Watch: Parasha Pinchas: Israel Worships THE LORD (BAAL)!
Bemidbar (Numbers) 25:10-30:1, Melachim Aleph (First Kings) 18-19, Mattityahu (Matthew) 5
Just to recap, in last week’s “Parasha Balak”, we saw how the king of Moab, Balak, tried to hire the independent prophet Balaam (son of Beor) to curse our forefathers in Israel. In fact, he brought divination fees both from his own people in Moab and also from the Midianites because the Midianites were also in dread of our forefathers in Israel.
Then we saw how king Balak and the for-profit prophet and independent minister Balaam (son of Beor) tried to curse our forefathers in Israel seven times. Seven times they prepared a full altar and a full sacrifice to Yahweh hoping to please Yahweh so he would give a curse upon Israel but each time it came out as a blessing instead. This is not a small theme.
What we are going to see also in next week’s “Parasha Mattot/Massei”, is that when Balaam was unable to curse our forefathers in Israel, he still tried to stay in Balak’s favor. Probably Moab and Midian were big clients of his, big customers. He wanted that customer retention program so still he tried to earn his divination fee by counseling the Moabites and the Midianites to seduce our forefathers with the worship of their false god Baal of Peor.
Frankly, brothers, our forefathers let themselves fall into this sexual temptation. This is a problem for us because does Satan not have plans to seduce us sexually as well and to get us to fall into sexual sin? And since we are our forefathers’ children, then are we not also vulnerable to the same kinds of sexual temptations? Let us take a moment in this parasha just to see what happened and what went wrong in the wilderness. Let us take a look at how Satan tempts us sexually so we can resist and even overcome his temptations both as individuals and as a restored Nation.
Okay, let us briefly recap the most important points to prepare ourselves so we can dive in deeper. Again, last week, in parasha Balak, king Balak paid the for-profit prophet Balaam to curse our forefathers in Israel. In fact, they wanted him to curse Israel so much, they brought tribute and honor payments both from Moab and also from Midian. Yahweh would not let the independent minister curse His people because Yahweh had already blessed His people, Israel.
But what we are talking about here is really, a big vulnerability for anyone still living in the body of flesh (that is us) because we are going to see again in next week’s Parasha Mattot/Massei, we are going to see the independent minister Balaam counseling the king of Moab and counseling the Midianites to seduce our forefathers with the Midianite women. It happened even while our ancestors were still in Acacia Grove. Already they began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab.
Now this word harlotry has a dual connotation; it has two meanings. It refers to both physical harlotry and it also refers to spiritual harlotry, by turning to the worship of other gods, because idolatry is spiritual adultery. It is a violation against Yahweh. And let us notice how easily this whole thing happened. The Midianite women just invited our forefathers to take part in the sacrifices of their false gods. Hmm, how lovely, what good neighbors, Hmm, yeah it is almost like having a one-world government and a one-world religion where everyone on your block has a different faith and it is all supposed to be okay. Well, our forefathers fell into it. Our ancestors ate and bowed down to the false gods of Midian. And so our ancestors were joined to Baal of Peor (The lord of the gap).
Ba’al בַּעַל The same as H1167; Baal, a Phoenician deity: Baal, [plural] Baalim
We could make a whole teaching series on this, but we look up this word Baal, we see it is Strong’s Hebrew Concordance Old Testament or Hebrew 1168. What we see is that Baal is a Phoenician deity whose name means owner or lord. It is true that Yahweh does own His servants, but if we read this carefully and stop and consider what it is that we are reading, does it not also mean that the pagan Phoenicians were calling upon the name of the lord? Let us check it out.
Peor פְעוֹר From H6473; a gap; Peor, a mountain East of Jordan; also (for H1187) a deity worshipped there: Peor. See also H1047.
Peor is H6465 and it refers to a gap. So Baal Peor literally means the “lord of the gap” but we also know from our other studies that peor probably refers to the gap in the sense of the crotch (especially a woman’s crotch).
So our forefathers were worshiping the fertility god or the fertility lord of a woman’s crotch; not so good.
Pa ar פָעַר A primitive root; to yawn, that is, open wide (literally or figuratively): gape, open (wide)
So now we look up the root word for Peor and see it is H6473. It is Paar, a primitive root, meaning to yawn in the sense of opening wide or making a gaping gap.
