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Y'shua was frequently in conflict with the Pharisees who were lovers of money and prestige. The parable of the rich fool who decided to build bigger barns. The parable of the dishonest manager.

At the end of Leviticus, Moses talks about the seventh and the fiftieth years of release. There debts are forgiven, Israelite slaves are freed, the land is allowed to rest and, on the Jubilee, people return to the land that Joshua allotted to their clans. This is not a test of faith, because God promises a bumper crop on the sixth year so there is no fear of hunger. Rather it is a test of people's...

In the 7th chapter, Paul is responding to a question that we can only infer from his answer. In this he sounds lukewarm on marriage. Later in the letter we learn that he expects Y'shua to return very shortly. Hence, the inference is that he believed that spiritual pursuits were more important than romantic ones given the times.

After having being accused of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul, Y'shua's speech becomes more cryptic - except when dealing with the self righteousness of the Pharisees and the Lawyers. Their constant demands for supernatural signs beyond the ones He has shown openly bespeaks a heart that doesn't want to learn the truth.

Leviticus, the central book of the Torah, is where God tells Israel how He wishes to be approached and worshipped. Many believe that those instructions were only for Israel and have been superseded by the Resurrection of Christ. That is not true. Sacrifice is an act of love and is always acceptable in that spirit. God promises that when He regathers Israel and the Temple is rebuilt, He will once a...

It appears that some in the Corinthian church mistook the liberty that we have in Messiah for license. In this they had descended into debauchery. Paul writes against this in the strongest of terms, telling the church to expel those who engaged in flagrant sin.

Y'shua's disciples ask Him to teach them how to pray. That means that prayer is a skill that can be taught. The Lord's Prayer, the Friend at Midnight, the Unjust Judge and the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

In Leviticus, God tells Israel to be holy because He is Holy. In the subsequent verses, He gives them laws on the basis of His own authority. The explicit purpose of these laws it to differentiate Israel from the nations that they are to destroy. The reason for those nations' destruction is that they practiced all of the abominations that God forbids. So too, our society has degraded to the point...

As Paul writes to correct the hubris of the Corinthian church, he compares himself and the other Apostles to builders working on the living Tabernacle. In this, he directs merit away from himself and toward God where it rightly belongs.

This set of parables emphasizes the cost of entering the Kingdom of God. Several people desire to follow Him but have things to do before they can begin. Others are encumbered by the things of the world. The Good Samaritan, the Rich Young Ruler, Zacchaeus.

Speech is important.. It can either build up or destroy. In the Torah, leprosy is twice associated with negative speech. This indicates that Biblical leprosy is a physical manifestation of a heart condition. Although Biblical leprosy no longer manifests, a person's speech still can expose his heart condition.

The first four chapters of the letter deal with divisions in the church caused by intellectual pride. Since Paul had planted the church, they had heard the teaching of others and factions had formed. Each of the teachers mentioned were perfectly sound but perhaps each had said things differently. in their inexperience and pride, members of the church had seized on stylistic differences and elevate...

During His final journey to Jerusalem, Y'shua told a series of parables. These parables are arranged as a chiasm. The first and last element of that chiasm concerns a noble who goes away to obtain a kingdom. His subjects try to stop him from becoming their ruler. He also leaves resources with his servants and expects an accounting upon his return. His servants are rewarded or punished according to...

Mark chapter 1 contains an outline of Y'shua's entire ministry as well as that given to His apostles after His resurrection. The outline boils down to: preach the Gospel, heal the sick, cast out demons. Demons are barely mentioned in the TANAK but have almost 100 references in the New Testament. What changed? What does that mean to us today?

Having dealt with the doctrinal errors that had been reported to him, Paul switches to reinforcing the basic principles of life in the Kingdom of God. These include authority and order within the family and the community as well as general principles of human relationships. The letter concludes with personal greetings.

After having described the often unpleasant process of character development, the author returns to the theme that this world is not our permanent home. Rather, there is a better and permanent home for those who are disciples of Y'shua.

The 50 days between Firstfruits and Shavuot is a replay and a rehearsal of the process by which God takes us from slavery to liberty in Him. For the Israelites, it was literal slavery in Egypt. For us it is the slavery to sin and the flesh. Liberty is not learned over night, it is a process that takes time.

Paul warns the church not to be taken captive by vain philosophy and man made religion. He also says that because of Christ, the record of our offenses against God have been nailed to the cross. Many take that to mean that the Torah has been nailed to the cross and voided. This is not correct.

Faith is the spiritual quality that allows us to act in the present. Since the future is unknown, we must have faith that the thing we are about to do will have the results we want. This especially applies to our relationship with God. He has promised certain things and we are to live our lives in the trust that those promises are reliable.

Nations, like people have a life cycle - birth, growth, productivity and death. For Israel, Passover was its birth. Since then it has gone through several life cycles, always being reborn because God has had His hand on them. The United States, like Israel, was also explicitly formed on Biblical principles. We are now undergoing a civilizational crisis. Pray that the current turmoil represents bir...

Paul's letter appears to be a theological corrective for something going on within the church in Colossae. The exact nature of the problem is not made clear, but it has to do with the person of Christ and with competing philosophies. In this first chapter he makes it very clear who the Messiah is and what He has done and is doing.

The sin offerings made in the tabernacle were only for unintentional sin and had to be repeated annually, because the people's hearts were not changed. Under the New Covenant God's law will be written on hearts of flesh instead of on tablets of stone. Thus, the offering Messiah made with His own blood needs only to have been done one time, since those cleansed by that offering will have had their...

The Gospel accounts after the Resurrection are different. Each one gives added instructions for the believer while we await His return. Taken together they form a complete mission statement for the believer - what to do, where to do it, what resources are available, etc.

This parable, where a father has broken relationships with both of his sons, may be a metaphor for Ephraim and Judah. The younger son has been gone for millennia. What will be the attitude of the older brother when he returns?

The Covenant made as Sinai was defective in that one of the parties - Israel - was unable to live according to its terms. That made a New Covenant necessary. Although God's terms are the same for both covenants, the new one is to be written on the heart instead of on tablets of stone. The New Covenant like the one at Sinai must be ratified with the blood of a sacrifice. In this case, the blood was...