Your Daily Bread for January 15-21, 2023
Welcome to Your Daily Bread for January 15-21, 2023 by Dr Apelu Poe!
Key Torah Code for this Week: “Tetzaveh” (You shall command): Exodus 27:20-30:10.
Basic Principle of Our Judaic-Christian Faith: Spiritual darkness and hopelessness are not only ill-advised but immoral. And that never in the history of God’s people around the world has there been a greater or desperate need for enlightened leadership than today.
“The Bible warned that the terror attack such as what we see in the Russian’s senseless invasion of Ukraine has resulted in the loss of over 50,000 innocent civilian lives in Ukraine, and over 100,000 Russian soldiers, the impact of which would be global. The world war was encoded with “terrorism” and the Arabic word for “suicide bomber” (shabid) appeared in exactly the same place as “atomic war in the End of Days.” I’ll get to the point in a minute.
But, first, let me say Talofa, and Shabbat shalom to you, my friends in the name of “Yeshua HaMashiach” Jesus the Messiah! As they say in Samoan, Malo le soifua manuia! Faafetai fo’i le fai tatalo! Congratulation 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 we are now entering the third week of the Presentation season. What is the Presentation season? The Presentation season is the fourth season of the Christian year calendar, with the “Church Anniversary” Sunday, January 29, as its festival. Just as the name itself suggests, Presentation season is a time in which we are called to celebrate Jesus being presented by his parents, Mary and Joseph, to the Lord God for the mission for which he was sent to the earth. The Biblical basis that supports this can be found in Luke 2:22, where it says, ‘And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.’
Now, before we take a look at this week’s Torah portion, let me also say “thank you” to all of you, my regular readers. You’re a fantastic community of believers because you take the time to access my teaching on Facebook and on LinkedIn. 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 week “Your Daily Bread for January 15-21, 2023.”
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 to best 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 third week of the Presentation season? Well, the first and foremost is self-awareness. Why self-awareness? Because life transformation begins with self-awareness. To address any concern or any challenges that we face in our life today, we must, first of all, identify what is at heart, the root of those challenges. Without that, we will never be able to come up with an adequate or appropriate strategy that will resolve our challenges. So the Torah gift I’m giving you this week will help you become aware of the fact that when the Lord God said to Jesus and the Holy Spirit, “Come, let us create man in our image and after our likeness…” (Genesis 1:26), the Lord God was not unaware that this human being will end up messing things up big time. Read this testimony of the Scriptures documented in Genesis 6:5-6. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”
But it got worse because in Genesis 11 (read the story of the Tower of Babel), in which we hear the human being saying to themselves, “Come, let us build this tower.” For whose name? For our names, which means that this human being has absolutely no consciousness of God in him whatsoever. All the human being has is himself. Nevertheless, in spite of all that, the Lord God never gave up hope for human beings. How do we know that? We know that through God’s call of Abraham in Genesis 12. Here, we hear God saying to Abraham, “Go, you shall go. Go from your country and your kindred and from your father’s house to a land I would show you. I will bless you and make your name great…It is through you that all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
I’m sure you are already jumping forward to Genesis 22, to that historic moment on Mount Moriah where we see Abraham raising his hand with the knife, and his son, Isaac laying on the firewood, perhaps the most moving scene in all of history. Just imagine yourself in place of Abraham. How would you feel if it was you? And yet, this most emotional, heart-moving story of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son, Isaac, was designed to show us the extent to which our God had to go to redeem us from our sins.
As I said last week, the story of God’s sacrificial love did not begin when God created the heavens and the earth, which we read about in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. There is something that precedes that. There is something on which God’s Creation stories in Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2 are predicated. What is that something? The oral tradition of the Hebrews, or the ancient Jewish people from which our salvation comes, says that for 974 generations before the earth was created and 26 generations after the earth was created (from Adam to Joseph), that’s a total of 1,000 generations, this oral tradition tells us that for 1,000 generations, God has preserved this esoteric treasure with Him in heaven. What esoteric treasure are we talking about? Jesus (God’s Word Incarnate. But when we fall into sin, the Bible says the wages of sin is eternal death. God did not withhold his esoteric treasure, His Word Incarnate, but he let His Son, Jesus, die on that wooden cross so that you and I may be redeemed from our sins.
So, what is the point of Jesus’ cross? The point of Jesus’s cross is precisely the vicarious suffering of God’s Son on the cross so that the depth of his death opens for us the way to eternal life. Whoever comes, and whoever believes. How do we know that? Listen, again, to the apostle Paul, “Let each of you look not only to his interests but also the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:4-8).
