How many of you often struggle to really praise יהוה? And I mean really praise Him with your all? We are to be a praising people who are offering up continual praise to Elohim, no matter the circumstances we find ourselves in, and so tonight I want us to be reminded to not neglect our giving of praise to our Mighty Maker, יהוה our Elohim. In a message tonight called, “Greatly praising the Great I AM!” I want us to look at a magnificent Psalm of praise! Please turn with me to Tehillim/Psalm 145 (read).

This beautifully constructed masterpiece of Dawiḏ “A Song of Praise of Dawiḏ”, which some translations tend to leave out and in the Hebrew is תְּהִלָּה לְדָוִד meaning, ‘Tehillah of Dawiḏ’. Now the word תְּהִלָּה tehillah Strong’s H8416 means, ‘praise, or a song of praise’ and comes from the word הָלַל halal Strong’s H1984 which means, ‘to shine; to be boastful; to be clear; to make a show; to rave; be foolish; to celebrate; praise, cheer, brag or extol, i.e., extol the greatness or excellence of a person, object or event.’

Tehillah carries the meaning of thanksgiving or speaking positive words about the excellence of another and often these words are in the context of being sung. It also gives the meaning of the act of general or public praise. Tehilla also speaks of that praise which comes forth from the heart – certainly something that Dawiḏ understood how to do, because He understood who it was He was praising! What is interesting to note is that although this word, tehillah, although used around 57 times in Scripture, is only used once as a title of a Psalm – here in 145. The plural form of this, Tehillim, from which has come the traditional Hebrew name for the book of Psalms – ‘SeferTehillim’ or ‘Book of Praises, and many regard this is the crown jewel of praise by Dawiḏ which is a grand hymn of praise for יהוה the Great King and His majestic reign and gracious acts-including the deliverance of His people. It serves as the closing frame of the five prayers of Dawiḏ seeking rescue from wicked enemies as seen in Tehillim 140-144.

This Tehillah of praise is well constructed and is in the form of an alphabetic acrostic, with each succeeding verse beginning with a succeeding letter of the Hebrew alphabet-with the exception, according to the Masoretic Text, of the letter נ nun. Verse 13 begins with a מ mem and verse 14 with a ס sameq, skipping the letter נ nun however the Dead Sea Scrolls have revealed that they contain a verse between 13 and 14 containing the letter נ nun and renders the translation as added by more recent translations as “Elohim is faithful in all His words and kind in all His works”. Be that as it may, despite many different theories as to why or why not this line is in or out, what we see here is a wonderful Tehillah of praise for a Mighty Elohim and I would like for us to look at some key words contained herein that will expand our understanding of the great praise that is due to the Great I AM!

Dawiḏ declares straight up “I exalt You, my Elohim, o Sovereign and bless your Name!”

The root word used here for אֲרוֹמִמְךָ “arumimcha” – ‘I exalt you’ is רוּם rum Strong’s H7311 which means ‘to rise, raise up, be high and lifted, exalted’. Dawiḏ is declaring that He lifts up and exalts Elohim – this is whom he is praising – Mighty Elohim and declares that he will abundantly bless his Name forever and ever!!! The word ‘forever’ in Hebrew already emphasises permanence and everlasting, continual and never ending praise, yet he adds the word translated as ‘ever’ emphasising that his praise and ability to bless the Name of the Mighty Elohim will last for eternity.

Our praise shall be as eternal and everlasting as the Elohim we praise – in whom there is no end!

Luqas/Luke 1:33 “And He shall reign over the house of Ya’aqoḇ forever, and there shall be no end to His reign.”

Just as there shall be no end to the reign of Messiah, so shall there be no end to our praise of Him!

This is the one thing that we have been called to do now that we will continue to do in eternity, and we are to praise Him here and now as we sojourn, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in!

Tehillim/Psalm 35:28 “And my tongue shall speak of Your righteousness, Your praise, All day long.”

Can you declare this as Dawiḏ does? All day long – bless and praise and speak of His righteousness?

Tehillim/Psalm 44:8 “In Elohim we shall boast all day long, and praise Your Name forever. Selah.”

All day long people may twist your words (Tehillim/Psalm 56:5) or you may be plagued all day long (Tehillim/Psalm 73:14) and may even be reproached all day long (Tehillim/Psalm 102:8), but will you bless and praise His Name all day long?

Dawiḏ declares that Elohim alone is great and greatly to be praised! The word for ‘great’ is גָּדוֹל gadol – Strong’s H1419 and means, ‘great, highest, mighty, marvelous’ and he says in:

Shemuʼĕl Bet/2 Samuel 7:22 “You are great indeed, O Master יהוה. For there is none like You, and there is no Elohim but You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.”

We serve a great Ěl who must be greatly praised!!! The word used here for greatly is מְאֹד meod – Strong’s H3966 which carries the meaning of, ‘muchness, abundance, diligently, exceedingly, excessive, fully, immense’. I think we get the picture here!!! Our diligent praise for our Great and Mighty Ěl must be in abundance  and exceedingly immense which continually grows and grows in intensity as His greatness is unsearchable!

Romiyim/Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of riches, and wisdom and knowledge of Elohim! How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable His ways!”

In verse 4 we clearly see the call for us to heed the responsibility of passing on the necessity of great praise to the next! Each generation needs to ‘catch’ the intensity of the praises of the last and echo them with and urgency of passing this passionate and zealous praise to the next, and so we have a responsibility here and now to make known His Greatness and this is not done in silence! The word used in verse 4 for praise is שָׁבַח shabach – Strong’s H7623 which means, ‘to laud; to praise; commend; congratulate; to address in a loud voice; proclaim; make exuberant statements as to the excellence of someone’. It is also used in:

Tehillim/Psalm 63: 3 “Because Your kindness is better than life, my lips do praise You.”

Shout aloud His praises! How sad it is when so many are seemingly afraid to give a shout offering to יהוה! In Tehillim/Psalm 117:1 the Hebrew word ‘shabach’ is translated into English as ‘extol’ which gives the meaning ‘to praise highly’. In other words – lift up your voice and praise! And this is what is done generation to generation – but how will the next generation know how to lift up their voice and praise of the preceding one does not show them!!!

We are to lift up our voice and praise and we are to ‘declare’ His mighty acts! The word for declare is נָגַד nagad – Strong’s H5046 meaning, ‘make known, announce, declare, publish and stand out boldly in opposition’. We are to be a bold and loud people who praise and declare His works and acts – are you doing that? For starters, in order to do that you need to know just what His works and His mighty acts are!!! If you do not know Him and His word you cannot lift up your voice with boldness and praise and this is the responsibility we carry in ensuring that the next generation will do the same! Sadly we have inherited lies and so there has been a large gap in the ability to exceedingly and boldly praise יהוה, which we now as a people must take up the responsibility in restoring this awesome and great privilege and responsibility, aměn!

In verse 5 the repeated word for declare is not the same but rather is שִׂיחַ siach – Strong’s H7878 meaning, ‘talk, meditate, sing, speak’ and the basic meaning of this verb seems to carry the picture of rehearsing or repent or go over a matter in one’s mind and is used in reference to silent reflection on the works of Elohim, and so we see that we are to not only have the silent reflections and meditations but we are also to rehearse aloud His works. As the world battles for the attention of the mind through ever increasing tactics of very attractive and ever increasing forms of media persuasion, we need to realise just how important it is for us to be renewing our minds daily, guarding against the danger of being conformed to the patterns of this world and at the same time we need to make our voice of praise and the declaration of our lips heard with great passion and zeal so that the next generation are not lured away by the fleshly attraction of the world!

Who says praising יהוה and declaring His mighty acts is boring? We have a huge responsibility in showing that it is far from it, but rather it is a great joy and delight and far better that the fleeting passions the world has to offer – and it is up to us to live it and show it!

We are to be a praising, singing and declaring people – verse 7 tells us that the righteous sing of His righteousness. The word used for sing here is רָנַן ranan – Strong’s H7442 and means, ‘to give a ringing cry!’  That is to ‘cry for joy, cry aloud, joyfully sing, shout for joy or sing aloud for joy’! I often think that we, at times, read these verses without recognising the intensity of the passion and love for Elohim that Dawiḏ had and lack the fire for praise and singing and declaring that he had, hence the need for me to expand on the meaning of these most powerful words that ought to bring alive the desire to praise and shout aloud to our Great King!

It is often very easy to see in the world how so many will give a ringing cry and shout aloud for their ‘sporting heroes’ – just look at a rugby or soccer match and see how the ‘fans’ will scream and shout and get all ‘dressed up’ to shout and scram for their heroes. Many will even know all the stats of their favourite players and talk about them to others, while when it comes to praising and giving a ringing cry of joy for יהוה they suddenly lose their tongue, which simply reveals what is in the heart! We are to be a people who are willing to give a joyous ringing cry for our wonderful Maker and Creator, clothed continually in garments of righteousness and praise!

In the verse 7-9 as well as 17 we see some very illustrative words of the personality of יהוה, which certainly brings us clarity as to who we are to be greatly praising:

We see words such as:

Goodness; righteousness; compassionate; patient; lovingly-committed and good to all!

His goodness is the object of our praise and it is His goodness that ensures us of His doing things right, reflected in His justice and righteousness being the foundation of His throne. His righteousness speaks of His steadfastness of not deviating from His decreed standard and He is patient and compassionate toward us:

Ya’aqoḇ/James 5:11 “See, we call those blessed who endure. You have heard of the endurance of Iyoḇ and saw the purpose of יהוה, that He is very sympathetic and compassionate.”

Tehillim/Psalm 86:15 “But You, O יהוה, are a compassionate Ěl and showing favour, patient and great in kindness and truth.”

He is patient and good to all:

Kěpha Bet/2 Peter 3:9 “יהוה is not slow in regard to the promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward us, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

Dawiḏ continues to strengthen his cause for praising Elohim in declaring the superiority of יהוה declaring the splendour of the reign of יהוה, the Mighty Elohim who has made all and that all creation will praise Him. This Tehillah certainly reveals to us what was upon the heart of Dawiḏ. There is a link between what in on our hearts and what is expressed from our mouths – we speak what is upon our hearts. There are many who love to talk about sport and the latest results, while others love talking about their careers or the latest fashion trends or money or even the weather! If you want to know what someone holds dear to their hearts – in other words ‘what they care about’ then just listen to their speech and hear what they passionately talk about.

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 16:23 “The heart of the wise gives discretion to his mouth, and he increases learning to his lips.”

If our hearts are set on wisdom and praise, our mouths will speak and declare accordingly and if they are set on others things that will certainly come out too!

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 4:23 “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the sources of life.”

Let me simply tell you that this is a fact: If our hearts are filled daily with יהוה’s presence and His Living word as we eat our daily lawful bread, then we would not stop talking about Him to others – what is on your heart?

Verse 12 speaks of our urgent need to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts – now to do that our hearts need to be filled with His mighty acts and to have our hearts filled we need to be digging in and studying and meditating upon His Word – being filled with the witness of His mighty Acts.

In verse 14-16 we see the provision of יהוה and how He is powerful and awesome and is tender and focused upon our needs. He upholds or supports the falling – in other word’s we can lean on Him, and when we do we are sure not to fall, as He carries our burdens and satisfies our desires. Verse 16 puts it beautifully: Opening Your hand and satisfying the desire of all that live! He has not withheld His Hand from us – He has extended His Hand and opened it up before us and extended His loving-commitment toward us that we may be satisfied in Him.

יהוה is lovingly-committed in all His works and that is a great assurance for us for eh remains steadfast in His commitment to His love toward us and will not break His covenant with us – this we can be sure of and we are called to guard loving commitment

Hoshěa/Hosea 12:6 “Therefore, return to your Elohim. Guard loving-commitment and right-ruling, and wait on your Elohim continually.”

He is lovingly-committed and He expects us to be too and our ability to praise, sing and declare His Name and His mighty works continually will equip us in striving to guard loving commitment and right ruling.

Verse 18-19 reminds us how יהוה is near to us – he is near to those who call upon His Name and we need to declare this to remind us of this fact – as we draw near to Him, He draws near to us! When we call He is there – when we call upon Him in Truth that is!!! Many are calling upon Him in vain – let us not do that but as we guard loving-commitment and right-ruling then we are well equipped to walk in Truth and are able to call upon Him who is near!

Verse 20 gives the reminder of the assurance that יהוה preserves or is the keeper of all those loving Him, and as we all know what loving Him is – but I will remind you anyway:

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

Yoḥanan Aleph/1 John 2:3 “And by this we know that we know Him, if we guard His commands.”

He preserves those who loving Him and destroys those who are not – that simple!

When Sha’ul told Corinth that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up I believe he was referring to a greater truth than what is taught in error today as you hear many will say that all the learning we do on the Torah walk will just puff us up and we lack love. Well as we see that Scripture is clear – love is not merely an emotion but rather is an ability to guard and obey His commands and so here what Sha’ul was saying is this – if you just get knowledge and do not walk in that knowledge then it will puff you up, whereas love for elohim is the application or the doing of the knowledge that we gain through meditating upon His Good Word!

Dawiḏ ends this Tehillah with a bold reminder that his mouth will speak the praise of יהוה – that is His praise – not our own – we speak His praise and all flesh must bless His set-apart Name – forever and ever!!!

Are you greatly praising the Great I AM?

I want to end with showing what words are linked with the Name of יהוה in this Tehillah, as a summary of who we are to be praising and why:

גָּדוֹל יהוה   – ‘gadol Yahweh’ – The Great יהוה (Verse 3)

חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם יהוה – ‘ḥanun v’raḥum Yahweh’ – Gracious and Compassionate יהוה (Verse 8)

טוֹב־יהוה  – ‘toḇ Yahweh’ – Goodness of יהוה (Verse9)

יוֹדוּךָ יהוה – ‘yoducha Yahweh’ – We praise you יהוה (Verse 10)

סוֹמֵךְ יהוה  – ‘somech Yahweh’ – יהוה upholds/supports (Verse 14)

צַדִּיק יהוה  – ‘tsaddiq Yahweh’ – Righteous יהוה (Verse 17)

קָרוֹב יהוה – ‘karoḇ Yahweh’- יהוה draws near (Verse18)

שׁוֹמֵר יהוה – ‘shomer Yahweh’ – יהוה is the keeper (Verse 20)

תְּהִלַּת יהוה – ‘tehillat Yahweh’ – praise of יהוה (Verse 21)

I hope that as you read through this tehillah that you will be greatly encouraged to be greatly praising the Great I AM.

This Tehillah is certainly a song of praise that can lift our hearts into praising Him and it has been customary for many to actually pray or recite this 3 times a day! I am not telling you to do that, but I do believe that as we meditate on these words we will grow in our ability to boldly sing, praise, declare and exalt the Name of the Most High – no matter where we are or what we are going through for we serve and praise a great, gracious, compassionate, and righteous El who upholds us, keeps us and in near to us when we call for He is Good and His loving-commitment endures forever!

Praise is an integral part of the body for which we all must partake in and it carries great significance in regards to the completeness of the service of the House!

Melaḵim Aleph/1 Kings 9:25 “And three times a year Shelomoh brought burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he had built for יהוה, and he burned incense with that which was before יהוה – thus gave completeness to the House.”

3 times a year (Feasts times) slaughter and peace offerings were brought giving completeness to the House. So much so that we see in the next chapter:

Melaḵim Aleph/1 Kings 10:1 “And the sovereigness of Sheḇa heard of the report of Shelomoh concerning the Name of יהוה, and came to try him with hard questions.”

She saw the witness of Shelomoh and witnessed the completeness of the House through its service and function and she saw the standard of excellence displayed in the service of the House of Elohim, which resulted in her praising יהוה!

We need to take up the responsibility of bringing the excellence of pure worship and praise in service to יהוה back into the body that is being built up in Messiah as we let the praises of our King and the voice of joy and gladness be heard!

In speaking of what will once again be heard in the House of יהוה, we see in:

Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 33:11 “the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who are saying, “Praise יהוה of hosts, for יהוה is good, for His kindness is forever,” of those who are bringing the offering of praise into the House of יהוה. For I shall turn back the captivity of the land, as at the first,’ declares יהוה.”

Iḇ’rim/Hebrews 13:15 “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a slaughter offering of praise to Elohim, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His Name.”

Let us greatly praise the Great I AM and let others witness and see the completeness of the House being rehearsed daily, that may result in many turning to and praising יהוה!

ARE YOU GREATLY PRAISING THE GREAT I AM?

Shalom

{jcomments on}

In a day and age where true wisdom from Elohim is scoffed at we see the sad tragedy of so many who are absolutely clueless of what lies ahead; and what we need to realise, as servants of the Most High, is the critical necessity of continually giving our ear to hearing the Torah of יהוה, guarding it in our hearts and be found daily to be doing all He has commanded us to, or else we may too find ourselves “sleepwalking” like so many who will be awakened at the sound of the Trumpet blast to a tragic reality of their vain attempts at worship and heading for judgement lest they turn and repent!

Ya’aqoḇ/James 3:13 “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good behaviour his works in meekness of wisdom.”

In a message tonight called, “Who is wise and understanding?” I would like us to look at a passage of Scripture that carries great lessons for us in making sure we are awake, and listening attentively to The Word of יהוה. Please turn to Shemuʼĕl Aleph/1 Samuel 25 (Read)

In a nutshell what we see in this chapter is the following – Dawiḏ is on the run from Kings Sha’ul who is seeking his life and at this point, after already sparing Sha’ul’s life we see Dawiḏ going down into the Wilderness of Paran, after the death of the great prophet and last judge of Yisra’ĕl, Shemuʼĕl, had died and was buried in his home town of Ramah. While in the Wilderness Dawiḏ sends 10 of his men to a rich sheep farmer to ask for some food and supplies for him and his men in light of how they had shown favour to Naḇal’s shepherds. Naḇal responded arrogantly and refused, which angered Dawiḏ who was ready to wipe out Naḇal and all his men when Aḇiḡayil, the wife of Naḇal, interceded and provided a great provision for Dawiḏ and his men and pleaded with him to relent to which Dawiḏ blesses her faith and courage and listened to her plea. When she told her husband the next day, Naḇal’s heart died within him and turned to stone and 10 days later יהוה struck him and he died, and Dawiḏ asked Aḇiḡayil to be his wife, which she accepted and so became his wife.

That is the basic outline but there lies a whole lot more for us to absorb and understand in gaining a greater shadow picture of the events that lie ahead at the soon 2^nd coming of our Bridegroom, יהושע Messiah. Let us look at some key passages that paint this wonderful picture for us that we may be encouraged to be found to be a wise and understanding Bride, ready and dressed in Righteousness, hearing, guarding and doing His commands with great joy!

Before we do that here are a couple of passages to start off with in terms of being wise and understanding:

Tehillim/Psalm 119:104 “From Your orders I get understanding; therefore I have hated every false way.”

Tehillim/Psalm 119:130 “The opening up of Your words gives light, giving understanding to the simple.”

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 2:6 “For יהוה gives wisdom; out of His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 4:5 “Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, and do not turn away From the words of my mouth.”

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 4:7 “The beginning of wisdom is: Get wisdom! And with all your getting, get understanding.”

We need to be a people who ‘get’ wisdom and understanding – and where do we get it from? From יהוה – from out of His mouth – that is His Word – and it is from His ‘orders’ that we get understanding – His orders are His precepts/commands and so we have to ask “how do we get these?” That is easy to answer – by HEARING!

For those who may have forgotten, remember the word in Hebrew for ‘Hear’ is the root word שָׁמַע ‘shama’ – Strong’s H8085, which carries the meaning not just simply to hear, but rather to ‘listen with attention, comprehend and discern, give heed to what is being spoken’.

Understanding our need to be a people who are listening attentively and giving heed to His Word in a time when most are not let us now look a little deeper at Shemuʼĕl Aleph/1 Samuel 25:

In verse 1 we see how the scene is set: Shemuʼĕl died! Shemuʼĕl the great prophet and last judge of Yisra’ĕl had died. Shemuʼĕl – שְׁמוּאֵל Strong’s H8050 means ‘El has heard’ or some translate it as ‘name of El’ and is from the passive participle of 1 – שָׁמַע shama – Strong’s H8085 which we have already mentioned as meaning ‘hearing and understanding attentively and completely’ and 2 – אֵל el – Strong’s H410 meaning ‘mighty, power or mighty one’ and is also used as a title of יהוה. Understanding this in the context and setting of this chapter we see a very powerful metaphor being described by the death of Shemuʼĕl in a twofold way:  The prophet who declared the Name of El was dead – and so in one sense we see that the ‘hearing of El’ had died and in another we can see how El had closed His ears to a rebellious people – a picture of how it shall be and now is in the last days when many stop obeying יהוה and close their ears to the Truth, substituting the Truth for ear tickling lies and as a result will not be heard by Him!

Hoshěa/Hosea 4:10 “And they shall eat but not be satisfied, they shall whore but not increase, for they have stopped obeying יהוה.”

