For the week of June 20, 2026 / 5 Tammuz 5786

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Korach
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 16:1 – 18:32
Haftarah: 2 Shmuel/2 Samuel 11:14 – 12:22

David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD, the child who is born to you shall die” (2 Shmuel/ 2 Samuel 12:13-14)

The biblical story of David and Bathsheba is one of the most troubling, grievous, complex, and profound in the entire Bible. Within the overall biblical narrative, David plays a central role. No one else in Scripture is described as a man after God’s own heart (see 1 Shmuel/1 Samuel 13:14). It is David who is established as God’s model king, with whom other kings are compared. It is he who is the eternal reflection of the Messiah, known as “Ben David,” the son of David. It is his songs that serve as the core examples of godly prayer and worship for literally billions of people from his time until today.

And yet, it is this same man who takes advantage of his royal position to sexually violate a woman, resulting in pregnancy. Then, following his failed attempt to cover up the affair, he directs his general to create a situation whereby the husband, a most loyal member of David’s army, is placed in an extremely vulnerable situation, making his death in battle inevitable.

People seem to like to try to figure out the various factors that led to all this, including why David was hanging out in his palace at that time. Why was Bathsheba exposed like she was? But these questions miss the main point: what David did was horrible, which is why he was confronted by God through the prophet Natan/Nathan.

What happens next is astounding, given the abundance of immorality and deception that preceded it. David confesses his wrongdoing without qualification, saying to Natan: “I have sinned against the Lord.” But even more astounding is Natan’s response to David’s confession: “The Lord also has put away your sin”. I would suspect that people familiar with the Bible are very aware that the God of Israel is a forgiving God. Did he not reveal himself to Moses, saying he is a God, “forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Shemot/Exodus 34:7)? We must not miss the depth of such undeserved love that is available not only to David, but to us, by our Creator, the Master of the Universe.

Now, I know that a lot of biblically literate folks have the forgiveness thing down pat, not that we don’t need regular reminders or could ever plunge the depths of such a remarkable act of grace on God’s part.

At the same time, I wonder whether our understanding of God’s amazing forgiveness is missing something. Check out what Natan says next. In Hebrew, the very strong contrastive word “efes” is used, which is difficult to fully convey in English. It marks a very hard line between what is said before and what comes after, which explains why, among a great variety of English versions, two common translations are “nevertheless” and “however.” While both capture a sense of a change of direction in what is being said, they lack the sharpness of simply saying, as many translations do, “but.”

God forgives you, but? Does that bother you? Does that go against your certainty that faith in Yeshua completely obliterates in every way anything and everything you have ever done wrong? Do you think that faith in Yeshua provides you with the ultimate “get out of jail free card”? If so, you don’t understand biblically based forgiveness. You are actually missing the profound depth of God’s forgiveness as reflected in this story.

Biblical forgiveness is about establishing and maintaining a right relationship with God. For about a year, David was out of sorts with God, but once he confessed his wrong, he was forgiven. But God’s forgiveness doesn’t necessarily annul the consequences of our wrongs. Fines must be paid; restitution must be made; time must be served. Thankfully, God’s mercy may reduce the severity of the consequences but not necessarily annul them as it was in David’s case.

Tragically, we often confuse personal forgiveness with societal justice. If I wrong someone, it’s wonderful to maintain a good relationship by being personally forgiven by them, but that doesn’t get us off the hook for whatever we may be liable for due to our misdeeds. It’s the same with God. Because of all that Yeshua has done, we can be assured of his forgiveness, but there still may be consequences to deal with.

I know a person to whom someone confided that he had committed several acts of child abuse. After helping the confidant find forgiveness in God for his heinous acts, he lovingly walked him over to the police station to turn himself in.

“God forgives you, but” isn’t a way to say that God doesn’t really forgive you, but rather that God’s forgiveness is just the beginning of discovering the fullness of restoration God desires for us all.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of June 13, 2026 / 28 Sivan 5786

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Shela Lekha
Torah: B’midbar / Numbers 13:1 – 15:41
Haftarah: Joshua 2:1-24
Originally posted the week of July 1, 2000/28 Sivan 5760 (updated)

Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” (B’midbar/Numbers 14:3)

Is it possible to believe in God and yet not really believe in him? That’s exactly what it was like for the vast majority of the people of Israel who came out of Egypt. These people had seen God act and heard him speak. Whether or not God existed and whether he was involved in their lives was not an issue for them. What they had difficulty with was whether he could do what he said he would do.

