We made it back to Costa Rica a couple of days ago from Nicaragua
and we had a very blessed trip. To see what we did go to:
http://lchaimpuravida.blogspot.com
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Parasha Pinchas is the 8th Torah Portion in Numbers.
It goes from Numbers 25:10-29:40. The portions begins with:
Numbers 25:10-29:40
And YHVH spoke to Moshe, saying,
11 "Pineḥas, son of Elʽazar, son of Aharon the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Yisra’el, because he was ardent with My ardour in their midst, so that I did not consume the children of Yisra’el in My ardour.
Before we get started on this Torah Portion,
we need to look at the last Torah Portion to see what happened.
To give you just a brief description, in the last Torah Portion we read about
Bil'am and all the things that happened to him, like him talking to a donkey, meeting face-to-face The Messenger of YHVH(Yahshua!),
the meeting with Balak, and Bil'am's prophecy concerning Yisra'el.
You will specifically want to read the beginning of this chapter to
get a good understanding of what is happening in the start of this Portion.
In the beginning of this chapter we read how Yisra'el sinned
by joining themselves to, or worshipping, Ba'al Pe'or.
What's funny is that Pe'or in Spanish means "worse"
so this in Spanish would mean "Worse than Ba'al!"
Anyway, YHVH of course was VERY upset at this and
told Moshe to hang all the leaders of Yisra'el.
But as Moshe was telling the judges of Yisra'el, this happened:
Numbers 25:6
And see, one of the children of Yisra’el came and brought to his brothers
a Miḏyanite woman before the eyes of Moshe and
before the eyes of all the congregation of the children of Yisra’el,
who were weeping at the door of the Tent of Meeting.
Imagine being there, watching what is happening.
As Moshe is literally giving out the command to hang all the leaders of Yisra'el, and as all the children of Yisra'el are crying out to Moshe,
this despicable thing happens right in front of their very eyes.
This person was literally standing up in not just
the face of Moshe and Yisra'el, but YHVH.
I guarantee you that this man knew that this was a sin,
but did it anyway, almost like he was mocking YHVH.
This was a most dreadful sin, and as we see in verse 9,
24,000 people died because of what happened.
And more would have died if it wasn't for this one man,
Pinchas(Pinehas,Phinehas).
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Numbers 25:7-9
And when Pinehas, son of Elʽazar, son of Aharon the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation and took a spear in his hand,
8 And he went after the man of Yisra’el into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Yisra’el, and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague among the children of Yisra’el came to a stop.
9 And those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand.
This young man was very important in Yisra'el.
He was 3rd in line to the priesthood. He was training to be the high priest
as well as was guarding the Tabernacle, as all the priests from 20 to 50 did.
He must of been taught from a very young age the instructions of YHVH.
Let us look at his name in Ancient Hebrew and see
if we can see a picture of what YHVH is trying to show us..
Pinchas
פינחס
Meaning:
To open the hand that protects life's support
By what we see in this meaning, what Pinchas's name means is what he did,
as many of the names we have seen are.
Pinchas opened his hand, took a weapon, and killed the man of Yisra'el
and the Midianitish woman, stopping the plague.
Because of what he did, because he opened his hand, he protected life,
and through it, brought YHVH's support back to Yisra'el.
And by this, Pinehas gained an everlasting priesthood:
Numbers 25:12-13
“Therefore say, ‘See, I am giving him My covenant of peace,
13 And it shall be to him and to his seed after him a covenant
of an everlasting priesthood, because he was ardent for his Elohim,
and made atonement for the children of Yisra’el."
Now as we see here, YHVH gave Pinehas
the ultimate covenant, the covenant of Shalom/Shalem.
Most of us in this walk of obeying YHVH's instructions
and the testimony of Yahshua have heard of the word Shalom. It means peace. But this word Shalem, even though it may have
the same letters, has a much, much deeper meaning.
It means to be complete. It means, and this is just in the Strong's,
to be safe, to make amends, to finish, to make good,
to make perfect peace, to make prosperous, to restore, and to reward,
to be in good health, to be blessed, etc.
Basically it means to be complete and perfect in every way.
Sure, there may be trials and tribulations,
but that is where His shalom/shalem really comes in.
When you are down, and there's nowhere else to go,
all we have to do is look up to YHVH and trust in His shalom/shalem to be there.
