This week, Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship takes a look at teachings associated with the Passover feast and the first day of the week of Unleavened Bread. As you probably have come to expect, he doesn’t pull punches. And, no, it’s not the same as ‘easter’, but yes, it really DOES matter.
This is also a week of unparalleled turmoil in the world, and arguably none of that is a coincidence. Scripture has warned us about the consequences of rebellion against Him for a very long time.
Warning: The focus here is people who have a heart to “search out the Truth for themselves.” This teaching is not going to sit well with many people who would prefer NOT to hear what Yahuah has to say about things He calls ‘abomination’. And that includes pagan traditions that the whore church claims are cute and harmless, but where He clearly says otherwise. ‘Cause if what’s going on – in “such a time as this” – doesn’t at the very least make us angry, or even “sigh and cry” – then what’s happened before will no doubt happen again.
Join Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship for a look at parsha “Vayakhel” (Exodus 35:1 – 38:20) and some of the beauty, and vital importance, of ‘redundancy’.
This parsha begins Moses “assembling” the entire congregation of the ‘sons of Israel’ to hear something, that at least in part, they’ve heard before. And therein lies much of the story!
In the Erev Shabbat review of what that means, Mark points out again just how often we might think that “we’ve heard all of this before” (and yet, there really is “no idle word in Scripture”) — and that’s kinda the whole point. At least, if we are “wise-hearted,” “willing hearted,” and have hearts that are stirred up when they need to be.
During the Sabbath Day teaching, Mark goes in a “whole ‘nuther direction”, based on the idea that while cycles in history and prophecy repeat, SOMETIMES we are on the ‘opposite half cycle.’ Like today.
Vayakhel is about Moshe “assembling” the people of Israel together, so that those who were “wise-hearted, willing-hearted
and those whose hearts stirred them up to create a place where YHVH would dwell among them were able to come together to create set-apart, “holy” works of beauty and literally ‘return to Him’ after the failure of the ‘golden calf’.
Today, in a polar opposite contrast, hard-hearted people who literally HATE the God of the Bible come together to destroy His house and all that is beautiful in His creation. And there’s a lesson there, too, in several ways.
Parsha “Tetzaveh” (Exodus 27:20 through 30:10) is another ‘semi-controversial’ teaching from the Torah. Is it a proof text of “why the Law is done away with,” or the converse?
This parsha continues the description, among other things, of the clothing “for beauty and for splendor” to be worn by the ‘cohenim’ (priests, of the line of Aaron) and particularly the special garments of the ‘Cohen Hagadol,’ or High Priest.
Join Mark Call first for the Erev Shabbat review of all of that, and another demonstration that even though neither the cohenim NOR the place they were called to serve still exist as they once did, when Scripture says that the commandments associated with them are “forever,” it’s a good reason for us to listen to Him, rather than what we’ve been told He should have said:
During the Sabbath Day teaching Mark again takes a look at the ‘bigger picture,’ of not only the Torah portion itself, but related pictures from Scripture, and things that show us why the pattern there is still SO important today.
There are reasons why ‘the priesthood’ no longer wears those garments, or even has a place to. To listen to the Whore Church, it might have something to do with Melchitzedek. But based on fruit, and warnings associated with scattered and lost tribes, maybe “sackcloth and ashes” is better garb anyway.
Here is another, continued lesson those who would like to be part of a ‘holy priesthood’ should ponder.
Parsha “Mishpatim” (Exodus chapters 21 through 24) is – no doubt about it — the Scriptural “next step” after the general principles and ‘broad strokes’ of the “Ten Commandments.”
It is also the most “judgment-oriented” parsha in the Torah, and has more of what the title says, ‘mishpatim,’ judgments or ordinances, than any other. More importantly, it is THE basis for what once formed the heart of the ‘common law’, and the very essence of ‘righteousness’ and thus civil society.
The fact that it is now “politically INcorrect” speaks volumes.
Join Mark Call first for the Erev Shabbat review of all of that, and the reason why REAL ‘social justice’ is what YHVH says it is, as opposed to self-described “warriors” against it:
During the Sabbath Day teaching — and this week especially — Mark takes a deeper look the stark differences between what NOW passes for “law,” and what really is.
