A Dramatic Reading for Atonement Day

Yes, I know Yom Kippur is over. I know it well. In fact, I have a sore lower back from sleeping on a mild slope in our tent last night as we celebrate Sukkot by camping out together here in Atlanta. Oy, the first night sleeping somewhere other than my Tempur-pedic bed is always the worst.

Anyway, I wrote the monologue below to use in our Yom Kippur service as part of the worship. I think sometimes a little drama helps add to our sense of wonder at all that God has done.
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They’re coming for me soon. This is the end. Mother, wherever you are, please pray for your son. God, wherever you are, I never served you. I sinned against you. Will you help me now? Will you even help me now?

Here they are now, and they have two others. Two others to share my miserable fate. What have they done? Were they as wicked as me? Did they rob old men and scare old ladies? Did their swords taste flesh and blood and end the lives of men like mine did?
O God in heaven, they’ve already tortured one. He looks hardly alive. What cruelty is this?

Oh, now it’s the walk, the walk of shame. Look at the crowds. I had no idea there’d be so many. It’s Passover, that’s why. So many to see me die. So many to see my shame.

Look at them crying over him. Look at others spitting at him. They barely see me. This tortured one, he must be famous. He’s saying something to those women. What? When the wood is green? What’s this?

Here is our burden to carry. It’s heavy but it must be worse for him. How can he go on? Who is this man? What did he do?
On and on, my shoulders ache. My legs want to fold. Look, someone is being forced to help that man. He fell and couldn’t rise. The whip has barely fallen on my back, thanks to him. Whoever he is, I’m suffering less because of him.

O God in heaven, there’s the hill. Death is at my door, such a death.

O Lord, they’re forcing me on the ground. On my back. How will I bear this? O God, look at the nails. No, no, no . . .
. . .

O Lord, they’ve torn the manhood from me. They’ve destroyed me with nails and wood. O God, they’re lifting me up. Aaaaahhhh, it’s stretching me.

Who is this man? This man beside me. The sign says “King of the Jews.” Who is this?

Look how they mock him. The other crucified one, he mocks too. But there’s something different. Lord, who is this man? O Lord, my time has come. I deserve what I receive. But what of this man? He can’t be wicked like me. Look at him.

They mock him and he doesn’t show hate. He bears his pain in quiet weakness that seems strength. Who is this?

They’re asking him if he is the Messiah. O God, how cruel, they’re asking if he can save himself.

O God, I think you’re here. I know it . . . somehow. It’s this man. Who is he?

I have to say something. HEY YOU, YOU THIEF LIKE ME, YOU MURDERER AND LIAR, LEAVE HIM ALONE. DO YOU NOT FEAR GOD, SINCE YOU ARE CONDEMNED LIKE ME? WE DESERVE WHAT WE GET, BUT WHAT OF HIM? CAN’T YOU SEE IT? THIS MAN HAS DONE NOTHING WRONG.

Oh . . . hard to breathe . . . hard to talk. He’s looking at me. What’s his name? I think I heard it . . . Yeshua.

YESHUA, WHEN YOU COME INTO YOUR KINGDOM, PLEASE REMEMBER ME.

There I said it. Wait . . . he’s trying to speak. He has so little life left in him. Please God let me hear it. Please God.
He said it. He said, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

O God, paradise. The King of the Jews. Messiah. He said so. You heard him God. Let it be so.
. . .

O God, the pain, I can’t breathe. I will give up my last breath soon.

The king, he’s dead. He died fast. Soon they’ll break my legs. Soon I will breathe my last.

BUT LORD, I HEARD. THE KING SAID IT, MESSIAH, HE PROMISED. PARADISE. PARADISE. PARADISE IS COMING SOON.

The Four Parts of Atonement, a Yom Kippur Sermon

It’s the night before Sukkot Eve (the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles). For the Leman family, Sukkot starts early. My wife has been packing all day. I’ve spent hours at the stores buying what we need for our Sukkah and for food for the first few days. The families of Tikvat David camp out for the whole week together. It is a great time of togetherness.

We just finished Yom Kippur this weekend. It was a great community experience. God is among his people. I share with you a little theology in a sermon. I think atonement (by which I mean the entire process of restoring broken humanity) is a topic understood by many on a shallow level. Many think our atonement is done, past tense. Think again . . .

Atonement, cleansing, forgiveness, expiation, propitiation, reconciliation, ransom, redemption, salvation, restoration, justification.

There are so many images for what today [Yom Kippur] means. Biblical images for atonement include:
wiping away sins
cleansing sins
taking away sins
ransoming from sin
redeeming out of sin
forgiveness of sin
removing sins
rescuing from sin
bearing our sins
becoming a curse for us
dying in our place
being brought near through the blood
being reconciled to God
justification
removing condemnation

Atonement is a very detailed and rich concept. There is a lot to atonement. They all assume one thing. WE ARE BROKEN.

Imagine you find a little bird with a broken wing. You decide to fix the bird. You take it onto your porch. You make a box where the bird will be safe. You bind up its wing. You bring it bread and maybe worms. You nurture the bird and it is healed.

What exactly happened in the story of the bird?
You rescued it from dangers like being eaten by a cat.
You provided a rest in which the bird could be healed.
You gave the bird things it would need like food and binding its wing.
Something had to happen that you cannot make happen–something from above–the bird’s brokenness had to heal.

Now a bird heals rather quickly. A bird with a broken wing is a simple case compared to the broken world. Yet notice something:
a) The bird could not heal without help from a higher power.
b) We can’t even heal a bird, much less the world.

We can only help an injured bird to a degree. How much do we think we can fix the world? How much do we think we can heal our broken selves? How broken are we?

Let me suggest to you that we are broken in four ways, precisely. All the images of atonement come down to four areas. We are broken in four ways and God’s plan to restore us remedies all four areas.

We had sold ourselves to the enemy.
We are injured in our essential being.
We are guilty of transgressing eternal, unchanging law.
We are estranged from our creator.

How does God remedy these four areas of brokenness? By purchasing, healing, justifying, and reconciling.

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PURCHASING
John Eldredge, in his book Epic calls it ACT II. If you think of the Larger Story of history, it begins with ACT I. ACT I is not creation, but long before.

ACT I is when God was alone in the cosmos. Yeshua described this time in John 17:24, “Father, you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

But ACT II is where things started to go wrong. In ACT II, God and the heavenly beings were alone. One of those heavenly beings chose rebellion because God allowed the choice.

The rebellion spread almost immediately to the race of men. Theologians look at this two ways:
1) You might say we were all sold as corporate humanity when the first man and woman chose sides unwittingly.
2) You might say each one of us is sold the first moment in life we join the rebellion with out own actions.

Either way you want to put it…we are sold. We belong to the Prince of the Power of the Air, the Ruler of this World, the Lord of Death.

Many of the Bible’s words about ATONEMENT have to do with purchasing us. Ransoming or redeeming means paying to take someone or something out from one status to another. A slave can be bought out of slavery or ransomed. Farm produce can be bought out of a restriction on eating it or be redeemed.

We have been in a certain state: slaves to sin, slaves to the evil one.

Probably my favorite verse in the purchasing image of atonement is

1 Corinthians 6:20
You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

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HEALING
When we joined the rebellion of the evil one, we were so terribly broken. Our emotions are damaged. We were made for unending joy. Do you have unending joy? You don’t because your emotions are damaged.

Our wills are corrupted, like a cancer. We were made for perfect goodness. Are you perfectly good? You don’t because your will is corrupted, infested with a cancer of death.