It is this kind of fertility god worship that our ancestors are practicing at Acacia Grove. It sounds unimaginable to us today, but fertility god worship and fertility rights were very common in ancient Middle Eastern pagan mysticism, and they are still common today outside of what we call the Christian world. We saw similar things in Corinth where you had male and female cult prostitution. We talk about that in the Nazarene Israel study.
We also saw similar things with Diana of the Ephesians. She is also a female pagan fertility goddess. She had pagan fertility rights and rituals. But in context, Midian just invited our forefathers to come to the worship ceremonies for the fertility god of the gaping crotch. You can imagine what kinds of rights and rituals and things went on to go along with that. Probably, as they had in the ancient world, you had probably both male and female ritual cult prostitution going on, and our forefathers went for it. So brothers what does that say about our predispositions and our vulnerabilities today? Brothers. Well if you want to know more about why the name lord means Baal and why it is wrong to call upon the name of the lord instead of calling upon the name of Yahweh, then I invite you please to check out our study on “The Set- apart Names”. You can find it in Nazarene Scripture Studies, Volume One.
If we think that there is no such thing as the influence of fertility cult prostitution and fertility cult worship that has been brought inside of the church, then just take a look at the worship of the lord on Easter sunrise. I see people going to hunt for the colored rabbit eggs because rabbits are also symbolic of fertility; they breed very quickly. Let us not forget the eggs, (on Easter sunrise services) they were dyed with human blood back in those days.
People think there is nothing wrong with Sunday Christian worship or Easter sunrise service on Easter, except that we forget that Easter is the same thing as the goddess Ashtareth or Ishtar, Ashara, Easter; it is all the same thing. Ishtar’s Easter was also a pagan fertility goddess but most of Ephraim says, no we do not need to watch out. These pagan elements creep into our worship based on sexual fertility rights. But, we do not have a problem with that. There is no problem like that in Ephraim today, Norman.
Bemidbar (Numbers) 25:4
4 “Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before Yahweh, out in the sun, that the fierce anger of Yahweh may turn away from Israel.”
Okay, well coming back to the history in Bemidbar (or Numbers), Yahweh commanded Moshe to take all the leaders of the people who had led the people into sin and hang them out in the sun before Yahweh. It might sound brutal, but stupid and rebellious action on our part can call for strong corrective measures on Elohim’s part to save the majority of the flock. So, Moshe said to the judges of Israel, every one of you kill his men who were joined for the lord of the gap. But then what happened?
Even in our time of punishment, when Yahweh was in the midst of bringing a plague upon our people, to correct us, to bring us back in line, our ancestors’ attitudes were so bad, that one of our ancestors came and presented a Midianite wife to his brethren in the sight of Moshe and in the sight of all the congregation of Israel, even as they were weeping at the door of the Tabernacle of Meeting because of the plague. I mean, can we imagine the cluelessness of our forefathers?
Our people are in the midst of receiving punishment (a plague) for our lack of loyal love toward Yahweh and one of our forefathers has the gall to bring a Midianite woman into the camp.
“Hi, Shalom, meet my wife. She is a Midianite, and she worships the fertility god of the Midian (the lord of the gap) and I am taking her into my tent right now. Anyone have a problem with that? Anyone at all?”
Yeah! I have a problem with that. Let me tell you what the problem with that is and maybe this is something that we cannot really redress under democracy.
Bemidbar (Numbers) 25:2
2 “They invited the people to the sacrifices of their elohim, and the people ate and bowed down to their elohim.”
When verse 2 says the Midianite women invited the people to the sacrifices of “the lord of the gaping crotch” and the people ate and bowed down to “the lord of the gaping crotch” and Israel was joined to “the lord of the gaping crotch”. What exactly do we think was happening here? You know we have Israelite husbands and Midianite wives being joined together as one flesh? Any concerns about unequal yoking going on here?
Bemidbar (Numbers) 25:7
7 “Now when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand;”
Verse 7. Now when Phinehas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron the high priest saw what was happening, he rose from among the congregation, took a javelin in his hand and he went after the man of Israel into his tent, and he thrust the both of them through. Both the man of Israel and the Midianite woman through her body and so the plague was stopped from among the children of Israel.
Tehillim (Psalm) 106:29-30
29 “Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds, and the plague broke out among them. 30 Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was stopped.”
