On The Mountain

• Posted on MayamThu, 26 May 2016 00:25:04 -05002016-05-26T00:25:04-05:0012 17, 2016
• in Behar, Bible, God, Hebrew, Messiah, Study, Torah, Yeshua
• by Hallelujah Girl

---

 

 

And You did not give Shabbat, O L-rd our G-d, to the peoples of the lands…But to Israel, your people, You gave it in Love…The people that sanctify the seventh day shall be satisfied and delight in your goodness. -Shabbat morning prayers

Shabbat is far more than just rest. The creative labor of man, his work, is where man seeks to dominate his world by his strength and power.  One might think it a burden to give up 24 hours, from Friday night all the way to Saturday night to worship and pray.  The observance of Shabbat expresses man’s subordination of himself and his world to the Holy One. Nothing we have is truly ours.

Shabbat is unique! Shabbat was given to Israel as a gift of Love, not a burden. One who turns over to G-d all his earthly activities and who submits all his week’s work, the successes and the failures, to the trust of the Holy One,  will be satisfied with whatever portion He allows to him. A person’s strength may be feeble and his achievements may seem small, but fulfilling the will of the Heavenly Father is the greatest of contributions!

Exodus 20:12 comes straight from the Holy One’s Top Ten! “Remember Yom Shabbat (the Seventh Day), to keep it Holy. You are to work six days, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Shabbat to HASHEM your G-d. In it you shall not do any work—not you, nor your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, your cattle, nor the outsider that is within your gates. For in six days HASHEM made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Thus HASHEM blessed Yom Shabbat, and made it holy.”  -Exodus 20:9‭-‬11. Last week’s portion, the Holy One makes pretty clear about Shabbat!

Then Adonai spoke to Moses saying: “Speak to Bnei-Yisrael , and tell them: These are the appointed moedim of Adonai , which you are to proclaim to be holy convocations—My moadim (appointed days). “Work may be done for six days, but the seventh day is a Shabbat of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You are to do no work—it is a Shabbat to Adonai in all your dwellings. ~Leviticus 23:1‭-‬3

So what of this has to do with a mountain? Stay with me! These verses were taken from last weeks portion Emor. Leviticus 23 is dedicated to the Holy One’s moed, מועד.  Moed in Hebrew is defined appointed time, appointed place, meeting, appointed sign, or solemn feast. Moed comes from the word ya-ad, עד, (yaw-ad) meaning meet, appoint, agreed to meet, assemble, gather, or made an appointment. The Hebrew word Shabbat, שבת , means cause to cease, let cease, make to cease, or celebrate. Here in portion Emor, we find the “holidays” our Creator wishes us to celebrate. I believe the Holy One gives us a day every single week to take a break, to rest from everything that causes us to think about anything but Him!  Look at how the text actually says, “you are to Proclaim“, qara (kaw-raw), קרא, call! Call Forth! Be Famous! We are commanded to make Yom Shabbat famous!  This commandment heads the list, number one in the list of G-d’s Appointed Holidays. Growing up in a “christian” household, I celebrated on the first day of the week. As I grew in knowledge, I questioned this. Some time along the way some people, thought it would be a good idea to change the Shabbat. Now I wonder, If the Holy One has an appointment on His Shabbat with His People, then who are the christians meeting with on Sunday? I highly doubt our Heavenly Father ever misses an appointment!   We know by Genesis that the Holy One created the world and everything in it in six days and on the Seventh Day, He rested and was refreshed. If this is what the Holy One intended, who has the right to change it? If you read in the time when Yeshua walked on the earth, He Himself entered the synagogue on Shabbat, and began teaching.

This week Behar begins, Then HASHEM said to Moses on Mount Sinai, ” Speak to Bnei-Yisrael and tell them:  When you come into the land which I give you, then the land is to keep a Shabbat to Hashem”. Even the land gets a time to rest, or it is supposed to. So the land can be refreshed?  Today man creates fertilizer, chemical and organic, to make the land produce better when simply giving it rest might be the key. Consider the outcome, it’s not just the land that that benefits, the farmer benefits as well.  Being raised in Southwest Missouri, there is farming happening everywhere. Farmers work demanding hours, long days, and under extreme conditions.  By giving the land a chance to rest, the farmer can have an entire year to “rest” to study Torah, to grow closer to HASHEM to be “refreshed” right along with his land.

Behar continues to show and explain to us our partnership with the Holy One. How he desires us to “live green”.  Look at the first verse again. “On The Mountain”, is translated from the word Behar. Where is it that we go to find our Father?  We go to the “mountain”!  The Word was given to Moses at Mount Sinai and all of the details to obeying these mitzvot (commandments) were given at Mount Sinai. Daniel 9:20 writes, “While I was still speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before HASHEM my G-d on behalf of the Holy mountain of my G-d –When the children of Israel stood at the base of Mount Sinai and spoke Everything HASHEM has spoken we will do and obey, it was like a bride saying “Yes! I Will marry you” to her bridegroom.

The question arises in my mind, if the Holy One gave us directions, the instructions, the “way” to live, is there really anyone who can possibly believe they can do it any better?  Even the children of Israel questioned, “What will we eat in the seventh year?–behold! we will not sow and not gather in our crops!”  (Leviticus 25:20). It takes great faith to believe the Holy One when He says, “I shall ordain My blessing for you in the sixth year and it will yield a crop sufficient for you…”(verse 21).

The Holy One’s promise of restoration is Torah, and this goes back to the beginning, to restore the Garden. When Yeshua died on the tree of sacrifice He said, “It is finished”. Meaning, “It is fulfilled!” Fulfilled doesn’t mean done away with, my Christian friends.  This is the same Torah that Yeshua would have learned as a boy. The very same Torah Yeshua taught AND is the very same “Good News” of the Gospels. Restoration is the message. The Holy One offers restoration to all who do “teshuva”, repentance.  Freedom is in His Torah. “Our own way” is never going to work.

It seems good advice to learn about Torah in small doses each week, before Shabbat begins Friday night. After all, consider: if you have an appointment to keep with the Holy One and He Is Going To Be There and He Is Going To Be On Time, you might want to prepare yourself for the meeting. Behar, on the Mountain, is a short parsha found in Leviticus 25:1-26:2. The Haftarah portion comes from Jeremiah 32:6-27 and the Gospel portion is Luke 13:1-33.

May you continue your journey, and know there is restoration in Torah and it seems to come alive on Shabbat. Come! Let us go up to the mountain of The Holy One!  Let us learn and rejoice in HASHEM always! The King is coming again, to rule and reign from His Holy Mountain! Prepare The Way!

Shalom, Hallelujah Girl

Tags: #ReadYourBible #ItsAllAboutYeshua #TorahIsTruth, Behar, Sabbath, Shabbat