Rebuild by The Barking Fox

The Credit We Should Care About

Somewhere between self-esteem and self-abasement is the place where we learn who our Creator made us to be.
Numbers 16:1-18:32; 1 Samuel 11:14-12:22; Ezekiel 36:24-28; Luke 17:7-10; Romans 13:8-10
Click here to download a transcript of this podcast: The Credit We Should Care About
 
Why should we love our neighbors? Paul puts that commandment in context in his letter to the Romans:
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Romans 13:8-10 ESV
If we don’t understand love, we are in danger of missing the godly power contained in this commandment. Consider, for example, this 20th century American proverb:
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
This bit of folk wisdom is often attributed to President Harry Truman. President Ronald Reagan had his own version of the proverb inscribed on a plaque that rested on his desk in the Oval Office. Neither of them originated the quote, but both had a hand in popularizing it. It’s a solid observation on human nature, but in typical American fashion, it reduces the matter to the question of productivity.
If all we want are results, then we’re going to miss what God is doing in our lives and the lives of others. We’re also in danger of missing the larger perspective of God’s plan of redemption and our part in it. This is why we can’t get away from that divine concept of love.
It’s not a design flaw that people want to get credit for what they have done. Praise and recognition motivate us to do better, and that is as God intended. As in all things, however, self-love can be toxic if we indulge in it. That’s why we must learn to love our Creator, the Author of love.
It’s really a matter of who is at the center of our esteem. That place is reserved for our Creator, not for ourselves or for anyone else. That’s the point of this lesson from Messiah Yeshua:
Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, “Come at once and recline at table”? Will he not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink”? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.”
Luke 17:7-10 ESV
If our Creator isn’t in the picture, then we’re simply doing the work for the work’s sake. Taking pride in our accomplishments, whether we get the credit or not, is commendable, but it’s not enduring unless it’s done in honor of the Creator. We live and breathe for his sake, not our own. We hope that he will give us credit, and we rely on his promises of eternal reward in a better place, but he is worthy to be served regardless of what we get out of the bargain.
This is the kind of attitude that helps us endure tremendous adversity. We’d like to walk immediately into that land flowing with milk and honey, but would we know what to do with such a paradise? In our present fallen state, we might think it was made solely for our comfort. Before long, we would squander its resources and begin fighting one another over what’s left.
That’s exactly what happened to God’s Covenant people of Israel in the wilderness. Things didn’t turn out the way they expected, and instead of rising to the occasion, they chose time after time to grumble, complain, and rebel. Men like Korah took issue with Moses and Aaron, asserting that they could do a better job at leading the people. They cared very much about who got the credit for whatever good things happened, and who got the blame for the bad things. Of course, they had their own ideas of what was good and bad – meaning that things would be bad if anyone other than themselves were in charge.
That’s the problem of having anything or anyone other than our Creator as the focus of our lives. He is taking us somewhere and he wants to make sure we succeed when we get there. That’s a big reason why troubles and trials happen. It happened to our Hebrew ancestors in the wilderness, and it’s happening to us right now. In fact, we’re going through the process God explained to Ezekiel long ago:
I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Ezekiel 36:24-28 ESV
This process has been happening to both halves of God’s Covenant people of Israel for quite some time. It’s how God is redeeming his holy Name, even after we have brought shame to him. Which means that he alone gets the credit for all that’s being accomplished, and that’s what we should really care about.
 
Cover photo by Photo by Vitaly Gariev, September 22, 2025, on Unsplash.
Music: "Song of Glory,” The Exodus Road Band, Heart of the Matter, 2016.