The same God who delivered the people from bondage in Egypt also planned to bring them into the Promised Land. But when the people heard the report of those who went ahead to scout out the Land, they lost heart. Ten out of the twelve scouts said, regarding the Land’s inhabitants: “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are” (B’midbar/Numbers 13:31). The people responded as follows:

And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” (B’midbar/Numbers 14:2-4).

Notice they didn’t doubt that God had brought them thus far. What they feared was that he could not take them any further. This just goes to show that experiencing the reality of God does not ensure that we will have faith. These people had experienced God far more than most of us ever will. Yet they couldn’t trust him for their current circumstances.

We see in this story that faith in God is not just about believing in his existence. These people may have accepted the concepts of the reality of God, that he is the Creator, and that he interacts with our lives. It looks like they even believed that he was in control of the situation. We can surmise this from their statement: “Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword?” Moses later quotes them as saying, “Because the LORD hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.” (D’varim/Deuteronomy 1:27). It appears that they thought that God was doing this to them out of spite or something. So we see that even though they believed in God, what they believed about God was all messed up.

I wonder how many of us have a belief in God that is messed up. Or there may be aspects of our faith that are messed up.

What was it that warped their view of God? It appears that what led them to begin thinking of God in the wrong terms was their overwhelming sense of the great opposition they faced. The scouts’ bad report was mostly true. Naturally speaking, the people of Israel had no chance of taking the Land. They couldn’t do it without supernatural assistance. But instead of focusing on God and who he really is, they were fixated on the difficult circumstances they faced.

Caleb and Joshua, who alone trusted God in spite of these circumstances, did so because what they knew of God was derived from God himself and not from the obstacles. It was not that they were out of touch with reality; they were just not going to allow anything to contradict what they already knew of God.

I suggest we take a good look at how we have allowed circumstances to shape our understanding of God rather than knowing him for who he really is.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of June 6, 2026 / 21 Sivan 5786

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B’ha‘alotkha
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 8:1 – 12:16
Haftarah: Zechariah 2:14 – 4:7 (English 2:10 – 4:7)
Originally posted the week of June 22, 2019 / 19 Sivan 5779 (Updated)

If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness. (B’midbar/Numbers 11:15)

Some time ago, I was chatting with a waitress at a restaurant about some weaknesses in the overall service there. It was exactly what I had read in an online review and thought she should know. She wholeheartedly agreed with me, but felt she could do little about it since she was new at her job. So, I suggested she pray. She looked at me funny for a moment. So I repeated myself, having no idea what she thought of the subject. I told her that praying was simply talking to God and that not only does he have infinite resources at his disposal, he is also generous. She made it clear to me that I gave her something to think about.

As believers in Yeshua, we know this (though I imagine some may want to discuss the theology of prayer and whether it is appropriate to describe prayer as I did to this stranger). Be that as it may, what I shared with her included an essential dynamic. I offered no formulas, and I didn’t tell her exactly what to say. I also gave no guarantee as to what God’s answer might be. All I did was encourage her to start the conversation. The conversation would be on a particular topic, in this case, helping her resolve a need she could not resolve on her own. Since right at the beginning I defined prayer as talking to God, the conversation had to start with her personally and purposely talking to him. There’s so much more we can say about prayer, of course, but without this dynamic, I don’t know if much of what we call prayer is actually prayer at all.

Moses knew how to pray. That he did is vividly illustrated in the brief verse I quoted from this week’s parsha (Torah reading portion). Moses found himself being a waiter extreme. The whole nation of Israel whined like children for food. He had seen God do so much, yet the pressure of the people’s demands had completely overwhelmed him. He was done, and he told God so in no uncertain terms. Talk about a prayer from the heart! Moses held nothing back and told God exactly what he thought and how he felt. Thankfully, however, answered prayer isn’t always about getting all the items on our list. It’s about God meaningfully engaging us in response to our requests and desires.

