Your Daily Bread for April 28-May 4, 2024, by Dr. Apelu Poe

Welcome to Your Daily Bread for April 28- May 4, 2024, by Dr Apelu Poe!

Key Torah Code for this Fourth Week of the Fellowship Season:

“Shalach” (You send): Number 13:1-15:41

Basic Principle of Our Judaic-Christian Faith:

Our God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent. Had he said something, would he not have fulfilled it?

“With a pen, I circled the Hebrew letters that appeared just below “in the End of Days” “A-R-A-F-A-T.” Arafat immediately recognised his name. He had seen it many times in Israeli newspaper headlines. He pointed to the page and motioned Erekat and Rudaineh to come look. But at first, he did not seem surprised or shaken. Most men seeing their name perfectly spelt in a hidden text of the Bible, in the same place the Apocalypse, the end of the world was foretold, would be shocked. Arafat seemed instead to have anticipated it” I’ll get to the point in a minute.

But, first, let me say Talofa, Welcome, and Shabbat Shalom to you, my friends in the name of “Yeshua HaMashiach” Jesus the Messiah! And through the power of God’s Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit). As they say in Samoan, Malo le soifua manuia! Faafetai fo’i le fai tatalo! Congratulations on your good health! Thanks also for the prayers. May our God always grant us his lovingkindness!

Getting back to the point. If you have followed God’s calendar, which dictates and foretells the events of our lives to which the above quote refers, you will know that from April 28 to May 4, we will enter the fourth week of the Fellowship Season.

What is the Fellowship Season? Following immediately after the Holy Week, the Fellowship Season is the eighth season of God’s calendar for 2023-2024 with Pentecost (May 19) as its festival. Just as the name suggests, the Fellowship Season is a time in which we are called to enjoy a warm fellowship with our fellow brothers and sisters worldwide in Christ’s name. The biblical basis that supports this can be found in Psalms 133:1, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity,”

Before we take a look at the Torah portion for this fourth week of the Fellowship season, let me also say “thank you” to all of you, my regular readers. You’re a fantastic community of believers made up of Jews, Christians, Islamists, as well as people of other faiths. You are amazing because you take the time to access my Torah-Bible Codes teaching on Facebook and LinkedIn which has now become a top-performing weekly post on social media.

It is, indeed, a great inspiration for me to see that so many of you around the world have been following my teaching on social media from week to week.

I call my Torah gift for you this fourth week of the Fellowship Season “Your Daily Bread for April 28-May 4, 2024.”

Why am I saying this? Well, for those of you who have been following my teaching, I’m saying this because, as you might have noticed, I have been using this same gift that God has given me for the past 40 years to help guide the destiny of those whose spiritual welfare God has entrusted to me. And now that I have retired from the ordained ministry in July 2021, I want you to have free access to it.

My pastoral desire is simply this: For you to be the person God has created you to be. My prayer, then, is that you would be able to live according to God’s time so that you may discern God’s Divine path for your life and how it is that God wants you to live to best receive his blessing and shine his holy light.

Your Benefits from My Torah Gift I Can Give You This Week

So what exactly can you expect from the Torah gift I’m giving you this fourth week of the Fellowship season? Well, the first and foremost is self-knowledge.

Why self-knowledge at this critically challenging time of the year? Because life transformation begins with precisely that: self-knowledge

You see, it all comes down to the flow of information, the dynamic of your brain's plank field, and the feedforward and feedback process that is involved in it.

The physics behind all this is not hard to understand. You’re receiving the information from the universe (God), and you are feeding that information forward into your brain’s plank field through a process called quantum oscillation of all your protons and neutrons.

Remember, each one of us is made up of numerous cells. And each one of those cells at its quantum or sub-atomic level is made up of hundreds of protons and neutrons.

So you are receiving the information from the universe (God), and you forward it into your brain’s plank field through the process called quantum oscillation of all your protons and neutrons. Your brain plank field will interpret it and will feed it back to you in such a way that will enable you to say, Aha, I now see it with my naked eyes. Now I know. That’s what self-knowledge is.

