Faithful Writers

Some people wonder, why does God rest if he doesn’t get tired? Let me answer that question with a personal example. I don’t know about you but there are many times when I don’t wait for the light to turn green before crossing the street. Even if the light is red, if there are no cars coming, I sometimes just quickly dart on over to the other side. However, there is one time when I will absolutely NOT cross the street during a red light no matter how much of a rush I’m in or impatient I feel. That one time is if there are any children around. I don’t want to serve as a bad and even dangerous example. While I might have the physical strength and nimbleness to speedily make my way to the other side, I know a young child with his short and undeveloped legs would not even come close to being able to replicate my movements. And given a young child’s smaller stature, chances are higher that he or she would be outside the field of vision of a careless driver suddenly turning the corner. I know I couldn’t live with myself if my actions caused the death of an innocent child. While this is admittedly an imperfect example, the reason I don’t cross the street during a red light when children are around is the same reason that God rested on the 7th day. To serve as an example for His children. Of course God doesn’t have to rest. But He knew we would need one Holy Temple in time where we would need to get away from it all. That is why he rested on the seventh day and separated this day from all other days. In Hebrew, this day is called the “Shabbat." In fact, in Hebrew, this is the only day that has been given a name. The other days are simply called the first day, the second day, and so on. Every week, during any point in time from Friday evening to Saturday evening, when religious Jews and Messianic believers (whether Jew or Gentile) meet each other, instead of ”Good Evening” or “Hi” , the greeting used is “Shabbat Shalom." This literally translates to “Peace to you on this Shabbat." © Richoka

Today, we begin Genesis Chapter Four. For the Complete Jewish Bible, click here. F or the King James Version, click here. Today, we will go over one of the more famous stories in the Bible. The story of two brothers named Cain and Abel. The older brother was Cain and the younger was Abel. In this chapter of Genesis, we witness the first murder ever recorded in the Scriptures as we see Cain become so enraged with jealousy over his younger brother that he ends up taking his life. It all began on a day when Cain and Abel had brought offerings to the Lord. Cain was a farmer who had offered up to the Lord a crop from his fields. Abel was a shepherd who had offered up a sheep. What happened afterwards is that the Lord looked with favor upon Abel’s offering but for some reason he was displeased with Cain’s offering. Why? The simplistic Gentile interpretation is that since only blood can atone for sin, Cain’s offering was not appropriate because it was an agricultural sacrifice and did not involve the shedding of blood. I don’t think this interpretation is correct. First, while it is true that only blood can atone for sin, sacrifices were also offered up for other reasons besides sin atonement. For example, sacrifices could be offered to express gratitude to God for all of His blessings. Sometimes they were presented to ask God to provide victory during an upcoming war or for divine help in overcoming a difficult situation. In this situation, there is no mention that Cain and Abel had committed any specific sin necessitating the offering up of a blood animal sacrifice. Second, I don’t see anywhere implied where God rejects produce sacrifices in favor of animal sacrifices. In fact, in the Book of Leviticus, produce sacrifices are introduced as an acceptable part of God’s sacrificial system. So what’s the real reason why God rejected Cain’s sacrifice? I believe the answer can be found in the teaching of first fruits as explained in the Book of Deuteronomy. “Take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the LORD your God is giving you and put them in a basket.” -Deuteronomy 26:2 Keeping this idea in mind, let’s compare the nature of Abel’s sacrifice with Cain’s sacrifice. ABEL: “…Abel too brought from the firstborn of his sheep, including their fat.”-Genesis 4:4 CAIN: “ In the course of time Cain brought an offering to Adonai from the produce of the soil.”-Genesis 4:3 So Abel brought the first fruits of what he had and that was acceptable to the Lord. However, in contrast, the Scripture tells us that “ in the course of time ” Cain brought his offering to the Lord. Actually, if you look at the original Hebrew, literally it says “ in the end of days !" It doesn’t mean the end of one day but means after the end of many days later Cain finally brought an offering to the Lord. THIS WAS A BIG NO-NO! When we give to the Lord, we are supposed to give our first and our best and we’re supposed to give it immediately because delayed obedience is disobedience. What Cain did was that he looked at what he had in his crops, and then AFTER determining that he had enough finally gave an offering to the Lord. Such an attitude betrays a lack of faith. So the reason for the Lord’s disfavor had nothing to do with the fact that Abel gave an animal sacrifice and Cain didn’t. It wasn’t what Cain gave. It was how he gave what he gave. He disobeyed by not giving the first fruits of his crop offering. This was disobedience plain and simple and reflected a lack of faith in his heart. CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT “By faith Abel brought Goda better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous,when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks,even though he is dead.” -Hebrews 11:4 © Richoka

Today we begin teachings from Genesis Chapter 2. For the Complete Jewish Bible click here . If you’re a King James diehard, click here . Let’s start by taking a look at the following excerpt from Genesis Chapter 2. “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, along with everything in them. On t he seventh day God was finished with his work which he had made, so he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. God blessed the seventh day and separated it as holy; because on that day God rested from all his work which he had created, so that it itself could produce.”- Genesis 2:1–3 From today, I will be writing a series of articles about the 7th day of the week, otherwise known as the Sabbath. The first issue I would like to tackle is “ how do we know that the original Biblical Sabbath, the 7th day as stated in Scripture is really referring to the day we call Saturday? ” There are three compelling reasons why we can be confident that what the Bible calls the 7th day is indeed Saturday. REASON ONE: LINGUISTIC EVIDENCE In more than a hundred languages of the world, the word for “Sabbath” as meaning a day of rest is actually “Sabbath” and refers to Saturday. For example: Arabic=Sabot, Armenian=Shabat, Spanish=Sabado, Italian=Sabato, etcetera. When studying the many languages of mankind, you will find two important facts: In the majority of the principal languages the last, or seventh, day of the week is designated as “Sabbath.” There is not even one language that designates another day as the “day of rest.” In English, we say “ What day is the Sabbath? ” But in the other languages of the world, that would be like asking “ What day is ‘Friday ’”?, which would be a nonsensical question. REASON TWO: THE WITNESS OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE The Jews have consistently kept the Sabbath every week (every 7th day) since they became an established people group more than 3500 years ago. The weekly cycle of which day is which has NEVER changed. The Jewish people would never have allowed any change to affect their practice, even if the rest of the world all of a sudden arbitrarily decided to keep the 7th day on a Tuesday for instance. Chew on this fact for a minute. At any point in history, you have faithful, religious-minded Jews keeping the Sabbath (Saturday) in various parts of the world. In order for us to lose track of which day is the Sabbath, all of those Jews would have to somehow simultaneously mistake the day. They keep the Sabbath today on the same day they did back in Jesus’ day, all the way back to Moses’ day. ADDENDUM: Another powerful piece of Scriptural evidence. In Exodus 16, we are told that during the Israelite’s journey in the desert, manna (the bread from Heaven) fell every day except for one — the Sabbath. So what did the Israelites eat on the Sabbath? The Scripture makes it clear that a double portion fell every Friday so that the Israelites would have enough to eat the next day as well. REASON THREE: FINDINGS OF THE NAVAL OBSERVATORY IN WASHINGTON D.C. Referring to this specific issue, here is what the Naval Observatory in Washington had to say. “We had occasion to investigate the results of the works of specialists in chronology and we have never found one of them that has ever had the slightest doubt about the continuity of the weekly cycle since long before the Christian era.” Understand that part of the Naval Observatory’s job is keeping track of time. These people know what they’re talking about.They emphatically state “ WE HAVE NO DOUBT ” that the weekly cycle has never been lost track of. It would be preposterous to think otherwise. CONCLUSION: The 7th day mentioned in Scripture according to our calendars is Friday evening sundown to Saturday evening sundown. End of discussion. © Richoka

I remember when the classic Spielberg movie Jaws first came out. It was a beautiful sunny day in rural Minnesota. I was about 12 years old and riding in a truck with my mom and her friends. Suddenly, in a burst of excited inspiration, it was decided that we would all go and see this film. I was soooooooooooooo pumped up and happy!!! When you’re 12 years old, who doesn’t want to go see a movie about a humongous shark chomping up a bunch of humans into itsy bitsy pieces?! However, there was a problem. We couldn’t find a cinema in our area where Jaws wasn’t sold out. In desperation, one of the guys got on his walkie talkie and started corresponding with other truckers in the area. Finally, after much going back and forth, we were able to locate another movie theater. However, when we got there, we encountered another problem. The movie had already started. And not just by a couple of minutes. More like closer to an hour. Well, we weren’t about to be dissuaded. After all that trouble, we decided to pay full ticket price and watch the remaining half of the movie. Although disappointed, we still enjoyed it. Nevertheless, there were a lot of pertinent details that had we not have missed would have made the movie a much more satisfying experience. Watching a movie with a simple storyline like Jaws from the halfway point isn’t so bad. But imagine watching a historical piece or a detective movie from the halfway point. Contextually speaking, you would be completely lost. This is the exact problem one encounters when reading the Bible starting from the New Testament. Remember, and this is no exaggeration, 50% of the NT are direct quotes from the OT. A whopping 50%! It is simply impossible to properly understand the NT without a solid Torah foundation. There is another important reason why you should start your Bible studies from Genesis Chapter One. In the Bible, events in the past point to events in the future. For example, the creation story as told in the first chapter of Genesis depicts an environment where man and beast are not in conflict with each other. However, soon after, Adam and Eve sin causing murder and destruction to enter the world. But that’s not the end of the story. According to the prophet Isaiah, in the future when the Messiah returns to establish His Kingdom, man and beast will again be restored to their original state of harmony. Thus, here is one pattern out of many where the past foreshadows what is to take place in the future. "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox." Isaiah 11:1–7 © Richoka

I recently came across a YOUTUBE video titled “ Christianity is BS and the Bible is a f**ked up book ." The whole theme of the video was to demonstrate the absurdity of the Bible by pointing out supposed contradictions. The creator of this video, a young attractive female actually, starts off with the following example in a super sarcastic voice: “In the very beginning in Genesis, on the first day, God created day and night, but waited until the fourth day to create the sun, moon, and stars. That seems a little strange. Hmmm??? (super thick sarcasm here)” So what gives here? Does this anti-Bible girl have a point? How is it that God lit up the Earth on the first day but didn’t create the Sun until the fourth day? Have we found our first Bible contradiction? My answer: If you knew the original Hebrew, you wouldn’t have that problem. In verses 3 and 4, the Hebrew word for “light” is OWR. This word does NOT mean an object that emits light…..like the sun or the moon or the stars, or a lamp. Rather it means illumination, enlightenment. When the Bible says God is light it says Elohim is OWR. This word is closely associated with life and joy and good. Now in verse 14 (the fourth day) it talks about there being lights in the sky to divide day and night, and in verse 16 God says He created the larger light (the sun) to rule the day and the smaller light (the moon) to rule the night. There is an entirely different word used for “light” here than what is used in previous verses. Here, the Hebrew word is MAOROT. It’s the word from which we get the modern word “meteor” . MAOR means an object that emits light ( maorot is plural, lights) . Now let’s connect this to Yeshua’s words in the New Testament. “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”- John 8:12 So obviously Jesus is not saying that He is a living light stand and that if He visits your house, you can shut off all the electricity. He is saying that He is filled to the brim with the very radiant wisdom of God Himself. And the city had no need of the sun , neither of the moon , to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it.- Revelations 21:23–25 So here we see the in the Book of Revelations that when god creates the new heavens and the earth, there will no longer be any need for maorot or light-emitting objects. From that point on, we will bask in God’s spiritual light or OWR for all eternity. © Richoka

I encountered a curious phenomenon when I was living in South Korea. I was teaching English at the time, and whenever I had my meals together with the Korean staff, a roll of toilet paper would be plopped on top of the dining room table. I was like, “ What the heck is this doing here?! ” The roll of toilet paper was being used in place of “normal” napkins. I put the word normal in quotations because I realize that what I consider normal isn’t necessarily so in another country. But why was I so repulsed? Because we all know what toilet paper is used for and I don’t necessarily want that object on the dining room table where I’m trying to enjoy a fine meal. Cultural relativity arguments aside, I felt like the object was NOT in its proper place. It was most definitely OUT of its place. We all have our ideas about where certain things should and should not be put. For example, in the kitchen, certain things like milk and butter should be stored in the refrigerator and certain things like peanut butter or a jar of cookies can be left out. We even have strong feelings about what types of activities should be allowed where. For instance, it’s okay to sleep in bed but not good to eat in bed (I break this rule all the time) . In the Bible as well, starting from the first chapter of Genesis, we can see that God places great value in making sure things are in their proper places. There is a logical symmetry behind His actions clearly reflected in His creation. He is a God who draws up boundaries that are NOT to be broken. Let’s take a look at the creation story in Genesis Chapter One. In the first three days, God created generalities or domains. In the three days afterwards, He created specifics or inhabitants of the domains. To put it simply, first He created things and then He filled them up. This is similar to how we first build a house and then fill it with furniture. Below is a quick snapshot of how He organized His creation: DAY ONE: Light DAY TWO: Sky (Separating the waters above from the waters below) DAY THREE: Land and plants In the three days to follow, God fills the domains as follows: DAY FOUR: Sun, moon, and stars DAY FIVE: Fish and birds DAY SIX: Land animals and humans © Richoka