Parsha Yitro (Exodus chapters 18 through 20) is most famously associated with the giving of the “Ten Commandments” to the mixed multitude of “All Israel” on Mount Sinai.
There is, of course, much more. More to the story, more to what was said, and maybe even more than just “ten” of ’em.
During the Sabbath Day teaching, Mark continues that teaching with a deeper look at some of the major “themes” of Yitro, from his mission, to the ‘preparation’ for what is to come, to the famous Covenant itself. There’s even a bit of “nerdy Markology”, which hopefully informed speculation, perhaps couched in modern terminology to help expand on a millenia-old event.
And have you ever noticed that YHVH describes what He is offering to a “Kingdom of PRIESTS” even before those cohenim are identified later as specifically from the tribe of Levi?
including some observations, and ‘dot-connection’, regarding what may have been one of the biggest “data dumps” in human history.
Mark calls it “channel prep” — preparing US for the download, and all the ‘hyperlinks’ that computer channels do at electronic speeds nowadays, but we still have to do by preparing ourselves — line by line, precept by precept — for His instruction to be written on our hearts, so we can walk what we have already been told is a “narrow path” — and FEW there be that find it.
Join Mark Call for the first parsha in the lives of the patriarchs, “Lech Lecha,” (Genesis chapters 12 through 17) in which Abram is told to “go forth” out of his home, away from all that he has known, “by faith”…only later to be worthy of being renamed “Abraham”.
During the Sabbath Day teaching, Mark takes a deeper look at why “go forth,” (or “come out!”) should still resonate so profoundly with each of us today, still faced with remarkably similar challenges:
The message in the Torah portion for this week (Vayelek, Deuteronomy chapter 31) is an elegant, and concise, summary of what Moshe told those who were about to enter the Promised Land. It’s also an elegant, concise warning that is every bit as vital to understand today, in such as time as this, as it was thousands of years ago.
Join Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship for this week’s teaching of “Shoftim,” (Deuteronomy 16:18 through 21:9), which seems to literally encapsulate most of what is ABSOLUTELY WRONG with the western world today!
The Erev Shabbat overview of course begins with the commandment to select righteous (in other words, Torah-obedient) judges, or ‘shoftim’, to the end that “justice, JUSTICE!” you shall pursue.
Those who have been following what passes for “just-us” nowadays will recognize just how far we have fallen. And the rest of the parsha truly brings that home.
The Sabbath Day teaching is perhaps even more NOT ‘politically-correct’ than last week, to the extent that Mark demonstrates how the command in the last verse in the parsha, literally the one-line summary, is to “<em>do what is RIGHT in the eyes of YHVH</em>.”
Not only has ‘the world’ now gone beyond merely what the Book of Shoftim (Joshua) suggests is a Big Problem, “every man did that which was right in HIS OWN EYES,” but the opposite extreme now has become an overt attempt to “do that which is downright EVIL in the eyes of Him they so clearly hate!”
Join Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship for this week’s teaching of “Ekev,” (Deuteronomy 7:12 through 11:25), where ‘because’ (the way the portion begins) really IS only the beginning of the story.
And the Erev Shabbat overview of course begins there, and follows the text, including still more insight into Moses’ continuing theme, “hear,” obey,” do, and LIVE:
The Sabbath Day teaching starts with some understanding that the Hebrew words don’t necessarily mean exactly how they’re [mis]translated into English. A word like “shema/shemar”, for example, is actually even more than “hear and OBEY”, because that obedience is an INFORMED choice, if we ‘love Him’.
And how can we “love” Him, trust Him, even “obey Him” if we have not only ‘forgotten Him,’ but can’t even “hear” Him?
And on such “trivial” distinctions, civilizations fall.
Join Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship for this week’s teaching of “Vaetchanon,” (Deuteronomy 3:23 through 7:11), arguably one of THE most “central” and fundamental teachings in the entire Torah.
The Erev Shabbat overview begins at “and I besought”, the opening words, “V’etchanan” through the warnings about idolatry, and not “adding to,” or “subtracting from” (still VERY popular with both exiled houses!) to the Ten Debarim (commandments, or sayings) and what is described by the Torah Made Flesh as THE most important commandment in Scripture. The main theme, however, is not just “hear,” but “obey,” and “DO!”: