Devarim (Deuteronomy) 31:1-31:30, Hoshea (Hosea) 14, Mikah (Micah) 7; Yoel (Joel) 2, Yaakov (James) 1-2
Shabbat Shalom everyone, and welcome to this week’s Parasha Vayelech. I am your host Ulices Rodriguez. If we had to summarize our Torah portion, our prophetic portions, and our Brit Chadasha portion, this week would be summarized as a plea for us to return to Yahweh. When we look at our prophetic portions that is exactly what we see. Specifically in the book of Hosea, the prophet Hosea says:
Hosea (Hosea) 14:1
1 Return, O Israel, to Yahweh your Elohim, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
Well, indeed the children of Israel have stumbled and walked in disobedience. As a result, the majority of the tribes were expelled from the land and have not returned. They are currently lost among the nations, unaware of their Israelite identity. And, any of us believing Gentiles could be one of these lost Israelites, unaware of our Hebrew identity, however, that is a study for another time.
The greater focus for this week is the need for mankind to repent and return to Yahweh. Because all of mankind has walked in disobedience for all of their history. Therefore, Yahweh requires repentance from everyone, for Elohim has no favorites. He shows no partiality.
Qolossim (Colossians) 3:25
25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.
But, what does the word iniquity mean? And how has our iniquity caused us to stumble away from Yahweh?
The Hebrew word for iniquity is Strong’s Old Testament 5753 and it is the word “avon” and the root word of “avon” is “avah” which means to pervert, or make crooked, and its meaning can be applied literally or figuratively.
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance
do amiss, bow down, make crooked, commit iniquity, pervert, do perversely, trouble, turn,A primitive root; to crook, literally or figuratively (as follows) — do amiss, bow down, make crooked, commit iniquity, pervert, (do) perverse(-ly), trouble, X turn, do wickedly, do wrong.
For example, if you have a straight metal pole and you put a 90-degree bend in it. Its original design and purpose was to be straight up and down, and it now has a 90-degree bend, it has been perverted and corrupted from its original design and purpose. And this is a literal application of the word. When you apply this understanding to us spiritually, in a figurative sense, we too as mankind, have been perverted from our original design and purpose.
The book of B’reisheet, in verse 26 says:
B’reisheet (Genesis) 1:26
26 Then Elohim said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Well, to keep it simple and straight to the point. These two words, “image” and “likeness” signify the same thing. As mankind in our moral, spiritual, and intellectual nature, we are supposed to represent Elohim with how we live our lives in all that we do in our lives.
So let’s dive into these two Hebrew words to gain a better understanding of what that is supposed to look like for us.
The Hebrew word for image is Strong’s Old Testament 6854 and it is the word “Tselem”
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance
image, vain showFrom an unused root meaning to shade; a phantom, i.e. (figuratively) illusion, resemblance; hence, a representative figure, especially an idol — image, vain shew.
This word Tselem is derived from a Hebrew root word that is no longer in use today, but it’s meant to be applied in a figurative sense. This means that as male and female we represent Elohim figuratively, in a tangible world. For example, in the Shema, scripture tells us that Yahweh our Elohim is One, He is Echad. Echad in Hebrew is the word that is used for the numerical value of one, and it also means united.
Therefore, Yahweh is United, and He is One.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 6:4
4 “Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our Elohim, Yahweh is One [Echad].
Well, what does this mean on a fundamental level for us? On a fundamental level, there is Yahweh The Father, and there is The Set-Apart Spirit, which in Hebrew and Aramaic is always addressed in the feminine. And there is Yeshua The Son of Elohim. Now typically in Christian doctrine, this is referred to as the trinity, and it’s typically taught as three distinct and equal persons united as one in nature. However, this is not really what scripture teaches. The Father, The Son, and The Spirit are not three distinct persons united as one in nature. Rather it is One distinct Spirit, manifested in three different roles, with the same nature.
John tells us that:
Yochanan (John) 4:24
24 Elohim is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
I know it may seem like we are debating semantics, but these details are especially important for us to understand so that we know what it means for us to be united in Messiah. What it means for all of us to have the same Spirit, because as scripture says:
Qorintim Aleph (1 Corinthians) 14:33
33 For Elohim is not an Elohim of confusion but of peace. As in all the assemblies of the saints,
Therefore, we must fundamentally understand that God or Elohim manifests Himself in the ultimate form of authority as Yahweh The Father to accomplish specific tasks and purposes within that role. He does the same as The Spirit, and He does the same as Yeshua The Messiah within the role of His Son. Last week we saw that the Spirit and Yeshua did not come to live two distinct lives, or have two distinct messages.
