The Priest of God.

Psalm 2:7 NKJV
I will declare the decree:
YHWH has said to Me,
‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.

Psalm 110:4 NKJV
YHWH has sworn
And will not relent,
“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”

The Messiah is a priest of the order of Melchizedek. Yes, priest of the YHWH our God.
Forever.

Hebrews chapter 5 explains these prophecies in the following way:

(1) The Priest was Appointed by God
Hebrews 5:1, 4
For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. . . . 4 And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.

(2) The Priest offered up prayers to God
Hebrews 5:7
who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear,

(3) The Priest was saved from death by God
Hebrews 5:7
who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear,

(4) The Priest became the Author of our Salvation because he was made perfect by God
Hebrews 5:9
9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,

(5) The Priest was called by God
Hebrews 5:10
. . . called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,”

Finally, ponder over Hebrews 5:11. Let us not remain dull of hearing.

". . . of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing."

Brothers and Sisters in the Anointed One, let us hear and understand that we have Iesus the Anointed One, appointed on oath by God, as High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek. The High Priest of God. Forever.

Authority to break Sabbath? What authority?

I came across the following comments in a discussion group today:

"I don't keep a Saturday Sabbath because Jesus abolished the Law of Moses in His death...ie He destroyed the "devil" in His death. In other words, the Law falsely accused Jesus and condemned Him in His death. Every day is "Sabbath" for the Children of God...because we are FREE in Him to serve the Father every moment of our lives."

"If you have been made "priests and kings" giving you authority to break Sabbath yet remain innocent [Mat 12.5] why don't you?"

Some people say that the Messiah our Master has abolished the Torah by his sacrificial death. In fact, two years ago I was told by a well-respected Christian pastor that even the Ten Commandments have likewise abolished. As such there is, supposedly, no need to keep the Sabbath rest every week.

Then there are others who take a longer route in their reasoning. They would first point out from verses such as Revelations 1:6; 5:10 and 1 Peter 2:9 that we, children of Elohim, has been made priests and kings in His kingdom.

Revelations 1:6 NIV
and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father--to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
Revelations 5:10 NIV
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.
1 Peter 2;9 NIV
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Then they would move on to the well known account in Matthew 12 about our the disciples of our Master Yeshua picking some heads of grain and eating them as they passed through a grain field on a Sabbath day, pointing out the words of our Master in verse 5 ". . . haven’t you read in the Torah that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent?"

These simple minded people would put two and two together and say, "Ah-ha! There it is. Don't you see?". They would conclude that since we are chosen as priests and kings, and since the priests who serve YHWH Elohim "break" the Sabbath by carrying out their priestly duties every Sabbath day, therefore, we have the authority to also break Sabbath. (!)

Is that so? Did the Levitical priests really desecrate the Sabbath? Are we really authorised to break it, likewise? What's wrong with people who come to such a conclusion?

Let us take a closer look at the account in Matthew chapter 12

Matthew 12:1 - 8 ESV“At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck ears of corn and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice’, you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” ”

The Accusation by the Pharisees : 
The Pharisees told the Master Yeshua that his disciples had broken the Torah commandment (did something unlawful) by plucking the ears of corn and eating them on the Sabbath (verse 1).

My friend Paul F. Herring, in his recent book, "The New Testament: the Hebrew behind the Greek" has this to say:

 "It was accepted that on the Sabbath it was permissible to pick up fallen heads of grain and rub them between the fingers. According to Rabbi Yehuda, also a Galilean like Yeshua, it was even permissible to rub them in one's hand. Some of the Pharisees though found fault with Yeshua’s disciples for most likely behaving in accordance with their Galilean tradition.

That is, it is most probable that these Galileans, picked the fallen heads of grain, rubbed them together and ate them. But what we read in Greek (Matt 12:1-2) is that they ‘plucked’ the heads of grain.

It seems fairly clear then, that when the original Hebrew account (written by someone who knew the customs and even the local differences in interpretation) was translated into Greek, the translator, not knowing these customs, and perhaps trying to make the scene more colourful, added the statement about plucking the wheat and thus introduced the one and only act of transgression of the Torah recorded in the synoptic Gospels ."
See M. Kister, "Plucking on the Sabbath and Christian-Jewish Polemic," Immanuel 24-25 (Jerusalem, 1990), pp. 35-51.


The Answer by our Master Yeshua:
Yeshua told them that his disciples had not broken the commandment. They had not done anything unlawful. Instead, the Pharisees have condemned the guiltless (verse 7). Yes, the key to this passage is the word "guiltless". The Pharisees have condemned the guiltless disciples. In making this point, the Master Yeshua made three allusions to the TaNaKh, as follows:

The Allusions to the TaNaKh:

Firstly, how David entered the temple of Elohim and ate the Show bread. see 1 Samuel 2: 1-16.
(this point to be continued . . .)

