There was once a spider that built a beautiful web in an old house. He kept it clean and shiny so that flies would patronize it. The minute he got a “customer” he would clean up on him so the other flies would not get suspicious. Then one day this fairly intelligent fly came buzzing by the clean spider web. Old man spider called out, “Come in and sit.” But the fairly intelligent fly said, “No, sir. I don’t see other flies in your house, and I am not going in alone!” But presently he saw on the floor below a large crowd of flies dancing around on a piece of brown paper. He was delighted! He was not afraid if lots of flies were doing it. So he came in for a landing. Just before he landed, a bee zoomed by, saying, “Don’t land there, stupid! That’s flypaper!” But the fairly intelligent fly shouted back, “Don’t be silly. Those flies are dancing. There’s a big crowd there. Everybody’s doing it. That many flies can’t be wrong!” Well, you know what happened. He died on the spot. Some of us want to be with the crowd so badly that we end up in a mess. What does it profit a fly (or a person) if he escapes the web only to end up in the glue?

The reality today is that we see so many falling victims to their own logic. It is when we assume to think that we are smarter than יהוה that we have in fact doomed ourselves.

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”

Are you listening to the Word? How do you respond to the Truth? Are you listening and doing as just hearing is not the same as listening and doing? Often when asked if we obey when יהוה speaks, the majority of believers will very quickly respond in the affirmative, ‘yes, of course I obey’. And it is true that the majority of us desire to be like Yeshayahu (Isaiah) who says, “Here I Am, send me!” But the real issue is the fact that for many of us the reality of our response to the Truth is very similar to the accounts of the fly and also of those accounts of many we read of Scripture, where we see that יהוה speaks and all too often the people do not listen! Why is that? For that still happens today! The Hebrew mind-set and understanding of obedience to the Word of יהוה is associated with the disciplined practical principle of ‘hear, guard and do’ – but the question remains for us today – do we do just that? I want us to read today from Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 26, where he was under fire for speaking the Truth, speaking what יהוה had instructed him too and the people would not listen to the Truth as they chose to attack the messenger because they didn’t like what they heard. In a message tonight called, “Am I listening? It is time to hear, guard and do!” please turn with me to Yirmeyahu 26 (Read).

This message took place around 609-608 B.C.E. and the purpose of this message was to get the people to listen to the threatening judgement of יהוה that was to come if they refused to heed the Word spoken through the Prophets and was a call for each one to turn from their evil ways, and if they would repent and return to listening to and doing what He commands then He would repent of the evil plans of disaster he had planned for their disobedience. The content of this message was simply judgement for disobedience and if the people refused to follow His Torah and refused to listen to the prophets then יהוה would make the temple as desolate as the tabernacle that stood at Shiloh!

In what we have just read we clearly see an obedient man, great prophet of Elohim, declaring the Truth, faithfully proclaiming the Word without sugar-coating it to please the people and guess what? The majority of the people didn’t like it! I wonder why!!! There was mixed reactions to the Word of יהוה which Yirmeyahu had spoken to them. As we look at this passage we can clearly see at least 3 different responses that we may too find ourselves having toward the Truth, which we will look at shortly.

When sitting under the anointing and teaching of the very Living and Active Word of יהוה, we each have a choice to make – we can either listen or turn a deaf ear! The fact is that today, just as it was back then, many come to ‘hear’ the Word, yet simply do not receive it for themselves, and in a sense they ‘get nothing out of the Word’, thinking that it is for others only – why? Because by their own logic they are always right! With this kind of approach to the Word – that is – that it never is speaking about me approach – is in effect just simply ignoring the Word, in fact it is ignoring יהוה! We know that faith comes by hearing the Word and that without faith it is impossible to please Elohim and faith without works is dead – so hearing must result in the doing – that is when we know we are listening! Before we look at 3 ways we can respond to truth, let us first look at some signs that will reveal that one is in fact not listening and simply ignoring יהוה.

Let us call them for sake of this teaching: 7 signs that I am ignoring יהוה!

1 – I GO TO FELLOWSHIP AND GET NOTHING OUT OF IT! (2)

In verse 2 we see that Yirmeyahu was to speak to those who had come to bow themselves in the house of יהוה all the words commanded and not to diminish any word! Wow – today many people are bringing a word to the masses, and sadly it may just be, in fact more often than not it is simply a diminished word – one that has been constructed carefully in order to tickle ears and make people ‘feel’ that they got something out! This Word commanded by יהוה was not to ‘outsiders’ but to those who claimed to be followers, yet were simply coming to bow themselves in the House of יהוה out of duty, rather than out of loving obedience. When people are mixing their worship – that is when they are so immersed in the world’s ways and follow after its desires and schemes while at the same time trying to appease their conscience by hopefully attending a weekly service when it suits them – then when they do come to fellowship they do not come to listen to the Truth, but rather to ‘hear’ something they would like to hear that will justify their lifestyle! And so when they are not walking in obedience and the True Word reveals it they will simply reject it and say they did not get anything out of it. When we come together, we come together to worship our Creator, Redeemer and Saviour יהושע Messiah and surrender to His leading and guidance, to listen and obey and heed His instructions and we come to give, not to get something out of it! What we are to ‘get out of it’ is the reality of the Word and the surrender to the Truth that sets us free to walk in great faith as His Word equips us to worship him with our daily lives. When you are in His Word, in His presence and you say you get nothing out of it – that is a sign that you are ignoring Him!!!

Yehuḏah were going to the House of יהוה yet were getting nothing out of the Word as it wasn’t changing their lives – how about you – is His Word changing your life or are you getting nothing out of it?

2 – I GO TO FELLOWSHIP AND DO NOTHING ABOUT WHAT I HEAR (3)

יהוה made it clear in verse 3 that if they listen and repent then He too would repent of the evil He planned to bring because of their wickedness. When we come together, listen to me today – hearing His Word sang, and testified, taught and preached ought to change my life – if it does not then I am simply ignoring what I hear!

Yaʽaqoḇ/James 1:25 “But he that looked into the perfect Torah, that of freedom, and continues in it, not becoming a hearer that forgets, but a doer of work, this one shall be blessed in his doing of the Torah.”

Yehuḏah would go each week and ‘hear’ the Torah being read, yet they did not listen and do, they simply did nothing about what they heard and continued in their wickedness. There are many today that are doing the same, well if In fact they are getting a Word that is not diminished that is. Doing nothing about what you ‘hear’ from the Word is to ignore יהוה and sadly so many use the lame excuse today, ‘oh, I forgot’ – don’t be a hearer that forgets – be a doer and do not ignore יהוה!

3 – I KNOW WHAT MY FAILING TO OBEY WILL DO AND STILL CHOOSE NOT TO OBEY (4-6)

In verses 4-6 יהוה was telling them that if they did not obey, even after they have heard what to do from the prophets then their fate is simply destruction! Many people know full well what the result of their disobedience will be yet they still choose not to obey – it is easier to always go with the crowd they may think, but that is not true as we can clearly see from the results of disobedience seen in Scripture. Yehuḏah knew their fate for disobedience yet chose to continue in their sin, lawless deeds! Sign number 4 goes hand in hand with 3:

4 – I HEAR A COMMON MESSAGE FROM SEVERAL SOURCES AND STILL CHOOSE NOT TO OBEY (5)

Often we will hear the same message from different sources – perhaps you hear a message taught on a topic that hits very close to home and then read in your quiet time a passage that says the same thing and then a friend may say something that hits the nail on the head regarding the same issues that needs to be dealt with – for many this can happen to no effect as they still harden their hearts and choose not to obey – that is ignoring יהוה!

Yeshayahu/Isaiah 55:10-11 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from the heavens, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so is My Word that goes forth from My mouth – it does not return to Me empty, but shall do what I please, and shall certainly accomplish what I sent it for.”

You may choose not to obey the Word, but let me remind you that His Word will accomplish what it was sent for – obedience brings the blessing and disobedience the curse. There is no sacrifice for wilful disobedience!

Iḇ’rim/Hebrews 10:26-27 “For if we sin purposely after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a slaughter offering for sins, 27 but some fearsome anticipation of judgment, and a fierce fire which is about to consume the opponents.”

5 – I ATTACK THE MESSENGER BECAUSE I DON’T LIKE THE MESSAGE (7-8)

This is a very frequent sign seen in many today as they ignore Elohim as it is easier to attack the man than the message! This is what they did to Yirmeyahu – the majority did not like to hear what he was telling them – even though it was the truth!

Iḇ’rim/Hebrews 4:12 “For the Word of Elohim is living, and working, and sharper than any two-edged sword, cutting through even to the dividing of being and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

Yirmeyahu was to give it ‘straight’ and not ‘diminish’ the Word at all. The word in Hebrew for ‘diminish’ is ‘gara’ which means ‘diminish, restrain, withdraw, or hold back’. Yirmeyahu was not to withdraw, hold back the punches or restrain himself from speaking the Truth – he shot straight and did not diminish a Word! It is the Word of Elohim that cuts deeper than any words of man, yet when His Word does cut deep, we often get offended with the one sent to speak it! The priests, the prophets and all the people seized Yirmeyahu – they did not like the fact that he was speaking about the destruction of the Temple – how dare he! They wanted to kill him! Let me ask you at this point, “How many of you have been angry at someone for the word they have brought forth?”, maybe more close to home, “How many of you have been angry at me for speaking the Truth?” I know last week’s message may have ruffled a few feathers! יהושע teaches us in Mattithyahu 5 that it is written that we shall not murder and the one who murders is liable to judgement, but He goes on to say that if we are wroth or angry with his brother, without a cause, is liable to judgement!  Being angry because you have been wrong and it is pointed out with Scripture does not give you ‘cause’ to be angry!

Attacking the messenger of יהוה is an act of ignoring יהוה!

6 – THE WORD DOES NOT CALL ME OUT OF THE CROWD (8)

Listen, if the word is not calling you out of the crowd, then you are ignoring the Word – “Come out from among them!  – Come out of her My people! – Wake up oh sleeper! Arise and Shine for your light has come! Come follow Me – יהושע says, anyone who does not deny himself and take up his stake and follow Me, says יהושע, is not worthy of Me!”

Repeated calling right through Scripture of יהוה calling out His Bride! It is time for the Bride to hear, guard and do, time to listen and obey and be separate from the world – we are in the world but not of the world and so we are not to live as the world lives – we are to live according to the instructions (Torah) of יהוה. This is all about choice – do I go with the crowd, with the masses or do I go with the Word, even if it means that there are only few?

Kepha Aleph/1 Peter 2:9-12 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a set-apart nation, a people for a possession, that you should proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light, 10 who once were not a people, but now the people of Elohim; who had not obtained compassion, but now obtained compassion. 11 Beloved ones, I appeal to you as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts which battle against the life, 12 having your behaviour among the gentiles good so that when they speak against you as evil-doers, let them, by observing your good works, esteem Elohim in a day of visitation.”

Many ignorantly still say things like, “They all cannot be wrong!” and sadly do not recognise the need to rightly divide the truth but rather choose to follow blindly the road of the masses – wide is the path that leads to destruction, but narrow is the way that leads to life and few find it. If the Word is not calling you out of the crowd then you are simply and plainly ignoring יהוה!

7 – I GIVE MORE VALUE TO THE WAY I THINK THAN I GIVE TO יהוה‘S WORD (9)

The 7th sign that one is ignoring יהוה is that they value what they think and feel more than what the Word actually says!

The people of Yehuḏah thought that יהוה should go along with their ways and were more interested about what they had to think and say than what יהוה was saying! How true that is today – we see it all the time – people are often not even interested in what the word actually says – they have their own opinions based on feel good theologies and false doctrines that have diminished the Word and only care what they have to think and say on the matter based solely upon their limited understanding of the Word! In other words – they ignore יהוה and what He has to say, yet they want all the benefits and blessings that the Word promises for obedience, even in their rebellion and disobedience!! That is nothing other than arrogance and selfishness!

Tehillim/Psalm 119:59-60 “I have thought upon my ways, and turned my feet to Your witnesses. 60 I have hurried, and did not delay to guard Your commands.”

Yeshayahu/Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

The sooner we realise that His ways are higher and His thoughts are higher than ours the better we will learn top turn our feet to His witnesses and not delay in guarding His commands. We must learn to surrender our thoughts, our plans, our ways unto Him and allow His Word be that which shapes our thinking and that we may know His desires and plans for our lives that we can fully walk in them. If we give more value to our own thoughts over His Word, it is a sign that we ignore יהוה and that we must not do – if we truly claim to be His and claim to live in יהושע Messiah!

When we ignore יהוה we are only harming ourselves – just look at the end of verse 19 – ‘we are doing evil against ourselves’!

Ok so we have briefly looked at 7 signs that may show that I am ignoring יהוה, signs I am sure that none of us want to be evident in our daily walk! We all have choices to make and just as יהוה warned Yehuḏah and told them to turn from their evil ways, so too does He tell us to today and how we respond to His Truth is critical. As I said earlier that based on this passage we can see that we too can consider 3 different responses to the truth!

A – WE CAN RESPOND WITH LETHARGY

Lethargy is the quality or state of being lazy, sluggish or indifferent! We can meet the Truth with indifferent attitudes unwilling to hear what יהוה says, and can try to distract ourselves and amuse ourselves with other stuff. You got to think – why would somebody even bother to engage in fellowship in the body of Messiah if they ignore Him!!! Bit still they do it!

If a person is determined not to walk with Elohim why would they bother? Yirmeyahu addressed a people who had not been listening, and had no regard for the Word and choose to be wilfully ignorant. Ignorance does not excuse us – we have the Word – it is available for all to hear – but who is listening? We can respond with lethargy but we would only be harming ourselves.

B – WE CAN RESPOND WITH LIMITATION

Yirmeyahu went to the House of יהוה to proclaim the Truth – the sad reality is that the very Word of יהוה was not welcome in the House of יהוה. Sadly we see today that the Word is not being rejected as such by the worldly but by the people of Elohim! יהושע addressed the religious leaders and said that they had nullified the commands of Elohim by their traditions – may we not be limited in our response – limited by man’s traditions that simply has nullified the Truth! Those with a limited response will always attack and accuse and come against the messenger as they cannot fully stomach the truth! What we must realise is that something may offend us and still be true – that is a huge hurdle many sadly cannot get over. There are times when we need to be offended that we can change – there may be times when the Word will cut real deep and it may be uncomfortable but it is necessary to bring about change – bring about His good work in us to completion. When we are limited in our ability to respond fully to His Word we will only in the long run be hurting ourselves.

C – WE CAN RESPOND BY LISTENING

The best and most profitable way for us to simply heed what the Word of Elohim says, and what יהושע our redeemer would speak to us through His Word. Fortunately we see from the rest of the passage here is that there were indeed some of the princes of Yehuḏah, who regarded יהוה‘s Word and intervened, quoting previous prophets and spared Yirmeyahu from the malicious attacks and intentions of the false prophets and priests – those who responded with lethargy and limitations! We must be people who are diligent and attentive to what יהוה is speaking to us.  יהושע in Luqas/Luke 8;15 tells us that those who listen have an honest and good heart. If I just tell you my opinions and simply speak on my own behalf, then yes you may well disregard me and my words, but when I speak to you the Living Word of a Set-Apart Elohim then He deserves your full attention. Does יהוה have your attention yet?

How do you respond to His Living Word? Do you respond with lethargy and are in a sense careless, indifferent thinking it doesn’t matter anyway, or are you limited in your response – only responding so far as it suites you and meets your expectations and requirements rather than you meeting His requirements of obedience? Or do you listen well, in that you hear, guard and do all that His Word instructs you to? The choice is yours, but may I remind you that there is only one choice that secures a sure and favourable outcome and that is to respond by listening attentively.

Have you in any way found yourself to be ignoring יהוה as you have found yourself ‘getting nothing out’ of fellowship and His Word and do nothing about what you hear – how about tonight – will you do something about what you are hearing or simply ignore and excuse any changes required in order to line up your walk with the plumb line of His Word? Have you been hearing a repetitive message from different sources yet still choose to ignore facing that which needs to be dealt with? Do you find yourself attacking the messenger because you do not like the message, even though it is truth? Is the Word calling you out of the world’s ways or not? Do you give more value to your thoughts than to Elohim’s?

May the Word of יהוה never be diminished in our midst and may we be a people who will not only hear that faith may come, but listen that we can guard to do all that He commands us to with great joy and love for Elohim.

Deḇarim/Deuteronomy 6:4-6 “Hear, O Yisra’ĕl: יהוה our Elohim, יהוה is one! 5 And you shall love יהוה your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your being, and with all your might. 6 And these Words which I am commanding you today shall be in your heart”

יהוה bless you and guard you; יהוה make His face shine upon you and give you favour; יהוה lift up His face to you and give you peace!

Now be good listeners of the Word – that is hearers and doers!

The favour of our Master יהושע Messiah be with you, aměn!

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A name not only determines one’s reputation but also gives clear identity and standing. For instance, we here in South Africa are known as South Africans, and as we would travel we would be identifiable by our nationality through our ways and our speech etc. Well the Name of יהוה is for one, a strong tower, as it says in Scripture but it carries so much more, and the more we learn about our Creator the more we recognise and realise just how awesome and wonderful His Name is and by us carrying that Name, just how important and privileged we are. In Berěshith/Genesis 4:26 we see the first mention of the people beginning to call upon the Name of יהוה, just after Enosh was born and knowing that Enosh means ‘mortal’ it stands to reason that ‘mortal’ man began to call upon the Name of יהוה. What is so important about His Name, besides that it is His Name!!! Firstly we see that somewhere along the line this calling upon His Name was seemingly lost as the descendants of Aḇraham were in Mitsrayim/Egypt, and when יהוה called them out of Mitsrayim He told Mosheh who He was and the Name His people were to call Him. When Mosheh asked what he would say when they asked him who had sent him, the Almighty said ‘I AM that which I AM’ and was told to tell them that the I AM had sent Him, he was then further instructed to tell them that ‘יהוה Elohim of your fathers, of Aḇraham, Yitsḥaq and Yaʽaqoḇ had sent him and that that would be His name of remembrance to all generations. What a powerful moment that was as יהוה was indeed restoring His powerful Name among His chosen and called out ones! This, I believe, is a foreshadow if you will of what He is doing once again – He is restoring His Name! What we must understand is that for us to declare His Name is also our acknowledgement of who He is. The Hebrew for I Am that which I Am – אהיה אשר אהיה – ʾĕh­­­­­­­­­˗yĕ(h)  ʾªšěr  ʾĕh­­­­­­­­­˗yĕ(h) literally means, “I exist or I cause to be”.  I AM the One who causes to be, I AM the One who brings into being. I AM the life-giver, the giver of all existence. I AM the ever living self-consistent and unchangeable One. And from this we get the Name given By Him for us to call upon as יהוה (Yahweh) which means literally “He is the One who causes me to be.” This is very powerful, for every time you call on the Name of  יהוה, you are declaring who it is that causes you to be, you are declaring from your lips the One who gives you life, who made you, who gives you existence! And we are to declare His Name, giving praise to the ‘I AM’! It is through the Aaronic blessing that His Name is put upon us and that we can live and walk a life that carries His Name – but what happens when His Name is profaned?

Without wasting time, please turn with me to Yeḥezqĕl/Ezekiel 36:16-38 (read).

The predominant theme of this passage we have just read is restoration and the major theme here is יהוה‘s vindication of His Name. The most defiling thing for Yeḥezqĕl was pagan worship, and it is from this that Yisra’ĕl would be cleansed.

As we look at this chapter we cannot help but notice the repetition of all that יהוה does in restoring Yisra’ĕl is to do with restoring the Truth about His Name!

Yisra’ĕl was a set-apart nation (In Shemoth/Exodus 19:6 יהוה declared this); they were given a Set-Apart Promised Land, made so by the very presence of Elohim who had a set-apart Name. Yet they failed to acknowledge His Name and bring esteem and honour to His Name – in direct contrast to Shemoth/Exodus 20:7 – the 4^th commandment – You shall not bring the Name of יהוה your Elohim to nought and in contrast to the instructions of how to pray from יהושע in Mattithyahu/Matthew 6:9: “This, then, is the way you should pray: ‘Our Father who is in the heavens, let Your Name be set-apart.”

What Yisra’ĕl did here was tarnish the Name of יהוה, how? By engaging in pagan practices of the other nations which they were forbidden to do and as a result they chose to walk their own way and do their own deeds as opposed to walking in obedience to the Torah. So by this they defiled the land.

Defilement comes when you go off and walk in your own ways and do your own thing and do not follow the Torah of יהוה and walk in יהושע Messiah. What we must always realise is that any other way than His Way in unclean to Him. Any other path other than His way is filthy to Him – it is like a woman during her monthly period. This may be an often hard and disgusting picture I know, but this is just how serious this defilement is!