Yochanan (John) 7:16
16 So Yeshua answered them, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.
Yochanan (John) 16:13
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, She will guide you into all the truth, for She will not speak on Her own authority, but whatever She hears She will speak, and She will declare to you the things that are to come.
Yeshua and The Spirit are extensions of Yahweh, therefore since they are extensions of Yahweh, they are going to have the same message as Yahweh in heaven. Therefore, in many respects, this is supposed to be represented in the nuclear family. The nuclear family figuratively represents Elohim. The nuclear family figuratively is supposed to resemble what we read in The Shema.
For example, let’s look at the Book of Genesis which says:
B’reisheet (Genesis) 2:23-24
23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Notice that the woman was taken out of the man. Not the man out of the woman or that the woman was created in the same manner as the man, making them equal in terms of authority. No, the profound mystery here is that the woman is a physical extension of the man, and a wife is a physical extension of her husband. Very much in the same way that Yeshua is a physical manifestation or extension of His Father in heaven.
Therefore when husband and wife come together in marriage and become one flesh, they are no longer two separate spirits seeking to accomplish their individual desires. Rather they become one flesh through the unification of their spirits and they become united in their purpose and desire to accomplish the will of The Father in heaven within their respective roles. As male and female, we each have our own spirit, and Yahweh Elohim designed us to come together and unify our spirits as one, to represent His image.
This is why the concept of marriage is considered a sacred thing. Paul writes to the Corinthians:
Qorintim Aleph (1 Corinthians) 6:16
16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”
As believers, when we have the spirit of Elohim living within us, we become physical extensions of Elohim on earth. Therefore, as believers, if we are yoking ourselves unequally to someone who is not a believer, then we are taking the spirit of Elohim who lives within us and we are joining it to an unclean spirit, and this perverts the image of Elohim
Paul also writes:
Ephesim (Ephesians) 5:31-32
31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Messiah and the assembly.
The profound mystery here is the same as a husband and wife. As believers in Yeshua, we do not literally become one body and one flesh with Yeshua. No more than a husband and wife become one body and one flesh. The idea is that we would have our bodies cleansed of all unclean spirits, and have Yeshua’s Spirit living within us, unifying our spirit with His. So that we would become an extension of Yeshua. Thus becoming an extension of The Father in heaven.
We figuratively become one body with Yeshua, but we spiritually, become one with Yeshua. In this way, we resemble and represent Yeshua in our lives. We figuratively become His hands and feet, meaning we execute His will and not our own. This is what it means to be made in the image of Elohim.
Therefore when the book of Colossians says:
Qolossim (Colossians) 3:10-11
10 and have put on the new self [the new nature], which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator.
11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Messiah is all, and in all.
What scripture is telling us is that all of mankind has been perverted and corrupted from its original image. Therefore we must turn to Messiah Yeshua, to be renewed and redeemed, so that in our moral, spiritual, and intellectual nature, we can resemble and represent the proper image of Elohim.
Now, the second word in Genesis that signifies the same thing is the word “likeness,” and the Hebrew word for” likeness” is, “demuth” which is derived from the root word, “damah” which is Strong’s Old Testament 1819 and it means to resemble or be like.
Strong’s Concordance
damah: to be like, resemble
Original Word: דָּמָה
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: damah
Phonetic Spelling: (daw-maw’)
Definition: to be like, resemble
Therefore again, we see the same concept. As mankind, in our moral, spiritual, and intellectual nature, we are supposed to resemble and be like Elohim.
Therefore when we read in the book of Ephesians:
Ephesim (Ephesians) 4:24
24 and to put on the new self [the new nature], created after the likeness of Elohim in true righteousness and Set-Apartness.
Again, the principle here is that all of mankind has been corrupted and perverted from its original design and purpose. And we must be made new in the likeness of Elohim so that in the fruits of our lives, we resemble Elohim.
Therefore, let’s revisit Hosea chapter 14, with our current understanding:
Hosea (Hosea) 14:1
1 Return, O Israel, to Yahweh your Elohim, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
What Yahweh is saying is that Israel has stumbled because of her perversion and crookedness. Her perversion and crookedness, have led her to rebelliously walk away from Yahweh. However, Israel is not the only one guilty of this, as we already know.
Paul said to the Romans:
Romim (Romans) 3:23
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of Elohim,
Therefore sin is what corrupted us and brought death into the world.
Romim (Romans) 5:12
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
And, What is Scripture’s definition of sin?
John says in his letter:
Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 3:4
4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
And who’s law is John referring to? It is Elohim’s law. Which is the Torah. Now sin is not only defined as disobedience to Elohim’s written word, but sin can be properly defined as disobedience to Elohim, period. Whether that be disobedience to the audible voice of Elohim, the direction of His Spirit, or whether that be disobedience to His written word. It’s all the same in His eyes.
When we look at the book of Romans again, Paul says:
Romim (Romans) 5:13-14
13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
Understand this, without a law, there can technically be no transgression of the law. Therefore technically, by definition, it can not be regarded as a sin. However, Yahweh gave Adam and Eve a direct and verbal command that He expected them to obey.
Yahweh told Adam and Eve, in Genesis:
B’reisheet (Genesis) 2:17
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Now, because they didn’t obey, this brought death upon them. Both in a spiritual death and eventually in a physical death. Now to truly comprehend what a spiritual death is, we must remember that Elohim breathed the breath of life into Adam, Elohim gave Adam life, and He gave Adam a portion of His Spirit to bring him to life.
We read:
B’reisheet (Genesis) 2:7
7 then Yahweh Elohim formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
The Hebrew word we read here in English is sometimes translated as Spirit in other places of Scripture.
Therefore we can read it, as “Yahweh Elohim formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the Spirit of life, and the man became a living creature.”
Therefore, a spiritual death means, separation from Elohim’s Spirit within him. Therefore, the original image of Elohim that they were created in, was now perverted. This is why physical death continued to reign over mankind after Adam and Eve sinned. As descendants of theirs, we were all born into this now perverted and corrupted image. And, without Elohim’s Spirit within us, we are dust, and as dust, we are destined to return to the ground.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 3:19
19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Adam and Eve died a spiritual death, and as descendants of theirs, we too were born of dead spirits, dead men walking in our flesh.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians:
Qorintim Aleph (1 Corinthians) 15:50
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of Elohim, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
This is why Yahweh hates the work of our flesh because it’s inherently corrupted and perverted. Our flesh by itself contains no life. We are the closest thing that you can compare to fictional zombies.
This is also why, Scripture says that without faith it is impossible to please Elohim.
The book of Hebrews says:
Ivrim (Hebrews) 11:6
6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to Elohim must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.
And, what is our reward for having faith in Elohim? It is eternal life. It is the restoration of Elohim’s Spirit within us. It is the renewed and redeemed image of Elohim upon us.
Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 2:25
25 And this is the promise that He made to us—eternal life.
Now we must define what faith is according to Scripture. So that we know what we must do to obtain eternal life.
James gives us an example in his letter, he says:
Yaakov (James) 2:21-23
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed Elohim, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of Elohim.
Now Abraham was not alive when the Torah was given, therefore he was not expected to keep the Torah. However, he still obeyed the audible commands of Elohim because he believed in everything Elohim told him to do. And this is what Elohim expected of him. His faith was demonstrated by his belief in Elohim. Therefore what we can deduce, is that our faith and belief can be properly, defined as obedience to Elohim. And sin as we saw earlier is properly defined as disobedience to Elohim. Our faith and belief is demonstrated in our obedience to what Elohim commands us, in all the various ways that He commands us.
Whether that be through an audible voice that we hear, whether through the Spirit that leads us and guides us in all truth, or whether that be obedience to His written word. Our obedience and works are the fruit of our faith. Just like sin and disobedience is the fruit of our lack of faith. Therefore, when Yahweh is pleading with us to return to Him. He wants us to be redeemed, He wants us to receive His Spirit. He wants us to walk in faith. By walking in obedience to all His commandments, and walking in step with His Spirit.
As we saw last week, and what was confirmed this week. The Spirit of Elohim is our lifeline. Without it, we can not do anything in faith.
John said this in his letter:
Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 3:23-24
23 And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Yeshua Messiah and love one another, just as He has commanded us.
24 Whoever keeps His commandments abides in Elohim, and Elohim in Him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
Shabbat Shalom.