Today we begin our study of Genesis Chapter One. Click here for the Complete Jewish Bible translation. Click here for the King James version. So have you ever heard this argument? “How could God have created the universe in just six days ?” “The Hebrews claim that by counting the generations we find the earth to be approximately six thousand years old.” “How the heck do you reconcile that with… …all of our scientific data that says the universe is billions of years old… …to be more precise, around fifteen billion?” What gives? My answer: READ THE TEXT PROPERLY HOMIE!!! When we take a close look at what is said in the opening words of Genesis, the matter seems to resolve itself and we don’t have to engage in ridiculous scientific and theological debates. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. -Genesis 1:1 If you read carefully, you’ll see the creation of the heavens and the earth is not necessarily said to have occurred on the first day. Rather, it says it occurred at a period of time called “the beginning." The first day of the creation story may NOT be referring to “the beginning." The first day could have been AFTER “the beginning ." If we read the opening words of Genesis literally, what happened on the first day was the creation of light and its separation from darkness. The wording (in both the Hebrew and English) leaves open the distinct possibility that the heavens and earth were created sometime before the first day. “The beginning” could have been a 10-minute period or it could have been 10 billion years. Who knows?! CONCLUSION: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and then after that , from the first day, He began shaping and organizing His creation, the details of which we will get into in the next post. © Richoka

A quick way to remember the geographical landscape of the 49 chapters of Genesis is as follows: The first 11 chapters are set in Babylonia. The last 12 chapters are set in Egypt. Everything in between occurs in the geographical terrain between the two countries, namely the broad stretch of Syria-Palestine. Now why is knowing this so important? The answer is simple. Because, culture, language, and location go hand-in-hand. Unless you are an ancient Middle Easterner who has suddenly been transported to the 21st century via a time machine… You are NOT going to have a hope in heaven of understanding the Bible the way it was meant to be understood unless you grasp the culture of the ancient Middle East. Period. I’m currently living in Tokyo, Japan and have been here for over 10 years now. Even though I’m half-Japanese (my mom’s French), in the beginning, I struggled to get along with the Japanese. My brusque American ways were always butting heads with everybody. I was too direct and outspoken. I was too impatient. I didn’t understand why it was so important to always have to use honorific Japanese with a coworker just because he had been working at the same company longer than me. My frustrations didn’t decrease until I reached a level of cultural understanding sophisticated enough to perceive the whys behind the whats. Once I achieved that level of understanding, I then had the power to work within and around the culture to my advantage. Before that, I was just an angry and irritated man surrounded by people who I thought were weirdos. The same positive paradigm shift will occur in your struggles to understand the Bible once you unlock its underlying cultural mindset. It will cease to be inscrutable. It will cease to be ancient and irrelevant. Never forget this. If you had a choice between being taught the Bible by a seminary professor with a string of degrees after his name or an ancient Middle Easterner who a time machine had magically transported into your neighborhood, go with the Middle Easterner. He’ll be a much better teacher. Even if he is just a fisherman. © Richoka