Tehillim or Psalms chapter 106 and verse 29 tells us that our ancestors provoked Yahweh to anger with their deeds to extend from their lack of loyal love, they did not love him in their hearts and so the plague broke out among them, but then Phinehas stood up and intervened or interceded, and the plague was stopped. That was accounted to him for tsedaqah (or righteousness) unto all generations forevermore.
Palal פָלַל A primitive root; to judge (officially or mentally); by extension to intercede, pray:- intreat, judge(-ment), (make) pray (-er, -ing), make supplication.
Now let us look at this word intervene. It is H6419, Palal, a primitive root. It means to judge either officially or mentally, but by extension, to take action (meaning to intercede or to pray).
We can talk about the intervention of Phinehas, we can also talk about the intercession of Phinehas, and we could also talk about the prayer of Phinehas. All three of these things are contained in the same Hebrew word Palal. What this shows us, is that there is much more to prayer and intercession than just words. Right action for Yahweh; helping to build the Kingdom can also count as intercessory prayer.
But brothers, we are coming into the End Times. Are there any lessons from the parashah that we can use to help ourselves and our families today in the face of all these temptations from Satan? Because is it not Satan that is constantly trying to get us to fall? Is it not Satan that is constantly trying to tempt us with something of the world to get us to take our attention off of Yeshua and to put it on the world or to put it on some kind of a problem?
Let us be real, in the flesh, what gets a guy’s attention faster than fertility? Money, power, fertility. These are all temptations to get us to take our eyes off of Yeshua and to put them on something of the world. It is designed to get us to stop abiding constantly in the vine.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 4:7
7 “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
In B’reisheet or Genesis chapter 4 and verse 7 tells us that sin is always crouching or lurking by the door. We looked that word up in the Hebrew. It is like a hungry animal ready to leap. It is crouching by the door and its desire is for us. It wants to eat us. It wants to get us
but we must rule over it.
As long as we are here (to me), that is the whole point of circumcision. Yes, there are hygiene benefits to circumcision. There is less cervical cancer, there is better gynecological health for the wives of the husbands who are circumcised, and the husbands themselves have better hygiene. But the real deal to me behind circumcision is, it is a sign. It is a vow that we are going to submit our flesh and our reproduction to Elohim. So, if it does not mean that and if we are not going to submit our reproductive systems to Elohim, then what is the point of making a symbolic cut? So we can make a boast in our flesh?
Circumcision is worthless without loving obedience to Elohim. In fact, maybe it is even worse than worthless because it makes us think that maybe we have done all we need to do. We are circumcised, we are resting on Sabbath and Feasts, maybe we are going over to someone’s tent, and we are sharing a meal, or something like that. We believe that because we have done all those checklist kinds of things that we have done the whole of the Torah; that we have helped to fulfill the Great Commission. Is that not what Satan is trying to get us to believe?
I ask brothers because we have a lot of problems with this kind of thing in Ephraim. In general, Satan has been very busy trying to get Ephraim to sin and to fall from His favor. One of the things that Satan likes to do is he likes to generate a lot of confusion, typically through his servant Babylon or mystery Babylon. The term Babylon in Hebrew, being Babel, it refers to confusion.
Now in Scripture, things are very clear. The roles for men and women are clear but in society today, and especially coming into these End Times, we have a lot of people very confused about their gender roles. Why? Because they are raised in the Babylonian democracy. Babylon means confusion.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 5:2
2 “He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them mankind in the day they were created.”
Scripture tells us that men and women have different biology, they have different plumbing, and they have different functions so because of this, they have different but complementary roles. They are supposed to work together to help build Elohim’s Kingdom, but that has been a problem because men, sadly, have not always done the best job of servant leading. They have not given an example of how to manifest Yeshua’s Spirit in love. Because men have not always done the best, sometimes they have done things, very, very wrong, and this has given place to one of Satan’s favorite tactics in trying to destroy the family.
Ephesim (Ephesians) 5:31
31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
Scripture tells us that both men and women are equal in the sense that they are both fully worthy of his love. However, Yahweh has us playing different roles. He made the men as initiators and as warriors. He has made the women as responders and as nurturers. The husband is to lead his family through dedicated love and the wife is supposed to support him in that, so together, they can raise their children in the way they should go so that when they are older, they will not depart from it.
But He made men and women different, and men and women think differently. It has been remarked everywhere in secular society and now they are having to change everything to fit the End Time roles and the End Time definitions, but the way Yahweh made things, men and women are different and they think differently.