Visitation Vision

We expect the judgment of God on the wicked. What we'd rather not consider is that God's judgment also comes on the shortsighted. 
Numbers 13:1-15:41; Joshua 2:1-24; Proverbs 29:18; Hosea 4:6; Luke 1:5-25, 57-66, 19:43-45; Acts 5:1-11; 1 Peter 2:10-12
Click here to download a transcript of this podcast: Visitation Vision
 
The Bible tells of wicked people like Pharaoh of Egypt, Goliath of Gath, Ahab and Jezebel of Israel, Haman the Amalekite, and Herod of Judea. We consider them evil and wicked because of their blatant opposition to the word of God and the people of God. We are encouraged when we read that justice was done to them, even if it didn’t happen as quickly as we would like or quite the way we expected.
But what about the people who weren’t noticeably wicked? What about those who seemed to be genuinely nice people, but who didn’t go far enough in obedience to God?
Those in that category include Ananias and Saphira, the couple who withheld part of the price they received from a land transaction when they made an offering to the apostles, and Zacharias, the elderly priest who questioned the angelic messenger who told him he and his wife would become the parents of John the Baptist. Because of those missteps, Ananias and Saphira died, and Zacharias lost his voice until his son was born. We could also include Judas, the man who betrayed Messiah Yeshua thinking he was doing the right thing, and in the end was driven by guilt to hang himself.
Many good people named in scripture suffered bad consequences simply because they chose not to seek God’s counsel on a matter and relied on their own understanding and preferences. The record goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, where our first ancestors acted entirely on what they saw and desired. It might have been different if they had considered God’s vision for them and for the earth before making their choice to eat the forbidden fruit.
It’s reasonable to expect God’s people take his perspective into account. Yet it seems that the Bible’s warnings to and judgments of God’s people happen precisely because they disregard his ways. Even those who keep the letter of his instructions and commands often stumble and fall in this way. That’s why Yeshua wept over Jerusalem, the Holy City where God placed his name. We read about that in Luke’s Gospel:
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Luke 19:42-44 ESV
Parents should understand the logic in this. We discipline our own children, not our neighbor’s children. We hold our children to a higher standard because they are part of our family. If we want the family to have a future, we must have a vision for its survival and prosperity, and we must transfer that vision to our children. That’s why we teach our children the rules of the house and expect their obedience. We might also do this with the children of close friends and neighbors, but we still draw a distinction unless they become part of our family somehow.
Even with careful training, though, it still happens that children depart from the way of the family. Perhaps they never identified with the vision of the family, or perhaps they rejected it in favor of something more appealing, or perhaps there might have been no vision imparted to them. That can happen after several generations, as the ties that hold the family together become less important, and eventually cease to matter. The people living in the same house may go through the motions of being a family, but there is no substance giving meaning to those motions. When trials come, such as a health crisis, a serious brush with the law, financial collapse, or an unwanted pregnancy, there is no vision to offer guidance on how to respond in a way that best ensures the family’s survival. With lack of vision, the responses come as often as not from a flight or fight reaction based on individual preservation rather than mutual commitment to the common identity and shared future.
When we extend this family model to a people and a nation, we see how societies and civilizations drift into decay. This is how people perish when there is no vision to keep them from casting off restraint. In a crisis, or even in daily decisions to buy beer and a lottery ticket rather than pay the bills, there’s very little reckoning of what consequences might come, or how to deal with them when they do.
That’s why Yeshua wept over Jerusalem. His people had lost the ability to reckon with the visitation of divine accountability that was to come on that generation. It’s the same reckoning that came on their ancestors when the Ten Spies returned with a fearful report about the land God had promised his Covenant family as their inheritance. Those men weren’t wicked; they were respected tribal leaders. That means they were husbands, fathers, productive members of society, and generally good guys. So were Caleb and Joshua, but those two men had the vision of Israel and Israel’s God that the good men who spied out the land with them lacked.
The sad conclusion in the days of Caleb and Joshua, and in the days of Messiah Yeshua, was that the people of vision were too few to contend with the loud voices of the people who thought they had too much to lose from following God’s leading in the trials before them. They weren’t wicked, just shortsighted. That’s how the time of their visitation caught them unprepared.
 
Cover photo by Amir Benlakhlef, October 2, 2019, on Unsplash.
Music: "Song of Glory,” The Exodus Road Band, Heart of the Matter, 2016.