There are many images of healing. God will circumcise hearts. God will give a new heart, not like the old one. God will put a new spirit in us.

My favorite, though, is about Yeshua. He said:

Mark 2:17
Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.

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JUSTIFYING
We are in trouble with the law. The written decree stands against us. We are under the curse of the Torah.

We don’t like it. We protest against it. What we want is for God to change his law…make it lighter, easier. Someday we will realize: we don’t really want that.

The world cannot be good if God lowers the standard. Good is good and evil is evil. The world is broken and needs to be fixed. The Law is not broken and should not be changed.

But where does that leave us? We stand condemned.

That’s why there is the image of atonement as justifying or removing condemnation. My favorite verse in this image of atonement is:

Colossians 2:13-14
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

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RECONCILING
And we are estranged from God. He used to walk with us in the Garden. He made us to be with him and for him to be with us. Our destiny is to live with God. Our purpose is to love and be loved.

This is fundamental to who we are. It’s why we’re always needy for love. It’s why we seek out friendship. It’s why family touches us at our deepest core.

It’s also why lovelessness slays us. It’s why we hurt more over love than any other thing. Lose your fortune and you’ll be in pain. Lose love and you’ll be devastated.

Well, we’ve lost the most important love. We’ve estranged ourselves from God. And he IS love!! My favorite verse on reconciliation is:

Romans 5:10
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

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Let me just put all that together for you on this Yom Kippur. We’re here about ATONEMENT, but do we know what it means?

You just got the worst news of your life. You lost your job, and you were sold into slavery in a far country. Your new masters are going to pick you up soon. Not only that, but you have cancer and it is eating away at you slowly. You will suffer with it for a long time.

It gets worse: you are a criminal. You are condemned to harsh labor and even torture. As if that weren’t enough, you lost all your loved ones. They all have abandoned you. From the adorable children who melt your hearts, to your spouse who you lean on for everything in life, to your friends and family. All have abandoned you.

It’s dark outside, cold and wet.
You are alone, terribly alone.
You have no one.
You do not belong to yourself, you have been sold.
You are not free, but hunted by the law.
You are not well, but being subjected to a slowly worsening cancer that rots you from within.
And you cannot do a thing to help yourself.

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

But this is Yom Kippur? This is about ATONEMENT. Can’t I get atonement?

A voice cries out:

The son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for the many. . . . Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Two Dwellings: A Story of Epic Proportions

The following story is about the larger story behind all that we see. It is about two dwellings of God with us. It is about the Holy of Holies and the Cross.

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In the beginning there was just HaShem. And he was complete and needed nothing. But out of great love he desired to make a world and to have sons and daughters.

And first he made the sons of God, beings very like him in their nature, glorious and resplendent above all other beings God would make. They were like the morning stars.

And then HaShem sang the song of Creation and the morning stars sang with him. The sons of God shouted for joy.

HaShem freely delighted in his sons and he wanted them to freely delight in him. So he did not force them to sing harmony, but allowed them to choose.

HaSatan was one of the sons of God and the thought of rebellion occurred first to him. He chose freedom over loyalty and sang discordantly. Some of the other sons of God sang with him instead of HaShem.

HaShem’s beautiful music was marred with disharmony. Evil entered the cosmos because without unfaithfulness there could be no faithfulness. Only what is freely chosen is good, but it can also be evil.

So it happened that HaSatan learned to poison the good and mar it. He learned that HaShem’s only weakness, being the Omnipotent, was his unwillingness to force his children to obey. HaSatan saw that free will was his battlefield.

In spite of HaSatan’s discordant music, the Creation of HaShem was good. The sons of God looked in wonder and admiration on his works. The greatest was a creature a little lower than the angels, but with a body as well as a spirit. The sons of God longed to know what physical life was like.

HaSatan came to the man and woman and he tempted them. Was God being truthful with them? Was God jealous of their power? Couldn’t they become like HaShem?

Then the world was marred even more. The man and woman were put out of HaShem’s garden.

HaShem’s greatest work, his human children, were broken.

HaShem grieved. Knowing beforehand all this would take place did not lessen his pain. Before he made what was made, HaShem had joy unmarred and perfect. Love had a price and HaShem paid the price. He wept in the heavens and the sons of God were silent in awe.

HaShem said to the sons of God, “I will dwell with the sons of men twice before all is restored. Once I will dwell in a cloud of glory and then I will dwell as a son of man.”

And the sons of God were in awe. HaShem would restore the sons of men in stages, dwelling with them twice.

And the first time was in the Holy of Holies, the inner room of a sanctuary built by the sons of Israel. HaShem was hidden behind a veil. The sons of Israel could only come near the presence, but could not enter it.

Still there was great rejoicing over this dwelling. The whole land had to be kept pure, though the sons of Israel did not keep it pure. Once a year, one of these sons of Israel entered the Holy of Holies and purified it with blood, the substance of life only HaShem can make. And the life was in the blood and HaShem is the God of life and not death. And HaShem was pleased for blood to cleanse away the stench of death and evil.

Yet, this first dwelling was not nearly enough. The sons of men remained broken. They only knew a little more about the way to restoration. HaShem would restore and the sons of men would be with HaShem once again. The first time was a sign, that God can dwell with man and man can dwell with God. The way to reconciliation is through blood, for blood is life.

And it happened one day that the Holy of Holies was destroyed by evil men. And the sons of Israel suffered. And HaShem wept.

The sons of Israel built the sanctuary again, but HaShem did not dwell there. He waited. He waited for a second dwelling. The sons of God longed to look into the time of the second dwelling, but it was hidden from them.

Then, just on the eve of another time of suffering for the sons of Israel, HaShem came again. He came as a son of man, a son of Israel.

Whereas in his first dwelling he was hidden, now he was in the open. Whereas the first time he came as unbearable glory, this time he came as one of them. He came from within humanity to raise humanity up. Whereas many thousands worshipped at the place of the first dwelling, very few would believe in the second dwelling. The divine was cloaked in human form. The second dwelling was far greater yet far harder to see and believe.

The sons of Israel did not receive the second dwelling. To the first glory the sons of Israel brought the blood of bulls and goats. To the second glory they did not bring any offering but instead made him the offering. The son of man on a cross was the blood of the second glory.

The blood brought into the Holy of Holies at the first dwelling kept it clean so God could dwell with man. The blood of the second dwelling made men clean so they could dwell with God.
And HaShem said to the sons of God, “The restoration of all things is beginning. You see life comes back only through death just as life was lost through death.”

And the sons of God wondered at these words of HaShem.

And he said again, “In the first dwelling the sons of men were kept far away, but they learned that blood, because it is life, makes clean. In the second dwelling, the glory came into the sons of men as one of them, yet few believed. And in that blood, the blood of the Son of Man, there is life.”

And HaShem is working still. A third dwelling will come at the end of the age. And the sons of men and the sons of God together long to look into that time. The sons of Israel will be restored along with all the sons of men.

The sign of the first dwelling was the Holy of Holies, the glory within the veil. The sign of the second dwelling was a cross, and the glory within the son of man.

What will be the sign of the third dwelling and who of the sons of men will believe it?

Wicked Manasseh and Repentance

Okay, this is also a sermon . . . WAIT, don’t leave. It’s a busy week for a congregational leader. I promise I will not turn this blog into a forum for my sermons, but I think this one is worth your time if you can spare five minutes.

Suppose God were to write an account of your life. How would it read?

Let me make up an imaginary person, so no one gets offended. Let’s call him George.

I imagine God’s epitaph on my grave: “Here lies George — 49% Sinner, 51% Saint.”