Yisra’ĕl defiled the land – now to defile something is to make it unclean or rather render or declare something unclean, and when something was declared unclean it was considered to be unfit for any set-apart purposes. We are told in Wayyiqra/Leviticus 10:10 that we are to make a distinction between the set-apart and the profane, between the clean and the unclean. Sadly what we see today is a total mix between clean and unclean that it gets almost impossible for many to be able to make a distinction between the set-apart and the profane and as a result they are bringing defilement to wherever they are at and therefore are ultimately profaning the Name of יהוה.

So how did Yisra’ĕl defile the land?

1 – Murder – they shed blood – how? By sacrificing their children, offering them up to the Babylonian sun-god Molech in fertility rituals at the designated equinox and solstice feasts.

2 – Idolatry – offering their babies was not just murder but idolatry in worship unto a fabricated deity of the Babylonians.

It was because of this that יהוה scattered them away among the nations, and when they were scattered they continued in their sin, profaning His Name, to which one day they would mourn for their rebellion.

Sin always has a way of holding out the promise of satisfaction without ever achieving it. It may look good to do what they others are doing, but if it is not according to the Torah of יהוה, it will be destructive.

יהוה scattered them and so judged them according to their ways and deeds  – and so we see in this illustration and example of a women in her monthly cycle that was separated from the congregation for being unclean and anyone who would touch her would become unclean and not allowed to come into the congregation, so too due to her uncleanness, Yisra’ĕl had to be separated from the Set-Apart Land.

What is sad is that instead of being a light to the nations they had profaned His Name to the nations and in effect brought the Name of יהוה to nought as they continued to call upon false pagan deities and following the ways of the nations and their vain traditions.

What does it mean to profane? The word profane means to treat something sacred with abuse, irreverence or contempt. The Hebrew word is חלל – ḥālal (chalal – with a ch.. sound as in loch) and means to bore or pierce through or kill or wound or defile. What is very interesting to me is that the word for praise in Hebrew is הלל – halal (with a soft sound as in ha).

These two words differ with a slight difference is the stroke of the pen by means of a little tiny gap! In Praise the letter ה (hey) is used and in profane the letter ח (ḥet) is used. This may sound a little pedantic to some of you, but for me it makes me realise just how fine line it is between pure worship and profanity! Remember Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aharon who offered profane fire unto יהוה – they offered a false worship and got zapped!

Let me tell you why I find this very interesting in the closeness of these words – we see in the world today that there are many who claim to be born again believers of the Almighty yet in their worship they are offering profane worship and they cannot distinguish between the set-apart and the profane! The ‘church’ today is profaning the Name of יהוה and have not only brought His Name to nought but have profaned it by treating it with abuse, irreverence and contempt!

(SEE ATTACHED DIAGRAM AT THE END OF THE NOTES!!!)

In His wrath יהוה dispersed Yisra’ĕl and in a demonstration of His amazing grace he will vindicate His Name. יהוה had compassion upon His Name – that is He knows that His Name declares who He is – he is the One who causes to be – He caused man to be and so in His compassion for His Name and what it means He redeems His Covenant people!!!

It is all about His Name – it is all about worship. In Yo’ĕl we are told that ‘all’ who call upon the Name of יהוה will be saved!!! That is ‘all’ not some or a select few, but ALL. In other words, all who recognise that He is the One who gives life and causes us to be shall be saved. It is a recognition and acknowledgement of who made you, who created you to be and to whom you give your worship. Yes we know that no one comes to יהושע except if the Father draws him, so yes it is He who calls, but all who actually acknowledge the call and call upon His Name declaring Him as the I AM will be saved! This is where the fine line of profanity comes in – we are told to praise His Name, not profane it. We profane it when we misrepresent Him by following our own ways and deeds or rather the ways of the nations.

Profane worship is happening as we speak in the world today – think of all the Babylonian feasts of sun-worship of Christmas which is actually rooted in child sacrifice fertility rituals and Easter where infants again were offered up on the altar of Tammuz and Semiramis. Child sacrifice through murder and idolatry in fire offerings unto Molech are still very much being rehearsed as it were today in the form of profane worship unto the Almighty.

These profanities and defilements are what caused יהוה to scatter His people, but yet for the sake of His Name and his compassion for His Name He promises to take, gather and bring His people back to the Set-Apart Land!

When He says that He will take you from among the nations – we must understand that at Yeḥezqĕl’s time Yisra’ĕl had not been fully scattered totally into all the earth and so could not yet be gathered form all nations, yet in the years that have passed since then the dispersion has literally been fulfilled and so here this taking back, gathering and returning to the Land is referring to what is still to come and these events will be fully realised when the scattered members of the house of Yisra’ĕl are taken out of the nations. I believe that this process has begun in a great way – for many are being taken from – that is to come out of Babylon if you will – many are coming out by the hand of יהוה and He is beginning to gather together His own out of the nations and He alone will bring us back to the Land – this process has begun as many are calling upon His Name in acknowledgement of who He is, and may we realise afresh that it is not about us or for our sake, but rather for His Name’s sake!

He is calling people to be set-apart and He is gathering His Bride and when He comes for us He will take us to the Promised Land – we know that there will be attempts at a false orchestrated gathering in order to usher in the false Messiah, and there will also be false ‘gatherings’ of groups of people in an attempt at fulfilling this – may I remind you what is written here in this passage – He will gather His people – not any man or any organisation – He will gather; yet we must be watchful as children of light that we may walk steadfast in His commands able to discern the set-apart from the profane!

These events spoken of here are of a national cleansing, that when He gathers His Bride He will cleanse Her and then put a new heart and a new spirit within and he will cause us to walk in all His ways, to do them and once again dwell in the Land and be His people. This change is explained in a 4-fold way:

1 – Negatively – in that there is a removal – a removal of the old – praise Him for that

2 – Positively – A renewal – a new heart and a new spirit – causing us to live a life of total obedience

3 – Causatively – the Torah is written upon the heart causing us to live obediently

4 – Practically – by its manifestation – daily walking in His statutes and keeping His judgements

Although we individually go through a similar process when we accept יהושע Messiah as our Saviour and are immersed in His set-apart name, we die to self and are raised anew in Him, what we see being referred to here in this passage is a national redemption which has not yet occurred. What we have for now is a seal, a deposit of what is to come, and even the deposit we have now is sufficient for us to walk accordingly! Just as the faith of a mustard seed is sufficient for us to say to a mountain be removed, do to is this wonderful deposit that we have in Him, sufficient for us to walk in total obedience right here right now!

We must understand the wonder of His Name – the wonder of His compassion for His Name – that while we were yet sinners, He died for us – for His Name’s sake – His Name is upon us and He will never leave us nor forsake us for His Name’s sake!

We see the term ‘I shall’ used 18 times in this short section and the result of this we see is that Yisra’ĕl will have:

1 – Permanent occupation of the Land

2 – Covenant relationship with יהוה

3 – Protection against future lapsing into idolatry and immorality

4 – Abundant supply of food and all needs

At this point יהוה makes it very clear that He is doing and will do, all of this for the sake of His set-apart Name and so Yisra’ĕl should therefore blush and be ashamed! I wonder just how many of us have actually blushed and been ashamed of our wickedness, in our defilement, in our profane worship? I must admit the more I realise and recognise just how profane and defiled my attempt at worship was, the more I was ashamed and yes even blush in embarrassment before Him for following the way of the nations – I repented for being a ‘good Christian’!

What I love about this passage is the promises He gives – the sure Promises of The Land that will become desolate will become like Eden and the wasted, destroyed and deserted cities will become walled and inhabited.

The Nations that are left – that 1/3 that makes it through the Tribulation will know that He is יהוה – they will know that He is the One who causes to be, the One who gives existence – there is no other! And so just as Yerushalayim is filled with people at the appointed times, so shall all the wasted cities be filled with men – and all will know that He is יהוה.

I may have repeated myself tonight, but the essence of my message is simply this – it is all about His Name! Oh how I love Your Name יהוה! Perhaps it is a continuance of what יהוה has been speaking to us about of late over the past couple of weeks, when we looked at a message called, “Oh how I love your Torah יהוה” and last week looking at being imitators of Elohim from Ephesians we declared with joy, “Oh how I love to imitate יהוה our Elohim and so this week we can again declare our love for Him in professing, “Oh how I love Your Name, יהוה!”

By the Aaronic blessing found in Bemidbar/Numbers 6:24-26 is how the children of Yisra’ĕl is blessed and it is how we shall put His Name on the children of Yisra’ĕl, for He shall indeed Himself bless us.

As we His children have His Set-Apart Name upon us may we not be found defiling the place He has given us and may we not be found profaning His Name among the nations but rather shining his Truth and being a light to the nations that they may all know that He is the One who gives existence – He is יהוה. – It is All about His Name!

יהוה bless you and guard you; יהוה make His face shine upon you, and show favour to you; יהוה lift up His face upon you and give you peace.

As we carry His name may we truly understand the joy of bearing the Name that saves and continue to put our trust in יהוה to do that which we are incapable of doing ourselves and that is to cleanse us from sin, which is lawlessness and provide for us the power by His Spirit to live set-apart lives for His Name’s sake!

We have all heard the call to come out and be separate – may we truly live it as we worship and praise His Name being a light to many.  This is not a call to come out and hide, but a call to come out and be separate and SHINE!!!

Perhaps you have found at times that you have crossed that fine line or rather closed that tiny gap that exists between praise and profanity – hear these words of the One who give us our existence today – and may we serve Him with our all in Spirit and in Truth and let profanity or defilement never be found among us again. We give Him praise that by the Blood of יהושע we be partakers of the covenants of Promise as the One who causes us to be forever will cause us to be with Him – for it is all about His Name! Oh How I love Your Name, יהוה, You Are the All Existent One who causes me to be.

HalleluYah!

Shalom

DIAGRAM to show the ‘difference’ between praise and profanity:

What Sha’ul (Paul) is describing here in this passage, in his teaching, is in fact saying that children are to be like their parents. We are to imitate our Heavenly Father, יהוה our Elohim, and so this is the basis for Sha’ul’s instructions to us as children of the Most High EL!

The word used here in the Greek for imitators is ‘mimetes’ which means to impersonate or mimic. Now a mimic is one who impersonates and copies or is a replica of someone else. The word ‘imitate’ simply means to follow as a pattern, a model or an example; to be or appear like – in other words resemble and to produce a copy of or reproduce.

Sha’ul starts off this section with great clarity – we are to be imitators of Elohim and he gives us here 3 admonitions in this section we have just read on how we are to be imitators of Elohim in our daily walk.

1 – Yoḥanan Aleph/1 John 4:8 “The one who does not love does not know Elohim, for Elohim is love.”

Elohim is Love – Therefore – Walk in Love!

2 – Yoḥanan Aleph/1 John 1:5 “And this is the message which we have heard from Him and announce to you, that Elohim is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”

Elohim is light – therefore – Walk as children of light!

3 – Yoḥanan Aleph/1 John 5:6 “This is the One that came by water and blood: יהושע Messiah, not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is the Truth.”

Elohim is the Truth – therefore – Walk in wisdom!

It is these three ‘walks’ that I want us to look at in hearing Sha’ul’s exhortation to us to walk in purity as we as children of Elohim seek to imitate Him:

1 – WALK IN LOVE! (1-2)

This admonition first up here in verse 2 to walk in love ties in with the last two verses of chapter 4 where Sha’ul warns against bitterness and anger – the very things we discussed on this past 5^th day evening here. We cannot hold on to grudges and hurts and bitterness, which sadly is very tragic when these very attitudes surface in the family of Elohim. It takes real love in the heart for love covers a multitude of sins:

Kepha Aleph/1 Peter 4:8 “And above all have fervent love for one another, because love covers a great number of sins.”

Fervent love we are to have for one another and the reasons to walk in love, Sha’ul makes very clear for us here:

1 – We belong to Elohim! – He gave Himself for us, for He loved us first and now we get to walk in that love – how – through obedience – just as Yahushua was totally obedient to the Father’s instructions, and learnt obedience. He bought us at a price and we are His – we belong to the Mighty Elohim, יהוה of Hosts is His Name and this is why we are to walk in Love!

2 – We are His beloved children! – יהוה our Father speaks of us in the same way He spoke of יהושע Messiah when in Mattithyahu/Matthew 3:17 He said, “This is My Son, the Beloved”, and here we see Sha’ul referring to us to as Beloved children of Elohim. The Father loves us as He loves His Son –

Yoḥanan/John 17:23 “I in them, and You in Me, so that they might be perfected into one, so that the world knows that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

We are born into a relationship with Elohim through the Blood of Messiah that must result in our showing our love to Him by how we live in our daily walk unto Him:

Yoḥanan Aleph/1John 5:3 “For this is the love for Elohim, that we guard His commands, and His commands are not heavy”

3 – We were purchased at a price! – Our Love for Elohim is a response to His love for us. Sha’ul compares the sacrifice of Messiah as a sweet smelling fragrance, and as we know all of the offerings that carried the sweet swelling aroma that was presented at the altar was a foreshadow of the pleasing aroma of the sacrifice of Messiah unto Elohim, and the very idea of it being a sweet smelling fragrance is that it is pleasing to Elohim. In Wayyiqra/Leviticus 1-3 we see the burnt offering, meal offering and peace offering all being sweet smelling offerings. The burnt offering represents the Messiah’s total devotion to the will of the Father; the meal offering represented His perfection of character and the peace offering represented His making peace between Elohim and sinners. The sin and trespass offerings in Wayyiqra/Leviticus 4-5 picture for us the Messiah taking the place of the sinner, which were never described as sweet smelling offerings – as there is certainly nothing sweet smelling about sin!!!

As we walk in Love we are to realise that this is fundamental to our daily living walk as the children of Elohim; and so too are we to be a sweet aroma in our walk of love, showing complete devotion, being perfected daily in our character as we go through trials of many kinds for which we rejoice, aměn, walking in the knowledge that we have peace with Elohim enabling us to show that to others. The truth of the matter is simply this – if we walk in love we will not disobey Elohim!!!

It is so sad to see today just how many people think that they are walking in love yet have a total disregard for His Torah – they are in fact not walking in love or in the spirit but rather walking in the flesh satisfying their own theologies and traditions that are in contradiction to the very living Torah of Elohim! Walking in His Torah is walking in His Love and by this – by guarding His commands we in turn are faithfully and well equipped in loving others:

Romiyim/Romans 13:8 “Owe no one any matter except to love one another, for he who loves another has filled the Torah.”

And we know that His love – His very Torah has been poured out into our hearts by the Ruach of Elohim:

Romiyim/Romans 5:5 “And expectation does not disappoint, because the love of Elohim has been poured out in our hearts by the Set-apart Spirit which was given to us.”

So as Elohim is Love – may we be imitators of Elohim and walk in Love!

2 – WALK AS CHILDREN OF LIGHT (3-14)

Since Elohim is light as we read earlier, and in Him there is no darkness – then we who are desperate to imitate our Father should too walk in light and have absolutely nothing to do with darkness. In Hebrew the understanding of light and darkness in likened to knowledge and ignorance – we have the knowledge (the light) and walk in that knowledge (light) and not in ignorance (darkness). Too many are wilfully ignorant not wanting the knowledge and therefore the Truth is not in them and they cannot walk as children of light! We must have nothing to do with darkness and sin, which is lawlessness:

Why?

1 – Because we are set-apart ones! (3-4) – We are His and no longer belong to the world of darkness that is around us:

Kepha Aleph/1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a set-apart nation, a people for a possession, that you should proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light”

In this passage in Eph’siyim Sha’ul warns us against any form of immorality and sexual sin which was very prevalent in his day and so too it is today – perhaps even worse today than then for we see more and more the attack on youth and even young children through subliminal messaging in cartoons that is programming them to engage in sexual immorality and feed the flesh! We know that sexual sin is a major cause for many family breakups and this is a real ploy by the enemy to destroy the very picture of the marriage between Messiah, the Lamb and His Bride. Sha’ul also warns us to not let covetousness or greed even be named among us! How inviting it is in the world to want what others have – the power of advertising catches many and leads them into greed and covetousness – wanting what others have – just to have it! Now placing greed and whorring in the same breath almost sounds out of place, yet it is not as they are simply two different expressions of the wickedness of the flesh – an uncontrolled appetite! The one who whores and the one who is greedy or covets both seek to satisfy their appetites by taking what does not belong to them! The lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh is what best describes these and Sha’ul says let these not be named among you – in other words do not even let there be a hint of it – no uncleanness!!! In verse 4 he goes on to warn us about the sins of the tongue – oh boy that is difficult for most of us at times – and it shouldn’t be!!! Sins of the tongue reveal sin in the heart. What is supposed to be upon our heart is His Torah, not lawlessness! Out of the overflow of the heart so a man speaks – we speak what is in our heart – our talk can reveal much of what is going on inside – and what should be going on is Light and Love, not darkness and lawlessness! For children of the light it is not fitting to use the tongue for nonsense but rather for thanksgiving! As we walk in the light, our hearts will always or rather should always season our speech with salt – favour in the heart means favour on the lips! This is a huge one for many – come on how many of you have let your tongue loose only to regret every word when lined up in accordance to the Word of Elohim! How is your speech in other words? We are told in Colossians that whatever we do whether in word or deed, do in in the Name of Yahushua – can your words be linked to Yahushua – the Living Word – if not then do not say it and have your heart cleansed by His Word!

2 – We are a Royal Priesthood (5-6) – Once we were darkness but now in the light. Being now a chosen race, a royal priesthood and a set-apart nation we are to have no part with those who partake in darkness. The word in verse 5 used for whores is the Greek word ‘pornos’ form which we get the word pornographic – which simply means the practice of illicit sex! The morally unclean and the greedy will join the fornicator in judgement. However we, as children of light, have an inheritance in the reign of Messiah and Elohim and for this reason we are to have nothing to do with darkness!

3 – We are Light (7-14) – Sha’ul says, if you notice correctly, that we were once darkness, not once in darkness but once darkness – we were darkness – ignorant –in sin – but now we are light – we have knowledge in Messiah What communion does light have to do with darkness? Light produces fruit and darkness is fruitless! A knowledgeable farmer will produce great fruit and harvest much when he uses that which he has been given wisely, yet an ignorant farmer who knows nothing will yield nothing and that which he was given will be taken from him! The works of darkness Sha’ul says is fruitless. The light produces goodness – which is love in action – for we walk in the good works prepared in advance for us – that is to walk in His Torah, the light produces also righteousness which speaks of our right character before Elohim – how we live daily in obedience obeying and guarding to do all He commands, and what we see clearly is that both of these qualities – goodness and righteousness are based upon Truth – which is a conformity to his Word eager to do His good pleasing will!

We know that Yahushua had much to say about Light and Darkness:

Mattithyahu/Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, so that they see your good works and praise your Father who is in the heavens.”

Yoḥanan/John 3:20-21 “For everyone who is practising evil matters hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But the one doing the truth comes to the light, so that his works are clearly seen, that they have been wrought in Elohim.”

To walk as children of light is to walk before the eyes of Elohim not hiding anything! It is often very easy to hide things form others as we cannot see their hearts and minds – but we are to remember that all is laid bare before Elohim, our Maker and our Husband:

Iḇ’rim/Hebrews 4:13 “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all are naked and laid bare before the eyes of Him with whom is our account.”

Walking in the light simply means to reveal that very light daily in our lives through our character, conduct and speech as we make every opportunity to bring the light of Elohim in to a dark world, helping others to see the light of truth in יהוה.

His Light, His knowledge in us reveals יהוה and produces fruit and at the same times exposes the darkness. When you walk as children of light – imitating our Father – know that darkness will be revealed around you and this perhaps may be a major reason why His Bride is but a remnant – simply because too many in their ignorance of the Truth do not want their darkness to be exposed! We as children of light are to have no business with darkness for we are set-apart and royal and are qualified to share in the inheritance of the set-apart ones:

Qolasim/Colossians 1:12 “giving thanks to the Father who has made us fit to share in the inheritance of the set-apart ones in the light” Come on this ought to make us give Him praise and thanks!!!

 Imitating the Father will cause us to walk in Love, Walk as children of Light and …

3 – WALK IN WISDOM (15-17)

Sha’ul tells us to see that we walk exactly – ‘akribos’ in the Greek which means ‘perfectly, accurately, diligently, and exactly’!!! This is a strong instruction as it leaves little room for error – we have the Torah and we are to walk perfectly as wise children of the Most High El! This is totally opposite to the notion of living a carefree or careless walk that has no guidance and direction. We are to always be seeking wisdom for which the Father promises to those who ask. In verse 14 it appears that Sha’ul is kind of saying, “do not walk in your sleep”, and rightly so for we see masses of people today walking around as though asleep or dead to the Torah – they are like zombies – the walking dead – totally blind and oblivious to the Word and Torah of יהוה.

Mattithyahu/Matthew 5:48 “Therefore, be perfect, as your Father in the heavens is perfect.”

Luqas/Luke 6:36 “Therefore be compassionate, as your Father also is compassionate.”

Be perfect, be compassionate – just like our Father, and this we can do only as we walk in wisdom which is cultivated through knowledge and understanding which comes in the doing of the knowledge you find in His Torah! We are to be accurate and careful and diligent in our walk… why?

1 – It is a sign of wisdom – Fools will drift with the wind and tides of the pressure of life, while the wise will set his course, set his sights and guide his rudder on toward his destination. We as wise Master builders – that is building the Master’s way – set our course, fixing our eyes on Yahushua the author and Perfector or Prince of our faith, and if He is the Author of our faith then we will joyfully look intently in to what He has written in His Word and allow our rudder, that is our tongue to guide us as we continue to make the good confession of faith through our wilderness journey, making ourselves ready and looking for our Husband who is coming to fetch us – and the only way to do this is to walk in the wisdom of His instructions – for His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path – without His word we will be lost – without His Torah we would be lost – may we as we imitate our Father, walk as wise children.

2 – Life is short and the days are wicked (16) – We must redeem the time we have wisely and take every advantage and opportunity to witness to others as we walk in love, light and wisdom. In Sha’ul’s time the wicked days meant Roman persecution was on the way and as we know the days ahead of us are wicked days – such as none has ever been seen before, and so may we not be found foolishly wasting our time but be wise in being accurate and careful in our walk. My daughter, Catherine, had a dream 2 nights back which I feel is very fitting for what we are saying here tonight. She dreamt that we were here on earth and there was a great commotion as the crowds were streaming off together proclaiming, ‘Jesus is here’, and what was even more interesting was that even those who never attended a church service or believed in a Creator were running with all of the crowd. She then said that they were suddenly all gone – and we, who follow יהושע were left and there was total peace. What she said she felt was a deep regret that she never got to tell her friends the Truth. I believe that this dream is very powerful, how the Father can teach her and show her with great insight as to what is coming, and also believe it is a warning for us to not waste our time! We are to be telling everyone we know about the True Living Elohim and Messiah, יהושע. May we be found to accurately be walking in the Truth with great wisdom, imitating our Father that the world may see and know that יהוה is Elohim!

3 – Elohim has given us a mind – use it wisely (17) – Understanding what His desire is and not being foolish suggests to us that we are to use that which He has given us – our minds in order to discover the good and pleasing will of Elohim. Let me remind you that discovering His will is not some mystical experience to be pursued and pursuing any avenue toward any mystical teachings – even Rabbinical Judaism through Talmudic teachings or kabbalist practices and magic arts is very dangerous. We discover His will simply as our minds are renewed and we are transformed through this renewing of our minds as a diligent and accurate discipline of daily reading and meditating on His Torah, prayer, worship and fellowship, living as wise builders who build upon the Rock – יהושע Messiah!

יהוה not only wants us to know His will (that is to have knowledge) but to also understand His will as we do His will by faith applying the very pure knowledge of His Torah.

What Sha’ul was emphasising here in this section is on the contrast between our new life in Messiah, for which we imitate Him by walking in Love, Light and Wisdom as contrasted to the old life of selfishness, darkness and foolishness.

May we be found to be gladly, as children of the Light, imitators of Elohim by walking in Love that is His Truth, walking as children of Light – that is walking in His Knowledge and walking in Wisdom – that is the result of love and light faithfully combined.

Impersonating יהוה takes intentional living as we make the right choices daily to walk in Him and it takes an intimacy with יהוה which will never happen if we do not invest our time wisely with Him for we can never be like somebody we do not know.

Now as I said earlier most children do not often agree with great enthusiasm that they are to be like their parents, and for some we could well agree, but for us as children of יהוה our Elohim, there is great delight and joy in seeking every single moment we have to be like our Father. So then may we heed to admonitions of Sha’ul and follow Messiah in Love, avoid immorality, refrain from obscene language, do not allow others to deceive us as we test everything back to His Word as wise children, walking in the light, seeking His will and actually doing it and at every opportunity let us do good, aměn!

This teaching may simply be a wonderful reminder of who our Father is and what a joy it is to imitate Him, for others it may be a sober reminder that perhaps impersonating יהוה has been the least concern on your mind as you have perhaps found yourself in some dark places where there seems to be no light – may this admonition and instruction of equipping that Sha’ul gives us hear by the breathe of Elohim teach us, reproof us, set us straight and train us in righteousness that we can be great imitators of Elohim!

Tehillim/Psalm 1 “Blessed is the man who shall not walk in the counsel of the wrong, and shall not stand in the path of sinners, and shall not sit in the seat of scoffers, 2 But his delight is in the Torah of יהוה, and he meditates in His Torah day and night. 3 For he shall be as a tree Planted by the rivers of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and whose leaf does not wither, and whatever he does prospers. 4 The wrong are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wrong shall not rise in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6 For יהוה knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wrong comes to naught.”

Let us delight in His Torah and imitate Him – there is no other way – oh how I love to imitate my Father that it too can be said of me like Father, like Son!

יהוה bless you and guard you; יהוה make His face shine upon you and give you favour; יהוה lift up His face to you and give you peace!

Shalom

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Shalom to you all, may you truly be blessed in יהוה as we enjoy this fellowship together in Him, aměn!  How many of you have heard the expression, or rather I am sure you are aware of the expression, “Oh how I love…!” Ever found yourself saying that? Perhaps over a favourite food, like ice cream or chocolate, or perhaps over shopping, or reading a book, walking on the beach or even as I have said in my life… pumping iron! Do we realise the impact of our words and how the very words we speak in fact have a critical role in determining our steps and motives and then ultimately doing that “which we love”.  

Love is expressed in obedience as we naturally tend to do that which we love to do rather than that which we hate! As we know in Scripture in Yoḥanan Bět/2 John:6 “And this is the love, that we walk according to His commands.” Speaking here of loving one another; and in Yoḥanan Aleph/1 John 5:3 “For this is love for Elohim, that we guard His commands, and His commands are not heavy.”

Our love for יהוה is expressed in our obedience to His commands – to His Torah! So now understanding that, do you think we can we truly say, based on our actions that ought to correspond with our confession of faith, that we love His Torah? My message tonight is simply called, “Oh how I love Your Torah, יהוה!” and it is the words that we see being declared by Dawiḏ in Tehillim/Psalm 119. Psalm 119 is a beautifully constructed masterpiece that truly expresses the psalmists love for the Torah of YHWH. In this Tehillim/Psalm we see various words used repeatedly in reference to the instructions, decrees, words and ordinances etc. of יהוה .Throughout the entire Tehillim/Psalm 119 there is in every verse one of the following expressions; except for one verse and that is verse 122 and these ten expressions correspond to or rather point us to ‘The 10 Words’ or as we know it as the Ten Commandments:  So let us take a brief look at these ’10 words of Tehillim/Psalm 119’:

1 – ‘Torah – תּוֹרָה’ is used 25 times and refers to the whole body of Scriptures teaching and instructions as found in the writings of Mosheh.  Torah, from its root, means – to aim or point in the right direction and move or shoot in that way. We fix our eyes on Yahushua – the Living Torah – and walk in Him! The Word is first used in Berěshith/ Genesis 26:5 in the Plural and in this Tehillim/Psalm 119 it is used in the following verses:  1, 18, 29, 34, 44, 51, 53, 55, 61, 70, 72, 77, 85, 92, 97, 109, 113, 126, 136, 142, 150, 153, 163, 165, 174.

2 – ‘Mitsvah – מִצְוָה‘ meaning ‘commandments’ from the word ‘zavah’ which is to set up or constitute and hence speaks of the constitutional or set up commands and is used 22 times referring to the clear definitive directives issued by יהוה. Used first in Berěshith/Genesis 26:5 and here used in the following verses: 6, 10, 19, 21, 32, 35, 47, 48, 60, 66, 73, 86, 96 (sing.), 98, 115, 127, 131, 143, 151, 166, 172, and 176.

3 – ‘Derek’ – דֶּרֶךְ – means ‘way’ from ‘darak’ which is to tread with the feet and speaks of the act of walking – how we are to walk in Him! It is used 13 times in this Tehillim/Psalm. First occurrence is Berěshith/Genesis 3:24 and in this Tehillim/Psalm in the following verses: 1, 3, 5, 14, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 37, 59, 168.

4 – ‘Eduth’ – עֵדוּת – meaning ‘commandments’ from the word ‘ud’ which is to turn back, or go over again or to reiterate, hence to testify, occurring 23 times in this Tehillim/Psalm. The first occurrence Berěshith/Genesis 21:30. It occurs in this Tehillim/Psalm twenty-three times; nine times (‘eduth), vv. 14, 31, 36, 88, 99, 111, 129, 144, 157; fourteen times (‘edah, fem. sing.), vv. 2, 22, 24, 46, 59, 79, 95, 119, 125, 138, 146, 152, 167, 168. In Shemoth/Exodus 31:18 which we will be reading as part of this week’s torah portion in the morning speaks of the two tablets or stones of the witness and is the word ‘eduth’, speaking clearly of His commandments!

5 – ‘Pikkudim’ – פִּקּוּדִים – translated as ‘precepts’ and refers to mandates that are joined together – precept upon precept! It is used 21 times here in 119. It occurs only in the Book of Tehillim/Psalms (see 19:8; 103:18; 111:7). In this Tehillim/Psalm in the following: 4, 15, 27, 40, 45, 56, 63, 69, 78, 87, 93, 94, 100, 104, 110, 128, 134, 141, 159, 168, and 173.

6 – ‘Imrah’ – אִמְרָה – Translates as ‘word’ from ‘amar’ which is to bring forth light, hence to say and is rendered as ‘speech’ and is used 19 times here in 119.First occurrence in Berěshith/Genesis 4:23 rendered as ‘speech’ and here, 11, 38, 41, 50, 58, 67, 76, 82, 103, 116, 123, 133, 140, 148, 154, 158, 162, 170, 172.

7 – ‘Mishpat’ – מִשְׁפָּט – means judgement and is from ‘shaphat’ which is to set upright or erect, hence to judge and is used here 23 times. First occurrence in Berěshith/Genesis 18:19. Here: 7, 13, 20, 30, 39, 43, 52, 62, 75, 84, 91, 102, 106, 108, 120, 121, 132, 137, 149, 156, 160, 164, 175.

8 – ‘Tsedek, Tsedekah, Tsaddik’ – צֶדֶק צְדָקָה צַדִּיק 3 words used here is this Tehillim/Psalm translated as righteousness and are collectively used 15 times here. By comparing the first occurrence (Wayyiqra/Leviticus. 19:15) with the second (Wayyiqra/Leviticus. 19:36) we get the idea that the word has special reference to equal balancing. Tsedek (masculine.) occurs twelve times, and is rendered “righteousness” : vv. 123, 142 (second), 144, 172; “right”, v. 7, 62, 106, 138, 160, 164; “justice”, v. 121.  Tsedakah (feminine), first occurrence, Berěshith/Genesis 15:6.  In Tehillim/Psalm 119, “righteousness”, vv. 40, 142 (first).  Tsaddik (adj.), spoken of a king (Shemuʼĕl Bet/2 Samuel . 23:3), once, in v. 137. 

9 – ‘Hoq and Hukka’ – חק חֻקֶּי – Statutes – from the word meaning to cut, engrave or inscribe, hence to decree or ordain making decrees or ordianances. It is used 22 times. First occurrence in Berěshith/Genesis 26:5. Here: 5, 8, 12, 16, 23, 26, 33, 48, 54, 64, 68, 71, 80, 83, 112, 117, 118, 124, 135, 145, 155, 171.

10 – ‘Daḇar’ – דָּבָר – ‘Word or Words’ and means to arrange in a row or set forth in speech and refers to that which has been stated or spoken, used 24 times here, usually giving reference to the 10 Words spoken at Mount Sinai. First occurrence in Berěshith/Genesis 11:1. Here: 9, 16, 17, 25, 28, 42 (twice), 43, 49, 57 (pl.), 65, 74, 81, 89, 101, 105, 107, 114, 130 (pl.), 139 (pl.), 147, 160, 161, 169.

Ok, are you still all with me? A whole lot of Hebrew words at once – crazy I know, but what I am showing you is in a nutshell the wonder and design of this magnificent Psalm which praises יהוה and His Word as Dawiḏ continually expresses the joy he finds in Scripture.  I know we cannot expect to dissect the entire Tehillim here tonight; however what I want to do briefly is look at a section of this alphabetic Psalm – alphabetic as it contains 22 sections just as there are 22 letters in the Hebrew Aleph Bet (alphabet), each with 8 verses and within each section each verse begins with the Hebrew letter of that section. The section I want to look at is from verse 97-104 in the section known as ‘Mem’ – the letter ‘mem’ in Hebrew (מ)  is known as the letter of water and is so pictured in the Ancient text, and symbolises the ‘spring’ of Torah and so may we be immersed in His Word that washes us, aměn!

Turn with me to Tehillim 119:97 (Read).

Oh how I love your Torah is how Dawiḏ begins this section! Oh how I love your Torah – something we too are to declare. In what we have just read I would like to give you 6 reasons why we are to praise יהוה and love His Torah, understanding clearly that ‘Torah’ in the Hebrew mind-set simply means a set of instructions from a father to his children and violation of these instructions will result in discipline in order to foster and teach obedience, training his children in the way they should go and grow in maturity.

The Torah of יהוה is the way of life from birth to death that יהוה teaches us in how to live a set-apart life growing in maturity and pleasing Him in every way, bringing esteem to His Name!

Let us look at why Dawiḏ declared his love for the Torah and may we too learn to do the same:

A – THE TORAH TEACHES US WISDOM (97-100)

Dawiḏ declared that the Torah makes him wiser than his enemies – why? Because it is ever before me he says. In other words, “I constantly have Your Word before me יהוה.” – I make it my own and take responsibility with that which you have freely given me, and by it I have more understanding than my teachers – why? Because I study your witnesses and I meditate on your Word. I can understand more than the aged – why? Because I have observed your orders – in other words I do what your Word says to do! Wisdom is gained through cultivating knowledge and understanding – when we reject the knowledge of the Torah we will never gain understanding in the doing and so be wise in our ways. Mishlĕ/Proverbs 4:7 tells us that whatever you do, get wisdom and in getting it get understanding! We cannot get wisdom if we are not growing in the Knowledge of the Torah. Hoshea/ Hosea 4:6 tells us that His people are dying for lack of knowledge. This Torah is not for the elite only, but for all who call upon the Name of יהוה!

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 2:1-8 “My son, if you accept my words, And treasure up my commands with you, 2 So that you make your ear attend to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding; 3 For if you cry for discernment, Lift up your voice for understanding, 4 If you seek her as silver, And search for her as hidden treasures, 5 Then you would understand the fear of יהוה, And find the knowledge of Elohim. 6 For יהוה gives wisdom; Out of His mouth come knowledge and understanding. 7 And He treasures up stability for the straight, a shield to those walking blamelessly, 8 to watch over the paths of right-ruling, and the way of His kind ones He guards.”

Out of His mouth – His very words – comes knowledge and understanding, and when that is cultivated in obedience and is worked out in faithful living, wisdom grows! The Torah gives us the wisdom we need and that is why we love it!

B – THE TORAH TEACHES US SET-APARTNESS (101)

There is a way to please יהוה and it is found in His Torah and His Writings. Faith as we know according to Scripture comes by hearing the Word and without faith it is impossible to please יהוה. יהוה has made His instructions very plain for us – He has certainly not demanded things from us that He has not told us how to do it – His Torah is His instructions for us and teaches us how to live a set-apart life stripping away the worldly junk that has so easily fastened itself to us through traditions and lies! When our hearts are seeking after יהוה then we can begin to take that which He writes upon our heart and guard to do all we hear, becoming a set-apart people unto Him as we learn from His Torah!

Tehillim/Psalm 119:11 “I have treasured up Your word in my heart, That I might not sin against You.”

Tehillim/Psalm 119:105-106 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. 106 I have sworn, and I confirm, To guard Your righteous right-rulings.”

Without His Torah, we cannot ever be able to learn how to be a set-apart people, but with his Torah we are able to be restrained from evil ways. The churches are teaching lawlessness and all you see more and more is not a set-apart people but rather corrupt hypocrites that compromise their way of daily living in many ways assuming a claim to be under a ‘grace’ that is nothing other than a perversion of the Truth as a licence to sin and be lawless! Living set-apart is not easy, but oh how we love His Torah that teaches us set-apartness!

C – THE TORAH TEACHES US FAITHFULNESS (102)

Dawiḏ credits יהוה for teaching him the way and in a sense is writing and declaring the faithfulness of יהוה – For You Yourself have taught me! יהוה never left Dawiḏ on his own to try and figure it all out –  יהוה instructed him – through the Torah – instructing him in righteousness, for as we know Sha’ul writes to Timotiyos that all Scripture is breathed by Elohim and is profitable for teaching, reproof, setting straight and for instruction in righteousness. Dawiḏ knew this and his obedience was an outward expression of his gratitude to יהוה and His faithfulness. You see, how you act in response to the instructions and commands and precepts and ordinances – collectively His Torah – demonstrates your faithfulness toward Him and your gratitude for His faithfulness toward you! You want to learn how to be faithful and stop turning aside to evil ways – then let the Torah of יהוה teach you and be led by His Ruach (Spirit) in all Truth! When we ignore the commands of Elohim, we in effect are abusing His faithfulness for our own hedonism – hedo what? Hedonism – that is the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the sole or chief good in life! In other words – when people are chasing their own pleasure and happiness regardless of the cost they will naturally turn away from the straight and narrow way and easily forsake their faithful walk. Too many today claim to be faithful followers yet you find them forsaking the Sabbath for example to satisfy their pleasures in sport or other activities many claim they deserve for working so hard!

When we obey His commands we show that we have learned the true meaning of faithfulness, which is sticking to His Torah even when it at times does not seem pleasurable to the flesh or impeding circumstances, as we have learned it from Him through His Torah! Come on you gotta love the Torah! The Torah teaches us to keep on keeping on!!!

D – THE TORAH TEACHES US HOPE (103)

Dawiḏ certainly had a lot of bad things happen to him during his life, as he faced death many times from people, including his rebellious son. Dawiḏ as we all know was a murderer and an adulterer and everyone knew it. He faced public shame more than once – that is for sure – and lost many family members to death. Yet here he speaks of the Word of יהוה as something sweeter than honey! Dawiḏ never let go of the hope he had in יהוה!

It is the Torah that teaches us wisdom, set-apartness and faithfulness and it is the Torah which gives us hope through the storms! Let me ask you all, ‘who is going through some pretty rough storms right now or seemingly headed toward one?’

May I remind you that יהושע calmed 2 storms that we know of  – remember the first when ?He and His disciples were out on the lake and a storm arose while יהושע was sleeping and the disciples woke Him up afraid and He calmed the storm and the second time when the disciples were sent out ahead of Him and during the night a storm arose that left them in a state of fear and יהושע came walking upon the water eventually getting in the boat and calming the storm. Well this is the sweetness of the Torah that Dawiḏ was speaking about – The Torah is sweeter than any bitter storm or battle that you may find yourself in and the only One who can bring that sweet honey taste is יהושע – the Living Torah. His word is Alive, aměn!

Let me tell you:

The wise man knows the power of יהושע through His Torah!

The set-apart man knows the goodness of יהושע through His Torah!

The faithful man knows the dependability of יהושע through His Torah!

The wise, set-apart, faithful man knows that hope does not give in to trouble for as we know through the Torah that יהושע is the powerful, good and dependable foundation of his life!

We love the Torah for it teaches us hope!

E – THE TORAH TEACHES US TRUTH (104)

In Yoḥanan/John 18:38 Pontius Pilate asked יהושע “What is Truth?” He was speaking to the Truth and he didn’t even know it. Right now we live in a time where so many people are so blinded by their sin that they do not see the Truth even when it is right before their eyes! What is sin?

Yoḥanan Aleph/1 John 3:4 “Everyone doing sin also does lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.”

There you have it – as simple as it is has been written – sin is lawlessness – the Greek word ‘anomia’ which means ‘violation of law’ or better translated ‘violation of Torah’. Sin is torahlessness! And so the majority of professing Christians today who simply refuse to submit to the Torah are in violation of it and they, without the Torah in their lives cannot discern right from wrong. I mean think about it – the world cannot discern whether it is wrong to abort a baby or whether it is wrong for a man to lie with another man – to which many today in church are teaching tolerance or acceptance of these immoral acts in direct violation of the Torah of Elohim!

In a world primarily led in lawless living – that is living in contradiction to the Torah of Elohim – we must realise that His Torah is that which holds us to the Truth – it is the very Rock upon which we stand – יהושע – our Rock teaches us through His Word how to discern and rightly divide the Truth from falsehood and lawlessness! Without Torah we cannot know the Truth, just as Pontius Pilate did not know! In noting what Dawiḏ says here in verse 104 – in that he hated every false way – I have begun to understand more and more just what he is declaring here. Knowing the Truth leads to us hating lies! I can agree with this as the more we learn of His Truth and embrace it and grow in wisdom, the more we hate the falsehood and lies and twisted ways of the ‘church’! If you do not hate something that is evil you will tend to become tolerant of it and will even be drawn to fully accept it and may even walk in its deception and lies. We must hate that which is evil and cling to that which is good – His Torah is that which is good – not a twisted application and disregard for it sold under a false banner of grace! It is the Torah that teaches us truth. The Torah is our schoolmaster that leads us to יהושע – the Way, The Truth and the Life! There are also many who claim to be in the Truth yet they are not as they may be in a lot of ‘stuff’ and teachings that are only leading to fear and not in the Truth and love that casts out all fear!