I was a pretty messed-up kid when I was a child. My parents were constantly getting on my case!!! It was always one thing after another. My room was dirty. The heavy metal music I listened to was too loud. My school grades were bad. And I was constantly getting into fights with my younger stepbrother and sister. Can anybody relate? No matter how hard I tried to be good and walk a straight path, uncontrollable forces inside me would start spiraling out of control, causing me to act out. It got so bad that one night I just took off, vowing never to come back. I didn’t get far. If I remember correctly, I think I spent the night inside a Volkswagen parked in the outdoor lot of a used car dealership. I returned home the next day because I didn’t have any money, and I had to get something to eat before I could run away again. I was young, stupid, and full of rebellion. But eventually I calmed down. Eventually, I realized that the constant parental intervention was for my own good. My father loved me and wanted the best for me. ( Dad, if you’re reading this, I love you man! ) Coming from a divorced family, my childhood was far from perfect, but I lacked for nothing and still blew it. Now think about the first two human beings, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden. Their Father was the perfect God Almighty. They were placed in a perfect environment. And they still blew it. I want to show you something interesting. In Genesis, there are profound similarities between the way God interacts with mankind and the child-rearing process that every parent inevitably goes through with their children. Let me explain. First, in Judaism, the book of Genesis is traditionally divided into four parts: primeval history and the stories of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph. So, following this four-part division, let me show you exactly what I mean as we see how God interacts with His creation. PRIMEVAL HISTORY The creation of the world up until the birth of Abraham (The first 11 chapters of Genesis) Just as a child’s early years are filled with all kinds of hog-wild stubbornness and rebellion, human wickedness peaked beyond belief during this period of biblical history. God’s parental interventions are at their most intense in this section. Things got so bad that God later decided to destroy the whole world by flood, save for Noah and his family. THE STORY OF ABRAHAM Whereas God’s relationship to human beings in primeval history is marked by judgment, destruction, and exile, things take a turn for the better in the figure of Abraham. God finds favor with Abraham and promises to bless him. Although Abraham has his moments of ugliness, in the final chapter of his life, he transforms into the ideal religious person, one who is obedient and faithful to God’s commands. THE STORY OF JACOB Jacob, who is the son of Abraham’s son Isaac, is best known for pulling a fast one on his older brother Esau to acquire Esau’s firstborn inheritance rights for himself. This section is filled to the brim with all kinds of scheming and deception, and the human dimension plays center stage much more than in the Abrahamic narrative. God speaks less frequently and intervenes less dramatically. Jacob sums it up well when he exclaims, “ Surely the Lord is present in this place and I did not know it . ” 28:16 THE STORY OF JOSEPH (One of the sons of Jacob) God hardly speaks at all in this final section of Genesis. He communicates through dreams and gifts Joseph with His wisdom to administer effectively, resulting in the survival of many people, including his own brothers, who, seething with resentment, once plotted Joseph’s death. So there you have it. We can see throughout the book of Genesis that God’s interventions are at their most intense during the early stages of mankind’s history and gradually take a backseat as His creation matures. However, as we walk through the Bible, we will see his parental anger flare up again and again. This is not surprising given that we human beings have a real tendency to act like a bunch of baboons. Anybody who has ever seen an episode of Jerry Springer will know exactly what I’m talking about. © Richoka

So, where does the word “Genesis” come from? Before I can answer that question, you have to be aware of the following three facts: The Bible originally had NO titles or chapter divisions. A lot of people seem to forget this. The current division of your Bible , regardless of the translation, has absolutely ZERO basis in any kind of ancient textual tradition. They are an early Christian invention. And then they were later adopted by the Jews. The reason? Because the medieval rabbis decided to use these chapter divisions as technical references in their “Who the heck is Jesus?” debates with Christian clergy (especially in Spain) . Next, the Bible was originally written in Hebrew (the language of the people of Israel) . The Hebrew title for “Genesis” is “Beresheet” (pronounced “bear a sheet”) . “Beresheet” simply means “I n the beginning… ”. That’s right. The very first verse in our Bibles, where it says “ In the beginning… ” is a direct translation from the Hebrew “Beresheet." The Hebrews decided to just use the first word for the title of the books of the Bible instead of concocting some thematic name. Why? I don’t know, man. Maybe they just wanted to save time. They are a very smart and efficient people. Finally, Greek was the very first foreign language the Bible was translated into. The Greek translation of the original Hebrew Scriptures is called the Septuagint. And here is something a lot of people don’t know. Jesus Himself quoted from the Septuagint!!! This translation was done in the third century B.C. by Jewish scribes who were experts in Hebrew and Greek. This translation was very popular among Jews a full two centuries before Jesus arrived because many Jews in those days did NOT understand Hebrew. So the next time you’re on a game show and that Pee-wee Herman-ish nerdy host with the 10-inch-thick glasses asks you the million-dollar question, “Where does the word ‘Genesis’ come from?” Put a big smile on your face and answer, “The word ‘Genesis’ comes from the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Bible from its original Hebrew.” Then collect your million dollars and go home with an even bigger smile on your face. © Richoka