Faithful Writers

I hate unnecessary complexity. My preaching and teaching philosophy is to keep things super duper simple. It doesn’t matter whether I’m teaching the Bible or another subject. I can tell you from hard-earned experience that whenever I’ve failed in the classroom or in front of the pulpit, the primary reason was because I tried to cram too many facts and complicated ideas into one lesson or sermon. Most people are pretty stressed out and can only absorb so much in one sitting. Everybody’s busy raising their kids and worrying about their careers. When they come to church or the synagogue, the last thing on their minds is “the incarnate deity of Christ” or “Arminianism versus Calvinism”. I’ve heard plenty of droning sermons in my time and I’ll be honest with you, once the pastor starts rambling, I begin fantasizing about the four pieces of juicy Kentucky Fried Chicken I’m gonna have for lunch. So remember, fellow Bible preachers and teachers (and students), when you get out there in front of your audience, focus on ONE point and flesh it out via an illustration or an entertaining story. This will enable you to demonstrate the practical relevance of what you’re teaching and how it can be specifically applied. Once you achieve this, your audience will be in the palm of your hand. This is exactly why I plan to have every blog post on this site focus on one singular but important and powerful theme that can potentially be fleshed out into a dynamic Bible study lesson or sermon. So with that in mind, I’d like to share one powerful way you can communicate to your audience what the book of Genesis is all about, an overarching theme if you will, that captures the heart and soul of the whole book of Genesis. After reading through a couple of commentaries, it finally dawned on me. THE BOOK OF GENESIS IS THE ULTIMATE ROCKY STORY!!! That’s right!!! The underlying theme of Genesis is about the overcoming of all odds to achieve ultimate victory through faith in God. Think about it. God chooses one childless and elderly couple way beyond their ability to bear children. And God says to the husband Abraham that not only is he going to have a child but He is going to make him into a great nation, bless him abundantly and grant his descendants the Land of Canaan. Given Abraham’s current circumstances at the time, the promise seems impossible. Actually, it is more than impossible, it borders on the absurd. Both Abraham and his wife are waaaaaaaaay past the child-bearing age and they’re nomad wanderers with no country they can call their own. However, after going through obstacle after obstacle, at the end the of the book of Genesis, lo and behold the beginning of what will become the 12 tribes of Israel is firmly in place. Furthermore, we have evidence of this miracle in the existence of the nation of Israel today. A nation that was resurrected from the dead in 1948. © Richo ka

In my last post , I explored the origins behind the word light or OWR (אור ) in Hebrew and went into how this word embodies not only the physical properties of brightness but also has strong spiritual overtones associated with joy and G-d’s glory. Today I would like to explore its opposite, the word CHOSEK. The dictionary defines this word as darkness or obscurity and as with owr also has strong spiritual significance but in a very negative sense. Have you ever committed a great sin and then woke up the next morning feeling very depressed as if a dark cloud had descended upon you? If so, then you have some idea of the spiritual sense of this word. In the book of Exodus, when G-d was casting plagues on the land of Egypt, this is the exact same word used in the following verses: “And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.” Exodus 10:21–22 or “I form the light, and create darkness : I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” - Isaiah 45:7 By the way, CHOSHEK does not translate into the neutral opposite of daytime. That Hebrew word is LAYIL which simply means night or nighttime and is devoid of any spiritual significance. It should also be noted that CHOSHEK is naturally what occurs when G-d’s OWR or light is absent. Metaphorically speaking, think of a glass filled with water. Although you can fill a glass with water, you can’t fill it with emptiness so to speak can you? Emptiness is just what results when the water is gone. Hence, if we’re not filled with G-d’s OWR, the resulting outcome is a depressing dark emptiness of gloom and doom with no hope. Therefore, let us put our hope in the Messiah Yeshua who sacrificed Himself to save us from eternal CHOSHEK, so that we may forever be surrounded by Hashem’s eternal OWR. Amen. © Richoka

