Character in Context

Prayer Unites, Fear Destroys, and the Myth of "Torah Observance"

This week's broadcast touches on COVID-19. I know we were supposed to start in the Gospel of Mark, but I wanted to take some time to address the power of prayer to unite, fear to destroy and the myth of Torah observance (it's just another mantra, like "the law has been done away with"--no one really keeps even all of it that can still conceivably be kept, which I will prove). Some disturbing "prophecies" have popped up from a number of people making claims that all this will be over by the Passover, that this is the fault of the Jews for not accepting the Messiah, that it is the fault of Christians, and (already proven false among people in my own circle) that anyone who keeps the Passover instead of Easter will not be touched by the virus. I've seen the best and worst in people over the course of the last ten days as people respond in various ways to uncertainty and fear, which has been both an eye-opening gift from God and a sobering look at the reality of how far we have to go as a body in order to reflect His character.

Here is the awesome article I mentioned by Doug Friedman http://www.messianicassociation.org/ezine22-df.mosaic-laws-messianic.htm

Thre is no transcript available on my website for this episode. Next week I will be reairing last year's Passover broadcast about crucifixion, the slave's death.

Episode 53: Isaiah and the Messiah 17--The Everlasting Covenant and Good News for the Outcasts.

We've finally made it to the end of the series! This week there is an exciting bit of context that I have been sitting on for awhile but I finally feel confident about teaching it. Did you know that the word covenant only appears four times in all of Isaiah 40-55? Twice in reference to the servant who is given as a covenant to/for the people, once in the covenant of peace we talked about last week--but this week we have talk of an "everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David."

Join me as I talk about why I believe this is referring not to the Sinai Covenant, which was already eternal because it was blood ratified, but instead to the kingly Davidic covenant, which I believe was made eternal when it was blood ratified at the Cross.

Episode 52: Isaiah and the Messiah 16--The Third Zion Song--Rejoice! Your Husband Reigns!

This chapter looks rather odd when it isn't taught as the (almost) grand finale to Isaiah 40-55 but when taught in context, it is a real tear-jerker. We are invited into the joy and relief of a desperate woman who has been deserted, scorned and bereft as her husband returns for her and restores her to his side. What a love story!

We'll also be talking about another "manufactured controversy" about the word ba'al--because that is what Yahweh calls Himself here. Uh oh...

Episode 51: Isaiah and the Messiah Part 15--The Suffering Servant Song

Yes! In my opinion (which is rarely humble), Isaiah 52:13-53:13 is the most important material in all of the Hebrew Scriptures. Finally, God's plan for the promised end to the relational estrangement between not only God and Israel but also God and the nations will be revealed and the shocking mission of the Servant, the Messiah, revealed.

The teaching I made reference to in the broadcast is Ryan White's The Suffering Servant/The Leper Messiah and can be found on his website FaithofMessiah.com and is free all this month to subscribers at the $10/year level.

Episode 50: Isaiah and the Messiah 14—The Good News—Your God Reigns!

This week is very exciting, as we close up the ongoing theme of Yahweh comforting His people and promising them salvation not only from exile but also from the estrangement that exists between them. All of this in preparation for the fourth Servant Song next week—the suffering servant song.

Episode 49: Isaiah and the Messiah Part 13--The Servant Speaks Again!

This week we cover the third Servant Song, where the mysterious Servant of Yahweh further sets himself apart from the nation of Israel and we begin to see the legal persecution of the Servant by the ba’al mishpati. We will also explore the preamble to the second Zion song and its connection to The Great Scroll of Isaiah, 1QIs-a and see how the Qumran community taught it as sort of an extra Servant Song.

Episode 48: Isaiah and the Messiah 12--The First Zion Song (Is 49:14-50:3)

In light of the marvelous deliverance promised in last week's segment, through the work of the Servant, we would think that Jerusalem would respond with joy and song and exultation! We would be wrong.

Episode 47: Isaiah and the Messiah Part 11: The Servant Speaks! The Second Servant Song.

The first Servant Song, Is 42:1-9, was fairly vague when it comes to identifying the Servant and His mission, but this week we will be going through the second song verse by verse. The Servant, in the first half, speaks about Himself and what He has been commissioned to do. Then Yahweh responds to the Servant and the earth rejoices.

Episode 46: Isaiah and the Messiah Part 10: Shema Israel--No Peace For The Wicked

Isaiah 48 is very much a downer. Israel is repeatedly confronted with the word "shema" which means to both hear and obey--and then they are outright told that they have never heard and never obeyed. Yahweh delivers a very potent warning for those exilic Jews who are going to refuse to leave Babylon when Cyrus sets them free, and it's really easy to point our fingers and shake our heads but--how are we, all of us, still comfortably residing in Babylon when we have been called to be elsewhere?

Episode 45: Isaiah and the Messiah 9: Babylon the Virgin Queen

For those who are Revelation focused, it comes as quite the shock to hear Yahweh call Babylon a vulnerable virgin in Isaiah 47--repeatedly. But then, our view of Babylon has been much confused by some propagandistic fictional writings of the 19th and 20th centuries that were accepted at face value without any sort of comparison with what we know either Biblically or archaeologically. Believe me, the truth about Babylon is important because it changes how certain passages are understood and seriously effects how we should react to how they are thrown around now, often entirely out of context.