Yeshua Tiferet Yisrael
6260 Victoria Ave #200 H3W 2S3 Montreal, QC, Canada

TORAH INSIGHTS YITRO / JETHRO SHEMOT /EXODUS 18:1-20:23 ... Exodus {18:1} Now Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses's father-in-law, heard of all that GOD had done for Moses, and for Israel His people, how that The Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. {18:2} Jethro, Moses's father-in law, received Zipporah, Moses's wife, after he had sent her away, {18:3} and her two sons. The name of one son was Gershom, for Moses said, "I have been a sojourner in a foreign land". {18:4} The name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, "My father's GOD was my help and delivered me from Pharaoh's sword." {18:5} Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses into the wilderness where he was encamped, at the Mountain of GOD. {18:6} He said to Moses, I, your father-in-law Jethro, have come to you with your wife, and her two sons with her. {18:7} Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and bowed and kissed him. They asked each other of their welfare, and they came into the tent. This portion of Scripture should be very comforting to all married couples, at least in my opinion. My reasoning; because if someone, a spiritual giant like Moses, can have marital problems, we should not be surprised when we do as well. The fact is, couples have been having marital problems since the institution of marriage with Adam and Eve; they sure had their problems! Now, this week, we are getting a glimpse into Moses’s ‘rocky road’ relationship with his wife. I do not know about you, but I find it comforting to know that the great men and women of the Bible were not superhuman, like some make them out to be, but rather they were just plain, frail, human beings, just like the rest of us! In fact, in reading this passage I can almost hear Moses saying to me Welcome to my world Jack. Yes, we like most every other married couple that ever lived will have marital problems. Now, perhaps as Believers in Messiah Yeshua our problems will never deteriorate to the point of separation, as did Moses’s, but were it not for Yeshua the Messiah in our lives, who knows what might have happened. I have counselled many couples over the years and I know how difficult it is for two people who originally came from different family backgrounds, grew up having different ideals, were taught different ways of doing things and were perhaps from different cultures, to come together as one and find instant compatibility. Sure, couples may boast of how alike they are and how well they get along during the courting period and even through the engagement period, but the fact remains that as alike as they may think they are, they are not! They are two very different and distinct people with two very different and distinct personalities and they need to allow themselves to grow together as one in Messiah Yeshua. Matthew {19:5} and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? Notice I underlined the word WILL, that is because growing together is a process. Things change after the wedding! Living together as a married couple is not the same as courting or being engaged. It is easy to maintain a façade and a certain personal mystique when we are not living together as a married couple, but once married and living in the same house the masks come down, the honeymoon is over and the marriage begins. I have found that most new couples, especially those who have not been counselled prior to their marriage, vie for supremacy in the relationship. Properly counselled couples should have dealt with that aspect of their relationship beforehand. Sadly, not all couples that I have met were counselled and many who were counselled did not receive counsel on the biblical roles of men and women in a marriage. From the following narrative it appears that this was the case with Moses and Zipporah: Exodus {4:24} It happened on the way at a lodging place, that The Lord met him and wanted to kill him. {4:25} Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me." {4:26} So he let him alone. Then she said, "You are a bridegroom of blood," because of the Circumcision. The way I interpret this portion of Scripture is that Moses was trying to please his Gentile wife, who was obviously against circumcision, by not circumcising his son. This was obviously an affront to God. God took it so seriously that Scripture says the Lord wanted to kill Moses, maybe by striking him with some sort of illness. When Zipporah learned, or was told by Moses that his affliction was from God and a direct result of his failure to circumcise their son, she grabbed a flint knife, performed the circumcision herself and in disgust threw the bloody foreskin at Moses’s feet. Notice that after this event we hear nothing more of Zipporah until her father reunites her with her husband in this week’s Parasha. We do not know how long they were separated, but any amount of time would be too long in the Lord’s eyes! Let us not think that our marriages are going to be without conflicts, but rather let us put Messiah Yeshua at the centre of our marriage and ask Him to help us fulfill what was spoken of by the Apostle Paul: Colossians {3:18} Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. {3:19} Husbands, love your wives, and do not be bitter against them. Visit our blog for more teaching and to view previous Torah commentaries: https://weeklyparasha02.blogspot.com/ THIS WEEK’S SERMON LINK: Nothing Can Separate us: https://www.dropbox.com//Nothing%20Can%20Separate%20Us.m4a