One of my favorite Bible stories is when Moses divided up the Red Sea. Why? Because it’s a perfect example of how God rescues us from trouble right in the nick of time…not one second too soon or too late. Coincidentally, this act of Moses “ dividing” the waters brings me to my next point which is that…. God achieves His purposes through division and separation. This is a fundamental God principle and can be seen in the very first Chapter of Genesis. “God saw that the light was good, and God divided the light from the darkness.”-GENESIS 1:4 God said, “Let there be a dome in the middle of the water; let it divide the water from the water.”-GENESIS 1:7 “God made the two great lights — the larger light to rule the day and the smaller light to rule the night — and the stars. God put them in the dome of the sky to give light to the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. So there was evening, and there was morning, a fourth day.”-Genesis 1:16–19 What’s interesting is that the direction the world is moving towards today seems to be opposed to this foundational God principle. For example, we have the Interfaith Movement that is trying to harmonize Islam with the Bible and those faiths with the Oriental mystical religions. What’s even scarier is that this religious syncretism is being promoted by many of the top Christian and Jewish leaders. It seems like our world is hell-bent on erasing the natural distinctions clearly defined in our Bibles. Lest anyone get the idea that this Interfaith movement is a good thing, be reminded that from Genesis to Revelation, the Lord is continually portrayed as a God who is dividing , electing and separating . So let me make this very clear. God has chosen one nation, one people group to be His chosen treasure and has SEPARATED them unto Himself. Likewise, we are also commanded many times in Scripture to SEPARATE ourselves from the evil and dark things of this world. This principle is firmly against the idea that whether one worships Krishna, Brahma, Buddha, or Allah, we’re all essentially speaking of the same God, just from different cultural and language perspectives. Although we will be constantly confronted with pressure to conform and compromise, the Scripture exhorts us to NOT be of this world even though we are in the world. Peace with the world is NOT peace with God. CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT “Do not yoke yourselves together in a team with unbelievers. For how can righteousness and lawlessness be partners? What fellowship does light have with darkness?” -2 Corinthians 6:14 © Richoka

In English, whenever we want to pluralize a word, we simply add “s” to it. A “cat” becomes “cats." A “book” becomes “books," etc.. Along the same lines, whenever you want to pluralize a Hebrew noun, “-im” is added. For example, the Hebrew word for “student” is TALMID. “Students” would be TALMIDIM. Now let’s take a look at Genesis Chapter One, Verse One. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." The word for God in Hebrew being used here is ELOHIM. Since we are talking about the one true God of Israel, why is the plural form of God being used, instead of the singular form, which is EL? The answer is that the IM ending in Hebrew also has another usage. Adding IM to the end of a word can also indicate greatness. This usage is called the “ Plural of Majesty ." The plural form of the word Elohim is being used to refer to the one and only God in all his greatness and glory. But keep in mind that ELOHIM is NOT the God of the Bible’s actual name. God’s actual name will be revealed later to a man named Moses. Finally, you should also be aware that Elohim can also mean gods with a small “g” when referring to the idols of the pagan nations Israel was surrounded by. It all depends on the context. © Richoka

I’m sure everybody here can relate to the power of a brand name or symbol. For example, what does the Statue of Liberty mean to you? Depending on who you are, it could be a powerful symbol representing hope and freedom. Or, if you are an Islamic extremist, it could represent the most evil empire in the history of mankind, “The Great Satan” as our enemies like to put it. I know I’m stating the obvious but it is not the symbol in and of itself that provokes a strong reaction. It is the underlying reality or idea it points to that incites a strong reaction. This brings me to the next fundamental God principle I want to introduce. I have decided to term it the “As-in-Heaven-So-on-Earth Principle." The idea is that in the Scriptures and the New Testament, physical objects are often but a shadow of something spiritual. This idea is expressed through God’s OWR (light) . Because God’s light is both spiritual and physical. Another example is the physical Garden of Eden, which is a model of heaven. Here is an interesting question. Later on in the Scriptures, do you know what physical object will be modeled after the Garden of Eden? The answer is the Tabernacle. The important point that I want you to get from all of this is to keep in mind that there is an underlying spiritual reality and message behind not only physical objects in Scripture but also, many of the events depicted in Scripture that are not evident when first read but become clearer through prayer and as God gives us a deeper understanding. In our daily lives, we have a tendency to place too much focus on external circumstances and physical appearances when we shouldn’t. “The BIBLE gives me a deep, comforting sense that ‘things seen are temporal, and things unseen are eternal’”.-Helen Keller CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT “ For the Torah has in it a shadow of the good things to come, but not the actual manifestation of the originals. Therefore, it can never, by means of the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, bring to the goal those who approach the Holy Place to offer them.”- Hebrews 10:1 “Yeshua replied to him, “Have I been with you so long without your knowing me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father ; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” -John 14:9 © Richoka

