Watch Here: Parasha Bechukotai 2022!
Leviticus 26:3-27; Jeremiah 16-17; Luke 14-15
We get emails based on our presentations. And from time to time, we get disappointed comments about how we are different than the church. and how it is a surprise to people who are new to Nazarene Israel.
Yes, we are different than the church. So, if you are new to Nazarene Israel, Nazarene Israel is not like the church. Praise Yah! And thank you for noticing!
We are different from the Messianic movement also. And the reason we are different than both the church and the Messianic movement (including most Ephraimites) is that the Roman-style churches (and I include the Messianic assemblies in that) is that they do not do what Scripture says to do. They have a replacement of what Yahweh Elohim says to do. And they do not like to do it like Scripture says to do it. They have their own reasons why they should keep their own ways instead of doing what Scripture says to do. So basically, they make up their own worship.
That is a big problem for us. Because if we worship Yeshua but we never learn to become like Yeshua, then we are not going to end up doing the same things that Yeshua did. Instead, what happens, basically we have Roman-style bread and circuses. I mean, you can laugh. But think about it.
You have this Greco-Roman style amphitheater. And the people file into the Greco-Roman amphitheater. And then they enjoy some good kind of entertainment. We hear some enjoyable message. Maybe they pray some together. Maybe they even break bread together (or at least a wafer, something like that). But once they pay their admission, they go home. And they do not do like Yeshua did in His synagogue, ever! They do not imitate Yeshua’s walk! Basically, they are disobedient to Yeshua, and they will even know it. So that is the Greco-Roman model. They are worshiping and adoring, but they are not really imitating. Not the way Yeshua intends us to.
The thing is that there are really very few true believers who are really trying to do our very utmost to walk the narrow and afflicted path in all aspects of life. Spiritually, financially, volunteering our time. Basically also applying Yeshua’s teachings to every aspect of our lives. And the reason there are so few people that want to follow this narrow and afflicted path is that it requires sacrifice.
I have heard it called the Rent an Ore model of ministry. And that is about right. Because if we are going to serve Yeshua, we need to bring our sacrifice for Him. A lot of people disdain Rent an Ore. But that is how they did it in Scripture. This is the example we see the apostles giving us.
Like we spoke about in “Parasha Behar 2022”, we can choose to respond to Yeshua’s calling, and thus in choosing to respond, we ourselves become chosen so we can show Him our dedication by choosing to respond. Or we can be one of the 4,000 or the 5,000, or the myriads, or the multitudes, or the crowds and the throngs that just pass through. Because they are not there to lay down their lives in service to Yeshua. They are to get something from Yeshua.
What Yeshua really wants is the twelve. Because they made a decision. They made a choice to do all they can to help further His kingdom. Clearly, it is not popular. Because it does take a lot of discipline to serve in a king’s court. People think serving in a king’s court is easy. It is not! And plus, our King will only accept the very best of the best! The first choice! The finest part!
There is this assumption in Scripture (and in Israel) that is missing in the Ephraimite world. Which is the understanding that there is a spiritual war going on! And it is for real! And Elohim expects those of us who truly love Him to bring all we have to His fight. Basically, if we do not choose to bring all we have to His fight, He considers that as treason! Because His Son did all that for us! We are not willing to do even this for Him?
Well, perhaps we have lived under Babylonian democracy for so long now that maybe we have forgotten what it is like to serve a king! Kings demand obedience to their orders! They demand our loyal loves. So, Yahweh is expecting obedience to the letter of His word. And is not that what the right thing to do is? That we should obey His Word both in spirit and in truth? Both in spirit and in the letter?
For those who are paying attention, we have some major End-Time activities coming right up! Each week we publish the news on the Revelation timeline on the Nazarene Israel website. And what we are going to see in this Parasha (and others in this series) is that Elohim expects us to come together and begin to operate as one nation. And that is just as our forefathers were supposed to pull together as one nation when they came out of the land of Egypt. So also, we are to pull together as a single nation to serve Yeshua better. And we do that by following the protocols, the procedures, and the rules that Yeshua gave His disciples to keep in the first century. We explain those in all of our works.
But the thing is, as we have covered in past sections, it has to be a real thing with us. We do not just get rewarded for learning about what we are supposed to be doing. If we learn about what we are supposed to be doing but we do not actually do it, maybe we might call that lackadaisical or lukewarm. But Yahweh sees it as treason. He sees it as rebellion. And that is why the lukewarm get vomited out of His mouth! Because they know what they are supposed to do, and they know what their Commander wants! They just do not want to obey their Commander.
