So, I'm Saved...

Another moment of Rabbi Jack sharing his thoughts. Thanks for sharing, -Bradley Avi

Ellen and I have been blessed, the L-rd allowing us to travel to Africa for the purpose of establishing a Messianic Jewish presence in both Kenya and Nigeria. Our experience in these countries has been eye opening. The commitment of these people, the hunger, the desire to learn more and more about the L-rd, is such as we have not seen in North America. Yet as beautiful as Africa is, it is still a third world country. What impressed us however, were the people, the believers. Despite deplorable roads and a public transportation system that is inconceivable to our western minds, until you see and experience them yourself, people are committed to finding their way to come and worship the L-rd. So it has made us think, “Are we, here in North America taking G-d for granted?”

Yeshayahu (Isaiah) {1:2} Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for HaShem hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me.

This is not unlike what we have in our society today. We bear children, care for them with loving care, give them food to nourish their bodies and provide for them the best that the L-rd can provide through us and what do we expect in return? We expect our children to grow up strong in the L-rd and to become successful believers in their own right and many times this happens; but not always. Our little ones learn to rebel. Yes they start to rebel as soon as they are able to make the smallest decisions. As an infant, when they are hungry, eat what we give them to eat. But by seven or eight months they start to spit the food out they do not like or they turn their precious little heads away as we try to feed them. They further rebel when they become toddlers. We instruct them to not climb on tables and when we are not looking they attempt to climb on the tables. By school age we tell them to play in the yard and before we know it they are playing in the neighbour’s yard or in the street. And through out the teenage years we find that there are curfews broken, chores done when it is convenient for them and not when it should be done, and later in life the teaching that have been put into them through the Word of G-d gets pushed aside for the life that the world has to offer. All of this is nothing but rebellion and G-d takes notice of it. G-d therefore, just and fair when He says that His children have rebelled; His people have taken Him for granted.

As parents we often ask ourselves when faced with rebellious children, “Where did we go wrong?” G-d is asking the same question of us:

Yeshayahu {1:3} “An ox knows its owner, and a donkey its master's manger, but Yisrael does not know, My people do not understand.”

The animals that G-d has given man dominion over know who their owners are. They will come when called and live in the place that is prepared for them and yet the people of G-d act as if we do not know G-d because we take G-d for granted.

Yeshayahu {1:4} Alas, sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned HaShem, they have despised the Holy One of Yisrael, they have turned away from Him.

G-d mentions seven things through His prophet that His people were doing: sin, heavy wickedness, evil doings, growing more and more evil, corrupters taking that which is good and turning it bad, leaving G-d for the world system, doing things with the knowledge that it is against the laws of G-d and causing G-d to become angry, going backward instead of forward. We have sadly developed the attitude of, “Whatever happens, happens” . Our eyes have been blinded and our hearts hardened.

Yeshayahu 1:7 Your land is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your fields -- strangers are devouring them in your presence; it is desolation, as overthrown by strangers. {1:8} And the daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a watchman's hut in a cucumber field, like a besieged city. {1:9} Unless Ad-noi Tz’vaot had left us a few survivors, we would be like Sodom, we would be like Gomorrah.

We too, both Jew and non-Jew have received G-d’s invitation to come to partake with Him in His grace. We too, have heard the voice of G-d through the Prophets in the Scriptures, through the weekly sermons, through the Bible studies, and perhaps through our believing parents or friends. We too, have heard the voice of G-d calling us to repentance, to salvation, to restoration in Him. But how have we responded to His voice? You might say, “Well, I’ve already accepted Yeshua HaMashiach into my heart, to be the L-rd of my life. So I’m saved.” Yes, you may say that you’re saved now that you have gone through the sinner’s prayer. But does that mean that’s it? Is that it? To gain eternal glory with G-d we simply need to repeat the “sinner’s prayer” ? Yes, with the sinner’s prayer we ask Yeshua HaMashiach to forgive us of our sins. Yes, with the sinner’s prayer we invite Yeshua to into our lives to take full control of our lives and become our L-rd and saviour. Yes, doing these things is all vital and valid. But the life we live after the prayer is equally significant, equally vital.

Mattityahu (Matthew) {7:21} “Not everyone who says to Me, 'L-rd, L-rd, ' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.”

Are we doing the will of G-d? Are we diligent in knowing Him? Are we really in love with Him? Are we putting Him first in our lives, before everything else? Are we really grateful for His invitation to partake in His grace that we are also sharing G-d’s invitation with others? Or are we too busy and preoccupied to be concerned? Are we taking G-d for granted?

Being children of G-d, we have the privilege of sharing a relationship with G-d. G-d is a loving G-d, a G-d who desires to give us so much more than we could ever imagine. The question again is, “Are we taking G-d for granted?” Do we only go to G-d when there’s a need? Do we go to G-d only when we are hit by sickness and a crisis? Do we remember G-d only during good times? Do we give thanks to G-d only for answered prayers and not the unanswered ones? Yes, we’re all very busy people. All our lives are juggling acts between our work, marriages, children and our responsibilities to ministry. And in between all that, there are still a string of other things we have to give time to no one ever has enough time!

