Tag: dailyprompt

Understanding Rosh Hashanah: A Guide to Yom Teruah

Understanding Rosh Hashanah: A Guide to Yom Teruah

Today on the modern Jewish calendar marks, Rosh Hashanah. The Jewish new year. They have incorporated it into Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets. It is the only Biblical Feast that does not have a known day or hour as it is marked by the sighting of the first sliver of the moon or the waxing crescent. Teruah, in Hebrew means to cry-out, Shout loudly, and sound the trumpet. It is a call to attention! The fall Feast days have arrived and it begins with a call to attention, and a focus on repentance until the day of atonement, Yom Kippur, now 10 days away. Modern Judaism has removed the waiting and marked a generally close proximity start to Rosh Hashanah.

Rosh Hashanah, or Head of the Year. They call it the new year even though quite clearly the Torah calls this Feast Yom Teruah, and places it in the seventh month. Pesach, or Passover, is in Nisan which is the first month of the year according to Torah. They still use it to call in a time of reflection to begin the (spiritual) new year with repentance but obedience is found in the little things. And it is easy, if one isn’t paying attention to lose sight of the little things and thereby missing the entire thing altogether.

In my daily reading of Scripture I am in 1 Samuel. In chapter eight verses six through nine the people ask for a king and Elohim responds to their request by telling Samuel, “But when they said, ‘Give us a king to judge us,’ their demand was displeasing in the sight of Samuel; so he prayed to YHWH. And YHWH said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their King. Just as they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking Me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to their voice; but you must solemnly warn them and show them the manner of the king who will reign over them.”

When I began waking up to Torah and to Faith in Yahoshua as well as obedience to the commandments of Elohim. As Revelation 14:12 says: “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Yahoshua (Jesus).” I started by reading and reading and reading the Torah. What is the history being told. When you understand its history and the arch of faith the people of Israel were on you can better understand that the modern church is essentially on this same arch. We have brushed aside the commands of God for the traditions of men. We have demanded our own way and by so doing have rejected God, the one who has brought us out of spiritual bondage.

And even still we are unhappy. Look at the rest of the lesson found in 1 Samuel. Just a few chapters later, ten verse twenty-seven we read: “But some worthless men said, ‘How can this man save us?’ So they despised him and brought him no gifts; but Saul remained silent about it.” God gave them the king they demanded and still they were not happy. Are we not often of the same mind. We pray and pray for answers, and when the answer is given we are still unhappy with the answer.

God has told us in His Word when the Feasts are and what they are meant to accomplish. Yet, modern Judaism has changed their meanings and essentially the timing. The modern church has thrown them out entirely for man made traditions of Christmas, the celebration of Jesus’ birth and coming to dwell with us. Which is the very celebration of the Feast of Booths or Feast of Tabernacles, the last of the Fall Feasts. They have chosen Easter over Passover discarding the very meal they claim to take in remembrance of Him.

Both of these are marks of a rebellious spirit of which we are warned of in Scripture multiple times. Daniel 7:25 says; “He will speak out against the Most High and oppress the saints of the Most High, intending to change the appointed times and laws; and the saints will be given into his hand for a time, and times, and half a time.” ‘He’ who Daniel is referring to is the lawless one, the Anti-Messiah or Anti-Christ. The coming of the lawless one, as we read in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 is marked by, well lawlessness, which is to say without Torah.

“The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder, and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie, in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness.” What is the TRUTH, God’s Word is Truth. John 17:17 – “Set them apart for holiness by means of the truth – Your Word is TRUTH.” These are the words Yahoshua prayed before being hung on a tree. And wickedness which they delight are the very acts committed outside of Torah.

Here is the stated instruction for the Feast of Trumpets or Yom Teruah in Leviticus 23:23-25 – “YHWH Adonai also said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly announced by trumpet blasts. You must not do any regular work, but you are to present a food offering to YHWH.’” Later in Numbers 29:1-6 we read:

“On the first day of the seventh month, you are to hold a sacred assembly, and you must not do any regular work. This will be a day for you to sound the trumpets. As a pleasing aroma to YHWH, you are to present a burnt offering of one young bull, one ram, and seven male lambs a year old, all unblemished, together with their grain offerings of fine flour mixed with oil—three-tenths of an ephah with the bull, two-tenths of an ephah with the ram, and a tenth of an ephah with each of the seven male lambs. Include one male goat as a sin offering to make atonement for you. These are in addition to the monthly and daily burnt offerings with their prescribed grain offerings and drink offerings. They are a pleasing aroma, a food offering to YHWH.”

