WIT Talmidim Teachers 5/6/15 – Introduction to the Imperial Cult in the First Century

Here is the video of the teaching here.

Join us at 8pm EST on Wednesday May 6, 2015 as Rico Cortes teaches on the Imperial Cult. I know, you’ve probably never even heard of that before – Imperial what? It’s specifically mentioned nowhere in scripture and yet we see it in the Gospels, and especially in the writings of Paul and even in Revelation. What was that “render unto Caesar” comment really all about? What was going on in the specific churches that Paul was writing to all over Asia Minor? Why hadn’t Cornelius simply converted to Judaism years before hearing the Gospel from Peter?

Well, I’m not going to tell you. But you can read the homework here

ruler cult

and here

ROMAN IMPERIAL CULT

and tune in for the broadcast here in two weeks as I am still without high speed internet, so we are skipping my regularly scheduled turn, and Rico is having eye surgery done next week – I know prayer would be much appreciated. We all very much appreciate your support and your giving us the opportunity to present you weekly with these free teachings.

The Foundation of His Throne – WIT Talmidim Teachers April 22, 2015 supplement

Hey there, I just wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow night at 8pm EST, Wednesday April 22, Matthew Vander Els will be teaching about The Structure of God’s Righteousness and the Law of Liberty.

I won’t be there but I wanted to share a chapter from the “Kingdom” section of my newest book King, Kingdom, Citizen: His Reign and Our Identity because it ties in to what he will be teaching. Be sure to tune in at this link – Matthew is a great teacher and his excitement about Biblical context is absolutely contagious.

The Foundation of His Throne

Psalm 89:14 Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.

I say this often, but this is one of my favorite verses in Scripture (I also make this claim about at least a thousand other verses). The concept of kingdoms being established on “righteousness and justice” is another area that archaeology has opened up for us.

Alone, the words “righteousness” and “justice” have clearly defined meanings that are not adequately reflected by either Strong’s (which only shows the English words that each Hebrew or Greek word was translated into) or Thayer’s and I am indebted to Ryan White for the excellent study he did into the ancient concepts embodied by the words tsedek, translated “righteousness,” and mishpat, rendered as “justice.”

The word mishpat means: the quality of being “free from favoritism, self-interest, bias or deception, especially conforming to the established standards or order.” We find the word mishpat translated as “justice,” and from this we also derive the words judge and judgment. In light of the true meaning of mishpat, judgment loses much of its negative aura and is instead an instrument of delivering the oppressed from the oppressor. If we are wronged, we want to be judged; we desire judgment between ourselves and the person who has harmed us. In the ancient Near East, the ability to judge righteously was one of the hoped for qualities of a good king: one who delivers fair rulings between his subjects. When YHVH delivered the children of Israel from the hand of Pharaoh’s oppression, He was showing Himself as a King of justice by doing what only a good King can do.

The word tsedek, generally translated “righteousness,” simply means: “to be in the right.” According to Moshe Weinfeld (Social Justice in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East) this word is tied to the concept of salvation and restoration. If a judgment is made between two people, one is declared righteous and the other unrighteous – one is in the right and the other is in the wrong. Hence Judah’s declaration of his daughter-in-law’s innocence when he said, “She is more righteous in this matter than I am.” (Gen 38:26) Judah judged rightly between himself and Tamar, and he found her to be in the right.

When these two words are paired together, something interesting occurs – and we find parallels in the kingship documents of many cultures and languages in the ancient world. Justice and righteousness were the kingly ideals of the ancient Near East. When ascending the throne of his new kingdom, a king would enact certain measures that would set him apart in the eyes of his subjects: slaves would be freed, oppressors would be punished, widows, poor and orphans would be cared for, and debts would be wiped out. In the reigns of earthly kings, this benevolence was generally a one-time deal in order to curry favor with the people. When we look at the radical justice and righteousness of the commandments of God, however, we see Him setting Himself apart from all other kings – and His Kingdom from all other kingdoms:

Debts were to be forgiven in the shemittah year which occurred every seven years. (Deut 15:1-3 — which sheds an interesting light on Matthew 6:12)

Any ancestral lands sold in order to pay debts would revert back to the original owner in the year of Jubilee (which occurred every 50 years). (Lev 25:13-16, 27:24)

Any person who sold himself into servitude in order to pay debts was to be released in the shemittah year. (Ex 21:2)

No Israelite could become a slave. (Lev 25:42)

The citizens of Israel were always required to care for the widows, the poor, and the orphans. (Ex 22:22-24; Deut 14:29, etc.)