Echoes of Heaven

Why did the New Testament writers quote so much from the Old Testament? Maybe because they weren't starting a new religion, but following Messiah Yeshua's example of building on the foundation God established through Moses and the Prophets. 
Numbers 4:21-7:89; Judges 13:2-25; Psalm 115:1-18; Revelation 21:5-8
Click here to download a transcript of this podcast: Echoes of Heaven
 
A friend of mine is excited about how New Testament writers based their works on the Tanakh, or Old Testament. There are, he says, echoes from the Hebrew Bible in the Greek scriptures. That’s why he is publishing The Echoes Bible, which pairs New Testament books with corresponding works of the Torah. Matthew, for example, pairs with Genesis, and Romans with Leviticus.[1]
These connections give us context for the Apostolic Writings and add tremendous depth and understanding to our faith. It’s more than simply recognizing that the New Testament authors quote extensively from Moses and the Prophets; it’s discerning the continuity in the scripture from Genesis to Revelation.
Let’s look at a familiar passage from Revelation and see if it corresponds with anything in the Torah. Regarding the end of this age, when God establishes the New Heaven and the New Earth, John writes:
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
Revelation 21:5-8 ESV
This passage informs the Christian understanding of eternal life in heaven for the righteous, and eternal punishment in hell for the unrighteous. If we look closer, though, we see that this isn’t a scene in heaven, but on earth in the New Jerusalem. The One on the throne is God, or at least one who reigns as God’s representative. This is a point of contention between Christians and Jews. We agree that Messiah will reign in the New Jerusalem, but until he comes – or returns – we will continue to disagree on whether Messiah is God, and if Yeshua is the Messiah. Nevertheless, we can find agreement on how Messiah’s Kingdom is organized.
For one thing, it’s a heavenly Kingdom manifested on earth. That’s what we understand from passages like this:
The heavens are the Lord's heavens,
but the earth he has given to the children of man.
Psalm 115:16 ESV
God made the earth as the home for humankind and the place where he would interact with us. He has always intended to dwell with us, but for that to happen, we have to be holy as he is holy. He has been working on that for all of recorded history. That’s why he inserted himself into our reality in various ways, culminating in the person of Messiah Yeshua, whose work on the cross activates the power of God’s New, or Renewed, Covenant of redemption.
The process of redeeming and perfecting humanity and the earth is, and always has been, a partnership. God does his part, and we do ours. Jews and Christians have ways to describe this process. Both understand the need for repentance, which means turning away from whatever separates us from our Creator, and turning toward his ways of living and thinking. Those who don’t go through that process find themselves cut out of God’s redeemed reality. That’s what John writes about in Revelation.
So where’s the echo of John’s description of God’s world order? It’s in Numbers:
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead. You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell.” And the people of Israel did so, and put them outside the camp; as the Lord said to Moses, so the people of Israel did.
Numbers 5:1-4 ESV
This passage reminds us that redemption is tied to the Covenant nation of Israel. At the center of the camp of Israel was the Tabernacle, where the Presence of the Almighty rested. That is the pattern John describes in the New Jerusalem, which itself is a reminder that God’s Covenant nation is tied to a geographical location where his holy Temple has stood and will stand again. There is no Temple in the New Jerusalem, however, because God himself will dwell there.
This is why everyone who is defiled must be removed outside the place God has sanctified for himself and his people. Notice that God doesn’t do everything. He commands his sanctified people to remove the defiled ones from the camp of Israel, and we can infer that he will do the same at the end of the age. But first, they must sanctify themselves, which is what distinguishes them from the ones being removed.
Is there any hope for the ones being removed? There was in the camp of Israel. The defiled ones could be sanctified when that which made them unclean was resolved, but they had to go through the protocol to avail themselves of the cleansing process. It’s the same in the New Jerusalem. What happens to those who remain outside the camp at that time sounds very unpleasant, but even then our merciful God may yet hold out hope for them. That’s a matter yet to be revealed. Which means the wise course of action is to get clean and stay that way as we learn from the whole word of God.
 