Zeḵaryah/Zechariah 7:11-12 “But they refused to listen, and they shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears from hearing. 12 “And they made their hearts like flint against hearing the Torah, and the words, which יהוה of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from יהוה of hosts.”

People are dying for lack of knowledge and those who reject His knowledge and refuse to give ear to His Torah He will reject them from being priests for Him! We are called to be a royal priesthood and if you refuse to hear His Torah, He will reject you form being a priest for Him! Serving as a priesthood carries with it great responsibility and as we have seen in the Torah portion of late regarding the instructions of the Tabernacle, its service and furnishings we see clearly that there is a clear and prescribed way of doing the service in the Tabernacle. What we are to remember is that the Tabernacle was a shadow of what is in Heaven and when people neglect to understand how the service in the Tabernacle is prescribed with all it details, then in essence they are neglecting to understand what is in Heaven and are in fact in rebellion for neglecting to reflect that which is in Heaven by adhering to the commands of Elohim as they shut their ears from His Torah!

In Yirmeyahu we see 3 instances where Yirmeyahu is even commanded to not intercede for the rebellious as He will not hear:

Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 7:16 “And you, do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me, for I do not hear you.”

Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 11:14 “And you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, for I do not hear them in the time that they cry out to Me because of their evil.”

Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 14:11-12 “And יהוה said to me, “Do not pray for this people for their good. 12 “When they fast, I do not hear their cry. And when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I do not accept them. Instead, I am consuming them by sword, and by scarcity of food, and by pestilence.”

These very sobering words of יהוה not hearing is not without cause – you reject Him and close your ears to the hearing of His Torah then He will close His ears to your prayers!

Mishlĕ/proverbs 28:9 “He who turns away his ear from hearing the Torah, even his prayer is an abomination.”

So many today who are turning their ear away from the Torah, should heed these words lest their prayers be abominable before יהוה!

This may sound very harsh as we all may argue that He heard our prayers while we did not walk in the Torah. Now as true as that may be for many can bear witness to answered prayers, what we must understand is that while He may have heard many prayers of His children while in bondage – the fact of the matter is that when He comes to fetch His Bride, He is coming for a ready dressed Bride who is walking in the Torah and those who are not walking in the Torah and refuse to hear, guard and do will awaken to the reality that their prayers have been in vain. So while this verse echoes a harsh reality may we be awake to the fact that we are to be giving our ear to the Torah, which means to hear and do, so that our prayers are pleasing before Him and not strange and profane.

In setting the stage for the reality of the last days we see that Dawiḏ went down to the Wilderness of Paran. Now we know that it is in the Wilderness journey that we learn to hear the voice of יהוה. Dawiḏ would then make his journey to Naḇal from Paran, and as we mentioned last week Paran, meaning ‘place of caverns’ and also from the root word means ‘especially beautiful/adorned, gleaning’ and this language would have been familiar to Yisra’ĕl as it would remind them of that which Mosheh spoke before his death and would be a sober reminder to repent and return to יהוה who comes from His beautiful hiding place and being prophetic in nature to His second coming!

In verse 2-3 we are then introduced to Naḇal, who was a very rich farmer in Maʽon and his work in Karmel. Naḇal –נָבָל Strong’s H5037 means … ‘FOOL’… yes … ‘fool, senseless, foolish’!!! This man was a FOOL!

Maʽon – מָעוֹן Strong’s H4584 means ‘habitation or dwelling place’ and Karmel – כַּרְמֶל Strong’s H3760 means ‘plentiful, fruitful, fertile land’. From this we get a clear picture – a fool who was dwelling in luxury! This guy had it all – according to the flesh that is and in the world’s eyes was extremely wealthy.

His wife, Aḇiḡayil – אֲבִיגַיִל Strong’s H26 means ‘my father is joy/glad’ and as we see through this story that she truly represents how we are to serve our Father with joy, for if we do not then we cannot serve Him at all! She was a woman of good understanding and beautiful – beauty and brains – a picture of the remnant Bride being adorned with Righteousness and walking in the understanding thereof. Sadly she married a fool – it may seem an odd mix, but sometimes marriages were arranged and we do not know how they came to be married – perhaps she was lured by initial attraction and then she remained a faithful wife, even interceding for her foolish husband.

Naḇal was described as ‘hard and evil’ in his doings – in other words he was not doing righteousness! The word used here for hard is קָשֶׁה qasheh – Strong’s H7186 and means ‘hard, harsh, cruel, obstinate, stiff necked and stubborn’ and evil is רַע ra – Strong’s h7451 and is used to mean ‘ evil, bad, wicked, selfish, deadly, harmful’. I think we all get the picture – this guy was a rich wicked, cruel and stubborn man! How did he get such a wife? Perhaps through manipulation – we don’t know but we see this kind of odd mix many times in the world today and Aḇiḡayil lived up to the future words of Sha’ul and Kěpha on being submissive wives with the incorruptible ornament of a meek and peaceable spirit, which is of great value before Elohim.

Dawiḏ heard that Naḇal was shearing sheep and sends 10 of his men to go in peace to Naḇal and ask for some supplies for Dawiḏ and his men. יהושע told His disciples:

Mattithyahu/Matthew 10:11-15 “And into whatever city or village you enter, ask who is worthy in it, and stay there until you leave. 12 “And as you enter into a house, greet it. 13 “And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 “And whoever does not receive you nor hear your words, when you leave that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. 15 “Truly, I say to you, it shall be more bearable for the land of Seḏom and Amorah in the day of judgment than for that city!”

Dawiḏ’s men extended his shalom but were not received by a stubborn and wicked man!

What is striking in the context of some key markers in this passage is that in verse 8 they told Naḇal “We have come on a good day”. This language used indicates that it was not just an ordinary day but rather gives reference to a ‘Feast day’ and in the context here I see this as a shadow of Yom Teruah! Dawiḏ sent his men to announce that he was here and expected to be received and welcomed by a man who certainly had the means to be hospitable, yet was denied and so the wrath of Dawiḏ was about to be unleashed upon this fool who refused to welcome them! This time of ‘shearing sheep’ is also a picture for us of a time of exposing the false garments of those who have claimed to be worshippers of Elohim yet are simply sheep that have gone astray in their vain traditions and dogmas! Yeshayahu/Isaiah 53:6 “We all, like sheep, went astray, each one of us has turned to his own way. And יהוה has laid on Him the crookedness of us all.”

The solution to us all who went astray (and we all have for we have all sinned and fallen short) is to turn to Him who saves us and acknowledge Him. Sadly many who close their ears to the Torah are denying and bringing the Name of יהוה to nought!

In verse 10 Naḇal says, “Who is Dawiḏ?” Now everyone knew who Dawiḏ was – he had killed Golyath/Goliath and was a national hero and Aḇiḡayil, Naḇal’s wife had recognised and realised that Dawiḏ had already been chosen by יהוה to be king as we see clearly by her words in verse 30; yet this stubborn fool was too stiff necked to humble himself and serve the future king and his men and was intentionally insulting Dawiḏ by making himself sound important because of his wealth. It was widely known that Dawiḏ was soon to be king and that Sha’ul sought his life because Dawiḏ had been anointed to become king. Naḇal was wrong, while Aḇiḡayil remained meek and interceded and fell on her face before Dawiḏ and pleaded with him not to bring about the killing of her wicked husband and his men.

We know the result of the story – Naḇal was cast down while Aḇiḡayil was lifted up:

Tehillim/Psalm 147:6 “יהוה lifts up the meek ones, He throws the wrong ones down to the ground.”

Dawiḏ’s’ words to his men meant business and this wise and humble wife appeased him from carrying out his plans:

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 16:14 “The sovereign’s wrath is a messenger of death, But a wise man appeases it.”

Naḇal not receiving Dawiḏ is a picture of how the Yehuḏim did not receive יהושע and have been given time to repent until He comes again! So many today are simply just too comfortable in their fleshly living standards that they simply refuse to acknowledge and submit to the coming King! And while they may accept falsified names and vain presentations of the Creator, when confronted with the Truth they simply refuse to acknowledge and are basically declaring, “Who is יהוה?” or “Who is יהושע?” And by doing so are basically declaring by their rebellious attitude toward the Torah and their lawless actions that there is no יהוה, and this is the wickedness of a fools talk!

Naḇal was a fool and showed it by his foolish words revealing the wickedness that was in his heart:

Tehillim/Psalm 14:1 “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no יהוה.” They have done corruptly, they have done an abominable deed, there is no one who does good.”

There are many today who are as foolish as Naḇal and are too in essence declaring that there is no יהוה, for by their corrupt living that is contrary to Torah they are bringing His Name to nought for which he will not leave unpunished anyone who brings His Name to nought!

In the great intercession of Aḇiḡayil, Dawiḏ blesses her for her courage and faith and her speaking up is a picture of the spirit of Eliyahu that must come again before the Great and Awesome Day of יהוה.

Mal’aḵi/Malachi 4:5-6 “See, I am sending you Ěliyahu the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of יהוה. 6 “And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with utter destruction.”

It is through His faithful remnant Bride that He will send Eliyahu in preparing for His coming, as we begin to lift up our voice in the Wilderness and stand up for righteousness!

Aḇiḡayil made it on time – for Dawiḏ would have struck the next morning, but had now accepted her hand her gift and when she got home her husband was drunk – he was exceedingly drunk and so she did not talk to him until the next day when he was sober.

In understanding this picture of how the world, which Naḇal represents, will be given over to partying and drinking and feeding the flesh to the tilt and will be like the days of Noaḥ before the flood not knowing the times and are unable to hear His trumpet call to repentance:

Mattithyahu/Matthew 24:37-39 “And as the days of Noaḥ, so also shall the coming of the Son of Aḏam be. 38 “For as they were in the days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noaḥ entered into the ark, 39 and they did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also shall the coming of the Son of Aḏam be.”

Well here we see a picture of what will happen – The Trumpet will blast and only the Remnant will be ready and have their hands filled with that which id for Messiah. When Naḇal heard the words he had a stroke – his heart died within him and he became like stone! A clear picture of those who refuse to submit and obey – they will even get harder – his heart was no longer able to have the Torah written on it and his wickedness reached a climax:

Ḥazon/Revelation 22:11 “He who does wrong, let him do more wrong; he who is filthy, let him be more filthy; he who is righteous, let him be more righteous; he who is set-apart, let him be more set-apart.”

In verse 38 we see a key pointer to the Feast of Yom Kippur – ten days later יהוה smote Naḇal and he died! It is on this Day that יהושע will come out of the Most Set-Apart Place and tread the winepress and all who have not received Him will be destroyed. The 10 days between Yom Teruah and Yom Kippur we will see that the Trumpet will be sounded to gather the bride and will be a time of testing through trials as the plagues are poured out and the remnant is called to hold fast and endure. I firmly believe that those who do not respond to the Trumpet call will as Naḇal keep on drinking and going their own merry way to destruction but those who hear the voice of the shofar will respond and are called to endure these 10 days until יהושע comes out and takes us as His Bride.

Hear the words of יהושע in:

Ḥazon/Revelation 2: 8-11 “And to the messenger of the assembly in Smurna write, ‘This says the First and the Last, who became dead, and came to life: 9 “I know your works, and pressure, and poverty – yet you are rich – and the blasphemy of those who say they are Yehuḏim and are not, but are a congregation of Satan. 10 “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. See, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, in order to try you, and you shall have pressure ten days. Be trustworthy until death, and I shall give you the crown of life. 11 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. He who overcomes shall by no means be harmed by the second death.”

This will be a time of separating the sheep and the goats – those who claim to be believers but are not and are of the congregation of Satan as their vain worship of inherited lies is blasphemy – will be shown up for who they are and who they have been worshipping. The faithful are called to endure 10 days and overcome!

Dawiḏ heard that Naḇal was dead and then sent for and spoke to Aḇiḡayil, to take her as wife. The word used here for ‘take’ is לָקַח laqach – Strong’s H3947 and means ‘to take, to fetch, to lay hold of, marry or take a wife ’ and this in the Hebrew mind draws the picture of a Hebrew wedding when at the sound of the Last Trumpet the groom comes to fetch His Bride and take her as wife. The other term typically understood in the groom coming to take His Bride is נָשָׂא nasa – Strong’s H5375 which means ‘lift up, carry, take, exalt, and accept’. This word is used in verse 35 when Dawiḏ told Aḇiḡayil that he had listened to her voice and accepted her face!

What a wonderful picture of Messiah who comes for His Bride and accepts her face and hears her voice – she is accepted in the Beloved and is taken up – this is marriage language!!!

In verse 41 she presents herself to wash his servants feet, showing great humility as a wife of the Coming King who had been on the ‘battlefield’ and here we see the picture of preparation for the wedding – for Messiah’s feet will be full of the Blood of the winepress and His feet will be washed by the tears of repentance of the Bride, washing away the wickedness He has tramped and destroyed.

Aḇiḡayil then takes haste to get ready and rises up and rides on a donkey – she had been exalted to a new position with the King יהוה had chosen and takes with her 5 maidens on her way to her wedding! This is a great picture of Sukkot and here we again see end time pictures as the 5 maidens represent the 5 wise maidens who had oil in their lamps who listen attentively and understand the times, while the other 5 foolish maidens who were not ready and did not hear His voice were not able to enter the wedding feast.

What we also see as a wonderful picture of the Full Bride of Messiah is in verse 43 when the record states that Dawiḏ had also taken Aḥinoʽam of Yizreʽĕl as wife and so both were his wives. This is clearly a picture of the two houses coming together as a Bride unto Messiah!

אֲחִינֹעַם Aḥinoʽam – Strong’s H293 means ‘my brother is delight’ and coming from Yizreʽĕl, which means ‘those יהוה has scattered’ as seen in Hoshěa 1:4-11 which refers to the Northern Kingdom, whose brother Yehuḏah has acted as a redeemer to bring them back from exile. It also shadow pictures Messiah in Yosĕph who redeemed his brothers in Mitsrayim and so we see a wonderful picture here of the Feast of Sukkoth being celebrated by a complete Bride having been brought together to be one with Messiah!

Why does this passage carry great instruction for us? Well we can clearly see a picture of future events and can be encouraged to not be stiff necked and foolish as Naḇal, but rather walk in humility and wisdom like Aḇiḡayil. Our King is Coming and when that Trumpet sound blasts are you ready to stand firm dressed in His armour or will you be found wanting!

Eph’siyim/Ephesians 5:6 “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these the wrath of Elohim comes upon the sons of disobedience.”

Let us not be found to be drunk on the wine of the wrath of the whorings of Baḇel but walk as children of light filled with the Spirit of Wisdom.

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 10:6-8 “Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but violence covers the mouth of the wrong. 7 The remembrance of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wrong ones rot. 8 The wise in heart accepts commands, but one with foolish lips falls.”

Will you be wise and accept his commands or a fool whose words and actions will fall? This wise accept the King’s commands and are ‘accepted’ before Him as He lifts us up as we come and bow and humble ourselves before Him!

Who is wise and understanding? Let it be seen in your life as you walk in the Torah with all meekness – for the meek shall inherit the earth!

Shalom!

{jcomments on}

Praise – Exult – Dance and Sing Aloud to יהוה! Sing His praise in an assembly of kind ones. These are all very powerful words that illustrate the intensity in which we are to praise יהוה, our Elohim, and sadly we find that the ability to praise Him in this way can often be a tough challenge for most as they go through the daily grind of trying to make ends meet; and very quickly they often find their ability to praise our Maker fading away until praise unto Him becomes a ‘thing of the past’; and all of this while the heat of His displeasure is most certainly heating up for an Appointed Time, of which the majority are foolishly unaware of.  In a message tonight called, “Embrace the Truth and exult in יהוה!” I would like us to be reminded once again that we are to do exactly that – embrace the Truth and exult in יהוה, especially in the times we are living in right now!!! And in order for us to be well equipped and reminded of our need to not neglect the constant praise we are to bring unto our Maker, Redeemer and King, I would like us to hear the prayer of the prophet Ḥaḇaqquq – please turn with me to Ḥaḇaqquq Chapter 3 (Read).

Just under a year ago I gave a message overviewing the book of Ḥaḇaqquq in which we looked briefly at each chapter and our need to be watchful and awake as we wait for His soon return, living by faith knowing that the earth will be filled with His esteem and that He is in His Hěḵal (Temple) and is in control, and that no matter what we face or experience around us today, we are to be steadfast in remaining true to His Word. Tonight I want us to dig a little deeper into this last chapter that we have just read and get greatly encouraged from some wonderful pearls of truth that are nestled and hidden in the prayer of this prophet.

First of all חֲבַקּוּק Ḥaḇaqquq – Strong’s H2265 means ‘an embrace’ and comes from the root word חָבַק Ḥaḇaq – Strong’s H2263 and means ‘embrace’ and embrace in English means ‘to take up readily or gladly, to participate, to avail oneself’ and the Hebrew word means ‘embrace, hold in one’s arms, to clasp and to show close affection’. This was a prophet who embraced the Word of Elohim – showed close affection and held on to it tightly, who took it up readily and gladly, and took full advantage of making himself available to participate in being used by Elohim, despite the very sobering vision and judgement that He saw concerning those who are going astray!

In verse 1 we see a very unfamiliar term – and that is ‘Shiḡionoth’ – Strong’s H7692, and uncertain term, yet this word has been described as a musical term and is only seen here and at the beginning of Tehillim/Psalm 7, and has been described as possibly meaning ‘a wild passionate song with rapid changes of rhythm’, which we see certainly happening in this chapter as he changes the rhythm from acknowledgement of יהוה to judgement coming and lawlessness seen and then to praise. This word is derived from the root word שָׁגָה shagah – Strong’s H7686 and means ‘to go astray, to err, to wander or stray, and to be intoxicated’ and so we see that this is a prayer of intercession for those who are going astray – for those who have been led astray and have been intoxicated with the wine of the great whore. The word prayer is תְּפִלָּה tephillah – Strong’s H8605 and comes from the word פָּלַל palal – Strong’s H6419 which means ‘to intercede, intervene, make supplication, and judgement made favourable’ and in essence carries the meaning ‘to apply to a judge for a favourable decision’.

So as we look at this prayer of appeal that has rapidly changing rhythms, let us look at some of these that are contained herein:

Verse 2 we see a wonderful declaration of a prophet who had embraced the Truth and now cries out to יהוה as He sees the desperate need for pure obedience to the Torah and worship unto יהוה to be restored. Three key elements we see here in this verse as we see words like fear/afraid; renew and remember compassion.

Ḥaḇaqquq says that he has heard the report of יהוה – that which he had received and was commanded to write down in the first two chapters – he had heard (“shama” – listen attentively, comprehend, discern and give heed to what is spoken) and now could embrace the ‘fear of יהוה’. As you may all remember a couple of weeks ago I spoke on the fear of יהוה, showing that it is not our fear but His in describing that which ‘flows from the gut’ of יהוה – and that being His instructions and His Character by His Breath/Spirit – His spoken, breathed out Word!!! Here is Ḥaḇaqquq we see the form of the term ‘yirat יהוה’ being used here, and sadly the Scriptures translation we have has placed the ‘O יהוה’ in the next sentence within this verse, where it should be linked with the first sentence ending with afraid and therefore could more accurately be translated as “יהוה I have heard your report; I have the fear of יהוה”.

Please see the sermon called “Those fearing Elohim – Listen!” to understand the term ‘the fear of יהוה” for more understanding in this regard.

The point I want to make here is that Ḥaḇaqquq heard the Truth, embraced the Truth and was now able to understand that יהוה’s word is abundantly clear and His Appointed Times are set and His coming wrath was imminent and the state of the people was not a good one and were in much need of a renewal and deliverance that only יהוה could bring.

Ḥaḇaqquq then cries out and asks יהוה to renew His work in the midst of the years and make it known. The vision he was given was for the end time and he was pleading for יהוה to bring renewal. The Word ‘renew’ is חָיָה Ḥayah – Strong’s H2462 and means ‘recover, restore to health, heal, make alive, revive’. Ḥaḇaqquq was appealing to יהוה to revive and recover His fear over His people – recover the very breath of His Word that brings life to a dying people!

Ma’asei/Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore and turn back, for the blotting out of your sins, in order that times of refreshing might come from the presence of the Master”

The word ‘refreshing’ is the Greek Word ἀνάψυξις  anapsuxis Strong’s G403 and means, ‘recovery of breath, refresh’ and we see that when we repent and turn back to The Master we may receive a recovery of breath – His Word giving us our very life that we may live and breathe and praise His Name – for everything that has breath praise יהוה!

It takes hearing obediently to clearly guard to do what His instructions tell us to and be filled with His Spirit/Breath/Word that He puts in those who turn back to Him and thirdly Ḥaḇaqquq pleads with יהוה to ‘remember compassion’ in your wrath – in other words – remember those who return and are recovered by His Breath through the Fear of Elohim – remember the righteous who do your will and refresh your faithful remnant in the midst of these dark and perilous times!!!

Tehillim/Psalm 138:7-8 “Though I walk in the midst of distress, You revive me; You stretch out Your hand Against the wrath of my enemies, And Your right hand saves me. 8 יהוה does perfect for me. O יהוה, Your kindness is everlasting. Do not forsake the works of Your hands.”