I don’t know about you, but the best way I can describe some of my prayers is muddled. Even though I set aside some time each day to pray, am I really praying? To be honest, it’s not too unusual for me to do some sort of combination of wondering, thinking, wishing, and muttering. I’ll catch myself daydreaming about who knows what before I realize what I am doing. At that point, I try to focus and really pray, which sometimes I do. When I do, it’s as if I shift from muddled to clear. I know who I am talking to and what I am trying to say.

This is why I remind myself what I encourage others to do: pray out loud. While I cannot discount all silent prayer, there is very little Scriptural basis for it. Even if there were, attempting to project thoughts to God from our heads is very difficult, if not impossible. How do we differentiate thinking from praying when attempting silent communication? Praying out loud reminds us that we are truly speaking to another being who is not us.

Many years ago, when I was in Bible college. I had a roommate from Africa. He would wake up before me and have a time with the Lord at his desk. I would hear him whispering in prayer. I thought he really believes he is talking to someone! That encouraged me to do the same.

Realizing we are truly talking to God makes all the difference. And that’s just the beginning. Unless we intentionally do so, then whatever else we may be doing, we are not praying. Why not start right now?

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of May 30, 2026 / 14 Sivan 5786

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Nasso
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 4:21 – 7:89
Haftarah: Shoftim/Judges 13:2-25
Originally posted the week of June 3, 2023 / 14 Sivan 5783 (updated)

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, the LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” (B’midbar/Numbers 6:22-27)

It was three years ago, at the beginning of a special global initiative to pray for Israel. My wife and I, both Messianic Jews, were in a small prayer group (the others weren’t Jewish). We were praying for Israel. We have rarely been in the presence of such precious prayers. One of the people had it on his heart to pray the priestly blessing from B’midbar/Numbers chapter six, which I just read, over the Jewish people worldwide.

You may or may not be aware how common it is for Christian leaders to recite this blessing, usually at the end of a service, over their congregations. The words are wonderful. The sentiment is great. It is certainly a blessing! You might remember the musical rendition of these ancient words released around the beginning of COVID. It warmed my heart to hear God’s word through Moses sung over and over again in a multitude of languages by the peoples of the world, amidst the fear that had gripped so many.

Let me unpack why I was so touched by this blessing being prayed over our people that Sunday evening. First, in my experience, most people who call themselves Christians see themselves as the new or true Israel. Whatever their personal feelings toward Jewish people might be, there is a tendency to view us as having been God’s chosen people at one time, but with the coming of the Messiah, that identity was transferred to the community of Yeshua followers, the “Church” in other words. This idea is technically termed “supersessionism,” or more popularly “replacement theology.” Yet, even among those who claim to reject such an idea and accept God’s ongoing faithfulness to the Jewish people, there is still a tendency to directly apply elements of Scripture that are particularly given to the people of Israel to themselves. In many cases, this is legitimate, at least to some extent.

Let me explain. Through the Jewish Messiah, the peoples of the nations are offered the opportunity to have a personal relationship with the one true God, the God of Israel. While there are ongoing distinctives between Jews and Gentiles, the way that non-Jews learn the truth of God and life is via sacred writings that are fundamentally Jewish. All people, Jews and Gentiles, learn about trusting God through Abraham’s willingness to follow God into the unknown. We learn to pray by reading David’s psalms. We understand God’s faithfulness through his commitment to the people of Israel. And on it goes.

While it is, as I said, legitimate for non-Jews to apply scriptural truth to themselves, it is tragic that it is often done without ever acknowledging its original context or how it has come about that Jewish Scripture can become God’s Word for all, or the Jewish Messiah can be anyone’s Messiah. The result is the replacement theology I referred to, which regards the Church as the new or true Israel, even among those who deny such a concept.

With all this in mind, let’s return to the prayer group I mentioned. Against the backdrop of layers and layers of historic misrepresentation of and arrogance toward Jewish people, a most meaningful and powerful blessing which the Church has appropriated for two thousand years was being returned to its rightful place as this precious man prayed for God’s favor to once more be poured out upon Israel.