There are other references throughout the Tenakh of Yom Teruah or the Feast of Trumpets as well. Ezra 3:1-6 and Nehemiah 8:1-12 and a poetic reference in Psalm 81:3. There is also a coming significance to the Feast of Trumpets. Just as Adonai fulfilled the Spring Feasts through the Death and Resurrection of our Messiah Yahoshua, so the Fall Feasts will mark His coming again. This time not as suffering servant but as Adonai and King!

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
“For Adonai Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Messiah will be the first to rise. After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Adonai in the air. And so we will always be with Adonai.”

1 Corinthians 15:51-53
“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must be clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.“

These are not Jewish Feasts, these are Biblical Feasts, they are indeed Elohim’s Feasts and they are for both the Israelite and the foreigner who dwells among them. Those who call on the name of Yahoshua are grafted into the root and that roots foundation is Elohim’s Word which taken in its entirety is not an unbearable yoke but freedom from sin and death.

Take up the Word of Truth and discover all that it has for you in keeping the Feasts of Elohim.

You are loved,
cj

Podcast Episode: Historical Events Modern Application: Joshua and the Battle of Jericho

Podcast Episode: Historical Events Modern Application: Joshua and the Battle of Jericho

Pip: There is a battle strategy in the Hebrew scriptures that involves walking in circles and shouting, and somehow it works — which raises the obvious question of what exactly is going on beneath the surface of that story.

Mara: That question is exactly where cj takes us on The Way of the Rabbi — into the Battle of Jericho, and what obedience and covenant actually mean when you read the text closely. Let’s start with the walls, and what had to happen before they fell.

Historical Events Modern Application: Joshua and the Battle of Jericho

Pip: The post opens with a military strategy that, on its face, makes no sense — march around a city for six days, then seven laps on day seven, blow some trumpets, shout, and the city falls. The real argument, though, is about what happened the night before any of that, in the chapter break most readers skip right over.

Mara: The setup is Joshua 5, where Joshua encounters a figure with a drawn sword. The post reads the commander’s reply to “Are you on our side or on the side of our enemies?” as something more conditional than a flat no: “Nought, but I am the commander of Adonai’s army.”

Pip: And that word — nought — is doing a lot of work. In early English it means nothing, zero, but also whether or otherwise. So the commander is not saying he is neutral. He is stating a condition: if you obey, I fight for you; if not, I stand aside.

Mara: The post makes the grammar explicit: “If you will obey Adonai, you will defeat the enemy and will enter the promise land. The Commander wasn’t saying, ‘No, I am neither here for you nor them.’ He was saying in a poetic way which Joshua, a Hebrew would have understood, ‘If you obey, than I have been commanded to fight for you, but if not than I have been commanded to standby.'”

Pip: So obedience is not a tactic — it is the condition that determines whether divine backing is even in play. Which makes the Achan episode immediately after Jericho the proof of concept.

Mara: Achan takes from the devoted spoils, and Israel is routed at Ai. Adonai’s explanation to Joshua is direct: “Israel has sinned; they have transgressed My covenant that I commanded them, and they have taken some of what was devoted to destruction. Indeed, they have stolen and lied, and they have put these things with their own possessions. This is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies.”

Pip: One person’s disobedience, and the whole army loses its footing. The stakes are not abstract.

Mara: The post then draws the line into the New Covenant — the punishment has changed, death is not the sentence for those in Messiah, but the covenant itself is not void. Confession and repentance replace the death sentence Achan faced, but the call to walk in obedience remains. As the post puts it, grace saves us to walk in the commands, not away from them.

Pip: The modern church has, apparently, run the logic backward — decided that if obedience is work, and works are bad, then disobedience must somehow be grace. The post calls that out pretty directly.

Mara: It closes with Paul’s line to Timothy — “ALL of Scripture is profitable for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness” — and frames every good work as obedience to God’s instruction. The challenge issued to the reader mirrors Joshua’s challenge to Israel: choose this day whom you will serve.

Pip: Covenant, obedience, consequence — the walls of Jericho are just where the story gets concrete enough to see all three at once.

Mara: What stays with me is the chapter-break problem — meaning hidden in the seam between two passages most readers treat as separate.

Pip: Read the whole thing. The walls are still falling.