After crying out this great plea, Ḥaḇaqquq returns to prophesying and we see a rhythm change in his prayer:

Verse 3 begins with the true declaration that Eloah is coming and the whole earth will be filled with His praise and proceeds to describe the destructions and devastation of His wrath that will go before Him as He comes to trample the winepress and save His people!

He comes from Tĕman is prophetic for end times and the second coming of Messiah as Tĕman means ‘south’ and so in effect we see that He is coming from the south – what does that mean and who is this Eloah that comes from the south?

Zeḵaryah/Zechariah 9:14 “And יהוה shall appear for them, and His arrow go forth like lightning, and the Master יהוה sound the ram’s horn. And He shall go with whirlwinds from the south.”

This is describing the picture of His second coming as also described in:

Yeshayahu/Isaiah 66:15 “For look, יהוה comes with fire and with His chariots, like a whirlwind, to render His displeasure with burning, and His rebuke with flames of fire.”

The word for south in Zeḵaryah 9:14 is also the word בֵּימָן Tĕman – Strong’s 8646/8647 and this was a district in Eḏom and Tĕman was also the name of the grandson of Ěsaw and was an Eḏomite chief and we begin to see the clear language of end time prophecy regarding the destruction of Eḏom and Botsrah regarding the end time destruction of the enemies of יהוה.

Amos 1:12 “But I shall send fire upon Tĕman, and it shall consume the palaces of Botsrah.”

Oḇaḏyah/Obadiah 1:8-9 “In that day,” declares יהוה, “I shall destroy the wise men from Eḏom, and discernment from the mountains of Ěsaw! 9 “And your mighty men shall be discouraged, O Tĕman, so that everyone from the mountains of Ěsaw is cut off by slaughter.”

יהוה is coming to tread the winepress and destroy the enemies of His Bride. Tĕman is derived from the root word יָמִין yamin – Strong’s H3225 and means ‘right hand/right side and also south side’ and is used literally of a man’s right hand as opposed to שְׂמאֹל semol – Strong’s H8040 which means ‘left hand’ and well as ‘north’. Yemen is the modern name for Tĕman and we see a wonderful description of who is coming – for the ‘right hand of Elohim’ is the that which works deliverance and redemption and destroys the enemy – this is יהושע Messiah – He is coming – He is the Set-Apart One who comes from Mount Paran – Paran means ‘place of caverns’ and is an area in the southern Sinai Peninsula and comes from the root word that means ‘especially beautiful/adorned, gleaning’ and this language would have been familiar to Yisra’ĕl as it would remind them of that which Mosheh spoke before his death and would be a sober reminder to repent and return to יהוה:

Deḇarim/Deuteronomy 33:1-3 “And this is the blessing with which Mosheh the man of Elohim blessed the children of Yisra’ĕl before his death. 2 And he said, “יהוה came from Sinai, and rose from Sĕʽir for them. He shone forth from Mount Paran, and came with ten thousands of set-apart ones – at His right hand a law of fire for them. 3 Indeed, He loves the peoples, all His set-apart ones are in Your hand. And they, they sat down at Your feet, receiving Your Words.”

They also would echo the words of the song of Deḇorah in:

Shophetim/Judges 5:4-5 “יהוה, when You went out from Sĕʽir, when You stepped from the field of Eḏom, the earth shook and the heavens poured, the clouds also poured water. 5 “The mountains flowed at the presence of יהוה, this Sinai, at the presence of יהוה Elohim of Yisra’ĕl.”

This would not only cause them to look back to the Covenant but also forward to the prophecy of Ḥanoḵ as a very sobering wake up call to turn and repent before it would be too late:

Yehuḏah/Jude 1:14-15 “And Ḥanoḵ, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied of these, saying, “See, יהוה comes with His myriads of set-apart ones, 15 to execute judgment on all, to punish all who are wicked among them concerning all their wicked works which they have committed in a wicked way, and concerning all the harsh words which wicked sinners have spoken against Him.” 

We also see these words of prophecy being spoken in:

Yeshayahu/Isaiah 63:1-4 “Who is this coming from Eḏom, with garments of glowing colours from Botsrah, who is robed in splendour, striding forward in the greatness of His strength? “It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” 2 Why is there red on Your raiment, and Your garments like one who treads in the winepress? 3 “I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with Me. And I trod them down in My displeasure, and I trampled them in My wrath. Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, and I have defiled all My raiment. 4 “For a day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed has come.”

These words would certainly carry great power in calling back a backslidden people and Ḥaḇaqquq proceeds to speak of the power in which Eloah will come, giving reference back to how they were sold into the hands of Kushan because of their Ba’al worship and after hearing their cry for help Othni’ĕl son of Qenaz, Kalěḇ’s younger brother was raised up by יהוה to save Yisra’ĕl (Shophetim/Judges 3:7-11), and also how the sun and moon stood still and did not go down until Yisra’ĕl avenged itself upon her enemies, when Yehoshua fought against the Amorites (Yehoshua/Joshua 10:13), and these words of remembrance would also shadow picture how a day of deliverance is coming again.

Upon hearing, Ḥaḇaqquq says he trembled and quivered and this is a very quick reminder that no matter how powerful man’s religious systems and infrastructures may appear and claim to be, it will all be brought to its knees and destroyed, and is a sobering reminder to us to ensure we are on the ‘right side’ of Elohim, for anyone who is not – no matter how significant they may claim to be – will be treated in such a way. Many expositors see this verse 16 as a shift in the prayer/song as being the cry of Baḇelon’s response, and then we come to another cry of Ḥaḇaqquq that is often quoted as an isolated text without regard for the entire context and setting of the prayer and whole book of Ḥaḇaqquq!

Verse 17 – A well-known verse within many circles – let us briefly look at the application of these verses regarding the circumstances of a plagued and corrupted people that I believe Ḥaḇaqquq was witnessing against.

1 – The Fig Tree does not blossom

The use of the fig tree and figs throughout Scripture carries great significance to us and typically represents the nation of Yisra’ĕl. But what was the picture here? The fig tree was not blossoming – when we consider this we can immediately be drawn to the words of יהושע who cursed the fig tree:

Mattithyahu/Matthew 21:19 “And seeing a single fig tree by the way, He came to it and found naught on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” And immediately the fig tree withered.”

This cursing of the fig tree, which had leaves but no fruit, is a parable of the end time harvest and what happened to the fig tree is what would happen to all those who may profess to be in the Covenant, yet bear no fruit of repentance or the fruit of righteousness!

A couple of chapters later we see His words again in reference to the end-times in:

Mattithyahu/Matthew 24:32 “And learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that the summer is near.”

The meaning of this parable has been lost by the masses who have been taught that there is no requirements to keep the Torah, and sadly as a result those who believe such lies will be found to be outside of the Covenants of Promise!

יהושע cursed the fig tree to get the disciples attention and teach them the necessity to remain in Him and bear much fruit. Although this was not the season for figs to bear fruit we see that Sha’ul tells Timotiyos to proclaim the Word and be urgent, in and out of season and never be found to be fruitless with leaves only!

What is interesting to note is that a fig tree typically produces fruit before it produces leaves and so when you see the leaves without fruit there is a problem!!! This is a picture of covering up or hiding sin as Aḏam and Ḥawwah did when they realised their nakedness due to sin as they sowed fig leaves together to cover themselves. Our only covering is the Blood of Messiah and the picture of having leaves only is a picture of many today – they may have the appearance of worship and look the part – yet lack the fruit of righteous living according to the Torah and so they sow for themselves fig leaves through religious programmes to hide their lawlessness! This was the state of Yisra’ĕl – all leaves and no fruit, or better put ‘rotten fruit’. Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 8 is a fitting chapter that describes this sad and sick state of many who claim to be worshipping יהוה, yet cling to deceit and do not know the right-ruling of  יהוה.

Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 24 speaks of two baskets of figs – one good and one bad. We do not have time to go into the details of this chapter but encourage you to do so on your own time, but in summary this is what it speaks regarding the figs:

The Good figs are the obedient ones who repent and turn back to יהוה with all their heart who will be delivered, redeemed and protected and brought into the Promises of His Covenant.

The Bad figs speak of those who refuse to listen and choose to stay in Baḇel or Mitsrayim – a picture for us today of those who choose to remain in the world, as well as those who choose to remain in the man-made theologies, including both rabbinic Judaism and Christianity – this is the basket of bad figs for which the sword, famine and plague will be sent upon them!

2 – No fruit on the Vine

The parable of the Vine in Yoḥanan 15 speaks clearly our need to remain in יהושע or else we will be cut off and thrown in to the fire and is a parable that goes hand in hand with the words written in Yeḥezqĕl/Ezekiel 15, which I spoke about a few months back in a message called, ‘Fruitful or fruitless – the Parable of the Vine’, which looks at Yeḥezqěl 15 and Yoḥanan 15 together and encourage you to go through those notes in regards to no fruit on the vine!

3 – The olives have failed

We know that olive were the source of the oil for the tabernacle, supplying the Lampstand as well as the anointing oil and incense and for the bread. Oil as we know speaks of the anointing and Spirit of יהוה and His word that He has planted in us and when we see the picture of failed olives we can see the parable of the 10 virgins – 5 who had oil in their lamps and 5 who did not – another parallel parable with that of Yirmeyahu two baskets of figs. Olive oil is obtained through a crushing process and what is sad today is that the world is being crushed through enslavement – people are suffering more and more hardships and being crushed by the pressures of this life and sadly what is happening is that worry is choking out the Word and they are ‘dry’, while there is no oil coming forth – no Word – no faith! Will Messiah find faith when He comes!

4 – Fields bring forth no food

The field is the world and the Word is the seed – yet no food is being brought forth as the ground of many hearts is not good – this picture we can reference back to the parable of the sower in Mattithyahu/Matthew 13. Yisra’ĕl had the Word yet had not maintained the field of their hearts and so were no longer filled with good seed and able to produce a harvest but rather were hardened by deceit and it is no different today!

5 – Flock has been cut off and no herds

This is a picture of the denial of the work of Messiah as the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world – a two-fold picture – one is of the rabbinic Judaism that reduces יהושע to a prophet and they did not receive Him and two – the westernised Christian world has changed the Messiah into a torahless teacher – and so have cut off the True Living Word by adding to or taking away from the Truth!

This was the sad picture that Ḥaḇaqquq saw in his day and one which we certainly see today – Dry, fruitless and lawless people who have made their own leaves to cover their nakedness – which will be exposed on that Day!

 However what even struck me more was that in light of the Torah portions we have been going through on the Tabernacle, we see a clear picture by that which is lacking by so many as יהוה is rebuilding the Tabernacle of Dawiḏ

Being dry, fruitless and lawless and without the pure garments of righteousness we have no access to the Tabernacle and are unable to offer Him the bull of our lips in praise!

Habaqquq sees this sad state and despite all this he makes a bold declaration which we too are to make – we who embrace the Truth and cling to יהוה:

Yet… Yet… despite what others may be doing… I will EXULT in יהוה… I will rejoice in the Elohim of my deliverance!!! Are you able to declare this too – knowing that you have clothed yourself in righteousness – putting on the armour of Elohim and are remaining in Him bearing fruit… much fruit, filled with the oil of His presence, keeping the field of your heart pure that the Good Seed yields a Good return and are offering up your bodies a daily living sacrifice, well pleasing to Elohim? Then you can make that statement and do it with great joy!!!

The word for exult is עָלַז alaz – Strong’s H5937 and means ‘exult, rejoice, triumph, be jubilant ’and this word in the Hebrew describes an emotion of joy which finds expression in singing and shouting and is a natural response of the faithful as we saw in Tehillim/Psalm 149 at the beginning . It means to be in an intense state of great joy and contentment and this is how those who embrace the Truth – exult in יהוה!

Verse 19 echoes that which Yeshayahu declared when speaking of our diligent obedient response to His Word and keeping His Shabbat, entering His rest:

Yeshayahu/Isaiah 58:14 “then you shall delight yourself in יהוה. And I shall cause you to ride on the heights of the earth, and feed you with the inheritance of Yaʽaqoḇ your father. For the mouth of יהוה has spoken!”

Ḥaḇaqquq was declaring simply this: “Before יהוה I am playing my songs of praise!!!”

We know that which is coming, let us embrace the Truth, declare His Truth and cling to His Truth and praise Him without the leaves of hypocrisy but in purity and sincerity of Truth!

Yoḥanan/John 4:23-24 “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father also does seek such to worship Him. 24 “Elohim is Spirit, and those who worship Him need to worship in spirit and truth.”

As we hear this prayer of Ḥaḇaqquq tonight may we, like him, embrace the Truth and exult in יהוה

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 shalom!

{jcomments on}

As one walks continually in the Word and diligently follows the instructions of our Messiah, we are to guard ourselves against any form of pride that may set in, which can happen as a result of many things, but primarily can tend to have a way of setting in when we do not deal with stumbling blocks along the way. Tonight I would like us to look at some very serious words and instruction on humility and guarding against pride that our Master יהושע spoke to His talmidim (disciples). In a message tonight called, “Turn or Burn – The War Against Pride!” please turn with me to Mattithyahu/Matthew 18:1-10 (Read).

This passage struck me this week as Reinier and I were having an early morning time of prayer and reading of the Word and I was continually drawn back to this passage and being struck how significant these words of יהושע are in terms of our life of obedient worship. I would like to briefly share with you some valuable insights into these somewhat piercing words of our Master and realise our need for total humility in being a true part of His Body!

First up, in setting the scene we must understand that יהושע had been teaching His talmidim a great deal on the reign of the heavens and here He literally rebuked them for their pride and desire for worldly greatness and in this chapter He taught them 3 essentials for unity and harmony among the people of Elohim – and that is Humility, Honesty and Forgiveness and tonight we will be looking at humility.

In verse 1 we see that the taught ones came to יהושע – this is important for us to once again see and recognise that the words which He spoke to them were to ‘believers and not unbelievers’! I fear that many times we may forget that the very words of Scripture are for the Body of Messiah, not for those outside – it is for us and is a mirror for us to make sure we remain dressed in righteousness. There had certainly been some debate among the disciples on who would be the greatest in this reign that their Master and Teacher was teaching them about. They had just been told by Messiah that He was about to be delivered up and killed and then raised on the third day, which grieved them greatly, yet after a lesson on tax and submission to authority, there seemed to be a dispute arising among the disciples as to who would be the greatest, and they would have all had their own reasons as to why they would have a better position than the others – Kěpha had, after all, had walked on water, had seen Messiah transfigured and had his taxes paid by a miracle. And while יהושע was teaching them the truths of His reign and His pending suffering, they were more interested about what positions they would have in His reign, and were so caught up in the selfishness of this that it caused some disputes – possibly even heated ones!!!

Self-centeredness and disunity causes great harm to the health and growth of the body and the underlying cause or root of this attitude is PRIDE – where one thinks that he is more important than what he is. When believers are living only for self and not for others then there is bound to be the danger of some conflict and division creeping in, and this we are to be on guard against. We have been speaking a great deal of late about the need for community to be built stronger and this will take submission and humility by all. The disciples were eagerly waiting for יהושע‘s answer and He stuns them with a great reality check – one that we ought to be able to have too!

יהושע calls for a little child and lets him sit with them and we must understand that this was a little child – not a baby or a teenager but a small child and He tells His taught ones that unless they TURN and become AS little children they would by NO MEANS enter the reign!!!! Some very hard words it must have been to them that day and words that are still as powerful to us today. Now what we are to also understand is that there is a difference between ‘like this child’ or rather ‘child-like’ and ‘childish’! There are many adults who are childish and desperately need to become child-like!

The emphasis here is that to become child-like one needs to TURN:

The Greek word used here for ‘turn’ is G4762 στρέφω ‘strephō’ – meaning, ‘to turn, change, turn back, be converted or changed into another kind of person’ and ‘to change one’s mind or conduct’. Understanding the words of our Master here helps us see the deep need for so many to ‘turn’ and change their mind and conduct and become as a child or else they may just find themselves being burnt! Turn or burn – it is a huge war against pride!

How many people have you heard say the following, “I am not going to change!” or “You will not change my mind!” or “I believe what I believe and nothing you say can change that!”

Selfish words of pride – I wonder how many of us have echoed those same words before, especially when approached on a topic where you think you have all the answers?

So many today stubbornly refuse to change the way they think and sadly it is going to keep them from entering the reign, for יהושע says that unless you do you will never; and the emphasis is placed here on the negative in that unless you turn and change your mind and become childlike then there is absolutely no ways that you will enter His reign!!! Now this was words to His close disciples – a shocking but needed wake up call for them to drop pride and humble themselves in service to the Master and one another!

Becoming child-like speaks of humility as verse 4 confirms this by saying that just as this little child humbles himself before the Master, so should His taught ones be in order for them to enter His reign and become the greatest – this was a lesson on humility 101 – drop all your own ambitions and agendas and be willing to submit and surrender your all – then you will be great in His reign!!! This was a wake-up call for them who were debating on their assumed greatness and if they truly wanted to continue to be His taught ones they had better listen up!

Luqas/Luke 14:33 “So, then, every one of you who does not give up all that he has, is unable to be My taught one.”

As simple as this sounds and we may all say we know all this – but in reality I have to ask you – have you really given up all?

Ya’aqoḇ/James 4:10 “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Master, and He shall lift you up.”

The need to walk in humility in critical to the life of the body, in order that strife and contentions do not break out and where each member is respected and highly regarded above self, and this is not easy for many ‘grown-ups’ today! This ‘turn’ is a picture and lesson for us in turning from being full of pride and self to dying to self and immersed in humility.

This is the call to turn away from ‘self-rule’ (that is from an ‘I’ll do it my way’ attitude) to turning to יהוה’s rule (that is to an ‘I submit to His way’ attitude). The dangers of an attitude of pride may lead one to become sceptical, bitter or resentful towards others – how often have you found yourself being sceptical about what יהוה has planned for you, or bitter or resentful over a circumstance or person or group of people, especially fellow believers, simply because you did not get your way? Well if we want to enter the Reign of Messiah then we need to turn from being sceptical to being trusting and making יהוה our absolute trust; and we need to turn from being bitter to being caring and loving and turn from walking in resentment to being forgiving. Is there still some turning that needs to happen in your life – that is to say – is there still some renewing of the mind and a change of conduct that needs to take place? If so, then turn!!!

When we receive one who has turned and humbled themselves, as a little child, in The name of Messiah, we receive Him – this too is a test for those receiving newly turned ones!!! Especially if you know the person and have seen the pride in their life! Are there any people you know of that you would be reluctant to receive or sceptical about receiving due to the history of their stubbornness? יהושע encourages us to recognise them that have turned and receive them, for if we do not – there is a very heavy woe! Anyone who causes the humble to stumble will face the wrath of Elohim – in fact death by drowning would be a better option than to face Elohim and His wrath.

A humble follower of יהושע helps to build up His body (even if it means by reproof) and does not tear down. Being straight is necessary, as long as it is with intent to build and give direction according to the Word and not simply to break down and destroy.

We need to wage war on pride – by turning and becoming child-like and seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and no longer be self-seeking – a huge challenge for many today in a world that teaches you to look out for self – that is not going to get you into the reign!!!

We all want to know what יהוה’s will is for our life, right? Well then it is simple:

The best way to know יהוה’s will is to say “I WILL” to יהוה – a very simple yet very important and profound TRUTH for a child of Elohim, especially in light of the Torah portion from last week when we went through Shemoth/Exodus 18-20 where Yisra’ĕl said ‘WE WILL DO” before even hearing the instructions – that is being child-like!!!

Verse 7 – Woe to the World and Woe to the man!

Stumbling blocks – Deḇarim/Deuteronomy 27:18 “Cursed is he who misleads the blind in the way.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Aměn!’”

We are in the world but not of this world and we must realise that there are many stumbling blocks in the world as the result of sin/lawlessness, and we must guard ourselves from these, as well as from being a stumbling block for anyone else. Our actions and our lifestyle has a far greater effect than we may care to realise as there are others that will follow your lead, whether you realise it or not – we all influence others and are influenced by others and we are to be careful as to what influences us that we may be sure that our lives can be a good influence to others! We must be willing to remove whatever offends – by that I mean simply this: whatever influences in our lives that are offensive in any way we must remove. And to keep from offending and influencing others negatively radical changes are often necessary!

If you are not walking in total humility and submission and surrender to the Word of Elohim and have some stumbling blocks that are keeping you from doing so, be it a bad habit or an attitude of stubbornness to change or even being subject to outside influences that are affecting your ability to remain humble in obedient submission to the Torah of Elohim, then you need to remove it!!!

This verse is also a warning against falsehood and false teachers who twist the Truth and cause many to stumble, and a huge warning to all of us to be very careful not to cause any to stumble. We must also be vigilant to ensure that all stumbling blocks are removed from our own lives or else we may cause others to stumble by them too!