We love the Torah for it teaches us TRUTH!!!

F – THE TORAH TEACHES US BROKENNESS

The 6^th and final point I want to give tonight is not directly linked to this passage, yet is truly a significant reason for us to love His Torah – and that is that His Torah teaches us brokenness and humility!

Romiyim/Romans 7:7 “What, then, shall we say? Is the Torah sin? Let it not be! However, I did not know sin except through the Torah. For also the covetousness I knew not if the Torah had not said, “You shall not covet.”

The Torah of Elohim is like an x-ray machine that reveals to us who we are or who we were! We were sick from sin –that is lawlessness (Torahlessness), but we would not have known that if the Torah did not teach us and we would have never been able to find healing from the very Living Word. Many do not like to hear and discuss the Torah as it exposes them in their lawlessness; however it is always good to show a sick person his true condition!  The Torah teaches us very quickly to lose pride and arrogance, sadly many struggle at this as they use knowledge in a puffed up state rather than to grow in understanding through doing and in wisdom! The Torah teaches us humility and service – as long as we hear, guard and do!

We love the Torah of יהוה!

Scripture is sweet to our taste as it renews life; it is the joy of our heart; it sustains hope; it shape our values; it gives understanding to the simple and gives us confidence in prayer and it is filled with promises and causes us to praise – in fact it causes us  to overflow with praise!!! DO YOU LOVE THE TORAH!!!

Let us now read the entire Tehillim/Psalm 119 and be truly touched by the power of these very words of praise for the Torah of יהוה

Prayer and Praise…… 

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Tsephanyah means, ‘hidden by Yah’ or ‘treasured by Yah’ and we can see how pertinent his name was to the essence of this message. This prophecy was a warning of the coming day of YHWH when His wrath will be poured out and the only hope that the people of YHWH would have would be to turn back to Him and be hidden in Him, sheltered from His anger.

One of the major problems with Yehuḏah at this time was the fact that they had become very complacent in their worship unto YHWH, of which verse 12 gives us great insight into this. The language of this verse would have caused Yehuḏah to think possibly upon the Passover when every family would take a lit candle and search out every nook and cranny in their house in order to remove any leaven (yeast) that might be there. In this same manner YHWH would search every inch of Yerushalayim in order to punish the sin that was there – and the sin that is being spoken of here is that of complacency!

Now we know that sin can primarily be grouped into 2 groups:

1 – sins of commission – that is when we do something we are not supposed to do, and:

2 – sins of omission – that is when we neglect to do the things we should do!

Both of these groups can be a result of complacency, and what provokes YHWH to anger is the kind of complacency that accepts sin as a lifestyle simply because many do not even think that YHWH cares about our sin and that He will do nothing about it! From this letter, one must understand that it is very clear that YHWH was not speaking to ‘outsiders’ but rather to His children – or rather those who claim to be His children and claim to love Him! It is complacency that I want us to address tonight, as it is a very real problem still in our day, in our greatest attempt in worshipping YHWH our Elohim!

YHWH will search out for those complacent ones; or rather in verse 12 we read that He will search and punish those who are ‘settled on their dregs’! Now the word for ‘settled’ in Hebrew is ‘qapha’ which means, ‘settled or thickened’ and has the meaning also of a person who has fulfilled a satisfying existence as a figurative extension of a thickened substance that does not move easily, in other words it can carry the meaning in this context as one who is stuck in their ways.

‘Dregs’ is the sediment that is contained in a liquid – that which is left in the wine to age and then strained off, for if it is left there too long it will destroy the wine, as the dregs is the most undesirable part. It is the Hebrew word ‘shemer’ and in this context spoken of here it can refer to those who are indifferent or inactive. Almost a description of those who will just simply go with the flow so to speak – do whatever to get by with no care of the effect of complacency and so causing the rest to be ruined!

Many translations simply use the English word ‘complacent’ here for ‘settled on their dregs’ and is a very fitting description. Complacent simply means ‘marked by complacency’, where ‘complacency means ‘self-satisfaction, especially when accompanied by the unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies! How true is this description of many today? They are self-satisfied unaware of real dangers and deficiency in the purity of their worship!

A very similar message to this prophetic warning that may be well known to us when speaking of the end days is the very message given in Ḥazon/Revelation 3 to the assembly in Laodicea, known to us as the ‘lukewarm’ assembly. They were neither hot nor cold and Yahushua says that the lukewarm He spits out! In other words complacency has no place as a form of worship unto YHWH, Yahushua will spit out the complacent – those who are self-satisfied, stuck in their ways unwilling to be changed by His Word – those who go with the masses who are seeking their own satisfaction by any means!

This prophetic warning is as real for us today as it was for Yehuḏah back then!

So how do we then guard against complacency in our relationship with YHWH?

I am glad you asked, for Tsephanyah describes for us a number of underlying problems that were happening within Yehuḏah, problems that led to a complacent lifestyle, a lifestyle that could cost them their lives! These problems leading to complacency can be grouped into 3 major components. Let us look at these three and allow the mirror of His word to reveal to us what we look like…

1 – FAILURE TO SEEK YHWH!

In verse 6 Tsephanyah writes “…and those who turn away from following YHWH, and who have not sought YHWH or inquired of Him.”

There were many who had stopped seeking YHWH and had become complacent in their lifestyle, worshipping other mighty ones and were ‘swearing by YHWH and swearing by Malkam’. They had stopped calling upon or seeking YHWH, and were worshipping other mighty ones as they perhaps sought to satisfy the flesh. Dawiḏ, while he was in the Wilderness wrote how we are to seek YHWH in Tehillim/Psalms 63:1:

“O Elohim, You are my El; I earnestly seek You; my being has thirsted for You; my flesh has longed for You in a dry and thirsty land without water.”

Yehuḏah, at large was not seeking YHWH – they had lost their hunger and thirst for Him. Are you seeking YHWH like Dawiḏ describes in your life right now? Are you thirsting for YHWH the way you would thirst for water if you were stranded in the middle of the Karoo in the height of summer without any water supply? Let’s be honest here, most of us start out thirsting for YHWH that way as we begin our spiritual walk, where we find ourselves not able to get enough of His Word as we do everything we can to eat up all we can; and where we long to be in His presence constantly taking every opportunity to learn more and more about Him. The sad reality is that for most this intense hunger and thirst all too easily fades and they find themselves waking up one day from their slumber recognising and realising that they just don’t thirst and hunger as they did! Many people start out the same in their marriages – for a while it is all sparks, bells and whistles and then somehow they find that the spark has gone, as they have failed to retain the passionate and urgent love they had in the beginning and have become complacent in their lives toward one another. This does not have to be so for the follower of Yah, aměn! Thirsting and hungering takes effort and requires faithful endurance. We must be constantly seeking YHWH – His word promises that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled – filled according to their hunger – how hungry and how thirsty are you for righteousness? How thirsty are you for set-apartness? Failure to seek YHWH will cause complacency to set in where you become accustomed to getting by with as little worship as possible while being self-satisfied with many worldly lusts and desires of the flesh that consumes your time away from YHWH – and we best remember that YHWH is a jealous El!

2 – SEPERATING THE ‘SECULAR’ FROM THE ‘SACRED’

Verses 10 & 11 give us a description of the circumstances similar to that which we see being spoken of in Amos. Many of the ‘business’ people would go to the temple on Shabbat yet the rest of the week they engaged themselves in ‘immoral’ business practices as they tried all means possible to ensure a bigger profit, and so they very quickly separated the ‘sacred’ from the ‘secular’ in their double lives! The very same happens today – people tend to compartmentalise their lives in order to try to make sense of their hectic schedules and demands of everyday life. So they will quickly and very easily put prayer, reading of the Word, attending fellowship and gathering on Shabbat into a pigeon hole which they would describe as ‘spiritual’ or ‘sacred’ or ‘set-apart’ and then all the rest they would put in another pigeon hole so to speak labelled ‘secular’ or ‘worldly’ – which would include such things as their job, career, even family, their neighbourhood, their finances  – yes that’s right – for many they do not see their finances as having anything to do with their spiritual lives!!! And so people so quickly and easily separate their lives into two areas, thinking that they can lead this double standard life and be ok with it! The major problem with this kind of thinking is that it is not Scriptural. Our lives were bought at a price – we belong wholly to Yahushua who paid the price for our sins and the punishment thereof with His Blood redeeming us back to Himself as His Bride who must now make herself ready, being found spotless when He returns.  There can be no separation in our lives, trying to exclude YHWH from some things and include Him in others – He is to be in every aspect and area of our lives. Sha’ul addressed this very thing to the believers in Colossae:

Colossians 3:17 “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the Name of the Master Yahushua, giving thanks to Elohim the Father through Him. “

Colossians 3:23 “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Master and not to men.”

Whatever we do – that is everything – nothing excluded – be it in word or action – must be done heartily to Yahushua. That means that if we find ourselves involved in something that cannot carry the approval of His Name to it – then we are not to do it! You see many may gather once a week yet leads a totally different life the rest of the week – this is the danger of ‘separating’ what we have come to know as ‘secular’ and ‘sacred’ – when in reality in the life of a believer there is only one way!!! The measure of our worship unto YHWH is seen in how we live our lives each and every day of the week. In set-apart living there can be no complacency by trying to ‘compartmentalise’ various areas of our lives – we are called to be totally set-apart unto Him, period!!!

3 – ATTEMPTING TO COVER ALL BASES

This is a major problem of compromise and complacency today. For many they have not totally abandoned their partial worship unto YHWH – they have just simply retained or added to it a whole bunch of stuff that they cannot let go of or have picked up along the way as they try to cover all their bases in pleasing many areas of their multi-faceted life! They will bow to idols and even follow the examples of many so-called leaders today who are two leading double lives where idolatry has a role. We learnt recently that a well-known torah-teacher of today is at the same time involved in the field of martial arts and is even called a guru using a style of martial arts called ‘kali’ which is a pagan goddess, and when you see two different websites that seemingly show two different lives then you have to ask yourself what is going on here – are they trying to cover their bases and be a friend to all! From my understanding of the Word and I say this with great concern at what is going on in the world – Torah and martial arts do not go together!!!

Many will swear an oath to YHWH while at the same time pledging their allegiance and oath to other mighty ones or idols so to speak. This kind of attempt at covering all basis is a fleshly attempt at being able to befriend as many as they can and keep everyone around them happy, which no doubt always will result in complacent worship unto YHWH!

Verse 9 speaks of this kind of attempt at covering all bases and not rocking any boat – we see the term ‘all who leap over the threshold’ – and those YHWH will punish. But what does this mean? Well this was a pagan practice that was developed and has its origin in the worship of Dagon the ‘fish-god’, of which we see many priests of Dagon today very much alive in serving this pagan deity with their mitre/fish hats – you all know what I am talking about!

Shemuʼĕl Aleph/1 Samuel  5:4-5 “And they arose early the next morning and saw Daḡon fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of YHWH, and the head of Daḡon and both the palms of its hands cut off, on the threshold, only Daḡon itself was left of it. 5 That is why, to this day, the priests of Daḡon and all who come into Daḡon’s house do not tread on the threshold of Daḡon in Ashdoḏ.” 

‘Leaping over the threshold’ was a term used to describe those who refuse to recognise the set-apart place and deny YHWH’s authority and Covenant in their worship of other mighty ones!

Now we may easily say that this does not happen today, right! Well how about when people regard all religions as equally true, or how about when philosophers regard all faiths as equally false or even when politicians regards all religions as equally useful!!! Many want to cover all their bases and so be acceptable on every level of society.

Many today who claim to be followers of the Almighty never start their day before checking out their horoscopes, perhaps even straight after reading the Word!!! Although we may not have idols carved out of stone (which many do have by the way) – but how many people make idols out of their jobs, or their possessions or their social standing and status or even their families where they will find themselves quickly and easily listening to the instructions of their earthly fathers, over and above the instructions of our Heavenly Father, even when it clearly contradicts and is in contrast to the divine instructions of the Heavenly Father!!! YHWH makes it very clear – no other mighty ones are to be worshipped or bowed down to! Do not cover all the bases – stay grounded in the Truth! Yes it will cost you your life – count the cost – the worthy cost of a worthy walk in Yahushua!

What does your life look like? Has complacency had a way of creeping in?

Complacency is defined as being satisfied with the status quo no matter how bad it is. Complacency is accepting evil when it should be replaced with good. Complacency is keeping silent when speaking out the truth is the practical thing to do. But why is complacency a sin? According to the prophet Tsephanyah (Zephaniah), Elohim would search the city with lamps and punish those who were complacent. Complacency can be summarized as being content and indifferent in the midst of moral chaos. Complacently is accepting sin as a lifestyle. It is looking on sin and acting like it doesn’t exist or thinking it doesn’t matter one way or the other.

How is your outlook and approach to sin – does it matter to you or not? Are you at times happy to be in a place of complacency? The Good News for us is that we do not have to fall prey to complacency! In chapter 2:1-3 Tsephanyah gives us the antidote to complacency: (Read 2:1-3)

In these 3 verses we find 3 commands that are intended to keep us from becoming spiritually complacent, let us look briefly at these:

1 – Gather together – I do not need to speak too much on this, as we have discussed this on many occasions, but the fact still remains – gathering of the set-apart ones in fellowship is of critical importance – one thing we should not neglect to do as some are in the habit of doing.

2 – Seek – this is a predominant command here as it is repeated 3 times. We are told to:

                A – Seek YHWH

                B – Seek Righteousness

                C – Seek Meekness/Humility

These three are connected, for we are to continually humble ourselves, serve one another in love, seeking every opportunity to do so and seek righteousness that is His right standards for set-apart living. We have become in Yahushua the righteousness of Elohim and we are to walk in His ways. As we saw earlier that many failed to seek YHWH which leads to complacent living – Seek, Seek and Seek is the command here!

3 – Obey – Obey is not written here, but what is written is the term, ‘hidden’. This is speaking of those who are obedient – those who guard His commands as Deḇarim/Deuteronomy 6:25 tells us that our righteousness will be to guard to do all that Elohim has commanded us to.

Yoḥanan/John 14:21 “He who possesses My commands and guards them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I shall love him and manifest Myself to him.”

Holding on to and guarding to do His commands expresses our love for Him. And those who guard against complacency by adhering to these three commands – to gather together, seek and obey have this blessed assurance and promise of YHWH – a promise that is closely related to Tsephanyah’s name – remember I said that his name means ‘Yah hides’. For those who gather, seek and obey have this hope that in the day of YHWH, when His wrath is poured out, they will be hidden in Him. YHWH does not say that He will remove His people from tribulation or prevent them from going through tribulation – yet He promises to hide or protect His remnant bride through it.

I encourage you to go and read the rest of this brief prophetic letter that ends with the message of hope on how YHWH will restore Yisra’ĕl and make her prosper once again.

As we look at this word and its application for us today – may we truly be found never to be complacent but rather hidden from complacency as we daily humble ourselves before Him, seek His face, obey His commands and not give up meeting and gathering together strengthening one another in His love, especially as we see the day of YHWH approaching fast!

Have there been hints of complacency of late in your walk with YHWH? Heed these words and be found to be hidden from all forms of complacency as you diligently hear, guard and do His Word. Perhaps you have let your hunger to seek YHWH fade or have been found trying to separate your weekly walk with your Shabbat walk or have tried to cover all bases – listen to the words given to Tsephanyah by YHWH for us to hear today – may we earnestly seek Him with our all – give Him our all living a totally surrendered and submitted life unto obedient living, walking the straight and narrow path that we have found in Him, and so with joy be always hidden from complacency, aměn!

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In Yaʽaqoḇ/James 2: 14-20 speaks of how faith without works is dead, let’s read it quickly:

“My brothers, what use is it for anyone to say he has belief but does not have works? This belief is unable to save him. 15 And if a brother or sister is naked and in need of daily food, 16 but one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” but you do not give them the bodily needs, what use is it? 17 So also belief, if it does not have works, is in itself dead. 18 But someone might say, “You have belief, and I have works.” Show me your belief without your works, and I shall show you my belief by my works. 19 You believe that Elohim is one. You do well. The demons also believe – and shudder! 20 But do you wish to know, O foolish man, that the belief without the works is dead?”

So many people today are living and declaring that they have faith in the Almighty, yet as you look at their lives, there seems to be little or no evidence of this faith they so freely claim to live by. So, as Yaʽaqoḇ writes, we are to show our faith by our works – what works? What evidence do we have to show our faith? My message tonight is called, “Evidences of faith!” and I would like us to look at some of the evidences that should be apparent in our lives as individuals and as a community or body of believers in Messiah. In order for us to look into the mirror of the Word of YHWH and so reflect on what we actually look like, please turn with me to Iḇ’rim/Hebrews 13 and let us read!

Reading this last chapter in Iḇ’rim/Hebrews, of which the authorship is not certain, but Clement of Alexandria, around 200 C.E., credited it to Sha’ul, one gets the impression that the writer had a whole lot of miscellaneous stuff still to deal with before ending his letter, and saved it for the end. We see in Chapter 12 the joy we have in us drawing near to mount Tsiyon and now hear in Chapter 13 we see being discussed everyday topics related to everyday living. We know that Scripture clearly reveals to us that there is no distinction between doctrine and duty – no division between the letter and the application thereof – no division between revelation and responsibility. These things go together – hence faith and works that go together as we hear and do, not simply hear only! The emphasis we see here in this section in the last section of Iḇ’rim/Hebrews is ‘living by faith’: In Chapter 11 we are presented with a list of great examples for us and in Chapter 12 we see the encouragements to having and walking in faith and here in Chapter 13 we see clearly being presented to us the evidences of faith that ought to be apparent in our daily lives – that is that which should be evident in our lives if we are truly walking by faith and not by sight!

This chapter contains herein practical admonitions for all believers. And in it we see some of the evidences of faith we are to have as we actively live out our faith in Messiah, and so let us take a look at some of these mentioned here:

1 – ENJOYING SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP (1-6)

In verse 1 we see clearly a command to let ‘brotherly love’ continue – the basis for our fellowship is ‘brotherly love’. We are all called to live a life of love – Eph’siyim/Ephesians 5:2 “And walk in love, as Messiah also has loved us, and gave Himself for us, a gift and an offering to Elohim for a sweet-smelling fragrance.”

Yahushua commanded us to love one another, and this call to love one another in Messiah is repeated throughout all of Sha’ul’s letters. If we extend this brotherly or family love to one another we will experience unity and be compelled to share our material and spiritual resources with others and love as Yoḥanan writes in Yoḥanan Aleph 3:18 that we are to love in deed and in truth! Most of the early believers were no doubt rejected by their friends and family – the same for many of us today. However what we must realise and recognise is that the deepest kind of fellowship is not based purely on skin colour or physical family relationship – but it is based rather on the spiritual life we have in Messiah, and as Yahushua himself said that His mother and brothers were those who do the will of the Father! Any relationship that is not based upon the love for Messiah will not last! And here we get to relate and enjoy our fellowship having the foundation of a love for Messiah that enables us to enjoy true spiritual fellowship – which is an evidence of our faith walk!

In this week’s Torah portion, which we will look at in the morning, we see in Shemoth/Exodus 23:25:

“And you shall serve YHWH your Elohim, and He shall bless your bread and your water. And I shall remove sickness from your midst.”

What I love about this verse is that it is describing us the joy of community living in unity and in serving YHWH their bread and water would be blessed. Bread in Scripture is often pictured as community and water as Torah. What it is saying here is that the Torah and community go together!!! A community without Torah cannot live out the evidence of faith and trying to live according to Torah without community is extremely difficult and near impossible as we are to come together as a body that serves one another in love! The promise given for this true torah community living is that YHWH will remove sickness from our midst – Shemoth goes on to talk about further blessings of this kind of community heart living and what we see here is the privilege we have to live this out and this kind of spiritual fellowship that we are able to enjoy daily with each other is an evidence of faith operating in our lives! You see where there is true love for Messiah being lived out in fellowship there will naturally be the ability to be hospitable and even entertain strangers. This hospitable character was very necessary in the early assemblies due to much persecution that drove many believers from their homes.

In Sha’ul’s instructions on eldership to Titos we see that one of the attributes for an elder is that they are to be a lover of hospitality, however before you think that you are not an elder so you don’t have to be hospitable! Hospitality is not restricted to elders or leaders only, but is an attribute that is to be shown by all as evidence of our faith! Sha’ul tells us in Romiyim/Romans 12:13 that the mark of a true believer is the ability to be hospitable! Just how hospitable are you? Are you one of those who never lets anyone near your home, always making excuses to showing hospitality or even struggle to just simply make time to meet with fellow believers over a coffee and chat, showing hospitality toward each other? An evidence of faith is hospitality – and as I learned from many years in the hospitality industry is that hospitality in a nutshell can be best described as the ability to serve! Can you serve others or are you the one always wanting to be served?

