If you want to survive the Great Tribulation, then you need to read this Parasha.

Last week in Parasha Tetzaveh 2022 we showed how the decision to obey Yahweh’s commandments or not is literally a life and death decision because it indicates where our loyalties truly lie. And loyalty and allegiance, that is so important to a king.

Are we loyal to Yahweh to the point where we listen diligently for His voice and obey everything His voice says as well as His written word (because that is things He said before)?

Devarim (Deuteronomy) 28:1
1 “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of Yahweh your Elohim, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that Yahweh your Elohim will set you high above all nations of the earth.

Or are we not really listening diligently for His voice and we are not really paying attention? We are not really doing everything it says as well as what is written in His word.

Devarim (Deuteronomy) 28:15
15 “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of Yahweh your Elohim, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

So are we like King David, being diligent to keep all of His commandments eagerly, with haste, knowing that it pleases the Elohim that we love? Or are we perhaps still fleshly, still carnal and like king Shaul, we are thinking we are obeying Yahweh’s commandments but really we are not?

How many Ephraimites do we know like that who really know deep in their hearts that they should be doing more, but they just never get around to it? Basically, they do not care enough to do it.

How many times, brothers; how many times does Yahweh tell us that if we will listen diligently for His voice and submit to it 24/7 and guard all of His written commandments (or the Torah) that we will be a special treasure unto Him among everything that He owns?

Shemote (Exodus) 19:5
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.

And (basically) He considers anything less than that to be lukewarm (or in other words disloyal).

And do we know who Yahweh is? Yahweh is a war Elohim. He is the Commander of our armies. So, can we understand that life and death would hang upon obeying our King’s Word? Because when you are in the army, either you obey your commander or you are liable unto death.

Devarim (Deuteronomy) 30:19
19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

So, this week in Parasha Ki Tisa 2022 we are going to see all over again that our ancestors never really were truly very committed to Yahweh and obeying His voice and obeying His written word.

And the painful reason (if we are willing to accept it) is they just did not really love Yahweh. Not really. They could not have. They did not even really know Him and perhaps that is why they did not do what He wanted, is because (basically) they did not care.

Yahweh said, “The main thing I want (He says it many times in the prophets) the main thing I wanted when I called you out of Mitzrayim is that you would hear My voice and be diligent to obey it and also obey all My written commands.” But we did not do that. We did not appreciate what we have been given.

Shemote (Exodus) 15:26
26 and said, “If you diligently heed the voice of Yahweh your Elohim and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am Yahweh who heals you.”

Well, is there perhaps no one like that today in the House of Ephraim or among Judah (who is sojourning with us)? Is there no one like that among our ranks?

Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 5:3
3 For this is the love of Elohim, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

Brothers, we are entering into the End Times, if we are not in them already. And there are just certain things that have to get said for our people to survive as a people and to thrive as a people and to do the job that has been given to us.

And one of the things we need to learn from this Parasha again is not that, “Ha-ha. Look how funny it is, what our ancestors did,” but let us notice these are our ancestors. And if they had truly loved Yahweh-Yeshua, they would have obeyed Yahweh-Yeshua out of that love.

But like king Shaul, our ancestors just thought that they were obeying Yahweh when really they were not loyal to Him at all; they did not seek His heart. Are we seeking His heart?

Brothers, just to say it for some perspective, Yahweh made us, He gives us everything that we own, everything we have. He is like the Great-Computer-Programmer in the heavens. And yet, even back in the Garden of Eden, we humans have continually rebelled against Yahweh. We have broken His commandments. We have ignored His words. We have obeyed that other voice instead.

Well, let us remember as we read about our ancestors who’s seed we are. We easily noticed that our forefathers in Israel (or Ephraim) had a long history of rebelling against Yahweh, even though they thought they were doing great.

Shemote (Exodus) 32:5
5 So when Aharon saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aharon made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to Yahweh.”

I am sure if you had asked them, they thought they were keeping His Torah, but Yahweh did not think they were doing great. Yahweh did not think they were keeping His Torah.

Shemote (Exodus) 32:7-8
7 And Yahweh said to Moshe, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.
8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your elohim, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ ”

They all thought they were showing the fruits of love for Him, but Yahweh did not think that they were showing the fruits of love for Him because they were not hastening to keep all His commandments like King David had done.

Well, Ephraim, brother, what about us?

Do we understand that we were born into a generational long spiritual war and that even though maybe no one told us that we were born into a generations long spiritual war, it does not change the fact there is a war going on, a spiritual war. And the very first thing that we need to do is to very clearly pick sides. There is no sitting on the fence, okay? We need to decide if we, like the Levites, are going to be zealous for Yahweh, and stand with Yahweh, and side with Yahweh.

Or, are we like our ancestors going to be lukewarm and (effectively) not side with Yahweh because they do not have a lot of zeal for keeping His commandments?

Ivrim (Hebrews) 3:7-9
7 Therefore, as the Set-apart Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice,
8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness,
9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years.

Well, the thing is, if we do not do what our King wants us to do, He is going to see us as traitors.

So, have we been under democracy so long that we have forgotten what it is like to serve a king? Do we even still understand what real kingship is all about?

Do we understand that the king demands our absolute loyalty and obedience even unto the death? And that Elohim demands our absolute loyalty and obedience unto the death?

Mattityahu (Matthew) 24:13
13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

They are Kings, that is what kings do, they want our loyalty or they will get their revenge. So, that really, in the final analysis, is either we have to choose to serve Yahweh or (effectively) by default, we are going to end up serving Satan. Even if we are being lukewarm we are not gathering with Him so we are scattering abroad.

Either we are effectively building His kingdom together with Him or we are not.

So, if we call Yahweh our King, do we show Him our legions by hastening to keep all His commandments that we can presently keep in the dispersion? Or are we not showing Him our true allegiance by hastening to keep all of His commandments that we can presently keep in the dispersion?

The question becomes: Are we truly obedient or not truly obedient? 85 percent is not going to cut it.

Now, earlier in this Parasha series we saw that if we are not listening to Yahweh’s voice and if we are not doing all that He says, then we are effectively obeying Satan’s voice because we are not serving Yahweh; we are not building His kingdom. So, who are we serving? Whose kingdom are we building by default? Because His kingdom does not get built.

Brothers, we were bought with a price. We were made and created and then He bought us again with the price. Should we not behave like it?

Well, in Shemuel Aleph (or First Samuel) chapter 15 and verse 23, Shemuel tells us that, rebellion against Yahweh’s voice even by ignoring Yahweh’s voice is as the sin of witchcraft. Do we get that; why that is?

Shemuel Aleph (1 Samuel) 15:23
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the Word of Yahweh, He also has rejected you from being king.”

How many Messianics, Ephraimites, Christians have we met; they have money for vacations, they have money for cars, they have money for extras, but they do not have any money to build Yeshua’s unified kingdom.

Yeshua tells us that, “Wherever our heart is, that is where our treasure shall be also.”

Mattityahu (Matthew) 6:21
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

What that means is, we spend our money on the things that we truly care about so we can tell what are the things that we truly care about by what we spend money on.

So, is Yahweh the only item on our list? Or is there more? Does Yahweh have to compete with some other priorities? A boat, a car, a vacation, something we dream about instead of Yahweh?

Are we perhaps content to not put Yahweh first? Perhaps because our children feel they need to fit in with all the other children of the world all around them? The dances, the socials, the way they dress. Will their self-esteem perhaps be damaged if they do not play t-ball on the school team?

What if Elohim was keeping track of everything that we do and everything that we say? And what if He kept track of every time we lost connection with His Son or broke or ignored one of His commandments? What if it is effectively like He is giving us all the rope in the world basically to see what we are going to do with it?

Are we going to build Him a great big fishing net to catch fish for Him to catch men? Or are we going to effectively do nothing and make a noose and hang ourselves because we were not zealous for all His commandments as King David was?

Tehillim (Psalm) 119:44-45
44 So shall I keep Your law continually, forever and ever.
45 And I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts.

Brothers, these are the End Times, this is not a drill, this is not hypothetical, this is real world (so to speak). How do we get people’s attentions?

Yahweh is calling all of us to walk in humble relationship with Him so that we can then plug ourselves into His framework. The Melchizedekian Order is a service opportunity and those of us who have the heart to serve, there is a framework that together we can build His unified global kingdom over which our children will then rule and reign with His rod of iron. But it is a little red hen situation. Those of us who contribute to it are the ones He is going to select for safety in the End Times. Those of us who do not contribute to Yeshua’s kingdom, how are we showing Him loyalty? How are we showing Him allegiance? How are we showing Him dedication?

Brothers, it is the End Times, if we and our children are not zealous for establishing Yeshua’s unified global kingdom, then how does He even know that we love Him? Because He says, “If you love me, then keep (or guard or shamar) My commandments.”

Yochanan (John) 14:15
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.

Because if we will do His commandments the way He says, if we will obey the five-fold ministry and the single foundation of apostles and prophets, the net result is that we are going to end up building Him a unified global kingdom that is going to be so strong, we are going to rule and reign over the nations for a thousand years with His rod of iron.

I do not know about you, that sounds like a wonderful thing for the world; that sounds like the thing people need is this kind of kingdom. One that is based on service and not selfish interest. But the only thing is that this kind of a kingdom, it only works with people who love Him enough to be diligent about hearing and obeying His voice. It will not work with any other people.

So, (basically) what He plans to do is to select for diligent obedience to His voice, this time. The first time our forefathers left Mitzrayim it was a big mess and their bones all dropped in the wilderness and it was the children who could come into the land. But the problem is in these End Times it is different this time. The children will not end up in the land if we ourselves do not raise them in the way they should go because someone who is not raised in the way he should go, he will not make it to the land. That is what we are trying to say; it is different this time.