And with that in mind we come to the verses that struck me this week in terms of our worship and service unto Elohim; and here יהושע makes it clear that if there are any stumbling blocks in your worship and obedience to His word then cut it off – let us take a look at these three body parts He uses and recognise their significance in our walk today!

HAND – FOOT – EYE

All three of these carry great insight for us and when you see the repeated use of these words in various applications we begin to see the lesson behind the language. If any one of these (hand, foot or eye) cause you to stumble – that is to be tempted to sin or entraps you and cause you to sin – which is to be lawless – then cut it off! We must realise that יהושע is not advocating that people literally go around and cut off their hands and feet and pluck out their eyes – He is teaching the severity of not walking in humility and unity and the need to deal ruthlessly with anything in your walk that is causing you to stumble and sin.

1 – HAND – service/ work/ profession

The Hand speaks of what one works with – as we know that is was with a Mighty Hand that He delivered us from Mitsrayim, and our hands are to be doing the works of righteousness and not works of lawlessness – our walk of active faith should be evident of righteous acts of set-apart children of the Most High.

Mattithyahu/Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Master, Master,’ shall enter into the reign of the heavens, but he who is doing the desire of My Father in the heavens. 22 “Many shall say to Me in that day, ‘Master, Master, have we not prophesied in Your Name, and cast out demons in Your Name, and done many mighty works in Your Name?’ 23 “And then I shall declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from Me, you who work lawlessness!’”

We must be careful to ensure that our daily lives reflect one of working righteousness and as Messiah tells us too that if one puts his hand to the plough and looks back, he is not fit for the kingdom. We cannot look back as Yisra’ĕl did in the Wilderness for that generation did not enter into the Promised Land; but rather we must stick to the task of being faithful with what the Father has put in our hands – and that is His word, which we take up the Sword of the Spirit and work diligently unto Elohim, being like children in humble service – for then we will enter His reign!

Yoḥanan Aleph/1 John 2:29 “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone doing righteousness has been born of Him.”

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

2 – FOOT – walk

The foot is a metaphor for one’s walk, and as we see how our feet are to be fitted with the preparation of the Good News of peace. Pride has a nasty way of making one’s footing insecure and bringing us down:

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 29:23 “The pride of man brings him low, But the humble in spirit obtains esteem.”

Feet is also a symbolic picture used in describing disciples who would listen to their teachers as they would come and sit at their Teacher’s feet. There are many today who claim to walk in Messiah yet they will not come and sit under the teaching of His Torah and find themselves walking where they should not be and are influenced by other teachings.

In Hebrew foot or feet is also used as a reference in one’s walk of obedience in referring to the 3 pilgrimage feasts of יהוה that each man was required to go up to Yerushalayim every year for – Pěsaḥ, Shavuot and Sukkot.

Shemoth/Exodus 23:14 “Three times in the year you are to observe a festival to Me.”

The Hebrew word used for ‘times’ is Strong’s H7272 רֶגֶל ‘regel’ – means ‘a foot/feet or to walk’. So as I said – one’s obedience and submission to the Truth is seen in one’s walk – the question is simply whether our walk is straight, healthy and in loving obedience or is it diseased and crooked through stubbornness and pride?

3 – EYE – passion/vision/sight

What you will look at – that you will set your sights on and pursue! Where are your eyes focused on? Is it the dreams and desires of self-indulgence or on the Prince and Perfecter of your faith? Are your eyes on the world and what you can achieve in this world or on the Living Word and seeking to please Him? What you set your eyes upon reveal that which you love:

Yoḥanan Aleph/1 John 2:15-16 “Do not love the world nor that which is in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 Because all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world.”

In Mattithyahu/Matthew 5:29-30 in speaking on lust יהושע uses the term ‘if your RIGHT EYE causes you to stumble’. Right eye or a ‘good eye’ is a Hebraic idiom for the one among you who is most generous and many today are often reluctant in disciplining the biggest tithers when they are in sin – and they will pay an even bigger price if they neglect to do so. So as you get a good eye, there is also what is known as an evil eye which can reference to being stingy and lawless:

Mattithyahu/Matthew 6:22-23 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, all your body shall be enlightened. 23 “But if your eye is evil, all your body shall be darkened. If, then, the light that is within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

Therefore what we ‘see’ here is that a good eye is one that is ‘clear and unclouded, healthy and good’, while an evil eye speaks of selfishness and pride:

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 22:9 “He who has a good eye is blessed, For he gives of his bread to the poor.”

Our eyes are to be upon His Truth:

Tehillim/Psalm 119:18 “Open my eyes, that I might see Wonders from Your Torah.”

According to Scripture when does the Torah get read as a community? On Shabbat!!!

Having said that, this is exactly what struck me when reading these verses – His Shabbat – His Feasts and obedience to keeping His instructions as a community in unity. I think we all get the essence of what these verses are saying to us, but on a more significant point I see it speaking a whole lot more to us who desire to walk in obedience together as a body of believers!

If we understand that our sign/mark of worship is reflected in our obedience to Messiah and more specifically we are told in Shemoth/Exodus 13 twice that Pěsaḥ and Matzot (Passover and Unleavened Bread) shall be a sign on our hand and will be a reminder between our eyes – that the Torah is to be in our mouth – because with a strong Hand יהוה brought us out of Mitsrayim. We also see twice in Yeḥezqěl/Ezekiel 20 that the Sabbath is our sign between us and יהוה forever. Sabbath and His Feasts – signs on our hands and eyes – and our feet, if you will, as we see the word feet being used to instruct us to keep His Feasts – representing a pure walk of obedience and submission to sitting at His feet hearing His instructions! Where am I going with this? We all know that there is a battle for worship – the enemy is doing his best to corrupt people into worshipping him as he sets himself up as Elohim in the place of Elohim – that is in the hearts of the people of those who fall to his lies and receive the mark of the beast, which is sun-day worship and the keeping of pagan rooted feasts of traditions of man; and the mark of this is also spoken of as being on the right hand and forehead (eye) in Ḥazon/Revelation; while those who overcome and do not receive the mark of the beast will reign with Messiah for 1000years! Those who humble themselves, endure and remain steadfast in worship unto Elohim will enter the reign of Messiah!

With this in mind as we look at Mattithyahu/Matthew 18:8-9 we can then get a clearer instruction from our Master:

If your hand causes you to stumble – cut it off – Is your work causing you to stumble – that is to not keep His Sabbath? If your work causes you to break the Sabbath – cut it off. So many today are too afraid to stand up and stop working on Sabbath in fear of losing their job – they will lose a whole lot more if they do not cut off the stumbling block of work and trust יהוה to provide a better solution!

If your foot causes you to stumble – cut it off – Is your ability to not gather as commanded a stumbling block that you reason away with various excuses. His Shabbat is His day – set-apart unto Him – it is not for us to do our own pleasures or even speak our own words and we must cut off any stumbling blocks that may be causing us to neglect doing what we are commanded to. Now, as for this family/community, we gather for erev Shabbat as well as on the day – if you are part of this assembly let there be no stumbling block to doing what we do in gathering as we do. Excuses can become stumbling blocks – cut them off and humbly become like a child and submit! Do you find yourself keeping other feasts that are not Scriptural – cut them off – realise that your actions influence others, so do not compromise, and do not teach others to compromise. There are some that are erroneously teaching their kids that staying in on erev Shabbat is sufficient – it is not true – the whole of Shabbat is יהוה’s, not just a part of it that suites you!!! Don’t let your foot cause you to stumble by going your own way!

If your eye causes you to stumble – pluck it out – What are your eyes focused on? Are you looking out only for self and neglecting the body to the point where you cannot even see the needs that are in the body? As we read that the eyes are the lamp for the body and Tehillim/Psalm 119 tells us that The Torah is a lamp for our feet and a light to our path – then it is plain to see the simple math here – our eyes are to be upon the Torah – we do not need conspiracies and hoards of other teachings that may in fact be taking away the light of the Torah and His Living Word  – we need His Light – our eyes fixed upon it, that our body becomes a shining light of His Truth giving us clear direction for each step we take.

Are there things you are setting your eyes upon that may be causing you to stumble in keeping His Shabbat and His Feasts – be it family members who are calling for your attention, or work and burdens that have you so weighed down that you are so focused on anything but His Shabbat and His word, thinking your own thoughts and are unable to focus on Him and His Word and His Body and so cause you to stumble in keeping Shabbat set-apart – pluck it out. The eye also speaks of our intellect and mind/thoughts – if you are coming to a Shabbat gathering and have a major stumbling block in your thoughts that consumed with heavy burdens of work, relational stress or any other issues and your ability to fix your eyes on His Word are distracted – then pluck it out.

Bring no burden into the gates on Shabbat!!! This is a day to rest in יהוה, delight in Him and give our all as a total ascending offering!

Pride is the focus on self – even self-pity is a form of pride as it only looks in at self. The words of our Master are clear – unless we turn and become as children – that is to turn from pride to humility and destroy all the stumbling blocks to our obedience, and more specifically to our mark of worship in keeping His Shabbat and Feasts as they are to be kept, then we may find ourselves unable to enter the reign of Messiah and face being burnt!

Turn or burn – the war against pride – the solution is simple – humble yourself and simply obey and trust in Our Father who is in the secret place. What, if any, stumbling blocks are there in your life – stumbling blocks that are causing you to be lawless and neglect the purity of True worship? It is time to get very radical and cut off or pluck out – you will either be in or out of His reign when He comes – may we be continually humbled, destroying all form of pride and self and find that we enter in and be great in His reign, aměn!

Shabbat Shalom!

Shalom family, it is good for us to be together as we assemble in the Name of our Redeemer and King, יהושע Messiah, aměn; and with great awe we enter with thanksgiving, joy and delight into the Mighty presence of our Elohim. We often see in Scripture the phrase, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says!” Well now I know we all literally have ears – yet the question is whether we are listening to what the Spirit says – in other words are we listening to the very Word of יהוה? In Ma’asei/Acts 13 we see Sha’ul give great words of encouragement to the congregation in Antioch in Pisidia that were gathered ‘on the Sabbath’, after the reading of the Torah. This is the first recorded discourse of Sha’ul and most completely preserved and it shows how he preached to an audience who were grounded/rooted in the Tanak (O.T.) and this is how he began:

Ma’asei/Acts 13:16 “And Sha’ul, standing up and motioning with his hand said, “Men, Yisra’ĕlites, and those fearing Elohim, listen:”

This really struck me, for many of us have been raising the concern of late that ‘fear’ for יהוה is somewhat lacking in our day and so in a message tonight called, “Those fearing Elohim, listen”, I would like to give a brief overview of what fearing Elohim means and then be able to determine whether we are listening or not! As I said this is an overview so I do not have a key or central passage we will be looking at tonight, however we will be looking at various critical passages that will hopefully help us begin to further understand what fearing Elohim means and cause us to be a hearing, fearing people of Elohim! I often think that the “fear” that יהוה repeatedly commands us to have is misunderstood to a large degree by so many. What I want to show you tonight is what Scripture instructs for us in the fear of the Almighty as well as looking at various words that pertain this.

Ok, so to start off…. What is fear? In English in can mean the following:

As a verb it can mean – “to feel fear in (oneself)” or “to have a reverential awe of Elohim” or “be afraid of or expect with alarm the worst”

As a noun it can also be described as “an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger”.

So fear can both be described as showing honour or respect as well as being afraid, and so fear can often be an abstract concept – that is it can often be one that is difficult to understand and at best we often find ourselves at a loss for words to distinguish between that which is reverence and that which is being scared!

Ma’asei/Acts 2:41-47 “Then those, indeed, who gladly received his word, were immersed. And on that day about three thousand beings were added to them. 42 And they were continuing steadfastly in the teaching of the emissaries, and in the fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers. 43 And fear came upon every being, and many wonders and signs were being done through the emissaries. 44 And all those who believed were together, and had all in common, 45 and sold their possessions and property, and divided them among all, as anyone might have need. 46 And day by day, continuing with one mind in the Set-apart Place, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising Elohim and having favour with all the people. And the Master added to the assembly those who were being saved, day by day.”

This is a great passage that reflects that early community being established at Shavuot, where we see true elements of a committed community being described and how 3000 were added to their number – those who gladly received the word and were immersed – a reversal if you will of the 3000 who died at Mount Sinai for refusing to hear and receive the instructions! Without digging too much into these few verses on community and Shavuot etc., for the context of this message I want to highlight that which is being described as a fear that came upon every being. As we look at the construction of this account we see the following – hear, guard and do – they heard and received gladly and responded to the Truth and as a result of continually guarding and doing they were steadfast in submitting under teaching, committed to fellowship, eating and praying together – and this is when the fear came upon them, after which we see that it says many wonders and sign were being done by the emissaries. They all had everything in common – shared all – kept their worship real and grew! This is certainly the kind of stuff we all desire to see happening in our midst in these last days. Many find themselves asking when we will see the wonders and the signs and from this passage it is actually very clear: hear – guard –do and then let fear be upon you – and watch this space…!!!

Being committed to the Word, Fellowship and Prayer will enable us to be in a place where we can allow the right kind of fear to be upon us, and when we recognise that there is a seeming lack of fear – it primarily is the result of a lack of community being built up together as many are trying to do their own thing, their own way and so as we begin to understand and embrace the desire of a true fear for Elohim to  be upon us may we commit to doing what is necessary as a body of believers in Messiah together!

Having said all that, the question still remains, “What is this fear?”

To answer this, let us look at the Hebrew words translated as ‘fear’ and discover the more concrete definition behind them.

The first root word I would like to look at is H6342 – פָּחַד ‘pachad’ – meaning “to dread, to shake or be in dread or terror” and can mean to “have an attitude or emotion of severe distress over impending danger or trouble, with a focus that it can be so intense that it will cause physical trembling and shaking”. It can also mean “to be in a state of profound awe and respect, so intense the body may react with trembling and shaking”. A derivative of this root is found in:

Iyoḇ/Job 4:14 “fear came upon me, and trembling, causing my bones to shake greatly.”

The Hebrew word used here for ‘fear’ is the noun H6343 – פַּחַד ‘pachad’ which means ‘shaking’ while the word used ‘to shake’ is the verb H6342 – פָּחַד ‘pachad’.

As a noun this word is used 49 times and as a verb 25 times.

The second Hebrew root word for fear is H3372(a) – יָרֵא ‘yare’ – which as a verb means fear as we would understand or consider what fear is. It is used in:

Berěshith/Genesis 3:10 “And he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself.”

Here Aḏam was afraid because he had sinned, however we see this same root word H3372 – יָרֵא ‘yare’ being used in a positive sense in:

Deḇarim/Deuteronomy 6:13 “Fear יהוה your Elohim and serve Him, and swear by His Name.”

Now having seen these two examples it could be thought that the same word has two different meanings – that of fear and reverence, however this is not the case as each Hebrew word has one meaning but can carry different applications.

H3372 (b) – יָרָא ‘yara’ – can also means “to shoot or cast off or pour”.

The literal concrete meaning of “yara” is a “flowing out of the gut,” which can be applied to “fear” or “reverence.”

Have you ever been so scared or been in the presence of something so amazing that you could feel it in your gut? This “feeling” is the meaning of this word. The Hebrews were a very emotional people, and in many cases their words are filled with emotional expressions and are often describing a “feeling,” rather than an “action.”

It is almost like saying, “You know that inner feeling you get deep in the gut, especially when you know you should not do something that you thought of doing or when you are in such awe of the presence of יהוה or someone in authority you respect highly that it can be felt in the gut, almost as nervousness.” This is how ‘yara’ could in one sense be described!

The one that fears יהוה will refrain from doing that which is displeasing to Him. Fear of Him does not cause us to shrink back as one would form a fierce enemy or wild beast, but rather it causes us to draw near to Him and fills us with a reverent awe doing our utmost to please Him in every way!

In Scripture we frequently see the term ‘the fear of יהוה’ as in:

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of יהוה is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Set-apart One is understanding.”

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of יהוה is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and discipline.”

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 2:1-6 “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.”

We all want to understand the fear of יהוה and so as we look deeper at the Hebrew we definitely get a clearer picture of what the fear of יהוה is and what fearing Him entails. In all of the verse from Mishlĕ that I have just read, the root word for “fear” is the noun H3374 – יִרְאָה ‘yirah’ derived from the verb H3372 (a) – יָרֵא ‘yare’. Now the common interpretation and understanding of Mishlĕ 9:10 and 1:7 that we read is that if someone is ‘afraid’ or is in awe of  יהוה he shall have wisdom, however as we shall see from this beautiful Hebrew language, this cannot be a consistent interpretation – there is more to it than meets the eye. Think about it – you cannot think you will suddenly get wisdom just because you have an awe of His presence or if you are afraid of Him, so let us look at this phrase in the Hebrew.

The fear of יהוה is written with two nouns – “יהוה יִרְאַת” = “yirat Yahweh”. When a noun precedes another noun, the first noun is in the construct state, meaning it is connected to the second noun—two words together forming one concept. Are you with me so far? Please bear with me for this is amazing in uncovering a greater meaning of the fear of יהוה.

When a feminine noun ending with the letter ה, such as yirah (יִרְאָה), is used in the construct state, the ה is converted to a ת, in this case it becomes ‘yirat’ (יִרְאַת).

In Berěshith/Genesis we find many construct phrases where the second word of the construct is יהוה such as the face of יהוה or the word of יהוה, or the Mount of יהוה, the voice of יהוה to name a few whereby each time the first word (word, voice, face etc.) belong to the second word (יהוה). Why am I telling you all this? Simply to raise the question that if ‘The Fear of יהוה’ is the construct phrase of ‘fear’ as that of יהוה’s, then why should we think that this fear is ‘ours’ and not His? Now we are all attentive listeners here and we know for a fact that Elohim does not ‘fear’ as we come to understand the concept of fear, right? However, if you recall, I mentioned that the root word יָרָא ‘yara’ means a “flowing out of the gut,” therefore the question becomes, “What flows out of the gut of יהוה?”

In order to answer this let us look at another two constructs that will shed more light upon the fear of יהוה:

1 – Tehillim/Psalm 1:2 “But his delight is in the Torah of יהוה, and he meditates in His Torah day and night.”

The word Torah H8451 –  תּוֹרָה– means ‘utterance’, ‘teaching’, ‘instruction’ or ‘revelation’ from Elohim’ and it is derived from the word H3384- יָרָא ‘yara’ meaning to shoot or throw or flow in the sense of flowing – as in rivers of water and is closely related to the word we have been looking at, carrying the same definition. The construct becomes יהוה תּוֹרָת – ‘torat Yahweh’ – His instructions!

2 – Miḵah/Micah 3:8 “But truly I am filled with power, with the Spirit of יהוה, and with right-ruling and with might, to declare to Yaʽaqoḇ his transgression and to Yisra’ĕl his sin.”

The word for spirit is H7307 – רוּחַ ‘ruach’ and means ‘breath, wind or spirit’ and here this construct becomes יהוה רוּת – ‘ruat Yahweh’ – the breath/spirit of יהוה – another type of ‘flowing’ as well as describing character as with the fruit of the Spirit.

I hope you are still with me – because understanding this we can once again ask what flows out of the gut of יהוה?

His teachings and His character!!!

When understanding this we can go back to Mishlĕ 9:10 and get a clearer understanding and in essence could be translated as “The flowing’s of יהוה is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Set-apart One is understanding.”

The flowing’s as in that which flows out form His gut – His teachings – His Character – is the beginning of wisdom!!!

That hopefully clears the answer for ‘what does the fear of יהוה mean?”

The beginning of wisdom is to be immersed/washed in the Living waters of His Word that flow from Him through His spoken Word – His very breath, and when Messiah tells us that when we drink of Him we will never thirst again – it is because we drink of His very being – the Word that has flowed forth from His gut and gives us life!

Now coming back to the fear we are to have for Him – well that carries the same essence as we have described earlier – we have a reverent awe and trembling for His Word and His presence and we ask to that we may breath in the fear of יהוה – having His breath in us – His instructions inside that too shall flow like rivers of living waters from deep within our gut giving many thirsty people a refreshing drink of the Besorah (Good News) of Messiah!

Qoheleth/Ecclesiastes 12:13 “Let us hear the conclusion of the entire matter: Fear Elohim and guard His commands, for this applies to all mankind!”

When we ‘fear’ יהוה, we show it by our guarding diligently of His commands and hate that which is evil and flee all whorings and wrongdoing and the fear of יהוה is linked as being identical with love and service for Him:

Deḇarim/Deuteronomy 10:12-13 “And now, Yisra’ĕl, what is יהוה your Elohim asking of you, but to fear יהוה your Elohim, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, and to serve יהוה your Elohim with all your heart and with all your being, 13 to guard the commands of יהוה and His laws which I command you today for your good?”

Deḇarim/Deuteronomy 6:13 “Fear יהוה your Elohim and serve Him, and swear by His Name.”

The difference between fearing men or fearing Elohim is that we take heed what Elohim tells us and not be threatened by what man tries to burden us with:

Yeshayahu/Isaiah 8:12-13 “Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’ concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. 13 “יהוה of hosts, Him you shall set apart. Let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.”

