- there are 70 faces to 
Post by alon on Aug 10, 2019 17:26:59 GMT -8
This week’s readings:
Date of reading- 10 Aug 2019/ 9 Av5779
Name of Par’shah- Devarim
Par’shah- Deueronomy 1:1-3:22
Haftara- Isaiah 1:1-27
Brit Chadashah- John 15:1-11; Hebrews 3:7-4:11
D’rash: I want to focus on a portion of our haftara here:
Isaiah 1:11-15 (KJV) To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
YHWH-Hose’enu, God Our Creator (Psalm 95:6) Himself established these things, why would He speak so disparagingly of them here? And this is far from the only time He does so:
1 Samuel 15:22 (KJV) And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
Not surprisingly, we find an answer in Proverbs 15:8 (KJV) The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight. It’s our heart condition when we bring those offerings or the sacrifices of payers and praise. The heart of our worship may undermine our acts of worship, causing HaShem to detest what He Himself desired of us. God desires worship expressed from a proper heart. The saying “It’s not about religion, it’s about relationship” is a true one. He desires communion with us, but unrepentance separates us from God, destroying that communion:
Isaiah 66:3 (KJV) He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.
We cannot continue in our sins and expect Kadosh Yisroel, the Holy One Of Israel (Psalm 78:41) to honor our prayers and praises. Far too many churches prey on people seeking an emotional experience and calling that Spirit filled worship!
Isaiah 1:16 (KJV) Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
Our faith is evidenced by our obedience, or as James famously puts it “faith without works is dead (2:26).” Scripture speaks of being judged by our works:
Proverbs 24:12b (ESV) If you say, “Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?
Matthew 16:27 (ESV) For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.
Commonly taught as just our reward, I think this means our salvation itself will be determined by whether we worked righteousness or iniquity: Matthew 7:21(ESV) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Faith that saves obeys, therefore if we were disobedient our faith was a sham: Romans 2:3,6-8 (ESV) Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? … He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking [contentious] and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
Or as our haftara puts it:
Isaiah 1:19-20 (ESV) If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Dan C
Date of reading- 10 Aug 2019/ 9 Av5779
Name of Par’shah- Devarim
Par’shah- Deueronomy 1:1-3:22
Haftara- Isaiah 1:1-27
Brit Chadashah- John 15:1-11; Hebrews 3:7-4:11
D’rash: I want to focus on a portion of our haftara here:
Isaiah 1:11-15 (KJV) To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
YHWH-Hose’enu, God Our Creator (Psalm 95:6) Himself established these things, why would He speak so disparagingly of them here? And this is far from the only time He does so:
1 Samuel 15:22 (KJV) And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
Not surprisingly, we find an answer in Proverbs 15:8 (KJV) The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight. It’s our heart condition when we bring those offerings or the sacrifices of payers and praise. The heart of our worship may undermine our acts of worship, causing HaShem to detest what He Himself desired of us. God desires worship expressed from a proper heart. The saying “It’s not about religion, it’s about relationship” is a true one. He desires communion with us, but unrepentance separates us from God, destroying that communion:
Isaiah 66:3 (KJV) He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.
We cannot continue in our sins and expect Kadosh Yisroel, the Holy One Of Israel (Psalm 78:41) to honor our prayers and praises. Far too many churches prey on people seeking an emotional experience and calling that Spirit filled worship!
Isaiah 1:16 (KJV) Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
Our faith is evidenced by our obedience, or as James famously puts it “faith without works is dead (2:26).” Scripture speaks of being judged by our works:
Proverbs 24:12b (ESV) If you say, “Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?
Matthew 16:27 (ESV) For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.
Commonly taught as just our reward, I think this means our salvation itself will be determined by whether we worked righteousness or iniquity: Matthew 7:21(ESV) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Faith that saves obeys, therefore if we were disobedient our faith was a sham: Romans 2:3,6-8 (ESV) Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? … He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking [contentious] and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
Or as our haftara puts it:
Isaiah 1:19-20 (ESV) If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Dan C