[1] The Echoes Bible, Bob O'Dell, Dr. John David Martin, Mark L Proeger MDiv, Dr. Susan E. Udry, eds., 2025, https://www.echoesbible.com/.
Cover photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash.
Music: "Song of Glory,” The Exodus Road Band, Heart of the Matter, 2016.

How to Be A Witness

God's people are supposed to be the evidence that He is at work in the world. That means being the instruments of His peace - even when that peace seems far from us.
Exodus 19:1-20:23; Deuteronomy 14:22-16:17; Ezekiel 1:1-28, 3:12; Habakkuk 2:20-3:19; Ruth 1:1-4:22; Acts 1:6-8, 2:1-47, 9:1-17; 2 Corinthians 11:16-31; 1 Peter 2:9-10
Click here to download a transcript of this podcast: How to Be A Witness
 
If you’re a Christian, you’re familiar with Pentecost as the day the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church. We read that story in the second chapter of Acts. If you’re Jewish, you observe Shavuot as the day God gave the Torah to Israel. If you’re a Hebraic Christian, as one of my rabbi friends calls people like us who follow Messiah Yeshua and honor the Torah, you learn that Pentecost and Shavuot are two different words for the same holy day of the Lord.
At Mount Sinai, the God of Abraham issued his marriage proposal to the people of Israel, and when they accepted, he gave them the Ten Commandments to explain how they should live. At the Temple in Jerusalem on Pentecost, God renewed that marriage proposal, giving his Spirit as the pledge of the New, or Renewed, Covenant so his whole Torah could be written on the hearts of his chosen people – both the native born and those grafted in from the nations.
Another connection between these events is that God revealed himself in great power. He spoke at Sinai from a dark cloud, accompanied by thunder, lightning, and an earthquake. In Jerusalem, he made himself known in a mighty rushing wind and tongues of fire resting on the heads of the faithful. The people gathered in Jerusalem from many lands didn’t hear the audible voice of God as their ancestors had at Sinai, but they did hear him speaking in their native languages through Yeshua’s disciples.
Those displays of holy power testify to the reason God called and sanctified this holy people. Moses, Yeshua, and Peter tell us that we are to be his witnesses to the whole world. That’s a Kingdom mission, as Yeshua said just before he returned to his Heavenly Father:
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Acts 1:6-8 ESV
We appreciate messages like this. They confirm our identity and give us direction for our lives. It’s good to have something greater than ourselves to provide meaning and hope in a world filled with sorrow. But then reality hits, and we begin to realize what Paul learned soon after he encountered the risen Messiah. We might remember that the Lord had told Ananias, a disciple in Damascus, to go heal Paul of his blindness, but we probably overlook that the Lord also told Ananias,
Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.
Acts 9:25-26 ESV
Years later, Paul wrote about his suffering in one of his letters to Messiah’s community at Corinth:
Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.
2 Corinthians 11:24-31 ESV
This is the part of the story we’d rather not hear. We like the exciting displays of God’s power, and all the blessings of being included among his set-apart people, but we don’t really understand until we walk through it that lots of suffering comes with those blessings. That’s hard, and it hurts. It hurts even more when we don’t see the spectacular displays of power coming through to rescue us and those we love in the hard times. And yet, the alternative is even worse. If we can’t hang on to our God in such times, then we might drift away in this ocean of human pain and have no lifeline or beacon to bring us back to a place of shelter.
So we hang on, believing desperately that our faith really is the substance of the peace we hope for, and the assurance of the rescue we’re not yet seeing. And when that peace finally comes, whether or not things turn out the way we wish, then we have the chance to become the beacon and the lifeline for others drowning in that ocean. That’s what it means to be God’s witnesses, in every sense of the word.
 
Cover photo by Amir Shaebe, May 2, 2025, on Unsplash.
Music: "Song of Glory,” The Exodus Road Band, Heart of the Matter, 2016.