People today are far too concerned with what others have to say and what the next conspiracy theory is etc. and base their life’s decisions on carefully heeding man’s warnings and instructions – where this verse spells it out – don’t fret about what people say – let יהוה of Hosts be your fear and your dread – listen carefully to Him!!!

Fearing יהוה is practical wisdom which in turn produces blessings in life:

Deḇarim/Deuteronomy 6:2 “so that you fear יהוה your Elohim, to guard all His laws and His commands which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days be prolonged.”

In order to do that we are to drink of Him, coming to the Living Waters of life, nourished by that which gives us life through the washing of the Word:

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 14:27 “The fear of יהוה is a fountain of life, to turn away from the snares of death.”

All who are thirsty come! It is when we see and recognise that He is our help and we express great gratitude in praise and thanksgiving for help and danger that we are naturally led to the fear of יהוה.

Shemoth/Exodus 14:31 “And Yisra’ĕl saw the great work which יהוה had done in Mitsrayim, and the people feared יהוה, and believed יהוה and His servant Mosheh.”

So when we ask if we see whether people fear יהוה or not, we can see it in their actions – is their faith dead or alive and active!

In Yirmeyahu we see some stern words given to a rebellious people:

Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 5:20-25 “Declare this in the house of Yaʽaqoḇ and proclaim it in Yehuḏah, saying, 21 ‘Hear this now, O foolish people without heart, who have eyes and see not, and who have ears and hear not: 22 ‘Do you not fear Me?’ declares יהוה. ‘Do you not tremble at My presence, who have placed the sand as the boundary of the sea, by an everlasting law, and it does not pass over it? Though its waves toss to and fro, they are not able; though they roar, they do not pass over it. 23 ‘But this people has a backsliding and rebellious heart, they have turned aside and gone away. 24 ‘And they do not say in their heart, “Let us now fear יהוה our Elohim, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season. He guards for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.” 25 ‘Your crookednesses have turned these away, and your sins have kept the good from you.”

Disobedience is a sure sign of a lack of fear and reverence. Fearing Him is an active daily duty that we are to do gladly because of all He has done for us.

Tehillim/Psalm 2:11 “Serve יהוה with fear, and rejoice with trembling.”

Serve and rejoice – this is how we work out our deliverance before His face – with fear and trembling!!!

Pilipiyim/Philippians 2:12-13 “So that, my beloved, as you always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much rather in my absence – work out your own deliverance with fear and trembling, 13 for it is Elohim who is working in you both to desire and to work for His good pleasure.”

Tehillim/Psalm 119:120 “My flesh has trembled for fear of You, and I am in awe of Your right-rulings.”

Is His Fear in you? We spoke last week about causing His face to shine upon us and give us favour and that loving-commitment and truth are always before His face.

Hoshěa/Hosea 5:4 “Their deeds do not allow them to turn back to their Elohim, for the spirit of whorings is among them, and they do not know יהוה.”

What spirit is upon you – one of whorings that is disarming your ability to turn back to Elohim and fear Him in loving obedience or is His Spirit – His breath and character upon you and in you? Are His instructions in you – which He has given you for your good? When you want to know if you are ‘fearing’ Elohim then ask yourself these questions!

We are to work out – and it is an enduring ‘work out’ – our deliverance/salvation with both fear and trembling. Drink of the Living Water – eat of His instructions and let that which is in you, by His spirit guide you as Messiah declares to us in Yoḥanan/John 7:39 “As the Scripture said, out of His innermost shall flow rivers of living water.”

Just as from His innermost Living water has been given to us – let that flow out from within you as you fear יהוה by simply obeying His commands!

We are receiving an unshakeable reign, and we ought to live according to that reign right now – fearing Him through service and trembling at His very Word that keeps us on the straight path of righteousness.

Iḇ’rim/Hebrews 12:28-29 “Therefore, receiving an unshakeable reign, let us hold the favour, through which we serve Elohim pleasingly with reverence and awe, 29 for indeed, our Elohim is a consuming fire.”

I know that we have been through a lot of Scriptures and information into root words and I encourage you to meditate on these matters that we be a people who fear Elohim, aměn!

In closing I would like to read you a poem I found:

If I have no fear of Elohim

א If I think that I must be first in all things, then I have no fear of Elohim.

ב If I think that everyone should be blessing me, then I have no fear of Elohim.

ג If I think that everyone should be kind to me, but not me to them, then I have no fear of Elohim.

ד If I mistreat fellow believers, then I have no fear of Elohim.

ה If I verbally abuse others, then I have no fear of Elohim.

ו If I look down upon others, then I have no fear of Elohim.

ז If I think myself to be better than others, then I have no fear of Elohim.

ח If I act one way before men and act shamefully towards my family, then I have no fear of Elohim.

ט If I physically abuse my family, then I have no fear of Elohim.

י If I try to manipulate others into doing things for me, then I have no fear of Elohim.

כ If my heart is filled with pride for any reason, then I have no fear of Elohim.

ל If my views are more important than others, then I have no fear of Elohim.

מ If I am always right and you are always wrong, then I have no fear of Elohim.

נ If I spread gossip about anyone, then I have no fear of Elohim.

ס If I talk badly about someone behind their back, then I have no fear of Elohim.

ע If I try to elevate myself by bringing others down, then I have no fear of Elohim.

פ If my thoughts are all about me, then I have no fear of Elohim.

צ If I wonder how others should be serving me, then I have no fear of Elohim.

ק If I wonder how come others are not serving me, then I have no fear of Elohim.

ר If I think that others owe something to me, then I have no fear of Elohim.

ש If I talk more than I listen, then I have no fear of Elohim.

ת If I think that if those in the world were more like me, then I have no fear of Elohim.

THOSE FEARING ELOHIM – LISTEN… (HEAR – GUARD –DO)

Shalom….

{jcomments on}

Tehillim/Psalm 34:8 “Oh, taste and see that יהוה is good; blessed is the man that takes refuge in Him!”

Have you been eating your lawful bread? Have you been looking intently into the mirror of His Word? Taste and see how good He is – we are blessed in taking refuge in Him! In a world which places emphasis on success being gained by being ruthless, conniving, and deceitful, with a win at all costs and the ends-justify-the means mentality, it is often hard to stay afloat as we who follow the Word will typically go against this corrupted standard of promotion and temporary success. Without יהוה as our Refuge we would never be able to survive the onslaught of the world’s ways pressing down on us to be conformed to its standards of corruption and sin. But praise be unto יהוה, our Elohim, who is our refuge and strength, our help in times of distress and our Deliverer, aměn!  We simply have a choice – choose יהוה, or choose the world – and as we know our choices have consequences. In a message tonight where I would like us to be strengthened in our Refuge, יהוה of Hosts, I would also like us to be warned against the temptations of following after the world’s ways to which there will be devastating consequences and to do this we will look at the book of Naḥum as we overview the vision he saw and the message he gave to a backslidden city. In a message tonight called, “Ninewěh Revisited”, please turn with me to the book of Naḥum the prophet. (Read).

Such a power packed book that carries great significance and lessons for us today in terms of what lies ahead with the pressing urgency to ensure that we place our Trust in The Name that Saves, taking refuge in Him, or else we will face the consequences of His wrath.

The setting for this vision is as follows:

Ninewěh was the capital of the once Assyrian Empire and this message of Naḥum to Ninewěh came at least 100 years after Yonah had delivered his ‘turn or burn’ message of repentance where the entire city repented and turned to follow יהוה. So Naḥum was sent back as a prophet to Ninewěh after the initial repentance wore off in as little as 100 years or so – that is how quick a nation can fall back into lies and hypocrisy – it just takes one generation! Now think how vital and alive this message is today that we, as His remnant, must declare to a people who have been under lies for many centuries!

The location of ancient Ninewěh was situated in current day Northern Iraq, east of the Tigris, and remnants of this ancient city can be found in modern day Mosul. It was one of the most populated cities of ancient times with fertile lands that were good for both agriculture and pasturing of animals. The ruins of the palace of King Sennacherib were found in 1847, and according to various resources, it was regarded as the main city of the worship of Ishtar as far back as 1800 B.C.E! ‘Easter’ was been worshipped at least 1800 years before Messiah came to give His live as a ransom!

Ninewěh means “house of Ninus” who according to historical writings founded Ninewěh and his wife was Semiramis (Ishtar). Ninus is none other than Nimrod and so Ninewěh means ‘house of Nimrod’, who built the tower of Baḇel and after which we can clearly see the context of the corrupted system of worship of Baḇel that can be attributed to this wicked man who, as an agent of our adversary, has too tried to build a house for himself.

Naḥum means ‘comfort’ and comes from the root word ‘naḥam’ which means ‘to sigh or breath strongly, and by implication to be sorry, console, comfort or avenge’. This message was a comforting one to some while a vengeful breath of wrath to others.

The entire theme of this message given by Naḥum is basically this: “The fall of Ninewěh”, or better put for us today – the fall of the House of Nimrod and as we see the picture or foreshadow of things to come of what was decreed in this message and also accomplished in part as a direct foreshadow of the fall of Baḇel which we read of as being declared by the messenger in Ḥazon/Revelation 18:2: “Baḇel the great is fallen”. And the reason for my message called, “Ninewěh Revisited” is exactly what is coming. Here is a city that was as corrupt and violent as can be, and repented after a reluctant Yonah did what he was told, only to find that 100 years later they had gone back to being a wicked nation.

יהוה had certainly used the Assyrian Empire to discipline Yehuḏah, yet Assyria took it one step further and ravaged them and grew wicked against them to which יהוה came to pronounce great judgement and wrath upon them.

I find a great picture being given us here between the message of Yonah and this message given by Naḥum, picturing for us the 2 comings of Messiah! Why do I say that – well Yonah for me is a picture of Messiah’s 1^st coming to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins – Yonah means ‘dove’ and when יהושע was immersed Yoḥanan said he saw the Spirit coming down from heaven like a dove and remain on יהושע. We know He came first as a suffering servant and now with His second coming He is coming as a conquering King who will execute wrath upon His enemies from which a double edged sword will come from His mouth, and the oracle or message of Nahum declares just that; while in the midst of it all there is a promise of protection to those who take refuge in יהוה.

The message of Naḥum is one of comfort and console to a set-apart called out people, while to a rebellious and stiff-necked people it is one of great destruction and despair for which no one is able to stand before the rage of יהוה!

In these 3 short chapters we see in essence a 3-fold message being given to a corrupt and unrepentant people who had caused the Torah to cease and grew more wicked and perverse than before.

In Chapter 1 we see DOOM DECLARED, in Chapter 2 we see the DOOM DESCRIBED and in Chapter 3 we see DOOM is DESERVED! Doom declared, described and deserved – a summed up message of the righteousness and justice that are the foundations of the Throne of יהוה. יהוה does not just do things unannounced as He reveals it through His prophets – He had declared, described and given reasons why!

In a nutshell – you receive, accept and continue to be steadfast in living in the first message of His coming that will protect you at His second, or else. He came so that we could be saved from destruction and He came to remove the veil from our eyes that the House of Nimrod, through its twisted teachings, has cleverly weaved over so many and those who refuse to repent and have the veil removed and see the Truth and walk clearly in it have the imminent and real threat of these words of wrath.

Yoḥanan/John 3:17-18 “For Elohim did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not judged, but he who does not believe is judged already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only brought-forth Son of Elohim.”

Yoḥanan/John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son possesses everlasting life, but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of Elohim remains on him.”

Here we see once again belief and obedience go hand in hand – the disobedient will not see life but rather the wrath of Elohim remains on Him! He who does not ‘obey’ shall not see life and wrath remains of him! Sadly so many miss that critical point of obedience!

Let us briefly run through some key points in these 3 chapters:

CHAPTER 1 – DOOM DECLARED

In verse 2 there is no beating around the bush – straight up we are reminded that יהוה is a jealous Ěl; He is a revenging Ěl and a possessor of wrath who will take vengeance on His enemies. Straight up we see Naḥum announcing the character of יהוה and His unrivalled power. All too often the twisted teaching of the House of Nimrod, portrays Elohim as this meek and mild father who will not really punish – and that is a lie that even form the 1^st century a man named Marcion began to teach that the Elohim of the so-called ‘O.T.’ was not the real Elohim as He was too cruel and he rejected the Hebrew Scriptures and יהוה as Elohim and believed that the wrathful Hebrew Elohim was a separate and lower entity than the all-forgiving Elohim of the N.T. Sadly the root of this erroneous teaching has produced so much wicked fruit that we see almost 2000 years later being widely accepted at large by those who have rejected the necessity and validity of the Torah as being applicable today! And those who fall into this trap need to heed the words of a jealous and consuming Ěl.

Praise יהוה that He is patient – for if He was not where would any of us be today? He is great in power – but He does not leave unpunished!!! If He did then why would He come and die for us – there would be no need! Oh, but He does not leave unpunished – the difference is simply this – we who call upon Him and continue to stay in Him escape His punishment of death for He Himself took our punishment – punishment was not set aside completely – He took it upon Himself and all who do not believe and obey will certainly receive the right and just punishment! He turned aside our judgement by taking the punishment for us who call upon Him and take Refuge in Him. There is only One Elohim and He does not change or lie – so Marcion’s pitiful theories are lies, lies that still cause so many to stumble today as they grope around in the dark, ignorant of the Truth veiled through deceit and lies taught by a wicked house of Nimrod!

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 30:5-6 “Every Word of Eloah is tried; He is a shield to those taking refuge in Him. 6 Do not add to His Words, Lest He reprove you, and you be found a liar.”

Sha’ul tells us in his introduction to his 2^nd letter to Timotiyos that Elohim does not lie and Shemuʼĕl  said to king Sha’ul when he tore the garment of Shemuʼĕl that the reign of Yisra’ĕl had been torn form Him by יהוה, who does not lie. He does not change:

Mal’aḵi/Malachi 3:6 “For I am יהוה, I shall not change, and you, O sons of Yaʽaqoḇ, shall not come to an end.”

This is a wonderful verse – because יהוה does not change we have a secure hope and future. Think about it – if He did change we would be in a spot of bother for this verse tells us clearly that because He does not change, the sons of Ya’aqoḇ – that is the Tribes of Yisra’ĕl – that is you and we as we have been grafted in – shall not come to an end – we have a promised and sure hope of eternal life – because His Word is sure and does not change!!!

Ya’aqoḇ/James (1:17) quotes a portion of this verse declaring that every good and perfect gift come from above from the Father of lights who does not change!

יהוה does not fail to accomplish what He has declared! Some may understand it as slowness, yet it is His favour, desiring that all repent and turn form their wickedness:

Kěpha Bet/2 Peter 3:9 “יהוה is not slow in regard to the promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward us, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

His fierceness and anger is described here in chapter 1 and even the best and most flourishing places will wither and languish – Bashan and Karmel are the most fruitful places in Yisra’ĕl and Leḇanon was known for its huge trees yet had now withered and when יהוה speaks in rage who can stand or rise on the heat of His displeasure? The answer is simply – no one! Amidst this declaration of doom, wrath and fire we are comforted by the Truth that יהוה is good and a refuge to all who call upon His Name and those who call upon His Name and find their refuge in Him and walk in His ways are safe for they turn away from unrighteousness; for which there is great punishment coming upon those who persist in unrighteousness, which is lawlessness!

Timotiyos Bet/2 Timothy 2:19 “However, the solid foundation of Elohim stands firm, having this seal, “יהוה knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the Name of Messiah turn away from unrighteous-ness.”

We all here name the Name of Messiah – have you turned away from unrighteousness – for if not you have taken His Name in vain!

He declared that Ninewěh would be destroyed and flooded and the counselor of Beliya’al will be cut off and the name of the wicked house of Nimrod will no longer be sown and Yehuḏah would once again keep the Sabbaths and Feasts of יהוה and able to perform their vows of obedience unhindered. This we have in Messiah who has cut off the name of Ba’al from us – and this we are to proclaim, aměn!

CHAPTER 2 – DOOM DESCRIBED

In verses 1-7 we see how the siege and capture is described and the furious preparation for battle that takes place and how resistance to the coming onslaught is futile! יהוה would turn back the splendour of Ya’aqoḇ, which is not a wonderful thought, because due to sin and lawlessness and ruin bringing about a great emptiness through worthlessness the splendour would be turned back from a people who were to be robed in His splendour. We do know that for those who take refuge in Him has the assurance that He will fill us once again – He will fill us who have been emptied of Truth by the emptiers! The emptiers have emptied and ruined the vine branches!

In Yoḥanan/John 15 יהושע tells us that He is the Vine and we are the branches and we who do not bear fruit are cut off and thrown into the fire. The branches here in verse 2 of this second chapter of Naḥum describes how the enemy has ruined the branches to a point of being empty and unable to bear fruit – leaving them as prey for destruction and fire.

The house of Nimrod and the counsellors of Beliya’al – that is the House of Nimrod’s false teachers and preachers are emptying and ruining many branches through their twisted prosperity and false grace messages as they are simply draining so many from the True sap of the Vine and cause ruin and destruction to set in. For those who take refuge in יהושע, The True Vine, will have His splendour restored but those who fall prey to worthless teachings will have the splendour of Ya’aqoḇ turned back! Beliya’al means ‘worthlessness’ and so those who have been emptied out of the Truth by the worthlessness of a Baḇel system of falsified worship will have the splendour removed, but we who call upon and take refuge in Him will be filled and splendour restored.

יהוה is against the wickedness and empty vain teachings and all those who follow after it and He will cut off the voice of worthlessness.

CHAPTER 3 – DOOM DESERVED

The very stern woe given in verse 1 is due to sin. The wrath of יהוה and His declared Doom upon His enemies is not without just cause.

Mattithyahu/Matthew 12:30 “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”

We are either with Him or against Him and to be with Him means we agree and walk in Him and His ways, any other way contrary to His Truth is simply against Him and is one who scatters and does not gather. Those who are against Him will be put to shame and exposed before all and all of the worthless teachings that were held so fast onto will be revealed for its fruitlessness and it shall be declared, “Ninewěh is laid waste”, with no one to mourn for her and more specifically no one to comfort and would be destroyed just as No-Amon in Mitsrayim was destroyed.

Amon means ‘to nourish or be faithful’ and ‘No’ means’ disrupting – No-Amon was the ancient capital of upper Mitsrayim, built as a center of worship to Thebes their pagan deity, which fell to the Assyrian onslaught and were unable to stand. Ninewěh were no better than No-Amon – a city who simply disrupts the ability to flourish and be fruitful through worthlessness and idolatry! And they shall be laid waste! It is declared here that all the wealth and strength would not be able to save Ninewěh from that which was declared! The House of Nimrod would be destroyed and the peoples rejoice at her destruction! The Assyrian Empire was destroyed by the Babylonian Empire and in fact Ninewěh was not only destroyed but flooded and laid waste, so much so that for centuries many walked and passed over land that had covered her without realizing it as ruins of Ninewěh were first discovered in 1847. The Assyrians had done wrong to so many people that when she was destroyed people ‘high fived’ each other and rejoiced.

In Ḥazon/Revelation 18 as I mentioned earlier we see again the similar language of destruction being decreed, yet we see that the fall of Baḇel will be mourned!

Baḇel would not directly conquer and displace peoples like the Assyrians did; she would allow other nations to surrender, then make up with those they had conquered by respecting their finest men and giving them high positions in the Baḇel government, treating them very well and making them wealthy, which is one reason most Yehuḏim did not return from there when they were permitted. Baḇel would wound then heal, like a counterfeit shepherd, making it indispensable to everyone, and this we are to be warned against as we call out for many to “Come out of her!”

Sadly the reality is that instead of rejoicing her downfall, many will mourn and I believe that there is a lesson here for us – we who have come out must not look back and mourn and so in some subtle ways try to hold on to past theologies and try to justify them as well meaning and partially correct – partially correct is still wrong – we must rebuke Baḇel as we see in Hoshěa/Hosea and not mourn the loss of her influence – but rejoice and be glad that we take refuge in יהוה and that He repays!

Tehillim/Psalm 137:8 “O daughter of Baḇel, who are to be destroyed, blessed is He who repays you your deed, what you did to us!”

What we can take from this powerful message of Naḥum is that we are to understand the sovereignty of יהוה, understand His goodness, favour and the hope we have in Him; and this we do as we walk in His Word for understanding comes in the doing and we “do” that which we hear and guard, aměn!

We must be careful to not be stiff-necked in any way and not be closed to correction as this stubbornness will only lead to destruction:

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 29:1 “One often reproved, hardening his neck, Is suddenly broken, and there is no healing.”

How often have you been reproved yet continue to harden your neck and refuse to bow in humble obedience? Be warned by this book that destruction is coming swift upon those who forsake His Torah and are busy building in vain the House of Nimrod that will fall when the storm of יהוה’s wrath upon the wicked comes.

Sha’ul summarizes it all for us in this statement:

Romiyim/Romans 11:22 “See then the kindness and sharpness of Elohim: on those who fell sharpness, but toward you kindness, if you continue in His kindness, otherwise you also shall be cut off.”