It is kind of like, brothers think in blue, and sisters think in pink and that is okay, it is no problem. Vive la différence, oui?
But Satan tries to tell us that if we admit there is any physical differences in the biology between men and women and of course as a natural result there is going to be a difference in the value and the worth and the lovability between men and women. That is just simply not true. Where they went with this in the Bolshevist Revolution (in Russia), is that they tried to say that in any kind of a believing marriage, the husband is going to be the oppressor and his role is to mistreat and enslave his wife.
So for this, Marxist call marriage an evil institution and they try to outlaw it. The Marxist’s goal is to break up any kind of a believing marriage in Yeshua and the purpose is allegedly “to free the wives from their oppression”. This is a total red horse pattern, and you see a lot of Ahab and Jezebel couples fall right into this. About one out of seven is what we find in our study of the book of Revelation and the End Times. There are seven assemblies and one of them tolerates that woman, Jezebel.
Really, what they do in the red horse, it is all just one gigantic focus on the negative. Anything we do in life, we can either focus on the positive or we can focus on the negative. If we want, we could even focus on the negativity of our coming marriage to Yahweh. We could view that as a kind of slavery, right? We are His willing slaves. We are His willing servants, and He does make all the decisions and there is plenty to complain about, if we want, just ask our ancestors leaving Egypt. Right?
We could focus on the negative if we want, but it is only going to lead to more negative. Or we can make the conscious choice as the leaders of our households to diligently seek that which is good and to focus 100 percent on the positive, 100 percent of the time.
Romim (Romans) 8:28
28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love Elohim, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Remembering what Romans 8 and verse 28 says that all things work together for good for those who are called and chosen according to His purposes. This is the kind of thing Scripture counsels us to do. Proverbs tells us to diligently seek that which is good.
Philipim (Philippians) 4:8
8 “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”
Shaliach Shaul, the Apostle Paul, tells us to not to focus on the negative but rather to pay attention to that which is true, that which is noble, that which is lovely, that which is pure, and that which is of good report.
Not surprisingly, that is not what either the red horse communists or their black horse Sabbatean Frankist handlers do because it is the black horse Sabbatean Fankist Illuminati who is guiding the red horse Masonic Lodge in these End Times. They are the ones preparing this whole disaster that is getting ready to go down.
However, if we read the Marxist dogma that came out of communist Russia during the early days of the Bolshevist Revolution, we can see that they attacked marriage savagely, especially a believing marriage. They attacked it as being a societal evil. Expect them to try the same thing coming up in these End Times with the imposition of a global New World Order. Because the New World Order will be communism, and in communism, if you destroy the family, the people are no longer reliant on the family. The people are now no longer reliant upon Elohim’s basic building block for all of society; for all of civilization.
In other words, civilization falls because the people are no longer reliant on Elohim, and so now the state replaces the family as the new basic building block of society in the New World Order. This is what we expect to see coming up.
We live in a world where we are told by our Babylonian governments to trust total strangers to raise our children for us even though we know that the red horse Bolshevist state government hired them with the express philosophy of destroying our families and replacing them with the state-sponsored system.
I am not going to attack religious schooling. I believe there is a very good role for religious schooling and our Orthodox brethren have had private religious schooling in yeshivot for their own children for millennia now.
Our Orthodox brethren are some of the smartest people on the planet. There is nothing wrong with learning from experts, so we do not speak against yeshivot or against schooling in general.
Back when I lived in the “Old City” in Jerusalem, I lived right across the alley way from one of these Orthodox children’s religious schools on 10 Gal-Ed Street. I used to love listening to their songs. They would sing the songs each morning and I used to love that.
Ma’asei (Acts) 22:3
3 “I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our Fathers’ law, and was zealous toward Elohim as you all are today.”
We do not know exactly how it went for the Apostle Paul (Shaliach Shaul) but Shaliach Shaul was raised at the feet of Gamaliel, so he was probably also raised in some kind of a yeshiva or some kind of private religious schooling similar to the ones in the Old City today, because our Orthodox brethren are such highly traditional people.
What I am saying is this, our Orthodox brethren do not let state hire strangers to raise their children according to Bolshevist doctrine. Not even the Sabbatean Frankist Illuminati brethren allow the Bolshevist state to raise their children in that kind of public schooling.