Whether we would like to admit it or not, in terms of having a global impact, no other book even comes close to the Bible. Volumes have been written on the influence the Bible has had on the world. And when I say the world, I mean the whole world , NOT just Western civilization. If there be any scorners or doubters, chew on this objective fact. As of this writing, according to The Guinness Book of World Records, since 1815, the Bible has sold approximately 2.5 billion copies and has been translated into more than 2,200 languages or dialects. Now I’m not saying that this is evidence of divine intervention pushing book sales anymore than God is behind the success of Psy’s “Gangnam Style” being the most viewed Youtube video on the planet. However, what I am saying is that it is sure proof of the tremendous far-reaching impact the Bible has had on practically every sphere of human activity. I would argue that minus the Bible. …the birth of modern science would NOT have occurred. …the story of Europe, the United States, Canada and other nations would be totally different. And we would NOT have a 7-day week. Since we are in Chapter One of Genesis, it is this one point in particular that I would like to focus on. A 24-hour day is the duration of one rotation of the earth on its axis. A year is the duration of one orbital revolution of the earth around the sun. A month is the approximate interval between new moons. The seasons are marked by the equinoxes and solstices. However. There is NO astronomical basis for a 7-day week whatsoever! So how did the 7-day week originate? Secular scholars have tried to attribute the origin of the 7-day week to all kinds of reasons. One common scholarly objection is that since the Sumerians and Babylonians used a 7-day week before the Hebrews, it could not have found its origin in God’s commandment from the Bible. Another common objection is to attribute the origin of the week to the use of “market days?" However, they also have to point out that the interval between market days was different in different nations, though rarely varying more than a day or so above or below seven days. The problem with this explanation is that it still does not explain how the market days happened to cluster around every “seventh” day, instead of every fifteenth day or nineteenth day or something else. Besides, there were various ancient nations whose weeks were quite unrelated to any marketing customs. Why can’t any of these scholars ever consider the obvious explanation? The seven-day week was established by God Himself, at the beginning. © Richoka

Have you ever wondered about the universal significance attached to the number 7? If you think about it, this number is not “natural” in any physical way. It would be more natural to use the number 10 (the number of a human being’s fingers) . Or the number 12 (the number of months in the year) . Yet, 7 is everywhere perceived as the number of completeness. In some mysterious way, this number has left an indelible impression on the world and mankind. Our planet has seven continents and seven seas. The rainbow only has seven colors. The entire musical scale consists of only 7 notes. In popular culture, we have Snow White and the 7 Dwarves, The 7 Samurai, and James Bond 007. However, there have been times when man has tried to do away with the 7-day week . In 1793 the leaders of the French Revolution produced a calendar divided into 3 ten-day “decades” It never caught on, and Napoleon abandoned it in 1805. In 1929 the Soviet Union tried a five-day week, with one day of rest. However, by 1940, the Russians were back on the familiar seven-day cycle! In 1936 the League of Nations solicited proposals for world calendar reform. They considered almost 200 different schemes, many of which attempted to rearrange the God-ordained 7-day week. They all never came to pass. I once tried 6 days of rest with only day of work. But that didn’t go over too well, especially with my parents. It seems like the 7-day pattern that God established at creation is here to stay. CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT Then Peter came up and said to him, “Rabbi, how often can my brother sin against me and I have to forgive him? As many as seven times?” “No, not seven times,” answered Yeshua, “but seventy times seven! -Matthew 18:21–23 In Revelations, there are 7 churches, 7 seals, 7 Trumpets, 7 Personages, 7 vails, SEVEN dooms, 7 new things. Yeshua (Jesus) fed the masses with 7 loaves and fishes. 7 devils were exorcised from Mary Magdalene. © Richoka