Read the entire post here: Historical Events Modern Application: Joshua and the Battle of Jericho

Historical Events Modern Application: Joshua and the Battle of Jericho

Historical Events Modern Application: Joshua and the Battle of Jericho

One of my favorite historical events in Scripture is the ‘Battle of Jericho‘. It has always sparked interest into the idea of what it truly means to follow the instruction of God. Joshua, was instructed to lead Israel into battle against the city of Jericho. However, the military tactic employed seems a bit suspect. Joshua 6 is where we read the instructions for battle. Circle the city once a day for six days then on the seventh day circle it seven times. At which point instruct the priests to blow the trumpets, the people to shout, and in this there will be victory? I am no military expert but this doesn’t seem like a winning strategy. Often there are historical accounts that leave humanity scratching their heads. This is one of them. What I think is often missed by many, due to the arbitrary barriers set up to make our Bibles more easily navigable, is what preceded the instruction we read in Joshua 6.

Obedience or disobedience is the trigger. At the end of Joshua 5. Israel had just crossed the Jordan River and were healing from circumcision. They were now also preparing to battle Jericho. “One day, when Joshua was there by Jericho, he raised his eyes and looked; and in front of him stood a man with his drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went over to him and asked him, ‘Are you on our side or on the side of our enemies?’ ‘No,’ he replied, ‘but I am the commander of Adonai’s army; I have come just now.‘” Here is an interaction with an intriguing question. Joshua asks, “Are you on our side or on the side of our enemies?”

Depending on your translation the response from the Commander of Yah’s Army is; ‘Neither’, ‘No’, ‘Nay’, or ‘Truly’. The word being translated is the Hebrew word לֹא – lôʼ – or לֹה lôh; an easy pronunciation is ‘low’. In Hebrew, Aramaic and other poetic languages, word order changes the definition, causing meaning to alter. Sometimes slightly and other times dramatically. In this instance if we look at the variables there are a few defining words that are being overlooked. Those words being, otherwise, whether, and nought. Each of these possibilities relay a message to the question at hand, which is or was, “Are you on our side or on the side of our enemies?” The word I find most fascinating is nought.

His response, “Nought, but I am the commander of Adonai’s army . . .” This is easily glanced over because the chapter comes to a close and in our trained minds we close the chapter and enter the next. Connect, yes, but separate, new thoughts enter and because the poetic nature of the original language is lost we lose the deeper meaning. Even if it is subtly there in the shadows. Nought, from early English, means nothing, a zero sum. However, it is also, whether or otherwise. In this defining moment the Commander of God’s Army is there to instruct and now the variable ‘IF’ comes into play.

Somewhere along the way the modern church has taken walking in obedience to works. And in that definition has labeled work as bad, grace as good, and if obedience is work, then disobedience must by reason mean grace. Can you imagine what would have happen if Joshua had the same modern understanding to God’s instruction? Joshua would have went back to the people of Israel and said, “Ok, the plan is we do nothing because obedience is work and works are bad, so we will be disobedient because disobedience is grace.” Yikes, Jericho doesn’t fall and Israel continues to wander the desert.

You see Nought, Otherwise, Whether; these words tell a story. If you will obey Adonai, you will defeat the enemy and will enter the promise land. The Commander wasn’t say, “No, I am neither here for you nor them.” He was saying in a poetic way which Joshua, a Hebrew would have understood, “If you obey, than I have been commanded to fight for you, but if not than I have been commanded to standby.” Neither for or against but an observer.

Let’s draw on another story which occurs after Jericho has fallen. Joshua is obedient, relays the instruction of Adonai to the people. The people follow the instruction. The Commander of Elohim’s Army, deployed his troops, the walls of Jericho come crumbling down. Israel is victorious. However, one Israelite, Achan, of the tribe of Judah, disobey’s the fullness of the command. He takes from the bounty Adonai said not to. Now when the Israelites go up against Ai they are pushed back and defeated. What happen? Adonai tells Joshua this in the 7th Chapter . . .

“But Adonai said to Joshua, “Stand up! Why have you fallen on your face? Israel has sinned; they have transgressed My covenant that I commanded them, and they have taken some of what was devoted to destruction. Indeed, they have stolen and lied, and they have put these things with their own possessions. This is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies.“

Clearly, we see what is at stake when it comes to being obedient to the commandments of God and remaining in covenant with Him. The importance is not lost in the New Covenant found in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and later quoted in Hebrews. What has changed is the punishment for disobedience. What was the punishment Achan suffered? Well, after he confesses his sin Achan is put to death.

“So Joshua said to Achan, ‘My son, give glory to Adonai, the God of Israel, and make a confession to Him. I urge you to tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me. “It is true,” Achan replied, “I have sinned against Yahweh, the God of Israel. This is what I did: When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.’”

Today under the New Covenant, we are no longer under the penalty of sin if we are in Messiah Yahoshua. Instead we are under the Covenant of Grace. Our penalty is paid, but this doesn’t render the Covenant void, by NO MEANS! Rather, by grace we have been saved to walk in the covenant, the commands, ordinances and statutes of Adonai without the fear of death, when we brake His commandments. You see, when we sin, we confess and are forgiven under the new covenant but under the old covenant confession did not lead to a commuting of the death sentence as we read in the account of Achan.

“So Joshua sent messengers who ran to the tent, and there it all was, hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath. They took the things from inside the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites, and spread them out before Adonai.Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the cloak, the bar of gold, his sons and daughters, his oxen and donkeys and sheep, his tent, and everything else he owned, and brought them to the Valley of Achor. “Why have you brought this trouble upon us?” said Joshua. “Today Adonai will bring trouble upon you!” And all Israel stoned him to death. Then they stoned the others and burned their bodies. And they heaped over Achan a large pile of rocks that remains to this day. So Adonai turned from His burning anger. Therefore that place is called the Valley of Achor to this day.”

Praise be to Adonai that through Yahoshua Messiah we have the forgiveness of sin. Not that we are free to live in sin. But that we walk in freedom, knowing that if we sin trying to walk out obedience, we remain under grace. We only need to repent from our sin, and return to Gods way, return to His instruction, His Torah.

Don’t listen to me but the Word. My hope is that my letters lead you to study the Word not man. Put down the commentary, the latest book by your favorite preacher/teacher and get into the Word. Learn languages, not that you have to become bilingual or multilingual but study its grammar, structure, meanings, to discover the poetic nature of Gods writings so that you can grow in understanding. “Knowing that ALL of Scripture is profitable for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.” As Paul writes to Timothy. And know that “every good work”, IS obedience to Gods instruction.

As Joshua challenged Israel so I also challenge you today: “Now, therefore, fear Yahweh and serve Him in sincerity and truth; cast aside the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt, and serve Adonai. But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve Yahweh, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve Adonai!”

To make this challenge modern and fitting for today I say: Now, therefore, love Adonai our Heavenly Father and serve Him in sincerity and truth; cast aside the gods your fathers served and the traditions of men, and serve Adonai. But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve God by obeying His Word, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of the land you now dwell or the traditions of man regardless of there basis. As for me and my house, we will serve Adonai, observing all that Yahoshua has taught including keeping the commands of the Father as Revelation 14:12 says: “Here is a call for the perseverance of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Yahoshua.”

You are loved,
cj

Podcast Episode: Understanding the Moral Debate: Abortion and its Implications

Podcast Episode: Understanding the Moral Debate: Abortion and its Implications

Pip: There’s a streaming service out there that markets itself on wholesome family content — and somehow that’s where this episode begins, with a hymn, a British abolitionist, and a question that has no comfortable answer.

Mara: cj’s writing takes us into the moral and philosophical territory of abortion, tracing a line from William Wilberforce’s biography through scripture, law, and the question of what we lose when we define life by its quality. Let’s start with that argument.

Understanding the Moral Debate: Abortion and its Implications

Pip: The post opens not with a policy brief but with a biography — specifically, a detail about William Wilberforce that stops the reader cold. The question underneath it is ancient: who decides which lives are worth sustaining?

Mara: The setup is a passage from Stephen Tomkins’s biography of Wilberforce. Here it is: “In later life he often reflected with gratitude that if he had been born in what he was pleased to call ‘less civilized times’, his parents would not have taken the trouble to keep him alive.”

Pip: So the man who dismantled the British slave trade — one of the most consequential moral reformers in history — was himself a weak, sickly child who, by a different calculus, might never have been kept alive. That’s the stakes the post is building toward.

Mara: And the post connects that directly to current law. Massachusetts recently eliminated gestational limits on abortion, joining Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington D.C. The post pulls from Britannica to name the reasons often cited as justification — quality of life, physical or mental well-being, rape, incest, fetal abnormality.

Pip: The post pushes back on the word “serious” in that last category — arguing it’s undefined, that what counts as serious shifts person to person, and that the word functions more to soften opposition than to set a real boundary.

Mara: Right. And the post returns that back to Wilberforce: poor eyesight, small, sickly — none of it disqualifying by the standards of his time and place, but potentially disqualifying by ours. The post asks, plainly, how many breakthroughs, leaders, and lives were foreclosed by that same reasoning.

Pip: It’s a question the post acknowledges no one can answer — and says no one dares try.

Mara: The post closes with scripture from James, First Peter, and Ecclesiastes, grounding the argument in the idea that life is knit together by the Creator — and that choosing otherwise is, in the post’s own image, ripping the needles from His hands.

Pip: The metaphor lands harder than most policy arguments do.

Mara: The thread running through all of this is the question of what we lose when quality of life becomes the measure of a life worth living.

Pip: Wilberforce wouldn’t have passed that test. Worth sitting with before the next episode.

Read the post in its entirety here: Understanding the Moral Debate: Abortion and its Implications

Understanding the Moral Debate: Abortion and its Implications

Understanding the Moral Debate: Abortion and its Implications

“What is the meaning of life?” “To be or not to be? That is the question.” “There is a time for every purpose under heaven.” “Live in the moment, walk humbly, work hard.” “Vanity, all is vanity.”

I subscribed to a streaming service the other day. It prides itself on wholesome, family entertainment. I caved, after seeing a particular trailer for a film that I could only find on their streaming platform. The film was called, Amazing Grace. From Google, “The film tells the true story of British politician William Wilberforce. He led a long fight to end the slave trade in the 18th century. It also features the hymn’s writer, former slave trader John Newton.”

After watching the movie, Amazing Grace, I was moved to learn more about William Wilberforce. I found a Biography on William Wilberforce, written by Stephen Tomkins. I am only a few pages in and I read this paragraph.

“Robert and his wife Elizabeth had three children besides William – all daughters – but only one of the girls, Sarah, survived infancy, and William himself was a weak, sickly child, small and with poor eyesight. In later life he often reflected with gratitude that if he had been born in what he was pleased to call ‘less civilized times’, his parents would not have taken the trouble to keep him alive.”

I was struck by the last line, “his parents would not have taken the trouble to keep him alive.” My mind immediately went to Massachusetts new abortion law eliminating any gestational limits. Not to single out a single state as it isn’t limited to just Massachusetts. In fact, they simply joined a growing list of states to take this step securing the right to abortion up to birth. The states Massachusetts joins, Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and the District of Columbia (Washington D.C.).

What are the reasons for abortion that some find being a “good argument”? In my readings on it, it appears to be mainly, quality of life. Here is an exert from U.S. Abortions Rights by State, at Britannica.com. “Induced abortions can be performed for various reasons, including to preserve the mother’s physical or mental well-being, in cases of rape or incest, to prevent the birth of a child with serious abnormalities, or for social or economic reasons. When abortions are performed to preserve the mother’s well-being or in cases of rape or incest, they are often considered therapeutic.”

Some will call me deceptive for not highlighting the word serious when talking about abnormalities. Well, my reasoning is quite simple, serious is undefined, what constitutes serious for one individual may not for another. Therefore, serious is added to quiet dissension, and for no other reason.

Imagine if William Wilberforce’s parents lived in a society such as ours, in such moral decay. What would have been his outcome? I find it striking that Stephen Tomkins points out that William thought it a good thing that he wasn’t born in ‘less civilized times’, or his parents might have chosen not to keep him alive. It sounds barbaric and yet here we are in 2026, modern medical advancements beyond imagination when William Wilberforce was born, August 24, 1759.

How many William’s never saw the light of day because of convenience, or quality of life? How many medical breakthroughs lost, cultural revolutionary leaders missing, quality of life enhancements never realized, because of ‘therapeutic’ reasons? No one can answer those questions. No one dares try.

“What is the meaning of life?” “To be or not to be? That is the question.” “There is a time for every purpose under heaven.” “Live in the moment, walk humbly, work hard.” “Vanity, all is vanity.”

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. James 1:27

If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Messiah. 1 Peter 1:17-19

Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of Adonai. 1 Peter 2:1-3

The word says, metaphorically, that we are knit together by God in our mother’s womb. Using this metaphor, when we as a society choose abortion, are we not also ripping the knitting needles out of the hand of the Creator?

The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

You are loved,
cj

Podcast Episode: Understanding God’s Covenant: Written on Our Hearts

Podcast Episode: Understanding God’s Covenant: Written on Our Hearts

Pip: There is a corner of the internet telling you not to be afraid — 365 times a year, apparently — and then there is cj, writing for The Way of the Rabbi, who would like a word about what the fear of God actually means.

Mara: This episode goes deep into Hebrews 10 — covenant, Torah, sacrifice, and what it means to have God’s instruction written on your heart rather than carved in stone.

Pip: Let’s start with the covenant itself.

Understanding God’s Covenant: Written on Our Hearts

Mara: The post opens with a tension the internet tends to flatten: the difference between “fear not” as comfort and the fear of God as the beginning of wisdom. Both live in Hebrews 10, and the post argues the church has traded one for the other at its own cost.

Pip: The anchor quote comes early, and it does not ease you in. “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” That is Hebrews 10:31, and it is not a metaphor being softened anywhere in this piece.

Mara: What that verse is doing is framing the whole chapter. Hebrews 10 opens as a commentary on Psalm 40, arguing that the Torah’s yearly sacrifices were a shadow — not the substance. The substance is Messiah’s offering, which accomplished what the shadow could only gesture toward: the exchange of sin for righteousness.

Pip: So the yearly sacrifice covered. The one offering exchanged. That is a meaningful distinction — covering versus exchange is not just a theological nicety, it is the hinge the rest of the argument swings on.

Mara: And the post brings that home through Jeremiah 31, quoted in Hebrews 10. “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says YHWH: I will put My Torah upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them.”

Pip: Which raises the honest question the post actually asks out loud: if Torah is abolished, why write it on anyone’s heart?

Mara: The answer the post gives is precise. What Messiah’s blood removes is the law of sin and its consequence — death. Not the call to walk in obedience. The covenant written on the heart beckons toward the throne of grace, not away from instruction.

Pip: Holiness as destination, not as the price of entry. That reframe is doing a lot of work quietly.

Mara: It lands in Hebrews 10:19-25 — the “let us” passage. Draw near, hold fast, spur one another on. And then the warning: willful sin after receiving the truth leaves no remaining sacrifice. The post closes on Revelation 14:12 — “the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Yahoshua.”

Pip: Fear and confidence, written on the same heart.

Mara: The thread running through all of this is covenant as living obligation — not abolished, not optional, written inward.

Pip: Next time, we will see where that obligation leads when it walks out the door and into the world.

Read the full post: Understanding God’s Covenant: Written on our Hearts

Understanding God’s Covenant: Written on Our Hearts

Understanding God’s Covenant: Written on Our Hearts

“It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Hebrews 10:31

There are many meme’s and TicToc posts that will tell you to “fear not”. They will claim that “fear not”, is quoted 365 times in Scripture. And although this is a great comfort to many and there is some truth behind its sentiment, the reality remains, “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.” As found in Proverbs 1:7 and 9:10.

Now before you jump on me saying that these are not the same thing, I know, but I want to draw a line of comparison. The Church has gone from reverent fear of God, to a flippant cursory reading and understanding of His Word. Which has lead to misunderstandings and false teachings of what God calls His followers to.

Let’s dive into Hebrews 10 where we will discover both, security–fear not, and fear– the beginning of wisdom. Hebrews 10 opens up as a commentary on Psalm 40:6-8. There is a lot that is being said here. It begins talking about the Law, ‘Torah’, being only a shadow of things to come and not the very form of things. The writer says, this “can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.” The shadow is not the fullness. Where the yearly sacrifice stated in the Law brought a covering for sin. The fullness of what was to come in Messiah, was the exchange our sin for His righteousness.

Which brings to light the importance of Passover and why holding to all of the Feasts, as memorial stones, is so important. We see the permanence of Messiahs offering and the victory won for those who are found in Him.

Now continuing in Hebrews 10 what is the conclusion drawn by the author on the significance of Messiah’s offering over the yearly sacrifice? “Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshippers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?” The writer now draws directly on Psalm 40; “Sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for Me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (In the scroll of the Book it is written of Me) To do Your will, O God.'” Interestingly the author leaves off the last line of verse eight, “Your Law is within My heart.” Which is done on purpose as the author will shortly bring this idea home.

We who are in Messiah Yahoshua (Jesus), can rest in knowing that our sins have been exchanged for the righteousness of the Son of God, once and for all. “But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” No longer are we bound by the early restrictions of a brick and mortar temple and beholden to priests to offer sacrifice. We now can come boldly to the throne of grace having written on our hearts the Law of God. His Holy Instruction, the Torah.

“And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, ‘This is the covenant that I will amen with them after those days, says YHWH: I will put My Torah upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them,’ He then says, ‘And their sins and their lawless (Torahless) deeds I will remember no more.‘” Here the author of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah 31.

Honest question if the Torah is done away with, why then would He write it on our hearts? When in true understanding we see that what is done away with by the blood of Messiah is the law of sin and its conclusion, death. Not the need to walk in obedience of the Fathers instruction. In Messiah, we are not free to sin or to walk according to our own desires, but to walk according to what has been written on our hearts.

We have a new boldness in Messiah on how we ought to walk and conduct ourselves, in love and kindness, and in obedience to the Fathers instruction found in the very scrolls, that the author of Hebrews is quoting.

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Yahoshua, by the new and living way opened for us through the curtain of His body, and since we have a Great Priest (Yahoshua) over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold resolutely to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good works. Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:19-25

To what are we encouraging one another on to? It is in the conduct of those set apart for good works. Are we to make the sacrifice of Messiah to no effect by living as the world? The author of Hebrews says NO! “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.”