That is a big problem! Because Yahweh is a war Elohim. Yahweh is a Man of War. And if we think about it in terms of Him being our Military Commander, and the fact that we are operating in the spiritual wartime, if your commander in the military gives you an order or a standing order, is it optional? You are kidding, right? Because of course, it is not optional. It is mandatory! Or else the penalty is death, right?
The thing is, brothers and sisters, if we know what He wants us to do (because He says the same thing every week) He says, “Obey Me or I am going to thump you!” So if we know what He wants us to do and then still we do not want to do, is not that kind of the same as disobeying a direct order from our Commanding Officer? Is not that rebelling against our Commander-in-Chief? And the penalty for rebellion is death, right?
You know, obedience to Yahweh is a very simple black and white matter. He says, basically, “Obey Me or I am going to smack you until you change!” And if we obey Yahweh then He is going to make things wonderful! He is going to make things amazing! But if we do not obey, Yahweh promises us a free trip to the backside of the woodshed! If you know what I mean!
So, do we realize that the Wedding Feast reflects on those promises? And have we thought about how the wedding is not automatic? But that the wedding is conditional upon our obedience? Do we get that? Also, do we realize that Armageddon is the Wedding Feast?
We explain that in Revelation and the End Times and also in Revelation Simplified on YouTube. But the point of all this and the thing we are really trying to say, brothers and sisters, is that if we want to survive these End-Times, then do not we need to be in His favor? And to be in His favor, do not we need to do what He says?
Well, to find out how to survive the Tribulation and be taken as part of His Set-apart bride, please join us for Parasha Bechukotai. We will talk about how Armageddon is the Wedding Feast. And how we get to survive by being on Yahweh’s team before that day comes.
Okay. What we have been doing up until now in this Parasha series is what could be called Evangelical Outreach. But one of the problems we have noticed here is that we are not getting the advanced insights to the disciples. That does not work for us long term. Our new plan is that I am going to pass my study insights to the disciples. And that is for their studying.
I am also going to try to indicate where newcomers should look and if there are any corresponding studies on our website.
But once we do that, then I need to refocus the rest of my time on the doctrinal studies. Because that is what brings us all together in the right order. The correct doctrine. So again, I have to turn this into study notes for disciples. And that is all the time and resources we would truly have at the moment. So please pray to the Master of the Harvest to send out workers into His Harvest. Because the Harvest is truly great. And the workers are few and working hard.
Now, as for the specifics, Yahweh called me to this walk in June the 6th, 1999. And since that point in time, if I had to put my finger on one single thing that I wish Ephraim could understand, it seems to be that Ephraim coming out of the church system. Ephraim does not yet quite seem to understand that Yahweh only promises to bless us when we obey all of His commandments. And that He promises to punish us where we do not perform all of His commandments. So if we are only going to keep part of His commandments, that is not all. And that is going to end in punishment. Yeah, it does not leave a lot of space in between, does it?
In today’s day and age, we are not supposed to be a binary society anymore, right? But is not this kind of a binary choice? You know, are we doing all His commandments? Or are we doing a part of or not all of His Commandments? Pick one, right? Because is it all? Or is it not all?
And I think people say, “Well, why all? You mean, all?” Yeah! I think what all represents to Yahweh is it represents 100 headlong, head-over-heels commitment. That is why He likes it so much! That is why it means so much to Him! And that is also why He does not give us an option to perform only part of His Commandments.
Yahweh does not say, “Well, keep 90 percent, that is an “A”! Keep 80 percent, that is a “B”!” And let us read the language here in Vayiqra (Leviticus) chapter 26 verse 14.
Vayiqra (Leviticus) 26:14-15
14 ‘But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments,
15 and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My Covenant,
Yahweh says, “But if you do not obey Me and do not guard all of these commandments, and if you despise My statutes or if your soul abhors My judgments so that you do not perform all My commandments but break My Covenant, then I will pound you into oblivion! And not in a nice way!”
Now, something special of note in this chapter is that Yahweh says several times, if we do not obey all of His commandments, then He is going to bring seven times more punishment upon us. And that is just because we were not keeping all of His commandments. We were only keeping parts.
Vayiqra (Leviticus) 26:18
18 ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
And the reason that makes Him upset is because, effectively, we did not consider His Son to be worthy of making that kind of effort.
Now, if we want to find out how partial obedience worked out for our forefathers historically, we can read all about that in the Nazarene Israel study, in the section where we talk about the “Mystery of the Two Houses”. And while we are there, we can also read about the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which we are going to get into in our Renewed Covenant portion.