So, that is what Yahweh is doing; He is giving us rope. He is letting us do anything that we want to do and He is just sitting back and watching to see who truly loves Him enough to pick up His cause. Who truly cares about Him enough to seek His heart. What does He want?

Are we talking to the Spirit and asking the Spirit what does Yeshua want? “Yahweh, Father what do you want for me? Father, would you please take away from me anything unpleasing to you? Father would you please purify me? Would you please help me to test myself and make sure that I am in the faith? Please help me to diligently listen for Your voice and hear Your voice and hasten to do whatever Your voice tells me to do and also hasten to keep all Your written commandments.”

And as we are going to see, that is also the absolute best strategy I know of for surviving the Great Tribulation is to make Yahweh happy by listening – doing exactly what He says. Listening continuously for His voice and then doing everything He tells us to do as well as His written commandments. If we were soldiers in an army, would we hasten to perform the commandment of our commanding general?

Our commander-in-chief gives us an order, would we hasten to obey? Well, then what about the King of the universe? How much hastening are we doing to be careful to do everything that He says?

Well, we have seen, we are responsible for obeying all of His words. And Scripture gives us the golden rule, “Do unto others as we would have them do unto us.”

Mattityahu (Matthew) 7:12
12 Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Torah and the Prophets.

Perhaps we also need to be aware of what we call the golden-calf-rule, “Do not do unto Yahweh your Elohim as our ancestors did unto Him.” Because again, Yahweh demands our loyalty. Yahweh demands our allegiance. He is a King.

Our King expects us to defect from Satan and his kingdom. Say we are done with that and then He expects us to join ourselves to His nation; join His armies and serve on His team to help build His Son, the unified global kingdom that His Son will then turn and submit to Him.

So, we are helping our husband please His Father. And if we want the Father’s favor, then should we not do what the Father wants to have happen?

And not just that, but He wants to see us be all in; that is how He can know if we actually truly love Him is to lay down our lives in this world and to pick up Yeshua’s burden. That is the fruit, that is the fruit. We need to hear His voice and hasten to do what He says.

Well, if we do not have kind of a sense of urgency to obey His voice, there is no sense of urgency for our Elohim, something is wrong because Yeshua tells us to work while it is still day because the night is coming; we cannot work. And we see those times rising in the headlines week by week.

Yochanan (John) 9:4
4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.

So, Ephraim, brother, if there has ever been a time to get serious about our faith, okay? Can we talk about this? And there are some things that need to be said.

Another way Yahweh knows that we trust Him apart from keeping His commandments and obeying His voice; another way He can know that we are loyal to Him is that we believe His Word over man’s word. Anytime Yahweh’s words come into conflict with man’s words, we have to go with Yahweh’s words. That is the test, that is part of our testing.

Shemote (Exodus) 19:5
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.

And we have to interpret Scripture correctly. But how many of us in Ephraim are still trusting man’s word over Yahweh’s Word? How many of us are still turning to the doctors and pharmaceutical medicines instead of seeking Yahweh’s remedies and seeking Yahweh’s face?

How many of us still believe in man-made Zionism, where the people get to serve as their own messiah; they do not need Yeshua? How many of us are still in these mythologies?

Well, in this Parasha we turn to Shemote (or Exodus) chapter 30 starting in verse 23, what we are going to see is a direct contradiction in between what Yahweh’s Torah says and what man’s laws say today. Let us see direct contradictions.

So, B’reisheet (or Genesis) chapter 1 and verse 29. Okay, Yahweh tells us that every plant that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth and every tree whose fruit yields seed to us it shall be for food (or more correctly for consumables).

B’reisheet (Genesis) 1:29
29 And Elohim said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.

In other words, every plant is clean. There is no difference between clean and unclean plants, not like there is with animals. We will see that in Leviticus 11.

Now, obviously we need to use wisdom in what we consume. We need to do things in a wise way. There are some plants that are poisonous if you eat them raw, but yet they have medicinal uses.

For example, Fox Glove has a compound called Digitalis. If you eat Fox Glove flowers straight with the digitalis, you might have heart problems and die. And yet the thing is Digitalis was used for many years to regulate heart function. It was originally derived from a plant. So, likewise, Aspirin was originally derived from the bark of the White Willow tree.

Now, obviously we do not just make a meal a Fox Glove or we do not just eat White Willow bark (usually not, hopefully not), but the point is they do have other medicinal uses and other uses. So, one of the things that we see is that Yahweh commands us to make many things for Him, for His tabernacle, and one of the things that Yahweh commands is that we anoint all these things with a special priestly anointing oil. And it is also to be used on Aharon and on his sons as the priests. So, they will be anointed with this oil as part of their commission.

Shemote (Éxodus) 30:25
25 And you shall make from these a set-apart anointing oil, an ointment compounded according to the art of the perfumer. It shall be a set-apart anointing oil.

Now we are going to look at the ingredients of this oil. We look at the ingredients of what is called the Torah (or the priestly) incense later in other chapters. But we are going to look at the contents of the priestly anointing oil right now because what it is going to show us is this contradiction between how Yahweh looks at things and how Babylon or Egypt looks at things.

So, in Shemote chapter 30 verse 23 Yahweh says to take for ourselves quality spices for the priestly anointing oil. 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much sweet smelling cinnamon (meaning 250 shekels worth), and 250 shekels’ worth of sweet smelling cane.

Shemote (Exodus) 30:23
23 “Also take for yourself quality spices—five hundred shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much sweet-smelling cinnamon (two hundred and fifty shekels), two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet-smelling cane,

Also 500 shekels of cassia, which is the common cinnamon that most people use (we will talk about that in just a minute). It says, “According to the shekel of the sanctuary and a hin of olive oil.”

Shemote (Exodus) 30:24
24 five hundred shekels of cassia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil.

Verse 25 “And you shall make from these a set-apart anointing oil; an ointment compounded according to the art of the perfumer,” so it is supposed to smell good. He says, “And it shall be a set-apart anointing oil.”

Shemote (Exodus) 30:25
25 And you shall make from these a set-apart anointing oil, an ointment compounded according to the art of the perfumer. It shall be a set-apart anointing oil.

Verse 30, “And you shall anoint Aharon and his sons and consecrate them that they may minister to me as priests.” So, it is this act of anointing and consecration; that is a necessary part of being commissioned as a priest.

Shemote (Exodus) 30:30
30 And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister to Me as priests.

Verse 31, “And you shall speak to the children of Israel saying, ‘This shall be a set-apart anointing oil to me throughout your generations,’” meaning it is still set-apart now. If we had a cleansed Levitical Order and a cleansed Temple we could use it, but that is not for us, it is not for Melchizedekian Order. This is Levitical Order oil; we should not make it.

Shemote (Exodus) 30:31
31 “And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘This shall be a set-apart anointing oil to Me throughout your generations.

Verse 32, He says:

Shemote (Exodus) 30:32
32 It shall not be poured on man’s flesh; nor shall you make any other like it, according to its composition. It is set-apart, and it shall be set-apart to you.

That means, kids, do not try this at home. Ephraim, do not replicate this oil, okay? Yes, it is okay. So, if we are not supposed to replicate this oil then do not we need to know what it is that we are not supposed to be replicating? And the reason I mention this is because I have met people who make an attempt to replicate this oil and then to sell it and that is specifically prohibited. So, if you are going to watch this recipe, do not make this oil. I do not make this oil; do not make this oil. Not a good move, okay?

So, now let us look at the ingredients for the priestly anointing oil in Hebrew and while we are here let us also try to figure out what it is about these specific ingredients that Yahweh likes. Did we ever ask ourselves why did Yahweh choose these spices; what is it about these particular spices that Yahweh likes and why?

Well, okay I asked those questions so I am going to share with you what I have learned. And I will say, it is not at all what they taught me as a child in the Christian church. It is also not what they teach you in school either.

Okay. So, the first ingredient is 500 shekels of liquid (or pure) myrrh. So, myrrh is Strong’s Hebrew concordance (or Old Testament) H4753, mor. It is spelled “מר” (“Mem-Resh”), or “מור” (“Mem-Vav-Resh”), depending upon how you vowel point it.

H4753 môr, (more); or môwr; from H4843; myrrh (as distilling in drops, and also as bitter):—myrrh.

And it comes from a root of Strong’s H4843 marar which refers to bitterness – something that is very, very bitter and that is a very good description of mor (myrrh).

H4843 mârar, (maw-rar’); a primitive root; properly, to trickle (H4752); but used only as a denominative from H4751; to be (causatively, make) bitter (literally or figuratively):—(be, be in, deal, have, make) bitter(-ly, -ness), be moved with choler, (be, have sorely, it) grieved(-eth), provoke, vex.

Myrrh (or mor) is very bitter and, well, so here we have some myrrh; basically it’s a tree sap except from a bush.

So, what they do is they (this and frankincense) they scar the tree. Like for those of you in North America and Northern Europe, sometimes you will collect maple syrup (or something) from a tree. You will collect some kinds of tree sap, but this is a bush sap or a bush resin. So, like with frankincense, they scar the bush and then they come back later, and they collect the resin. And they have a few different varieties. It grows in the Saudi Arabian Peninsula and in countries such as Oman.

And now myrrh will show up again as an ingredient in the ketoret (or the priestly) incense. And we will look at that when we get to that Parasha. It was also one of the gifts that the wise men (or the magi, the magicians) gave to Yeshua. But just to say it (and this will probably upset and offend a lot of people), the reason that myrrh (or mor) was so popular and traded in ancient times – (I should say) many scholars believe that the reason it was so popular and to trade it in ancient times, is that myrrh, like frankincense, is mildly psychoactive. So, it is not exactly hallucinogenic, but like frankincense, myrrh definitely has a mild alterative effect on one’s perceptions and mood.

