Your Daily Bread for January 28-February 3, 2024

Welcome to Your Daily Bread for January 28-February 3, 2024 by Dr Apelu Poe!

Key Torah Code for this last Week of the Presentation Season: “Vayakhel” (And he assembled): Exodus 35:1-38:20

Basic Principle of Our Judaic-Christian Faith:

United we stand, divided we fall; and there is no greater joy in our Father God’s heart than to see all of us, his children come together in the spirit of unity.

“For more than 3000 years, ever since there’s been a Bible, people have believed there was something hidden in it, great secrets that were known only to the high priests, new revelations that could be found using some esoteric formula, some form of magic, some new science.” I’ll get to the point in a minute.

But let me, first of all, say Talofa, and Shabbat shalom to you, my friends, in the name of “Yeshua HaMashiach”, Jesus the Messiah! I’m Dr Apelu Poe, a Hebrew Bible scholar, and a retired Ordained pastor with over 40 years of academic and church leadership experience. I’m also a Torah-Bible Code developer and a 3-Times #1 International Best-selling author from Samoa, now residing permanently in LaVergne, Tennessee, USA.

Getting back to the point. If you have been following God’s calendar, which dictates and foretells the events of our lives, as the above quote indicates, you will know that entering January 28-February 3, 2024, we are now in the last week of the Presentation season that culminates in the Church anniversary celebration.

What is the Presentation season? Well, the Presentation season is the fourth season of God’s calendar with the “Church Anniversary” Sunday, January 28, as its festival. Just as the name itself suggests, the Presentation season is a time in which God has called us 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.

Think about the Incarnation season we’ve just come through. And think, again, about the prophet Isaiah’s words, “For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given. His Name shall be called, Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).

Now, we’re approaching the end of the Presentation. And the Biblical basis that supports this Presentation season, one can see in Luke 2:22 which 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.’

Question: Do we have Biblical evidence that further supports this? Of course, we do Listen, again, to these Biblical witnesses that provide a solid Biblical basis on which one could reflect on this critically important season of God’s calendar: God himself said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:14).

With this in mind, the prophet Isaiah put it this way, “A voice cries out, In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (Isaiah 40:3-5).

This why in Psalm 2, we hear Jesus himself acknowledge, saying, “The Lord said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage.’” (Psalm 2:7-8).

Matthew, therefore, summarizes, saying, “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He was still speaking when behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” Matthew 17:1-27).

Before we take a look at this week’s Torah portion, let me also say “thank you” to all of you, my readers, for taking the time to access my teaching on Facebook and LinkedIn from week to week. It is a great delight and inspiration to know that so many of you worldwide find my special Torah gift helpful in your daily walk with God! I call my Torah gift for you this week “Your Daily Bread for January 28-February 3, 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 41 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 receive his blessing best 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 last week of the Presentation season that culminates in our Church anniversary celebration? Well, the first and foremost is self-knowledge. Why self-knowledge? Because life transformation begins with self-knowledge.

Remember what we’ve been saying. 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.

That’s why self-knowledge is essential for optimal decision-making because self-knowledge refers to the deep understanding and recognition of one’s thoughts, emotions, values, and motivations. It involves being in tune with your authentic self, understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and how your past experiences and beliefs shape your present actions and decisions.

Inner self-knowledge also involves not only being mindful of your reactions to different situations that you face in your life but also being able to reflect on your thoughts and behaviours.

Developing your true inner self-knowledge can, therefore, lead to greater self-acceptance. It can catalyze collaboration, powering up positive and peaceful mediating thinking that leads to personal and intra-community growth, and the ability to form more genuine and fulfilling relationships with others.

Perhaps, it is for this reason that on January 16, Saudis issued a public statement, saying that they could recognize Israel if the Palestinian issue is resolved.

On Tuesday, January 16, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said the kingdom could recognize Israel if a comprehensive agreement were reached that included statehood for the Palestinians, ambitious talk as the war between Israel and Hamas shows no sign of easing.