I imagine a biographical sketch: “George was 15 years old when he began to follow HaShem. He lived 61 years in the Spirit. His deeds were for good and for evil, for self and for others. He did not remove the high places from his life. He did not cleanse his inner temple fully for HaShem. Yet when cancer overtook his bones, he cried out to HaShem and HaShem heard. He lived ten more years and then gave himself completely to God. The other deeds of George, are they not recorded in HaShem’s book? And George slept with his fathers.”

As you may have recognized, that biographical sketch was in the style of the books of Kings. Maybe George would get a letter from Yeshua, like the ones in Revelation: “To the angel of George, write: I have seen your deeds, that you were slightly warmer than lukewarm, but not hot enough to scald. I know your years of wasted selfishness and pride and I know the needless pain you suffered in your immaturity. Yet I also know how you cried out in your anguish and I heard and I came to dine with you. I know you came to a late love, but better than to have never loved at all. There is laid up for you a temple of golden stone and a place that will never fade or perish. Only persevere in these last years and do not take your hand away from the plow. For I am the morning star and I shine forever.”

Yom Kippur is coming. The time for spiritual inventory is here.

Inventory means work. Have you been to a Walmart during inventory? Hundreds of extra people are running around scanning everything. Inventory is not easy. Are you taking spiritual inventory at this season?

If so, then you can imagine how God would write your spiritual biography. What would an account of your life look like?

We are going to look at the prophetic account of a man’s life. This one won’t be made up — but real. We will look at two versions.

The very idea of God’s account of our life story should give us pause. We should tremble to think what he would write. If you got nervous when it came time for grades to be finalized in college, imagine that day when your life gets a grade.

Let’s look at two accounts of a man’s life. Let’s imagine as we read, how our life will look when God surveys it.

2 Kings 21:1-9
Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem will I put my name.” And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. And the carved image of Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the Lord said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander anymore out of the land that I gave to their fathers, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the Law that my servant Moses commanded them.” But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.

Okay, that’s not a good report. Manasseh did just a few things wrong.

1. He undid the progress his father, Hezekiah had made.

2. He promoted idolatry, false religion in the land of HaShem.

3. He put altars to idols RIGHT IN HASHEM’S TEMPLE!!!

4. He worshipped the sun, moon, and stars INSTEAD OF HASHEM!

5. He even BURNED HIS OWN SON AS AN OFFERING TO AN IDOL!

Those are pretty bad things. What are the worst things God would write in your account?

George lied his way into better jobs.
George never found a person he couldn’t gossip about.
George looked away from the needy and despised their concerns.
George committed adultery with his eyes nearly every day of his life.
George loved only himself until the later years.
George left a miserable wake of ruined friendships behind him.
George’s children never received any meaningful love.
George’s wife left him and found real love somewhere else.

That’s George’s list. What’s yours?

The rest of Manasseh’s story in Kings is depressing. He suffered in his later years for what he did. The author of Kings lets the story rest there. Manasseh was wicked. End of story.

But in 2 Chroncicles, we find out there was more. Oh, to be sure, it starts the same. But there is a better ending.

2 Chronicles 33:1-9
Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made Asherahs, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem shall my name be forever.” And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. And the carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever, and I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land that I appointed for your fathers, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the rules given through Moses.” Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.

Did you recognize that? You should. It’s almost word for word from the book of Kings. The same sins, including building altars in God’s temple and burning his own son to an idol.

But the Chronicler goes on to tell more of the story. Manasseh had an interesting end to his life.

2 Chronicles 33:10-20
The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.
Afterward he built an outer wall for the city of David west of Gihon, in the valley, and for the entrance into the Fish Gate, and carried it around Ophel, and raised it to a very great height. He also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah. And he took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside of the city. He also restored the altar of the Lord and offered on it sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and he commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel. Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.
Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, behold, they are in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. And his prayer, and how God was moved by his entreaty, and all his sin and his faithlessness, and the sites on which he built high places and set up the Asherim and the images, before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the Chronicles of the Seers. So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house, and Amon his son reigned in his place.

Did you catch all that?

–God brought consequences into Manasseh’s life, The cruel Assyrians came. They put hooks in Manasseh’s chest and dragged him in chains a prisoner.

–Manasseh was in agony, walking with hooks in his chest for many hundreds of miles to Babylon.

–Then, festering in a cell in Babylon, Manasseh had a spiritual awakening.

–He must have thought, “My idols did not save me. My father was right. If only I could be a child again and live in my father’s house. I would learn from him and be a man of HaShem.”

–He cried out to God.

–And God said, “Too bad, Manasseh, you’re a sinner and I don’t help sinners.”

Right? No, wrong.

Manasseh prayed and God said, “At last.”

In a rabbinic commentary on the book of Numbers, we read this:

“If anyone says that God does not accept the repentance of a repentant Jewish person who wants to return to God, then refute him in the following manner: King Menasseh, who committed more sins than anyone ever did, was totally pardoned of all his sins when he made repentance.”

Manasseh, it says, finally knew that HaShem was God. Manasseh went home to Jerusalem and repaired the city. He took all idols away from the temple of HaShem. He did not remove the high places, but he commanded that only HaShem should be worshipped there. He made offerings to HaShem. And I love verse 19, “And his prayer, how God received his entreaty, and all his sins and his faithlessness . . . are they not recorded in the Chronicles of the Seers?”

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As we enter Yom Kippur, I want us to take away a few lessons.

1. Don’t wait until you have hooks in your chest and chains on your wrists to start taking spiritual inventory.

2. Know that REPENTANCE is great, and even the righteous, the rabbis tell us, cannot stand in the place of the repentant. Yeshua said something like it, “There is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than 99 who need no repentance.”

3. Know that God accepts small steps, even if they are late.

Manasseh did not start a revival like his father. He was not a great king. Too much of his life was wasted.

But he moved toward God.

And God ran to meet him.

Do We Want Messiah Badly Enough?

Okay, this was my Rosh HaShanah sermon . . . WAIT! Don’t leave just because it’s a sermon. Give it a chance. It might interest you.

There’s a great promise in the Bible and, in Messianic Judaism, we associate it with Rosh HaShanah:
This we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18

What motivates people to seriously desire the coming of Messiah? It’s a good question to ask on Rosh HaShanah. I don’t believe we want Messiah to come badly enough.

Let me share with you with a Jewish history lesson, a lesson from the Chmielnicki massacres in Ukraine and Poland and the sad tale of Shabbetai Zvi.

First, the Chmielnicki massacres:
In the 1600’s the leaders of Europe fought the 30 Years War. The economy of Europe was oppressive, especially in Poland and the Ukraine. The wars were provisioned on the backs of Ukrainian peasants who got little for their toil growing grain and vegetables.

The Polish aristocrats used Jews as financiers and middle-men to run the system. In 1648, a peasant uprising started.
Started by Polish Aristocrat, Bohdan Chmielnicki. The battle cry was, “The Poles have sold you into the hands of the dirty Jews!”

300 Jewish towns and shtetls were destroyed and all the people killed. 20,000 Jews died. You say, what’s 20,000 compared to the Holocaust and 6 million? These 20,000 had to be killed by hand. No mass killing machines like gas chambers. This was bloody and gory. It was a horror tale told all over the Jewish world. The Cossacks killed our people, men, women, and children, in cold blood!

Next, you have to understand the atmosphere this created in Jewish Europe. The Jews could be killed any time the people in power decided to. There was fear that more massacres could come.

The majority of Jews turned to kabbalah, hope in magic and charms, and a rabid desire for Messiah to come. Wouldn’t this be a good time for Messiah?