It is kind of like what they had back in the olden days when they did not have television. We read the Tanakh, especially anything to having to do with King Solomon, and the wisdom of King Solomon, we see that King Solomon writes about Yahweh’s plants a lot. King David also includes the plants; each one has a special medicinal characteristic. Some people consider they have various beneficial properties. If they are commanded in Scripture, do we know what they are?

Okay, we could talk a long time about the components, but and this also just for show and tell, I suppose this is a piece of Omani frankincense. I do not know if you can get a zoom on that, but this is a piece of frankincense.

It is the same kind of thing. They scar the plant, it is a large shrub, large bush, small tree, and then they come back later and collect the resin. And again, there is various grades and styles and types, but that is how they do it.

So, verse 23 says to take half as much aromatic (or sweet smelling) cinnamon, meaning 250 shekels’ worth.

Shemote (Exodus) 30:23
23 “Also take for yourself quality spices—five hundred shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much sweet-smelling cinnamon (two hundred and fifty shekels), two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet-smelling cane,

Now, cinnamon is Strong’s H7076, qinnamon.

H7076 qinnâmôwn, קִנָּמוֹן (kin-naw-mone’); from an unused root (meaning to erect); cinnamon bark (as in upright rolls):—cinnamon.

Now, it is not a big thing, but this is not the kind of cinnamon that you buy for cheap at the grocery store. What most people will buy at the grocery stores is actually called cassia. We will talk about cassia in just a moment because it also is one of the ingredients in the priestly anointing oil.

Now, there is a lesser known cinnamon that is the actual cinnamon. This is sometimes what they call the true cinnamon, or they call Ceylon cinnamon(Cinnamomum verum), and it is healthier for you than regular cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia). If you just use a little bit of regular cinnamon it is just fine, but if you are diabetic or something and you use a lot of cinnamon (perhaps because cinnamon helps with diabetes and pre-diabetes), then you want the Ceylon cinnamon. And you pay a little more for it, but it is cleaner and it is better for you. So, again we will talk about the cassia and the Ceylon cinnamon in a moment.

But the next ingredient is 250 shekels’ worth of an ingredient that the New King James Version calls calamus. Now, some scholars disagree about the use of this word, that is why we are taking things to the Hebrew. So, we want to make sure we have the correct plant so we look this up in the Hebrew and it is actually two words.

So, the first word is Strong’s H7070 (good number) there qaneh means cane. It is spelled “כנה” (“Kuf-Nun-Hey”). It comes from Strong’s H7069 referring to a read or a cane (qaneh). Cane, as erect or by resemblance a rod, especially for measuring okay, so cane (qaneh).

H7070 qâneh, (kaw-neh’); from H7069; a reed (as erect); by resemblance a rod (especially for measuring), shaft, tube, stem, the radius (of the arm), beam (of a steelyard):—balance, bone, branch, calamus, cane, reed, spearman, stalk.

And the word for sweet smelling (or aromatic) is Strong’s H1314 which is bohs meaning fragrant (or aromatic).

H1314 besem, (beh’-sem); or bôsem; from the same as H1313; fragrance; by implication, spicery; also the balsam plant:—smell, spice, sweet (odour).

And sometimes we will see a doubling of the word bohs. You can do that in Hebrew, you make it double and that means much more. Like Ephraim is phra (or afar) and it is plural, so it becomes intensive.

So, when we see this doubling or this intensifying of the word bohs, now it becomes basam in the plural and that means it is a very fragrant cane. So, then we look at the reference in Strong’s H1313 and it also refers to being very fragrant.

H1313 bâsâm, (baw-sawm’); from an unused root meaning to be fragrant; (compare H5561) the balsam plant:—spice.

It says to compare it with the balsam plant. Probably because balsam plants are so fragrant. But that is part of the reason balsam plants are so medicinal is that they have a very good relaxing aroma and it induces healthy breathing.

And so, when some people believe that the sound of our Creator’s name Yahweh is named after the sound of our respiration (Yah-weh), how important is it to our walk that, we breathe correctly?

There is a lot of ways to hold your breath and that is not going according to the Spirit, that is actually quenching the Spirit. Do not hold your breath, do not quench the Spirit. Stay with Yeshua; no matter what happens, place Him first. In that connection with Him; place Him first in all things and never lose that. That is the true walk of a disciple and that will cause a lot of other things. But how important it is to breathe in this walk.

So, coming back to this word, the New King James Version, which I use, is not perfect; we try to mention whenever there is an inconsistency. The New King James Version suggests calamus as a possible meaning, and calamus is an interesting plant.

Now, I do not know if anyone has ever had what is called sweet-flag tea, but that is made from calamus root. And calamus root also has what some would call a mild to medium psychoactive effect. Again, it is not a hallucinogenic, but there is definitely an alteration of perception and mood. Now, it is a swamp plant or a marshy ground plant.

The Society of Scent described calamus as having a unique scent of wet cake dough with a woody (or leathery suede) effect.

Let us see, we have some calamus right here. Oh, yes, yes! Let us see, it has a unique scent of wet cake dough. Oh, yes! With a woody, leathery suede effect. Yes, a very delicate bouquet. Yes…

Well, the problem is that, while calamus does have a unique scent, it does not have what I would call a very powerful or very strong scent. You could call it fragrant because it has got an interesting fragrance. And it was used in medieval times, they would put them on the floors of their houses, so as you walked on it, you would smell the fragrance over time, but I would not call it very fragrant. It is just (basically) kind of a marshy plant, kind of a smell.

I suppose you could call it a cane, but really there is a much better linguistic match for qaneh-bohs (and some people will not like this so I say this understanding that this will offend a lot of people), but for us at least the better linguistic match for qaneh-bohs is cannabis. Qaneh-bohs – Cannabis. It is the same word. I do not think linguistic matches get much closer than that and cannabis truly is a fragrant cane.

Sometimes they even name some of the strains of cannabis, depending on how they smell, and they induce certain smells and certain strains (this kind of a thing).

So, while I am not a linguistic expert, at least to my untrained ear and to the ears of many others, it seems like cannabis is a much closer linguistic match for qaneh-bohs, than calamus.

Now, we also know that they found altars in ancient Israel with traces of cannabis on the altar (I will talk about that again in just a moment). And we know that cannabis was widely traded in ancient times. And we also know that there were no artificial restrictions on plants like modern day Babylon has today.

We also know from Yechezkel (or Ezekiel) chapter 27 in verse 19, that our forefathers traded fragrant cane, probably along the silk road which goes through India, Pakistan, the Hindu Kush, that kind of region.

Yechezkel (Ezekiel) 27:19
19 Dan and Javan paid for your wares, traversing back and forth. Wrought iron, cassia, and cane were among your merchandise.

Also in Yeshayahu (or Isaiah) chapter 43 in verse 24, Yahweh complains at the people that they did not bring Him (meaning His priesthood) any fragrant cane with money.

Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 43:24
24 You have bought Me no sweet cane with money, nor have you satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices; but you have burdened Me with your sins, you have wearied Me with your iniquities.

Okay, so maybe then someone brought Him some qaneh-bohs, someone brought Him some fragrant cane (meaning they gave it to the priesthood) because then we get the Yermiyahu (or Jeremiah) chapter 6 and verse 10 and now Yahweh is wondering aloud, why did our forefathers even bother to bring Him some fragrant cane from a distant country like India or Pakistan? Because their hearts are not right.

Yermiyahu (Jeremiah) 6:10
10 To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Indeed their ear is uncircumcised,
And they cannot give heed. Behold, the word of Yahweh is a reproach to them; they have no delight in it.

So, they found traces of cannabis on altars in all ancient altars in Israel. So, we know that this was offered as an ethnobotanical substance.

So again, connect the dots. Yahweh is complaining the people do not bring His priests or Him any fragrant cane and then they bring Him some and He says why are you doing this? Because you are obeying this, but you are not obeying all those other things.

Okay, well, Song of Solomon chapter 4 and verse 14, we also learned that calamus (or rather cannabis) is a plant of love. And back when I lived in Israel between 2003 and 2005, I was told by a Messianic, Jewish brother that I had met that most of the Rabbis know that qaneh-bohs is cannabis. And he said an undisclosed minority of them have a puff or two before they go to pray.

Now, that is not anything, but just information. Sometimes people say, “Well, Norman, what do we do with this information? What are you saying? Are you saying Yahweh wants His priests to get altered before they attend to Him at the altar? What are you saying?”

I am not saying that. It is not what I am saying, what I am saying is that, while most Babylonian, Christian churches teach that fragrant cane is an evil drug plant that should be eradicated from the face of the earth, but they also, at the same time, teach that man-made chemical pharmaceuticals and things of that sort are okay.

And you could say, “Well, I suppose that is a choice that they could make,” except the only problem is that the Scripture reads the exact opposite.

Now, I want to give this the most responsible treatment that we can, but problem is, and I understand that a lot of people have been raised a certain way to believe certain things, but when we take Scripture as our final authority, we kind of have to understand that Yahweh never places any restrictions on any plant that has seeds.

Even though some of them must be used medicinally, Yahweh never places restrictions on any plant as seeds. Later, in another Parashiot, we will see that, yes Yahweh does regulate alcohol. There are times it is okay to drink it, sometimes it is not okay to drink it. And as we show in our study on “Cannabis and The Bible” in Nazarene Scripture Studies, Volume Six, we are going to see that, what Yahweh actually prohibits is man-made chemical pharmaceuticals.

From that study, we know that the drug sorcery, that is prohibited in Hitgalut (or Revelation) chapter 21 is actually Strong’s Greek number 5332 which refers not to plants, but refers to man-made chemical pharmaceuticals; pharmakeus – pharmaceuticals.

