The Crimson Thread - May I Gently Suggest?

During the time before His crucifixion, Y'shua spent considerable effort contending with the Pharisees about their interpretation of God's law as given by Moses. In these encounters, there are several key phrases: "You have heard it said..." and "It is written..." What to these phrases signify and what does that mean to us today?

The visions of the lampstand, the flying scroll and the woman in the basket. Zechariah, seeing future things with which he had no experience used contemporary images to describe them. The word translated 'woman' also could be translated 'fire'. In our understanding, evil fire in a 5 gallon container with a lead cover might be a nuclear weapon.

In constructing the Tabernacle, God asked for the finest materials and the best craftsmen to produce a work of beauty. The world around us is being turned into ugly. Our cities have become homeless camps, our architecture has devolved into concrete boxes, our young are mutilating themselves. All of this ugliness is designed to dispirit the people of God and make them easier to manipulate. The mess...

In this first series of visions the Lord tells Zechariah that He is displeased with the nations who have chastened Israel. Although their actions were initiated by God, they went beyond their brief. God assures the prophet that He will once again bless Israel because of her repentance. He will remember His covenant and will deal with the nations appropriately.

The impulse to worship idols is still with us today. The form has changed from from biblical times. We no longer fashion calves of gold as in Exodus or offer sacrifices to Baal as in 1 Kings but we still turn away from God to other means of meeting our desires. In both the Exodus and Kings examples the people's hearts were hardened toward God. It took Moses and Elijah, two hard men whose hearts we...

The group of Psalms from Ps 60 to Ps 108 heavily refer to Joseph and the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In these three Psalms we see evidence of two Messiahs, one from Joseph and the other from Judah.

The Bible over and over tells believers to 'fear not.' That is true in context but not in general. The choice in life is between fear of the world or fear of God. The choice is binary, there is no other option. If one chooses the fear of God, the fear of the world becomes a non issue.

Psalm 110 introduces the idea of a priestly king. Heretofore priests have come from Levi and kings from either Judah or Ephraim. This change and the reasons therefore are explained in the Book of Hebrews.

I read a comment by a pastor I respect saying that the Sabbath had been 'nailed to the cross' and that he celebrates the 'resurrected Sabbath.' Is this sound doctrine? Is there any scriptural support for such a belief? Does it matter?

When I was young in the faith, I had real trouble finding someone who could give me a coherent explanation of the Gospel.

The writings of John use the metaphor of light extensively. Most of the uses are clear and obvious but one is not. What does it mean that 'the life is the light of men?'

Psalms 22, 23 and 24 form a Messianic tryptic. The first describes the crucifixion and the last describes the return of the conquering king. In between is the Valley of the Shadow of death where He descended into the grave and then arose three days later.

In Parsha Yitro Moses establishes a system of subordinate judges and God gives the Ten Commandments. This forms a basis for human governance within the Kingdom of God. The problem with human governance is that it is composed of humans and so eventually goes astray. God periodically sends his prophets to get things back on track. The last of those prophets was His own son. When a prophet is unable...

Going back to the blessing of the Sons of Jacob and then the tribes by Moses, it becomes clear that both Joseph and Judah have leadership roles within the nation. Joseph gets the blessing of Abraham and most of the attention in Gen 39 and Dt 33. After this introduction, Psalm 2 describes a three way conversation between the Father, His Son and a narrator.

John's description of Y'shua's first miracle raises lots of questions. Why did his mother take charge of the wine problem? What did she expect Him to do? What is the significance of the stone jars? Why was this the first of His miracles?

The book closes with a description of the Millennium where Christ reigns on earth. Water flows from the Sanctuary and heals the Dead Sea. Trees grow along the bank whose leaves are for healing. This is subtly different from the end of Revelation where the living water supports the Tree of Life.

If you have noticed that people are angry, depressed and isolated, it is because they are. The protocols imposed to combat the pandemic, in addition to being ineffective, are destroying our communities and driving people to anger and despair. In short, they are designed to steal your joy. Don't let that happen.

In describing Israel in the Millennium, God makes special provision for the Prince, which is to say civil government. In this He remembers the behavior of Israel's nobility before they were sent into exile. He sets things up to lessen the temptation to use civil office for personal profit.

In Torah portion Va'eira, we see the first of the plagues, the Nile River turned into blood. Here water symbolizes death because the Egyptians had used the river to hide the evidence of their murder of the Hebrew children. Water can also symbolize chaos, life, the Spirit, etc. The symbolic use of water requires an understanding of context and of the consistent patterns in Scripture.

The prophet is taken in vision to Israel and shown the Millennial Temple. This vision is the bookend to the vision in chapter 8 where he sees in a vision, the departure of the Glory before the destruction of that Temple by the Babylonians. Just as Exodus describes the Wilderness Tabernacle in great detail, so also the vision of the new Temple.

A popular web site had an article accusing Messianics of being 'Judaizers' and heretics. The article asserted that one did not have to become a Jew to enter the Kingdom of God - which is absolutely true. It also said that the Torah had been abrogated by the Messiah - which is absolutely false. That assertion is based on a misreading of Colossians 2.

God Himself engineers the invasion of Israel by Gog and his allies. The invasion will result in the destruction of the invading coalition. The reason for this is to disabuse the nations of the idea that they would have been able to conquer Israel if God had not withdrawn His hand of protection. He withdrew protection because Israel was faithless.

On the Road to Emmaus, Y'shua explained from Moses and the prophets why He is the Messiah and why the Crucifixion had to happen. How might that conversation have gone?

As in Chapter 11, God promises Israel a new covenant in which their hearts of stone will be replaced by hearts of flesh. He then gives the prophet a vision of a valley full of dried bones representing the current state of Israel. In reversing the death and desiccation God dramatizes how He will restore the nation to live under the new covenant.

Joseph's meeting with his brothers in Genesis 44 is the first instance of forgiveness in Scripture and perhaps in all human history. To set the scene up, Judah completely repents of his behavior in selling Joseph into slavery. In doing this he sets up a watershed in human history and provides a wonderful example for us today.