"MINE IS THE EARTH" (Exodus 19:5) Mount Sinai is G-d's moment to shine! He is not busy rescuing anyone. He is not busy delivering a nation, nor soundly defeatin...g an adversary. He is not preoccupied with providing daily meals for His children from His heavenly kitchen, nor causing life giving waters to flow from a lifeless rock. At Mount Sinai G-d is simply being G-d. His unparalleled glory is manifesting itself before Israel in ways that man can take in and absorb, if not on a completely comprehensible intellectual level, then certainly on a visceral, physical and emotional level. Seeing is believing! And so is hearing the roar of the thunder, and smelling the smoke and fire on the mountain and feeling the earth tremble beneath your feet. G-d has brought His people to His holy mountain and G-d is exhilarated! This week's Torah reading, Yitro, is dedicated, almost in its entirety, to the revelation at Mount Sinai. Not just to the Ten Commandment, delivered to Israel by G-d Himself, with no human intermediary, but to the dramatic buildup which precedes "I am HaShem, your G-d, Who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage," (Exodus 20:2) and follows "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, or whatever belongs to your neighbor." (ibid 20:14) G-d has waited an eternity for this moment. Or, at the very least, for twenty six generations of man. For that is how many generations have passed since G-d first created Adam and invited him to spend a blissful eternity with G-d in the Garden of Eden. G-d wants to be with man. He always has. And G-d, after cultivating a relationship with Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, has chosen Israel to be His "treasured people," and His "kingdom of priests and holy nation." (ibid 19:5,6) That is, G-d has chosen Israel to be His representative and His testimony to His presence among the nations. To be appointed this role, to take on this task, requires an unwavering dedication, an unfaltering determination, an endless commitment, and a relentless ability to pick yourself up and put yourself back together after you have stumbled and it has all fallen to pieces. In other words, G-d is asking a lot of Israel. He is asking the world. And this may explain G-d's unprecedented display of His benign, yet terrifying, glory. Like a suitor pursuing his beloved, G-d is doing everything in His limitless power to evoke a "Yes" from Israel. And G-d's display of His awesome Presence had the desired effect: "Moshe came and summoned the elders of Israel and placed before them all these words that HaShem had commanded him. And all the people replied in unison and said, "All that HaShem has spoken we shall do!" (ibid 19:7-8) In other words, "I do!" So now that G-d has "popped the question," and Israel has answered with an irrevocable yes, what are G-d's intentions? Does He want to sweep Israel away, and carry them "on eagles' wings" like He did out of Egypt, and lift them on high to the top of trembling Mount Sinai, ot even to the celestial chambers of heaven itself, His supernal abode? On the contrary. "And now, if you obey Me and keep My covenant, you shall be to Me a treasure out of all peoples, for Mine is the entire earth." (ibid 19:5) "Mine is the earth," G-d says. This is My home. This is where I want My presence to dwell with man. This is where I have always wanted My presence to dwell: with My children, in this world that I created. Clearly, however, following the conclusion of the Ten Commandments, the children of Israel are still apprehensive, and G-d, sensing this, delivers this tender message: "So shall you say to the children of Israel, You have seen that from the heavens I have spoken with you. You shall not make images of anything that is with Me. Gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves. An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall slaughter beside it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. Wherever I allow My name to be mentioned, I will come to you and bless you." (ibid 20:19-21) We will conduct our relationship on earth, and on your (human) terms. You, My children, have been calling on My name and reaching our for Me by building altars of earth and stone since time immemorial. I am asking you now to continue to call on Me in this manner. It comes from your heart and not from heaven, and that is all the world to Me. Your love for Me, G-d tells Israel, is why you are, and always will be, My treasured people. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! https://templeinstitute.org/subscribe/ SHABBAT SHALOM! (This post was scheduled befotr the entry of Shabbat in Israel.)

Our Torah reading for this week describes the giving of the Ten Commandments at Sinai. The Fourth Commandment is to memorialize or remember (i.e., zakhor: ...) the Sabbath day for holiness (Exod. 20:8). We are to set aside, that is, regard as sacred, the seventh day as an acknowledgment that God is both our Creator (Exod. 20:11) and our Savior (Deut. 5:15). By "remembering" the Sabbath we understand other days of the week in relation to it, the "first day" until the Sabbath, the "second day" until the Sabbath, and so on until we reach the Sabbath itself which marks an appointed time of sanctity and rest (i.e., menuchah: ). Some of the Jewish mystics came to regard the Sabbath not so much as a "day" in the usual sense but rather a spiritual "atmosphere" to be welcomed and greeted as beloved ( ). The fourth commandment also includes the restriction from doing profane activities (i.e., melachah: ): "you shall not do any labor" because Shabbat is time set apart for holy pursuits, for family connections, and for healing rest. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it so that there would special provision from heaven to honor this time (Exod. 16:22). So important is the Sabbath day that God emphatically repeated the commandment just before he gave the tablets to Moses (Exod. 31:13-18). The Sabbath is a delight not a burden; a time for celebrating your personal rest in our Messiah Yeshua (Isa. 58:13; Heb. 4:9). Indeed, all those who honor the Sabbath - including the foreigners of Israel - will be given a name that is better than sons and daughters that will never be cut off (Isa. 56:3-8). Moreover, the Sabbath will be honored in the Millennial Kingdom to come: From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the LORD (Isa. 66:23). Indeed the blessing of the Sabbath will be honored in the heavenly Jerusalem itself! (Rev. 22:2). [Hebrew for Christians]

The Ten Commandments (i.e., , literally, the ten declarations) may be summarized this way: 1) I AM your only deliverer, the One who loves... and chooses you; 2) love me exclusively; 3) regard my love as sacred; 4) rest in me; 5) honor your life and its history. Do no harm to others: 6) forsake anger, 7) abandon lust, 8) respect others, 9) abhor lying, and 10) refuse greed and envy. Know that you belong to me and that you are accepted. Love others as you are also loved. The "heart of the law" is the Torah of love, just as the "law of love" is the Torah of the Gospel (John 15:12). "Teach me the whole Torah, a heathen said, while I stand on one foot. Shammai cursed and drove the man away. He went to Hillel. Hillel said, What is hateful to you, do not do to anyone else: that is the whole Torah. The rest will follow go now and learn it." As the Apostle Paul taught: "For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: Ve'ahavta: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Gal. 5:14). Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom. 13:10). The sages have said that when the Holy One spoke to the people of Israel, each one felt personally spoken to by God, and thus it says in the singular, ‘I am the Eternal One, your God’ (Midrash Shemot Rabbah). Indeed the very first commandment given at Sinai was to accept the reality of our personal deliverance by the LORD: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you (singular) out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery" (Exod. 20:2). In fact, God used the second person singular (not plural) for all the verbs throughout the Ten Commandments: you (singular) shall have no other gods beside me; you (singular) shall not take the Name of the LORD your God in vain, and so on. The very first commandment, however, is the starting point for all that follows. Until you are personally willing to accept the LORD as your God and to trust Him as your own Deliverer and King, the rest of the commandments are not likely to be heeded. [Hebrew for Christians]