No one was allowed to mistreat foreigners. (Ex 22:21; 23:9)

The same laws applied to everyone equally, with no favoritism shown to the wealthy or powerful, whether citizen or foreigner. (This law was specifically unique to Israel.) (Ex 23:6; Lev 19:15 Compare to the Code of Hammurabi, which lists varying degrees of punishment based upon the social class of the victim of a crime. Esp see laws 198-223 where various fines are imposed for crimes depending on the rank of the victim.)

The rapist, and not the woman, was found guilty and died. (Deut 22:25-27 (verses 28-29 do not refer to rape, but to a situation of taphas – manipulation and seduction)) (Contrast this with Islamic honor killings.)

Female captives of war could neither be mistreated nor raped. (Deut 21:10-13)

Honest weights and measures were commanded; equity in business was demanded. (Lev 19:36; Deut 25:15)

When the nation would go to war (outside of the land of Israel), they were required to offer the enemy the chance to surrender. They were required to display mercy. (Deut 20:10-12)

Whereas other nations were required to sacrifice food to their gods in order to keep them contented and far away, Israel was instructed to offer life (for life is in the blood) as a way of drawing near to God (see Lev 1-5). (They offered blood and grain and wine as tributes, showing the rest of the world the greatness of their King – because in the eyes of the world, a god was only as great as the loyalty, devotion and attention paid to it by its subjects.

The benevolent acts which the earthly kings performed, only to curry favor when coming to the throne, were performed by YHVH through His people on a regular and scheduled basis. This expectation of eternal justice and righteousness, where there would always be restoration and salvation from oppression, truly set God apart as the King of kings who set the ultimate standard for social justice. By current business practices and according to our modern sensibilities, this system looks crazy. It looks crazy because it is so merciful, and so incredibly full of grace. We have been trained to look at God’s laws as burdensome, but look again and see them from the standpoint of the establishment of social equity. Even the wearing of the tassels, the tzitzit, in the requirement of the blue thread, set apart each citizen of the Kingdom as a man of honor on equal terms with his brothers (blue was an incredibly expensive dye, and so the wearing of a blue thread would mark a man as being of value in the eyes of the world).

The laws were given to show YHVH’s definition of love – what was required of a man to show love to his neighbor and to Him(Deut 6:5; Lev 19:18; Mark 12:30-31, etc.) When the people of the world looked upon a law-abiding Israel and saw how they treated each other and foreigners, they would glorify the God of Israel. At the end of the forty years, Moses summed up the kind of Kingdom they were called to be, and the kingdom they had become under the leadership of the King of kings:

Deut 4:5-9 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.

Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?

And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons

We are also called to be that kind of nation. As citizens of the Kingdom of God, when people look at us and see our conduct, they should desire our God. They should look at us and see our mercy and our fair-treatment of the oppressed, our upstanding business practices, our moral speech and our care in feeding the poor, taking in the orphan and supporting the widows and the homeless. These things should inspire them to honor God and to desire that kind of justice and righteousness, that measure of mercy, in their own lives. The evidence of His righteousness upon our lives should inspire them to beat upon the doors of Heaven and cry out to our Great King because they are weary of the world – tired of being oppressed, cold, hungry, fatherless and mistreated.

Like ancient Israel, we are still called to be that holy Kingdom – administering the righteousness and justice of our King towards the world.

You keep using that word “study” (I do not think it means what you think it means)

What does it mean to study? (see definitions posted below)

In this digital age, we have lost sight of what studying entails. Now, I am not saying that everyone has to be a scholar, but I will say that everyone who teaches needs to be a scholar. To evaluate a teaching properly also requires study. Sadly, these days people will say they are studying simply by watching videos or reading teachings on the internet, but this is not studying – this is simply either watching someone describe their studies or give their opinions, based largely on whether or not they actually did the hard work of studying, and whether their presentation accurately reflects what they learned. Studying means that we go beyond the teaching, get to the sources (ie books – multiple sources, not just one), study them and examine their legitimacy. To study means that we have to be able to evaluate the veracity, or truthfulness, of the information and not just assume its truthfulness. Those of us who are middle aged know that studying once meant going to the library and going through many books – and it still does. In my current studies of Ancient Near Eastern pagan rituals, I have like eight main books (and a whole bunch of supplemental sources) I am reading so I can check them against one another and see what is and is not faithful to the original source material they all claim to share.

When I first started out in all this years ago, I didn’t study. I watched a lot of videos, and I did that while I was learning. I wasn’t studying, I was learning. I wasn’t so much of a scholar – because again, the definition of a scholar is a specialist in an area, and that requires serious study over many years. I still do not consider myself a scholar, to be very honest.

Now there is nothing wrong with learning, we all start learning and most people will just stay at the learning level. But teachers are different, they have a responsibility – and when someone says they have been studying for years but are really just watching videos and never checking the sources or asking the hard questions and demanding answers, then they aren’t studying at all. And we have to be careful when we say we study, because it gives an air of legitimacy to what we are saying. When I teach in person, I try to be very careful – if someone asks a question of me in an area I haven’t studied I will tell them I am not qualified to teach on that subject, or I will give some information on related subjects that I have studied.