You might think, “So what?” What difference does such a sentiment make? It’s because this gesture functions as a symbol of what I believe is the general change of direction that must occur among our non-Jewish fellow Messiah followers. One day, we might finally reckon with the untold damage the Church has done both to the Jewish people and to itself for not heeding Paul’s words from Romans, chapter eleven, verse eighteen: “do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.”

It is time for the Church worldwide to recognize not only the primacy of Israel in God’s plans and purposes but also his ongoing faithfulness to the Jewish people, regardless of our spiritual condition throughout history until now. Great blessings have come to the Gentiles through not only the Jewish Messiah but also through the early Jewish believers who broke through incredible barriers to bring God’s blessings to the nations.

God’s heart of love and concern for the Jewish people has never changed. Therefore, let those among the nations who have been richly blessed by the God of Israel in the name of the Jewish Messiah rise up and declare to the people of Israel, “The Lord bless you and keep you!”

All scriptures, English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible

For the week of May 23, 2026 / 7 Sivan 5786

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Shavuot
Torah: D’varim/Deuteronomy 14:22 – 16:17
Haftarah: Habakkuk 3:1–19
Originally posted the week of May 30, 2009 / 7 Sivan 5769 (updated)

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. (Habakkuk 3:17-19)

When I first came to know the reality of God through the Messiah almost fifty years ago, it was pretty much me-centered. I had been told that if I believed in Yeshua, then I would be happy for the rest of my life. To be clear, there was much more to it than that at the time. The happiness promise may have been a hook, but the person who shared this with me powerfully demonstrated how the Jewish Bible pointed to Yeshua as the Messiah and clearly explained my need for forgiveness before God.

Thankfully, despite any misguided motives on my part, God indeed made himself known to me. Don’t get me wrong. It is not as if knowing God has no personal benefit. It’s that knowing him is not primarily about me, my personal needs, and my happiness. That’s not to say that I haven’t experienced a happiness I never dreamed possible, not to mention peace and security in the midst of great difficulty.

The depth of reality that comes from truly knowing the God of Israel is vividly expressed in the words I read from this week’s Haftarah (weekly reading portion from the Hebrew Prophets). It is striking that this portion is a special reading for the festival of Shavuot (English: Pentecost or Weeks; beginning this year, Friday evening, May 22). Shavuot is a harvest festival, a time to rejoice over God’s provision. But Habakkuk says that he will rejoice in God even when the harvest produces nothing. This is a most difficult concept if we think, as I originally did, that following God is all about what we get out of it.

Habakkuk’s words remind me of the Jewish men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who, while in exile in Babylon, faced the possibility of excruciating death due to their unwillingness to commit idolatry. Just before being thrown into the fiery furnace, they said to the king of Babylon, “…our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Daniel 3:17–18).

This kind of understanding of God and life goes far beyond self, our personal welfare, comfort, and prosperity. These men knew that there is a reality of life that comes from knowing God, far deeper than what many of us normally experience.

Habukkuk could rejoice in God even in the face of starvation. His strength and ability to face dire circumstances were not based on normal material prosperity but in God himself. This is no abstract spirituality detached from the realities of life, but a strength that enables us to live life amidst enormous challenges.

To begin to grasp the depths of this reality, we need to turn away from our obsession with self and our desire to please self. It’s as we submit ourselves to God and his will for our lives, whatever that may be, that we can find a joy and a strength beyond our wildest dreams.

All scriptures, English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible

For the week of May 16, 2026 / 29 Iyar 5786

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B’midbar
Torah: B’midbar/Numbers 1:1 – 4:20
Haftarah: 1 Samuel 20:18–42
Originally posted the week of May 24, 2014 / 24 Iyar 5774 (revised)

But they shall not go in to look on the holy things even for a moment, lest they die. (B’midbar/Numbers 4:20)

A friend once asked me how we can reconcile what appear to be two very different depictions of God in the Bible. He had just read the incident in the Torah where a man was executed for gathering sticks on Shabbat (see B’midbar/Numbers 15:32-36). To my friend, the God who would mete out such a harsh consequence for a seemingly insignificant act is contrary to the God revealed to us through Yeshua. How could the one who tenderly embraced children (see Mark 10:13-16) and called the weary to find rest in him (see Matthew 11:28-30) tolerate capital punishment for carrying sticks?

