Now, we can quote Scripture like this all day, but excuse me if I may, but why should we be happy and incidentally, what are we chosen for?
Gas chambers? Genocide? Strict dietary laws? Body altering surgery on eight day old infant boys? Restrictions on clothing? To be a mockery among the nations? To be required to adhere to a high moral standard without any obvious reward? To follow a religion that operates contrary to the standard cyclical calendar?
No other nation in mankind’s history has suffered as much as the Jews and if you’re a Nazarene, you’re part of that same nation whether you like it or not! We’ve endured so much that the nations came up with their own particular name for our plight. It’s called anti-Semitism! No other nation gets its own personal name for its suffering!
Don’t you realise, you’re affiliating yourselves with a people who have the honorary title of “Christ Killers!”
St. Augustine wrote, "The true image of the Hebrew is Judas Iscariot, who sells the Lord for silver. The Jew can never understand the Scriptures and forever will bear the guilt for the death of J-sus."
From Egypt to the modern era, the nation of Israel has been kicked like a worn deflated soccer ball from one super power nation to the other. In recent times, without a country of its own and without its own defence force, the nation’s occupants got rounded up from everywhere, losing their rights, livelihoods, belongings, loved ones, hair, gold fillings, body parts and eventually their lives in that order while the majority of world turned its back.
I ask you, do you have a death wish? The Word says, we are blessed, chosen, a royal priesthood, a special treasure. Really?
I have sat in envy at the peace of the wicked, knowing there are no chains that hold them back until they die? Their vitality throughout their lives always appears sound. They are not included in the toil of frail humans and they are not plagued as we are. They wear arrogance around their necks like jewellery and they are insulated from violence with their eyes bulging from abundance. They’re affluent lifestyles have even exceeded the fantasies of their hearts. They consume the weak and speak evil in public. They speak against heaven, ridiculing us with their tongues strutting on earth. Their success undermines the prestige of the Torah, where it should feel like a flowing river, it seems more like a trickle for us. Their success draining our joy. They ask, how can we be assured of an interventional Creator when we die just like them? These are the wicked and they are always at ease, accumulating wealth? Surely in vain have I purified my heart and ritually cleansed my hands. For I’m plagued all day long and I am chastised every morning with Your reality. If these thoughts became known, I would cause many to stumble in the Way. When I reflected to understand this privately it seemed like this faith was the source of my iniquity.
I just quoted from Psalm 73.
Recently, I sat in quiet reflection over the coming High Holidays almost upon us and I toiled over the events of the last year, working out my salvation with fear and trembling. At the same time, I looked at the secular person, even the mainstream Christian, people going about their lives, totally oblivious of the importance of Yom Teruah and Yom Kippur, and yet they seem quite happy.
Sometimes, at this time of year we can feel so anxious that the allure of our former lives can seem like a grass greener on the other side.
King David’s director of music, Asaf, went through the same trivial in Psalm 73. But listen to what he continues to say: “It seemed like the source of my iniquity sprang from my faith, but then my thoughts came to the sanctuaries of Elohim. In other words, the apparent unfairness of life continued to puzzle me as long as my vision remained profane, measuring success according to material attainment and physical comfort, but when I shifted my gaze to loftier things I realised that the tearing down of my body was building my soul into a magnificent sanctuary of eternal bliss.
The wicked are bankrupt, for they have squandered all their merits in this world, and are condemned to eternal damnation in the hereafter (Rashbam & Radak). Through the Ruach HaKodesh, I gazed into the future and saw the fate of those who dared to attack Elohim’s sanctuaries (each Temple and every Elohim fearing man or woman who ever walked). The wicked attack us and in so doing seal their ultimate doom (Ibn Ezra).
The Egyptians, Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Persians, the Romans, and even as recent as the Germans under Nazi rule have all ceased to exist, but the Jew remains the same.
Only on slippery places does Elohim place the wicked and He throws them down into darkness. He turns them to desolation and brings them to an end with terrors. They will be as if caught in a bad dream that never ends and all the while their own stench will fill their nostrils. I felt like a fool contemplating the prosperity of the wicked, like an animal that walks alongside you knowing nothing, but still I walked along side you. You cut down all who stray from You. I put my refuge and hope in You and I shall relate You rescue mission.
Asaf comes to his senses, but he does what every believer who is worth their salt should do, reflect and ponder honestly and openly with Yahweh Elohim. Don’t be afraid to tell Him how you really feeling. If you talk openly and honestly with Him, he’ll deal openly and honestly with you.
Everyone’s worried about Donald Trump, Isis, chem-trails, the illuminati, but the truth is our one and only concern should be our own spiritual condition before Yahweh.
“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Messiah Yahshua came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst.” (1 Timothy 1:15)
We’ve all sinned and Yahweh didn’t arrange His calendar to catch us out and condemn us! He arranged it to remedy our sin, not kill us in the midst of it. Yahweh doesn’t punish us or kill us, we punish us and kill ourselves.
Our sin and iniquity cause the separation. Sin and iniquity are not thrust on us; we work them into our lives with great effort.
Your iniquities have separated you from Elohim, your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2)
In the absence of sin, Elohim’s presence would be evident everywhere! Gradually we push Him away and He gradually retreats from our sight. This is fine until we need Him again.
You see we work hard to sin. We walk along way from Elohim’s House to sin. It takes a lot of mental, verbal and physical effort. And when we find ourselves damaged by sin, we want an instant teleportation back into Elohim’s house! Unfortunately, Messiah Yahshua, renamed J-sus Christ by the masses has helped to serve up this instant repentance just add water solution. As a consequence, his redefined persona has for many replaced the requirement to observe the Hebrew Calendar at all.
But what about those of us that have pushed through the myriad of smoke screens and come to the knowledge of the truth. Is life any easier for us than it is for the one walking in ignorance?
We should know that this walk is not a guarantee against sin. But it is a guarantee for removal of sin and renewal of the soul. According to a Jewish Midrash, there is an interesting take on sin from three different levels of revelation within Scripture.