Through the influence of kabbalah, the belief in Messiah became superstitious. Something was broken or wrong in the world. That’s why Jews suffered so much. Messiah would come and end the exile and fix the world. Then Jews would no longer suffer.

Many Jews were praying for Messiah. Many were keeping Torah to bring Messiah. The Jewish community united around this idea. We need to work together to merit Messiah’s coming in our generation.

In his book, A History of the Jews, Paul Johnson puts it this way,

On May 31, 1665, as if on cue, the Messiah appeared and was proclaimed as such in Gaza in Israel.

This Messiah was Shabbetai Zvi and his prophet was Nathan of Gaza. Nathan had long ecstatic visions from God, he said, and was a brilliant man. He was an expert in kabbalah.

Most of the rabbis in Europe agreed. Shabbetai was the Messiah. The time was right.

You can’t begin to imagine the excitement in European Jewry. Everyone expected that the world was about to change.

Think of the prophecies about Messiah’s coming:

Isaiah 11
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
      and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
2      And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
      the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
      the Spirit of counsel and might,
      the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
3      And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
      He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
      or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
4      but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
      and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
      and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
      and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
5      Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
      and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
6      The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
      and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
      and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
      and a little child shall lead them.

So many things happened to Shabbetai Zvi. But the world never changed. Eventually, in 1666 (yes, I note the coincidence of the year) Shabbetai Zvi was arrested by the Sultan of Turkey. He was imprisoned. He was eventually forced to convert to Islam.

People still believed he was the Messiah even after that. They said he converted to Islam because he was going to convert all the Muslims to Judaism.

Then, in 1676, Shabbetai Zvi died.

No Messiah.
No peace for the Jews.
No changing of the world.
…………………………………………………….

But there’s a lesson in the story for us.

People want Messiah to come when there is suffering. In suffering, people want God. People want to have God come and save the world.

Think about it in your own life. When the chips are down, don’t you think more about God and the World to Come? Isn’t that when you cry out for God?

But in good times . . .
when money is good
when health is good
when bills are paid
and the job is good
and the kids are good
and marriage is good
and life seems rosy
and everything is fine

In good times . . .
we’re having too much fun.

God? Messiah? The World to Come? I hope he doesn’t come and ruin it now. Now would not be a good time, Lord. Please don’t come and mess up all my fun!

We must meditate on Messiah’s coming. We must want him even when times aren’t so bad. We must understand . . .

This world cannot compare to the world to come. What do we have that’s so great here: TV? Air conditioning? Money? Leisure?

Listen to how one faithful Jew describes the way we should feel about Messiah’s coming:

Titus 2:13-14
waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Yeshua the Messiah, 14who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Blessed hope. Think of what that means.
Hope is longing for something better.
Hope is what we have when we haven’t gotten there yet.
Hope is from the underside.
Hope is from those who need something.
Blessed hope is even better.
It is hope that is God’s answer to our needs.
It’s not just hope in positive thinking.
It’s not hope in our own strength.
It’s not hope in self-help or man-made golden ages.

It’s blessed hope.
Hope in the answer only God can bring to a thirsty world,
a world that longs for redemption
a world that desperately needs fulfillment.

That hope is the time of the appearing of Yeshua on the clouds with glory.
He will bring something we never experienced before.
He will bring absolute transformation when we meet him up in the air.
He will bring adventure like we never had before.
He will bring us to Jerusalem, to the glory, to the rejoicing, dancing, and singing that has never been equalled through all the ages of man.
He will bring total peace and freedom at last.
He will bring joy beyond weeping.
He will bring us home at last.

Maybe times aren’t so bad. But we can meditate on Messiah’s coming, can’t we? We can pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

A Graceful Prayer, 3,000 Years Old

Repentance and introspection are the theme as we approach Yom Kippur on Saturday. Today my mind is on an ancient prayer of repentance. Its meaning may be surprising to some, who are of the strange opinion that grace started in the book of Matthew (even worse, some would say Romans).

I am frequently reminding people that while revelation is progressive, that doesn’t mean ancient Israel was the stone age. In fact, I challenge people regularly to find teaching in the New Testament that isn’t already contained in seed form in the Hebrew Bible. Other than a few specifics, there is nothing new about the New Testament. (Okay, that was a little extreme, but my short list of New Testament innovations would include only a few things like: God’s triune nature and the deity of Messiah).

So, as I look at this 3,000 year old prayer of repentance, I want to do two things:
1. Show you the depths of grace in the prayer.
2. Suggest this prayer as a resource for your High Holiday praying.

The 3,000 year old prayer that amazes me with its grace and complexity is Psalm 51:12 (51:10 in English Bibles):

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

It’s possible to quibble a tiny bit about translation, but this verse is amazingly simple in Hebrew. If there is any variation in translation, it is of minor consequence. Consider the Jewish Publication Society version:

Create me a clean heart, O God; and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Consider what this prayer is asking for. What does David mean by heart and spirit? How can God clean our heart or give us a right spirit? Doesn’t that violate the principle of free will?

Another writer, about 1,400 years after David, famously said to God, “Command what you will and grant what you command.” The writer? Augustine in his Confessions.

Can we really ask God to change something about our inner nature? Will he do it?

First, the idea that a leader in ancient Israel (writing in the “Old” Testament, for crying out loud) would ask and expect to receive inner change goes against the ludicrous maxim that before the cross or before Acts 2 people had no inner presence of the divine. I frequently hear people, based on verses like John 7:39, suggest that the indwelling presence of God’s Spirit is a new thing. Not exactly. David expected God to effect change in his inner person with this prayer.

Now, let’s break the prayer down and consider its meaning. The first question should be: what does David mean by heart and spirit?

Let’s not be overly complex here. I won’t try to write a 2,000 word lexical study. I’ll simply say that heart stands for emotions and thoughts. Spirit here also means a person’s emotional state. It is not being used in the technical sense for a person’s soul or spirit.

Why do I say that? If you think about it, David’s prayer (and other uses of the word spirit) could not mean the inner person of David. He is not asking God, “Take away the spirit I was born with and give me a new one.” That would make David another person.

No, by spirit, he means an emotional/ethical state. David was in a lustful frame of mind in the Bathsheba incident. He asked for God to change his lustful state and replace it with an inner sense of holiness and with greater priorities.

Those of us who have experienced sin, and even gross sin, within ourselves, can readily admit to experiencing this phenomena. I sometimes use the image of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. There are times when pure selfishness/greed/lust/desire/covetousness seems to possess my heart and will. At other times, I am possessed by a spirit of holiness and shudder at the thought of sin. Most of the time I am somewhere in between.

The prayer of Psalm 51:12 (10 in English Bibles) is a prayer for a pure state of mind. It is asking God to enter our inner being and clean out the impurity. It is inviting God to meddle with our emotional/ethical state of mind. It is surrendering a piece of ourselves to God and asking him to temporarily take it over since we are managing it poorly. What a radical prayer!

Psalm 51:12 assumes the most intimate connection between ourselves and God. This is not the prayer of a religion-at-arms-length. This is a prayer of immanence, accepting the idea that God surrounds us rather than believing the notion that God is too far away or too busy to notice.

The rest of the Psalm is great as well. It is a prayer fitting for Yom Kippur and the days leading up to Yom Kippur. It is a prayer worth reciting each time God reveals to us a bit of the ugliness he wants to purge from our inner being.

High Holidays Question: Does Grace Cancel Holiness?

We are in the ten days of awe between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. This is a time of introspection, spiritual inventory, and preparation for great repentance on Yom Kippur (this year it will be Saturday, September 22).