You have been called to holiness, you have been called to return to Gods instruction. We are no longer bound by sin unto death by the blood of Messiah but we are still bound by a covenant that is written on our hearts and on our minds. It beckons us onward towards the throne of grace. In the presence of the saints who encourage us to keep the faith, to keep the promises, to keep the instruction. “Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Yahoshua.” Revelation 14:12.

“Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think one deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” Do you honestly believe that we insult the Spirit of Grace by seeking to honor the covenant written on our hearts? The very covenant God said, “I WILL put MY TORAH upon their HEARTS, and on their MIND I WILL write them.”

“For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.’ And again, ‘YHWH will judge His people.’ It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Hebrews 10:30-31

I encourage you to read God’s Word daily, make it a practice to know Him and His instruction. Desire to know that covenant has He or wants to write on your heart and on your mind. Seek Him, seek truth.

You are loved,
cj

Podcast Episode: Gluttons of Grace: The Spiritual Dangers of Gluttony

Podcast Episode: Gluttons of Grace: The Spiritual Dangers of Gluttony

Pip: There’s a spiritual danger hiding in plain sight — and it’s not the one the church usually wants to talk about at the potluck.

Mara: cj’s latest post on The Way of the Rabbi takes on gluttony — not just the physical kind, but what the piece calls “gluttony of grace,” the habit of treating God’s patience as a license to keep sinning. Let’s start with what that actually means and why it matters.

Gluttons of Grace: The Spiritual Dangers of Gluttony

Pip: The post opens with a disarmingly ordinary scene — a fast food order, a one-dollar add-on, and a question: is that gluttony? But that small moment is a doorway into something much larger, the idea that we overindulge spiritually the same way we overindulge at the counter.

Mara: The post grounds the argument in Ephesians 2:10, setting up the kind of life we’re actually called to: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Messiah Yahoshua to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.”

Pip: So the stakes here aren’t just dietary. The argument is that grace was never meant to be a standing permission slip — it was meant to launch us into something, a life shaped by the Father’s instruction, the Torah.

Mara: Right, and the post is careful to separate that from works-based salvation. The point isn’t that obedience earns anything. It’s that continuing deliberately in sin while claiming grace is its own kind of excess — the “gluttony of grace” the title names.

Pip: The church’s reluctance to preach on gluttony gets a dry observation here — that it hits too close to home and is harder to hide than most sins. Which is a fair point. Gluttony is the one vice you can’t keep in a private browser tab.

Mara: The post invokes Ezekiel 36:26-27 to answer the objection that Torah-keeping is simply impossible: “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” The Spirit, not willpower, is the mechanism.

Pip: And then Paul — the one, as the post puts it, “in whom so many twist to justify their sinful natures” — gets quoted directly against that very use. Shall we continue in sin so grace may increase? Certainly not.

Mara: The post closes on Matthew 7, the sobering passage where Yahoshua tells those who performed miracles in his name: “I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.” That’s the endpoint of gluttony of grace taken to its conclusion.

Pip: And the landing is Proverbs 23 — a father’s plea to a son to guide his heart on the right course. The frame shifts from warning to invitation.

Mara: Which is really the post’s whole posture. Not condemnation, but a call to search out truth and walk in it — a heart of flesh instead of stone.

Pip: Grace as a floor rather than a ceiling — that reframe does a lot of quiet work.

Mara: It does. The question underneath all of it is what we’re actually being saved toward, not just saved from. Worth sitting with until next time.

Read the full post: Gluttons of Grace: The Spiritual Dangers of Gluttony

Gluttons of Grace: The Spiritual Dangers of Gluttony

Gluttons of Grace: The Spiritual Dangers of Gluttony

The other night I ate out. It was fast food so nothing fancy and I brought it home so is that actually eating out, technically? The place I chose had a special menu option of a one dollar item. So I added it to my order. However, I didn’t take anything away from what I was already ordering. Therefore, in the end I over ate. Is this the definition of gluttony?

What is the definition of gluttony? The definition is quite simple, gluttony is “excessive eating and drinking.” It is also numbered among the often spoken of, seven deadly sins. Side note here the seven deadly sins although can be found separately within Scripture they do not appear as a list. It is believed that the seven deadly sins was coined by Pope Gregory I. Now gluttony in Hebrew can also be translated as, to be vile, to be worthless, to be insignificant. Based on these definitions, being glutinous, doesn’t sound so appealing.

The church doesn’t like to talk much about gluttony. If you ask me it is because this one hits way too close to home and is far harder to hide. Everyone has their struggles so I am not trying to be insensitive just pointing out an observation. There is plenty that I have had to overcome and others I am still battling, to that I say fight the good fight.