Hitgalut (Revelation) 21:8
8 But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

G5332 pharmakeús, (far-mak-yoos’); from phármakon (a drug, i.e. spell-giving potion); a druggist (“pharmacist”) or poisoner, i.e. (by extension) a magician:—sorcerer.

Now, the thing is, Scripture never prohibits plants because Yahweh already told us back in B’reisheet (or Genesis) chapter 1 and verse 29 that every plant that bears seed is consumable (at least under the right conditions).

B’reisheet (Genesis) 1:29
29 And Elohim said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.

So, why would He contradict that later? That makes no sense. Why would Yahweh say every plant bearing seed and then later say, “Oh! No, no, no, no, no. Some plants are clean, some plants are not clean.” No, all plants always have to be used wisely. Everything has to be used wisely; wisdom, listening to the Spirit. That is part of our walk, submitting to the Spirit; that’s part of our walk.

[Anyway, if you want more details on that subject please see our study on “Cannabis and The Bible” which is located in Nazarene Scripture Studies, Volume Six.]

Now, to be complete, the final ingredient in the priestly anointing oil was also to contain 500 shekels of cassia. Cassia is what most people call, cinnamon. Sometimes it is called Saigon cinnamon because it is not Ceylon cinnamon.

But again before we go further let us mention again, we should never-ever-ever make an anointing oil that has an olive base, both kinds of cinnamon, and cannabis. That is a very special oil for you. Or calamus, depending upon your conviction. Do not make this oil. This oil is set-apart for a cleansed Levitical Order, in a cleansed Levitical Temple. We should never make this oil on our own. And we do not need it in the Melchizedekian Order, we are on a different system here.

So, and while we are on this topic of us and our forefathers doing things that we know we should not do, let us look at Shemote chapter 32. And again, as we talk about our ancestor’s mistakes it is so easy to laugh at what our forefathers did, but let us consider again anything that might be in our lives that Yahweh might look at as an idol.

Our forefathers were quick to put things in between themselves and Yahweh. An idol is anything that gets in between us and hearing and obeying Yahweh. He wants that relationship with Him restored. That relationship that was lost in the Garden of Eden. We stopped obeying Him, we stopped listening to Him. If you are not going to listen to Him, get out of His House. Now, we want to go home to the land of Israel, what do we need to do? We need to pay attention to Him. We need to listen when He talks. When He tells us something, we need to make notes.

We need to do it, we need to keep a list of the revelations, things that Yahweh truly says to us. There are a lot of people that think they are hearing a lot of things. They need to be careful to differentiate between Yahweh’s voice and their voice. Be very, very careful.

But what Yahweh wants is He does not want us to allow anything to get in between us and our relationship with Him. Yeshua says, “Abide in Me and I and you. Apart from Me you can do nothing.”

Yochanan (John) 17:21
21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

And if we are cut off as a branch because we are disconnected, we become withered. So, anything that takes our focus off of Yeshua, anything that takes our focus off of Elohim, that is an idol. Something visible (especially visible). Does not have to be visible, but just anything that we pay attention to more than Yahweh, that is an eye-doll (idol).

We got raggedy Anne, we got raggedy Andreas; the Ephraimites, raggedy Ann and Andreas.

So, verses one through six, let us note our forefathers rebelled against Yahweh. Again, did we listen? No. Did we obey? No.

Okay, well apparently our forefathers did not like how long it was taking for Moshe to come back down from the mountain. So, when Moshe was gone for 40 days, guess what the children of Egypt, I mean the children of Israel (sorry got them mixed up there for a moment), the children of Israel pleaded with Aharon to make them a golden calf so they would have something visible to worship; they want an eye-doll (idol).

Shemote (Exodus) 32:1
1 Now when the people saw that Moshe delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aharon, and said to him, “Come, make us elohim that shall go before us; for as for this Moshe, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

Then they had a big feast for their eye-doll (idol). Oh, and then they rose up to play and they were singing and dancing, but nobody is doing what Yahweh said to do.

Shemote (Exodus) 32:6
6 Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

Do you think maybe they did not yet have a restored relationship with Elohim? Maybe they only had a relationship with Moshe and so when Moshe was gone they did not look for Yahweh anymore? Like people that look to their Pastor or people that look to their Rabbi, not paying attention to the Scriptures; people who read the Talmud instead of reading their Scriptures.

One day they will probably shut this ministry down when there is a realization that conflicts with the One World Religion agenda. So, the thing is, at some point I may be gone for more than 40 days. I encourage everyone to download things as they come out, store them for future community. Our goal is to establish communities that are capable of operating independently so that when the ministry is shut down in the future you will have the things that you need to share the Good News with others. So, download and store all the materials.

But more than that, the most important thing, brother, sister, is to establish that indwelling relationship with Yeshua; that is the main thing. We fell from favor in the Garden, that indwelling relationship; well, that relationship, that close relationship whether it was indwelling, we do not know, but that was lost in the Garden of Eden. It has got to be restored and reestablished.

So, once we come into connection with Yeshua, that is what it means not to quench the Spirit. We have to follow the Spirit so we can follow Yeshua, so we can obey His voice. Well, in that way, if people understand that we are trying to develop a relationship with Yahweh through His Son, Yeshua – focusing on Yeshua abiding in Him; and Him in us, Him in the Father and the Father in Him, restoring that broken relationship.

Yochanan (John) 17:21
21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

And then we have to submit to the Spirit. He will not make us, we have to invite the Spirit in; has to be a conscious decision. We have to invite the Spirit in every day when we wake up and then stay with the Spirit all day. That is what we are supposed to be focusing on. Now our ancestors, they were focusing on an eye-doll (idol) and they are having such fun in their disobedience to Yahweh right before they got slaughtered for it.

Anyone see any parallels to now? Kind of reminds us of how Yeshua described the days of Noah in Matthew chapter 24. People were feasting and giving in marriage and then came the destruction. So, we can see it building.

Mattityahu (Matthew) 24:38
38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noach entered the ark,

Shemote (Exodus) chapter 32 starting in verse 1, now, when the people saw that Moshe delayed coming down from the mountain the people gathered together to Aharon and said to him, “Come make us Elohim that shall go before us. The column of fire and cloud would go before us, but now, as for this, Moshe, he is the man who brought us up out of the land of Mitzrayim. We do not know what has become of him.”

Shemote (Exodus) 32:1
1 Now when the people saw that Moshe delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aharon, and said to him, “Come, make us elohim that shall go before us; for as for this Moshe, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

Aharon said, “Okay, give me all your golden earrings.” So, the people gave all their golden earrings to Aharon and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molded calf, strictly against the Ten Words. And they said, “This is your Elohim, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Mitzrayim!”

Shemote (Exodus) 32:2-4
2 And Aharon said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”
3 So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aharon.
4 And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, “This is your elohim, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Mitzrayim!”

So, when Aharon saw it, he built an altar before it.

Shemote (Exodus) 32:5a
5a So when Aharon saw it, he built an altar before it.

Now, we are probably talking the third, maybe the fourth month since being freed from the iron furnace in Egypt. And we are talking not too long after the public betrothal at Mount Sinai, so this is Yahweh’s bridal nation; our forefathers quickly turning aside.

And Aharon made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to Yahweh! Party, party, party!”

Shemote (Exodus) 32:5b
5b…And Aharon made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to Yahweh.”

But Yahweh is not having any fun. That is because His set-apart bridal nation He just got engaged to publicly for the whole world to see, chose to party without Him. And if this is what our ancestors did then, brothers and sisters, are we kind of prone to this same kind of thing?

Verse six, “Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people got together at a friend’s house to break bread and have fellowship…” I mean, “…and then they rose up to play with music and dancing, but not to hear Elohim’s voice or to keep His written words because he did not care about His written words.”

Shemote (Exodus) 32:6
6 Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

“They are only interested in how the kingdom could benefit them. Therefore, they maintain their peacetime party attitude.” That is how it reads is it not?

But when Yahweh saw the children of Israel quickly turn aside from following His voice and His commandments, He was ready to consume all of our forefathers.

Shemote (Exodus) 32:10
6 Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.”

Because why? Because He just sprung them from slavery in Egypt, three, maybe four months before and said to them, “Turn away from Satan. Turn away from building his kingdom. Help build My Son’s kingdom. And if you will do that, just listen for what I say and follow My instructions, I will walk you through it. And if you will let Me walk you through it, then you and your children are going to rule and reign over the earth for Me over the nations as My body, as My bride. And if you will do what I tell you to do, if you will hear My voice and obey everything I say to you, you will be My special, treasured possession in all the earth. And all the earth is mine so I can do what I want.”

Shemote (Exodus) 19:5
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.

Well, so why are Yahweh’s statutes and judgments so important to Him if He owns everything? It is because, literally, these are things that we probably ordinarily would not do in our flesh. If we are just in our flesh, what do we care about Yahweh? What do we care about our fellow man?

So, what Yahweh looks to see is someone like King David who hastens to keep His commandments. That is, when He is pleased with us because He knows we love Him enough to hasten to do everything He says. But there are some Messianics, sadly and some who call themselves Nazarenes and (you know who you are) and they say, “Well, we are keeping the Torah, but we are not hastening to keep all of the commandments just like our forefathers leaving Egypt. Hmm… No. But we do not have to do all the commandments. We are still keeping Torah, right? Because we are resting on Shabbat and we are taking turns reading from it. That is still keeping Torah, right?”

The thing is, Yahweh is like the Ultimate-Design-Engineer. He knows how the car runs; He knows how everything fits together, so we need to obey His commandments. We need to obey His specifications. That is how His plan works.

So, and He knows these are not things that we would ordinarily do on our own. He knows that the Spirit and the flesh are opposites. So, that is why He wants to see us keep His commandments, is because this is going to show Him whether or not we truly love Him.