Several things led me to write on this topic. First, I was reading the blog of a well-respected Christian intellectual who holds a high-visibility post in Christian media. He espoused an idea I hear sometimes which troubles me greatly: that grace means we should be realistic and not expect too much holiness in Christendom as a whole. That is, we should not be surprised when we hear surveys showing that Christians are no different than non-Christians in areas like marriage, sexual sin, and so on.

Second, I am writing about this because I think it is something our community, those of us in MJ, struggle with. We are people in between two worlds. On the one side, is our Jewish world in which our people are making long prayers of repentance. Some are seeking to earn a good year by pleasing God with much repentance. On the other side, is our Christian world in which our brothers and sisters emphasize grace sometimes to the exclusion of holiness. I want to clarify some things for my Christian friends and try to help others with me in MJ who wonder: How seriously should I take the High Holidays and repentance?

First, for my Christian friends, let me start with two disclaimers:
1. I believe that we cannot merit God’s love or acceptance by our own goodness.
2. I believe that we cannot grow in godly character merely by willpower or self-determination.

Yes, I believe in grace. I just think many Christians and Messianic Jews are tragically anti-New Testament in their view of grace. Would Paul agree with any of the following statements?
a) I have the righteousness of Christ in me and God does not see my sin.
b) I cannot do anything good except believe in God, and even that is God’s gift and not my choice.
c) I will always be a failure, so I need to revel in grace and accept that I am going to fail God again and again.
d) God never intended that his people would actually become holy and as soon as we think this should be our goal we have left grace.

My answer? No. Paul would not agree with any of these statements. The third one comes close, but even in it there is subtle error: a casual acceptance of sin as though holiness does not matter to God.

If you are a Christian and struggle with the boundaries between grace and holiness, can I recommend Jerry Bridge’s excellent volumes: The Pursuit of Holiness and The Practice of Godliness (both available at amazon.com).

You see, for us Messianics, it is a troubling and vital issue right now: should we sorrow and lament over our sins or should we casually assume that our holiness is in Messiah and not take this repentance thing too seriously?

I’d like to share a little biblical light on things. First, two sayings of Yeshua have bearing on this question:

Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Luke 15:7

The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. Luke 18:11

Realize something about Yeshua’s words here.
#1: These are not anti-Jewish, but anti-self-righteousness. And Messianic Jews/Christians are no more immune to this problem than Jews as a whole. If you read these verses thinking that as a Messianic Jew or Christian these words of Yeshua do not apply to you, then read #2.
#2: These sayings of Yeshua are a trap intended to capture you and convict you. Luke 15:7 is generally read by people who think, “I am one of the ninety-nine who needs no repentance.” Snap! You just got caught! People who read Luke 18:11 often think, “Thank you, God, that I am not like that Pharisee.” Irony or ironies, man. You just became a brother to that Pharisee even if you are not a Jew.

That is to say, Yeshua fully expected that we, like the tax collector in Luke 18 or the one sinner in Luke 15, would repent. He even expected that we would beat our chests (Luke 18:13). YET I HAVE HEARD MJ’S AND CHRISTIANS CRITICIZE JEWS FOR BEATING THEIR CHEST AND REPENTING GREATLY AT YOM KIPPUR. Legalism! people say. I say, holiness.

People are teaching, in the name of Paul, something Paul would never agree with. The idea that grace cancels holiness is anathema to Paul. God really expects us to stop hurting, hating, lusting, lying, cheating, abusing, excusing, lazing, and self-promoting.

Read Romans 2:5-10 carefully. Allow me to quote vs. 5 and suggest that MJ’s and Christians do not get an out-clause on this:

But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

Also, take a close look at the book of Titus. Paul gave instructions for a congregation there among a people known for lying and cheating. He did not emphasize that grace cancels holiness. Far from it. He called them the CHANGE:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Titus 2:11-14

Far from canceling holiness, grace calls us to it. What is grace? Is it a pass from judgment? Only in the sense of God’s acceptance, not in the sense of God’s satisfaction with who we are. God, via Paul, says that grace TRAINS us to RENOUNCE ungodliness, not to embrace it and call it the mystery of grace.

To my Messianic friends, don’t let this Yom Kippur be something you casually ignore. Don’t assume you are one of the 99. You are the one who needs repentance. Don’t smugly think to yourself, “I have Messiah’s righteousness and it does not matter if I am a sinner.” You are wrong. You will be judged for every sin. Paul said so, so don’t get mad at me.

Some Oldies, but Goodies

Shalom all:

I’m having more fun with family this Rosh HaShanah than should be allowed. In an ironic twist, several of our families chose an unusual place to cast our sins on the water yesterday in a Tashlich ceremony: a Catholic Trappist monastery in Covington, Georgia.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for some good reading, here are some oldies but goodies:

Christian Theology and Israel

Christian Theology and Israel, Part 2

Christian Theology and Israel, Part 3

Brief Thought: Soulen and the SCN

L’Shanah Tovah,

Derek

Unholy Habits and High Holidays

Unholy habits. Addictions. Sins that enslave. Sins permitted and overlooked because of familiarity.

I once spent several weeks getting to know an addiction support group at one of Atlanta’s mega-churches. I was impressed. The leader of the work was a humble man with a passion for helping others and with no ego to support. Would that there were many more like him.

I learned from him and the work he does there that gross oversimplification of sin, grace, forgiveness, recovery, and life-change are a real problem in churches, and religion in general. I’ve met people who had the experience of suddenly coming to faith or repentance and immediately dropping addictive habits like smoking, drinking, drugs, or pornography. They are the exception, not the rule. In fact, the folks at this one addiction recovery group used to poke fun at the idea of being “zapped” by God so that you never manifested an addiction again. When people left the group and claimed to have been “zapped,” the group leaders generally expected that such people were actually on a binge, wanted to get rid of accountability, and hopefully would come back when they were disgusted with themselves again.

As Rosh HaShanah arrives with the sundown on Wednesday, my mind is turned to the reality of sin in all of our lives. Especially troubling are the habitual sins, major and minor addictions that weigh us down and reduce the quality of our lives. I’m reading The Practical Guide to Teshuvah, a High Holiday devotional, by Rabbi Shaul Wahschal. It is a little gem I’m glad I picked up from Judaica Corner when I saw it.

The rabbis have a way of discussing the good and the evil in us that some people object to theologically. I want to say that regardless of areas of potential theological disagreement, the rabbinical image is practically useful. That is, the idea that we all have in us two inclinations, the Good Inclination and the Evil Inclination, yetzer ha-tov and yetzer ha-ra.

There is wisdom in studying the evil inside us closely. I find that where people prefer easy answers, which is almost everywhere, this is not a task that will be popular with anyone. I find there are few Christian books that put common and habitual sins under a microscope. Thank God for the Jewish tradition of mussar, studies in sin and righteousness. It is a Jewish thing to take a subject and dissect it into minute parts, to be detailed and exhaustive.

So, I have found profound wisdom in this little book on Teshuvah. I chew on it. I apply it to my habitual sins. I want to pass on to you a few nuggets from this mine, but know that there is so much more.

First, we must be realistic about sins and habits:

The mussar sefarim [books on righteousness] describe man’s spiritual avodah [service of worship] in this world as a long battle that does not allow swift defeat of the enemy. The battle against the yetzer ha-ra [evil inclination] is eternal.

Second, I found particularly helpful a little quote about habitual sins and our apathy regarding them:

Rabbi Itzaleh Peterburger, of blessed memory, explains that difficulty in overcoming habitual sin stems from confusing prohibited actions with permitted actions. We make this mistake because of our constant and habitual repetition of the prohibited actions. Similarly, the Gemara says that a person repeatedly transgresses a mitzvah [commandment] will eventually come to think that his sin is permitted.