Aḇraham entertained 2 messengers and although we may not entertain ‘angel’ (although it is possible), but any stranger could turn out to be a messenger of blessing to us from YHWH. It is often the case that we may have guests in our homes who turn out to be that very messenger of blessing from YHWH!

As we see from this passage that we have read is that this brotherly love – brotherly referring to within the body – expresses itself in concern for others in the body – those who are undergoing harsh conditions, persecutions and trials, and are in a sense even imprisoned by life’s circumstances. In fact it was not unusual in those days to be imprisoned for having faith in Messiah – and this happens today in some parts of the world – which should raise concern in us and cause us to pray with them realising that as the Word says that if one part suffers the whole body suffers. We may think of the many who are suffering – those who are far from us – but what about those right here in our midst? Thank you to all who contributed to assisting Justin with some food and money – this is evidence of brotherly love operating in our midst as we are enjoying more and more the privilege of having true spiritual fellowship!

In verse 4 in referring to marriage and the marriage bed being kept pure, helps us know just where this love being practiced and lived out begins – it begins in the home showing loyalty and purity. Whoring and adultery will be punished by YHWH and the marriage and home are to be a picture of Him and His Bride being kept pure at all times!

There are many today who are trying to live out this faith with many great deeds yet their own marriages and homes are a mess, and it is at the home where it begins – walking in purity and set-apartness!

Another part of enjoying spiritual fellowship is having the right mind-set toward the material things – we are to be satisfied with what we have, and our lives be without the love of silver or money – for as we know the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Part of enjoying spiritual fellowship is the ability to not covet what others have, and have the ability to share what we do have if the need arises! The sad reality is the fact that for many, times of suffering and struggles so easily become times of selfishness and pride, where instead of using those times as a prime opportunity to serve, simply use it as times to sulk as they stop looking out by being focused within themselves! It certainly is not easy to ‘accept with joy the seizure of our possessions’ as it is written in Iḇ’rim/Hebrews 10:34, but what we soon must realise is that in the world today, with all its economic and ecological problems – even those ‘comfortable’ believers may just find themselves having to do without those luxuries that they often seriously considered as essential necessities!

When one is too comfortable in the flesh and materialism of the world it is often harder to be a faithful loving believer with the evidence of faith showing daily in their lives as they may find themselves very quickly forsaking the gathering and fellowship of believers in order to feed their selfish demands the world and its programmes place upon them in keeping up with society!

Being content in one’s life cannot come from what one has in material possessions, as the material or flesh can never satisfy the heart!

Luqas/Luke 12:15 “And He said to them, “Mind, and beware of greed, because one’s life does not consist in the excess of his possessions.”

Let me remind you tonight – the richest you can be – is to KNOW Yahushua Messiah. This is how we know that we know Him – if we guard His commands – (Yoḥanan Aleph/1 John 2:3)

“Stuff” will fade and rot away yet YHWH’s love for us never will and He will never leave nor forsake us. The material is here today and gone tomorrow – but Yahushua Messiah is the same yesterday, today and forever, aměn!

So a key evidence of faith operating in our lives is our fellowship with one another – let us make the evidence clearly visible in our love and service to one another!

2 – SUBMITTING TO AUTHORITY/LEADERSHIP (7-9; 17; 24)

In this chapter we see the term, ‘those leading you’ and we are told to ‘remember’, ‘obey’ and ‘greet’ those leading you. Let me ask you – who is leading you? Well the first key to answering that is given after being told to remember those leading you – it is those who spoke the Word of Elohim to you.

A – Remember them– Now the word ‘remember’ can have various connotations – it could represent those of the past – those who had taught the Hebrews and were now dead, perhaps because of being martyred for their faith – and they were told to consider the outcome – that is the result of their behaviour – in other words think carefully about the result of their obedient faith and imitate them!!! Yaʽaqoḇ tells us to consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds – the early apostles did and we should carefully consider their behaviour and imitate them – Sha’ul said follow me as I follow Messiah – Messiah is our example and we know that it is enough for the talmidim to be like their teacher. We are not to be like those involved in the rebellion recorded of in Bemiḏbar/Numbers 16 – with the Qoraḥ rebellion – where they assembled against Mosheh and Aharon saying in a nutshell, “listen we are all set-apart and are all priests – what makes you special” – what happened – the earth opened up and swallowed the company of Qoraḥ as well as 250 leaders that were offering incense were consumed by fire! One danger which seems to be creeping in amongst some who have come out of the Babylon system of ‘church’ and are walking the Torah road are sadly adopting the same attitude, not being able to recognise any leadership called by Yahushua for the equipping of the body to become mature and complete, and so much of the body is struggling to move on to maturity due to the lack of ability to remember their leaders as they do not feel that they need leadership! This is a dangerous and rebellious place to be.

B – Obey them – When a servant of Elohim is in the will of Elohim and teaching the Word of Elohim then the children of Elohim should submit and obey. This is not a licence to allow men to have the practice of the Nicolaites – which means to lord over the people in an autocratic system – no we must not tolerate the practice of the Nicolaites which YHWH too hates, but we are to submit and obey those whom He calls to be overseers over you, submitting to the Word as administered through YHWH’s appointed!

C – Greet them – That is not just a simple ‘hi’ I am talking about! Shalom or peace is a common way to greet another in the Hebrew culture. This kind of greeting involves interaction and sharing. In Greek the common way of greeting one would have been to say, ‘favour’ or ‘grace’ to you – again carrying the deep intention of seeking the very best and well-being of the one whom you are greeting – not a quick ‘I just say hi and maybe make some brief shallow talk and go’! In ancient times greeting was considered an integral part of communication and carried with it great power and sign of respect and zeal for relationship. Sha’ul in his letters writes ‘grace and peace’ or ‘Shalom and favour’, except for Timotiyos and Titos, where he writes, ‘grace, mercy and peace’ or ‘favour, compassion and peace from Elohim’. Our words carry great power and our ability to greet one well has tremendous effect. Perhaps Timotiyos and Titos needed extra compassion to endure as leaders, not sure – but the fact is we are told ‘greet them’. Your ability to greet others is a sign of your faith – it can show evidence of your faith or lack thereof!

In recognising those YHWH has called to lead, one must also be careful not to fall prey to ‘strange teachings’ – that is teachings that promote lawlessness or rather ‘torahlessness’. Kěpha warns in his second letter about false teachers who teach lawlessness – and do not be carried away by teachings that are not in line with the Word – do not fall prey to teachings that either add or take away from the Word! There were recipients of this letter to the Hebrews who were considering reverting back to all the orthodox rabbinical laws, precedents and takanots and ma’asim , which were man-made laws, known by many as ‘oral law’ which we see again in this week’s Torah portion that there was no additional oral law that Moshe gave as he clearly obeyed the instruction from YHWH to write everything down!

Test everything – the Bereans tested all that Sha’ul and Silas spoke!

The second evidence we are speaking of here today from Iḇ’rim/Hebrews 13 is the ability to submit – do not rebel – it could be hazardous to your health!

3 – SHARING IN SPIRITUAL WORSHIP (10-16; 18-19)

Another evidence of faith operating in our lives is our worship – as we come together, we can certainly enjoy pure and true worship in Spirit and in Truth. What does the Scriptures tell us? Do you not know that ‘you’ (plural) are the ‘temple’ (singular) of the Ruach HaQodesh! As we come together we can have the evidence of faith being seen in our ability to share in worship. Our bodies are to be offered as daily living sacrifices – set-apart and acceptable to Elohim for this is our act of spiritual worship. 2 aspects of this spiritual act of worship is mentioned here in Iḇ’rim/Hebrews 13:

A – Continual praise to Elohim – this is a major evidence of our faith – our ability to continually praise! The fruit of our lips or also translated as the ‘bull’ of our lips, recognising that a bull was a prize possession and of great worth in offering up to YHWH. This fruit therefore speaks of the offering of our lips – that which we offer up in praise. It is often the case that many through suffering and trouble cannot find the strength nor the ability to offer any praise – and only proclaim misery and sorrow from the very lips that we are to give praise to Elohim from! It is of vital importance to give thanks in all occasions and praise the Mighty Name of YHWH. The evidence of our faith is seen by what comes off of our lips! What words do you find yourself speaking – is there evidence of faith or not?

We are to confess His Name, love His Name, revere His Name, worship His Name and proclaim His Name:

Yeshayahu/Isaiah 56:6-7 “Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to YHWH, to serve Him, and to love the Name of YHWH, to be His servants, all who guard the Sabbath, and not profane it, and hold fast to My covenant – 7 them I shall bring to My set-apart mountain, and let them rejoice in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their slaughterings are accepted on My altar, for My house is called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”

Tehillim/Psalms 103:1 “Bless YHWH, O my being, And all that is within me, Bless His set-apart Name!”

Tehillim/Psalms 22:22 “I make known Your Name to My brothers; In the midst of the assembly I praise You.”

Mal’aki/Malachi 1:11 “For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My Name is great among nations. And in every place incense is presented to My Name, and a clean offering. For My Name is great among nations,” said YHWH of hosts.”

I was accused of making an idol of His Name when we began to walk according to the Truth of His Word – how ridiculous is that!!! His Name is to be lifted up and proclaimed and made known and praised and esteemed from the fruit or offering of our lips. Again let me ask what comes from your lips? Have they been cleansed as Isaiah with the fire of His Word or do you find yourself with a fork tongue – speaking one way in fellowship and another in the world. Evidence of faith is seen in your speech and praise unto YHWH!

B – Do good and share – Wow verse 16 really nails it – do not forget to do good and share – for this kind of offering pleases Elohim!!! Now how awesome is this – we get to do this together as a family that He is building. Doing good certainly involves hospitality, ministering to those in an imprisoned state of trials and hardships and can carry many aspects. I like the fact that we have here – doing good and sharing – together. For in your ‘doing good’ it is not simply about the good that you do but rather the heart of giving and sharing of yourself in the good that you do. Sharing carries with it the intensity of the attitude of the heart – if your heart is not in it – do not do it for it will not please Elohim. Are you willing to ‘share’ in the fellowship of this family that YHWH has called together and is growing? This doing good and sharing your life in fellowship in a clear evidence of faith in operation and pleases Elohim!

One of the things emphasized here too is ‘prayer’! Now we could all use prayer help, aměn! The writer asked for prayer, a common thread we see in all of Sha’ul’s letters – why because we ought to be praying for one another – fervently and always! Are you praying for others here – or do you forget and cannot even remember names – where then is the evidence of faith! I encourage you to be active in praying for all, doing good and sharing, bringing continual praise to YHWH – this pleases Him – let us please Him daily aměn!

4 – EXPERIENCING SPIRITUAL LEADING OF MESSIAH

 The closing of this letter explains how the believer is enabled to live for Messiah in this world – it is Yahushua who works in and through us by His Ruach (Spirit). In Scripture we see 3 titles given to our Messiah the Shepherd:

1 – The Good Shepherd – Yoḥanan/John 10:11

2 – The Great Shepherd – here in Iḇ’rim/Hebrews 13

3 – The Chief Shepherd – Kěpha Aleph/1 Peter 5:4

Listen – our High Priest is our Shepherd and Helper. It is He who works in us and through us and it is He who freely gives us favour and power to live for Him and serve Him. Is there evidence that the Good, Great and Chief Shepherd is leading you – are you walking in Him, walking as He did – experiencing that very resurrection power that raised Him from the dead now being manifest in the sons of obedience? Evidence of faith is walking faithfully according to His Word; listen carefully to His still voice leading you in all Truth and Wisdom.

What I have briefly shared with you tonight are some key evidences of faith operating in our lives – or rather evidences that will help us to realize and know that we are truly walking in and have great faith. How is your faith walk – is there evidence in your life of faith – is it being lived out and is well pleasing to YHWH or does it need some more hearing of the Word and the doing of it to evidence it. Do not merely be hearers only but doers and may our faith be seen in our good works, walking in His instructions daily and living out in community where He blesses the Bread and the water! May we learn to enjoy fellowship being hospitable serving one another in brotherly love; learn to submit to YHWH’s called and appointed leadership; learn to share in worship bringing continual praise, as we do good and share His love in us and experience daily the living power of Messiah in us that there may be great evidence of faith in our lives individually and together as a family, that we may please YHWH our Elohim. Take these words to heart and may you be found to have the evidences of faith in operation, aměn!

Perhaps you have found that your faith has been weakened of late and the lack of true evidence of living active faith is not clearly evident. Perhaps due to your inability to continue in brotherly love and love hospitality – being able to serve with great joy and you have seemingly struggled to submit under YHWH’s anointed and appointed authority and therefore your ability to worship has grown dim. Heed these admonitions that are given to us in this passage. Often we ask ourselves how we are to walk practically as we walk in Torah. We know that the good works is walking in obedience to His Torah – but just how is it lived out daily – and here we have just seen some of the evidences or rather ‘good works’ that will show that there is great evidence of faith operating in our lives and we would do well to excel at these, bringing esteem to the Name of YHWH. May you find yourself walking with great evidences of faith as you look into the mirror of these powerful admonitions and be obedient to allowing the very evidences we have spoken of being seen, equipping us as a family growing in maturity and strength unto a mature man in Messiah. Let the evidences be seen, evidences of faith in YHWH!!!

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It is here in chapter 5 that we catch up with Zeḵaryah in his continued visions he was shown by YHWH. This was the 6^th vision he saw, and in this book we see the incredible forgiveness and compassion and depth of love that YHWH has for His people, with the promise of restoration to a people who had been held captive as slaves in Babylon, who are returning to rebuild their lives, their faith in YHWH and their country. We know that Zeḵaryah means YHWH remembers or remembered by YHWH as is a wonderful reminder to us that YHWH is attentive to our cries and HE remembers His Covenant with His chosen and will restore His treasured possession unto Himself! As we look a little closer at the 2 visions contained in this portion let us be challenged to continue to keep our eyes on the Truth. The previous 2 visions were about 2 key leaders – in chapter 3 it is regarding Yehoshua the high priest and speaks of the restoration of the priesthood and how the priesthood is to be pure and set-apart as we His royal Priesthood are to be pure as He is pure and set-apart in Him as we will rule and reign with Him in the purity of His Word in the Millennial Reign, and in chapter 4 in reference to Zerubbaḇel it speaks of the restoring and completion of the temple, speaking to us of the restoration of His people as an assembly or body built together in Him – by His Ruach working in and through us. The 6^th vision and 7^th in this chapter we have just read takes up collectively the theme of the removal of sinners away from YHWH’s people, which is accomplished by means of a curse on evildoers, according to His Torah! Zeḵaryah is shown a massive flying or hovering scroll, which represents YHWH’s curse on sin; and its ability to fly or hover shows the impossibility of escaping divine judgement.  This is followed by a vision of an enlarged measuring basket that contains a woman who symbolizes wickedness. In his vision Zeḵaryah sees the basket and its content lifted up and taken to Babylon. The removal of wickedness from the Set-Apart Land, and its concentration in Babylon, sets the stage for history’s final conflict between good and evil, and the rest of his visions clearly portray to us what is lying ahead in that judgement is coming and both the offices of priest and king will be united in Yahushua!

So what is this chapter 5 all about? It can seem confusing from some translations, particularly the Scriptures edition I read from, as it seems at first glance that it is saying evildoers will go unpunished!!! Let us look at these verses and learn the depth and insight these words give to us for us who are living today!

Zeḵaryah lifted up his eyes again, clearly a picture of a man who was accustomed to looking to YHWH! And here he sees a giant scroll, and this indicates to us that there will be severe judgement on those who neglect the Torah, as this very scroll contains the curses for disobedience, signifying that lawbreakers or Torah-breakers will be judged according to His Word!

Verse 2: In verse 2 we are given the dimensions of this open scroll – declaring that what is written upon it has been decreed – and it was 20 cubits in length and 10 cubits wide. This is not some ordinary number – it is specific and clear, and from Scripture we know that this is the exact measurement of the Temple porch that Shelomoh built, the place where the Torah was usually read, as well as being the exact measurement of the Set-Apart place in the Tabernacle, the first room that the priests entered in the Tabernacle and this scroll may clearly then correlate to that room. It was this very room that was opened when though veil was torn at the death of Yahushua and through Yahushua there is now open access to that room. These words from the scroll are straight from YHWH.

Verse 3: In verse 3 we can quickly become confused by the play on words, as it seems at first that thieves and profaners go unpunished, and this is where it gets very interesting. He tells us the curse that is going over the face of the whole earth – all the earth and gives us a picture here as to who is giving out a false message of grace. As we know the word catholic means universal or whole and what we see happening in this passage here is a false message of hope going out over the earth, presumably from the temple of YHWH that is teaching a false grace that gives licence to sin or be lawless or rather without the Torah. What we see here is an extreme grace that is no grace at all. Many today are so trapped by this lie that they simply believe that no matter what they do, they are under grace and do not need to follow the Torah, not realising that their lives are not representative of grace but rather they are a disgrace in the eyes of the Almighty!

Verse 4: Here is verse 4 YHWH declares it plainly – He will send it out – send what out – the very curse that those words or instructions of disobedience brings! The two sins pronounced on the scroll speak of one’s relationship with others and one’s relationship with YHWH. Yahushua tells us to love Elohim and love our neighbour – for the Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commands and by others by stealing from them and by profaning the Set-Apart Name of YHWH they are breaking His Torah and as a result the curse of Torah will fall on the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by His Name. The thief is also one who is represented as one who has ‘stolen’ His favour or grace and used it as a licence to sin by swearing falsely in His Name, bringing His Name to nought and misrepresenting the True character of YHWH through their lawless acts, supposedly in His Name under the false banner of His Name. The ridicule of His true grace is still all done in His Name or rather falsely in His Name as a counterfeit Name and titles have been substituted as a gross misrepresentation of the Almighty and so have stolen away His Appointed Times in an attempt to change them!

This my friends is a passage which clearly pictures for us today what we have come to understand as a false gospel message preached by a lawless religious system that has been constructed by man, picturing for us the false assembly, or rather church as we have come to know it by name! They have so profaned the message of grace as it is being offered to a people who know nothing about set-apartness and cause them to think that they can do whatever they want and just say sorry on their deathbed and all be well thereafter! This is the curse as its teaching goes against the Torah of YHWH.

Yahushua brought amnesty to those who would return to the Covenant, and even though we may not always get everything perfectly right as we live in exile, that is what His grace is for – to lead us to His Truth that we may walk in his ways – hear – guard – do, not as a licence to go back to our selfish ways and get off scot-free! Why do I make these bold statements – well let us look further?

Zeḵaryah is to once again look up and see and what does he see? He sees a “ĕphah-measure” – what is that? Well Shemoth/Exodus 16:36 tells us that an omer is 1/10^th of a ĕphah and according to Shemoth/Exodus 16:16 an omer is that amount that was needed to feed one being for one day. An omer then could in this sense represent 1 man, and an ĕphah being 10 omers could represent 10 men and symbolise for us a quorum or a body or complete congregation. So this measuring basket can certainly represent for us a congregation just as the flying scroll does, making it clear that this chapter is in one sense a picture for us of a counterfeit Bride or tabernacle which is overemphasising YHWH’s grace, twisting it to their own destruction and underemphasising the purity and set-apartness that YHWH requires wherever His presence is to dwell. This can also be a picture of Rabbinical Judaism that has too twisted the Torah for the convenience and a lust for power.

Verse 7: Are you with me so far? Let us carry on – in verse 7 we see a lead cover that is lifted up from the ĕphah measure or basket and also carries with it a clear picture. The word cover or also in other translations translated as ‘round talent weight’ is the Hebrew word ‘kikkar’ and simply means ‘talent or loaf or round, meaning round loaf of bread or a round weight talent – symbolising a coin of sort. This round talent can represent for us the sun-disk which is a common pagan symbol, which was sadly adopted by the Church in emphasising the day of the sun!  This verse tells us that it is a woman, a feminine singular. In Ḥazon/Revelation 2 we see how in the assembly of Thyatira it is a woman who had been allowed to teach and lead people astray to whoring. This is the spirit of Izeḇel/Jezebel who exalts herself over her husband and claiming the right to change the Sabbath and Feasts of YHWH. Today we clearly see this in the church who also has exalted herself above her Husband and stolen Yahushua’s authority. ‘A’ woman – signifies a unified woman – which is in contrast to what YHWH is building – in Eph’siyim/Ephesians 2:15 we see that YHWH is building a unified man. Please note this is not a discrimination against women – it is the language of Scripture and what it illustrates to us. The counterfeit is illustrated to us as a whore in contrast to the True Messiah!