I teach Biblical context at a very basic level because I really love being with the new people, it’s my passion – I learned to do that by the examples of Rico Cortes at Wisdom in Torah ministries and Lee Miller of the House of David Fellowship. I bought their videos and listened to and watched how they taught, I started checking out their sources and even when I disagreed with their conclusions I found them to be faithfully representing their material. They are not only teachers but scholars of Biblical context. I promote their teachings because they have earned credibility with me.

It seems like a great number of people want to be experts but very few people want to study. Maybe it’s because learning isn’t seen as valuable, and maybe people think that they aren’t valuable unless they are an expert in something. But how often does the Bible speak of teachers and how often does the Bible speak of those who care for their neighbors? Why do we place an emphasis on being a know it all on social media and in our congregations when the weightier matters of Torah are being neglected? Better to have a million practicing mercy and taking care of the least of these and only one thousand teachers than to have a million teachers and only one thousand caring for the least of these.

Not everyone is a scholar, or a teacher, and thank heavens for that because the poor would go unclothed and the orphans uncared for and the widows would starve because the teachers and scholars don’t get paid nearly enough to support them all. Are we looking to be great in the Kingdom, faithful servants, or are we looking to be the center of attention and an authority figure? My kids are growing up, I have the time, temperament, resources and freedom to study and I take the responsibility very seriously – but I can’t study everything. I can’t be an expert in everything. I still need my other teachers to teach me in my areas of lacking until I have the time to study what they are teaching for myself. Until I do study what they teach, for myself, I am simply a learner in those areas, not a studier yet, and certainly no expert. And that’s okay, because when someone asks me a question about one of their areas of expertise, I can send the questioner to them – and since I know they actually study, I can feel safe in doing that.

So, I honor my teachers, because they study, but I also honor those who care for their neighbors, because they are doing the works of Torah. One group certainly as more notoriety, but what they do not have is more respect in my eyes. Being known is not as excellent as being a servant – not in a million years. And I think we are going to have one great big long stretch of eternal life to recognize it.

Be something amazing in someone’s life – encourage them, rejoice with them, mourn with them, feed them, clothe them, shelter them. You can’t go wrong with those things, but you can go wrong with teaching, and if you haven’t actually done the real hard work of studying then please approach it with fear and trembling. I can tell you from personal experience the deep regrets I feel from having, in the past, taught things that I have not actually studied, but claimed I had just because I saw someone say it on a video and they sounded good. Be careful – someone’s faith is in your hands.

stud·y
ˈstədē

noun
1. the devotion of time and attention to acquiring knowledge on an academic subject, especially by means of books.
“the study of English”
synonyms: learning, education, schooling, academic work, scholarship, tuition, research; informalcramming
“two years of study”
study as pursued by one person.
plural noun: studies
“some students may not be able to resume their studies”
an academic book or article on a particular topic.
plural noun: studies
“a study of Jane Austen’s novels”
synonyms: essay, article, work, review, paper, dissertation, disquisition
“a critical study”
used in the title of an academic subject.
plural noun: studies
“a major in East Asian studies”

2. a detailed investigation and analysis of a subject or situation.
“a study of a sample of 5,000 children”
synonyms: investigation, inquiry, research, examination, analysis, review, survey
“a study of global warming”
a portrayal in literature or another art form of an aspect of behavior or character.
“a study of a man devoured by awareness of his own mediocrity”
archaic
a thing that is or deserves to be investigated; the subject of an individual’s study.
“I have made it my study to examine the nature and character of the Indians”
archaic
the object or aim of someone’s endeavors.
“the acquisition of a fortune is the study of all”
a person who learns a skill or acquires knowledge at a specified speed.
“I’m a quick study”
verb: study; 3rd person present: studies; past tense: studied; past participle: studied; gerund or present participle: studying

1. devote time and attention to acquiring knowledge on (an academic subject), especially by means of books.
“she studied biology and botany”
synonyms: learn, read, be taught
“he studied electronics”
investigate and analyze (a subject or situation) in detail.
“he has been studying mink for many years”
synonyms: investigate, inquire into, research, look into, examine, analyze, explore, review, appraise, conduct a survey of
“Thomas was studying child development”
apply oneself to study.
“he spent his time listening to the radio rather than studying”
synonyms: work, review; More
acquire academic knowledge at an educational establishment.
“he studied at the Kensington School of Art”

April 22, 2015 – WIT Talmidim Teachers present – The Structure of God’s Righteousness and the Perfect Law of Liberty

Here is last night’s teaching, it got very emotional and passionate as this is at the very center of what it means to represent the character of our King.