Recently, I was faced with a problem I have encountered many times in my career as a rabbi. Someone raised a common objection to the need for atonement, to the need for Messiah’s cleansing death and life-giving resurrection. What objection? They said, “I don’t understand all this talk about sin and forgiveness and all the repentance and guilt. I’m not a sinner.”

Now, it happens that the person who said this is one of those delightful people who is nearly always kind to others. You know the type. They seem so good compared to people around them, it is possible for them to actually imagine they do not transgress the will of HaShem in any manner. Their spiritual blindness is made easier not only by their kind disposition, but also by major ignorance of the scriptures. They have not thought deeply about transgression, common evil, and persistent rebellion.

I found some advice in my little Teshuvah guide very helpful:

Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, of blessed memory, was of the opinion that study of halachah [practical rulings for living God's commands] causes a person to re-evaluate the importance of the subject being discussed, which, in turn, stimulates the person to fulfill the mitvot [commandments] with greater devotion . . . The correction of character traits demands prolonged study of works that discuss negative traits.

That is, like this person who said they were not a sinner, we all can too easily overlook our unholy habits. One very practical way to grow in holiness is to study the commandments, to study the practical rulings for how to live them, and to study the lists of sins and prohibited actions.

This is great advice and good meditation for the High Holidays. So let me give you some suggested readings. Maybe this exercise is exactly what you need to experience a little growth in character this year.

Start with some biblical passages that describe various sins and righteous acts. Here are just a few:
1. Get a good sampling of Torah commands: Exodus 20:1-17, 23:1-9; Leviticus 19:1-37.
2. See how deep thought about Torah commands leads to a deeper view of their range and meaning, right from the mouth of our Messiah: Matthew 5:21-48.
3. Consider some apostolic lists of practical rulings: Ephesians 4:17-32; Colossians 3:1-17.

Meditate on this question: how am I doing at performing the positives and avoiding the negatives?

If you want to dig deeper into guides for living, here is an excellent one formed by leading rabbis in the Messianic Jewish movement:
http://www.ourrabbis.org/main/content/blogsection/4/26/
Read, for example, rulings about Shabbat and kashrut [dietary law].

Pick up a good book on Jewish ethics, like Rabbi Joseph Telushkin’s A Code of Jewish Ethics. Or pick up this little Teshuvah guide by Rabbi Shaul Wagschal.

This is an eternal battle. We will not defeat the yetzer ha-ra completely until we stand before Messiah. Until then, shouldn’t we be busy preparing ourselves for the Master’s coming?

Tobit and the Jewishness of the New Testament

I am developing a series of articles here on Messianic Musings about the writings of Second Temple Judaism that we call the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha. These writings, which date from after the time of the Hebrew Bible and until the end of the New Testament period, are a window into Jewish life and thought of the period.

If you want to read past articles about these Second Temple Jewish writings, you can look at “An Apocryphal Prayer” here and “Psalm 151: A Lesson for Israel Then and Now” here.

Today’s topic is the book of Tobit. No one can say exactly when it was written, though many think it was before the time of the Maccabees, so before 170 B.C.E.

Tobit is an unusual book, a sort of romance or extended fairy tale, about a Jewish man living in times of compromise with the Gentile world. Tobit is not a historical figure. The writer makes massive historical errors, such as having Tobit alive before the secession of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 922 B.C.E. and yet still alive during the reign of Tiglath Pileser of Assyria in 740 B.C.E. We readers are asked to simply swallow these details in order to enjoy a heartwarming story that encourages Jewish values of righteousness in an unrighteous age.

I won’t attempt to summarize the whole story, but I will point out the two streams of the story that sort of run side by side. One stream is what I think of as the fairy tale and the other is the Jewish tale. The fairy tale side of the story is interesting:

1. There is a bride whose husbands always die on the wedding night because the demon Asmodeus kills them.
2. By the time Tobit’s son Tobias comes along, guess how many would-be grooms have died . . . that’s right, seven.
3. There is a story of a fish attacking Tobit’s son as he camps beside the Tigris river, a giant fish.
4. There is a man who is really an angel, who helps Tobias, and not just any angel, but Raphael, one of the seven angels of God’s presence!
5. There is a sort of magic, when Raphael, pretending to be a man, tells Tobias to burn the fish’s heart and liver on incense to drive away the demon Asmodeus and survive the wedding night with the dangerous bride.
6. There is still a Jewish sense of propriety in the “magic,” since the truth is that Raphael drives the demon away and the magic is simply a ruse to give Tobias confidence.
7. Yet the magic comes back as Tobias uses the gall of the fish to anoint his father Tobit’s eyes and remove the blindness (blindness caused by sparrows dropping excrement in his eyes!).

It’s not hard to see why Tobit does not belong in the Bible. But it is also not hard to see why Tobit has long been considered a book worthy of reading for Christians and Jews. Alongside the fairy tale part of the story, there is a tale of Jewish faithfulness:

1. Tobit lives during the separation of the Northern and Southern kingdoms in 922 B.C.E.
2. Tobit refuses to worship at the false temple of Jeroboam, but goes down to Jerusalem.
3. Tobit faithfully brings all three tithes to God as commanded in the Torah and keeps the dietary law.
4. Tobit highly values caring for the dead, burying Jews even when the Assyrian king decrees that Jewish bodies should not be buried (this theme has a complex history I don’t have time to get into).
5. Tobit highly values giving alms to the poor, primarily the righteous poor.
6. The tale develops the angelology and demonology that will be standard fare by the time of the New Testament.
7. Tobit has a high view of marriage indicated by this prayer of Tobias:

“Blessed are you, O God of our fathers; praised be your name forever and ever. Let the heavens and all your creation praise you forever. You made Adam and you gave him his wife Eve to be his help and support; and from these two the human race descended. You said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; let us make him a partner like himself.’ Now, Lord, you know that I take this wife of mine not because of lust, but for a noble purpose. Call down your mercy on me and on her, and allow us to live together to a happy old age.”

Tobit is part of the stream of Jewish thought that influenced the New Testament. God was not silent during the time between the Testaments. He was at work in Judaism. God put his stamp of approval on many of the ideas of Second Temple Judaism. Here are a few examples:

1. Though the Hebrew Bible says little about angels and demons (Daniel has the most), there is a developed theology of angels and demons by the New Testament. It formed in the time between Ezra and Yeshua.
2. Tobit says there are seven angels who are in God’s presence. This should sound familiar, as Revelation uses the same idea: the seven spirits of God (note: these are not the “seven-fold Spirit of God” as some interpretations suggest, but seven angels).
3. Tobit says that demons can harass people, which the New Testament agrees with (even if Tobit’s version is a bit far-fetched).
4. Tobit places a high value on almsgiving, an overlooked theme of the New Testament.

It is this last stream that I want to close with. Almsgiving is something Protestant Christians have fairly well eliminated. Almsgiving is more than giving to charity. It is also the idea that giving to the poor is an aid to prayer. I can hear many Protestants now, saying this is heretical. Yet, consider the book of Acts, where the stance on almsgiving is the same as that of Tobit:

At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. (Acts 10:1-2).
Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity. (Acts 9:36)

I’d say that we need to recover some of these Jewish values in Messianic Judaism and in Christianity. The literature of the Second Temple period can help us who believe in Yeshua better understand the way he thought and lived. After all, wasn’t it Yeshua who said, “when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”?