How to Count People

Governments take a census to know how many citizens and others are living in their territory. God does the same thing. But what if some people don't want to be counted?  
Numbers 1:1-4:20; Hosea 1:10-2:21; Matthew 17:24-27; John 10:15; Acts 15:12-21; Romans 3:1-3; Galatians 3:23-29; Ephesians 2:11-22
Click here to download a transcript of this podcast: How to Count People
 
Anyone who has done genealogical research knows the importance of census records. I learned a lot about my grandfather’s family from the 1930 Census. The record gives me the name, age, sex, and race of everyone in his household, as well as where they and their parents were born. It also tells me my grandfather was an accountant and a veteran of World War I. That’s a lot more information than what’s recorded in the 1790 Census. That record tells me my ancestor Daniel McCarn lived in Richmond County, North Carolina, and that there were seven people in his household. Three of those people were free white males over 16, one was a free white male under 16, and three were free white females. The census doesn’t even tell me their names, yet it’s enough to verify that my family have been citizens of our Republic since its foundation. That’s a big deal in this 250th year of American independence.
Human governments count people to know how much revenue they can raise through taxes, how much manpower they have for armies and for public works, and where they might find support or resistance to government policies and programs. God also counts people, but his approach is different. He connects his census to the Temple, making it a holy undertaking for a holy people he set apart as his own inheritance.
God’s census didn’t count everyone. Only Israelite men at least 20 years old were included. It’s not that women were less valuable in his eyes, but it was the men who went to war, and inheritance was reckoned according to the male line.
We are free to question that. Women in Moses’ day did, and God responded by establishing provisions to reinforce the value of every person and make sure their voices were heard. However, he didn’t change his standard for how to take the census. That standard was still valid in Yeshua’s time, as we learn from Matthew’s Gospel:
When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?” He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?” And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”
Matthew 17:24-26 ESV
That was the same half-shekel Temple tax that the Torah required all men age 20 and above to pay. It was a mark of full inclusion in the nation of Israel as the seed of Abraham. Which brings up a question about what Yeshua meant when he said the sons are free: is he saying the Temple tax no longer applies to those who have faith in him? We know God’s Temple will be rebuilt one day, and the Temple tax will be required from all Jewish men who want access to it. But what about the rest of us? If we are adopted into Abraham’s family through our attachment to Israel’s Messiah, then does the Temple tax apply to us? Are we even considered members of the nation of Israel? The answer is yes . . . but it’s complicated.
As the book of Numbers explains, the people of Israel were organized by tribes. That included native born Hebrews, as well as foreigners who had attached themselves to Israel. The foreigners could be servants, people who had married Israelites, or even slaves bought with money. We see examples in Caleb the Kenizzite, Ruth the Moabite, Uriah the Hittite, and Ittai the Gittite. All of them were foreigners who made the choice to attach themselves to Israel.
They didn’t become full-fledged members of the nation all at once, however. It’s one thing to declare an intent to be part of God’s people, but that should be followed up by evidence that the declaration is more than words. The evidence comes as the newly declared Hebrews learn how God expects his people to live and start living that way. That’s the process outlined in Acts 15, when the Apostles specified how Gentile believers could be included in the community so they could learn Torah and grow into their new identity.
In ancient Israel, immigrant aliens could begin contributing to the community immediately, but it might take a generation or two before they were fully integrated. Still, they chose to become part of Israel, which is different from the mixed multitude who followed Moses out of Egypt. Jewish tradition says they stayed in a separate camp and retained their identities as foreigners. Although they stayed with Israel to gain the protection and benefits, they weren’t fully integrated with God’s people, didn’t contribute much to the congregation, and often were the first to make trouble.
We are faced with the same choice. Christians are awakening to the truth that our Savior was Israelite and Jewish, and that he followed the Torah. We, his followers, are attached to Israel, the native born of whom are the Jewish people. We aren’t called to become Jews, nor replace them, but we are called to learn God’s ways, which the Jewish people have kept for millennia. That’s why Paul tells us the Jews have great advantages, starting with the fact that they have the oracles of God. That’s why we should learn from them.
We live in the age when God is bringing together the two parts of his covenant people, making them into one flock with one shepherd. Do we want to be part of that united flock, or would we rather remain among the mixed multitude?
 
Cover illustration: Taking the census in 1790. Image generated by Grok, created by xAI.
Music: "Song of Glory,” The Exodus Road Band, Heart of the Matter, 2016.