The second benefit that my Torah gift will give to you this week is a greater sense of clarity. It’ll help you develop a greater sense of clarity so that you will be clear about the cost of our salvation. Certainly, our salvation is God’s gift to us but it is not cheap. It cost Jesus’ life on the cross. The prophet Isaiah said, “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not…Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise him; he has put him to grief when he makes himself an offering for sin” (Isaiah 53:3, 10).
Remember this: Had God not done what he did through the precious blood of his Son, Jesus Christ, there would never be any Judaic-Christian faith. There would never be any Jewish temple or Christian Church. And that simply means that you and I would not be here today. Period.
The third benefit that my Torah gift will give to you this week is self-discipline. It’ll help you discipline yourself so that you will learn to control your actions and your emotions. Why the need to control your actions and your emotions? Because man is his actions. And, woman, is her actions. Look at the big mess we are in right now because man has failed to discipline or control his actions.
It is no wonder why the apostle Paul asks us a rhetorical question that does not require any answer. “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
The fourth benefit that my Torah gift will give to you this week is high levels of motivation. It’ll help inspire you to put your complete trust in the hand of the Man from Galilee, whose name is Jesus Christ. He said, “If you believe in me, you will be able to do the things that I have been doing, or even greater works than these because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).
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, Exodus 27:20-30:10. In the Hebrew language (God’s sacred tongue) from which our English Bible translation was taken, this week’s Torah portion is called, “Tetzaveh,” translated “You shall command,” see Exodus 27:20.
To understand this, one has to, first of all, identify the double references in the text. On a superficial linguistic level which is intended primarily for the Jewish audience, the reading focuses on the code, “you shall command.” Thus, in the opening part of the reading, God tells Moses to command the children of Israel that they bring to him pure beaten olive oil for the light. In the central part of the reading, we learn that the purpose of the beaten olive oil is to feed the everlasting flame of the menorah, which Aaron is to kindle each day, from evening till morning.
Please note that the priestly garments, to be worn by the priests while serving in the Sanctuary are then described. For example, these include 1) a full-length linen tunic; 2) linen breeches; 3) a linen turban; and 4) a long sash wound above the waist. In addition, the high priest wore: 1) an apron-like garment made of blue-purple and red-dyed wool, linen and gold thread; 2) a breastplate containing twelve precious stones inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel; 3) a cloak of blue wool, with gold bells and decorative pomegranates on its hem; and 4) a golden plate worn on the forehead bearing the inscription “Holy to God.” Also described are God’s instructions for the seven-day initiation of Aaron and his four sons: Nadav, Avihu, Elazar and Itamar, into the priesthood. The reading ends with God’s instructions concerning the golden altar, on which the incense was burned.
On a profound theological level, this week’s Torah portion, “You shall command,” Exodus 27:20-30:10 has an important message to us, the Church, the Body of Christ. This message is evident when the Torah portion is interpreted in the context of this third week of the Presentation season, And that is, that no time in the history of God’s people around the world has there been a greater demand or a desperate need for an enlightened leadership than today. Question. Do we have the evidence to support that? Of course, we do. Just look at what is going on in our nation or in our world today. No one can still have any doubts that we now live in a world torn apart by violence and political turmoil; a world that is characterized by war and bloodshed, intra-community tensions and divisions, racial discrimination, and by greed for power and money at the expense of the poor.
It is no wonder why God said to Moses, “You shall command the people of Israel that they bring you pure beaten olive oil for the light that a lamp may be set up to burn continually,” (Exodus 27:20). Where, then, can we find the road that will lead us to a world in which we will learn to live together as God’s children, not by force or by coercion but by the voluntary sharing of God’s gifts and values? The answer lies in the direction of our wrestling with God in recognizing our sense of divine calling. Listen to God’s rhetorical question that does not require an answer from us. Because God knows that we should have known better. “Is it too light a thing that you should be my servant? I will give you as a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth,” (Isaiah 49:6). Perhaps, this was what David had in mind when he exclaimed with a loud voice, “Oh send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me, let them bring me to thy holy hill and to thy dwelling! Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and I will praise thee with my lyre, O God, my God.” (Psalm 43:3-4). Jesus, therefore, reminded us, saying, “You are the light of the world...Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven,” (Matthew 5:14, 16).
Should you be interested in learning more in-depth study of the weekly Torah codes on which our lives turn, Book I, Volume 1 of my III Books Series: 11 Volumes will be coming out soon. It’s called “The Hidden Secrets of the Master’s Mind: How You Can Live with God’s Time.” The book will be published by My Book My Passion Publishing: Home of Experts Insights Publishing & Bestselling Authors International Organization. I would love to keep you updated on that. You can reach me at [email protected]. Also, get your FREE copy of God’s calendar for this 2022-2023 ministry year that will help guide your faith journey.