Verse 8: We are told who this woman is in verse 8 – it says, “This is Wrongness!” or ‘Wickedness’ which is the Hebrew word ‘rish‘ah’ which can also mean ‘lawlessness’. This woman is the Lawless One:

Tas‘loniqim Bět/2 Thessalonians 2:7 “For the secret of lawlessness is already at work – only until he who now restrains comes out of the midst.”

The secret of lawlessness already at work is held back at present – but when it is revealed it will be judged!

THE WOMAN:

Let us take a look at this woman – this mystery of lawlessness. We are told that she is ‘sitting’ in the ĕphah. Sitting in Hebrew is ‘yashaḇ’ which means to sit down, or be settled or establish a dwelling place or remain seated in a relaxed position’ – this ‘woman’ is sitting relaxed in the ĕphah measure. Now this ought to tell you something – just how relaxed is Satan in the church today? He has settled down and remains seated very comfortably!!! The woman in the basket is dwelling in the basket/ ĕphah seemingly enjoying the luxury and wealth by which the commercial system provides for her and therefore denotes for us her intimate contact with worldly wealth and commerce by which she is well supported!

In Diḇre haYamim Bět/2 Chronicles 24:7 Izeḇel (Jezebel) was given the name ‘wicked woman’ coming from the same root as ‘wickedness’ mentioned here. This woman in Zeḵaryah 5 is the great whore spoken of in Ḥazon/Revelation 17.

As one reads Ḥazon/Revelation 17:1-6 in describing this great mother of whores, we see why she is called the whore as she has broken the Torah of the Groom she is supposed to be engaged to and represent to us religious systems that is engaged in compromising worldly positions and seeking political power as she sits in Babylon through which she has been made wealthy and given great prominence because of her immorality. False religion is the great promoter of evil and she has not only made the nations drunk with her maddening adulteries but she has made herself drunk with the blood of the set-apart ones – just think about all those early ‘Crusades’ that were done in the Name of the Lord!!! They were nothing but brutal acts of wickedness against the set-apart children of the Most High!

This woman we are speaking of here represents the ecclesiastical Babylon which rides in power and prestige in a religion state union using her religious powers to employ political power for her immoral deeds – hence even the Lausanne movement being part of her move for united power over the universal church becoming as one!

But just does this system come about – this immoral religious system?

Sha’ul tells Timotiyos (Timothy) in:

Timotiyos Bet/2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For there shall be a time when they shall not bear sound teaching, but according to their own desires, they shall heap up for themselves teachers tickling the ear, 4 and they shall indeed turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to myths.” – What myths are the ‘church’ following today!!!

People want their ears tickled with flattering words rather than the unadulterated Truth!

Tas’loniqim Bet/ 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12 “For the secret of lawlessness is already at work – only until he who now restrains comes out of the midst. 8 And then the lawless one shall be revealed, whom the Master shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth and bring to naught with the manifestation of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, 10 and with all deceit of unrighteousness in those perishing, because they did not receive the love of the truth, in order for them to be saved. 11 And for this reason Elohim sends them a working of delusion, for them to believe the falsehood, 12 in order that all should be judged who did not believe the truth, but have delighted in the unrighteousness.”

Mattithyahu/ Matthew 24: 9-13 “Then they shall deliver you up to affliction and kill you, and you shall be hated by all nations for My Name’s sake. 10 “And then many shall stumble, and they shall deliver up one another, and shall hate one another.  11 “And many false prophets shall rise up and lead many astray. 12 “And because of the increase in lawlessness, the love of many shall become cold. 13 “But he who shall have endured to the end shall be saved.”

This religious system comes about because of the apostasy of the church which has not only conformed to the godless commercial and political world system but gives its special stamp of approval by justifying its system through its lawless or rather Torahless teachings and actions! Remember that Izeḇel had her own prophets!

This woman is representative of its apostate religious movement from its inception in the ancient Babylon of Nimrod right through to the final one controlled by the beast and the false prophet! After a season of her lawless and adulterous teaching and leading astray many to the destruction of their souls through her seductive attractiveness and luxury she will be judged, no longer able to repent and escape her deserved end.

Ḥazon/Revelation 22:11 says that he who does wrong let them continue to do wrong and he who is righteous, let him be more righteous. The clear divide between the set-apart and the profane is happening as we speak!

Please understand at this point that I am not attacking people, but rather a ‘system’ that is being run by a whore!

Verse 9:  In verse 9 we see a picture of another 2 women, with wind in their wings, like wings of a stork and lifted the ĕphah up. Who are these two women? We know that a stork is an unclean bird, and the word for stork comes from the word ‘ḥāsı̂d’, which means faithful or pious. These 2 women represent for us those of both the houses of Yisra’ĕl who are returning to the Covenant while they are still unclean and are in exile. The Word tells us in:

Yeshayahu/Isaiah 40:31 “but those who wait on YHWH renew their strength, they raise up the wing like eagles, they run and are not weary, they walk and do not faint.”

The faithful Bride will renew their strength in YHWH and raise up the wing of an eagle – able to put to death wickedness and immorality – holding fast to the commands of Elohim!

Lifting them up between the heavens and the earth signifying that there is no place for the whore anymore, and when asked where they were taking her, Zeḵaryah was told that they were taking her to Shin‘ar, which is Babylon – where the tower of Babel was – the very seat of the first unification of mankind against YHWH after the flood. They were taking her to where she belongs, not to move from here now place of captivity. Babel was built with the view of having a place that would not again be affected by a flood and corresponds to the picture of the church system that has set itself up to be above and immune to judgement, placing itself higher than the Word of YHWH and claiming higher authority than the Torah which even Yahushua Himself did not claim for Himself! Back to where she belongs, and as Babylon is also referred to being a woman in Ḥazon/Revelation, can also relate to Satan being bound for 1000 years.

Ok, so now you have some more insight into Zeḵaryah 5, but what has that have to do with me, you may ask?

Well, clearly a whole lot! As you look up and see…. What do you see? And when you look up, who or what are you looking at? Whose instructions or commands are you following or believing? Are you or have you been listening to the false grace message saying that you are free to live outside of His Torah with no ramifications? Or do you look intently into the Word that keeps you safe – is your eyes fixed upon Yahushua Messiah, or have your eyes feasted upon the luring adulteries of the great whore that is stolen and presented a fake gospel and profaned the Set-Apart Name of YHWH?

It is time for the Bride to make herself ready and to ensure that we do not sit settled into a world system of worship that is in fact not worship unto YHWH at all! It is a matter of worship – will you wait on and place your trust in YHWH and renew your strength in Him and let Him cleanse you to have wings of and eagle able to soar above man’s traditions and doctrines and follow after YHWH with your all – serving Him with great joy – fleeing from the whore and here luring tactics. Let us realise the encouragement this chapter brings – a message of hope and security in YHWH – Elohim of Hosts and all who call upon His Name and walk in His ways.

What this chapter shows us is clearly what is fitting for the people of YHWH – worship and not wickedness. Wickedness or pagan worship in any means has no place in the community or assembly of the children of the Most High El. May we too be encouraged to put away all form of sun-worship that we can freely look to the Son that sets us Free, aměn!

It is time to lift up and take ‘Babylon’ the wicked out of our lives and put her where she belongs! Is there still some ‘Babylon’ or ‘wickedness’ in you? Do not believe the false message that has gone out – look at the Truth and choose to walk obediently therein! The curse for not walking in the Torah will fall upon those disobedient wicked ones! Yahushua became the one to take the curse due to us upon Himself – taking our sin upon Himself – that is for us who have come to Him and now walk faithfully in His Covenant and so we praise Him that we who are obedient in Him are free from any curse!!!

As you reflect on this chapter, see the craftiness of the enemy and how he has many fooled, we too who sit here were fooled but have now been called out of darkness into the marvellous light of the kingdom of Yahushua – as for that may we give Him praise – holding fast to walking daily in Him as we look up and see where our help comes from and fix our eyes on our source of life – Yahushua – HalleluYAH!

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Shalom to you all, May the name of the Almighty יהוה our Elohim be praised, aměn! How many of you have made some serious blunders or mistakes? Come on, I am sure we all have. But how often have you made mistakes or bad decisions, which at the time you made the decision seemed to be right, and everything made sense and looked and sounded right, yet later you realised that it was wrong and as a result there were lasting consequences? Mistakes that we make, or bad decisions and choices we make may often end up embarrassing us, especially those decisions that are made as a result of running ahead of יהוה and not stopping to seek His will.  Now, I know we have all made mistakes, but we must know that no mistake or outcome of a bad decision is the final or end of the story for the dedicated and devoted follower of יהוה! יהוה can and will even use our blunders to accomplish His purposes. This however is certainly not an excuse for us to be careless but rather a confident assurance that we have in an Almighty Elohim we serve that will work everything out for our good – if we will submit to Him and allow Him to, aměn! Mistakes happen, I know, but what happens if we have made some and how do we move on?

A dentist’s mistake is pulled out, a lawyer’s mistake is imprisoned, a teacher’s mistake is failed, a printer’s mistake is corrected, a pharmacist’s mistake is buried, a postman’s mistake is forwarded, and an electrician’s mistake could be shocking. The novelist Joseph Conrad wrote, “It’s only those who do nothing that make no mistakes.

But is doing nothing really the answer? No! I want us to look at the account of Yehoshua and Yisra’ĕl when a bad choice was made, why it was made and the result or outcome of bad choices. Please turn with me to Yehoshua/Joshua 9 in a message called, “Beware of the Giḇ‘onites”. (Read)

An intriguing passage that certainly can teach us a whole lot about not doing things in our own wisdom, but rather to seek יהוה in all!

After the defeat that Yisra’ĕl suffered at Ai, which primarily was due to the sin of Aḵan, yet before marching on to battle Yisra’ĕl did not seek יהוה, or inquire of Him and merely proceeded to engage Ai based on a human perspective that made common sense. The problem with decisions made that are based solely upon common sense to any given situation is that we all very quickly learn that they may just not be the decision that יהוה would want us to make. And all too often, decisions made outside of His counsel simply lead us in to a course of action that is contrary to His will. This is what happened at Ai and you would think that Yehoshua and Yisra’ĕl  would have learnt their lesson from this and not make this mistake of not inquiring of יהוה again! However, as we see clearly from the passage we have just read that the Giḇ‘onite deception had caused them to resort to mere human wisdom, showing themselves as merely human and were liable, just as we are today to make the same mistakes over, and for some of us, over and over and over again!

Yisra’ĕl  were clearly instructed in Deḇarim 7 to wipe out the 7 stronger nations that were before them in the Promised Land, and they were to put them ‘under the ban’ or “ḥaram” them in Hebrew which means to destroy, or wipe out or cut off and have no part with. They were not to intermarry with them and were to break down, destroy, smash and burn their carved images. Yisra’ĕl  is יהוה’s treasured possession that was to be kept set-apart and clean as a light to the nations. And Giḇ‘on was a sub-sect of one of the seven stronger nations in Kenaʽan which was to be destroyed. Giḇ’on was the city that was closest to where Yisra’ĕl  were camped at Gilgal and obviously knew that there days were numbered as the fear of יהוה had gone before Yisra’ĕl  into the enemies camps, and so all the nations gathered together to fight against Yisra’ĕl. Nations that were divided and fought against each other were now joining forces to come up against יהוה’s people! How true that is still today – enemies will quickly unite against the people of יהוה! Instead of uniting with the others Giḇ’on chose a different approach, being the next to be hit – they decided to use deceit rather than force!

What Yeriḥo could not do with walls or what Ai could not eventually do with weapons, Giḇ’on did with deceit. What we can see from this is that Satan will try one device after another in order to try to defeat יהוה’s people and we are to constantly be on our guard. What is interesting to note hear is that we see how after great victories Satan began using subtle attacks. It may just be that when we experience great victories to battles that the enemy is right there ready to attack us in a subtle and deceptive way for which we are to be watchful for.

In Deḇarim 20 the instruction was that after they had destroyed the 7 nations commanded to destroy, that if they encountered a city that was far from them, they could offer a call for peace and if the city had accepted then they would become compulsory labour to serve Yisra’ĕl , or else they would be destroyed. Giḇ’on somehow must have known about this and so used deceit , cleverly crafting a scheme that would save them from destruction and so they put on old clothes, used old sacks and old wineskins that were torn and mended, wore old patched sandals and stale bread that was crumbling and hard, and they worked out a very convincing story.

At first we can see that Yehoshua and the leaders did exercise caution saying to them, ‘hold on you could be tricking us as you might be from around here!’ Yet Giḇ’on had spinned a well-crafted story of how they came from very far away and their clothes, provisions etc. were so worn out from there long hard journey to come and meet with them, as they had heard what יהוה their Elohim had done in Mitsrayim and to the nations that were beyond the Yarděn. And their story worked!!! Before you say – ‘suckers’, how many of you have been deceived by this kind of well-crafted story telling in order to manipulate you and suck you dry of what you have to give?

Although Yehoshua and the leaders were initially cautious, they were quickly taken for a ride based on what they saw and heard. The Giḇ’onites were so convincing and they had plenty of evidence that seemed real to back up their story!

Today we face many Giḇ’onites, who can be so convincing at worming their way in to the assembly or fellowship of the believers and even with their manufactured evidence deceive many in to believing and following after their lies and twisted truth!

They came to Yehoshua saying that they would be their servants, and according to the Word, nations from far off would be if they accepted the call for peace, but notice here how according to Deḇarim Yisra’ĕl  was to offer the call, not the enemy – they enemy was to accept or reject it! Satan knows the Word, he knows what יהוה has said and he will come and twist the Truth and confuse us if we are not careful into falling prey to his schemes of deception!

Yisra’ĕl  made the decision to make a covenant with them, while they did not realise that things were not as they appeared! Yehoshua and his leaders were deceived – why? Because they took a decision without consulting יהוה! In those days יהוה would speak through the prophets and priests and through the Urim and Tummim that was on the priest’s breastplate. They did not inquire of יהוה – big mistake that led to a wrong decision as a result of well-crafted deception!

They made the decision to covenant with these people through reasoning in using their own wisdom and carnal thinking, perhaps even felt sorry for these guys who came and felt they could relate to their hardships as they too had been on a long hard journey, where I might remind  you that their sandals and clothes did not wear out!

Yehoshua and the leaders certainly used their brains, make no mistake about it – they asked questions, they looked at the evidence and weighed up the situation that was presented before them, which by all accounts according to what they saw and heard seemed like the right decision to take at the time! Yet as we see from this – there was one major critical factor clearly missing – they did not ask יהוה!!! They obviously thought there was no need to ask יהוה – they were wrong!

Today it is still very much the same for many of us in most situations – we make quick decisions based on the evidence we see before us and even may weigh up the odds yet fail to take it to יהוה!!! Why do we do that? We got to learn to take everything in prayer to יהוה!!!

They had allowed the enemy in the camp and now had to live with the consequences of their mistake as they made a hasty decision on an important matter and it cost them! We need to learn from these events that we too must not be found making hasty decisions in our life without first seeking the guidance of יהוה our Elohim! Now please hear me out here, I am not saying that we need to have large prayer meeting about what we are going to have for breakfast – but you all know what I am talking about – there are decisions that we make every day that need to be taken to יהוה – else we may find ourselves making bad decisions and have to deal with the effects of those choices!

We must learn not to judge according to the flesh and we must not depend upon our own human wisdom and understanding:

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in יהוה with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; 6 Know Him in all your ways, and He makes all your paths straight.”

Yaʽaqoḇ/James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of Elohim, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it shall be given to him.”

We must learn to ask יהוה for wisdom and know that He gives it generously and we must be very careful not to make ‘worldly alliances’ no matter how appealing or ‘right’ they may appear. The Word tells us that friendship with the world is enmity or hatred before Elohim! Making alliances with that which is not of Elohim and has not been inquired of Elohim is hatred toward Him… ouch! For some this may seem shocking and it should – we must be very careful who and what we make alliances with. Deception would not be deception if it didn’t deceive- that is obvious – so let us not be found being deceived and end up making rash excuses in order to rationalise our decisions!

Deception is a danger to us all! Satan is the master deceiver who has a mission and that is to get us to fall from our steadfastness and fall into his traps that are disastrous and detrimental to our health and well-being!

Satan’s message is simply this: to make truth appear or sound like a lie and make a lie appear or sound like truth and the only way we can discern the difference is through our walking in the Word and ability to inquire of יהוה and be obedient to His voice even when the appearance of evil seems so right!

The Giḇ’onites had the appearance of being very honourable, harmless and honest and Yehoshua certainly would not have fallen to their deception if this were not the case. They certainly knew how to deceive and Satan used them in an attempt at stopping them from taking the land.

The enemy knows how to use the Word for their own purposes and we are to be always alert and watchful.

The Giḇ’onites lied, they lied were they were from, they lied about their clothing and food, they lied about themselves saying that they were on a peace mission – sounds pretty much like many ‘peace missions’ going on in the world today! And they called themselves servants when they were enemies, and above all they blasphemed the name of יהוה.

I cannot help but realise how this very Giḇ’onite deceptive strategy of Satan is at work in the church today, as many too have been deceived into living a lie, they have been presented a lie and are promoting and teaching lies – lies that are twisted truth – which at many times has the very appearance of sincerity, and is loaded with well-crafted and manufactured evidence that makes it so believable – yet the hordes of folk out there are not inquiring our Elohim, יהוה of Hosts is His Name!

The Giḇ’onites were wise enough not to mention the victories at Yeriḥo and Ai as the news of these victories would certainly not have reached faraway lands at this point and as we can see and learn from this that Satan’s ambassadors can lie more convincingly that many believers today can tell the Truth! “Religious lies’ are often used in order to give the impression and appearance of seeking יהוה and so easily make a ‘profession of faith’ telling their sad stories hoping to reach into the hearts of their listeners and manipulate them in to picking their pockets. We need to understand that deception is out there and it is so real and many times right in our faces, for which we need to carefully consider our words and actions and be diligent in our ability to take everything to יהוה in prayer.

True faith involves patience and we are told in Yeshayahu/Isaiah 28:16 that whoever believes will not act hastily. Belief comes by hearing and if you have not inquired and heard then do not make a hasty call that may cost you!

Shemoth/Exodus 34:12 “Guard yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst.”

They were expressly told to guard against making covenants with the inhabitants of the Promised Land and it is interesting to me hear how we see Yehoshua and the leaders guard being down. The Hebrew understanding of walking in יהוה’s instructions is to hear – guard – do. In order to guard to do, one needs to hear first. They were unable to guard the commands at this point for they never sought יהוה to hear. Seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness. if you leave out seeking Him and hearing His voice, be cautioned that your ability to guard may be weakened and therefore your ability to do may be hindered and lead to sin!

Yehoshua acted in haste and broke the commands of יהוה and made a covenant with the enemy. And now they had to live with the consequences of their words. They had made an oath in the Name of יהוה, which now could not be broken!

Believing lies as opposed to listening to יהוה will cause you to end up in some very hot water!

In verse 14 it states that the men of Yisra’ĕl  took some of their food, without asking the mouth of יהוה! This verse sounds very strange, however among Arabs, eating bread and salt with a guest is considered a sign of peace and friendship. Just think how mouldy and bad this bread must have looked? And they took some. The danger today is that there is still the deception of Giḇ’on going on as it has only the stale mouldy bread of twisted doctrine that has no life, but only the appearance of life to offer and the masses are eating it up and are saying, ‘peace, peace’ when there is no peace! We must be careful not to partake of stale bread. יהושע  is the Bread of Life and we are to eat of Him and not of some watered down twisted recipe that has not been proven over time but has become mouldy and very stale!

We must be aware of the devil’s deceptions. He will attempt to deceive your thoughts and wants us to take our spiritual walk and fight of faith lightly in order to catch us off-guard. The major warfare of the enemy is to distort the truth of יהוה and get you to think thoughts that do not line up with the Word.

We must learn to take everything to יהוה in prayer and not make the mistake Yisra’ĕl  made that day by not taking time to seek יהוה! What often keeps us from prayer is pride, presumption and even pain, and without prayer we are more open to Satan’s attacks!

What we can learn from these events is that we are to be accountable for our words and as יהושע  tells us in Mattithyahu 5:37 that our yes must be yes and our no must be no, for anything beyond this is from evil!

Deception can easily lead to bad choices, so let me ask you, “What happens when you make a mistake, or a bad choice and you come to the realisation of the fact that it was a bad call?”

Do you own up to your mistake or do you cover it up? Yehoshua owned up and took responsibility and accountability for the bad decision and let יהוה work it out:

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 28:13 “He who hides his transgressions does not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them finds compassion.”

Perhaps through bad judgement calls you have found yourself sampling the ‘bread’ of the enemy thinking that it is the truth and as a result have made choices that you have had to live with. Well what we can learn from this is that words carry great power – this we know – now we must be found to be a people of integrity that keeps our word no matter the cost. Are you know as one who is reliable and one who keeps their word or are you not?

Much of what we say and do is done according to our carnal understanding and often without the help and guidance of the Ruach HaQodesh and this let me tell you needs to change, aměn!

Outward appearances and evidence may very well often seem appealing and convincing while not telling the whole story, and sadly most people go through life making critical decisions about family, finances and friendships without a thought of the spiritual significance and consequences of their decisions. There are many deceptions out there and many will try to deceive you and divert you away from doing the will of יהוה by presenting to you seemingly ‘good things’.  Today we must be aware of this and realise that there are many who are just like the Giḇ’onites who are intent on deceiving the children of יהוה and even after close inspection one may often not be able to see their true intentions as they may walk the walk and even talk the talk by appearance yet are not truly right with יהוה, which will always be revealed through time as we will know by the fruit that is produced – whether it be lasting fruit or genetically modified fruit!

Some vital lessons we can take from these events is as follows:

1 – Your enemy will surprise you – he thrives on the element of surprise trying to catch us off-guard! Yehoshua was blind-sided and never expected it!

2 – Don’t jump to conclusions without consultation with יהוה! Too often we come to conclusions based on outward appearances and the enemy masquerades as the angel of light. Test all things according to the Torah of יהוה – do not simply just believe what you see and hear!

3 – Do not be flattered into sin and disobedience – a tactic that the Giḇ’onites used to get them to violate their principles through peer pressure.

4 – Always seek counsel from יהוה –

Yoḥanan/John 7:24 “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”

When we don’t take our plans and decisions to יהוה Satan will be very quick to try and pull a fast one over us.

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”

5 – Bad decisions have consequences. Yes they made a bad choice, yet they kept their word. Over 400 years later king Sha’ul broke this treaty and tried to wipe out Giḇ’on for which Yisra’ĕl  was punished!

6 – Deception is always exposed – in this case it took only 3 days – for some that was too long, but no matter how long it talks deception will always be exposed for light exposes and expels the darkness!

7 – Always leave room for the favour of יהוה for יהוה will work it all out! Despite their error יהוה worked it for good and they had servants in the temple. It is interesting to note how the Giḇ’onites remained faithful to serving Yisra’ĕl  and we see that even one of Dawiḏ’s mighty men of valour was a Giḇ’onite and we also see in Scripture that as long as they remained obedient in service then they would be under יהוה’s protection. The Giḇ’onites helped rebuild Yerushalayim under Nehemiah and when Yisra’ĕl  whored after other idols; Giḇ’on remained faithful in service to יהוה! They became additional soldiers for battles to win in Kenaʽan and were eventually assimilated into the community. So what turned out in a desperate measure for survival ended up in a submitted nation who served יהוה and greatly feared Him.

Even when you make mistakes and bad decisions, leave room for the favour of יהוה. Despite the errors of both Yehoshua and Giḇ’on, יהוה had a plan for their problems. Mistakes placed in the hands of יהוה will cause us to wait patiently on and trust in Him.

Perhaps you too have found yourself being fooled by the tricks and wiles of the enemy – well let me remind you that despite your failures – failure is not the end of the child of Elohim. It would be utter foolishness not to bring your failure to יהוה and try to go it on your own – call upon His Name and He will set you free and lead you in righteousness.

All of us have been deceived at some stage and we often find ourselves being caught through deception more than we would like. But how are you going to respond to deception? Will you allow deception to stop you from allowing the favour of יהוה to come to you or are you going to recognise it as you test all things and take it to יהוה in prayer and let Him help you in your decisions and so lead you forth in Truth, protected in Him!

יהוה redeems mistakes, praise Him for that!

May we realise that the enemy is like a lion seeking to devour us and he is also a snake who seeks to deceive us. We are to be awake to his schemes and beware of the Giḇ’onites that are closer than we realise, even though Satan will get you to think he is far away! Do not make covenants with the Giḇ’onites of today! יהוה calls us to live lives without compromise – Beware of the Giḇ’onites of today that will tempt you to compromise your walk with יהוה

It is time to do away with compromises. It’s time to deal a death-blow to things that will lure you away from what is right.

Let me close with this story. It was getting to be winter, and a hunter went out into the forest to shoot a bear out of which he planned to make a warm coat. By and by he saw a bear coming toward him and raised his gun and took aim.
“Wait,” said the bear, “why do you want to shoot me?”
“Because I am cold,” said the hunter.
“But I am hungry,” the bear replied, “so maybe we can reach an agreement.”
In the end, the hunter was well enveloped with the bear’s fur and the bear had eaten his dinner.

Beware of the bears – beware of the Giḇ’onites – beware of the compromise. We always lose out when we try to compromise with sin. It will consume us in the end. Seek יהוה and do good!

יהוה bless you and guard you, יהוה make His face shine upon you and give you favour, יהוה lift up His face to you and give you peace!

Shalom!

Shalom everyone, praise be to YHWH our Elohim as we can come together in fellowship and give all esteem and praise unto Him. It is good to be together, aměn! How are you all doing tonight? Most of the time when asked how are you, a quick response of ‘O.K thanks’ is the seemingly easiest and best option to respond with as it requires nothing in return, except maybe a ‘and how are you doing?’ with the expected similar response of, ‘yeah I’m fine thanks’. This quick greeting and response allows the individuals to continue to communicate on a level where no boundaries are tested and even the most severe issues buried deep within the heart are conveniently avoided and supressed in order to prevent any unwanted convictions to change! Often when asked ‘how are you?’ there is not even a chance to respond as the questioner is so fast at continuing the conversation that the question has no relevance! It has simply become a means to start a conversation as opposed to actually caring how one is! But what happens when someone does come along and looks you in the eye and with sincere concern asks you ‘How is it going with you, what is going on in your heart?” – well that opens up a whole new or different train of thought, as you can just say ‘ok’ as always, or you can truly respond with the reality of what is going on – and be able to share the intimacy of what is on the inside – whether it be positive or negative. My message tonight is called, “How is your heart?” and with that question in mind please turn with me to Diḇre haYamim Bet/2 Chronicles 25 as we are all challenged to look at our heart in the mirror of His Word! (Pray & Read)

As we can see from this chapter on the life of Amatsyahu, son of Yo’ash, we can learn a great deal from these accounts recorded here as well as in Melaḵim Bet/2 Kings 14:1-6. The introduction of a character in Scripture is often the key to understanding the outcome of the events that takes place in their lives, and so it is with this thought that as we see in verse 2, Amatsyahu did what was right in the eyes of YHWH, but not with a perfect heart! No with a perfect heart… what does that mean? What are the effects of this imperfect heart and what does it mean for us as we walk before and serve YHWH today? Well, let us look at this more closely and then see the need for us to have perfect hearts before YHWH!

In a nutshell, the essence of this passage relates as follows: Amatsyahu becomes the 9^th king of Yehuḏah, succeeding his father who was assassinated after the defeat of the Syrians, where his own officials conspired against him and killed him for murdering Zeḵaryah, the son of the likeable prophet Yehoyaḏa, after being told that YHWH had left him. So Amatsyahu, which means strength of Yah, whose mother was Yehoaddan, which means ‘YHWH is delighted’, became king and did what was right in the eyes of YHWH, and in a sense we see here how he started out right. He killed those who struck his father yet did not put their children to death, obeying the Torah which tells us that each one dies for their own sin and that children are not put to death for their fathers, nor fathers for their children.

Amatsyahu seemingly started out well, and in Melaḵim Bet/2 Kings we see that it records for us that Amatsyahu did what was right in the eyes of YHWH but not according to his father Dawiḏ, but according to Yo’ash and did not break down all the high places of false worship. In other words, he permitted idolatrous worship to continue!!!!

Amatsyahu sets up his army and gathers 300,000 men from Yehuḏah to go in to battle against the Edomites or people of Sě’ir. This was not enough men in his eyes and so he hires 100,000 men from Yisra’ĕl for 100 talents of silver, approximately around 23 million rand today! He wanted more men and started devising his own plans, a sign his heart was not wholly after YHWH. YHWH sends a prophet to warn him, telling him that YHWH was not with Yisra’ĕl, as they had whored after other mighty ones, and if he took the soldiers he would not succeed and YHWH would make him fall. He listens to this advice and sends the 100,000 troops from Yisra’ĕl back, after asking, ‘but what about the money?’ to which the prophet tells him that YHWH has more to give him than this.

So, Yisra’ĕl leave angered and enraged, and Amatsyahu goes to war and gets great victory for Yehuḏah against Edom having destroyed the Edomites and killing 20,000 of the men, and this is where it all starts to go pear shaped or downhill!!!

He raids the Edomites cities of Sě’ir and brings all the idols back, sets them up and worships them! This was a stupid move! You got to ask yourself, why would he bring back the enemies idols!!! It was often the belief in Ancient Near East that victorious people viewed their defeated enemy’s deities as having abandoned their people to help the enemy and so capturing their idols and worshipping them was a way of thanking the enemy’s deities for victory! This as we know makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, and Amatsyahu knew this, and the prophet of YHWH came and asked him what he was doing with the enemy’s idols. This angered Amatsyahu and told him to stop. The prophet then told him that Elohim has counselled to destroy Amatsyahu because he did not listen to YHWH’s prophet!

Hard hearted Amatsyahu, now full of pride challenges Yisra’ĕl to battle. He just wanted to fight and prove he is king! The king of Yisra’ĕl send back a riddle basically saying that Amatsyahu is all puffed up from a battle yet he is just a thistle who was demanding a daughter from Yisra’ĕl for his son to show the superiority of Yehuḏah over Yisra’ĕl, yet he would be trampled upon by a wild beast which was Yisra’ĕl. Amatsyahu didn’t listen and was smitten and taken captive, he turned totally away from YHWH and eventually was killed by his own people.

What started out as a seemingly obedient life, turned nasty…why? Because his whole heart was not in it for YHWH!

The lessons we can take from this are many, showing that the danger of a heart not being perfect, in other words a lukewarm heart can become cool and then eventually stone cold! A stone cold heart is a hard heart, an unteachable heart, deafened to the truth, disrespectful and lawless! And we certainly see a lot of stone cold hearts in the world today, even those who are seemingly serving YHWH! The Word calls for us to serve YHWH with a perfect heart!

But, you may ask, is it possible to serve YHWH with a perfect heart, are we not all sinners unable to be perfect?

Berěshith/Genesis 17:1 “And it came to be when Aḇram was ninety-nine years old, that YHWH appeared to Aḇram and said to him, “I am Ěl Shaddai – walk before Me and be perfect.”

Mattithyahu/Matthew 5:48 ““Therefore, be perfect, as your Father in the heavens is perfect.”

Be perfect, often a hard expectation if understood in the wrong way, but what is it to be perfect or have a perfect heart?

‘Not a perfect heart’ often speaks of one who began well yet did not endure to the end – one who does not carry on to completion that which they are called to! It can be a ‘doing right, but…’ kind of scenario. There are to be no ‘buts’ in our committed life unto YHWH!

What does perfect mean? It can mean, flawless as in a flawless diamond, accurate, faithfully reproducing the original, pure complete, mature etc.

In the Hebrew there are two words for which we translate as perfect:

1 – Shâlêm – which means pure, complete, perfect, whole, finished. This is used in the Hebrew as an adjective, as in a perfect heart:

Melaḵim aleph/1Kings 8:61 “Let your heart therefore be perfect to YHWH our Elohim, to walk in His laws and guard His commands, as at this day.”

2 – Tâmîym – this is a verb that translates over 90 times as perfect, without blemish, complete or full:

Deḇarim/Deuteronomy 18:13 “Be perfect before YHWH your Elohim”

Understanding these two Hebrew words used interchangeably throughout the Scriptures in referring to perfection in serving YHWH we can understand that the meaning is to be upright, totally obedient, to finish what was started and have a constant obedience. Having a perfect heart is having a responsive heart – one that answers quickly to YHWH’s call, His whisperings and His warnings. I sent out a warning this morning – about why we are not to celebrate Christmas and sadly many people are not ‘responsive’ to the Truth and incline to follow after the traditions of men and discard quickly the commands of Elohim for the sake of following after the world, caring more to please man rather than YHWH. At this point let me ask again, ‘How is your heart?’

In Hebrew the word heart (lev) is not only seen as the seat of emotions, as we would understand it in our culture, but also as the seat of thoughts, whereas we see the brain as the seat of thoughts. To the ancient Hebrew the heart was the mind including all thoughts and including emotions. In other words to love YHWH with all your heart is not simply speaking of an emotional love, but rather an exerted continual effort in keeping all of our emotions and thoughts working for and unto Him. Mattithyahu 5:8 tells us that blessed are the pure in heart or those with a clean heart fro they will see Elohim. Dawiḏ in Tehillim 24 asks who can ascend the mountain of YHWH and stand in His set-apart place – those with innocent hands and a clean heart,

To be pure in heart means to be single minded in our devotion to YHWH and in our determination to love Him wholeheartedly. The Hebrew word ‘Tâmîym’ comes from the word ‘tâmam’ which means to be complete and comes from the root ‘tâm’ which means to be mature in thought and in action. So when we are told to be perfect (tâmîym), we are told we are to be complete, and be mature in our thoughts and actions. We are to move on to maturity which comes through the perseverance of trials in order to be complete and not lack anything. It is those who are immature – those who stay on the milk of the Word, who cannot walk perfect before YHWH. Although many ought to be teachers by now, they have not moved on to maturity in the Word and stumble continually in the man-made traditions that have held people captive on milk. The church today is in large feeding people milk, and not even pure milk at that – but rather a ‘formula’ – which is man-made as opposed to the pure milk of a mother and never allows people to be weaned of the milk and think for themselves!

We know that Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah tells us in 17:9 that the heart is deceitful above all things – and perhaps that is why we can often so easily say everything is ok, when it is not! Yet Shemuʼĕl Aleph/1 Samuel 16:7 tells us that YHWH looks at the heart. So as YHWH looks at your heart – what does He see?

The problem with Amatsyahu was that his heart was not perfect before YHWH – He did not serve only YHWH but he wanted to mainly serve Himself! This was seen in the fact that he did not destroy the high places he should have and as a result ended up worshipping other mighty ones of the enemies – he was not wholeheartedly faithful unto YHWH. He was in it for himself! It was a ‘what can I get out of this relationship with YHWH’ approach, and today it is exactly the same with so many professing followers of the Messiah! They are only thinking of self and what they can benefit out of walking with Him – that is why so much emphasis is placed on the ‘prosperity gospel’ and ‘Word faith’ movements as it is self-seeking for the benefits of walking with YHWH. Now we certainly know the blessing of obedience, yet it is not for the blessings that we are obedient, it is out of our expression of love toward the Almighty for delivering and redeeming us unto Himself, and so we humble ourselves before Him in wholehearted committed devotion with a perfect heart! We clearly see the contrast in his reign (Amatsyahu) with the reign of other good kings who were before him. There is a contrast between the faithfulness of those who walked in righteousness and Amatsyahu who, in a nutshell, was not faithful in all. Where others rebuilt, Amatsyahu saw destruction as the walls of Yerushalayim were torn down, where wealth was previously poured in to Yehuḏah, it was now being plundered. We see how from victorious of faithfulness went to defeat from unfaithfulness and where a loyal population turned to conspiracy and assassinated their king! This is a result if an imperfect heart!

We can look at this and think ‘how stupid was he?’, and yes you are right, how stupid was he to go and worship other deities, especially after great victories that YHWH had given – he was really stupid!!! But before we gloat over his stupidity, many of the beliefs today are just as stupid. Astrology, spiritism, new age, the whole kundalini move in the charismatic churches today as well as many other systems that promise to help the hopeless, yet are bankrupt and unable to help anyone. What is sad and a reality is that those who reject YHWH simply do not want to know the Truth!

As we look at the errors in Amatsyahu, we can certainly be warned not to allow the same errors to come creeping in to our lives, which calls for a heart that is perfect, perfect in devotion and commitment to loving YHWH with all!

During the reign of Amatsyahu – a man whose name meant strength of Yah, yet did not live up to his name and tried to do things in his own strength, we can see critical errors he had in life that we are to avoid:

1 – His Paganism – He continued to worship false deities, even after YHWH gave him success. Today there are many, especially at this time of year that claim to be following YHWH yet are worshipping pagan deities, bringing them into their homes and worshipping them. Yes you all know what I am talking about – tomorrow the world celebrates Christmas, along with millions of people who are serving YHWH – but not with a perfect heart. Aharon thought he was serving YHWH when building a golden calf and saying, tomorrow is a feast unto YHWH and to YHWH this was an abomination!!! You cannot mix worship. Amatsyahu thought he could and look what happened to him! Please do not find yourself ever being attracted to taking on pagan worship of any kind – do not worship YHWH the way the world has adopted worship practices from pagan cultures, we are to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth – in the Truth as He has given us through His Word. So many today can have the greatest victory in battle and find themselves praising themselves and falling into idolatrous practices neglecting YHWH – be warned not to let your heart become lukewarm in your fervency for Him, for that lukewarm heart may cause compromise in worship and lead to a cold stone heart that has lost trust and faith in the very One who has given you the greatest victories!

2 – His Pride – When you start worshipping other things, even self and neglect to have a perfect heart of worship unto YHWH then pride has a nasty way of settling in a cold heart. Amatsyahu in his pride refused the warnings and challenged Yisra’ĕl to war trying to prove his own strength! A perfect heart toward YHWH has no room whatsoever for pride! Pride will kill you. The meek will inherit the earth, the proud fall!

3 – His punishment – Amatsyahu was captured, His pride led to his downfall. He was plundered, the city walls were broken and his idols couldn’t save him from the hand of the Almighty. The punishment for sin is death, if Amatsyahu had simply humbled himself and repented, I believe that he would have been restored, but it is very hard for a stone cold heart to repent. Yahushua took upon Himself our punishment, and we must humble ourselves and serve Him with a perfect heart, or else we too may face the punishment of walking rebellious and in pride as a result of lukewarm living! We know the end of the Lukewarm – He (Yahushua) will spit them out!!! “Away from ME you workers of lawlessness, I never knew you!!!”

So how do we keep a perfect heart before YHWH. It starts with being open before YHWH, allowing Him to deal with those imperfections that are in our heart:

Tehillim/Psalms 139: 23-24 “Search me, O Ěl, and know my heart; Try me, and know my thoughts; 24 And see if an idolatrous way is in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.”

Dawiḏ was willing for YHWH to search him and try his heart: a perfect heart is a searchable heart, which means we allow YHWH to penetrate and examine deeply into our thoughts and emotions. The false teachings today tell you that as long as your heart doesn’t condemn you then you are ok and the Blood of Yahushua has cleansed you, yet they fail to neglect what it says prior to this:

Yoḥanan Aleph/1 John 1:6-7 “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and are not doing the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Yahushua Messiah His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

His Blood cleanses us yes, but we are to be walking in the light as He is – we are to be walking in His instructions with a perfect heart inclining to walk in the perfect knowledge of His Loving Word!

But looking at the life and example of Amatsyahu we can learn 7 keys or steps to a perfect ‘Shâlêm’ heart that will cause us to be perfect ‘Tâmîym’ in our daily walk: I call these the 7 ‘do-rights’

1 – Do right even when you feel that you have been wronged!

Amatsyahu served YHWH and chose to obey YHWH with his life, initially that is, and showed obedience to the Torah by not taking revenge on the children of his father’s murderers. How many of you have ever been wronged? Come on we all have!!! But how many times are you so tempted to give back just what you got? Do right, even when you are wronged and yes it was not your fault and you are right when you stand and say, ‘but it is not fair, I did nothing wrong!’ Continue to do right!

2 – Do right even when you feel unappreciated!

There are right choices to make even when nobody appreciates your faithfulness, they may even despise and reject you. Still do right according to the Word. People may ridicule you, speak all kinds of false things about you, despise and reject you and persecute you for simply being obedient to YHWH! Yahushua tells us that we are blessed when we are persecuted for His Name’s Sake, for just as they persecuted the prophets who were before you so will do to you – but we are blessed through it – for we carry His Name. They hated Him and therefore the world will hate us and not appreciate His Word in us, that is ok – still do right!

3 – Do right even when it does not make much sense!

Bigger may always seems better but is not always the case. Amatsyahu was told to send the 100,000 troops of Yisra’ĕl home. That was taking away ¼ of his army – it may not have made sense to him, yet he obeyed and did what was right in YHWH’s eyes – which brought the victory! Even when we have made a blunder in our walk, when we come and turn to YHWH and walk fully in His Word, he promises us the victory for the battle is His! His ways are higher than our ways and most of the time his way may not make much sense – still do right and the understanding will come in the doing!

4 – Do right even if it requires sacrifice!

Amatsyahu had given 100 talents of silver – the equivalent of around 23 million rand – not small change – what about the silver he asked. The answer was simply – YHWH is able to give you more than this. Do what is right, even if it costs you and you seemingly lost something because of wrong choices that were made in ignorance or in the flesh. I wonder today, perhaps a silly example yet a valid one, how many would, if they bought a ticket to a world cup final and it cost them thousands, only to realise and discover that it was on a Sabbath, would actually not go and tell their friends why they cannot go and realise that the money is gone, and perhaps some of the friendships too?