If we continue to obey and trust Him, even through the hard times,
just like Job did, YHVH will come through
and give you His complete and perfect peace.
It is truly, "Paz en medio de la tormenta!"
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Now, to come back to the Torah Portion,
we see how this was to be a covenant of an everlasting priesthood.
But the question becomes, if this is true,
that this was to be everlasting, why isn't it here today?
Let's all remember one thing.
Let's jump forward a couple hundred years and
see how David was also promised the kingly priesthood forever:
2nd Samuel 7:16
“And your house and your reign are to be steadfast forever before you –
your throne is established forever.”
This covenant was also to be forever, but was stopped after all
the sins that Yisra'el and Judah did and how they
became captives and sent out into foreign lands...
BUT, as we all know, YHVH doesn't break His promises,
we just sinned, which therefore delays and postpones the covenant,
because as we all know, YHVH is light, and when we sin,
we become darkness. The day will come though when:
Isaiah 66:20-23
“And they shall bring all your brothers as an offering to YHVH out of all the gentiles, on horses and in chariots and in litters, on mules and on camels, to My set-apart mountain Yerushalayim,” declares YHVH, “as the children of Yisra’ĕl bring an offering in a clean vessel into the House of YHVH.
21 “And from them too I shall take for priests – for Levites,” declares YHVH.
22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make stand before Me,” declares YHVH, “so your seed and your name shall stand.
23 “And it shall be that from New Moon to New Moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” declares YHVH.
One day, YHVH will bring those who believe, trust, and obey in Him
back to Jerusalem, where He will make them priests and Levites...
Wait a minute, we are a part of this! Which means we will be priests and Levites!
It all makes sense with everything else we read in Scripture.
Let's look at 2 specific places in which we also see this promise:
Numbers 19:5-6
‘And now, if you diligently obey My voice, and shall guard My covenant, then you shall be My treasured possession above all the peoples – for all the earth is Mine
6 ‘And you shall be to Me a reign of priests and a set-apart nation.’ Those are the words which you are to speak to the children of Yisra’el.”
1st Peter 2:4-5, 9-10
Drawing near to Him, a living Stone – rejected indeed by men,
but chosen by Elohim and precious -
5 you also, as living stones, are being built up, a spiritual house,
a set-apart priesthood, to offer up spiritual slaughter offerings
acceptable to Elohim through Yahshua Messiah.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a set-apart nation,
a people for a possession, that you should proclaim the praises
of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light,
10 Who once were not a people, but now the people of Elohim;
who had not obtained compassion, but now obtained compassion.
HalleluYAH! If we keep His commands and guard Yahshua's testimony,
we are also a part of this covenant, since one day we will be priests and Levites!!
Amen and Kabod-YHVH(Glory to YHVH)!
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Chapter 26 goes through the 2nd census of Yisra'el.
This census was done after the 40 years in the wilderness as it says in verse 64:
Numbers 26:64
But among these there was not a man of those registered by Moshe and Aharon the priest when they registered the sons of Yisra’ĕl in the Wilderness of Sinai.
In the 1st census, the number of the children of Yisra'el from 20 years old and above was 603,550, but in the 2nd census the number was 601,730, with the difference being 1,820 people. In Hebrew the word form for that would be אתתל 1,000 being Aleph, 800 being 2 Tavs, and 20 being Lamed.
Let us look into the Ancient Hebrew and see what that means:
אתתל
Meaning:
The leader of the sealed covenant is the authority
YHVH was showing His power here. He, like almost every time we take
one of these words back into the Ancient Hebrew,
is trying to show us a picture of what His character is.
Sometimes, He shows Himself in the Torah Portion as love,
and sometimes as perfect, but this time He is showing that
He is the Authority of the covenant, that He is the Leader.
We disobey, and He punishes us, not because He is a mean
God that demands absolute perfection, but rather a loving El
who wants to bless us, but only if we love Him and want to bless Him.
He can't be with darkness, so He consumes it.
He gives us so many opportunities to return, all we have to do
is believe, serve, and obey Him with ALL our hearts.
But because we sin, just as Yisra'el sinned,
He had to punish them and remind them over and Over and OVER again
that He was YHVH El Shaddai(YHVH God Almighty), their Leader.
That is why He had to send His Salvation to them, Yahshua.
Without Yahshua paying the ultimate price for our sins,
we would not be able to even come close to YHVH.
We would still be scattered, lost, and without hope.
Praise YHVH that He is merciful, kind, and loving,
and that one day we can be united with Him in perfect unity.
Psalms 116-119 are an amazing couple of chapters to read all about His mercy and love even when we sin. He loves and protects those that keep His Torah.
I don't know if you will realize it, but when I read
those chapters in Psalms one of my 1st thoughts were,
"Wow! There is more here about mercy and love than in the New Testament!"
And then I realized, that's the whole point! There is nothing new, just renewed.
His love and mercy are exactly the same
as they were back then, there is nothing different.
The only thing that's changed is that now instead
of working for our salvation, we do His Torah because we want to show
that we thank Him for Yahshua and love Him back.
That is the whole point of Torah!
To show that we love YHVH so much and want to obey Him always.
HalleluYAH!
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We go into chapter 27 now and we see the instruction
of the inheritance in case the father has no sons.
YHVH always has a plan for everything, even if He doesn't show it right away. Everything has a time and a place to be revealed.
He knew that a time was coming shortly were they would enter
the land and that they would need to know what happened if the father
dies without any sons, but He knew that they didn't need that
instruction before that time. Praise YHVH for perfect timing!
Right after this we see the instruction by YHVH to Moshe
to go up to Mount Abarim because he was going to die there
because he sinned against YHVH when he struck the rock in Numbers 20.
We see how Moshe wanted YHVH to pick someone to lead
the people so that they weren't like "sheep without a shepherd(verse 17)."
And then we see how YHVH picks Joshua to be that leader.
But we see something interesting here:
Numbers 17:18-21
And YHVH said to Moshe, “Take Yehoshua son of Nun with you, a man
in whom is the Spirit. And you shall lay your hand on him,
19 And shall set him before El'azar the priest and
before all the congregation, and give him charge before their eyes,
20 And shall put some of your esteem upon him, so that all the congregation of the children of Yisra’el obey him.
21 “And he is to stand before Elʽazar the priest, who shall inquire before YHVH for him by the right-ruling of the Urim. At his word they go out, and at his word they come in, both he and all the children of Yisra’el with him, all the congregation.”
Wait! But wasn't the "Holy Spirit" given on Pentecost in 33 A.D? Nope, sorry.
We see at least 35 times read about the Spirit of YHVH being on a person.
The Ruach HaKodesh has always been there and has always done the
same thing He does now, showing us what is right or wrong.
Amen!
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The last 2 chapters have to with the offerings at the times of the feasts.
I find it interesting how in verse 2 it says:
Numbers 28:2
“Command the children of Yisra’el, and you shall say to them,
"Take heed to bring My offering, My food for My offerings made by fire
as a sweet fragrance to Me, at their appointed time."
It was very important to YHVH, more than any other time,
for the children of Yisra'el to bring the right offerings at these set-apart times.
It is the same way with our Spiritual offerings today.
When they are YHVH's appointed times, we need to be on our best watch
to give good fruit and shine our light the most because on those days YHVH expects us more than any other days to give the offerings of our heart and soul. Each one of these offerings has a meaning behind them that is crucial to know.
It is very important to know what YHVH desires,
and that is why studying is so important.
I praise YHVH that one day we can all be able to discuss Torah
and bring our offerings to Him without arguing over this or that.
The way we speak to our brothers and sisters
in Messiah is extremely important for 2 reasons.
First because Yahshua is in our midst and is in every one of us that keeps
His instructions, and secondly because if all we do is argue
and bash then the nations outside will not want to come and be grafted
into Yisra'el and be a part of the everlasting covenant.
I left the church thinking that we were going to leave behind all the divisions
but all I see are people getting mad at one another and divisions all the time.
I am sad to see my brothers and sisters
in Messiah fight over everything and anything.
The day is coming soon where we have to be in unity or
we will be cut off, and I pray we will all be ready for that day.
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I pray that YHVH will bless you with this study.
May His Ruach fill you with His Shalom/Shalem.
Until next time...
Shalom!
Christian Montanez Dodd
Servant and Emissary of Yahshua, Child of YHVH
HalleluYAH!!