Yochanan (John) 14:15
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.

Because these are not things we want to do in our flesh. These are not commandments we want to keep in our flesh!

So, this shows Him, do we care more about Him and what He wants? Or do we care more about us and what we want? Oh, and we are just going to pretend that we are learning. Yes, we are just learning, right? Okay, excuse me. Mystery Babylon, Ephraim, brother, if you are listening, okay? If you are out there and you are listening, Mystery Babylon is the worst place to be.

Yaakov chapter 1 verse 22 tells us to be sure to be doers of His Word and not just hearers only, deceiving ourselves.

Yaakov (James) 1:22
22 But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

It gets pretty bad when you are the one who invites Satan in to deceive you. Because, speaking the truth in love in these End Times, brothers, there is a lot of Ephraimites, a lot of our people, they are following a broad, lukewarm, easy pathway that leads to destruction because it does not build Yeshua’s kingdom; not in a real way.

But there is a few who are humbling themselves as little children and they are asking their Daddy to show them what does He want them to do? How does He want them to live? What are His ways? “Father, please show me what you want me to do and I know your Son wants us to build His kingdom. That is what the parable of the minas is all about.”

So, who are the servants who obey Him and who are the servants who pretend to obey Him?

Yeshua is such a kind Master. He is never going to force us to do anything, but the thing is, He is always watching. And let us not kid ourselves. A lot of people (I think) are kidding themselves. They are playing silly games with their eternal salvation is what they are doing. Because when we get to the Judgment, they are going to open books, and everything we did and everything we failed to do, and everything we said everything we failed to say, that is all going to be recorded. They are going to watch the DVD of our lives (so to speak). And every flaw, every failure.

And what does He want? We say, “The safest place to be in the Tribulation is in His will.” What is His will? His will is what He wants, right? What does He want? He wants a kingdom for His Son, right? So, are we helping Him get a kingdom for His Son?

Are we truly defectors from Satan’s team and from building Satan’s kingdom? Have we truly hated Satan’s kingdom so much that we want to help build Yeshua’s kingdom? To give His people an alternative; some place to come. Sheep, if they are going to come somewhere, you got to have a pasture, you got to have a corral, you need a barn. There are things you need to serve sheep.

What if we are not eager to help our King establish His kingdom? What kind of treason is that? He is a King. Disobeying the King’s orders is a death penalty offense. When the King tells you to do something, you obey or that is it.

I mean, has it been so long since we lived under kingship that we do not understand the command is obey Me or die? What part of obey Me or die do we not understand?

Devarim (Deuteronomy) 30:19
19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

And what part of obey Me or die can we not understand applies to Yeshua because He was the Messenger, He was the Angel that was sent before us to lead us out of the land of Egypt and He will not pardon – we are not to provoke Him because He will not pardon our transgressions. Because His, Father, Yahweh’s name is in Him.

Shemote (Exodus) 23:21
21 Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.

So, if Yahweh is a war Elohim, what part of obey My voice or die do we not understand?

Yahweh tells us again and again, constantly tells us, listen for His voice, do what He tells us to do. That is it. He will walk us through, but listen and do.

And what earthly king even would not want that? What earthly king would not want his subjects listening diligently for the sound of his voice so they could obey it. Of course he wants that. He wants the people’s allegiance. He wants the people’s loyalties. He wants the people’s attentions. We expect Yahweh to be different than that?

We would not dare disobey an earthly king’s commandment. What about Yahweh? Or do we have other things that are more important to us to take care of before we have matters of obedience to our Master and King?

Have we forgotten? Has it been that long? If we do not do what a king says, it is off with his head. But so why does Yahweh place so much emphasis on our obedience to His commandments? It is simple. It is because that is how He can know if we truly love Him or not. Because it is a bunch of commands of things that we ordinarily would not do in our flesh.

Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 5:3
3 For this is the love of Elohim, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

A lot of the Torah commandments run directly contrary to our flesh, but these are things that are necessary if we are going to truly build a white horse nation for Yeshua that can overcome the enemies of Israel for a thousand years while Satan is locked away in the pit.

Hitgalut (Revelation) 20:2
2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;

But it takes discipline. Does not necessarily take a lot of intelligence, does not necessarily take money. It takes discipline. And if we will discipline ourselves to be Yeshua’s disciples and to obey what His Spirit is telling us to do moment by moment, if we will obey Him in the things He commands, He Himself will be the one to put our enemies under our feet.

It is not going to be easy. King David’s life was not easy, Joshua’s life was not easy, Moshe’s life was not easy, shaliach Shaul (the apostle Paul), his life was not easy. They all worked hard; they all risked their lives. But the thing is, they listened for Yahweh’s voice and they heard what Yahweh was saying and they hastened to obey Yahweh’s voice because that is how you give Him honor.

Tehillim (Psalms) 119:1-2
1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of Yahweh!
2 Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart!

When your King speaks, you hasten to accomplish it. But in contrast, king Shaul, like our forefathers, he turned aside quickly and he and his son both died. Well, because our ancestors turned aside quickly, Israel received the Levitical Order. And the reason is because the Levites proved to be loyal. The Levites chose what Yahweh wanted rather than what they would want in their own flesh. Wow! What a decision that was.

In Shemote chapter 32 in verse 8, Yahweh says, of our forefathers, they have turned aside quickly. “Just a few months, they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I have commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf and worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your Elohim, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’”

Shemote (Exodus) 32:8
8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your elohim, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’”

And Yahweh said to Moshe, “I have seen this people and indeed it is a stiff necked people. Now, therefore, let Me alone that My wrath may burn hot against them. I may consume them and then I will make of you a great nation,” He can do that.

Shemote (Exodus) 32:10
10 Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.”

Well, thankfully, praise Yahweh, Moshe then interceded for his brethren. He interceded for the nation and the people and Yahweh relented. But verse 12 tells us that it was not for Israel’s sake that Yahweh relented because our forefathers were that stiff-necked that stubborn.

Shemote (Exodus) 32:12
12 Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people.

Rather, Yahweh relented for His name’s sake so that His enemies would no longer have anything to speak evil of Him about. We are going to see this point made again in our Haftara, prophetic portion, how important it is for us to behave in such a way that brings glory and honor to Yahweh’s name. It is in all of our witness. It is in everything we say, in everything we do, whatever is written in our foreheads (so to speak), whatever is written on our right hand.

And this is what we are supposed to be is representatives for our King. Servants, slaves for our King. We are supposed to bring Him glory and honor. We did not do that, and sin does not go without consequence.

Shemote chapter 32 again starting in verse 26:

Shemote (Exodus) 32:26
26 then Moshe stood in the entrance of the camp, and said, “Whoever is on Yahweh’s side—come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.

“And he said unto them, ‘Thus says Yahweh, Elohim of Israel, “Let every man who pledges allegiance to Yahweh, who is loyal to Yahweh and not man, put his sword on his side and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp and let every man kill his brother and every man his companion and every man his neighbor according to the flesh who was involved in worshiping the calf, okay?”

Shemote (Exodus) 32:27
27 And he said to them, “Thus says Yahweh Elohim of Israel: ‘Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’ ”

“Show Me that you value Me more than you value your own flesh and blood. Just like your ancestor Avraham had to show Me that he valued Me more than he valued his own flesh and blood. You show Me the same thing.”’”

Verse 28:

Shemote (Exodus) 32:28
28 So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moshe. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day.

Talk about frontier justice. Moshe talks Yahweh out of wiping the people out and then he goes and handles, takes care of the problem. So, in the great national failure of the golden calf, each of our forefathers was asked to choose: Was he on Yahweh’s side or not?

Well, astonishingly, only the Levites chose Yahweh, just them only, the Levites. And there were three thousand men who were showing allegiance, not to Yahweh but to Satan. They were not obeying His commandments and they lost their lives. So, why should it be any different with us, brothers, and sisters?

Let us consider the golden-calf-rule: Let us not do unto Yahweh our Elohim as our ancestors did unto Him. because if Yahweh was ready to consume our ancestors in a moment for not obeying Him, has Yahweh changed?

What? Oh! Oh! I see. So, do we think Yeshua came to give us a way out of obeying His Father in building His kingdom? Yeshua came so we did not have to do that, right? He came to make the Great Commission optional, right? So, Yahweh sent His Son, Yeshua to die an excruciating death, to let us out of building the kingdom, is that it?

Oh! Oh, what? Okay. So, Yahweh the Father was outraged with our ancestors for ignoring His voice and for not keeping His commandments, but that was then and this is now. So, He is not going to hold us accountable in the same way for not obeying His Son’s instructions, right? Because we are special, right? Because we have Yeshua and we say we keep Torah when really we are not keeping Torah, we are not hastening to keep all His commandments. Oh! We are just doing the ones we like, right? We are resting and we are reading and that is keeping Torah? Is resting and reading, resting and reading, building the kingdom? I see. Okay. No hypocrisy there at all.

Brothers, where is our allegiance to our King? Now, like it or not, whether we realize it or not we are in a spiritual war. We were born into it. It pre-existed us and we are in this mess precisely because we have not listened for Yahweh’s voice and done everything He said.

All the way back to the Garden of Eden. Just like our forefathers and coming out of Egypt. Something deep in our hearts wants to believe we do not need to listen attentively for Yahweh’s voice 24/7. Because we do not need to. He is not trying to communicate anything valuable or important by His Spirit, now. No. Everything that was communicated, that was back in the first century. Yes. No, we do not actually have to hasten to do everything Scripture says, right? Because we are not accountable for all of Scripture, right?

I mean, that is why it is given to us in written format is because we are not accountable to it, right? It is nice if we want to read it, that is okay. It is good to read it, right? But we do not have to follow it, right? Right? Because now we have Yeshua’s Spirit, so that is why we do not need to do what Yeshua said. It is because we have a Spirit, right?