When you realize that there is a dual level system going on here and that they are attempting to give us the same thing they gave to Russia during the Bolshevist Revolution, with the express purpose and intention of breaking up our families and luring us to break down Yahweh’s standards, with the promise of the pleasures of the flesh. With the promise of sin.
These dangers become very real to us right now because the family is the basic building block of Elohim’s civilization and because the family has already come under a tremendous amount of fire, and because we believe that as the End Times progress and the New World Order is upon us, that it is probably going to be getting a lot worse. We are going to do what we can the bolster and strengthen the basic building blocks of Yeshua’s civilization and Kingdom.
We are going to be spending a lot more time focusing on family matters in future parashiot. The plan is that I will go back to doing the in-depth doctoral studies and our brother Ulices Rodriguez (Uli) will be taking over the parashiot in just a few weeks.
He will be talking about several things having to do with families. How husbands can lead their families in the way of Torah, how families can pull together to serve the congregation and how the congregation can help build Yeshua’s true global Kingdom.
Again, I will be going back to the in-depth doctrinal studies, Father willing. No matter whether your family is already perfectly ordered and you want to know why everything is going so well or if you have problems in your family and would like to know how things are supposed to be ordered, how things are supposed to run, then I would encourage you to read our book study on Covenant Relationships and then also to stay tuned for Uli’s teachings.
We have seen again and again in this parasha series that Yahweh says He is a man of war. He calls us as His armies, and He organizes us accordingly. In Yahweh’s armies, the husbands are basically the officer corps, and the wives serve basically as the senior non-commissioned officers (senior sergeants). Together they have the mission of raising up their family in the way it should go so that when their children are older, they shall not depart from it.
All of this is to help build strong families and these are the basic building blocks of Yeshua’s Kingdom, especially when they come together in right relationship in a congregation and then also taking their part in the global Kingdom.
All of it is deals with taking down rebellion. Mankind, we have been in rebellion since the garden of Eden and we have come up with all kinds of schemes and things to make it look like we are submitting to Elohim, but we are not really. That is what mystery Babylon is all about. Just because we are resting on Sabbath and Feasts, does not mean that we are doing our part to build up Yeshua’s Kingdom. It happens at the individual level, the family level, and the congregational level because that is our job, it is to help Him build His true global Kingdom that will rule and reign during the millennium.
And the place to start brothers, is with us, then build up our households, then build up our communities. All of this requires submission to His Spirit and submitting to His Spirit, that is evidence that He has overcome the rebellion in us. Now we can sing the praises of our conqueror (Yeshua) because He has the victory over rebellion, even in us.
But what does that victory look like at the family level and at the congregational level? How do we walk that victory out as a people? Ulices is going to talk about all these matters in the parasha starting in just a few weeks.
One thing Yeshua’s Kingdom does not look like, is our ancestors’ sin at Baal-Peor.
If I could have a word with young men. This is a matter really for every man to take to heart but especially when you are in that time when you are going to be making one of the most important decisions in your life.
Do not make any date. do not go out anywhere with any sister who would not make a pleasing bride before Yahweh. Just do not do it, it is just not worth it. As a man, we need to discipline ourselves and we need to discipline our Spirits. There is duty involved here.
We have roles that pertain to the Brotherhood and when Ulysses gets here, he is going to talk a lot about how we can organize correctly inside of our families and inside the congregation. Also, how we can perhaps break out of wrong familiar patterns or what is called generational sins so that we, like our forefathers, do not find ourselves stuck with problem situations. We need to know how to break out of the wrong patterns and help build the right patterns for ourselves, our families, and our communities.
You know, a little bit of leaven, leavens the whole lump and there is nothing quite like the leaven of fertility. Because of this, when we find sin in ourselves, no matter whether it is sexual sin or temptation to sin. No matter what it is, we need to meet it with the same Spirit and the same attitude that Pinchas met it with. We need to basically go to war with ourselves, meaning go to war with our flesh.
Yeshua said it was not enough just not to do the sin. Not only should we not do the sin, we should not even be entertaining thoughts about the sin. Now, to have a wrong thought, that is not sinful as long as we bat it away right away but any length of time entertaining that sin, that is where sin enters in.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 5:27
27 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’”
In Mattityahu or Matthew Chapter 5 starting in verse 27, Yeshua tells us, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery.” It is the seventh commandment. How perfect of a commandment is that, the seventh? But Yeshua said that whoever even looks at a woman with lust for her, has already sinned and that pertains to everyone. Ephraimite, Jewish, Israelite, makes no difference. Even the Moabites.