5 – Do right even if not politically or socially correct!

After the victory over the Edomites, Amatsyahu proceeded to kill a further 10,000 captured enemies, wiping out the enemy totally – in today’s standards that would not necessarily be politically correct. The Word of YHWH always takes priority over what is seen as politically or socially correct! What is seen as politically and socially correct today? Among other things, abortion, same sex marriage, gay rights etc. are all seen as politically and socially correct. We are to follow after the Truth and do right by the Word of YHWH which calls these and many other things abominations before Him!

6 – Do right and give YHWH all the praise when He has blessed you with victory!

This is where Amatsyahu faltered – rather than giving praise to YHWH, he bowed and worshipped the idols of his enemies! Crazy I know – he served YHWH yet not with a perfect heart – a perfect heart does not compromise worship and always gives praise to YHWH, and will not bow down to another – a word many in the world need to here, even tonight as they bow down to idol worship of pagan traditions of Christmas, calling it worship unto YHWH – yet He calls it an abomination! Let us not give praise to another, but only unto YHWH!

7 – Do right even when it seems there is no battle to fight!

Keep on fighting the good fight of faith! Amatsyahu must have thought that since he had the victory, he could do whatever he pleased and he felt he no longer needed the services of the Almighty! How sad this is, yet such a valid reality in our day. He thought as many do today that he could take a vacation from war and worship the gods of imagination!

Too many place more emphasis and make worship of imaginations than on the real and true Almighty Creator, YHWH of Hosts is His Name!

Amatsyahu went from a lukewarm heart, one that compromised and ended up with a cold stone, hard heart that refused to hear from YHWH. Once he would listen, yet hardened he became deaf of hearing the Truth. There are many who are doing what is right in YHWH’s eyes today, yet not with a perfect heart – they say the right things and even do the right things, yet there are little deliberate compromises that they refuse to give up and so end up with lukewarm worship. It is one thing to have the appearance of doing the Torah, by showing up for Shabbat and study and prayer, but a perfect heart does those things and lives it out fervently every day of the week, even when others are not watching…. YHWH is always watching, and so I ask you again… How is your heart?

Perhaps you too have been doing what is right in the eyes if YHWH yet not with a perfect heart, you have perhaps been doing what needs to be done, because you know you should yet it has been out of duty and not out of a pure heart. I encourage you to learn from the account of Amatsyahu not to follow YHWH with a half-hearted approach, but rather with all you have and give Him your all with a perfect heart, one that will finish the race set before you with great joy and expectancy of Him meeting every need and strengthening your hand for every battle. Perhaps you too have seemingly ‘lost’ out on much that you have ‘spent’ on trying to get ahead, get over it and realise that YHWH has much more to give you than what you could ever engineer, but it is going to take a willing, ever obedient perfect heart.

As the question rings true in your heart – how is your heart? Be open before the Father and draw close to Him now and let Him refresh and cleanse you and give you a new breath to serve Him perfectly as He leads and guides your every step and may we heed His voice telling us to be perfect as He is perfect!!!

Let us walk perfect and have a perfect heart before YHWH – look at the following Scripture where Dawiḏ commissions Shelomoh to do the same:

Diḇre haYamim Aleph/1 Chronicles 28:9 “As for you, my son Shelomoh, know the Elohim of your father, and serve Him with a perfect heart and with a pleasing life, for YHWH searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you do seek Him, He is found by you; but if you forsake Him, He rejects you forever.”

Let us ‘do right’ in the eyes of YHWH, with a perfect (Shâlêm) heart that we may be perfect (Tâmîym) before a perfect (Tâmîym) Elohim and teach others to do the same. Take this word and live it out perfectly and show those who are not how to as they follow your example as you follow Messiah.

Shalom to you all – YHWH bless you and guard you, YHWH make His face shine upon you and give you favour, YHWH lift up His face to you and give you peace, may He give you His shalom.

Maybe you have messed up, made some wrong choices, and afraid to try and figure it out or be set free because you are simply afraid of being embarrassed, ashamed or disgraced. Have you forgotten to trust? Or what it means to trust, and can you even trust? Who can you trust? Some easy yet often hard to answer questions!!!

While away these past few days hoping to get some much needed rest, although plagued with an upset stomach, and not finding much time to simply ‘switch off’, I did however find much delight and comfort in His Word, and as I read bits and pieces here and there, I found myself being drawn constantly back to Tehillim (Psalms) 37 and would like us to read this tonight and be strengthened and encouraged greatly by this great Psalm of Dawiḏ. I know all of you here are super strong in the faith and are great warriors for our Mighty Redeemer, yet I have a message called, “Trust and be not afraid!” Something we all constantly need to be reminded of, aměn!

But who is it we are to trust in? Although we all know the answer – יהוה of course – but why is it we often fail at applying this truth, looking often to self or others as opposed to יהוה. Before going to Tehillim 27 look first at:

Yirmeyahu/ Jeremiah 17: 5-8 “Thus said יהוה, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart turns away from יהוה. 6 “For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and not see when good comes, and shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land that is not inhabited. 7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in יהוה, and whose trust is יהוה. 8 “For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and does not see when heat comes. And his leaf shall be green, and in the year of drought he is not anxious, nor does he cease from yielding fruit.”

Would you rather be cursed or blessed? Be miserable or happy? Stressed or at peace? I know my answer – I want to be blessed, happy and at peace, and I am sure you do to, so let’s be reminded tonight about what this word trust really means and when trusting in the correct source what it will lead to. Turn with me to Tehillim/Psalms 37 (Read).

Perhaps you have been facing some tough faith battles so to speak – you have found yourself having had some pretty rough encounters with the wicked. Now to better understand the term wicked, which in Hebrew is ‘rasha’  and ‘poneros’ in the Greek – and refers to someone who is unrighteous – in other words refers to the one who is opposed to righteousness and opposed to the one who is righteous and refers to one who is guilty of violating the righteous requirements of the Torah of יהוה. So it is not necessarily just referring to the murderer and rapist etc., but it is also referring to one who violates the very Torah, and deliberately disobeys the Torah and even twists the truth for their own gain.

It is here in this Tehillim (Psalm) that Dawiḏ calls for a trust in יהוה despite the presence of evil and wicked men!

It is here that Dawiḏ teaches us how to survive in the land of the wicked and begins by giving us a series of proverbs from verses 1-8 instructing us and giving way to the promises that that the wicked will be punished and that Elohim upholds the just, despite the intent of the wicked to harm them. Listen the intentions of the wicked and corrupt living around you and perhaps very close to you, may just be to harm you and ridicule you and despise you and slander and hate you, yet here we are encouraged and instructed to take great joy and strength from יהוה knowing that He upholds us as we are His, aměn!

Here Dawiḏ gives us a few do’s and don’ts –

DON’TS                :                                                                                               DO’S:

FRET (1)                                                                                                          TRUST in יהוה (3)

BE ENVIOUS (1)                                                                                               DO GOOD (3)

FRET (7)                                                                                                          ENJOY YOUR BLESSINGS (4)

BE ANGRY (8)                                                                                                  DELIGHT IN יהוה (4)

FRET (8)                                                                                                          COMMIT TO יהוה (5)

                                                                                                                      TRUST IN יהוה (5)

                                                                                                                      BE STILL BEFORE יהוה (7)

                                                                                                                      WAIT PATIENTLY FOR HIM (7)

DO NOT FRET – 3 times Dawiḏ instructs us in this – so what is ‘fret’? Fret is the Hebrew word ‘charah’ and means ‘to worry or fear’ or ‘be shaken’. In other words we are not to be shaken because of evil doers, or be shaken because of those who prosper in their wickedness. How often you hear people say, it is not fair that the wicked prosper – so what – don’t let that shake you, don’t get rattled over it. Dawiḏ also tells us not to get so rattled or shaken by the wicked that we do evil.

Don’t let frustration turn to evil actions and in sense; do as the world does – NO abstain from these. Do not repay evil for evil but repay evil with good – that is the good works of obedient Torah living expressed through love. It can often be a temptation to get envious of others who are not walking in the truth and in fact are so far away from the truth yet they are prosperous:

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 23:17 “Do not let your heart envy sinners, But be in the fear of יהוה all day long.”

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 24:1 “Do not envy evil men, Nor desire to be with them.”

For they will wither like grass (Kepha Aleph/1 Peter 1:24)!

This is a call to trust in יהוה!

Trust is the assured reliance on the character, ability, strength or truth of someone or something. It is a dependence upon one or one in which confidence is placed. It is the confidence, reliance and resting of the mind in the integrity/friendship of another person.

Who can you talk to? And how do you develop trust? What happens when you have the capacity and ability to trust?

Well simply there is a release of pressure, a freedom, an openness to confide in, to seek refuge and comfort, and find a peace and joy that comes as you trust. To trust is also to be confident of something present or future. Let me ask you right now – What are you confident for or in right now or for the future? What is it that you are trusting for – and who are trusting in?

“If only I had more faith!” you may say to yourself, but what makes faith valid is not how much you have, but what/whom we have faith in. It is not how strong our faith is, it is how strong the one we believe in is!

We are to trust in יהוה who answers prayer and stand on the sure promise that He will give you the desires of your heart!

Based on the condition that is – that you delight yourself in Him!

Delight is the Hebrew word ‘anag’ which also means to enjoy or be fond of, or take pleasure in. It carries with it the meaning of having a high degree of gratification and joy in someone or something! We all certainly want the desires of our hearts – that I am sure we can all agree upon, but how sincere and true is our ability to truly take great pleasure and enjoyment in יהוה – do we truly delight ourselves in Him? We must – but are we is what we are to ask! For when we truly have a high degree of gratification and joy for יהוה, then His desires become our desires. When you delight in someone you spend all you energy in seeking to please them. Many certainly desire to have the desires of their heart yet find no time for יהוה in their lives!!! Delighting in Him will cause the fretting to flee.

Dawiḏ moves on and tells us that we are to commit our way to יהוה. Looking again at the Hebrew word used here for: Commit – ‘galal’ means to ‘roll’ or roll away! This carries the picture of rolling oneself over to יהוה. To commit you way is not simply committing to an appointment, but rather your whole life – all your desires, your anxieties, your problems – over to יהוה and allowing יהוה to determine what your life will be and then He says He will do it! This is a challenge in itself for most, as to say I am committed carries a deeper understanding than many care to realise as it is a rolling away from self and totally over to יהוה. Carrying on with the Hebrew words in giving us better understanding to Dawiḏ’s words let us look at two more:

Be still – in Hebrew is ‘damam’ and means to be silent or to rest or to cease. We are expected to be still and quiet ourselves, which at times is impossible at the best of times as the hustle and bustle of the world around us just never seems to stop. And all too often I am sure we can all agree that His still small voice is not clearly heard amidst the ‘noise’ of our chaotic 21^st century lives! Learning to be still and silenced in a noise filled world will help us and enable us to hear the Shepherd’s voice through His Word. How many of you have at times tried to read the Word only to find that there are just too many distractions and too much noise, while there are other times when you have made the effort to quiet yourself and read and suddenly able to experience the joy of His crisp clear voice bringing revelation and joy, understanding and discernment to your heart. It takes effort to be still, to cease from self and all that tries to drown out the sweet still voice of the Almighty. We must learn to be still amidst the noise, but it takes diligent practice and discipline – maybe you have to set your alarm a little earlier and start being quiet while there is quiet, so growing in the ability to be quiet in the noise!

Learning to be still will enhance and grow our ability to wait patiently for Him.

Wait – another word I find interesting – in the Hebrew it is ‘yachal’ – which means, ‘to wait, delay, also to have hope and wait with expectancy’. ‘Yachal’ here in this Psalm is used in terms of an expectation or hope which for us as believers is closely linked with faith and trust resulting in patient waiting, and so the sense of expectation is positive, waiting for good to come! I asked earlier what you are confident for – well this is a call for ‘Yachal’ – a patient waiting and expectancy – with the confidence of the assurance of that which you are waiting on will come!  “Yachal” Hope is the solid ground of expectation for the righteous:

Tehillim/Psalms 130:7 “O Yisra’ĕl, wait for יהוה; For with יהוה there is kindness.”

Verse 34 again tells us to wait on יהוה and also to guard His way, which is put together here with great wisdom for us. For יהוה does not expect us to remain passive as we wait for Him to act and bring forth His deliverance and promises. We are to be active – active in doing His Good Works prepared in advance for us – active in guarding His Way! We are to be about walking in His Way – His Torah – walking in Messiah יהושע as we eagerly await upon Him!

Ḥazon/Revelation 14:12 “Here is the endurance of the set-apart ones, here are those guarding the commands of Elohim and the belief of יהושע”

In the midst of troublesome times – faithful endurance – continuing to be steadfast in obedience to the commands of Elohim and holding fast to our faith in יהושע is called for as we know that He is with us and He never will leave nor forsake us!

We have an inheritance!!! 5 times here in this Tehillim (Psalm) Dawiḏ tells us who will inherit the earth: It is those who faithfully and obediently wait upon יהוה, the meek, His blessed ones, the righteous – those who wait upon יהוה and guard His way! The wicked may have much prosperity and riches, but the earth will be ours!!!

Dawiḏ’s encouragement to us here is to not fret and worry what the wicked may do or even try to do to us – we must find ourselves delighting in, committing to, waiting on and being still before יהוה, walking in righteousness and יהוה will not withhold from us any good matter, aměn!

Dawiḏ goes on to explain why we can have such confident hope – the wicked will be punished! He uses 5 contrasts to form the basis of his affirmations given to us who wait upon יהוה:

1 – The wicked may devise evil against the righteous – yet יהוה laughs at them

2 – The wicked may attack the meek and those whose walk is straight – yet their own violence will kill them

3 – It is better to be righteous with little than to be wicked with plenty – for their works will be destroyed and the righteous will be sustained

4 – יהוה protects the way of the upright and they are satisfied even in famine, while the wicked will perish and vanish like grass and smoke

5 – The wicked will borrow and not repay and be cut off, while the righteous shows favour and gives and receives the inheritance of the earth!

One thing is sure – in יהוה we have safety and a sure future. יהוה establishes the way of the righteous, provides food for them; He loves and protects the just who do good and gives them security in the land and the righteous speak with wisdom as the Torah is upon their heart!

We know that there is a struggle between the wicked and the righteous and it will become even greater in the days that lie ahead, yet Dawiḏ here contrasts the plot of the evil to try to destroy the righteous with יהוה’s power to preserve and by this he reveals the solution to the problem of the wicked. While the wicked may lie in wait to destroy the righteous – יהוה will not forsake His own!

He who trusts in and waits upon יהוה will enjoy security and the upright in heart will enjoy a secure future whereas the wicked will perish! They may seem to be flourishing right now – yet they will be cut off!!!!

Perhaps you may at times feel ashamed – as you have looked back on the year and reflect on shameful acts, sinful acts/thoughts/desires, or simply realise a lack of commitment or follow through to complete something you so willingly set out to achieve – what now? Well today I want to tell you that no matter what the circumstances you face or have been through, if you would simply put your trust in יהוה, put your present and future confidence and hope (joyful confident expectation) in Him then you need not be ashamed. When we put our trust in יהוה our creator – then we have the confidence and assurance of our salvation, provision, and every need and desire to be all that He has created us to be.

Romiyim/Romans 10:11 “As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

As long as you trust in Him, you can be assured of never being put to shame or as one translation says ‘never be disgraced’. You can therefore find refuge, rest, assurance, protection and confidence in Him, and you have the ability to confide in Him. He knows your heart, even though the heart is deceitful above all things, when you put your trust in Him you will be able to verbalise your heart with יהוה and commune with Him in a loving relationship which casts out all fears and finds rest in Him alone.

We will at times find ourselves in a place of suffering and here I would like to give you 12 proper reactions to suffering enabling us to Trust and not be afraid:

1 – Expect suffering

Timotiyos Bet/2 Timothy 3:12 “And indeed, all those wishing to live reverently in Messiah יהושע, shall be persecuted.”

Yoḥanan/John 16:33 “These words I have spoken to you, that in Me you might have peace. In the world you have pressure, but take courage, I have overcome the world.”

2 – Commit to יהוה – ‘roll’ over to Him with your all!

Kepha Aleph/ 1 Peter4:19 “So then, those who suffer according to the desire of Elohim should commit their lives to a trustworthy Creator, in doing good.”

3 – Don’t always try to understand the reasons for your suffering!

Romiyim/Romans 8:28 “And we know that all matters work together for good to those who love Elohim, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

4 – Realise others suffer!

Kepha aleph/1 Peter 5: 8-9 “Be sober, watch, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in the belief, knowing that the same hardships are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”

5 – Pray in your suffering!

Yaʽaqoḇ/James 5:13 “Is any of you suffering evil? Let him pray. Is anyone in good spirits? Let him sing psalms.”

6 – Don’t faint or lose heart because of your suffering!

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 24:10 “If you falter in the day of distress, Your strength is small!”

7 – Patiently endure suffering in a steadfast way!

Romiyim/Romans 12:12 “rejoicing in the expectancy, enduring under pressure, continuing steadfastly in prayer”

Timotiyos Bet/2 Timothy 2:3 “Suffer hardship with us as a good soldier of יהושע Messiah.”

8 – Thank Elohim in your sufferings!

1 Thessalonians 5:18 “in all circumstances give thanks, for this is the desire of Elohim in Messiah יהושע for you.”

9 – Rejoice because of your sufferings!

Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in יהוה always, again I say, rejoice!”

Acts 5:40-41 “And they heeded his advice, and having called for the emissaries, beating them, they commanded that they should not speak in the Name of יהושע, and let them go. 41 Then indeed they went rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His Name.”

10 – Do not become a self-made martyr because of your sufferings!

Iḇ’rim/Hebrews 12:12-13 “So, strengthen the hands which hang down and the weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, lest the lame be turned aside, but instead, to be healed.”

11 – Don’t suffer needlessly!

Kepha aleph/1 Peter 2:20 “For what credit is there in enduring a beating when you sin? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure, this finds favour with Elohim.”

Kepha aleph/1 Peter 3:17 “For it is better, if it is the desire of Elohim, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.”

12 – Weigh your current suffering against the coming esteem!

Romiyim/Romans 8:18 “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the esteem that is to be revealed in us.”

Wow – a mouthful of Scriptures – but the heart behind these is to be encouraged as Dawiḏ encourages us in Psalm 37 – and that is to not be afraid of what we may face but to trust in יהוה!

Trust in יהוה leads us to be surrounded by His mercy and favour; enjoying perfect peace, happiness and safety from danger, and will find stability and strength as we stand firm on the Rock of our Salvation! Trusting in Him keeps us from fear and from sliding into sin and lawlessness.

In Daniel we find a great example of trust in יהוה:

Daniel 3:28 “Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar responded and said, “Blessed be the Elah of Shaḏraḵ, Mĕyshaḵ, and Aḇĕḏ-Neḡo, who sent His Messenger and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and changed the sovereign’s order, and gave up their bodies, that they should not serve nor do obeisance to any elah except their own Elah!”

Shaḏraḵ & co. are an excellent example of putting total trust in יהוה, facing death, yet trusting in יהוה. How willing are we to trust Him totally? Can you trust יהוה? If not, why? Is it because you do not know Him well enough? Scripture declares and proves over and over that יהוה is Sovereign and worthy to be trusted. The question we may also ask ourselves or should ask ourselves is that can we be trusted? Can we walk in the footsteps of יהושע and be trusted with the love and gifts He has entrusted us with by His grace and mercy through the Blood of יהושע. Are we allowing the Ruach HaQodesh to empower and equip us to live a life worthy of being a child of the Living Elohim?

I find that the more I am able to put my trust in יהוה the more I am able to be trusted with the things of יהוה. My ability to walk out a life of obedience is determined by the ability I have to put my trust in יהוה. Trusting in יהוה is a key to immeasurable blessings that are for now and forever, why would anyone not choose to trust יהוה? It just does not make sense. The Yisra’ĕlites continually stopped putting their trust in יהוה and we see the pattern of destruction and disaster that comes when man puts their trust in others or even themselves. It is just not a formula that works. There is only one formula – Trust יהוה!

Perhaps today you are being challenged with the ability to trust יהוה, maybe for a specific thing or for life in general. Whatever the situation, I hope that you are able to open your heart and confide in Him and begin to rely, depend and put confidence in יהוה our Elohim. Perhaps the challenge is for you to get to know Him more for it is difficult to trust someone you don’t know. What I do know is that as you grow in intimacy and knowledge of Him the more you will trust in Him, and the more blessed you will be and be able to face anything in life.

Where is your trust today? Trust in יהוה is a must!

Be encouraged to know that as Dawiḏ tells us that the wicked will have their day and will perish – let us rejoice in our Elohim and trust Him, aměn! Can you say with me with great confidence:

Yeshayahu/Isaiah 12:2 “See EL is my deliverance, I trust and am not afraid. For Yah, יהוה is my strength and my song; and He has become my deliverance.”

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