Think about it! Maybe you have been taking G-d for granted in your life, as you busy yourself with life’s pursuit and pleasure? Maybe you are not really trusting in a G-d who loves you so much that He wants you to find all sufficiency in Him? Maybe you do not trust that even in your weakness, His grace will see you through every difficulty and every obstacle in your life? Maybe you have been taking G-d for granted and you need to confess this sin, repent and be forgiven.

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Baruch HaShem
Rabbi Ya'acov Farber

Definition "Israeli"

My brother named "Israel" sent this, and thought it might be fun to share. Thanks Izzy for taking the time to put this together. -Bradley Avi



If you asked someone to define ‘Israeli’ to you, they’d probably say something about someone who’s born in Israel or who has citizenship in Israel. That’s a good answer. But not if you’re asking them to define our Hebrew Word of the Week.

This parasha’s narrative detailing Yahweh’s appointed times and the maintenance of the internal tabernacle service is abruptly interrupted by two angry men slugging it out. Maybe they were getting bored of the details. Or maybe the steady diet of manna for breakfast, lunch, and supper was getting to them. Or, maybe the one guy had insulted the other guy because the other guy’s Dad was an Egyptian. I think it was probably the latter scenario, not that Israelites today would ever stoop to that level.

In giving the pedigrees of the two brawlers, a term pops up that isn’t used anywhere else in the whole Hebrew Bible. In Leviticus/Vayikra 24:10 we read that the guy with the Egyptian Dad had a Mom who was an Israelite woman, an ‘אִשָּׁה יִשְׂרְאֵלִית Ishah Yisraelit’. ‘אִשָּׁה Ishah’ is a pretty Hebrew word, and means woman. ‘יִשְׂרְאֵלִית Yisraelit’ is the other Hebrew word in this term and is the one that we’ll key in on this week. It means a female Israeli. The Torah then goes on to use the male counterpart of this term in describing the other guy as a ‘ְאִישׁ יִּשְׂרְאֵלִי Ish Yisraeli’, an Israelite man, or a male Israeli.

This is the only time that the terms Yisraeli and Yisraelit appear in the Torah. The more standard reference to the people of Israel is ‘בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל bnei Yisrael’, the sons of Israel. What’s so surprising about the usage of these terms in this context? These people weren’t born in Israel. These people had never even been to Israel. These people had spent their whole lives building the Egyptian Empire. But the God of these people was the God of Israel, and he was busy making good on his promises to their forefathers. Even though Egypt may have been these people’s past, Israel was these people’s future, and the God of Israel was these people’s present. And so they were called Israelis.

Perhaps it was based on the contextual usage of the terminology in this week’s parasha that Paul was able to write in his letter to the early Messianic community in Ephesus, and proclaim to believers from the nations in broad sweeping terms that these people were no lo longer aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, that they had been brought near. Why? Because the Messiah of Israel was their present. Because the covenant reality of the land of Israel, and the glory of the God of Israel, was their future. So it is with us today.

Of course, Paul’s theological foundations for his idea that believers from the nations were included in Israel reached far beyond this parasha. Paul had read the prophets. Paul had read Jeremiah 31:31, that exhilarating promise of the new covenant experience and its explicit statement of who the new covenant was to be made with: the House of Israel, and the House of Judah. Paul understood that these believers from the nations thus fell under the ‘roof’ of the Houses of Israel and Judah.

What are the practical applications we can draw from our Hebrew Word of the Week?
1. If you’re a believer in Messiah from the nations, then you are more than a Gentile. You are part of Israel. It’s time to reclaim your covenant inheritance, and start living it out! Read the Scriptures of Israel. Celebrate the Feasts of Israel. Practice the Biblical customs of Israel. After all, your Saviour is the Messiah of Israel, and he has brought you in!

2. Remember that sometimes conventional terms don’t mesh with Scriptural realities. It doesn’t matter where you were born. It doesn’t matter what country your passport says you belong to. If you are a man, then at the core of your soul you are an ‘יִּשְׂרְאֵלִי Israeli’. If you’re a woman, then in the depths of your heart you are a ‘יִשְׂרְאֵלִית Yisraelit’. Cherish your heritage, and prepare for your future.

3. If you’re like the guy with the ‘Israelite Dad’ and ‘Israelite Mom’, take a lesson from this story and be nice to those who aren’t. They’re part of Israel too. Mistreating the guy with the ‘Egyptian Dad’ doesn’t just misrepresent God, it places the aggressor in danger of causing the guy with the ‘Egyptian Dad’ such pain, confusion, or estrangement that he would actually blaspheme the holy name by which we have been called. Even though you may be from different backgrounds, remember the greater reality: that you have a common future.

Your friend,

Yisraeli Yisrael

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