More Important Than Keeping the Rules

There is a common misconception that religion is all about doing the right things and avoiding the wrong things. Actually, it's more about identifying with the One who determined from the beginning what the right and wrong things are. 
Leviticus 25:1-27:34; Jeremiah 16:19-17:14; 2 Corinthians 3:1-6; Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Peter 1:1-2, 2:1-12
Click here to download a transcript of this podcast: More Important Than Keeping the Rules
 
Since Yeshua’s followers have the revelation of Messiah, we should live in a way that sets us apart from the world. Peter says it like this:
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”
and
“A stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
1 Peter 2:1-12 ESV
The Apostle certainly wanted his audience to understand how a follower of Messiah is supposed to act. That’s why he included the list of desirable behaviors in this passage and elsewhere in his epistle. It may be, however, that he was more concerned about his audience understanding why these behaviors are important. That’s the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit that gives it power. Those who live by the letter may be experts at keeping the rules, but their hearts – their motivations, attitudes, and desires – may be far different from what they show to the public. Those moved by the spirit may not keep the rules as strictly, but they never stray far from the Rule Maker. Because their identity is in him, they seek to be like him and receive his correction when he reminds them of the rules.
The rules, of course, are the commands, instructions, and laws our Creator imparted in the Torah. Christians these days are beginning to understand that the Torah as recorded by Moses is what Yeshua taught, both by word and by example, and which the prophets and apostles urged God’s people to learn and live by. We might think of Torah as the Designer’s specifications for us humans made in his image. The whole world will come to that realization eventually, as Jeremiah says:
O Lord, my strength and my stronghold,
my refuge in the day of trouble, to you shall the nations come
from the ends of the earth and say:
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies,
worthless things in which there is no profit.”
Jeremiah 16:19 ESV
This is why Israel is set apart from the nations. How are the nations to know how to behave and, more importantly, why they are to live according to God’s ways unless someone models it for them? That’s why God called Abraham to father the nation of Israel, which the Lord claimed as his own inheritance. Israel is holy to the Lord, distinct from all the other nations because it is God’s vehicle of redemption for all the nations.
Which gets us back to Peter’s letter. The way he writes indicates that his readers are no longer part of the nations in which they were born, but have become something different. Specifically, they become part of the Covenant Nation of Israel. That’s why he starts his letter like this:
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
1 Peter 1:1-2 ESV
Why does Peter call these people “elect exiles of the Dispersion”? Exiles from where? Dispersed from what, and to what?
We know that the Jewish people were exiled and dispersed. God said that would happen if his Chosen People of Israel failed to keep his Covenant. They did, and God’s discipline happened. For many centuries, Christians assumed the Jewish people were cut out of the Covenant, and that the church had replaced them. Then God brought resurrection to the Jewish nation of Israel in 1948, and ever since then we’ve had to rethink our theology.
Perhaps the answer is in what Peter and Jeremiah have written. The nations – including the exiles of both Houses of Israel – are coming to the Lord to confess that we all have inherited lies and have lived like prodigals, dispersed all over the earth. Now the way is open to return to our Creator, enter his Covenant of Redemption, and take our places among his set-apart people.
That’s not just a reason to keep the rules. It’s a destiny.
 
Cover photo by David Kuvaev, October 23, 2023, on Unsplash.
Music: "Song of Glory,” The Exodus Road Band, Heart of the Matter, 2016.

