Category: Understanding Torah

In last week’s issue of Footsteps, we considered how powers and principalities functioned in their tasks and how Israel is not like the other nations even though she is scattered among them. As the Footsteps of Messiah approach, even the elect must guard themselves from a particular hazard: sorcery (Re 9:21; 18:23).

The names of the Torah portions provide a unique narrative when we put them together week to week. Last week, it was Ki Teitze, “When you go out.” This week, it is Ki Tavo, “When you go in.” The details in the mitzvot might distract us from the spiritual inheritance for which these Torah portions prepare us: The Land of Promise, Israel, and the Garden, our original inheritance hovering just above it, waiting to be “married” to the physical territory once again.

Once the righteous are resurrected like Yeshua, once again they can navigate physical and spiritual realms as the Father designed, but they will need to have internalized the commandments that rule our exit Ki Teitze and re-entry Ki Tavo to that special place prepared for us. In preparation, Israel must study the Word so that she will not be deceived by sorcery and witchcraft, tools of the Beast. As there are holy signs and wonders, so there may be deceiving signs and wonders.

These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb. And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet. You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them. We took their land and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites. (Dt 29:1-8)

Review these couplets/equivalencies:

“He makes the winds (ruachot) His messengers,
Flaming fire His ministers.” (Ps 104:4)

These flaming ministers of fire can consume, for they are “serving” the fire of Elohim’s judgment…

“His breath sets coals aglow, and a flame goes forth from his mouth.” (Job 41:21)

“Like fire that burns the forest, and like a flame that sets the mountains on fire.” (Ps 83:14)

forest=stronghold of the beast mountains=nations

“Fire goes [“walks”] before Him and burns up His enemies all around.” (Ps 97:3)

Fire also “walks,” such as the voice of Elohim walked in the Garden seeking Adam and Eve after they sinned. The enemies are saviv, encircling, as the Rivers did the Garden. The cheruvim, flaming ministers of Elohim, were placed at the entrance of the Garden with flaming swords to prevent re-entry and access to the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden. This information helps us to understand that there is proper and authoritative spiritual fires who perform the will of Adonai. The more we walk in the Ruach, the more we can differentiate between ministers of holy fire and deceivers who may appear to work wonders in fire.

Let’s turn back a few lessons to re-examine Yeshua’s sheep speech and how it relates to Jacob’s wrestling match with the angel. Yeshua, when questioned as to whether he was the Messiah at Chanukkah, started talking about sheep knowing his voice. Tradition says that the wrestling match with Jacob and Esau’s angel began with sheep!

This is strange, but it explains Yeshua’s sheep speech as a clarification of Kislev 25 when the Mishkan (Tabernacle) to house the Divine Presence was completed in the wilderness, surrounded and covered in the “Clouds of Glory” or *Sukkot of Glory. The Feast of Dedication was Chanukkah in winter. The context s not just an allusion to the celebration of Chanukkah as a “Sukkot sheni,” like a second Passover which could be celebrated if a person were unclean or on a far journey. Chanukkah became a Sukkot sheni after it was missed due to the Greek Abomination that Causes Desolation. For the whole story, see The Seven Shepherds: Hanukkah in Prophecy.

The setting of the challenge to Yeshua was significant, for if the Mishkan were completed during Chanukkah, then as Messiah, Yeshua would be the one who would unite the twelve tribes and lead them out of the “wilderness” of exile into their inheritance, destroying all their foes. Yeshua’s answer to the challenge of his authenticity was a sheep speech.

This is from the Midrash Rabbah:

The angel appeared to Jacob that night at the Jabbok stream as a shepherd and robber chief. “This one (Jacob) had sheep and that one (the angel) had sheep. The angel said to Jacob, ‘Bring across the Jabbok stream what is mine, and I will bring across what is yours. The angel brought across Jacob’s flock in the blink of an eye…” 3§6

With that illustrative story in mind, now consider Yeshua’s answer:

At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem; it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple area, in the portico of Solomon. The Jews then surrounded Him and began saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep. My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. Jesus replied to them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” The Jews answered Him, “We are not stoning You for a good work, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.” Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law: ‘I SAID, YOU ARE GODS’? If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be nullified), are you saying of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” (Jn 10:22-38)

The “blink of an eye” reference in the Midrash points to Yeshua’s “eternal life” statement. We will be resurrected to eternal life in the blink of an eye. Yeshua is the holy flame that protects the Father’s sheep so they may re-enter the Garden of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’s inheritance.

The Midrash goes on to tell how Jacob kept going back across the stream, and there would be more sheep…all night long! The night is the exile. Finally, Jacob realized it was sorcery, an illusion that there were more sheep each time, and he said, “Sorcery! Sorcery! You are a sorcerer, for sorcerers are successful at night!” 3§6

Jacob’s sheep would have followed him, for they knew his voice. These other sheep were “Esau’s.” They belonged to The Red One. Once the illusion was discovered, the angel knew the day was breaking, and he revealed himself to Jacob.