Here’s the point. Until we are made aware of who we are: men-God, or women-God, and what we need to do to help make this world a better place for all of us, we will never be able to get out of this geo-political, socio-economic turmoil that we now find ourselves in, no matter where we are in the world today.

So the Torah gift I’m giving you this fourth week of the Fellowship season will help you become aware of the fact that our lives on this earth can be described as being on a journey. Like a person who is going from one place to another. He has a starting point and a destination. He has to have a reason why he is going from one place to another.

But perhaps more importantly, he has to find a way to take himself from point A to point B.

Please note that the keyword here is destination.

Destination comes from the Latin word “destinare,” meaning "determine, appoint, choose, make firm or fast."

For example, if you choose a certain destination, that's where you intend to end up, the "finish line" or goal you keep in mind.

For a friend who is taking a trip to Paris in France this coming month, that is his destination.

The same thing is true with our faith journey. As Jews, Christians, Muslims, or people of other faiths, our destination is not any place on this earth but heaven.

Unfortunately, that is not what we witness today. Look at what is going on in governments around the world. A total political dysfunction and turmoil. But that’s not all.

Look at our business world. It has become a world of business dictated by greed for power and money at the expense of the poor. Look at our schools or our places of learning; they have turned into places of immoral acts. What about our families? The same thing. Our families have lost their role as a place where values and respect are nurtured for our children. And the saddest thing is that even the Temple, the synagogue, or the church, each has lost a sense of holiness.

In most cases, they have become destinations of social gatherings characterised by moral corruption and spiritual decay.

Consider, for example, the latest immoral act done by Israel on Wednesday, April 24, to pummel Gaza after the US Congress approved military aid.

Israel pounded Gaza with air strikes and artillery fire in its war against Hamas on Wednesday after the U.S. Congress approved $13 billion in military aid.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the Senate's approval of the aid package already passed by the House of Representatives sent a "strong message to all our enemies" in a post on social media platform X.

US-Israeli relations have been strained by Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's determination to send troops into the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where 1.5 million people are sheltering, many in makeshift encampments.

Certainly, fears are rising that Israel will soon launch an assault on Rafah, which it says is the "last" major Hamas stronghold, but aid groups warn any invasion would create an "apocalyptic situation".

Since the start of the war in Gaza, there has been a surge in deadly violence in the occupied West Bank.

It’s no wonder, why the apostle Paul challenged us, saying, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you fail to meet the test”(Corinthians 13:5).

The second benefit that my Torah gift will give you this fourth week of the Fellowship season is futuristic hope. It’ll help you develop your futuristic hope, knowing that our greater days are ahead. Although things are not perfect in the world, in our religious community, or even in our own lives, because there are things that are out of our control, nevertheless, we find comfort in knowing that our God is ever able and willing to help us.

When we say futuristic hope, what do we mean by that? Well, by futuristic hope, we mean putting our complete trust in the hand of our God that our God knows what is best for us, and that He is enough and has enough to fulfil our needs.

The reality is, that everywhere you turn, people are wondering about the future and the end of the world as we know it. While conversations of doom and gloom are pervasive, what Christians have to offer is a message of a future with hope.

Read “Future Hope: A Jewish Christian Look at the End of the World” by David Brickner, executive director of Jews for Jesus, written in an easy-to-understand format and offers insights into the Bible prophecies.

The book also includes helpful charts and appendices. Great for both Christians and people of other faiths interested in a Jewish perspective on end-time prophecy and Jewish people who are curious about what Christians and others have to say about the end of history.

So the Torah gift I’m giving you this fourth week of the Fellowship season will help you understand the fact that if Jesus had not allowed his side to be pierced by a spear on the cross, there would never have been any Temple, any synagogue, or any church in the world today. If Jesus had not done what he had done on the cross, we would never have been given God’s gift of eternal life. That is why as Jews, Christians, Muslims, and people of other faiths, our hope lies beyond death. And that means that we should never abandon our hopes in despair regardless of how things look on the outside.

Perhaps it is for this reason that on Wednesday, April 24, a U.S. Government Representative, Pelosi, a Democratic from California issued a public call on Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister to resign, condemning him as an ‘obstacle’ to peace.

Pelosi made the call in an interview recorded Monday with Irish broadcaster RTE's Six One News. She argued that Netanyahu's response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas has been "terrible."

Listen again to Pelosi’s words, "We recognize Israel's right to protect itself. We reject the policy and the practice of Netanyahu terrible. What could be worse than what he has done in response?" she said. "He should resign. He's ultimately responsible," she added.

"I don't know whether he's afraid of peace, incapable of peace, or just doesn't want peace. But he has been an obstacle to the two-state solution," she added.

Pelosi's statement comes more than a month after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for new elections in Israel, claiming Netanyahu's government no longer represented the best interests of the Israeli people.

It is no wonder why God himself assured the people of Israel and us, saying, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).

The third benefit that my Torah gift will give you this fourth week of the Fellowship season is self-discipline. It’ll help you control your emotions and your actions, especially in difficult situations.

Why the need to do that, controlling our emotions and our actions in difficult situations? Because in each one of us, there are two impulses: the good impulse and the bad impulse.

When we let our good impulses dominate our bad impulses, we become good people. On the other hand, when we let our bad impulses dominate our good impulses, then we become bad people.

Studies show that self-discipline or self-control is the ability to manage one's impulses, emotions, and behaviours to achieve long-term goals. It is what separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom.

Self-discipline or self-control is primarily rooted in the prefrontal cortex, the planning, problem-solving, and decision-making centre of the brain which is significantly larger in humans than in other mammals.

The richness of nerve connections in the prefrontal cortex enables people to plan, evaluate alternative actions, and ideally avoid doing things they'll later regret, rather than immediately respond to every impulse as it arises.

Perhaps it is in this light that on Monday, April 22, U.S. President, Joe Bible’s administration publicly shared urgent concern over Israel in Gaza human rights report.

The U.S. State Department's annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices highlighted Israel prominently featuring concerns over the country's precautions to minimize the civilian toll of Palestinians on the first page, which is normally reserved for the most egregious of human rights abusers.

In the report's preface, President Biden's Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, addressed the human rights concerns with the war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas before either Iran or the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Listen again to Antony Blinken’s words, "The conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza continues to raise deeply troubling concerns for human rights," Blinken said.

He explained that the U.S. has "made clear" that Israel needs to follow international law "and take every feasible precaution to protect civilians." Blinken emphasized that the department is still "urgently" raising concerns about civilian deaths in Gaza during the war.

The U.S. also "repeatedly" brought up concerns about humanitarian aid access in Gaza, civilian displacement and "unprecedented" journalist deaths, the report noted.

Israel was mentioned before the Biden administration's State Department addressed "ongoing and brutal human rights abuses in Iran" or "the Taliban’s systemic mistreatment of and discrimination against Afghanistan’s women and girls."

The Jewish state was featured after only Russia's civilian violence in Ukraine and "mass killings" and "rape" perpetrated by the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces.

Hamas terrorists are mentioned in the same paragraph, with the U.S. condemning Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which, it noted, "included appalling abuses, including gender-based violence and sexual violence."

After noting the urgent concern over Israel's civilian precautions, Blinken added, "We have repeatedly condemned Hamas’ abhorrent misuse of civilians and civilian infrastructure as human shields."

"Hamas' horrific attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 last year, and the devastating loss of civilian life in Gaza as Israel exercises a right to ensure that those attacks never happen again, have also raised deeply troubling human rights concerns," Blinken reiterated at a press conference following the report's unveiling.

A State Department official told Fox News Digital that the report's discussion of issues globally is not a ranking of countries that compares them to one another.

Representatives for the Israeli government did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment for purposes of this story.

It is no wonder why the apostle Paul urged us, saying, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:1-2).

The Historical Proof that Supports our Need for Your Daily Bread that Sustains Us Spiritually

Does it surprise you, then, that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, did not forget to remind us about these things? That is why last week you heard Jesus speaking to us, saying, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you that everything that is written about me in the Law of Moses [Torah] and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled…” (Luke 24:44). ).

Jesus, then, did something which I thought was quite remarkable and quite extraordinary. He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. Jesus said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:45-49).

Overview Summary of this Week’s Torah Portion

With this in mind, let us look at this week’s Torah portion, Numbers 13:1-15: 41 to see the answer to our million-dollar question: What’s in it for me (WIIFM)?

Remember our Lord’s Prayer where you hear Jesus asking Father God, “Our Father who art in heaven…Give us this day our daily bread.” That means every week; God gives us our daily bread, our weekly Torah portion that sustains us spiritually.

So, in the Hebrew language (God’s sacred tongue) from which our English Bible translation was taken, the Torah portion for this fourth week of the Fellowship season is called “Shalach” translated as “You send” see Numbers 13:1-2.

To understand this, one has to, first of all, identify the double references in the text. On a simple linguistic level intended primarily for the Jewish audience, the reading focuses on the code “Shalach,” translated as “You send.” Thus, in the opening part of the reading, we see Moses sending twelve spies to the land of Canaan.

In the central part of the reading, we learn that forty days later they return, carrying a huge cluster of grapes, a pomegranate and a fig to report on a lush and bountiful land. But ten of the spies warn that the inhabitants of the land are giants and warriors “more powerful than we.”

Please note that only Caleb and Joshua insist that the land can be conquered, as God has commanded. The people weep that they’d rather return to Egypt. Consequently, God decrees that Israel’s entry into the land of Canaan shall be delayed forty years, during which time that entire generation will die out in the desert.

The reading ends with a group of remorseful Jews storming the mountain on the border of the land. Unfortunately, they are routed by the Amalekites and the Canaanites.

Indeed, on a profound theological level, the Torah portion for this fourth week of the Fellowship season, “You send” has an important message to us, the Church, the Body of Christ.

This message is evident when the portion is interpreted in the context of this particular time of the Fellowship season. And that is, when God says that he is going to do something for us and we believe it, then that should settle it.

Remember God is not a man that he should lie; nor a son of man that he should repent. Had he said something would he not fulfil it?

How many times that God keep reminding them that he would fulfil his promise made with their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? How, by giving them the land of Canaan to be their future inheritance.

Unfortunately, when they drew near to the Promised Land, they had forgotten what God had promised them. As a result, the devil came in and put doubts in their hearts and minds.

How do we know that? Listen, again, to our text for this week, “You send men to spy out the land of Canaan…” (Numbers 13:2).

This is clarified further by the reference given in Deuteronomy, ‘Then all of you came near me, and said, “Let us send men before us that they may explore the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the cities into which we shall come,” (Deuteronomy 1:22).

Question: What is the consequence of their doubting God?

Answer: forty years set back in their journey through the desert. Worst of all, not one of those who doubted God was allowed to set foot in the Promised Land.

Question: Are those not the same problems we’re witnessing in our world and our lives today? Absolutely, yes!

You see, the main reason why the world lacks unity and lies broken in heaps today is that man is disunited with God and with himself.

In other words, we have failed to put our complete trust in God’s hand. That is why we spend more but have less. We buy more but we enjoy less. We have multiplied our possessions but we have reduced our values. We have learned how to make a living but not a life. We have higher incomes but lower morals.

It is no wonder why the prophet Isaiah advised us, saying, “Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting God,” (Isaiah 26:4).

Perhaps, it is for this reason that David declared, saying, “I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust,” (Psalm 91:2).

Jesus, then, summarized it this way, saying, “Let not your hearts be troubled, believe in God, and believe also in me,” (John 14:1).

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