idol) as “god,” which they capitalized but I refuse to do. They say he is god and worship of any other is idolatry. And if you read further in the Quran you’ll see they too say idols take many forms. Why? Because ha’satan knows that the world takes note. What does the world see when they compare our lack of sincerity and devotion to El Elohe Yisroel to the extreme devotion demanded to Allah by Islam?
Marcus Terentius Varro, a contemporary of Yeshua (c. 116-27 BCE) was a Roman scholar and writer on jurisprudence, astronomy, geography, education, satires, poems and orations. The great literary critic Quintilian called him “the most learned of the Romans.” He was cited by the church father Augustine:
“He [Varro] also says that for more than 170 years the ancient Romans worshiped the gods without an image. ‘If this usage had continued to our own day,’ he says, ‘our worship of the gods would be more devout. And in support of his opinion he adduces, among other things, the testimony of the Jewish race.’”
Pagans do take note! Keep this in mind as we read from this week’s par’shah:
Leviticus 19:2-4 (NASB) “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father, and you shall keep My sabbaths; I am the Lord your God. Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods; I am the Lord your God.
We are to be holy because we represent a Holy God:
Ezekiel 20:6-7 (NASB) on that day I swore to them, to bring them out from the land of Egypt into a land that I had selected for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands. I said to them, ‘Cast away, each of you, the detestable things of his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.’
Throughout scripture the message is repeated, “I am the Lord your God.” And the world always takes notice:
1 Thessalonians 1:9 (NASB) For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,
Rav Shaul was there speaking of the community at large, not just the believers.
Keeping these things in mind as we go about our daily lives, let us determine to live so that we represent YHWH-Nissi, God Our Banner (Exodus 17:15) in a way befitting Him. Put away idols of all sorts, specially those pesky graven images. You know, the honey bear in your cabinet, or that really nice patch or logo with a raised or embossed image on it. I was recently showing someone some of the leather cases and tool bags I’d made. Many had very obviously been defaced where there was a graven image stamped on them. But I came across one tool bag that had two tool holders with some very nice eagles stamped on them. I told him I would have to cut them off, or at least the heads. I’ll see him again next week and we’ll be doing some work. You can bet those are already defaced now! As we’ve learned in recent par’shot, even unintentional sin is still sin. So yes, I asked forgiveness. However if he came back and saw those eagles still there, that is sin compounding logarithmically! I’d have known they were there, and left them; my witness would have taken a terrible hit, and that could spread in ways I cannot even know! There is also laziness, which itself is sin; as is uncaring. And asking forgiveness then blowing off the sin is, well, another sin.
The message I got this week in our reading is the world is watching how we and others deal with idolatry; of all sorts. We need to get our act together if we are going to counter even pagan religions in a culture where so called servants of God have already taken significant hits.
alon
Mekorot: the Quran I looked up online; JPS Study TNK; Augustine, City of God 4.31; Rav S, my father and others