This he said in speaking of us who are wild branches that were grafted in and how the natural branches were cut off due to unbelief and worthlessness – It is His Kindness that leads us to repentance and we must continue in His kindness to remain in the Vine and bear much fruit of righteousness, which is to guard to do His commands, and allow the words of Naḥum be a comfort to us who take refuge in יהוה, as opposed to the sound of righteous judgement of wrath upon the lawless!

This is a message that is very much alive today – one we must declare and in so doing we too must be sure that we have come out of the House of Nimrod and all her worthless teachings as teachings the commands of men, only to be found clinging to the Torah and being steadfast to remain in Him; for keeping the Torah is the refuge in which we will hide under the shadow of His wings, as we walk in His Torah out of a loving obedience with great joy and great delight, ready to confidently call many out of the soon to be destroyed house of the enemy into the House of the Living Elohim of which יהושע is our King, our Redeemer, our Wonderful Counsellor,  our Strong Ěl, our Father of Continuity and our Prince of Peace!

Ninewěh revisited – יהושע is coming again in vengeance for His set-apart Bride – many who have heard the 1^st message and repented have not stayed in the kindness of Elohim and so strayed and will be revisited. Perhaps you too have found yourself having slipped into worthlessness and deceit under the influence of the teachings and ways of the House of Nimrod – then may this Word tonight revisit you where you are at and set your feet back upon the straight and narrow path of obedience in Messiah – the Living Word that when He revisits Ninewěh you will be found in Him as a refuge and shelter from the storm. This is the comfort and assurance we have in Him and we have to bring this message of Ninewěh to an ignorant people who are being emptied by the emptiers and headed for destruction, while there is still the time of the kindness and patience of יהוה.

Ninewěh Revisited – where will you be found – be found in Him who is our Refuge, aměn!

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. 

{jcomments on}

How is everyone holding up as the world gets even crazier at this time of year? May we be continually strengthened together in the Word and cling to His Word with our all, despite the ridiculous blasphemous rituals that are being rehearsed by the blind, ignorant and stiff-necked masses that are at large totally unaware of the pagan roots of the so called “festive season”.

Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 10:2 “Thus said יהוה, “Do not learn the way of the nations, and do not be awed by the signs in the heavens, for the nations are awed by them.”

Deḇarim/Deuteronomy 12:32 “guard yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire about their mighty ones, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their mighty ones? And let me do so too.”

These are two of several Scriptures that warns us not to seek after, learn and adopt any form of worship that the other nations do and try to apply it to worshipping יהוה – He clearly tells us that it is abominable and not acceptable as worship – He has clearly laid out for us how we are to worship Him as we follow His Word and not add or take away from it. Sadly what we see and know for sure is that these and many other Scriptures have not been obeyed by most today as the majority of professing believers are in fact worshipping or rather attempting to worship יהוה in a way that is contrary to His Word and has been ensnared to vainly serve Him the way the nations have served their false mighty ones for millennia. Do not worship Him the way the nations worship! This so called ‘festive season’ is nothing but a deadly gangrene that can and will kill all who submit to its form. In Yoḥanan/John 6 יהושע mentions 6 times the need for us to eat of His Flesh and drink of His Blood – for anyone who does not cannot have any part in Him – in other words if you do not eat of His flesh and drink of His Blood you cannot be a part of His body. It is by His Blood that we are brought near and grafted in to His Covenants of Promise and as we eat of His flesh we ‘stay in Him’. Just think about this profound statement that many of the believers at His time here could not accept and stopped following for this teaching was too hard. What is His flesh? It is the Word – The Word became flesh! That is what we are to eat!!! We are to eat our ‘lawful bread’ daily. So many in the world today who claim to be believers yet forsake the commands are in fact not eating of His Flesh and therefore can have not part in His body! The majority of Christianity today wants the Blood of Messiah and they plead it with great fervency while rejecting His flesh and the eating thereof – they put aside the Word of יהוה as ‘Old Testament’ and how they are no longer under it – listen, unless you eat His flesh – that is to eat on, chew upon and meditate upon the Torah and Prophets and writings – the Tanak – which certainly has nothing ‘Old’ and outdated about it as it is very much alive for us still today as we learn to walk in His ways, guard His commands and keep His Feasts and His Sabbaths – and drink His blood – that is to receive by faith the work of His death and resurrection, which we proclaim at the Feast of Pěsaḥ/Passover – unless you do these you have no part in Him and cannot have His Name upon your forehead or Hand. And if that be the case whose name is on those who do not have the Father’s Name! They that have no part in Him take on the very mark of the beast – and this we must guard against and warn others from! Attempting to worship the True Creator, יהוה of Hosts, in any other manner than that which has been written down for us in the Living Word is nothing more than abominable worship before His eyes which He does not ‘wink at’! But is rather calling everyone everywhere to repent!

It is with urgency that we recognise the depravity of such falsely claimed worship and guard against the temptation to engage in it in any form or manner, no matter who we may offend for standing firm in His Word! The enemy has a way of trying to make and cause the true righteous set-apart ones feel guilty for simply refusing to bow to the twisted rooted forms of abominable worship – and let us be reminded together that we will not fall prey to such nonsense, but rather with great joy and delight worship our Elohim, יהוה of Hosts, as He has commanded!

At a time when the world almost ‘slows down a gear’ so to speak and almost everyone gets into the ‘holiday mode’ may we be reminded that it is in fact ‘business as usual’ – our fervent worship and obedience must not be found to be lacking and fall into the trap of ‘slowing down a gear’ too. We must continually be on our guard and in a message tonight called, “Beware of the spinning webs and hatching eggs” I would like us to look at Yeshayahu/Isaiah 59 and also touch on Ḥazon/Revelation 14 – please turn with me to Yeshayahu/Isaiah 59 (read).

From verse 5 you can see where the message title comes from and the call to beware of these entangling webs and poisonous eggs is very real!

Yeshayahu 58 tells us of Yisra’ĕl’s sin/Lawlessness as they fasted in the wrong way with wrong motives and neglected to walk in obedience primarily by not observing the Sabbath correctly, and were in a sorry state which we find pretty similar today. Many feel that they fast and pray to no avail and even question the existence of Elohim as they don’t get things their way and here in chapter 59 Yeshayahu makes it very clear that the hand of יהוה has not become too short to save – nor His ear too heavy to hear! In other words what he was saying back then and still to us today is this – יהוה is within reach! The problem was their crookedness and sins that had separated them from Elohim and caused His face to be hidden and His ears to be shut! Crooked paths cause one to not be able to see straight ahead and if there is any crookedness in our lives we will not clearly see Him as He is and be able to fully walk in Him.

We regularly speak and proclaim what is typically called the priestly blessing that He declared how His Name is put upon the children of Yisra’ĕl, and so sin/lawlessness hides His face from us then it goes to show clearly that when we ask Him to cause His face to shine upon us and lift up His face toward us for favour and His shalom then we had better be walking in and guarding His commands, for that will be righteousness for us (Deḇarim/Deuteronomy 6:25).

In Ḥazon/Revelation 14 in speaking of the 144000 who had the Name of the father upon their heads – that is יהוה – were described as having ‘no falsehood in their mouth and were blameless before the throne of Elohim’. Last week we looked at Tsephanyah/Zephaniah 3 and in verse 13 we are again told that the remnant of Yisra’ĕl shall do no unrighteousness and speak no falsehood! A total opposite of what is being declared to Yisra’ĕl at large here in Yeshayahu/Isaiah 59:3 – whose lips had spoken falsehood. This was a sad state of affairs and we see the same today as verse 4 says that no one calls for righteousness and no one pleads for truth as they trust in emptiness and speak worthlessness. Trust and the words we speak – so vitally important!!!

The unrighteous call not for righteousness or truth as they place their trust in that which is absolutely nothing – be it their wealth, their relationships, their talents or even their theologies of man – all emptiness as there in only One in whom we are to trust and here are a couple of verses on trust:

Tehillim/Psalm 9:10 “And those who know Your Name trust in You, For You have not forsaken those who seek You, O יהוה.”

Praise יהוה that we know His Name! We know the One we trust and are secure, bold and confident in Him!

Tehillim/Psalm 31:6 “I have hated those who observe lying vanities; But I trust in יהוה.”

Listen to Dawiḏ here – he hated those who observe ‘lying vanities’ – those who observe empty and vain lies of erroneous traditions’ he hated but put His trust in יהוה. Now I am not saying go and hate everyone who is ridiculously keeping Christmas, but shine the light of His love through uncompromised obedience to the Truth while forsaking ‘lying vanities’.

Tehillim/Psalm 40:4 “Blessed is that man who has made יהוה his trust, and has not turned to the proud, and those turning aside to falsehood.”

Have nothing to do with the deeds of darkness, walk in the Light as children of the Light!

Tehillim/Psalm 125:1 “Those who trust in יהוה Are like Mount Tsiyon – It is not shaken, it remains forever.”

Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 17:7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in יהוה, and whose trust is יהוה.”

Trusting in emptiness will only lead to worthless speech as it will not be backed up with the Truth! Sha’ul tells us in Qolasim/Colossians that our words must be seasoned with salt so that we know how to answer anyone. Wayyiqra/Leviticus 2:13 tells us that with every offering bring salt and יהושע tells us in Marqos/Mark 9 that every offering shall be seasoned with salt. We are also told to continually offer up to Him a slaughter offering of praise with our lips – and that is done when our speech is not worthless but seasoned with salt, speaking only that which is pure and clean. Worthless talk conceives trouble and brings forth wickedness! Have you ever found yourself in trouble because of those stupid and worthless words you spoke? We must be slow to speak and quick to listen, as most of us tend to easily say things we shouldn’t because we never seasoned it with salt that would make it acceptable as praise unto Elohim.

Timotiyos Bet/2 Timothy 2:16-17 “But keep away from profane, empty babblings, for they go on to more wickedness, 17 and their word shall eat its way like gangrene. Humenaios and Philetos are of this sort.”

So many loose and worthless words flying around out there today – hence all the trouble and wickedness!

Verse 5 clearly speaks the crux of the matter that we see today – spider’s webs and snake eggs! Those who are supposed to be calling for righteousness and pleading for truth have instead hatched adder’s eggs and weaved spider’s webs. We have to be very careful to stay out of the spider’s web of deception. I have been very disgusted this past week or so as I have come across and encountered so many vain stories that are spun regarding Christmas. I am sure you have heard things like, “We know it wasn’t when Messiah was born, but we can celebrate His birth anytime!” or, “It doesn’t matter what Christmas meant to pagans long ago… it doesn’t mean that for us today!” It gets worse – these and many more words are from pastors of churches – the ones who ought to be calling for righteousness and pleading for Truth – but they aren’t because they too have trusted in emptiness and speak worthlessness – all that they do is hatch poisonous eggs that are biting so many with twisted theologies and whoever east their rotten eggs … dies! We are to have our lawful bread daily – sadly too many are eating the snake eggs of deception and lies and many will die as a result – if they do not repent and come out. Verse 6 carries on and tells us that the webs they weave do not become garments, nor are they covered by their works for their works are works of wickedness – pretty tough words but so true for so many.

A spider’s web or silk cannot be made into garments – the fine linen of the set-apart ones cannot be made out of spider’s web. The spin that the wicked teachers put on the Truth may cause many to feel like a superhero and think they look supercool with spandex type Spiderman’s costumes – but sadly that is all it is – a costume in a life of falsehood where they are blindly taught that they are not the villain – when on the contrary it is the villain who has designed their clothing! And so in the eyes of יהושע they are not clothed with righteousness but are simply poor, blind and naked – stern words that were spoken to a lukewarm Laodikeia! Those who want to dress up in the spider’s web of deceptive teachings must know that they will simply be vomited out – for in His eyes they are not clothed in Him but are laid bare and naked before Him and their attempt at works will not cover them!

We are known by our fruits, by the very fruit of our work and many who are working tirelessly out of the spiders web will be shown up as fruitless:

Mattithyahu/Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Master, Master,’ shall enter into the reign of the heavens, but he who is doing the desire of My Father in the heavens. 22 “Many shall say to Me in that day, ‘Master, Master, have we not prophesied in Your Name, and cast out demons in Your Name, and done many mighty works in Your Name?’ 23 “And then I shall declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from Me, you who work lawlessness!’”

Ya’aqoḇ/James tells us  that we must show our belief by our works – good works prepared in advance for us – that is to walk in righteousness – walk in obedience. The enemy casting the spider’s web has caused so many to be so busy with what they feel is ‘good works’ yet sadly will have no effect in being a covering of righteousness, and those not covered are destroyed! I have heard this week of a pastor admitting Christmas is wrong and even mention its roots to their congregation, yet then turn it around and use the very symbol of Nimrod and say this, “Oh but we see a different tree…!” and then try to mirror our Saviour against the backdrop of Nimrod – that is blasphemy – blasphemy that has so many caught in the web of lies.

The words of Yeshayahu are so alive for us today – they have no right-ruling in their midst – how true of the spider and egg theology we see so rampant today in Christianity – no right ruling and crooked paths – why? Because they have declared that the Tanak is ‘Old’ and of no importance! Truth has fallen in the street and is unable to enter into their congregations as right-ruling has been turned into wormwood as they cast righteousness down to the earth.

Verse 15 says that Truth is lacking and whoever turns away from evil makes himself a prey – how true is that for us today – once we turn away from Babylon and its sticky web of man’s institutionalised religion we become targets for the enemy – a daunting fact that sadly causes so many to refuse to leave and rather compromise for the sake of a falsely promised peace – yet we who trust in יהוה remain steadfast, aměn!

Yeshayahu said that יהוה was astonished that there was no intercessor – for we have all sinned and fallen short – and so His own Arm saved for Him – and so He sent us our covering – in the blood of יהושע Messiah, who will repay all according to their deeds and all will fear the Name of יהוה when the distress comes like a flood – this is clearly speaking of when His wrath is poured out. Having said that please turn with me to Ḥazon/Revelation 14 (Read).

Without spending too much time that we do not have tonight on this entire chapter – I want us to focus on verses 6-12 in light of what we have read in Yeshayahu/Isaiah 59.

3 Messengers giving 3 messages – 3 messages that ought to be proclaimed today in light of the terrible spider’s webs that are being spun and snake eggs that are being hatched!

Verse 7 – Message 1 – Fear Elohim – He is the Creator of all – there is none else!

Verse 8 – Message 2 – Baḇel is fallen! Don not follow its ways and come out!

Verse 9 – Message 3 – Worship the beast and you will be punished!

In essence the message is clear – we are to fear Elohim:

Tehillim/Psalm 14:26 “In the fear of יהוה is strong trust, and His children have a place of refuge.”

We are to then proclaim that the system of man-made traditions and ways of worship and the spider web of “teaching as teachings the commands of men” is fallen – it is a deadly poison that is of no good. It is time for us to tell those still caught in the web of falsehood that it is a fallen system and they must come out of her! Thirdly we are to warn those who refuse to come out – warn those who take up the mark of the Beast through profaning the Sabbath and other Feasts of יהוה. We are to warn those who continue to replace the Truth with the beast’s feasts – that they will drink of the cup of the wrath of יהוה if they refuse to come out!

This calls for faithful endurance as verse 12 tells us – faithful endurance of the set-apart ones – those who guard the commands of Elohim and the belief of יהושע! Faithful endurance to guard His commands and not worship Him according to the way of the nations – you may even be hated for righteousness sake, but stand firm!

Why am I sharing these passages with you? Well to encourage and warn you to “stay out of the Spider’s Web” that we have all been loosened from through the revelation of the Truth and by the Blood of יהושע.

Sin enters the heart as we get bitten by the fangs of lawlessness, when we allow Satan to plant evil thoughts in our minds – those ‘snake eggs of sin’, which if not cast down immediately will cause an adder to hatch and be very deadly vipers of sin.

Yisra’ĕl was proclaiming worship with their lips only while their hearts were far from Elohim, and as a result they were mere incubators for snake eggs that gets laid into hearts caught in the deceptive spider’s web which cannot cloth or cover! Our works reveal our heart – is the Torah of יהוה on our heart, or has there been deposited some snake eggs of unrighteousness? When a heart is far from יהוה speech becomes like a spiting spider web that spins out lies and justification for lawlessness, and the caution for us here is to be alert and beware the spinning webs and hatching eggs that surround us daily and be steadfast not to be caught up through some stupid compromise!

This is a call to stop trying to be a ‘Spiderman’ who is simply all dressed in lies that actually cannot cover you – walk in righteousness, clothed in Messiah with the garments of fine linen that we can shine our light before men so that they ‘see’ our ‘good works’ and praise יהוה.

For many of you – you may be facing the daunting fangs of some of the spider eggs that have been broken by those who are caught up in and are too weaving vain spiders web of deceit – some of those may even be family members who have made you a prey for walking away from the Babylon system of worship – stand firm and be steadfast as you hear these words of our True and Mighty Elohim to us who are in His covenant as a faithful bride:

“…My Spirit that is upon you, and My words that I have put in your mouth, shall not be withdrawn from your mouth…” (59:21)

Now let our speech be continually seasoned with salt and declare His praises to the One who has called us out of darkness into His marvellous light!

As we have His Name declared over us and put upon us – let us be careful to guard ourselves from the destructive lies of corrupted worship and live like those who have the Father’s Name upon us – with no falsehood on our lips and every word seasoned with salt – living free from the webs and eggs of wickedness and destruction!

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.

{jcomments on}

Qorintiyim Aleph/1 Corinthians 9:24-25 “Do you not know that those who run in a race indeed all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to obtain it. 25 And everyone who competes controls himself in every way. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we for an incorruptible crown.”

Running to receive the prize – giving your all that requires discipline and complete control – how is your spiritual race going at the moment? As we all know – to be a top athlete today requires total commitment and dedication – hours and hours a day of high pressured training and strict regimes in preparation and hope for an event that may only last seconds to obtain gold, and any substitution in the preparation for the ultimate prize may hinder their success! Now Sha’ul tells us that we are to run in this way – spiritually that is – giving our all for the true prize that does not perish. In other words, in our pursuit for excellence in seeking after and running the race set before us with perseverance, we are told in Iḇ’rim/Hebrews 12:1 to lay aside every weight and sin in order to give our best unto יהוה.

In a message tonight called. “No Substitutes – Give Your Best!” may we all be once again be encouraged to keep running with great joy and fervency the race set before us and let us not settle for any substitute to pure set-apart living but truly give our best unto our Saviour and King, aměn! In order to do that we will look into the wonderful mirror of the Word of Elohim and allow His Word to teach, correct, reproof and train us in righteousness in order to ensure that we are in fact giving our best and allowing no substitute and to do that please turn with me to Diḇre haYamim Bět/2 Chronicles 12 where we will learn about the dangers of substitutes to pure set-apart living (Read).

Every day we need to be assessing our lives and asking ourselves whether we are giving our best or do we quickly slip into a mode of substituting the enduring perseverance of living set-apart for compromised standards as the pressure of the world lures us into being conformed to its falsely labelled substitutes for acceptable living. In the chapter we have just read, we read of Reḥaḇ’am – the son of Shelomoh and grandson of Dawiḏ – you would think that this guys would have understood how he should live unto יהוה, yet as we know he was in essence a phony! He tried to have the appearance of being a righteous king but failed miserably. He had inherited power, position, wealth and prestige yet it all went to his head and it cost him – he failed to give his best to יהוה, but instead did all he could do give his best unto himself – and boy isn’t that so real for so many today!!! When so many get caught up in their own little world of self they couldn’t care who gets hurt along the way as long as what they do benefits only self! The setting for this chapter is as follows:

5 years had now passed since the death of Shelomoh and Reḥaḇ’am had become king over Yisra’ĕl, and in this short time so much had already happened under his wicked rule – Yisra’ĕl had become divided into 2 houses/nations, Reḥaḇ’am had forsaken the Torah of יהוה and caused Yisra’ĕl to follow his lead and idolatry was firmly established as we also read in Melaḵim Aleph/ 1 Kings 14 that Yehuḏah had done evil in the eyes of יהוה and had provoked Him to jealousy by all their sins they had committed – more that all their fathers – high places had been established, and every abomination that the nations were doing they were doing including having cult prostitutes! Reḥaḇ’am through his wickedness and pride had caused division and a rapid decline of a nation who was called to be set-apart and a light to the nations! One of the major lessons we can take from these events is this: sin and division brings an easy open door for the enemy into one’s life. Shishaq, the sovereign of Mitsrayim/Egypt, was given an open door so to speak to invade the land because of sin and division.