Hope for the Smoldering Wick

The priests in the Temple are supposed to keep the light of the menorah burning continuously as a picture of God's enduring presence. What does that say about people who are called the light of the world, and whose bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit? 
Leviticus 21:1-24:23; Ezekiel 11:14-21, 44:15-31; Isaiah 42:1-4; Matthew 5:14, 12:9-21; John 4:1-29; 8:12; Ephesians 2:11-14; Revelation 2:1-7
Click here to download a transcript of this podcast: Hope for the Smoldering Wick
 
Usually, it’s easy to see why Matthew connects aspects of Messiah Yeshua’s life to passages from Moses and the Prophets, but occasionally the connections are difficult to understand. One example occurs just after Yeshua healed a man’s withered hand on the Sabbath Day. That miracle brought a confrontation with some of the Pharisees, with the result that they began to conspire against Yeshua. Matthew then explains:
Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:
“Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not quarrel or cry aloud,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not quench,
until he brings justice to victory;
and in his name the Gentiles will hope.”
Matthew 12:15-21 ESV
It’s the part about the smoldering wick that seems out of place. Everything else in this passage Matthew quotes from Isaiah 42 makes sense. That chapter is one of several in Isaiah that describe God’s Servant, which we understand to be Messiah Yeshua.
One of the Jewish objections to the claim that Yeshua is the Messiah is that he didn’t do everything Messiah is supposed to do. They are right, but that’s not a problem for Christians since we understand what is not yet fulfilled will be accomplished at Messiahs Second Coming. Consider, for example, the smoldering wick which Messiah will not quench. We could interpret that as the light of God which is flickering in the wavering hearts of his people, or in congregations and assemblies that have lost that holy fire of his presence. On his return, however, he will deal with those smoldering wicks, such as the one in the congregation at Ephesus. According to Revelation, Messiah promises to remove the lampstand of the Ephesian church if they don’t repent and return to their first love. He issues similar warnings to other churches, essentially saying that they will lose their place in his Kingdom if they do not make the corrections he specifies.
That’s one level of understanding. We get another when we remember that Yeshua said we, like him, are the light of the world. This is the light of God’s Spirit – his presence dwelling not only with, but in his people. His people, both native born and grafted in, are the Covenant People of Israel. That’s why God promised to be with them even in their exile to all the nations of the earth, as we read in Ezekiel:
Therefore, say that Adonai Elohim says this: ‘True, I removed them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries; nevertheless, I have been a little sanctuary for them in the countries to which they have gone.’
Ezekiel 11:16 CJB
This is another example of God keeping the Covenant for Israel when they were unable or unwilling to keep it themselves. The sanctuary is the place set apart for God’s presence. We study the Torah to learn about this holy place as depicted in the Tabernacle and the Temple. A key component of the holy place is the menorah, or lampstand, which the priests are to tend so the light never goes out. That light is the symbol of God’s Spirit and a visible assurance that he will always be at work in the earth to accomplish his redemptive purposes.
What happens, though, if the light of his presence is extinguished? If that could happen, then the world would be a very dark and hopeless place. That’s why God could not let the sanctuary light go out even when his people let the Covenant lapse, when the Temple was destroyed and the Levitical priesthood prevented from doing their holy work, and when the two Houses of Israel were cast out of the Holy Land.
The Jewish part of God’s people had the advantage of carrying the Torah with them, along with the priests and Levites who continued to teach the people how to live by God’s ways. The other tribes, however, would have been completely without hope had not God pursued them and remained with them after a fashion. That’s what he meant by being a “little sanctuary” for them. The light they had, small and smoldering as it was, could at least be preserved in cultural memory of a God who would one day rescue them and bring them back from exile.
That’s the testimony of the Samaritan Woman. She may not have known the ways of Torah or been acceptable in Jewish society, but she knew that Messiah would come and fix everything one day. The smoldering wick in her heart was fanned into flame when Messiah declared himself to her. She was just the first of multitudes in whose hearts the smoldering wicks of the little sanctuaries kept the spark of hope alive through the ages.
It’s the same hope in Jewish hearts, preserved through their desperate efforts to remain true to Torah even in the face of extinction. Now the sparks in those hearts are fanned into flame at the national resurrection of Israel and decades of unmistakable evidence that God is still at work fulfilling his promises to Abraham’s seed.
This is how the glory of the Lord fills the earth, and how he extends the redemptive covenant to every tribe and tongue and family on earth. It’s the work of his grace, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. That’s how the smoldering wicks keep on flickering with the spark of godly hope.
 