But the point is that we need to glean from this is that Yahweh punishes partial obedience. Because He finds it disloyal.
Now, we are all thinking, “Wow! We kept part of His commandments. We are doing pretty good! We deserve a reward!”
That is not how Elohim looks at it. He looks at it like it is treason. I mean, are we going to do more of the same things that got our ancestors sent out into the Assyrian diaspora in the first place? If only keeping part of His commandments was a problem for our forefathers back then, why are we going to get called back to land without keeping His whole Torah? Yeah!
Brothers and sisters! A lot of us are the same way! You know? Tithing is too much. Donating time is too much. Doing something to help build Yeshua’s kingdom is too much. Oh, but we love those blessings!
The problem is that we cannot do more of the same partial obedience that got us sent into dispersion in the first place! And then we imagine He is going to bring us home? But we have never really changed? No! First, we need to change. First, we need to show Him our love for Him by doing for Him all that we can. Then He is going to protect us through the Tribulation so we can come home.
Now, for the math, please see the Nazarene Israel study in the section on the “Two Houses of Israel”. When we run the numbers and do the math, what we see is that there is this Torah principle that Yahweh refers to in Ezekiel chapter 4. And Yahweh said that the northern kingdom of Ephraim (or the northern House of Israel) would be sent out into the dispersion for their partial obedience.
Now, the dispersion started around 722 BCE. And of course, it did not happen all in one year. It was an invasion; it was a conquering of land. But in Ezekiel chapter 4 and verse 5, Yahweh tells Ezekiel to lie on his left side for 390 days. And He tells Ezekiel that the principle here is a day for each year. That is the prophetic principle of Ezekiel 4.
Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 4:5
5 For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; so you shall bear the iniquity of the House of Israel.
390 days (one day for each year) that our forefathers were supposed to spend in captivity for their partial obedience. This was their jail time for partial obedience. The problem is that they did not repent after 390 years. So, their punishment was extended sevenfold.
We run the numbers and do the math in the Nazarene Israel study. But that punishment ran out around 1996, 1998, or 2000 depending on various factors. What we see is that this corresponds to the rise that we saw in the Hebrew Roots Movement starting around 1996, 1998, 2000.
For example, I was called in 1999. And there is a lot we could say about that. But that is all in the Nazarene Israel study. I encourage you to read that. If you read that study, you will know more than 99% of all Christians out there.
But the question we have here is, how does all of this apply to the Wedding Feast? How does it apply to the Marriage of the Lamb? How does it apply to us?
Now, we eagerly await Yeshua’s return! It is going to be so nice when Satan’s finally locked up in the pit and we only have his minions to deal with. It is going to still be a struggle because we still have to battle his minions. But Yeshua says we can do it because He is going to give us His rod of iron in that day. And because Satan’s then in the pit, then we can organize in that day. So we are eagerly awaiting that day!
And of course we all want Yeshua’s blessings! We all want Yahweh’s blessings. We all want to sit down at the table with Avraham Yitzhak, and Ya’akov, right? But do not we need to make sure that we do not get cast into the outer darkness instead? Where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth? Because is not that where Yeshua says that the partially obedient go? And can we see that the destruction of the partially obedient is the Tribulation? Because Satan targets them for their obedience, but they do not have enough obedience to be protected. Because our heart’s not truly all the way in it.
Did not Yeshua say that it would be only a very few who would enter the Kingdom in that day? Did not He say that the narrow gate was very difficult, and it was afflicted? Only the afflicted could enter in by it! And do we realize that Armageddon is the Wedding Feast?
I mean, that is kind of a different perspective is it not? So, the bride is wearing combat boots. Everyone wants to be the bride. But who wants any part of Armageddon? It does not sound like fun!
Well in Yirmeyahu (or Jeremiah) chapter 16, Ephraim (or Israel) come back home again. As we explained in the Revelation study, this will happen after the Tribulation and after Armageddon. While we do not know the dates and the times, we do know the seasons. We know the general timeline. While we have been watching the timeline it seems to be dead on! So far, it has been 100 percent accurate.
We know that the prophecies in Jeremiah 16 and 17 are accurate because those are the word of Elohim. So, what does He say? Yahweh says He is going to punish those who are only keeping part of His Commandments. We do not mean to harp on the same topic in every study. But if Yahweh says He is going to punish those who only keep part of His Commandments, then how now should we live?
Well, there is a lot more we could say about Yirmeyahu chapters 16 and 17. But we are going to have to leave it for next year. Right now, we want to see what Yeshua has to say about Armageddon (or the Wedding Feast).