Menachem’s Responses and My Thoughts

Shalom all. Well, hasn’t this been an interesting thread. I appreciate all of you who have taken the time to weigh in. Tirzah has an interesting story: married to an anti-missionary who was formerly a Messianic Jew. It seems that the experience has given her a negative view of Judaism and, I must say, of Messianic Judaism. Menachem is a Messianic Jew who loves Yeshua, but finds the Orthodox synagogue a more serious place to worship God. ***Menachem, you are the person I met and spent time with at the New England conference, right?***

Tirzah, whose position I understand because of her life experience, has said some rather harsh things about Judaism and completely opposes my decision to pursue conversion through a Messianic Jewish Rabbinical Council. Menachem, whose position I also understand, having seen a lot of meshugas that is called Messianic Judaism, also thinks I should not pursue conversion through Messianic Judaism, but through one of the traditional branches.

In this post, I’d like to take some of Menachem’s responses and discuss them. I invite you to chime in (hopefully no personal attacks). Perhaps in the very near future, I can post a biblical defense of conversion with attendant practical issues considered.

First, Tirzah said:

Modern Rabbinic Judaism HATES Yeshua.

Menachem responded:

Let’s start with this one. Its a slur and totally without any foundation. I hear it and read it often in conversation with MJ “leaders” Let’s be honest. There is no Christian leader out there who would dare to say this publically thank G-d any more.

My thoughts: I appreciate Menachem’s viewpoint here. My own experience is skewed. I have not been in the traditional Jewish community sufficiently to get into conversation about Yeshua in a neutral setting. My experiences in conversation about Yeshua with religious Jews have often been with anti-missionaries, like Torzah’s husband. I am aware, however, that the Talmud’s very late teaching that Yeshua was a bastard child of a Roman soldier and a Jewish woman, is not commonly held by the Jews I have talked with. In fact, I am aware of a rather positive view of Yeshua in the Jewish community, as long as we’re not talking about whether or not he is Messiah. Now, this may be mostly liberal Jews, but there are also Orthodox Jews who in writing have positive things to say about Yeshua: Michael Wyschogrod and Pinchas Lapide.

Tirzah said:

The truth is that Rabbinic Judaism is not “G-d” centered. It is “Jew” centered.

Menachem responded:

Again, this is a very serious and untrue charge. It has not been my experience. In point of fact I have experienced and observed more G-d centeredness in rabbinic Judaism than in MJ. There is clearly an unhealthy emphasis througout MJ and Christianity on a variety of practices which an observant Jew would find not G-d centered.

My thoughts: If the Jewish people don’t talk about issues surround the Jewish people, who will? Sorry, Tirzah, but I agree with Menachem here. Rabbinic Judaism is very God-centered. Many Christians would be surprised to hear the teaching or read the writings of Judaism. I can hardly think of someone more God-centered than Abraham Joshua Heschel, for example.

Tirzah said:

Rabbinic Judaism also teachs that G-d is basically unknowable in any sort intimate way that believers in Yeshua know can be true.

Menachem responded:

This is the view of Maimonides. It is influential but hardly all of Rabbinic Judaism.

My thoughts: Tirzah, Judaism has many opinions about God and many approaches. Yes, there is a stream of teaching that human language and conceptualization cannnot know the infinite God. You should know this is found in liberal Christianity also. But so much of Judaism is about knowing God intimately. I think this may be an emphasis at your synagogue. Your synagogue is Conservative and it can sometimes be quite liberal. As a great example of the converse, may I suggest the writings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov?

Tirzah said:

Modern Rabbinic Judaism as a whole also embraces so much that is extra-biblical and that often takes precidence over the clear teaching of Torah.

Menachem responded:

Hmmm. Precisely my observations about much of MJ. Especially the Charismatic “apostolic stream” variety.

My thoughts: Yes, Tirzah, there is quite a bit that is extrabiblical in Judaism. But here are two things to consider: (1) the same is true in Christendom and (2) God definitely expects and even requires extrabiblical tradition. Regarding my first point, even the most bland, tradition-less Protestant denominations have traditions that create taboos and practices that are extra-biblical. Try drinking a glass of wine just like Jesus did in front of a Baptist clergyman and you’ll have an interesting conversation. As for extra-biblical practices, I could mention many things, such as certain communion customs, hymnals, and Sunday morning 11 a.m. as the holy hour that must be observed, and so forth. As for my second point, God never gave specifics on how to keep many commandments. If you’ve ever lit candles before sundown on Friday night, guess what, you’ve practiced something extra-biblical.

Finally, Menachem said:

I have to go but my point is that these views represent the “establishment” in MJ. Is this what you want to convert to Derek?

My response: Conversion is an unfortunate word in both its Christian and Jewish usage. As you well know, converting Jews in church history has been a bad business indeed. Likewise, converting Gentiles to Judaism gives a false impression. The impression is that Jewish identity is reducible to a religion or sect. As we well know, Menachem, Jewish identity is about belonging to a family, not about a particular sect. I wish we could use the expression “Joining Israel,” or something like it.

I am not converting to a sect. I am recognizing the validity of joining Israel, the authority of the rabbinical council within Messianic Judaism, and the sanctity of ceremony as one undertakes a divine calling. That is, I believe that joining Israel is possible, it should be attended by a council of judges within Israel who have set standards, and that such a commitment should, like marriage, be done before witnesses.

I think you and I would agree that there is much silliness in various parts of the Messianic Jewish movement. I hope I will not contribute in any way to it. I simply feel my destiny is with Israel and for me, Jewish people are “us”, not “them”.

Psalm 151, A Lesson for Israel Then and Now

In our day there are Jewish and Christian bookstores full of writings of people of faith. We can find fiction and non-fiction on a variety of topics, all related to faith in God and living the teachings of the Bible. In ancient times, books were far less common, of course, but there was literature written for the people by people of the time about the faith. Recently I introduced the topic of the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha, Jewish writings from the Second Temple period. See “An Apocryphal Prayer” for more. The topic today is Psalm 151.

I believe that those who wrote the apocryphal books sometimes used a literary device, pretending they were Enoch or Abraham and writing in their voice. I do not think they were trying to fool anyone. I believe it was well-known that these were contemporary writings cast in the voice of ancient people.

If you get into writing in this way, it is only a matter of time until someone will write a 151st psalm. And someone did. Here it is:

I was small among my brothers,
and the youngest in my father’s house;
I tended my father’s sheep.

My hands made a harp;
my fingers fashioned a lyre.

And who will tell my Lord?
The Lord himself; it is he who hears.

It was he who sent his messenger
and took me from my father’s sheep,
and anointed me with his anointing-oil.

My brothers were handsome and tall,
but the Lord was not pleased with them.

I went out to meet the Philistine,
and he cursed me by his idols.

But I drew his own sword;
I beheaded him, and took away disgrace from the people of Israel.

Consider that the Psalms are largely a product of David’s writing. Even the ones written later than David were inspired by his example and his early works. Psalm 151 celebrates the early life of David, the young shepherd destined to be king.

Scholars think Psalm 151 was written sometime between the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. No one can say exactly when.

In his Introducing the Apocrypha, David deSilva says this about Psalm 151:

David’s anointing reminded an Israel that no longer stood tall in stature amidst the nations of the world that God was not impressed with appearances and sought, rather, a worshipful heart.

As this apocryphal psalm says, “My brothers were handsome and tall, but the Lord was not pleased with them.” So Israel is tiny and surrounded by giants. Yet if Israel would sing to God in worship again, if the harp would return and the choirs would sing hallelujahs once more . . .

. . . one greater than David would come.

