Your Daily Bread for October 15-21, 2023

Welcome to Your Daily Bread for October 15-21, 2023, by Dr Apelu Poe!

Key Torah Code for this Week: “Vayeitzei” (And he left): Genesis 28:10-32:3.

Basic Principle of Our Judaic-Christian Faith:

We, as Jews and Christians, need to have the courage or the boldness of the heart to get out of the box, whatever that box may symbolise, and to let go of the past to explore the mystery surrounding our Divine calling.

“But no critic found any evidence that the Bible code was not real and indeed the evidence that there was a code in the Bible that revealed the future kept getting stronger.” 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 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 we are now entering the second week of the Providence season. What is Providence season? The Providence season is the second season of God’s calendar, with the Harvest Home or Thanksgiving Sunday, November 23, as its festival. As the name suggests, the Providence season is when we are called to acknowledge that our God is Yahweh Yireh, who provides for our needs. The biblical basis that supports this season is found in Genesis 22:14: So Abraham called the name of that place, ‘The Lord will provide’ as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided.”

Question: Do we have the 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, “Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything” (Genesis 9:3); With this in mind, the prophet Jeremiah put it this way, “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); This is why King David declares with a loud voice, “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing” (Psalm 145:15-16); James, therefore summarises it, saying, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God” (James 4:1-2).

Before we 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 for me 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 October 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 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 second week of the Providence season? Well, the first and foremost is adapting to a new change. It’ll help you become aware that change is happening around us whether we are conscious of it or not.

Adapting to change is a skill that requires being flexible and ready when new situations and challenges arise. For example, not one of us can still question the fact that times have changed, circumstances have changed, and history and people, too, have changed. You may have to shift roles at your place of work or start a new job that requires you to develop different skills or take on unfamiliar responsibilities. A person who can adapt to change accepts these new opportunities and changing situations without panic or fear. The truth is that becoming adaptable requires a positive attitude and a willingness to accept change as it happens.

Why is that important? Adapting to change can make you a better team member and leader. Those of us who reside here in the United States of America know that the age of Trump is like watching a horror movie. We are now at the part of the movie where the responsible people finally accept the horrible truth that the monster, be it human or supernatural, is real. The people they made fun of and derided for being hysterical were right the whole time. Moreover, many, if not all, the people that the monster killed would likely still be alive if the so-called authority figures had taken the warnings seriously. In this American horror story that is the Age of Trump, the mainstream news media, the responsible political class, and other leaders appear, at least for the moment, to have finally accepted the "shocking" and "unimaginable" truth that Donald Trump and his MAGA movement are an existential threat to the country.

Two weeks ago, Donald Trump publicly threatened the life of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Mark Milley, wishing that he had been executed for "treason". Of course, Donald Trump is lying; Gen. Milley has committed no such crime(s). Trump's accusations are psychological projections. Trump threatened Gen. Milley because of a featured profile in the Atlantic magazine, which confirmed that the ex-president possesses contempt and disgust for America’s soldiers, especially disabled veterans and those killed and injured. Trump also wants to see Gen. Milley killed because he actively tried to stop the traitor ex-president from ending the country's democracy.

The mainstream news media and political class and many members of the public have also been shocked into finally accepting the fact that Donald Trump is an extreme danger to the country as demonstrated by his escalating and increasingly violent threats and incitements to violence against Special Counsel Jack Smith, Attorney General Garland, and the judges, prosecutors, attorneys general, and other law enforcement (as well as jurors and witnesses) who are attempting to hold him accountable under the law in his upcoming criminal and civil trials.

During the last eight years, Trump has repeatedly threatened to kill his political "enemies" or otherwise wished harm upon them. In addition to the above examples, Trump's targets have included President Biden, Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Special Counsel Mueller, and other leading Democrats, various members of the news media, "Black Lives Matter", "Woke", "illegal immigrants", and other targeted groups.

Question: What do we need to do in these kinds of situations? Answer: We must adapt, adjust and change.

The Bible instructs us to be transformed and changed into the likeness and image of Christ. Listen, again, to the apostle Paul’s advice to us, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then, you can test and approve God's good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).

The second benefit my Torah gift will give you this week is high motivation. It’ll help you develop high levels of motivation, knowing that the hand of God indeed upholds us in our lives.

Here are some clear signs you may discern in yourself or others when God’s hand is at work in your life, giving rise to high levels of motivation. Firstly, commitment to the common purpose for the good of others; secondly, persevering or staying power in the face of problems/difficulties/setbacks; and thirdly, being filled with energy, not in the sense of being an extrovert, but in the sense of alertness and quiet resolve.

A good example that further illustrates this is the action taken by Hillary Clinton last Tuesday, October 3, to launch the first women-led Global Politics Institute here in the US. For the first time in 50 years, Hillary Clinton is returning to the classroom. No stranger to female empowerment, the former secretary of State (a 1992 and 2008 Woman of the Year) combines forces with Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) to increase female voices in foreign relations through its new Institute of Global Politics.