I mean, I do not know anyone who talks like that, but I know a whole lot of Messianics that, that is pretty much what they say, that is pretty much what they communicate like.

And the reason is because we just seem to have something more important to do than hearing His voice and doing what He says. And one day perhaps, maybe we can all wake up one day, we can realize not only are we in Yahweh’s army, but there is a spiritual war on, we need to find something to do.

So, Yeshua has given us a Melchizedekian framework called the Melchizedekian Order, where we can learn to plug ourselves into. We talk about that in Acts 15 Order and Torah Government (and other studies). But brothers, if we know the Torah is still for today, then do we talk with Yahweh?

Do we ask Him to show us what is important about His Word? And more importantly, do we find out what He wants? What are the things He is going for?

And then, once we know what He wants us to do, do we hasten to do it? Are we diligent to do everything that He says to do? Because we know He is a King. We love Him, we want to make Him happy. Or are we perhaps like king Shaul? Or perhaps like our ancestors basically choosing disobedience? Whether through laziness or idleness or some other means?

Well, if we have a King and if we love our King and if we want to serve Him with all of our hearts, with all of our soul, and with all of our strength – and let us just say, one day we wake up and we are all alone, let us say the New World Order has shut down Nazarene Israel ministry because we perhaps don’t agree with the United Religions Initiative (this kind of thing). And so suddenly, brother, sister if, let us say, you find yourself all alone with no more Nazarene Israel channel, no more Moshe to guide you (so to speak), what would you do? Would you seek a deep relationship with Yeshua and to deepen that relationship and strengthen as much as you could? Or would we choose not to do much of anything, really? Because it is cheaper and easier to get together at a friend’s house and do the things that we like to do as opposed to taking care that we follow and do everything that is written in Scripture because we are accountable for the whole document.

So, do we set up a golden calf called the Messianic movement perhaps? Where we say, “Oh well, mysteriously, Mystery Babylon, mysteriously, we do not need to obey Yeshua’s commandments. We do not need to organize according to the five-fold ministry. We do not need to unify on a single foundation of apostles and prophets like Ephesians 2 says. No. Yeshua died to set us free from all that, right?”

“So, just bumbling along like one of our ancestors in the wilderness that is going to be enough to get us through the judgment, right? Because we do not actually need to like obey Yeshua’s commandments. Either in the Renewed Covenant or when He was giving our forefathers the Torah coming out of Mitzrayim. We do not have to obey either one of those two things, right? Because we have Yeshua, we do not need to obey Yeshua, right?”

Brothers, sisters, Babylon is a demon. It is a bad one; it is an insidious demon. We cannot take Satan on in our flesh, Satan is stronger than we are. We need Yeshua working in us, not just some false belief on Yeshua. We need a constant 24/7 connection with Yeshua.

Yochanan (John) 16:7
7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.

We will be listening and if we do not hear, pray for it. Ask, seek, knock. We need to ask Elohim for help in rooting Babylon out of our heart or it will not go. We have to flee Babylon. If we do not flee it, we do not try to root it out, it will not go.

A Mystery Babylon is a means of pretending to obey Yahweh while not actually obeying Yahweh; we do not do that here. Acts 15 we do not do that with the Rabbis. We also do not do that with the Messianics. We do not want to pretend to obey Yahweh in anything. That is what got our forefathers in trouble after leaving Egypt.

So, if we are going to call ourselves Nazarenes, then effectively we should do what the ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes in the first century, shaliach Shaul (the apostle Paul) commanded in Qorintim Bet (or 2 Corinthians) chapter 13 and verse 5. Now, Shaul told us, exhorted us, we should examine ourselves and check if we believe that this is important and if we believe that Yahweh is truly in charge, then we should examine ourselves and see whether we are truly walking in the Spirit or are we perhaps still walking after the flesh even though we are claiming Yahweh is in Yeshua’s name.

Qorintim Bet (2 Corinthians) 13:5
5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Yeshua Messiah is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.

Should we not examine ourselves to make sure that we are truly in the faith once delivered to the saints? Should we not test ourselves like King David says in the Psalms?

Tehillim (Psalms) 119:59
59 I thought about my ways, and turned my feet to Your testimonies.

Do we perhaps not yet realize that when we say we are Yeshua’s and that Yeshua Messiah dwells in us, that, that means that we are submitting every day, we are inviting the Spirit in? We wake up in the morning, that is the first thing we should do; make sure to establish that connection, then we are ready to begin.

But we have to submit ourselves to Him. There is no way to be His bride, to be a servant, to be a slave, to be a soldier. How can you serve anyone if you do not submit to them?

We need to submit first to Him and then one to another in Him and then we need to let the Spirit be our guide and lead us and guide us 24/7 after that. But the thing is, if that is not the case, we are not walking the right way, meaning we are walking more like our forefathers in the wilderness. And that means that we would be lukewarm. And that means that we would become disqualified.

Brother, sister, if you are home, take a look around your house. If you are not home, when you get home, take a look around your house. Now, is everything there in your house? There because that is what you need to lead your family to serve Yahweh? Or is it there for other reasons (perhaps)?

How much of our life is set apart and dedicated to our King? How much, what percentage of our life do we have dedicated to fighting His fight? All, or something less than all?

Our King has a cause, He has a fight and He calls us to fight it for Him. That is what the parable of the mina is all about. In order to fight His fight effectively, we have to die to our old life in the world. Like when you join the army or the military you have to lay down your life as a civilian in the world.

He calls us to this fight for Him. He does not push anything, He wants to see what we will do for Him when we have all the time that we can either choose to respond to Him or not choose to respond to Him. He is not going to make us do anything. But to not respond to Him, He sees that like a form of treason. He died that we might leave Satan’s kingdom in Egypt. He died so that we might no longer have to work for Paro (or Pharaoh) or Babylon. But now He wants us to live for Him.

What human king would not call it treason? If he died so his subjects could live for him and they did not do it, that is what treason is, that is dereliction of duty; gross dereliction of duty at the least.

I mean, do we understand what it means for us to follow the same patterns as our forefathers and, especially, to follow the same patterns as our forefathers and think we are doing it so much better than they did?

Do we ever stop to look at our lives the way that Yahweh is going to look at our lives in the Day of Judgment? And do we ever stop to take a look around our house? Do we take a look at our calendar; take a look at our checkbook? These are the things that define where we spend our money and our time.

Our time and our money, those are our two most scarce, precious, two most valuable resources in this world. So, here is the question: Do we spend our most precious resources on us or do we perhaps spend our precious resources on Him and on building His Son’s kingdom? Where is our allegiance? Are we allegiant to ourselves; loyal to ourselves?

Yes, most people are allegiant to themselves, particularly under democracy. We will talk about democracy some other place, but democracy is a sort of a power sharing strategy among men who see themselves effectively as sovereigns. It is a very, very red horse attitude and so they come up with a strategy for sharing power. We will talk about that (Father willing) some other time.

But are we allegiant to ourselves, or to our democracy, to our government, to our way of life, or are we allegiant to Yahweh and His Son? We pledge allegiance, is it to a flag? We pledge allegiance to Yahweh Elohim? Brothers, are we (perhaps) unwittingly breaking the golden-calf-rule? Do we have golden calves in our life? Anything, just something that comes in between us and seeking Yahweh with all of our hearts, with all our soul, with all of our strength?

Not many people even really listen for Yahweh’s voice. Fewer still seek Him. A few will listen for what Yahweh says. How few seek His heart. How few want to know what He likes so they can walk that way. King David did, Shaul did, all the prophets did.

Brothers, are we perhaps behaving like our forefathers did when they left Egypt even though we do not even know it? Are we (perhaps) forgetting the need to listen attentively to His voice every day, 24/7 and to do what He says, diligently when we hear Him speak it? Are we living sacrificial lives for Him? Are we following a narrow and afflicted path, or are we perhaps like great big babies depending on Him carrying us?

I guarantee Yeshua was not seeking His own will when He was hanging there on the cross (or the tree, or the stake, or whatever you want to call it). He was not ordering takeout, He was not worried about how His kids are going to get along and mesh with the secular world and play t-ball on the sports teams.

When He was in agony on the cross (or the stake or whatever you want to call it) He was there paying for us. And if we ever forget that, if we ever forget that we are owned, if we ever forget that it is required of us to remain in connection – the deal is, we get to keep our lives, but we do not get to live our lives. How many of us still want to live our lives instead of dying to ourselves, dying to our wants, being spiritually transformed and then living from then on unto Him?

If we know what our Commander-and-Chief wants, are we allegiant to our Commander-and-Chief? Are we allegiant to our King who already died for us? His loyalties proven, so what about our loyalty?

Mattityahu (Matthew) 16:24
24 Then Yeshua said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

Are we obeying His call to build Him a kingdom according to all of His rules? Or are we perhaps like our forefathers, lukewarm and going to be vomited out, never make it back home to the land?

Brothers and sisters, Yeshua did not go to His death so we can go on vacation. Yeshua did not go to His death so we can live nice, happy lives. Yeshua did not suffer on the tree so that we could sit on our thrones, and He could continue to wash our feet and we sit there and do nothing, give nothing back to Him.

Yeshua healed ten lepers, only one came back even to give thanks. He did not ask Yeshua, “What can I do for you Master?” He just came back to give thanks and even that was only one out of ten.

So, we know from Scripture that this is the standard thing. You get the 4,000, and the 5,000, and the myriads, and the multitudes, and the crowds, and the throngs. And they come through and they never stop to ask, “What can I do for you Master? Oh! Keep your commandments? Yes, my King; happy to. Let me hasten to keep Your commandments.”

Yeshua, He knows what the standard is. There have been good servants in the past, the question is, are we living, willing to live up to these high standards?