This is the age-old false dichotomy that claims the Bible portrays two different gods: The god of the Hebrew Bible being a god of wrath and judgment; the god of the New Covenant Writings, a god of love and mercy (I am using a lowercase “g” for “god” here because I am referring to false gods who don’t exist). While my friend didn’t accept such a two-god theory, the difficulty he was having is all too common.

The God of the Bible is a complex being. Throughout Scripture, he is revealed to us as a God of love and mercy, of wrath and judgment. He who cursed the world due to sin immediately determined to rescue it. In his dealings with human beings, his heart’s longing for restoration and relationship pours forth from the Bible’s pages. Yet his intense intolerance of evil, both its source and its outworkings are clear. God longs for his goodness to be experienced by his beloved creatures, but will in no way lightly put up with wrongdoing. The tension between God’s determination to rescue his beloved creatures and the necessity to judge evil is found throughout. The Gospels’ portrayal of God, as demonstrated through Yeshua’s actions and teachings, is consistent with this. Yeshua, who can be so tender and welcoming, is also at times severely confrontational. Contrary to some people’s perceptions, he didn’t reserve his harsher statements for religious leaders alone; he had some pretty hard things to say to his followers as well. In the book of Acts, we read of the early experiences of the messianic community following Yeshua’s return to heaven after his resurrection. God’s plan of salvation is in full swing, yet in one case, we see a married couple struck dead due to their deceit (see Acts 5:1-11) and, in another, a man struck blind for opposing the preaching of the Gospel (see Acts 13:6-12).

So, we shouldn’t be surprised when we read in this week’s parsha (English: Torah reading portion) the dire warning given to the Kohathites, one of the Levitical clans. They were responsible for the transportation of the sacred furniture of the Mishkan (English: Tabernacle). While they were to carry these items, if by any chance they looked at them, they’d die.

While, as I have tried to explain, harsh consequences for trespassing a God-given directive are found throughout Scripture, we may still have trouble with God treating people this way. Why is he so harsh at times? That he might punish the wicked, we may be okay with, but this kind of thing? That he has rules regarding the holy items, no problem. His property, his rules; but death? And just for looking? Even by accident?

The truth is, God is dangerous. I know we’d rather not think like that. We would rather stick with the image of Yeshua and the children. But when we insist on solely focusing on one aspect of God’s character, no matter how true and wonderful it might be, we turn him into a caricature, perverting the reality of his complexity into an idol of our own making.

God is dangerous because he is the most powerful being in the entire universe. Have you ever seen one of those high-voltage signs that are common around power stations-the signs with the lightning bolt and the falling man? The Mishkan should have had one of those signs. Every synagogue and church should have one too. Bible covers as well.

The God who forbade the Kohathites from looking at the holy articles hasn’t changed. He is still dangerous. We still can’t approach him on our terms without risking death. But he has made a way. Through the forgiveness available to all who put their trust in Yeshua, we can approach God in a way the Kohathites could not. Still, as we approach the dangerous, all-powerful God, let’s remember who it is we are dealing with.

All scriptures, English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible

For the week of May 9, 2026 / 22 Iyar 5786

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Behar & Bechukotai
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 25:1 – 27:34
Haftarah: Jeremiah 16:19 – 17:14
Originally posted the week of June 4, 2016 / 27 Iyar 5776 (revised)

But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. (Vayikra/Leviticus 26:40-42)

In this, the last weekly portion of the third book of Moses, we read of the conditions under which God would restore the people of Israel to a right relationship with himself and return them to their land, first promised to their forefathers. The covenantal reference in the verses just quoted is key to understanding God’s unique arrangement with the people of Israel.

This week’s parsha (weekly Torah reading portion) describes the blessings of obedience and the consequences of disobedience under the covenantal arrangement established by God through Moses at Mt. Sinai. As long as people adhered to God’s commands, they, as a nation, would thrive. But should they reject God’s ways, breaking this covenant, they would experience terrible circumstances, culminating in oppression by their enemies and exile.

In the event this should occur, which indeed it did, God made provision within the Sinai covenant for restoration both to himself and to the land. But note that this provision is not based on the Sinai covenant, but rather on the earlier one made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Israel’s existence as a people, including their habitation and their role among the nations of the world, was established, not by Sinai through Moses, but by God’s unconditional promises to Abraham (see Bereshit/Genesis 12:1-3) and passed down to Isaac and Jacob. The Sinai covenant with its conditional blessings came about as a result of God’s deliverance of his people from their oppression in Egypt, a deliverance also rooted in his earlier covenant with the forefathers. This is what we read in Shemot (the Book of Exodus):

During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. (Shemot/Exodus 2:23-24)

The earlier covenant is the driving force behind all of God’s dealings with Israel. So that even if Sinai resulted in failure, which it did, the covenantal foundation would survive. That’s why God’s judgment upon Israel could never be his final word to them. Even after rejecting God by turning to other gods and suffering the threatened consequences, there would always remain a right of appeal to unconditional promises that predated Moses.

This is also why a new covenant would one day be necessary. Jeremiah, in chapter thirty-one of his book, looked beyond the day when these words of judgment would be fulfilled towards a new covenantal arrangement that would finally resolve the sin problem that continually beset Israel under the Sinai covenant. That God’s affirmation of his ongoing faithfulness to Israel is based on their being the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is eloquently stated immediately following:

Thus says the LORD,
who gives the sun for light by day
    and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
    the LORD of hosts is his name:
“If this fixed order departs
    from before me, declares the LORD,
then shall the offspring of Israel cease
    from being a nation before me forever.”

Thus says the LORD:
“If the heavens above can be measured,
    and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,
then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel
    for all that they have done,
declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 31:35-37)

The establishment of the New Covenant on the foundation of the forefathers provides hope for Israel’s full eventual restoration. It’s in Romans 11:28 that we read, despite Israel’s behavior, “they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.” More than that! Knowing the New Covenant is rooted in unconditional promises to Israel assures all its participants, Jewish or Gentile, of God’s ongoing faithfulness to them.

All scriptures, English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible

For the week of May 2, 2026 / 15 Iyar 5786

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Emor
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 21:1-24:23
Haftarah: Ezekiel 44:15-31
Originally posted the week of May 21, 2016 / 13 Iyar 5776 (revised and expanded)

Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death. (Vayikra/Leviticus 24:16)

This week’s parsha (weekly Torah reading portion) includes a very serious injunction to impose violent capital punishment upon a person who “blasphemes the name of the LORD.” We may hear the term “blaspheme” mentioned from time to time, but what does it actually mean? And why is it so serious?

Depending on the English translation, blaspheme is used when translating a variety of Hebrew words that apparently refer to the dishonoring of God in one way or another. The word here is naqav, which has various meanings depending on context. It can mean blaspheme or curse, pierce something with holes, or even select people for something. At first glance, these usages may seem unrelated. In fact, some scholars propose that, while the words may be the same, they may derive from different semantic histories. While that is possible, these usages may actually help us understand what blasphemy really is and why it is so serious.

Whether one is selecting people or boring holes, it presupposes a certain relationship between the person performing the action and the object. Selecting people assumes a level of authority and power on the part of the person doing the selecting. Boring holes assumes superiority and control over an object. It could be that, in a context such as our parsha, naqav describes a person taking a place of superiority over God and treating him like an object to be controlled for one’s own purpose.

The injunction against naqav here was in response to the misuse of God’s name in the midst of a fight between two men. It is possible that the offending party was attempting to utilize God’s name in order to gain the upper hand in the fight. Such a thing was deemed to be so wrong as to warrant the man’s execution.

This is not the same as breaking the third commandment, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain” (Shemot/Exodus 20:7). To take God’s name in vain is to treat it lightly, especially in relation to taking oaths. Naqav, on the other hand, is invoking God’s name to manipulate others for one’s own benefit.

While under the New Covenant, we (as opposed to the state) have no jurisdiction to enact capital punishment, the Torah portion encourages us to take the prohibition against naqav very seriously. Are there ways in which we seek to use God to control others, and thereby commit naqav? We may not realize how easy it is to invoke God’s name so that others will do our bidding. How often do people illegitimately assert their authority over others in God’s name for their personal pleasure? How often do religious leaders call their people to compromise their God-given convictions in the name of some, supposed, greater good? And how often do members of such communities protect their leaders for fear of losing their position or sense of belonging? Do you think God doesn’t notice?

Every individual is ultimately answerable to God. This is something to remember, especially when dealing with those closest to us. Even when our goal is to honor God and accomplish his will, we must never think it is permissible to use God’s name in an attempt to manipulate those we are called to love and to serve.

All scriptures, English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible

For the week of April 25, 2026 / 8 Iyar 5786

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Aharei Mot & Kedoshim
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 16:1 – 20:27
Haftarah: Amos 9:7-15
Originally posted the week of April 29, 2023 / 8 Iyar 5783 (revised)

I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,” says the LORD your God. (Amos 9:14-15; ESV)

Beginning Tuesday evening this week (April 15, 2026), Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel Independence Day, begins. This year marks seventy-eight years since the establishment of the modern state of Israel. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that the vast majority of people in the world who claim strong adherence to the Bible see no relation whatsoever between Scripture and the reemergence of Israel as a geopolitical entity. You can probably guess already that I don’t agree.

First, let me say that anything I list as support for a biblical basis for God’s ongoing faithfulness to the Jewish people, including our return to our ancient homeland, does not justify everything Israel has done prior to or during the past seventy-eight years. But can anyone tell me why I even need to say this? Don’t we know that everyone and everything in this world is a mixed bag? Of all people, those of us who value Scripture must be aware that God uses broken vessels. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David all had issues. But if anything, their issues powerfully demonstrate God’s faithfulness both to them as individuals and to Israel as a nation. And yet, for some reason, the majority of the Church tends to regard Israel’s sins as unpardonable despite innumerable promises to the contrary. This week’s Haftarah (weekly reading portion from the Prophets) is but one of many examples that clearly establish God’s commitment to preserve Israel and fulfill its glorious destiny. Yet this doesn’t stop a majority of Christians from irresponsibly reading “the Church” into these promises. If that’s not bad enough, at the same time they are content to leave the judgment aspects with the Jewish people.

There are at least two factors at work here. The first is anti-Jewish sentiment. As the Church went from an exclusively Jewish movement to an exclusively non-Jewish one, non-Jewish leaders brought their ingrained disdain for Jewish people with them, unchecked. As a result, they happily affirmed scriptural critique of Israel, while deflecting God’s messages of love, concern, assurance, and restoration solely to themselves. The second factor is the misapplication of the concept of ingrafting that Paul expounds in Romans, chapter eleven. The inclusion of the nations in the Gospel is something Paul calls, in Ephesians chapter three, a mystery (see Ephesians 3:1-6). No one expected God’s blessings to be extended to non-Israelites through the Messiah in the way God always intended. But instead of receiving this undeserved grace with humility, they quickly developed a “new kid on the block” attitude, an attitude Paul adamantly warned against in Romans 11 (see Romans 11:18).

The Jewish people have endured great suffering due to the Church’s unwillingness to grasp the scriptural complexity of God’s commitment to Israel. Messiah’s coming emerged out of God’s faithfulness to Israel in order to resolve, once and for all, their alienation from God due to ongoing disobedience. But no one anticipated how this would fulfill God’s promise to Abraham to bless the nations, while also working to restore Israel to himself and to their land.

For some reason, many Christians are fine with a god (note the lowercase “g”), who is willing to receive outsiders but doesn’t have it in him to preserve and restore his own covenant people. I am aware of parables spoken to certain Jewish leaders, warning them of being cast out, while Gentiles will be let in. At an individual level, that’s true. But it is wrong to paint this as Jews vs. Gentiles. Instead, it’s between the arrogant and the humble, whoever or wherever they may be. This is why Paul would write: “For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree” (Romans 11:24; ESV).

“Their own olive tree.” Does it bother you that God’s inspired Word calls it Israel’s tree? You can redefine Israel all you like by turning the olive tree into “the Church,” but I hope it isn’t too long before you see how ridiculous that is. I don’t mean to offend anyone. It’s just that the biblical promises to my people have been misappropriated by most of the Church for far too long.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of April 18, 2026 / 1 Iyar 5786

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Tazria & Metzora
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 12:1 – 15:33; B’midbar/Numbers 28:9-15
Haftarah: Isaiah 66:1-24
Originally posted the week of April 22, 2023 / 1 Iyar 5783 (revised and expanded)

For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your offspring and your name remain. (Isaiah 66:22)

This week’s Haftarah (portion from the Hebrew Prophets) is special because the new Jewish month begins this week on Shabbat. It is the second of two references in Isaiah to “the new heavens and the new earth” that God will create (the first occurring in Isaiah 65:17). The renewal of the entirety of creation is central to the overall story of the Bible. From the beginning, God determined he would not allow the cursed state of affairs resulting from our first parents’ disobedience to be permanent. From the first hint of restoration in Bereshit/Genesis 3:15, which foretells the eventual destruction of the serpent and all it represented to God’s promise to Abraham in Bereshit/Genesis 12:3, anticipating world-wide blessing (compare Galatians 3:8) to various other prophecies to Israel and their implications for the nations, Isaiah’s summation in terms of universal renewal should be of no surprise.

Contrary to popular misconception, the expectation of the new heavens and new earth was never to be understood as God’s intent to destroy the material realm. Far from it! God was and is committed to his creation project. What is to be destroyed will be all the evil forces that have worked to undermine the essential goodness of God’s plans and purposes. A day is coming when the universe will be fully and forever set right.

To deny God’s intentions for the material realm distracts from an accurate biblical understanding of the world we live in. Biblically minded people may be surprised, if not offended, to be told that our tendency to degrade the creation by denying the God-given goodness of the material realm has contributed to the growing tendency of much of today’s culture in its embrace of nonsense.

We live in a world of design, God’s design. Despite its cursed state, the creation is based on divinely intended principles. Denying these principles denies reality, nonsense in other words. C.S. Lewis, in his book The Problem of Pain, eloquently explains that the only thing that God can’t do is nonsense. He writes:

His [that is, God’s] Omnipotence means power to do all that is intrinsically possible, not to do the intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to him, but not nonsense. There is no limit to His power. If you choose to say “God can give a creature free-will and at the same time withhold free-will from it,” you have not succeeded in saying anything about God: meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prefix to them the two other words “God can.” It remains true that all things are possible with God: the intrinsic impossibilities are not things, but nonentities. It is no more possible for God than for the weakest of His creatures to carry out both of two mutually exclusive alternatives; not because His power meets an obstacle, but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God.

The universe we live in has both material and non-material aspects. But nonsense doesn’t exist; nor can it.

Yet, that doesn’t stop human beings from pretending that it does. I attribute this phenomenon to the wonderful God-given gift of imagination. Imagination is a key dynamic involved in creativity. It is imagination that enables us to problem solve, to explore possibilities, and to expound the complexities of life and the universe in extraordinary ways. What imagination on its own cannot do is determine what is good and right. When imagination is allowed to run amok, untethered from the realities of our universe, untold destruction is the result.

Asserting “anything is possible” or “you can be anything you want to be” is helpful when facing legitimate injustice or badly perceived obstacles. All sorts of beneficial innovations have been discovered and effectively implemented due to such optimistic attitudes. Accepting our inability to fly was reasonable until someone allowed their imagination to develop flying machines. But to imagine we can fly without such a device is outside the realm of God-established reality. To believe we could would be nonsense. Attempts to do so would result in destruction.

Nonsense has beset the human family from the time Adam and Eve accepted the serpent’s claim that God was lying to them. Whether we ascribe power to idols or believe being rich will make us happy, or that being popular will give us self-esteem, or pretending we were born in the wrong body, nonsense has always set us in a destructive direction.

The establishment of the new heavens and the new earth will mark the time when nonsense will be shown for what it really is. No longer will reality be ignored as God unveils the full essence of his design forever. Until then, we have the opportunity and responsibility to reflect the creation’s destiny by navigating our broken world through the truth of God’s Word, under the forgiveness of the Messiah and the power of the Ruach HaKodesh (English: the Holy Spirit). Imagine that!

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version