In her new role, Clinton will also teach a class called In the Situation Room, which she teaches alongside Dean Keren Yahri-Milo, an award-winning scholar, focusing on recognising and responding to global patterns across the economy and democracy. “We want to address the issues, from climate change to war, that are directly affecting women and girls, which we saw during COVID, and we're still struggling with the after-effects,” Clinton tells Glamour. “If you're talking about global economic growth and dealing with inequity, women have to be at the table,” she says, “we want to tackle these everyday issues but on a global stage.”

On Tuesday, SIPA hosted its first inaugural summit for the Institute of Global Politics, where Clinton and Yarhi-Milo gave opening remarks. Yarhi-Milo said, “We need to break out of the echo chamber and move beyond the US-centric approach that has sometimes limited our ability to solve global challenges.” Secretary Clinton has inspired us to be more ambitious, bold, and creative coming to faculty meetings and even chairing a search committee,” she continued. She even has her coffee, The Hillary, and this is on top of teaching one of the most prominent and most in-demand classes at SIPA. “And yes, I’m trying to explain to her that it's not normal for students to applaud when a professor walks into the classroom, and I’m under no illusion that they’re clapping for me.” Clinton has clarified that the institute's goal is to intentionally include women and women's voices in global affairs not as an afterthought but integrated into the institute from the beginning.

When we stop and think about what people such as Hillary Clinton have done for the good of all women around the world, then we would begin to understand why David testified about the hand of God at hand in people’s lives, giving them high levels of motivation, “You have also given me the shield of your salvation. And your right hand upholds me. And your help made me great” (Psalm 18:35)

The third benefit my Torah gift will give you this week is quality control. It’ll help you maintain or improve the quality of our service or product lines.

Quality control requires us to create an environment where management and employees strive for perfection. This is done by training personnel, creating service or product quality benchmarks, and testing those services or product lines to check for statistically significant maintenance.

A significant aspect of quality control is the establishment of well-defined rules. These controls help standardise both production and reactions to quality issues. Limiting room for error by specifying which production activities are to be completed by which personnel reduces the chance that employees will be involved in tasks for which they need adequate training.

The following example may illustrate how this quality control process can be implemented. One Israeli protest leader wanted to return to everyday life with her family but also stressed that "we have no other country to go to". Listen, again, to her heart-moving confession, "We must win so that we have a normal home to get back to, nothing beyond this. But it is not guaranteed at all."

I’m sure you will agree that what has been unfolding and continues to unfold in Israel and Palestine is horrific and unthinkable. The Beyt Tikkun, a synagogue without walls that embraces spirituality and social transformation, is working on a statement and is committed to joining with other aligned Palestinians and Jews. In doing this challenging work, they recognise they need to slow down. Why? Because they are all traumatised. They consciously decide to calm their systems so they can respond from a deep, psycho-spiritually informed and regulated place.

On Thursday, October 5, just before the Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel that has killed more than 1,000 Israelis, including at least 750 civilians and 14 Americans with at least 2,600 wounded, Shikma Bressier, an Israeli physicist who has become the face of a wave of anti-government protests warns that her country risks falling under "tyranny" as the hardline government pushes through its contentious judicial overhaul.

Shikma Bressler, 43, has led passionate weekly street rallies that have become Israel's most significant protest movement in years, ever since the divisive legal reform agenda was unveiled in January. "Israel is taking the track of becoming a tyranny," the mother of five told AFP amid the movement's battle with the hard-right coalition government of veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "It means there is someone interested in being a tyrant."

In an interview in Jerusalem, she argued, "If Israel follows this track, we will no longer be Israel in the way you and I and the people may think about Israel." Netanyahu's administration, a coalition of his Likud party and extreme-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies, insists that sweeping legal changes are needed to rebalance powers between elected politicians and the judiciary. The proposed reforms have deeply split Israel's Jewish majority, with opponents arguing they are fighting to defend the country's liberal and democratic identity. As tens of thousands have taken to the streets in Tel Aviv and cities across Israel, some coalition members have called in recent months to shelve several proposals or soften the reforms.

In July, lawmakers approved the first significant element of the overhaul, limiting a clause that had previously allowed judges to rule on the "reasonableness" of government decisions.

Bressler spearheaded a multi-day march ahead of the parliament vote, a defining moment for the protest movement. She said the government "can go against our will, in the long term, as they did in July". "But they are doomed to collapse because you cannot force decisions on the vast majority of your people who are against it unless you decide to use violence against them."

It is no wonder why the apostle Paul puts it this way, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13: 8-10).

The fourth benefit my Torah gift will give you this week is a more profound sense of responsibility. It’ll help you develop a more profound sense of responsibility, knowing there is an equal and opposite reaction for every action or inaction we fail to take.

Why is this important? Because people want to lead but do not want to be held accountable for their actions or inaction.

Perhaps, for this reason, Pope Francis challenged world leaders at the UN meeting to commit to binding targets to slow climate change before it’s too late, warning that God’s increasingly warming creation is fast reaching a “point of no return.”