What are we doing with the rope He is feeding us? Are we building a big net to become fishers of men or are we just basically getting ready to hang ourselves?

What are we doing with the mina of our saved life? What are we doing with the time He gives us? How much of our free time is dedicated to Yahweh, or how much of our free time are we spending keeping up with the Joneses (so to speak)?

What are we doing brothers? Are we going to spend our time and our money on us and what we want and what we like when we love Him with all we have? Are we going to spend what we have on Him because we love Him? What else will we do with our money? What else we do with our time? He is our hobby; we love serving Him.

So, you cannot love Him and not want to serve Him, it does not work. If we are not obeying His commandments, He says, “If you love Me, then keep My commandments.” And He means all of His commandments.

Yochanan (John) 14:15
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.

If we do not keep all of His commandments according to His words, then we do not love Him. So, knowing these things, why does it seem like so many of us in Ephraim just seem like we have got a death grip on ignorance?

We are just sort of dead set on playing silly little games with our eternal salvation, just like our forefathers did in the wilderness, coming out of Egypt. And they did not even know it. Just like our forefathers in the wilderness did not know it. They thought they were doing just fine, but did things change? Did Yahweh change?

Yeshua did not die so that we in Ephraim can enjoy an easy life and ask Yahweh to provide a nice vacation for us every year. That is not what building His kingdom means. Like any King, Yeshua requires 100 percent commitment; total devotion. He is not going to accept anything less than that.

Yeshua tells us in the parable of the minas, one day He is going to return. And in that day, He is going to require an account of what His servants did for Him with their minas (or their saved lives).

Luqa (Luke) 19:15
15 “And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.

And if the answer is, not much, it is not going to go well. Brethren, if the servant did not do his utmost to serve his master, then according to Hebrew thinking, that is a wicked, bad, evil servant and he ends up dead. He ends up cut into pieces being cast into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Mattityahu (Matthew) 25:30
30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

These are Yeshua’s words. This is the situation we find ourselves in. Yeshua feeds us all the rope we need instead of choosing to serve Yeshua with it by plugging ourselves, by using our time, by using our saved life to plug ourselves into Yeshua’s Melchizedekian framework. We can serve Yeshua that way, but if we do not want to plug into Yeshua’s Melchizedekian framework knowing that He is our King, but we do not want to do what His Word says to do, rebellion is as the sin of self-idolatry.

Shemuel Aleph (1 Samuel) 15:23
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the Word of Yahweh, He also has rejected you from being king.”

Ephraim is like one who looks at his face in the mirror and then immediately goes away and forgets what kind of man he was. He forgets – he knows one time he was loyal to Yeshua, one time he sat at Yeshua’s feet and just looked up and was in awe and wonder and just felt wretched; did not, could not even, did not want to look at Him. But he goes away and forgets that there are times he feels connected to Yeshua, but he does not maintain it 24/7. He goes away and forgets what kind of man he was.

He may have repented once in his life, a long time ago, but the problem is, he is not walking in repentance. If he were walking in repentance, he would already be walking the same faith as what Yeshua taught because that is His will for us.

Ephraim, wake up! How do you solve a problem like Ephraim?

If our family life is about enjoying our lives in the world, about singing and dancing, going to movies, keeping up with the Joneses, having a good old time, we have gone hunting, and fishing, and camping, and went to the museums, the children have friends in the world. We do not care about Yeshua, who returns as the conquering King; the Lion of the tribe of Judah? We do not care about obeying what Yeshua wants us to be doing for Him right now? Really?

Actions do not lie. Words can lie; actions do not lie. So, we are not doing what Yeshua says He wants us to be doing right now. We had better watch out brothers, sisters, because our ancestors were all eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, in Noach’s day, before they were all destroyed. And our ancestors in the wilderness, they were feasting, and dancing, and enjoying everything. All around having a good old time with the golden calf before they were all destroyed.

Yahweh is not kidding when He says, “The wages for sin is death.” That does not change just because we profess belief on Yeshua and that we do not want to live according to His Spirit.

Yes, I mean, look, come on, figure it out. We married into the family of a war Elohim. Hello? He is a war Elohim.

Shemote (Exodus) 15:3
3 Yahweh is a man of war; Yahweh is His name.

He is not only like a modern-day general. In a modern day warfare, the general’s wife never goes to the battlefront, okay? He is an ancient-style battlefield King, and wives in His family need to be able to take orders along with the best of them.

Some young bride wants to marry His Son, good! Does she want to learn how to listen for His voice and diligently do everything that He says to do? Good. And if not?

Brothers, we are responsible for everything in Scripture. We are responsible for every word Yahweh Elohim has spoken and we are responsible to live in accordance with these words. So, knowing that, are we doing that or are we effectively playing games with our eternal salvation?

Philipim (Philippians) 2:12
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;

Do we not think Yahweh is going to hold us just as accountable as our ancestors? Oh, no! Right? No! I mean, Yahweh sent His Son to die so that we do not have to obey Him, right?

Knock, knock, knock… is Ephraim-body home? Okay, Yeshua died so that we would not have to be allegiant to Yahweh and we would not have to obey all His words. Is that what we think?

Yeshua came to die so that we would be allegiant to Yahweh and so that we would begin to obey all His words yet again!

Yeshua did not come to die so that we can pick and choose which parts of His Torah we want to keep. Oh! And then have the audacity to call it keeping Torah just like our ancestors did back in the Garden and just like at the time of the golden calf, and again with the golden calf in the days of Jeroboam, oh and let us not forget king Shaul.

Well, okay brothers, what is our golden calf now, today? That we do not want to hear Yahweh’s voice and obey Him? Do what He says and do all that is written? What is it that we do not want to have this relationship with Him? This obedience, love relationship of Father to child; of husband to wife? What is it we do not want about that? We love Him so much, but we do not want this kind of relationship? No. But we love him with all of our heart.

Our actions do not lie; actions speak louder than words. Our forefathers loved the idea of leaving Egypt and going to Yahweh’s land, no longer being in slavery. Great! Oh! But then there was work involved, there was difficulty involved. And eventually there was war involved, and all the difficulties that come with war.

And the war, Elohim’s newly betrothed bride apparently was not up for it back then. “Nope, sorry. Ride has gotten too rough. No, we do not need to obey Yahweh anymore, but we are still married, right? Wedding is still on even though I am not going to obey the wedding contract, right? It is all good?”

Brother! Ephraim! Hello? Wake up! Can we understand that kings demand allegiance and they reward those who look out for their best interests? They do good things for them.

If you have a servant who is using his mina to serve you and help increase your kingdom, you want to take good care of that servant. But if you have a lazy servant, neglecting his duties; he could be helping you in your kingdom, but is not really. Is that not like the lazy servant that lays up his mina in a handkerchief or puts it in a box somewhere, in a drawer?

Yahweh considers that (as a minimum), extreme dereliction of duty, but more likely He considers it rebellion which is as the sin of witchcraft. Because we knew what Yahweh our Elohim wanted us to do; we did not hasten to do it. It is called rebellion; it is called treason to disobey the king’s command. And the sentence for rebellion is death, and not always in a nice way.

And let us not think that Yeshua’s blood covers us for rebellion against Elohim after we say we already converted and joined His team, okay? That just makes no sense. We are going to join His team, but we do not have to take orders or be loyal after we joined His team because He sent His Son to die that we would join His team.

Kepha Aleph (2 Peter) 2:21
21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the set-apart commandment delivered to them.

And so, now that we join His team we get to pick and choose which of His commandments we want to keep because we are the king, secretly, not Him? That is the attitude. And is that not as the sin of witchcraft; placing ourselves above Elohim? What do we think we are doing?

Look at the way we treat Him. We are just going to let ourselves into our King’s kitchen, we are going to eat all His spiritual food, we are going to rest and lounge in His house. Oh! And then we do not want to work, we do not want to actually do anything. So, we have eaten all the food we have rested, we have relaxed, we have been educated, now we do not want to do anything for Him. Oh! And we also do not want to pay any taxes. Okay, how long or how is that kingdom going to work?

Okay, and if that is not our concern, is to make our King’s kingdom work, why is it that we pray and we ask and even Yeshua tells us to pray that the Father’s kingdom come, that His will may be done on earth as it is in heaven?

Mattityahu (Matthew) 6:9-10
9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Do we understand that we are the hands and feet that are going to walk that out? We have to start with our obedience to His voice. We have to abide in Him, and Him in us; Him in the Father and the Father with Him, in Him, to restore that lost and broken connection. Then things become possible.

Yochanan (John) 17:21
21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

In these last days, those who remain allegiant to Egypt, they are going to suffer the plagues of Egypt. Those who ally themselves with Babylon are going to suffer the plagues of Babylon.

Hitgalut (or Revelation) chapter 18 and verse 4 says to come out of the Babylonian system. In addition, also to come out of the land of Babylon, which we show in the Revelation study, is the United States of America. Because, if we do not come out of the world, if we do not come out of Egypt, we do not come out of the sins of the world, then the sins of Babylon will be called to account for our sins in these last days.

Brothers and sisters, Ephraim, please, please, please pay attention to this. We already know from prophecy, most of Ephraim is not going to make it home. Please take this seriously!

And verse 8 tells us not to be fooled because the judgment is delayed in coming. It says Babylon’s plagues are going to come in one day. Death, mourning, famine and she will be utterly burned with fire. For strong is Yahweh Elohim who judges her.

Hitgalut (Revelation) 18:8
8 Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is Yahweh Elohim who judges her.

Now, our Haftara prophetic portion covers many of the same themes. It begins in Yechezkel (or Ezekiel) chapter 36 starting in verse 16.