One issue I see abounding in the church today is, gluttony of grace. Taking advantage of Elohim’s patience. Without a doubt I have fallen into this trap as well. However, once one begins to realize that Yahoshua (Jesus) kept and taught the Torah and that He used it to teach, it cannot be denied or swept away.

In John eight Yahoshua makes a statement that many ignore or give it a cursory glance. In being brought the woman caught in adultery at the end of the encounter He says to the woman; “Neither do I condemn you: go, and sin no more.” Rather than take this verse as a statement of fact, many treat it as an invitation to change. Although they are partly correct they are missing the bigger picture. We are called to abound in good works.

Not a works based salvation but good works because we are saved. Abounding in the good works prepared for us before the foundation of the world. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Messiah Yahoshua to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.” (Ephesians 2:10 Berean Study Bible). What are these good works? Some would say they are the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians five. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are in Messiah have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

Again this isn’t a wrong belief it is simply incomplete. The good works involve keeping that which the Father established for His people. His instruction, the Torah, as we walk in the light of His Truth. The problem is that we see a list of rules and say it is impossible. Rather than holding to the promise that the Holy Spirit brings in fulfillment of Ezekiels prophecy. Ezekiel 36:26-27 says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”

Paul himself, the one in whom so many twist to justify their sinful natures, said, “What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer? Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Messiah Yahoshua were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Messiah was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.”

Newness of life is not to continue to sin. Essentially becoming gluttons of grace. Then in the end finding out the one we claim to know, never knew us. Yahoshua said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Adonai, Adonai,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Adonai, Adonai, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’ Matthew 7:21-23.

Imagine finding out that we are vile, worthless, or insignificant. Because, instead of putting on the newness of life we walked as gluttons. Continuing in the traditions of man rather than searching out truth and living according to the Fathers instruction. Proverbs 23:15-19 is a good place to wrap things up. “My son, if your heart is wise, My own heart will indeed rejoice. My inmost being will rejoice  when your lips speak what is right. Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always continue in the fear of the YHWH. For surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off. Listen, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart on the right course.”

May we all seek for a heart of flesh from the Father. This is the Way of the Rabbi.

You are loved,
cj

Podcast Episode: Transforming Lives: Conforming vs. Standing Out

Podcast Episode: Transforming Lives: Conforming vs. Standing Out

Pip: There is a children’s Christmas program somewhere in the annals of history where one kid showed up in a three-piece brown suit, and it turns out that is the whole sermon.

Mara: That story comes from cj, writing at The Way of the Rabbi — and today we are sitting with what it actually means to live as someone set apart, from conformity and identity to the call to stand out in a world pulling hard the other direction.

Pip: Let’s start with the brown suit and what Romans has to say about it.

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Conforming vs. Standing Out

Mara: The central tension here is one believers navigate constantly — the pull to blend in versus the call to be genuinely different, not as a performance but as a lived reality. The question is what that actually looks like when no one is watching.

Pip: The setup is a second-grade Christmas program, one kid in a chocolate brown three-piece suit in a sea of green, and a teacher who thought putting him front and center as the trunk of the tree would help. It did not help. But the pivot to Romans 12 is where the real argument lands, and the text is direct: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”

Mara: So the upshot is that transformation is inward first — the visible difference in how someone lives is the outward sign of something already changed at the level of mind and orientation, not a set of external markers bolted on afterward.

Pip: And the post is careful to name what standing out is not. It is not a bumper sticker. It is not a Bible verse posted to social media. The question asked is sharper than that.

Mara: Right — “When you say no words what do your actions say? When you are at work, what does your production say? When you are out with friends, what do your habits say?” The measure is lifestyle, not signal.

Pip: There is also a warning woven in about comfort. The image used is a pot beginning to boil — too many people are so settled into the surrounding culture that they do not notice the temperature rising.

Mara: The passage from Micah gets pulled in here as well: “to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your Elohim.” That requirement, the post argues, is consistent across Moses, the prophets, and Paul — the Father’s standard does not shift.

Pip: The call at the end is to learn the way of the Rabbi, Yahoshua, and to study rather than inherit someone else’s tradition wholesale.

Mara: Standing out, it turns out, is less about being conspicuous and more about being rooted — which is a different kind of visible entirely.

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Pip: A brown suit in a sea of green. It is a small image for a large idea — that what you are wearing, spiritually speaking, should be unmistakable.

Mara: More from The Way of the Rabbi next time.

Read the post here: Transforming Lives: Conforming vs. Standing Out