In an unusually bleak update to his landmark 2015 encyclical on the environment, Francis heightened the alarm about the “irreversible” harm to people and the planet already underway and lamented that, once again, the world’s poor and most vulnerable are paying the highest price. “We are now unable to halt the enormous damage we have caused. We barely have time to prevent even more tragic damage,” Francis warned. He took square aim at the United States, noting that per-capita emissions in the U.S. are twice as high as those in China and seven times greater than the average in poor countries. While individual, household efforts are helping, “we can state that a broad change in the irresponsible lifestyle connected with the Western model would have a significant long-term impact,” he said.

The document, “Praise God,” was released on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the pontiff’s nature-loving namesake, and was aimed at spurring negotiators to commit to binding climate targets at the next round of U.N. talks in Dubai.

Francis weighed in on a key and contentious point of negotiations: whether countries should agree to a phase-out of coal, oil and natural gas, the fossil fuels causing climate change. He is for it. As fast as possible even, he wrote.

Using precise scientific data, sharp diplomatic arguments and a sprinkling of theological reasoning, Francis delivered a moral imperative for the world to transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy with measures that are “efficient, obligatory and readily monitored.” “What is being asked of us is nothing other than a certain responsibility for the legacy we will leave behind once we pass from this world,” he said. “To have a global religious leader like Pope Francis putting climate action in terms of defending life is huge,” said Evangelical Environmental Network President Jessica Moerman, a climate scientist turned pastor and board member of the National Association of Evangelicals.

It is no wonder why the apostle Paul leaves us with these words of wisdom, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4: .

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 encoded reading, Genesis 28:10-32:2. In the Hebrew language (God’s sacred tongue) from which our English Bible translation was taken, this week’s Torah encoded reading is called “Vayeitzei,” translated “and he [Jacob] left,” see Genesis 28:10.

To understand this, one has to first of all, identify the double references in the text. On a superficial linguistic level intended primarily for the Jewish audience, the reading focuses on the code “Vayeitzei” translated (And he left). Thus, in the opening part of the reading, we are told that Jacob is forced to leave his hometown of Beersheba and journey toward Haran.

In the central part of the reading, we learn that on the way, Jacob encounters “the place” and sleeps there, dreaming of a ladder connecting heaven and earth, with angels climbing and descending on it. God appears and promises that his land will be given to his descendants. In the morning, Jacob raises the stone on which he laid his head as an altar and monument, pledging that it will be made the house of God. Jacob stays in Haran for twenty (20) years before returning to Canaan. During his stay, he shepherds Laban’s sheep and survives and prospers despite all his uncle’s attempted deceptions. He marries Leah and Rachel, and the first eleven tribes are born. In the concluding part of the reading, we see Laban rising early in the morning, kissing his grandchildren and his daughter, and blessing them before departing with Jacob.

In fact, on a profound theological level, this week’s Torah portion, “And he [Jacob] left,” has an essential message to us, the Church, and the Body of Christ. This message is evident when the portion is interpreted in the context of this second week of the Providence season. And that is, if we are going to build the Kingdom of God that unites all of us, despite the differences in our ethnic background, our political affiliation, or our religious faith, then we need to have the courage to get out of the box, whatever that box may be. It may be the culture of the land we grew up in or our tastes and preferences. It may refer to our fear of the unknown or what lies ahead. It may refer to a sense of indifference or indecisiveness. Or it may refer to our comfort zones in life.

How do we know that? Listen, again, to our text for this week: ‘Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran’ (Gen. 28:10). This means that Jacob left behind the comfort of his home to go to Haran, the worst place of all places in the ancient Near Eastern world. Yet, it was precisely in Haran that Jacob laid the foundation for the future nation of Israel, out of which Jesus the Messiah would come. In Haran, Jacob married Leah and Rachel, who bore Jacob 12 children that later became the 12 tribes of Israel.

Please refer to Jacob’s fourth son, Judah, the tribe out of which Jesus the Messiah would come. Question: How could all this be possible? Answer: Because our God is a faithful and awesome God who has the power to provide for our needs. It is no wonder why God himself said to us, “Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these” (Isaiah 40:26). “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth…?” (Isaiah 40:28). Perhaps, it is for this reason that King Solomon put it this way “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths,” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Question: Where can we find the road leading us back to God? What should we do right now? Listen to what Peter wants you and me to do, “Rid yourselves of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander,” Then, “Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight,” (1 Peter 2:1-4). Why bother to do that when the world is in crisis? Peter reminds us, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s people so that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

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 was released on February 28 and shot to the #1 International Bestseller in three countries within 24 hours, reaching the #1 in the US in Christianity, Religion and Spirituality, with four #1 Hot New Releases and three #1 New Release Banners in Bible Study Guides, and Hermeneutics. It also peaked at #1 in Australia in Judaism, Jewish Sacred Writings and Old Testament Studies and made the #1 International Bestseller list in Great Britain in Religion, Exegesis, and Bible References. Here’s the link to get your copy of my #1 International Bestseller, “The Hidden Secrets of the Master’s Mind: How You Can Live with God’s Time”: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BWVMBSJP. You can reach me at [email protected]