So, we come to Luqa (or Luke) chapter 14. Starting in verse 16 we see that Yeshua is talking about a Great Man who obviously in this case is Elohim (or Yahweh). And He invited many to His Great Supper. Which, of course, is the Wedding Supper of the Lamb (of His Son).
Luqa (Luke) 14:16-17
16 Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many,
17 and sent His servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’
Now the many in this passage here, is it possible that this is the same many as Avraham’s seed is supposed to be as the stars of the heaven and as the sand of the seashore, which is neither numbered nor counted for multitude?
When the Great Man invited everyone to His Son’s wedding though, what happened? Where did everyone go? Well, everyone made excuses, of course.
Luqa (Luke) 14:18-20
18 But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’
19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’
20 Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’
They all had things to do that seemed more important to them than attending the wedding of the Son the King of the universe. Just was not a priority in their lives.
But guess what. The Master of the House was not happy. Verse 21 tells us He was angry.
Luqa (Luke) 14:21
21 So that servant came and reported these things to his Master. Then the Master of the House, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’
What happened really? What are we really talking about? In the first century, He invited Judah. But Judah did not come. Now, maybe some in Ephraim are willing to come. But they do not have on the correct wedding garment which is obedience to their Husband.
So instead, Yahweh invited the poor, the lowly, and the crippled to His feast. And He swore that none of those in Judah and Ephraim who were originally invited would taste of His supper.
Now, is that the same as to say that many will come from east and west and sit down in the Kingdom with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and yet the sons of the kingdom are going to be cast in the outer Darkness?
Mattityahu (Matthew) 8:11-12
11 And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
And is not that the same as to say that we need to be pure? Are we saying we need to wear the correct wedding garment? Which is loyal obedience to our Husband and everything that He said to do?
Oh, oh! Guess what! It is binary choice! It is either-or. There is no gradation. There is no scale of gray. We just need to choose life! We just need to choose obedience! We just need to choose Elohim and not the world!
This is pretty much a story for both Ephraim and Judah today. So the question then becomes, are we truly making Yahweh Elohim our number one top priority in life? Are we truly putting Him and His Son and His word first in our lives? Or are we living this style of life where we are pretending to do that? Meaning we are still in the church! (I include the Messianic movement and most of the Ephraimites in that.)
Do we expect a little piece the Kingdom when that great and awesome day finally comes here? Even though we know in our hearts that we are not doing everything that He said to do?
Brothers, do we think our Husband is going to take us as His bride forever? A spotless and blemish-less bride. But we are not making Him our top priority in life? I mean, it is a hard lesson to learn. But we need to be real! Yahweh’s promises are not just to the believers. They are for the disciples. Even the demons believe! And the demons tremble! But yet they do not obey!
Ya’akov (James) 2:19-20
19 You believe that there is one Elohim. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!
20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
Maybe we might think that we believe (and yet we do not obey). But as we explained in the Nazarene Israel study, the real question is, do we believe to the point of obeying? Do we believe unto the point of obedience? We explain in the Nazarene Israel study about the Hebrew conception of listening and the Greco-Roman concept of listening.
So these are the questions. Not what is obedience to us? But what is obedience to Elohim? What is it that He gets out of this? What does He want? Because He is the one who is going to make the decision, after all!
What we have tried to show all throughout this Parasha series is that there is a big difference between whom Yahweh is going to deliver from the Tribulation (the obedient ones) and those He probably will not (which is everyone else). And just as our forefathers were taken by surprise that partial obedience was not good enough, brothers and sisters! Can we please take a good look at ourselves and our lives? And realize that Tribulation is coming! We do not get to go home, we do not get to survive, unless we obey!
So, why not do as Yeshua says to do in Luqa (Luke) chapter 21 and verse 36. which is that we should watch out and be careful! We need to pray always that we might be counted worthy to escape all these things that are going to come to pass here on this Earth! That we might survive and escape! That we might stand before the Son of Man one day!
Luqa (Luke) 21:36
36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Dear Father Yahweh. Please help us all to watch and pray always to take heed to our spirits. That we also might be counted worthy to escape all these things that we know are going to come to pass in these End-Times. So we might stand before your Son. So that we might be able to serve Him. Father, please help us realize that in order to reach that lofty goal that You are serious about what You say. It is not a joke. We just need to do everything Your word says with the eager, humble, willing, hearts. Thank You, Father. Please help us to walk this way. Please help us to do these things. Father, we ask these things in Yeshua’s name. That we might become better servants for Your Son Yeshua, our Messiah and King.
Amein.