Conversion: Responding to Tirzah

Shalom all. I hope you had as great a Labor Day weekend as I did. I spent mine at a gigantic Fantasy/Science Fiction Convention called DragonCon. Awesome. There was a lot of over-the-top immorality and pagan/gothic/macabre grossness, but there was also a great deal of imagination and wonder. I went to the Writers’ Track, as I am working on a historical fantasy novel set in ancient Sumeria.

Anyway, all that aside. I wanted to respond to a lengthy comment by Tirzah. She is objecting to and trying to dissuade me from the course I am pursuing in conversion to Messianic Judaism. Let me start by clarifying what I am doing and then respond to some of her arguments. I am not posting her entire comment here as it is too long, but you can read it here.

In a post from July 26, I mentioned that I am in the process of conversion. I am doing this through a Messianic Jewish Rabbinical Council. I have not abandoned my faith in Yeshua or anything. Nor do I believe that becoming a convert will in some way make me closer to God or get me brownie points. I hope you think better of me than that. I simply feel it is my calling to join together with Israel. Similarly, I am functioning already as and feel a call to be a rabbi in the Messianic Jewish community. I feel it is inappropriate for a Gentile to be a rabbi.

Tirzah said:

Derek, my whole problem with your stance rests upon one sentence. Let me quote, “I am a Gentile in process of conversion.” I cannot for the life of me understand why you would consider this is even appropriate, much less acceptible. To what would you be converting since Messiah Yeshua is, according to your testimony, already your Savior and Lord? Are you converting to “Judaism?” Let me assure you, as a Jewish woman married to a Conservative Jew; Rabbinc Judaism of today is by it’s very nature contrary to honest faith in Yeshua. Surely NONE of us are attempting to gain any acceptance in that realm?

In this statement there is a good question and a decidedly false statement. The good question is “to what are you converting”. The false statement is “Rabbinic Judaism of today is by its very nature contrary to honesty faith in Yeshua.”

Conversion is about joining the family of Israel, not changing religions. I consider biblical precedents such as Caleb the Kenizzite, yes the famous Caleb of the books of Numbers and Joshua. His family was of Edomite descent, from the line of Kenaz. Yet they joined with Israel, apparently in Egypt, and Caleb became part of the tribe of Judah. I also consider the precedent of Nicolaus the Proselyte in Acts 6, one of the seven leaders chosen by the apostles. Recently I suggested Nicolaus as an example of a convert and they objected, “That was before he knew about Yeshua.” My response was, “Yes, but he did not repudiate his conversion, but was known for it in the early congregation.”

Let me add one more precedent: Timothy. He had a Greek father and a Jewish mother. As far as we know, the modern system of attributing Jewish descent through the mother was not yet in practice. Timothy was regarded as a Gentile and was uncircumcised. Paul had Timothy circumcised, which was an act of conversion.

Tirzah, you say that rabbinic Judaism is contrary to faith in Yeshua. Which part of rabbinic Judaism are you talking about? Do you light candles for the Sabbath? That is rabbinic. Do you begin the Sabbath at sundown? That is rabbinic. Do you fast on Yom Kippur? That is rabbinic. If you care enough about this issue, I’d ask you to read my seven-part series, “Should We Follow the Rabbis?” from the June archives. I understand your objection, but I hope to promote a more positive view of the rabbis. It is easy to assume that since most traditional rabbis reject faith in Yeshua that they are therefore evil or worthless. I think there are major theological problems with assuming that there is no good outside the company of the redeemed. When God made man he said good and he placed his image there. When Paul describes unbelieving Israel in Romans 11, he says there is good there.

Tirzah then said:

do you honestly believe that G-d is calling any of His people these days into some sort of confusion between Biblical faith with modern Jewish cultural expression?

I see no confusion between Jewish life and Yeshua-faith, Tirzah. My suspicion is that your experience in Messianic Judaism has been a bad one. You were probably in a place that was not mature or balanced. I hope that you will see a more mature Messianic Judaism and see the good in it. You went on to suggest that the Holy Days of Leviticus are all fulfilled in Yeshua’s work and no longer literally for us to practice. I do hope you will consider Ezekiel 40-48, Zechariah 14, and other prophetic passages which indicate the Feasts of Israel are very much alive and will be fully restored when the temple is rebuilt.

Tirzah said:

If I am a white person, I may adopt African American culture, but I will never fully understand what it means to live within the “skin” of an African American, and no matter how much of the culture I adopt, I will never be able to say with straight face that I am an African American. Why? Simply put…because of blood, experience, and family history. How effective would a caucasion person be in the role of head of the NAACP?

Great example except for one thing: Israel is not an ethnicity but a family. That has always been the case. Caleb is an example I have already cited. I might mention that Jews in every place intermarry and come to look like the host culture. Sephardic Jews look North African and Middle Eastern. Ashkenazi Jews look European. Jewishness has never been strictly limited to ethnic descent.

Tirzah said:

In like manner, how effective is a person who has absolutely NO familial connection to the Jewish people at all (and I’m not talking about faith here) in leading a ministry to the unique needs of Messianic Jews?

You are nothing if not ruthlessly correct in asking this. It is why conversion is so important. I cannot defend my sense of calling to you. I cannot prove to you that it is legitimate at all for me, born a non-Jew, to lead a Messianic congregation. I could point out the leadership of people like Caleb and Nicolaus as precedents. More importantly, I could invite you to Atlanta to worship with us one Shabbat and see if you think I am out of my mind to be doing this.

Tirzah said:

Jews and Gentiles who believe in Messiah Yeshua have something much more important in common than any cultural expressions, which either could, or should divide us.

Yes we do, but you are missing the point. Your comment assumes that Jewishness is simply a cultural expression. Jewishness is more than a cultural expression. It is a God-given identity, a covenantal obligation, and a crucial part of God’s plan to redeem this world. I know that evangelical Christian theology rarely deals with the nuances of Jewish identity. I wouldn’t expect you, as a Christian Jew, to understand. Perhaps, though, you could be willing to admit that I might just have an argument. Perhaps you could suspect that I am not so foolish as to worship Jewishness as an end in itself.

Torzah went on to cite 1 Corinthians 7:17-24. Opponents of conversion often cite this passage. Yet they overlook something vital: they are not obeying their own interpretation of 1 Corinthians 7. What do I mean? They do not follow the next section, which says:

I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife.

It seems that Paul’s statement about conversion is not an absolute. Paul was not against marriage (read 1 Cor. 7:28). Neither was he against conversion. There was something going on in Corinth and Paul put a hold on status changes for a while. Quite likely, it was not a time for believers to draw attention to themselves. Please, Tirzah, go back and read 1 Corinthians 7 again and you will see that Paul says the same thing about conversion, slavery, and marriage. It’s not fair to single out conversion because you happen to disagree with it.

Finally, let me say Tirzah, that I hope you and I can be friends in spite of some disagreement. I’m not trying to rain on anyone’s parade. I believe, right or wrong, that I have a calling from God to do what I do. I do hope that you, being married to a religious Jew, can come to appreciate your husband’s tradition. I strongly feel that Yeshua would be at least as comfortable in your husband’s synagogue as in a solid evangelical Christian church. I feel he would be far more comfortable in your husband’s synagogue than in the many word-faith, prosperity, and silly churches that abound in our day. I won’t even mention churches where statues and icons are used in worship in contradiction to God’s express command. Maybe Judaism isn’t the OTHER religion. Maybe Judaism is faith leading up to Yeshua. Maybe Judaism has Yeshua hidden within it, waiting for us to realize and bring all Israel to Messiah. Just maybe.