“You are to observe the festival of Shavu‘ot [weeks] for Adonai your God with a voluntary offering, which you are to give in accordance with the degree to which Adonai your God has prospered you. You are to rejoice in the presence of Adonai your God — you, your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, the L’vi’im living in your towns, and the foreigners, orphans and widows living among you — in the place where Adonai your God will choose to have his name live.”-Deuteronomy 16:10-11
One of the common false teachings perpetrated by the gentile church is that the coming of the Holy Spirit as depicted in the Book of Acts was the first time the Holy Spirit came to indwell in men in power.
That’s just a bunch of un-kosher hogwash!
And I’m going to prove it right now.
Check out these verses:
“And you, speak to all the craftsmen, whom I have filled with a spirit of wisdom, and they shall make the garments of Aharon, to set him apart, for him to serve as priest to Me.-Exodus 28:3
“And Yehoshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Mosheh had laid his hands on him. And the children of Yisra’ĕl listened to him, and did as יהוה had commanded Mosheh.”-Deuteronomy 34:9
“There is a man in your reign in whom is the Spirit of the Set-apart Elah. And in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the elahin, were found in him. And Sovereign Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar your father, your father the sovereign, made him chief of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and diviners.”-Dan 5:11
“I have heard of you, that the Spirit of Elah is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you.”-Dan 5:14
“And the Spirit of יהוה turned aside from Sha’ul, and an evil spirit from יהוה troubled him.”-1 Samuel 16:14
“Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Set-apart Spirit from me.”-Psalms 51:11
“The Spirit of יהוה has spoken through me, And His word is on my tongue.”-2 Samuel 23:2
And this is just a small sampling of verses.
There are many, many more examples.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again…word for word.
An objective analysis of Scripture will reveal that there was absolutely no difference between what happened in the “Old” Testament in comparison to the New Testament with regards to the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit.
All of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that Christians think only started with the advent of Yeshua can be found in the “Old” Testament.
ALL OF THEM!
Another interesting point is that the Lord in speaking through Jeremiah prophesied that the very Torah that Moses received on Mount Sinai would be written on the hearts of those love and trust Him.
Let me say that again.
When God gave Israel and the mixed multitude (who may have actually outnumbered the native-born Hebrews) at Sinai, He told them they were to write the Law on their own hearts.
What does this mean exactly?
It means exactly what the Psalmist said.
“How blessed are those
who reject the advice of the wicked,
don’t stand on the way of sinners
or sit where scoffers sit!
Their delight
is in Adonai’s Torah;
on his Torah they meditate
day and night.”
-Psalms 1:1-2
That’s how you write the Law on your hearts.
By meditating on it night and day.
It isn’t some supernatural act of God like the gentile church teaches where all of a sudden the Holy Spirit indwells you and then you no longer ever need to study Scripture again because the Lord has somehow magically inputted a computer chip in your brain that contains all the Torah instructions in it.
You’ve got to study this stuff man, like every day.
Besides if Christians really have the Law of Moses written on their hearts, why are they the most visible breakers of God’s Holy Law the world has ever seen in both doctrine, diet and lifestyle?
When I say doctrine, I’m referring to their teaching that the Law was done away with and the elevation of the Messiah as literally being God Himself which is pure idolatry.
When I say diet, obviously I’m talking about their total disregard of God’s Kosher food laws and ignoring what God has said is CLEAN and fit for human consumption and UNCLEAN (pork and shellfish) and NOT fit for human consumption.
When I say lifestyle, the most obvious example I can think of is their desecration of the Sabbath and replacing it with Sunday, which they call the Lord’s Day.
The Lord’s day?!
Are you friggin’ kidding me?
Heck, keeping the Sabbath is even one of the 10 Commandments that are hung up on the wall somewhere in most Christian churches.
By what law of logic is one obligated to keep all of those commandments except one which according to Scripture in ancient times one would have received the death penalty for violating it?
The hypocrisy is so thick you could cut it with a super dull butter knife.
I know a lot of people don’t like to hear me say things like this, preferring instead to listen to only the ear-tickling, maple syrupy, buttery BS teachings that only focus on the love, compassion and the forgiveness of God to the exclusion of everything else.
I’m sorry man, but we’ve got to take a balanced approach to Scripture, tell it like it is and let the chips fall where they may.
Remember Messiah’s words:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
Many will say to Me in that day,
‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in
Your name, cast out demons in Your name,
and done many wonders in Your name?’
And then I will declare to them, ‘
I never knew you; depart from Me,
you who practice lawlessness!’
-Matthew 7:21-23
In this context, “Lawlessness” means against the Law of God which means against Torah.
Heck, what other meaning would it have?
Could it mean to be against the gentile laws of some goy nation?
Of course not.
By definition, one cannot be a worshipper of the God of Israel while simultaneously leading a lifestyle that is contrary to the very instructions for living that came from the very same God he or she claims to worship.
That is hypocrisy, pure and simple.
Onward.
Going back to my point that the Law of Moses was to be written on the hearts of any person (whether of Hebrew or gentile extract) who would claim the God of Israel to be his or her God, I remind you that in Scripture “heart” does NOT mean what we think it means today.
Again, in ancient Bible times, the heart was considered to be the seat of our conscious thoughts.
It was the seat of our human intellect.
It was only later on with the advent of Greek culture did the heart come to be considered the organ that represents our human emotions and even our erotic desires.
Therefore, whenever you come across the word “heart” in your Bible (in BOTH the Only Testament and the New Testament), take out a red pen, cross it out and insert the word “mind” in its place.
Why?
Because “mind” is what it meant then and that’s what it should mean to us now if we’re going to properly interpret the Scriptures.
Finally, there’s one other very important point I want you to notice about Shavuot.
Do you notice how inclusive in nature it is?
God commands Israel to include males, females, slaves, free, Levites, orphans, widows AND…
…even strangers.
“Strangers” is GER in Hebrew and it refers to a gentile who has decided to join Israel but not convert.
In other words, to not become circumcised.
I find this interesting.
God is literally saying that one does not have to officially become an Israelite via a BRIT MILAH (circumcision) in order to participate in Shavuot.
I notice a direct parallel to Paul’s words in the NT where he says…
“Circumcision is nothing and
uncircumcision is nothing.
Keeping God’s commands
is what counts.”
-1 Corinthians 7:19
Paul is saying that a GER (an uncircumcised person) doesn’t have to undergo a circumcision ceremony and become an official Israelite in order to bond with Israel.
The important thing is writing the Torah on your heart by learning it and DOING it.
In other words, NOTHING has changed.
What has been established in Torah carries directly over into the NT era with the advent of Messiah Yeshua.
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