Listen, again, to Prince Faisal bin Farhan’s public statement,

"We agree that regional peace includes peace for Israel, but that could only happen through peace for the Palestinians through a Palestinian state."

Asked if Saudi Arabia would then recognize Israel as part of a wider political agreement, he said: "Certainly."

Prince Faisal said securing regional peace through the creation of a Palestinian state was "something we have been indeed working on with the U.S. administration, and it is more relevant in the context of Gaza".

Securing a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia would be the grand prize for Israel after it established diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, and could transform the geopolitics of the Middle East.

The Sunni Muslim kingdom, the most powerful country in the Arab world and home to the most sacred sites in Islam wields considerable religious clout across the globe.

It is no wonder the apostle Peter challenged us with these words of wisdom, saying, “For this reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love” (Peter 1:5-7).

The second benefit that my Torah gift will give you this week is a greater sense of responsibility. It’ll help you develop a greater sense of responsibility so that you will know that a true leader takes responsibility for his/her actions or inaction.

Why is this important? Because in today’s world, people want to become leaders but refuse to be held accountable when things do not go well.

Think about how ridiculous the President of Russia, Putin’s recent claim is. On Tuesday, January 16, Putin claimed that if it would not have been for Ukraine, the war would have ended long ago.

At a meeting with the heads of the municipalities that make up the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, the president of the aggressor state, expressed his dissatisfaction over Ukraine's reluctance to engage in negotiations and condemned the Ukrainian side, saying that "everything would have ended long ago."

Listen, again, to Putin’s ridiculous claim,

"Having refused to negotiate, and they have done exactly that! But let me remind you, in Istanbul, they agreed on everything. I'm saying this to you, the heads of the municipal authorities; all citizens should know this, and it is you who work directly with people. We agreed on everything. Moreover, the head of the negotiating group from Ukraine even put his signature under this. The signature is there, we have the document. They just told us that we need to show a sign that Russia intends to resolve these issues peacefully and that we need to withdraw troops from Kyiv, which we have done. A day later, they threw all the arrangements into the trash."

Wait a minute:

(1) Is this the same Putin who constituted the biggest threat to Europe since the Cold War when he invaded Ukraine in February 2022?

(2) Is this the same Putin who by invading Ukraine refused to recognize the legitimacy of Ukraine’s identity as a Sovereign nation?

(3) Is this the same Putin who put forth the false view that Ukraine’s identity is the product of foreign manipulation and that the West is following in the footsteps of Russia’s imperial rivals in using Ukraine as part of an “anti-Russia project”?

(4) Is this the same Putin who wanted to justify his unprovoked, and senseless war against Ukraine that resulted in the deaths of thousands and thousands of innocent lives by calling it just a “special military operation” not a war?

You bet that’s the same Putin who wanted to be the leader of Russia but refused to be held responsible for his actions.

It is no wonder why the prophet Ezekiel warned the people of Israel and us, saying, “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself” (Ezekiel 18:20).

The third benefit that my Torah gift will give you this week is self-discipline. It’ll help you learn to discipline yourself.

What do we mean by disciplining ourselves? Control our actions and our emotions. Why bother to control our actions and our emotions? Because that is how we produce people of character and great leadership.

Remember no man is an island, which means that we cannot cut ourselves away from each other.

We need to learn to work together regardless of the differences in the colour of our skin, the difference in our political affiliations, our national origin, or even our religious experience.

Perhaps it is for this reason that on Monday, January 15, Iran challenged the United States of America, saying that the US can’t call for restraint while backing Israel in the war in Gaza.

The United States cannot call for restraint while supporting Israel's war in Gaza, Iran's foreign minister said on Monday, while calling for a diplomatic solution to the war in the enclave.

Hossein Amirabdollahian, in a televised joint press conference with his Indian counterpart in Tehran, called on U.S. officials "not to tie the security and national interests of the U.S. to the fate of Israel's prime minister who is falling."