When reading Scripture, we’re all guilty of superimposing our own ideas, insecurities, and biases into the text. This is called “ eisegesis ” in convoluted seminary talk. For example, in the Genesis account, most people assume the first human created was a male. However, the Scripture isn’t so crystal clear on this point. Let’s take a good look at the text. “And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male [zakhar] and female [nekeivah] He created them.”-Genesis 1:27 The first human being could have been androgynous (both male and female) . Here are some quotes from the ancient rabbis supporting the validity of this idea: “At the time that the Holy One, Blessed Be He created Man, He created him as an Androgynos.” -Rabbi Samuel b. Nahman “At the time that [Adam] was created, he was made with two faces, and [God] sliced him and gave him two backs, a female one and a male one.” -Resh Lakish The authoritative commentator Rashi also says that it was not just a “rib” that was taken from Adam to form a woman, but rather that the original man was split into two sides. Another interesting point is that if Genesis 1 records the creation of males and females, how is it that Adam in Genesis 2, which immediately follows, has no partner? CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT Jesus replied, “Haven’t you read that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female?” -Matthew 19:4 © Richoka

Hebrew is constructed using a system of “root” words. The Hebrew language takes a word, gives it a meaning, and then there are offshoots of that word that gives us different words for different uses (more similar to Chinese or Japanese in this sense I would say) . However, the different words coming from the same root will all have a common thread in meaning. Let’s take a look at the Hebrew word “Adam." The first thing you need to know is “Adam” is a generic term for human being. It is NOT a proper noun. And as I mentioned in an earlier post, it does NOT automatically suggest maleness. So the traditional translation “man” is misleading. A correct translation should say, “Let us make a human in our image” , NOT “a man in our image." The word Adam is also the root word for the color “red” and for the word “soil” or “earth." This makes perfect sense since the Scriptures tell us that God created a human (remember not a “man” but a “human”) from the dust of the ground. However, what connection does the color red have with being human? First, red is the color of blood which is essential for life. Second, in Scripture, red also represents royalty and majesty. I believe this points to the fact that God created a human in His Image. Now, interestingly, white supremacists also have their own take on the Hebrew word Adam. They claim that since according to James Strong’s Hebrew dictionary “Adam” translates as “ be ruddy, red, to show blood (in the face) ”, it can only be referring to Caucasians. Their reasoning is that only white people can blush or turn rosy in the face because hemoglobin only appears under pale skin. So they conclude that the first humans (both Adam and Eve) were Caucasians and the other mud races as they call them are what the Bible refers to as the “beasts of the field." Oh man, I just can’t stop laughing. So I’m ending this post right here. See you all next time. © Richoka

Let’s take a look at the promises God made to Abraham. 1) God would make Abraham’s descendants into a great nation. Here God is promising that from Abraham’s wife Sarah’s womb, he would give birth to a people that would be a special nation unto Himself. 2) God would bless Abraham, and Abraham himself would be a blessing. God is promising that not only would he protect Abraham and make him prosperous in his lifetime, but that through him and his descendants, he would bless all the people in the world. This has ultimately been realized through the birth of the Messiah. 3) God would bless those who bless Abraham and curse those who curse him. First, I need to stress that although the verse says God would subsequently bless and curse those who blessed and cursed Abraham as an individual, God is not just referring to Abraham but also to all of his descendants . All one has to do is take a look back at history to see that this is true. There is a direct correlation between the decline of a nation and how it has treated the Jewish people. In closing this post, I would like to share this most piercing and incisive quote from the sermon titled The Two Judaisms given by the messianic Jewish preacher Art Katz . This is what he said concerning the Jewish people. “They (the Jews), are a kind of barometer of the spiritual condition of the Gentile people. I have only to know how a Gentile believer regards the Jew to understand where he is spiritually. When you meet an anti-Semite, you know exactly where he is spiritually. He is a despiser and hater of God, no matter what religious vocabulary he employs. A man’s real regard for the Jewish people is the most sensitive indication of where he is in his relationship with God. And my experience in my eight years of walking with the Lord is this, those Gentiles who have the highest regard for the Jewish people are the most spiritual people.” CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT “Also, if you belong to the Messiah, you are the seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:29 © Richoka