Reḥaḇ’am had established a compromised platform of mixed worship as being acceptable under his reign and so opened up the door for much needed rebuke and discipline in which יהוה would use their enemy to bring it about in order to humble them and cause them to return to obedience. Reḥaḇ’am  really enjoyed having the Temple of יהוה that was built by his father and was happy to ‘worship’ the Elohim of his father and grandfather, while at the same time indulged in worshipping the false and pagan mighty ones of the nations – mixed worship is not worship in the eyes of  יהוה. Reḥaḇ’am rested on his assumed security based on the promise to Dawiḏ that there will always be a king on the throne of Dawiḏ making way for Messiah and presumed to be untouchable and able to rule as he pleased and the account of his life is certainly a great lesson for us in privilege, pride and the judgement of יהוה. Qorintiyim Aleph/1 Corinthians 10 tells us that these accounts are examples for us to warn us, so that he who thinks he stands should take heed lest he fall. Reḥaḇ’am only listened to himself – 2 chapter back you read of how he refused the advice of the elders and then went and asked those of his own age – what he was doing was not looking for advice but rather just looking for someone to agree with and confirm his own will and would only ‘take advice’ of those who matched his will, and so too are there today many who do just that – they will discard the truth if it hurts!

Reḥaḇ’am did not serve יהוה like Dawiḏ or Shelomoh – after all he was a son of an ammonite – a woman Shelomoh should not have married!

This was a man who simply refused to give his best unto יהוה. And so I would like to briefly look at some of the problems that marked his life and that which marks the life of one who substitutes set-apart living with self and lustful pride.

A – PROBLEM OF HIS CHARACTER (1)

Verse 1 tells us straight away that this guy’s character was seriously flawed! He operated in selfish pride, disregarded the Word of Elohim and led others astray and so revealed some serious heart issues as he believed that neither he nor the nation needed יהוה’s presence, instructions or involvement in their lives. It was as if he was saying by his corrupted living standards, “Thanks for bringing me this far, I can handle it form here…” and so a perfect example for us of a life that cannot walk in the blessing of יהוה. Tehillim/Psalm 1 tells us that blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wrong, does not stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers but rather meditates on the Torah day and night – and he will be prosperous in all he does. Reḥaḇ’am is the exact opposite – he walked, stood and sat in the wrong ways, with the wrong people and engaged in wrong practices with no time to even think on the Torah never mind meditate on it – that would have been way too much ‘work’ for a man who lacked the pure character of a true set-apart child of the Living Elohim who gives their best and takes serious the need to be transformed daily, renewing their minds by meditating on the Torah! Reḥaḇ’am thought he didn’t need יהוה – major mistake! He thought he could go it in his own, after all he had pretty much been given everything – the reign, the riches etc. What he did not realise is that without יהוה he could do nothing!

Yoḥanan/John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who stays in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit. Because without Me you are able to do naught!”

Yoḥanan/John 14:15 יהושע clearly tells us that if we love Him we will guard His commands.

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.”

Eph’siyim/Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Messiah יהושע unto good works, which Elohim prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Miḵah/Micah 6:8 “He has declared to you, O man, what is good. And what does יהוה require of you but to do right, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your Elohim?”

These verse tells us how we are to stand, sit and walk in Messiah – and Reḥaḇ’am displays none of the above!

The pure character of Messiah is built up in us through endurance and perseverance through trials as opposed to the world’s comfort of fitting in or keeping up with the joneses – Reḥaḇ’am wanted to be like the world. How about you? Are you giving your best or slacking in conformity to worldly pleasures?

B – PROBLEM OF HIS INABILITY TO HEED DISCIPLINE (2-9)

Reḥaḇ’am’s sin/lawlessness resulted in the discipline of יהוה upon him and the nation and so יהוה sends Shishaq, the sovereign of Mitsrayim, as a method of discipline! What is interesting to note here when you compare verse 9 to the account of the exodus in Shemoth/Exodus 12:35-36 in that we see a clear contrast of events. In Shemoth 12, Yisra’ĕl  plundered the Mitsrites/Egyptians and now here, when in the Promised Land under the corrupt reign of Reḥaḇ’am, Mitsrayim were plundering Yisra’ĕl!!!  

יהוה used the world out of which they were delivered to discipline them!

In verse 5 יהוה makes it clear – you forsook Me therefore I have left you in the hand of Shishaq! All who call upon the Name of יהוה shall be delivered, and all who forsake יהוה are left in the hand of that which they seek out! Seek יהוה and live – Reḥaḇ’am sought what the world had to offer and therefore יהוה used the world to discipline and humble them! The leaders and Reḥaḇ’am did humble themselves and יהוה declared that he wouldn’t destroy them, but give them some deliverance – they still would be disciplined but not destroyed! Reḥaḇ’am would not learn from discipline and would only humble himself as a means of escape from the hardships so as to set himself up again in walking after his own ways and he did not heed the discipline of יהוה and so by definition of Scripture was a fool and did not fear Him who could destroy the soul!

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of יהוה is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and discipline.”

He despised the Torah and the discipline that is as a result of despising the Torah and the sad reality of a fool is simply this – you are never stable! And this was the cause of his next problem:

C – PROBLEM OF HIS OBVIOUS CONFUSION

In verse 1 we are told he is full of himself – full of pride; then in verse 6 he humbles himself before יהוה, after which he resorted back to making his own plans which we will look at shortly, then in verse 12 he humbled himself again; yet in verse 14 we are told that he did evil! This was a confused and unstable man – unable to stand firmly on the Rock!

He was up and down – did whatever he had to in order to ‘get out of jail free’ so to speak and then return to his own vomit! This is a picture of a man who clearly would never give his best unto יהוה, but only thought of himself and would mimic the appearance of reverence to escape judgement, abusing the mercy and favour of Elohim – yet we must learn that יהוה sees the heart and this was the evil that he did – he did not seek יהוה with his heart! Today there are many who display this characteristic of confused living – one day they will be so amped and on fire (in appearance at least) for the Truth and be ready to take on the world while it is seemingly going well, only to change their stance very quickly and the next day be so full of pride, self-pity and lustful desires that they forsake the fleeting fire of commitment they vainly confessed to – confused people are they who forsake the Torah and think they can do it on their own! How many times have you found yourself confused? The Torah in not confusing – what confuses is the mixing of Torah with worldly standards as one never knows what the right standard for the circumstance they find themselves in. Listen there is only one way – no matter the circumstances – be not double-minded but focused as we diligently prepare our hearts daily to seek יהוה, aměn!

Poor character, lack of discipline and confusion leads to the next problem:

D – PROBLEM OF HIS CULTIVATED COMPROMISES

Shishaq came and plundered Yisra’ĕl and he took away the treasures of the House of יהוה, including the gold shields which Shelomoh had made. These shields were worth a lot and symbolised the very esteem of the Temple that Shelomoh had made. 200 large shields and 300 shields – all of gold – in today’s terms that is well over a billion rand worth of gold. These shields were not used for battle – they were brought out when the king would go in to the Temple, and I am sure we can all grasp a picture of what this must have looked like – all this shimmering gold – quite a sight – made a great huge statement of the status of the Temple Shelomoh had built for יהוה. And now all the shields among other treasures were gone!!!What does Reḥaḇ’am do? He substitutes the lost shields for bronze ones that he made in an attempt at trying to make it seem as if all was still ok!

Bronze also shines and can look very spectacular – especially from a distance – but it was not gold! Gold represented and spoke of power and prosperity and was expensive and hard to acquire in large quantities – it does not tarnish and is durable. Brass/bronze on the other hand is not pure – it is an alloy of copper and zinc – it is much cheaper and easier to acquire, however it must be constantly polished as it tarnishes very easily.

Gold in the Hebrew is the word זָהָב ‘zahab’ – H2091 – and is from a root word that means to shimmer and often if figuratively used to describe something that is yellow as oil or clear and pure, free of dirt. It is also used to describe ‘fair weather’ or clear skies which paints a wonderful contrast between gold and bronze.

Bronze in Hebrew is the word נְחשֶׁת ‘nechosheth’ – H5178 – bronze is also used as a picture of obstinacy – that is being stubborn or difficult or hard headed:

Yeshayahu/Isaiah 18:4 “Because I knew that you were hard, and your neck was an iron sinew, and your forehead bronze,”

This was the words of יהוה to Yisra’ĕl who had professed to swear by יהוה, yet not in truth or righteousness!

Reḥaḇ’am exhibited being a hard headed fool by the fact that he replaced the plundered gold shields with whatever he could get his hands on instead of waiting upon יהוה to show him what to do. He replaced what was now missing with that which was inferior and we are only told that he made the shields – what about all the other treasures that were plundered? Reḥaḇ’am was only interested in what the outward appearance was all about – he wanted it to appear like the same brilliance and power was there while the inside was empty!!! In Scripture the word for bronze is also used to describe the opposite of clear skies and fair weather as we see in references to the curses for disobedience in:

Deḇarim/Deuteronomy 28:23 “And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you iron.”

The word for bronze is also used in Scripture to describe filthiness, lust and halotry – the opposite of that which is pure and clean.

Yeḥezqěl/Ezekiel 16:36 “Thus said the Master יהוה, “Because your copper was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your whorings with your lovers, and with the idols of your abominations, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them,”

In the 1611 KJV the word for copper here was translated as filthiness – as we see that יהוה will expose the filthiness of those who claim to live in Him yet have their lives so mixed with too much junk!

The contrast of brass and gold carries great lessons for us as many today are giving brass instead of gold or rather are running for brass instead of gold as they offer up their lives not as daily living sacrifices but rather offer up inferior substitutes for total set-apart living and so operate in pride instead of humility; walk in the flesh instead of the spirit; compromise instead of commit to set-apart living; they are satisfied with a substituted life that fits them instead of the genuine walk of faith that has its many troubles and persecutions; and many make excuses rather than simply bow in humble obedience and say things like, “I would but…”, or, “I know I should but…”

Brass or gold… what describes your life best – brass that constantly needs polishing as the mixed standards continually tarnish and reveal the reality of the substance of your worship or gold that is pure, clean, refined and durable – able to stand the tests with great joy and faith in the Master Rock and King  יהושע Messiah?

 What we can take from Reḥaḇ’am is this – it is one thing to try and look right in appearance and another to be right in your heart!

We must be a people who prepare our hearts to seek יהוה.

Shemuʼĕl Aleph/1 Samuel 7:3 “And Shemuʼĕl spoke to all the house of Yisra’ĕl, saying, “If you return to יהוה with all your hearts, then put away the foreign mighty ones and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts for יהוה, and serve Him only, so that He delivers you from the hand of the Philistines.”

Can you declare the words of Dawiḏ – a man after the heart of יהוה?

Tehillim/Psalm 57:7 “My heart is firm, O Elohim, My heart is firm; I sing and praise.”

Tehillim/Psalm 105:3-4 “Make your boast in His set-apart Name; Let the hearts rejoice of those seeking יהוה. 4 Seek יהוה and His strength; seek His face always.”

We are to seek Him while he is to be found, call on Him while He is near, continually having hearts prepared to seek Him while we forsake all wrong thoughts and ways. When one fails to prepare their hearts to seek יהוה they will find themselves trying to strengthen themselves falling into a self-sufficient attitude of no need or desire for the Word or fellowship in community and when this happens the doors are opened for the Shishaq’s to come and raid us of all the treasures that יהוה has given us and the enemy will steal away joy and peace and when you allow that to happen and try to substitute the very resurrection power of Elohim that ought to be at work in you for mere human effort – you will crash and burn!

In walking in Him we cannot give substitutes – we are to give our best! And I am pretty sure that most of you here can, although may not be willing to admit that you have not been giving your best. Perhaps you have been polishing that mixed lifestyle of bronze so much that it is tiring you out as evidences of tarnish tend to show up in the most inopportune and unprepared moments that reveal the true character of what is going on inside!!!

How short is your fuse when you are ticked off because things did not go your way? How joyous are you when you find yourself in the place of lack and in despair? How much do you prepare your heart to seek יהוה? If you are seeking Him simply just to get you out of the hotspots and bring quick fixes to your imminent problems that are at large a result of sin, stubbornness and pride, then your heart is not truly prepared to seek Him!

Let us not make the first mistake Reḥaḇ’am made – and that is to try to establish himself, strengthen himself and in the process forsake the Torah of יהוה.

יהוה sees each of our hearts – He knows all that is going on – some may be pretty good at polishing the brass shields up to a brilliant shine not allowing any to come close enough into their lives to recognise and realise that it is not gold but polished bronze. It is time for us as His Bride to discard the substitutes and give Him our Best and run with great perseverance as we see יהוה Himself restoring and establishing the tabernacle of Dawiḏ, which oozes pure and undefiled worship bringing esteem unto יהוה our Elohim.

It is evil to not prepare our hearts to seek Him and as we know the days are evil in which we now live – all the more reason for us to discard the bronze substitutes and take up the golden shields of pure set-apart faith shining His wonderful light before all that our Father in Heaven receives all the praise as all see our good works in Messiah!

Shalom!

{jcomments on}

For the past couple of weeks you have been hearing me speak some pretty stern words on the need for us to raise up our voices and proclaim the Truth in order to expose the hordes of lies that so many are falling prey to. And while I may sound repetitive, I firmly believe that יהוה is calling us to stand up and sound the alarm against the reluctant hearers of the Truth. Tonight I present once again the call to raise up the sound of the alarm of the coming Day of יהוה – a Day of wrath, distress and trouble; a day of waste and ruin, darkness and gloominess, a day of thick clouds and darkness as described in Tsephanyah/Zephaniah 1:15. I have wrestled with many passages of Scriptures this week – all of which are concerned with the critical need for us to walk upright and speak up and shine the Light of His Truth in order to expose darkness of sin and lawlessness, calling many to repentance as the Bride must make herself ready! So many today have gone into ‘silly season’ mode with all the ‘jingle bells’ of excitement over Nimrod’s testicles and we need to wake them up and tell them how sick and perverted their worship is!!! In a message tonight called, “Woe, Woe, Woe – It is the Season to be Hearing!” I would like you to turn with me to Tsephanyah/Zephaniah 3 (Read).

A few months ago I gave a message from chapter 1 called, “Hidden from complacency” and in effect this entire book of 3 chapters may be small but is oh so powerful. They say dynamite comes in small packages – well this is a dynamite book – of which some have labelled it as the ‘hottest book’ in Scripture. Tsephanyah speaks more about the coming Day of יהוה than any other prophet – in fact the entire book’s message is centred on the coming Day of יהוה with the call to repentance to all who are walking in darkness through their rebellious and lustful living. The more I read through this book the more I come to grips just how alive it is for us today – and so as we look into the mirror of this chapter we have just read I believe that we are able to clearly see the message for us today. Tsephanyah means ‘Hidden by יהוה’ or ‘Treasured by יהוה’ and is a great picture of encouragement to us as we see the promise of protection from those hidden in יהוה.

Tehillim/Psalm 27:5 “For in the day of evil He hides me in His booth; in the covering of His Tent He hides me; on a rock He raises me up.”

The Day of יהוה is not a pleasant picture and while many are singing a drunken rhyme of the rebellious whore, “Ho-Ho-Ho – it is the season to be jolly”, they need to be hearing the Woe-Woe-Woe!!! And it is the treasured and hidden ones of יהוה that are being called to do that! Tsephanyah was born during the 55 year reign of the wicked and rebellious king, Menashsheh. Menashsheh had built all the high places that his father Ḥizqiyahu had destroyed and raised up altars for Ba’al, bowed himself to the hosts of the heavens and worshipped them and built two altars to the hosts of the heavens in the courtyards of the House of יהוה.  He made his son pass through the fire, and practised magic, and used divination, and consulted spiritists and mediums and did much evil in the eyes of יהוה, to provoke Him. Yehuḏah had become as rebellious and wicked as Yisra’ĕl under the pathetic reign of Ahab. Menashsheh died and his son Amon reigned for 2 years and was as wicked as his father and was killed by his own servants. Yoshiyahu/Josiah, Amon’s son, was then set up as king when he was 8 years old and walked in the ways of Dawiḏ. Yoshiyahu was the uncle of Tsephanyah and it was during the reign of Yoshiyahu that Tsephanyah prophesied these words. It was after the death of Yoshiyahu that things got worse and the destruction of the temple came 23 years later. Tsephanyah may have been alive to see this dreadful day which was a foreshadowing of the dark and wrathful day of יהוה about which he prophesied. This destruction would prepare the way for Yisra’ĕl to be a light to the nations as he spoke of the end when the exiles will return in peace as יהוה gathers His remnant and true worshippers will come from all over the world as pilgrims to a city that is cleansed form all sin.

Many would not heed the words of Tsephanyah when spoken, just as many today are also settled in their complacent ways rejecting the warning alarm sound of the shofar that will usher in the great and dreadful events of the Day of יהוה, but are instead dancing to the sick and twisted sound of bells of pagan worship practices which is an abomination before יהוה and reveals their wilful rebellion and defilement of His Word.

This chapter begins with a woe to the rebellious, defiled and oppressive – that is to those who do not hear His voice, do not accept instruction and do not place their trust in יהוה, and therefore do not draw near to Elohim!

This woe is as much alive today as it was then – for so many do not obey the voice. I find it very interesting in the application and timing of this message of Tsephanyah, for he prophesied during the reign of Yoshiyahu – which was a reign of restoration and repentance and returning to obedience! Yoshiyahu had a wicked father and grandfather and repented of the lies of his fathers.

The story of Yoshiyahu is of special significance to us of this ministry as we too had a Yoshiyahu (Josiah) awakening as we found the Torah and made the necessary changes in our worship as we stripped away and smashed much of pagan worship that we had inherited. So what I find very critical for us here today is that we too are to heed these words of Tsephanyah, being careful not to become full of pride and settled in our discovery of the Truth but rather we should be continually walking in humility and forsake not our need to be a voice calling many back to Truth.

Today, while Torah is being discovered by more and more – this message is clear – woe to the rebellious – woe to the proud and woe to the defiled. Those who refuse to hear, guard and do are submitting to rulers who are roaring lions and whose judges are wolves who will eventually eat them up. Yirmeyahu describes this about a rebellious backsliding people too:

Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 5:6 “Therefore a lion from the forest shall smite them, a wolf of the deserts ravage them. A leopard is watching over their cities, whoever comes out of them is torn in pieces. For their transgressions have been many, their backslidings have been numerous.”

Reckless prophets and profaning priests – a common picture today – prophets who say peace, peace when there is no peace and priests who are muddying the waters and defiling the purity of the Word and doing violence to the Torah:

The reference at the bottom of your page in the Scriptures 2009 edition here for verse 4 is a chapter I was too studying this week as it also speaks of those who are profaning the Word:

Yeḥezqěl/Ezekiel 22:26 “Her priests have done violence to My teaching and they profane My set-apart matters. They have not distinguished between the set-apart and profane, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean. And they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned in their midst.”

And so what we see happening today is a repeat of what happened in the days of Tsephanyah – Torah was being found and restored by a remnant few while the masses were profaning His Word as false priests and teachers were doing violence to the Truth of Torah – in essence were ‘killing’ it as if it was of no effect and worth! As a result they did not know the difference between the unclean and the clean. It is no different today – the so called priests of today are too doing violence to the Torah by declaring that it is of no effect and has no value – the result is once again a people who do not know the difference between the unclean and the clean, between the set-apart and the profane and so they will easily bring profane fire before יהוה thinking that it is ok. Profane worship or ‘strange’ worship is not ok – unless you want to end up like Naḏab and Aḇihu – being consumed by His wrath of fire!

Verse 5 tells us what is so true today – יהוה is in our midst and He does no unrighteousness! He promises us that where 2 or 3 are gathered in His Name, there He is in the midst of them, and He does no unrighteousness. Think about it for a moment – we are to walk as He walked and we are to remain in Him and follow Him as He leads us, right! Well then He does no unrighteousness – He does not walk against His Word – He is the Word and does not change and leads us in paths of righteousness – He is The Way, The Truth and the Life – so how is it then that so many who claim to be following Him are walking in unrighteousness – who is it that they are following? They are listening to a false ho, ho, ho while they should be hearing the woe, woe, woe! Every morning יהוה brings his right-ruling to light through his prophets and the people still refuse to repent as the unrighteous one knows no shame!!! That is pretty scary if you ask me – those who do not walk in righteousness do not even know shame:

Shame is, “a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety”. In other words shame is a painful feeling of having lost the respect of others because of improper behaviour of oneself or one that you are closely associated to. The unrighteous know no shame – if they did – they would be running back to יהוה in a flash.

In verses 6&7 יהוה had destroyed the towers of the enemy and cut off many nations with the desire of letting His chosen see the hand of His wrath on their enemies that would cause them to fear Him and accept His Instruction yet they continually corrupted all their ways before Him, refusing to hear.

When we fear יהוה and accept His instruction, instead of trying to brush it under the rug of whitewashed grace, then our dwelling will not be cut off – we do not want to be the darnel that is gathered and bound into bundles to be burnt but rather the wheat that is gathered to His granary. It will only be at the end where we will see the distinguished difference between the wheat and the darnel that grows up together – may we be found to be fearing יהוה, heeding His Torah and humbling ourselves before Him in loving obedience as opposed to having pride and a stiff neck unable to bow in reverence to the instructions of His Torah!

יהוה resists the proud and gives favour to the humble and as He says here in verse 11 – He will remove from our midst the proud exulting ones! What will be left behind are a poor and oppressed people who trust in the Name of יהוה. The proud will be taken out – the ones who put their trust in their riches will be taken out! The people who gathered to king Dawiḏ at the cave of Aḏullam – who were they? The poor and needy! The oppressed and down and outs so to speak – yet this quality they had – they trusted in a righteous king!