The Islamic Republic backs Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in its war with Israel and Tehran accuses the United States of backing what it calls Israeli crimes in Gaza.

Amirabdollahian said Iran-aligned Houthi militias will continue their attacks in the Red Sea as long as the genocide in the Gaza war continues.

Senior officials in Yemen's Sanaa (Houthi leaders) told us that as long as the genocide in the Gaza war continues, they will take action to prevent the movement of Israeli ships or ships heading to Tel Aviv.

However, Amirabdollahian added that the Houthis have assured Tehran that "they will not create any disruption in maritime security."

It is no wonder why the apostle Paul urges the Galatians and us, saying, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).

The fourth benefit that my Torah gift will give you this week is growth through adversity. It’ll help you grow through adversity so that you can overcome the obstacles that confront you or your country, while at the same time remaining energized and motivated to help make our global community a better place for all of us.

Why is this important? Because when things get difficult, we tend to drop our self-care and focus on sticking to what we know.

That's how we burn out, not because we wear out from working too much which is often how we deal with adversity but because we're not integrating our emotions.

Consider, for example, the war going on between Israel and Hamas that resulted in over 24,000 Palestinian deaths compared to 1,200 Israelis. Yet, on Tuesday, January 16, Jordan’s PM issued a statement, saying that peace with Israel remains a strategic choice despite the Gaza war.

Jordan's Prime Minister Bisher al Khasawaneh said on Tuesday that peace with Israel remained a strategic choice but any push to drive Palestinians to the kingdom would pose an “existentialist" threat.

Jordan, which shares a border with the West Bank, fears that the Gaza conflict could spread with wider violence by armed settlers encouraged by the army triggering a large-scale Palestinian exodus to the other side of the Jordan River.

"If there are actions and conditions that generate and create mass displacement of populations, that is a clear violation of the peace treaty," Khasawneh said, referring to the country's 1994 deal with Israel.

"It poses an existentialist threat... that we will have to react to and we hope we will never arrive at that point or juncture because we are firmly committed to a comprehensive peace."

Khasawneh said regional projects with Israel that involved multi-million dollars where both countries would trade energy and water that were in the pipeline before Oct. 7 were for now effectively suspended.

"Today under the existing conditions it's quite inconceivable for any Jordanian minister to just sit on a podium and have that type of interaction and transaction with an Israel counterpart as regrettable as it is, it's a fact of life," he added.

"The horrific scenes that are on the screens day in day out and hour in hour out of the carnage wreaked on Gaza by the indiscriminate targeting of civilians, a majority of children and women is something that renders that un-implementable under the existing circumstances," Khasawneh said.

Israel launched the war to eradicate Hamas after militants stormed across the border fence on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 240 hostages. The war has driven nearly all Gazans from their homes, some several times, and caused a humanitarian crisis, with food, fuel and medical supplies running low.

The only solution to avoid deeper conflict and regional instability was to put in place a political process with a time frame that led to a two-state solution where a Palestinian state would emerge alongside Israel.

It is no wonder why James challenges us, saying, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4).

The fifth benefit that my Torah gift will give you this week is a deeper sense of gratitude and heartfelt appreciation. It’ll help deepen your sense of sincere gratitude and heartfelt appreciation knowing that life is hard. Nevertheless, we should never abandon our hopes in despair because of how things look on the outside.

Why? Because any challenges, trials, or tribulations that have befallen us have a set time to end if we put our complete trust in God’s hand.

That is why gratitude is the expression of appreciation for what one has, our hope in God.

In a world that often emphasizes what we lack, the practice of gratitude stands as a refreshing counterpoint. Thankfulness is not just a fleeting emotion or a recognition of value independent of monetary worth or career success, but a year-round mindset that can significantly improve our lives, especially in the face of adversity.

The benefits of leading a thankful life are manifold, affecting both our mental and physical well-being. It’s well worth considering the universal advantages of gratitude in general and its importance for Jews and Christians in particular.