Secondly, how the Levitical priests did not rest from their duties in serving YHWH Elohim in the temple on Sabbath.

 The Levitical priests did not break the Sabbath by doing what they liked. They did not go after their own ways nor sought their own pleasure, nor talked idly. Instead they "worked" on Sabbath by doing the work of ministering in the Temple of Elohim. It was this work that the Master Yeshua was talking about in Matthew 12:5 when he said that the priests "profaned" the Sabbath when they were on Sabbath duty.

Isaiah 58:13, 14 ESV
“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of YHWH honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in YHWH, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of YHWH has spoken.”

Thirdly, Yeshua told the Pharisees to ponder over what YHWH Elohim meant when He told His people through the prophet Hosea that He desired mercy and not sacrifice.

Hosea 6:6
 "For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings."

(to be continued . . .)

Related post: Did the Messiah break the Sabbath?

Did the Messiah break the Sabbath?

One of my facebook friends posed the following question in a discussion group this morning:

If Jesus broke the Sabbath [John 5.18], why can't you?

This friend went on to emphasise his belief that the Master broke the Sabbath by quoting verse 17:

Jesus answered them, “My Father is always working, and I too must work.”

He claimed that our Messiah's assertion in John 5:17 shows that he "worked" on that Sabbath day!

Far from breaking the Sabbath, our Master Yeshua the Anointed One actually did the opposite.

In John chapter 5, the Jewish authorities accused Yeshua of breaking the Sabbath because he:
(1) healed a man who had been sick for 38 years by the pool with five porches, near the Sheep Gate.
(2) after the healing, he told the man to take up his mat and walk.

There is no commandment in the Torah that says you cannot heal a sick person on Sabbath. Nor is there any commandment that says you cannot pick up your mat and go home. Yeshua did not break the Fourth commandment. He merely went against some man-made rules.

We will do well to remember the words of the Messiah in his sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 5:17-20 NKJV
17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Even in this account of healing, our Messiah told the man whom he had healed,

John 5:14 ESV
. . . “Listen, you are well now; so stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”

It is unthinkable that the Anointed Yeshua would have taught the man to ignore or break the Fourth Commandment.

As for your question about what Yeshua meant when he said that he is the Master of the Sabbath, well, he certainly DID NOT mean that we can break the Sabbath commandment. Otherwise, would his followers have kept the Sabbath, as we can read about the women doing so in Luke's gospel:

Luke 23:56 ESV
Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

My brothers and sisters, let us keep the Fourth Commandment. Shabbat Shalom.

Obeying The Law: can we do it?

I have just come across a remark on a page saying that those who try to practise the Law (Torah) have a false sense of self-righteousness. It went on to say that such people, who think they are righteous, will have to face their King (Messiah) on judgment day when He says, "I do not know you". It alleges that such Torah observing people have never kept a relationship with Yeshua or YHWH but instead have merely followed rules, tradition and laws to keep themselves self-deceived.

I would like to point out a number of erroneous statements from the above.

(1) The Law gives those who practice the Law a false sense of self-righteousness,

This is incorrect. It is those who do NOT practise the Law that have a false sense of righteousness.

James 1:22 tells us, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

Even Paul himself, whose teachings have been debated by many, admitted in Romans 2:13, "For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified."

In fact, if we state that those who practise the Law are given a false sense of self-righteousness, we are contradicting the word of God recorded in Deuteronomy 30: 11-14, where Moses told the people of Israel :

“For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it."

Notice verse 14 above says that the Law is very near you, that you may DO it. Can we say that Israel has been hoodwinked into a false sense of self-righteousness by Moses when he told them to practice the Law? when he told them to DO the commandments?

If we are incapable of 100% obeying the law, why did Moses tell the people in Deut. 30:14 that they can DO the commandments?

And similarly, why did the Master Yeshua teach in Matthew 5:17-20 that our righteousness should exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees when it comes to doing and teaching the commandments?

Matthew 5:17-20 NKJV
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

If we cannot obey the commandments perfectly, why did our Master teach that we should be perfect, even as our Father in Heaven is perfect? (Matthew 5:48)

Furthermore, if no one can obey the Law 100%, why were the parents of John the Baptist both described in Luke 1:5,6 as "they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless."?

In fact Paul once referred to himself in Philippians 3:6 that he was blameless when it came to righteousness in the Law. Wouldn't that contradict the notion that no one can obey the Law completely?

(2) On judgment day, the King Messiah will say to such "self-deceived" people who observe the Law (Torah), "I do not know you".

No, it is not to those who keep the Commandments of the Torah that the Messiah will say, "I do not know you". Instead it is to those who have no Torah in their lives. It is to those who practise Lawlessness, those Lawless ones, that these words will be uttered. The Gospel according to Matthew records for us the words of the Master Yeshua on this matter:

Matthew 7: 21-23 NKJV
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Notice that such Lawless people may address the Messiah as Lord. They may prophesy in the Name of Messiah. They may even perform many wonders in the Name of Messiah! How can such people who virtually do great works in the Name of the Messiah be declared as Lawless people? How can such people end up hearing from the very Messiah whom they called Lord all their lives,

"I do not know you"?

There is only one answer: they have not obeyed the commandments.

Brothers and Sisters, let us avoid Lawlessness. Let us obey the Commandments in the Torah.

We can do it.

Rituals? What rituals?

I just came across a post that says this:

"There is a subtle deception that has been invading the Christian Church in the past few years. Many fellowships have been taking on traditions that stem from Hebrew customs and rituals. These types of required behaviors were done away with at the cross. The things of the Old Covenant were done away with. The veil was torn and we all have access to the Holy of Holies. These rituals run from celebrating the feasts to wearing prayer shawls and even using Hebrew names to replace the English of “Jesus” or “God.” "

The post goes on to state:
"We cannot attain more piety by calling Jesus Yeshua. Much of this stems from a lack of understanding as to what a “name” meant to Hebrew Eastern thinkers. A name was not an identifier of an individual but instead defined the character of an individual. Some say they are honoring Christ or God by using the Hebrew names. There is no honor given to Christ by duplicating a group of letters from 2,000 years ago. The honor to Christ is duplicating in you the character trait that is described by those letters. When you are in a group of unsaved people are you Christ (an anointed one) to them? If so, you honor Christ by that act and not by a set of letters."

Here are my comments:
I'd like to comment on the following points presented in your post:

(1) May I point out that "Jesus" is not an English name for Yeshua. It is only a transliteration of the Greek Iesous. (The final 's' is appended to this Greek name because all male names in Greek must end with an 's'.) Instead of "Jesus", the English name commonly used for Yeshua is Joshua, the most well known of whom is Joshua son of Nun who led the people of Israel successfully across the Jordan and brought down the walls of Jericho.

Most of the people I know who prefer to use Yeshua instead of Jesus do so because they feel it more appropriate to call the Hebrew Anointed One by his original Hebrew name, not so much because doing so can win God's approval. At the same time, it would appear odd, even somewhat mischievous, to use a transliteration of a Greek version of the original Hebrew Name to refer to the Hebrew Messiah when His original name is clearly known and easily understood.

To those who insist on calling the Anointed One with an English name, why wouldn't you at least call Him by the well-known English name "Joshua" instead of a non-english transliterated word "Jesus"?

(2) While I agree that our Master Yeshua the Anointed One is our Passover Lamb who has delivered us from Death, and that he is also our Eternal High Priest who has

• entered the real Holiest Place in the real Tabernacle of YHWH with His Once-for-all sacrifice 
• in fulfillment of the annual sacrifice of the Bull and the Goat, 
• and the release of the Scape Goat to carry away the sins of the people of YHWH, 

I do not agree that the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) should be forgotten.

On the contrary, the Day of Atonement should be solemnly commemorated with all Godly respect, albeit without the sacrifices commanded in Leviticus chapters 16 and 17. By the way, people of the Jewish faith today observe Yom Kippur by resting, fasting, depriving themselves of pleasure and repenting from their sins of the previous year. They do not offer any animal sacrifices because their temple in Jerusalem has been destroyed and is not yet rebuilt.

My point is, if the Jews can observe the Day of Atonement on the Tenth Day of the Seventh Month as commanded by God by fasting and repentance, so can the Christians. All the more so, because Christians believe that this is THE day that our Master, the Anointed One of YHWH, has fulfilled by his offering of himself for the sins of the world.

Blessed are the Meek.

Matthew 5:5
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

When I first read the Sermon On the Mount 36 years ago, I did not know how nor why meek people would inherit the earth. Imagine meek people claiming ownership to all places on earth. Land, sky and sea. It sounded like the least ambitious of people being promised the most ambitious of blessings.

Perhaps, a more meaningful way of rendering the above verse is given in Young's Literal Translation, which goes as follows:

Matthew 5:5 YLT
Happy the meek -- because they shall inherit the land.

Reading LAND instead of EARTH, this profound teaching of our Master Yeshua the Anointed One appears to distill the essence of a fundamental truth upheld by the people of YHWH in the ancient times. It is a truth mentioned repeatedly in various places in the Writings and in the books of the Prophets. For example,

(1) Those who inherit the land are called the meek. They enjoy peace and prosper when the wicked are removed:

Psalm 37: 10 - 11
A little while, and the wicked will be no more;
though you look for them, they will not be found.
But the meek will inherit the land
and enjoy peace and prosperity.

(2) Those who inherit the land are blessed by YHWH, as opposed to those who are cursed by Him:

Psalm 37: 22
those YHWH blesses will inherit the land,
but those he curses will be destroyed.

(3) Those who inherit the land are righteous as opposed to those who are wrongdoers or who are wicked:

Psalm 37: 28 - 29
Wrongdoers will be completely destroyed;
the offspring of the wicked will perish.
The righteous will inherit the land
and dwell in it for ever.

Proverbs 10:30
The righteous will never be uprooted, but the wicked will not remain in the land.

(4) Those who inherit the land are people belonging of YHWH, growing from the shoot planted by Him, the work of His hands and the display of His splendour:

Isaiah 60:21
Then will all your people be righteous and they will possess the land forever. They are the shoot I have planted, the work of my hands, for the display of my splendor.

(5) Finally, those who inheirt the land are people who follow only justice (righteousness) alone:

Deuteronomy 16:20
Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land YHWH your God is giving you.

Tonight, as I search the scriptures, I learn that this teaching of our Master Yeshua the Anointed One carries the essence of an ancient truth given in the Word of YHWH : that the meek, those who are blessed by YHWH, those who are righteous and who follow justice alone will inherit the land promised by YHWH.

Yes, the meek who will inherit the land are people belonging to YHWH Elohim, the shoot planted by YHWH, the very works of His hands.

The meek are a splendid people. They are the display of YHWH's splendour. Blessed are the meek.

If thus did God love us, we also ought one another to love.

Dear Christian Bro. & Sis,

1 John 4:11 Young's Literal Translation, tells us

Beloved, if thus did God love us, we also ought one another to love;

The Apostle John reminds us in verses 12 to 19 that God remains in us and His love is perfected in us if we love one another, that as we confess Yeshua the Son of God and remain in this love of God, we remain in God and God remains in us. Verse 19, in particular, tells us, "we -- we love him, because He -- He first loved us".

This reminder is reiterated in verses 20 and 21 as follows,

1 John 4: 20-21 YLT

20 if any one may say -- 'I love God,' and his brother he may hate, a liar he is; for he who is not loving his brother whom he hath seen, God -- whom he hath not seen -- how is he able to love?
21 and this [is] the command we have from Him, that he who is loving God, may also love his brother.

Brothers and sisters, how shall we obey this command to love one another? What shall we do to love our brethren whom we see, so that we can also honestly say we love God whom we have not seen?

Thanks be to YHWH our God and Father in Heaven, for he has given us detailed instructions on how to love our fellow brother. These instructions are recorded in the Torah of Moshe, in the book of Leviticus, chapter 19, where Moshe commands the people of Israel not to steal, nor to cheat, nor to rob, nor show partiality nor even carry tales against their brothers. The only difference is that, besides using the term "brother", Moshe also employed the terms "one another", and "neighbour" to refer to a fellow Israelite.

Let us read this passage more closely.

Leviticus 19: 11-18 NKJV
11 ‘You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.
12 And you shall not swear by My name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I AM YHWH.
13 ‘You shall not cheat your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you all night until morning.
14 You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God: I AM YHWH.
15 ‘You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.
16 You shall not go about as a talebearer among your people; nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor: I AM YHWH.
17 ‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.
18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I AM YHWH.

Notice firstly, that the above commandments of Torah, come directly from YHWH our God. Four times, in verses 12, 14, 16 and 18 we read the declaration, "I am YHWH".  These are not mere opinions nor suggestions of Moshe. They are not the word of Man. Instead they are the Word of God himself.

Secondly, note that all the commands forbid us to commit evil act against our fellow brothers. We are to avoid acting wickedly
- neither with our hands (stealling, putting a stumbling block before the blind),
- nor with our words (lying, swearing falsely, cursing the deaf, talebearing),
- nor with the thoughts in our minds (injustice in judgment, partiality against the poor, favour to the powerful)
- nor in the desire of our hearts (cheating, robbing, withholding wages of the hired workers)

Finally, we see that this list brings us to the command to love our fellow brothers and sisters from our hearts. We are commanded not to hate our brother in our heart, but instead to rebuke him if he has sinned against God (v17). We are not to take vengeance, not even to bear any grudge against fellow children of God's people (v18a).

Most important of all, we are commanded to love our neighbour as ourselves (v18b). This command is described by our Master Yeshua in Matthew 22:39 as the Second Greatest Commandment in the Torah.

When we look into the Torah of YHWH, we can now understand better the instruction in 1 John 4:21. By reading the commandments of YHWH in Leviticus 19, we can heed the reminder by the Apostle John,

1 John 4: 21 YLT

and this [is] the command we have from Him, that he who is loving God, may also love his brother.

Brothers and Sisters, let us love one another.