Cover photo by Don Kaveen, Colombo, Sri Lanka, March 6, 2022, on Unsplash.
Music: "Song of Glory,” The Exodus Road Band, Heart of the Matter, 2016.

The Greatest Blood Pressure Check

Part of staying healthy is checking our blood pressure from time to time. Since God says the life is in the blood, this might probably involves something more than simply staying physically healthy.
Leviticus 16:1-20:27; Amos 9:7-15; Matthew 26:26-29; Romans 3:21-26; Hebrews 10:1-7
Click here to download a transcript of this podcast: The Greatest Blood Pressure Check
 
It used to be that only the older people in my life monitored their blood pressure. Their doctors wanted to make sure their blood pressure readings stayed in a healthy range, neither too high nor too low. That meant little to me other than that it was an issue of concern for my elders. Then one day I realized I had become an elder when my doctor started to educate me about my own blood pressure. Now I’m checking it regularly, not just to please my doctor, but to partner with him in keeping me healthy.
The spiritual lesson here is in the balanced perspective on blood: what it is, what it does, and whose responsibility it is to use it the right way. For most of my life, I knew blood was essential to life, but I didn’t know exactly why. The general knowledge of blood carrying nutrients and oxygen throughout the body was enough. I didn’t need to know what nutrients, or how much oxygen, or even what constitutes healthy blood. I still don’t need to know much more than that, and most people don’t, unless they are afflicted in some way that impairs the blood’s ability to keep the body running. Disease will do that, but aging does it also. That’s why it’s wise to cease being an observer, and start being an active agent in keeping my blood flowing properly.
In other words, establishing and maintaining the status of the blood is something we do in partnership with God, just like everything else in life. We don’t sit back and let him do it all, and we don’t rush in and try to do it all on our own. We learn and we do as our Creator directs.
As Christians, we have learned to appreciate the blood of Messiah Yeshua. We know that his blood activates the New Covenant and opens the way to a relationship with our Creator. That’s usually that’s where our understanding ends. It hasn’t really mattered that much up to now that we don’t understand the finer points of why Messiah’s blood is necessary, or how it works. Now, however, our Creator-King is bringing together Jews and Christians, the two halves of his covenant people, to carry forward the next stage of his Kingdom restoration. That’s why it’s important to start learning from each other about subjects like the spiritual function of blood.
Let’s start with a familiar passage from Paul’s letter to Yeshua’s followers in Rome:
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law [the Torah], although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Romans 3:21-26 ESV
Paul uses a big word in this passage: propitiation. Some modern translations of his Greek substitute atonement for propitiation. That’s easier to understand, but it’s not quite what Paul meant. To get to his meaning, we should find out what Moses meant when he used the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek term. We see an example in Leviticus:
The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died, and the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat.”
Leviticus 16:1-2 ESV
The mercy seat, or kaporet, was the golden covering over the Ark of the Covenant. That is the place where the blood of the sin offerings is applied on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It’s where God is appeased and his justice satisfied, which is the meaning of propitiation. Atonement is related to propitiation, but it refers to different function of the blood. Moses addresses that later in Leviticus:
If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.
Leviticus 17:10-12 ESV
Atonement is what a person brings as an offering to make amends for an issue that has caused separation from someone else. It’s the price of reconciliation. That might mean covering the guilt of an offense or cleansing from ritual impurity. For the atonement to be effective, however, there must be a propitiation that satisfies the demands of justice, whether it’s God’s justice, or the satisfaction required by someone we have wronged. There can’t be reconciliation if the offended party isn’t ready to be reconciled.
This is the picture we receive from the Levitical system. As the writer of Hebrews says, this is a shadow, or form, of the reality that is brought to pass by Messiah. He is simultaneously the one who satisfies the demands of our Creator’s justice, and the one who brings the offering of reconciliation on our behalf. The life really is in the blood – in his blood. Our part is to live the life he purchased for us in obedience to him.
And that is the greatest blood pressure check of all.
 
Cover photo by Vitaly Gariev, September 24, 2025, on Unsplash.
Music: "Song of Glory,” The Exodus Road Band, Heart of the Matter, 2016.