This social emotion strengthens relationships, and its roots run deep in evolutionary history emanating from the survival value of helping others and being helped in return.

Studies show that specific areas of the brain are involved in experiencing and expressing gratitude.

Brain scans of people assigned a task that stimulates the expression of gratitude show lasting changes in the prefrontal cortex that heighten sensitivity to future experiences of gratitude.

Practising gratitude, therefore, has incredible effects on improving our mental health and boosting our relationships with others.

A good illustration of this was seen on Wednesday, January 17, when Israel and Hamas reached a deal to deliver medicine to hostages in exchange for aid for Palestinians.

Qatar announced that it has brokered a deal between Israel and Hamas that will allow medicine and aid to be sent to Gaza in exchange for sending medicines to Israeli hostages in Gaza.

“Medicine along with other humanitarian aid is to be delivered to civilians in the Gaza Strip, in the most affected and vulnerable areas, in exchange for delivering medication needed for Israeli captives in Gaza,” the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated Tuesday.

This is the first deal between Israel and Hamas since a truce between the two ended on Dec. 1.

The medication and aid are expected to reach Egypt Wednesday before being transported to Gaza, Dr. Majed Mohammed Al-Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said.

An estimated 132 Israeli hostages are believed to be in Gaza, according to BBC News.

It is no wonder why the apostle Paul reminds us, saying, "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

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

Does it surprise you 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 35:1-38:20. In the Hebrew language (God’s sacred tongue) from which our English Bible translation was taken, this week’s Torah portion is called, “Vayakhel” translated “And he assembled,” see Exodus 35:1.

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 “Vayakhel” translated as “And he assembled.” Thus, in the opening part of the reading, we see Moses assembling the people of Israel and reiterating to them the commandment to observe the Sabbath. In the central part of the reading, Moses, then, conveys God’s instructions regarding the making of the Sanctuary.

Please note that: (1) the people bring gold, silver and copper; blue-purple and red-dyed wool; goat hair, spun linen, animal skins, wood, olive oil, herbs and precious stones, and (2) a team of wise-hearted artisans make the Sanctuary and its furnishings (as detailed in the previous Torah portions of Terumah, Tetzaveh and Ki Tisa). Of particular importance to mention here are the four (4)) main components of the Sanctuary: (1) the golden altar and the incense burned on it with the anointing oil; this includes the outdoor altar for burnt offerings and all its implements, the hangings, posts and foundation sockets for the courtyard, and the basin and its pedestal made out of copper mirrors; (2) the table of showbread; (3) the Holy of Holies where the ark and its cover with the cherubim; and (4) the seven-branched menorah with its specially prepared oil. The reading ends with instructions regarding the construction of the outer altar.

Indeed, on a profound theological level, this week’s Torah portion, “And he assembled” has an important message to us, the Church, and the Body of Christ. This message is evident when the portion is interpreted in the context of this Church Anniversary Sunday. And that is, like the concept of half a shekel, it does not matter how hard we try, we will never be able to build God’s house or God’s kingdom unless we are united.

For what purpose? For the worship of the Lord, our God. How do we know that? Listen, again, to God’s encoded message for us this week, ‘Moses assembled all the congregation of the people of Israel and said to them, “These are the things which the Lord has commanded you to do. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy Sabbath of solemn rest to the Lord…” (Exodus 35:1-2).

In later years when the people of Israel neglected the heart of why God set them free from slavery in Egypt, and why Moses assembled them in the wilderness, they tried to do this and tried to do that but nothing worked. It is no wonder why God said to them, “If you turn back…and call the Sabbath a delight…Then you shall take delight in the Lord…and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father for the mouth of the Lord has spoken,” (Isaiah 58:13-14).

Perhaps it is for this reason that David urges us, saying, “Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth, sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise!!” (Psalm 66:1-2). Question: Why bother to unite on the Sabbath for the worship of God? Because, as the apostle, Paul put it, “There is one body, and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call,” (Ephesians 4:4).

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