Join us on Wednesday 8pm EST on our youtube channel as we discover the reality of the “right hand of God” and what it should mean to us. We know God reigns with righteousness, but what does that mean and how does it affect us in our day to day lives? Matthew Vander Els will be taking the helm this week, he is a great teacher and a Pastor in the Charlotte, NC area.

Homework here from Moshe Weinfeld’s Social Justice in Ancient Israel and the Ancient Near East.

The Fruit of the Spirit Pt 4 – Gentleness

Yes indeed, it does count gentleness as among the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22 – but nowhere does it cite abrasiveness or boldness. Let’s face it, a lot of us come into all this bold and abrasive, those are easy and require no maturity at all. Yes, I said it – boldness and abrasiveness, and speaking whatever is on our minds in whatever way we want to say it is not associated with maturity – but gentleness is.

Don’t shoot the messenger guys, but maturity is marked by all of the things that many attribute wrongly to lukewarmness – patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control. They only look like weakness and lukewarmness to those people who do nothing to reign in their desire to beat on people who they don’t think are getting with the program quick enough.

But in the Sermon on the Mount, our Messiah praised those who are meek, mourning, merciful and peaceable – He said that the Kingdom of Heaven belonged to them, and not to the brash, uncompassionate, merciless and combative. We’ve been taught to read the prophets in a loud and angry voice and many have made the mistake that everyone is to be talked to in that tone of voice and indeed, that the prophets only used one tone of voice. That, I believe, is wishful thinking on the parts of those who enjoy using that tone of voice and are looking for an excuse. In fact, I’ve never met anyone who preferentially used that tone who really, and I mean really, knew their scriptures. The people who are quick to bark are generally knowledgeable about verses and sometimes sections, but not the Scriptures. It’s different. The Word changes us, it humbles us as we come to know it. The more I read, the less I see of the faults of others and the more I see my own growth potential – not how far I have come but how far I still have to go. Far from leaving me hopeless, I take a sort of pleasure in seeing how much more maturity is waiting for me if I just keep pressing in. I am heartened that I can be better than I am, because who I am right now is not nearly good enough. I am still not a safe enough person to be around all the time.

I want to be gentle, but cruelty and harshness is just so easy. It takes every ounce of my self-control sometimes to be gentle and patient – one cannot truly exist without the other. I want to create a whip and clear out the people who annoy me, but I remember all the times that people attacked Yeshua (Jesus) and the only two times he did such a thing was when the holiness of the actual Temple Mount was encroached on by Sadducees (who were robbing pilgrims looking to pay their Temple Tax) jacking up the exchange rates. Those were the only two times we see Him not being gentle – and yet we desire to whip everyone we disagree with. And sometimes, sometimes He said, “Woe..” but not normally, normally he sat and taught those who came to Him – not those who weren’t interested. And yet some judge everyone who doesn’t come and listen, and they go actively forcing themselves on people. That is not godly behavior, it is not good fruit – it’s just giving free reign to flesh and misrepresenting it as zeal. I, fact, I find that the word zeal is often used to camouflage immaturity.

Oh we can’t get around gentleness and it’s hard to fake – hard, but not impossible. There are those who are gentle in person and yet start railing about the situation behind closed doors – oh yes, I’ve done that! It’s not optimal, but better than doing it in person and a bit more mature. It’s part of the process.

We can be firm and gentle, but it’s difficult, whereas unyielding and brutal are easier and far more satisfying in the moment (often called “uncompromising”) – and more admired in certain circles. Firm and gentle is never about self, about the expression of flesh, and it doesn’t look zealous – but believe me it is generally far more passionate than doing what seems like zeal before the world. It takes passion to approach people in kindness instead of harshness, to care instead of discount, to be clear instead of cryptic, to teach instead of just preach, to serve instead of lording over each other. Gentleness is mentioned nine times in the KJV – it is an attribute of God, of His Messiah and of legitimate leadership. If someone is going around acting like a brawler – offensive, defensive and saying they are doing it because they are acting like Messiah – then they aren’t displaying leadership qualities. The episodes of wrath in scriptures are few and far between, generally years and years between incidents – what we mostly see is the patience and gentleness of a Father towards His children. If He treats us like that, saving wrath as a last resort, then shouldn’t we emulate that in our own behavior – if we truly want to be like Him? Wrath is coming, yes indeed, but we must strive to have mature fruit before we dare preach it. If someone enjoys preaching wrath, if it gives them a thrill – then probably they aren’t there yet and it isn’t their message to preach. Fruit takes time and maturity to grow into a useful form.

Fruit is about doing what doesn’t come naturally, about what doesn’t look strong, or zealous, or effective. Fruit looks like a burden to the tree, but truly – it’s the purpose of the tree.