If our right eye causes us to sin, then it is time to take drastic action. There are times to go to war with yourself, with your flesh. Yeshua says, if it is the only way to keep from sinning (there are lots of other ways), but if it is the only way that you are able to keep from sinning. The seventh commandment is so important that it is as if we should even pluck our right eye out and just throw it away, Father forbid, but it is better for us that one of our members perish than that our whole body be cast into hell.
In like manner, so with our right hand or any other part of our body that causes us to sin. If we truly cannot find any other way to stop sinning, we should cut it off and throw it away, Father forbid, because there are other ways to stop from sinning, but it is more profitable for us that one of our members should perish then that our whole body be cast into hell.
Brothers or the brothers among us who are trying to be disciples, we have a real duty to establish Yeshua’s standards in His community worldwide. We need to be the ones to establish that framework for ourselves and our families and as the man, as the initiator, that begins with you. That begins with all of us as men. We all have duties to perform. We need to do those duties.
Elohim is counting on it, so we need to be the protective fence around the garden of our families and collectively, need to be the protective fence around our physical communities. We can keep the letter of the Torah but if we are not helping Yeshua to bring about his Kingdom on Earth, if we are not willing to be the men to order our families, and if we are not willing to be the men to order our communities and then make an Evangelical effort for Him in our communities, what are we doing?
So, if we are not doing Yeshua’s will, we can be resting on Sabbath and Feasts and going to Jerusalem every year, whatever we want, but if we are not helping Yeshua get what He wants (which is what His Father sent Him to get) we are still sinning. We are still double-minded. We are still halting between two opinions. We want to serve Yahweh, but we do not want to do the things it takes to serve Him.
Well, if Yahweh is Elohim, then do we not need to serve Him the way He wants to be served with all of our hearts, with all of our soul, and with all of our strength? Or we suppose He is just filling up parchment? It is each man’s duty to take the responsibility upon himself to make sure that his family is being raised in the way of Yahweh. That is very clear in the Torah. Again, there is a certain sense of duty and honor and loyalty to Yahweh that come along with the package deal.
We are called as a nation. We will talk about that in Parasha Nitzavim. We are not called as individuals reading our Bibles at home. We are not called as individuals lurking out there on the internet, seeing how much we can get for nothing. There are a lot of people out there drinking from all the fountains. It is our job to do what Elohim wants us to do; It is a package deal. We sign up, we want the blessings, we need to pay the cost. We need to do the work. That is what we are here for; it is to be His servants. And if we are not going to do all that Elohim says to do with all the integrity we have, with all the duty and honor that we have, what do we think we are doing? Does anyone think Yahweh is fooled?
Bemidbar (Numbers) 27:22-23
22 “So Moses did as Yahweh commanded him. He took Joshua and set him before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation.
23 And he laid his hands on him and inaugurated him, just as Yahweh commanded by the hand of Moses.”
Well, in chapter 27, we see one of the people that entered into the promised land. Moshe laid his hands on Joshua because His Spirit was in him and animated him and moved him. It was not just that he had the Spirit and did not respond according to it. He had the Spirit, and he dedicated the rest of his life to the service of his Elohim.
Joshua was the one to lead the children of Israel into the promised land because he had Elohim’s Spirit. He manifested Elohim’s Spirit. He lived according to Elohim’s Spirit.
Now, even so, we just need to point out that these men were not perfect. They were far from perfect. Moshe could not even talk hardly, he stuttered, he stammered. Joshua was not perfect, but as the old saying goes, Elohim does not call those who are already qualified, you do not see that in Scripture. Rather, He qualifies those whom He calls through the trials He brings us but to make it through those trials with a positive, can do, and joyful attitude, we need to take the attitude Shema or bust.
We need to diligently listen for the voice of Elohim and obey it just like He says. It is the very first commandment he gave us after bringing us out of Egypt, and If we will do that; if we will diligently listen for the voice of Elohim and do our best to obey it, He will transform us into the people He wants us to be. That is Yeshua’s will for us. He wants us to remain in Him, His Father in Him and Him and us. We are now His hands and His feet. We are doing the will of Yeshua Elohim so are we going to do that brothers and sisters?