Mishlĕ/Proverbs 11:4 “Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, But righteousness delivers from death.”

I am not saying that you must be poor – what I am saying is what Scripture tells us, and that is – do not put your trust in that which cannot deliver you – and so those who put their trust in their wealth rather than in יהוה are going to be removed!!!                                                                                                                                                         

יהוה will turn unto His people a pure tongue – He will restore us to having one language and so the reversal of the curse of Baḇel where the languages were confused due to sin in their rebellion to His yoke. We will serve Him in unity, as we take on His yoke that is easy and His burden that is light.

It is a remnant that will do no unrighteousness and speak no falsehood having no deceit in their mouth! This is the picture of the 144000 of the Lamb who have the Name upon their foreheads in Ḥazon:

Ḥazon/Revelation 14:5 “And in their mouth was found no falsehood, for they are blameless before the throne of Elohim.”

The closing verses of Tsephanyah 3 speaks of the great joy of Yisra’ĕl that realises and recognises their Redeemer and King – He who has turned aside judgement and has faced the enemy and overcome and will no longer need to fear evil for the Sovereign of Yisra’ĕl,  יהוה is in our midst – and He sings over us!!!

This shout for joy is a command! Be glad and rejoice with all our heart – can you do that knowing that יהוה is in our midst?  We have reason to rejoice!!! יהושע Messiah has turned aside our judgements by facing our enemy and taking our sin upon Himself and defeating death, that we may live with Him forever and this is the woe that goes out to those who rebel and defile His word – you will die if you do not repent and fear the Righteous One in our Midst.

We are to be a joyous people and I would like to commend all of you on that note: Carlien’s dad was speaking to someone at Esteban and Sophia’s wedding this past week – someone who does not know the Torah and finds all the Hebrews names and terminology a bit freaky and he said that the guy must just look at us all – we are happy and there is joy, so he may not understand all that we are doing but let the joy and gladness that is seen speak for itself!!!

We have much to be glad for, aměn! The caution here is that we do not become proud but remain humble at all times, eager and willing to serve the Master and as His hidden treasures, held firmly in His hand may we be bold enough to declare the “woes” to those who are only hearing the “ho’s”, and may there not be found in any of us any falsehood as we live blameless before His Throne as He Himself has put His Name upon us and we have His Sabbath as a sign between us and Him forever!

If you have been rebellious, defiled or oppressive in any way and have been disobedient in any way or form to His voice – that is His Word – refusing to accept His instruction and not able to trust Him, having found it difficult to draw near to Him because of sin/lawlessness in your life – the realise that He is not far off – He is in our midst – fear Him and accept His instructions and rejoice and be glad as He turns His judgements aside and destroys your enemy. If you have whored after the world and it ways and so adulterated yourself away from His Truth then heed this woe of Tsephanyah and return with a broken heart and a crushed spirit which He does not deny.

Ya’aqoḇ/James 4:4-10 “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with Elohim? Whoever therefore intends to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of Elohim. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose? Does the Spirit which dwells in us intensely crave unto envy? 6 But He gives greater favour. Because of this He says, “Elohim resists the proud, but gives favour to the humble.” 7 So then subject yourselves to Elohim. Resist the devil and he shall flee from you. 8 Draw near to Elohim and He shall draw near to you. Cleanse hands, sinners. And cleanse the hearts, you double-minded! 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Master, and He shall lift you up.”

It is time for us, His remnant Bride, to stand up and be bold and raise the alarm and sound of the shofar, sounding it against the seemingly secure whose false walls of security  will come crashing down.

It may sound like a repetition each week as we have seen the call to speak out against whitewasher and Jezebels, to be the Amos of our day and now the call to the hidden and treasured of יהוה to declare woes to a people who may refuse to hear – but that is what we are to do – now be strong and of good courage for He is in our midst and let us with joy and gladness of heart live upright and speak Truth, aměn!

Especially in respect to the much paganised system of worship reaching its climax at this time of year – get out there and declare, “Woe, Woe, Woe – it is the season to be hearing!”

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 shalom!

{jcomments on}

Shabbat Shalom family, all praise and esteem be unto our Creator and King, יהוה of Hosts is His Name!

In a world where seemingly anything goes and almost anything has become acceptable by society at large, true worship and obedience unto יהוה is very rare. Sin or rather lawlessness is rife and even some of the most sincere proclaiming believers have been led astray under the wormwood of rotten doctrines of man that hold claim to a hope that is simply false and is based on the assumption that they have escaped judgement, despite their continued wilful disobedience to the Torah of יהוה as they wilfully despise the Truth and even those who bring the Truth substituting their lives with feel-good theologies of man that do not line up to the clear plumb-line of the Word of Elohim. In a message tonight called, “No Escape Clause – Sin Brings Judgement!” I would like to give you an overview of the book of Amos with the hope of stirring you to dig deeper into this fascinating book that is a very clear picture of what is going on today as well as they clear warnings of what still lies ahead for those who persist in sin, yet assures the restoration and establishment of the righteous that יהוה Himself will bring about. There are many great lessons to take form this small book of 9 chapters, yet having an overview assists in understanding in a greater measure the very clear message that is here for us to heed and proclaim, as we do our utmost to continually seek יהוה and live.

So for the purposes of tonight I will not be reading every chapter but running through systematically the overview of what is being presented and what it means for us today – as I go through this book in a summarised manner you can perhaps flow through each chapter with me in your Scriptures as you look at many key words or elements that collectively summarise the message of this book!

The setting of this book is as follows:

Amos was a herdsman from Teqowa, which was a small town in the hill country of Yehuḏah, and was called by יהוה to announce the coming judgement of יהוה upon Yisra’ĕl, calling them to repentance and turn from their sin and idolatry. These events took place shortly before the Northern Kingdom of Yisra’ĕl went into Assyrian captivity, and Amos being raised up as a prophet was an act of the kindness and mercy of יהוה to a people who had continually shunned and disobeyed Him and His instructions. Amos means ‘burden’ or burden bearer and Teqowa means ‘stockade’ or giving a picture of ‘sheepfold’ and comes from the root that means trumpet. I find this very interesting as יהוה took a shepherd who knew how to count and look after sheep, from a place that can, at its root, mean “trumpet”  to proclaim His Word to a people who were headed for destruction:

Yeshayahu/Isaiah 58:1 “Cry aloud, do not spare. Lift up your voice like a ram’s horn. Declare to My people their transgression, and the house of Yaʽaqoḇ̱ their sins.”

This is exactly what Amos was called for!

He prophesied while both kingdoms of Yisra’ĕl prospering greatly and were expanding their territories, having taken hold of many important trade routes. As prosperous as they had become they were at the same time becoming more corrupt in their government and exploited the poor and needy, and most of all, had forgotten that they were a set-apart people unto יהוה. Although they were seemingly very ‘religious’, it was all superficial. Yehuḏah was under the reign of the wicked king Reḥaḇ’am and the northern tribes were under the reign of a terrible and wicked king Yaroḇ’am who had introduced his own form of worship systems and build many altars of many of the high places and syncretized pagan worship practices with an attempt at claiming to worship יהוה.

Chapter 1-2

Amos comes to announce 8 burdens or oracles of judgement against the surrounding nations climaxing with judgement against Yisra’ĕl. In these 8 oracles to the nations and Yisra’ĕl we see the repeated phrasing of יהוה toward each nation, “For three transgressions… and for four, I do not turn it back” Some translate this to mean 3+4=7 and therefore sin has reached its fullness – which can be yet in the Hebraic min 3 or a threefold repetition also suggests finality – e.g.: Yeḥezqěl/Ezekiel 21:27 “Overthrown, overthrown, I make it overthrown! It shall be no longer, until He comes to whom it rightly belongs – and I shall give it!”

So here in Amos, 3 transgressions represents already the fullness of transgression and so for 4 – that is to even go beyond the limit signifies a wretched excess which cannot continue and יהוה would not turn back or relent”

1 – Dammeseq (1:3-5): Capital of Syria and means ‘silent is the sackcloth weaver’ – a pretty arrogant name that proclaims that they will never mourn – picture of rebellious pride that יהוה will destroy. יהוה gave Yisra’ĕl into the hands of Aram to discipline them and when Yeho’aḥaz cried out to יהוה He delivered them from Aram yet Aram had decimated Yisra’ĕl with great cruelty and brutality and enjoyed it and for this judgement was now decreed! (Melaḵim Bet/2 Kings 13)

2 – Azzah (1:6-8): Capital of Philistia – this was a centre for slave trade based on the Mediterranean Coast and they had enslaved Yisra’ĕl and deported by selling them into slavery to Eḏom.

3 – Tsor (1:9-10): Capital of Phoenicia. They had delivered up many of the exiles to Eḏom and had broken a peace treaty.

4 – Eḏom (1:11-12) He relentlessly pursued his brother with the sword, having intense hatred and no compassion but rather holding on to his wrath forever – we still this very clearly today as the ‘Eḏom’ spirit of lust for flesh and world dominance holds intense hatred toward the True set-apart ones of Elohim! Botsrah here has prophetic end-time significance where יהוה has a slaughtering in Botsrah. (Yeshayahu/Isaiah 34:6/63:1).

5 – Ammon (1:13-15) they devastated Yisra’ĕl and took the territory of Gad by killing pregnant woman.

6 – Mo’aḇ (2:1-3) they desecrated tombs of Eḏom, showing disrespect by burning the kings bones to lime.

6 oracles of Judgement given to the surrounding nations – and I firmly believe that each one has significant relevance to end-time prophecy of the outpouring of the wrath of Elohim when he sends His fire and Judgement.

We now move to the words against Yehuḏah and Yisra’ĕl:

7 – Yehuḏah (2:4-5) they had rejected the Torah of יהוה, did not guard His commands and were led astray after the inherited lies of their fathers. The lies of the fathers are still causing many to forsake the Torah today and as a result many do not know how to guard His commands. This is very interesting to see how this was way before the Babylon captivity, where they would later inherit more lies!

8 – Yisra’ĕl (2:6-16) Under the reign of Yaroḇ’am Yisra’ĕl had gone further and further away from obedience to the Torah. They had become immoral, were riddled with idolatry and injustice prevailed as the poor and righteous among them were traded for the love of money and enslaved as the wicked grew in power ruling with wickedness and corruption. The moral values and instructions of Torah had been forsaken and immorality reigned as father and son shared women, and they forsook the Torah by taking garments in pledge and lying on them by every alter – outright abominations in the face of יהוה.

Pretty much sounds a lot like society at large today – immoral, corrupt, blasphemers, showing no justice or any standards of righteousness. And this is what a shepherd from Teqowa was to now speak against Yisra’ĕl.

Chapters 3-5

The following 3 chapters in essence contain 3 messages of condemnation and pending judgement given by Amos to Yisra’ĕl. A key phrase seen in these 3 messages at the beginning of each chapter is, “Hear this word…” And clearly the same message is clear today – “Hear this word!!!” – He who has ears let him hear…!

These were not ‘nice ear tickling words’ – these were heart cutting, bone cutting sermons that Amos gave – words that need to be spoken today to get a lost and deceived people to return to יהוה.

Message 1 (Chapter 3)

The message is clear – judgement should be no surprise and was now decreed! They stood guilt of idolatrous and immoral living. They were violent and gripped by materialism and in the process had taken their eyes off of יהוה. יהוה always reveals His secret to His servants the prophets – they had been told – this proclaimed judgement was not without notice, yet they very easily disregarded the Truth for selfishness and pride. They were a called out nation, chosen form all the clans of the earth – to walk with the Creator and with great privileges of being a chosen set-apart nation comes great responsibilities – to walk in the Truth and shine His light. So Judgement was deserved as they had strayed and ignored the prophets who spoke in the past! It is no different today – most people do not understand any of the writings of the prophets and hence the need for us to study and dig and understand what He is saying so that His people can turn back and walk humbly in obedience before יהוה.

Message 2 (Chapter 4)

Judgement decreed could have been avoided through repentance – yet they refused to. The words are very abrupt and in your face – Hear this word you cows of Bashan! This is basically saying to those who think that they are well off and living in luxury – getting fat through the oppression of others. They were going to be exiled for their lustful living and their hypocritical worship. We see sarcasm here as יהוה taunts them to continue in their sick and twisted forms of worship that they had instituted through much of Yaroḇ’am’s wicked regimes of worship, making them bring tithes every 3 days – perhaps Yaroḇ’am’s substitution for the 3 pilgrimage festivals that were meant to take place in Yerushalayim. They were burning thanksgiving offerings with leaven which is strictly prohibited according to Wayyiqra/Leviticus 2:11 “No grain offering which you bring to יהוה is made with leaven, for you do not burn any leaven or any honey in an offering to יהוה made by fire.”

They were proclaiming loudly their voluntary offerings so all would know that they were giving. Pretty much sounds a lot like much of the sick and twisted forms of worship happening today by many man-made institutions. יהושע tells us that when you do a kind deed that you should not sound the trumpet like the hypocrites do to receive the praise of men – do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing – for the Father sees what you do in secret and He will reward you openly – His blessing will be evidenced and seen in your life!

יהוה relates to them 5 historical scenarios of how they had been stubborn and stiff-necked despite the discipline He sent:

1 – The Discipline of Famine – they had no food and still did not repent

2 – The Discipline of Drought – rain was withheld as a result of disobedience yet they refused to repent

3 – The Discipline of Disease and plagues on their crops – yet they refused to repent

4 – The Discipline of Defeat in war – leaving the smell of dead bodies in their midst – yet they refused to repent

5 – the Discipline of Devastation and destruction – like that of Seḏom and Amorah – rescuing a remnant – yet they still did not repent!

In Ḥazon/Revelation 9 & 16 we see too that many will too sadly not repent, even after many will be killed by plagues – they will not repent of their idolatry and whorings and will even blaspheme Elohim for all their sores and pains!

Sin brings Judgement and their refusal to repent would bring on that Judgement and in 4:12-13 they are told basically this: “prepare to meet your Maker and you will realise His capabilities – יהוה of Hosts is His Name

Message 3 (Chapter 5)

Message 1 – Judgement should come as no surprise; Message 2 – You refuse to repent; Message 3 – Judgement will be severe – for those who persist in sin and do not heed the warnings of these messages!

Judgement is deserved for those failing to seek יהוה and His Righteousness! The emphasis in this 3^rd message is simply this – you know you have been wrong – don’t be stubborn any longer – seek יהוה and live – as simple as that! Avoid idolatry and the corrupt practices established by Yaroḇ’am (a picture of institutionalised religion). Flee false teachings and vain traditions that have simply become wormwood that rots away the core truths and kills off the life source of His Truth through twisted counterfeit teachings. Seek that which is good and hate evil. The call here is clear – get rid of the wormwood – and seek the Truth – love the Truth and get the Word – His Torah established in you and hate that wormwood which has poisoned. Some still need to chuck out much wormwood teachings, DVD’s, books and resources that are not good! Judgement has been decreed with much emphasis on the severity of it – from chapter 5:16 to the end of chapter 16 this severity of the times of judgement that is coming is described:

1 – Times of extreme mourning (5:16-17)

2 – Times of extreme darkness (5:18-20)

3 – Times of exposing hypocrisy and false religious systems (5:21-27)

4 – Times of rebuking false securities (6:1-14)

In essence there are 2 great woes here – a woe against perverted religion  and all right-ruling that has been turned into poison and a woe against complacent pride and those who are settled on their dregs turning the fruit of righteousness in to wormwood!

Chapter 7-9 – FIVE VISIONS

In the last three chapters Amos has 5 visions:

Vision 1 – Swarming locusts (7:1-3) This is a picture of devastation that was decreed and Amos cries out to יהוה and intercedes – יהוה then relents and says that it shall not be

Vision 2 – Consuming Fire (7:4-6) This was a vision of destruction and again Amos intercedes and יהוה once again relents and says it shall not be.

Vision 3 – Plumb Line (7:7-8) This is a picture of Righteousness and Right Ruling exposing the wickedness and crookedness of all that they have done – יהוה was setting a plumb-line in the midst of His people and no longer would He pardon them for their unrighteousness! No more pleading ignorance – He has given us His Torah and The Torah was made flesh and יהושע  was set in our midst and dwelt among us to show us the way – there is now no excuse – we follow Him or face the judgement of lawless living!

Ma’asei/Acts 17:30-31 “Truly, then, having overlooked these times of ignorance, Elohim now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has set a day on which He is going to judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has appointed, having given proof of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

High places will be destroyed and all religious and political structures will be demolished having been revealed as crooked by the plumb-line of His Word. Amatsyah the corrupt priest told Amos to shut up and leave and Amos stands up and stands firm to the call of יהוה. He may have not had all the education of the priest – yet He knew the Truth and stood firm not cowering under the assumed position of a man who was nothing more than a false priest that was conformed to a twisted religion set up by Yaroḇ’am.

Vision 4 – Summer Fruit (8:1-14) The fruit was ripe for harvest and the fruit of their rebellion and disobedience had now reached its fullness and was clearly evident in how they were living:

1 – They oppressed the poor and needy

2 – They had disregard for the Sabbath – and couldn’t wait for Sabbath to be over so they could start trading again! They saw the Sabbath as a burden when we are told that we are to delight in His Sabbath – all of it!!! So many are still the same today – they have no delight in His Sabbath and even some who claim to keep His Sabbath have not their minds on the Sabbath but rather on what will and must happen after the Sabbath – that is a ‘gathering of sticks on the Sabbath’ mind-set! That is many take the Sabbath to prepare for the week ahead and this is a disregard for His appointed Day of immersing in Him!

They abused the poor in order to make wealth – we see it today by many who are peddling the Word for profit and deceiving many for self gain:

Kěpha Bet/2 Peter 2:1-3 “But there also came to be false prophets among the people, as also among you there shall be false teachers, who shall secretly bring in destructive heresies, and deny the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 And many shall follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of, 3 and in greed, with fabricated words, they shall use you for gain. From of old their judgment does not linger, and their destruction does not slumber.”

Their unrighteous fruit is bringing upon them imminent judgement!

Vision 5 – יהוה standing at the slaughter place (9:1-0)

This slaughter place being spoken of here I believe is the idolatrous slaughter place in Bĕyth El and here is a picture of יהוה coming to tread down the slaughter places and destroy all who have followed the false worship practices and no one will be able to escape. The lawless cannot hide – no matter where they try to hide or under what they try to hide. יהוה will sift the nations and not one of the righteous will be lost. All the lawless are going to die.

Mattithyahu/Matthew 13:41-42 “The Son of Aḏam shall send out His messengers, and they shall gather out of His reign all the stumbling-blocks, and those doing lawlessness, 42 and shall throw them into the furnace of fire – there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

Mattithyahu/Matthew 13: 49-50 “Thus shall it be at the end of the age: the messengers shall come forth, and separate the wicked out of the midst of the righteous, 50 and shall throw them into the furnace of fire – there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

Conclusion: (9:11-15)

It is not all doom and gloom – there is also contained here at the end of this book the promise of restoration. Yes, יהוה will destroy all sense of security that many have in order to bring them back to Himself. There are so many forms of false security today – people put their security into their false religions, in their jobs or social status, in their insurance policies, in their stocks and possession etc. These are all going to come crashing and those who do not put their hope in the Master and Completer of our faith, יהושע Messiah, will die!

However the Promise to those who seek Him and His Righteousness living according to the plumb-line of His Word will see and witness and be a part of a wonderful restoration, where the Booth of Dawiḏ will be raised up, having Messiah reign in our midst and there will be abundance, rebuilding and a permanent possession of the Promise given to the Covenanted people of יהוה.

This is an amazing book that carries great insight and instructions for us today – it also brings reproof and correction and training in righteousness that we are to heed and in a nutshell it speaks the following:

יהוה rules over all – He is יהוה of Hosts and Yisra’ĕl, His called out and set-apart Bride was to shine His light in a dark world, yet they failed as they allowed the darkness to cause the light to be diminished through corruption, idolatry and rebellion and as a result judgement was decreed, leaving a remnant that would be established and rebuilt and our call today is to heed these messages Amos gave, cling to יהוה and continually seeking Him and His righteousness, overcoming  so that we will have life in abundance in Messiah, and we can hold on to that hope right now and I believe that the remnant sifting is taking place and  יהוה is calling forth many to speak His Truth and intercede for many who have been deceived into following lies, as many of us were. But remember this – being a part of יהוה’s people does not exempt one from judgement!!!

There is no escape clause when it comes to sin and lawlessness – Judgement is coming – may we be a people who seek יהוה and live:

Yeshayahu/Isaiah 55:6-7 “Seek יהוה while He is to be found, call on Him while He is near. 7 Let the wrong forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to יהוה, who has compassion on him, and to our Elohim, for He pardons much.”

This book of Amos is alive for us today – may we be the Amos of our day, willing to bear the burden of interceding and calling a people back to יהוה, aměn!

{jcomments on}