Here Yahweh speaks about what He will bring to pass with His children Israel in the latter days. And we read that, even after all of our forefathers’ unfaithfulness to Him, after everything we have done, after all our falling away, breaking faith, breaking covenant, He still promises to protect those of us who show allegiance to Him. He will bring His loyal and faithful one’s back home. That is the safest place to be.

Yechezkel chapter 36 tells us some pretty amazing things. Verse 24, Yahweh says He will bring Israel (or Ephraim) back home. Woohoo! All right! Score, one! Good!

Yechezkel (Ezekiel) 36:24
24 For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.

Verse 28, He says that Israel will be His people again. Yes! Score, two!

Yechezkel (Ezekiel) 36:25
25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

However, brothers, sisters, if we read the entire chapter, we should be easily able to see that Yahweh is really not too happy with us. We might think we are doing great, we might think we are keeping Torah, but have we really, truly followed Yeshua’s Spirit?

Yahweh says we are, right now, filthy with idols and this is causing His great name to be profaned.

Yehezkel (Ezekiel) 36:20
20 When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My set-apart name—when they said of them, ‘These are the people of Yahweh, and yet they have gone out of His land.’

We are refusing to organize; we do not want to organize. It is too hard, is too difficult, takes too much money, takes too much time. We do not want to do that. That is causing His great name to be profaned and so, by only His mercy and only because of His namesake, He is going to cleanse us and then bring us back home.

Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 36:22
22 “Therefore say to the House of Israel, ‘Thus says Yahweh Elohim: “I do not do this for your sake, O House of Israel, but for My set-apart name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went.

Because we just never really got things out of first gear, brothers. We just never really made up our minds to serve Yahweh first, out of love. We never really decided to, “Seek ye FIRST, the kingdom of heaven” and then everything we need to serve Him will be added unto us.

Verse 17, He says, “Son of man, when the House of Israel (or the House of Ephraim) dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by doing things their own way. They did not do things My way. They wanted to do things their way, but to Me their way was like the uncleanness of a woman under customary impurity; cannot use it for anything. It does not build My Son’s ordered kingdom the way I need it to be built. They are doing things their own way. They are not doing things My way. That, I cannot use that. And I look upon that like rebellion because that is what it is.”

Yechezkel (Ezekiel) 36:17
17 “Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds; to Me their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary impurity.

And verse 18 says:

Yechezkel (Ezekiel) 36:18
18 Therefore I poured out My fury on them for the blood they had shed on the land, and for their idols with which they had defiled it.

“And then I scattered (our forefathers) the House of Ephraim out among the nations and with some of the southern kingdom that sojourns with them. And I disperse them throughout all the countries and I judge them according to their ways and according to their deeds.”

Yechezkel (Ezekiel) 36:19
19 So I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries; I judged them according to their ways and their deeds.

Verse 20, “When they came to the nations, wherever they went they profaned My Set-apart name because they did not do what I said. They called themselves by My name, but they are not obeying Me.”

Yechezkel (Ezekiel) 36:20
20 When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My set-apart name—when they said of them, ‘These are the people of Yahweh, and yet they have gone out of His land.’

So, the nations said to them, “These are the dedicated set-apart people of Yahweh this is His bride who professed love for Him publicly at Mount Sinai. Now, look, He has kicked His bride out of His House because she is disobedient to Him. Who needs to obey Yahweh? He cannot get His own bride, Ephraim to obey Him. What do we respect Him for? He cannot even get His own bride to respect Him.”

Brothers, all through our history, we and Ephraim have rejected Yahweh’s statutes and His commandments. We have not been loyal. We have not shown allegiance. What makes us think that we are loyal? What makes us think that we are allegiant when we are not hastening to keep all of His commandments?

Yahweh tells us to be confounded and ashamed because of our ways and our behavior. So, hmm… Let us think about this, dispassionately. Are we in Ephraim genuinely as pleasing to Yahweh as we might like to believe?

Or who is He talking about right here in this passage, here? Who is not hastening to show His allegiance by doing everything Yahweh says as soon as He hears it? Who is that?

Well, some good news of the kingdom is that Yahweh says He will put His Spirit in us. We know we do not have His Spirit if we are not hastening to keep all of His commandments. But He will give His Spirit; He will put it in us and that is going to cause us to walk in His statutes and to guard His judgments and do them.

Yehezkel (Ezekiel) 36:22
22 “Therefore say to the House of Israel, ‘Thus says Yahweh Elohim: “I do not do this for your sake, O House of Israel, but for My set-apart name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went.

But again, brethren, that is for the few allegiant ones who at least are doing enough to survive the Tribulation that is coming. They may not know everything, but they are being allegiant and faithful to what they know. Let us just be frank. The survival rate for what is coming is going to be very, very low. And if we do not walk right, we are not going to make it. When our forefathers were leaving Egypt, most of them did not make it.

So, if there was ever a time to be right – it does not really matter when we live in history, because sooner or later we are all going to go stand in the Judgment and answer for what we did and answer for what we did not do. But when we are looking the Tribulation in the face, and we see what is coming, and we can read how bad it is going to get, and we say, “the safest place to be is in Yahweh’s will,” where is Yahweh’s will except doing the things He told His, Yeshua, to His Son, Yeshua to do? Just to build Him a kingdom.

The difference is, this time, if our children do not walk right, they will not make it in either. Because this time, no one who is impure will be allowed to enter the land. Does that sound hard? What excuses do we have?

Hitgalut (Revelation) 21:27
27 But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

We serve a war Elohim. We have had His Son’s Spirit for thousand years. So, do we mean in two thousand years as the bride of the Son of the war Elohim, we still do not really know what kind of obedience our Commander and King wants? Really?

Two thousand years with Yeshua’s Spirit and we as the bride, we still do not know what our Husband wants? Really?

Or is it that we do not listen for our Commander and King’s radio transmissions? So, of course we do not hear what He says. So, of course we do not obey the radio transmissions because we did not realize we are supposed to be listening for them.

But we thought it was enough just to read about what happened with our ancestors in the wilderness. We are just taking turns reading things. Not like there is any lessons, have to be applied to us.

I do not know, but I just think if Yahweh thinks about the Torah portions, I just wonder, does He ever say, “I wonder, are they going to read it with an eye to see what their ancestors did wrong so they can learn from the mistakes of history and know how to apply them to themselves?” Because all our forefathers, their bones all dropped in the wilderness.

Verse 22, “Therefore, say that the House of Israel, the House of Ephraim, ‘Thus says Yahweh Elohim. I do not do this for your sake O House of Israel, because I have already given you countless chances and you have ignored all of them. It is like you are completely incorrigible, so I am not doing this for your sake because we have already been down that road a thousand times.”

“Therefore, rather, I am doing this for My Set-apart namesake, even though you have already profaned it among the nations wherever you went, spreading Torah-lessness everywhere in My name. And the people all laugh at Me because of how My Son’s bride is misbehaving and flouting. He is taking all the benefits; does not want to do anything for the kingdom.”

Yehezkel (Ezekiel) 36:22
22 “Therefore say to the House of Israel, ‘Thus says Yahweh Elohim: “I do not do this for your sake, O House of Israel, but for My set-apart name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went.

“Therefore, I will set My great name apart which has been profaned among the nations which you have profaned in their midst. And then the nations shall know that I am Yahweh, says Yahweh, when I am Set-apart before you in their eyes.”

Yehezkel (Ezekiel) 36:23
23 And I will set-apart My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am Yahweh,” says Yahweh Elohim, “when I am set-apart in you before their eyes.

“Ephraim, you are going to realize how important it is to obey Me. You are either going to learn that or you are not going to survive the Tribulation. But those of you that want to please Me, those of you that want to survive, those of you that want to raise your children up in the way they should go so that when they are older, they shall not depart from it and they will make it into the kingdom, you will know that I am Yahweh. You will know how important it is to obey My voice to do the things I tell you to do. I am trying to help you succeed, but you have got to listen for Me you have got to do the things I tell you to do.’”

Verse 24, “‘and that is when I am going to take you from among all the nations and I am going to gather you out of all the countries after trumpet seven, after the Tribulation. And I am going to bring you into your own ancient homeland after Armageddon.’”

Yehezkel (Ezekiel) 36:24
24 For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.

Verse 25, “‘That is when I am going to sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall finally ultimately be clean. I am going to cleanse you from all your filth, all from your idols.”

Yehezkel (Ezekiel) 36:25
25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

“I am going to give you a new heart, I am going to put a new spirit within you. I am going to take the heart of stone out of your flesh.’” We thought we had a fleshly heart, right now apparently, it is a heart of stone. He is going to take this stony heart out of our flesh; He is going to give us a heart of flesh. It is going to be like being born again, all over again.

Yehezkel (Ezekiel) 36:26
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Verse 27, He says, “‘And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them at long last.”

Yehezkel (Ezekiel) 36:27
27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

“Then, once you start obeying, once you have the right Spirit, once you begin obeying, that is when you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers. And that is when you shall be My people and then I will be your Elohim.’”

Yehezkel (Ezekiel) 36:28
28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your Elohim.

When our allegiance to Him changes, when we switch sides, we turn away from Satan and the kingdom of Egypt and Babylon, we turn back to Yahweh who made us. And He knows when we love Him, when we are eager to do everything He says. Because then we trust Him. We know we are doing these things because Yahweh has commanded us these things for our own good.

Well, if you were to ask the average Christian, or Messianic, or Ephraimite, how he thinks his walk in Elohim is, he would probably tell you he is doing good. He is a disciple, he is doing a good job, he is doing a great job. He could do a little better, but mostly he is doing a good job.

And he would probably say that he does love Yahweh his Elohim with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength. But the thing is, is he really doing anything? Is he lifting a finger to truly build Yeshua’s unified, global kingdom according to all Yeshua’s instructions?

Most Ephraimites, most Messianics, is their idea of discipleship sitting and relaxing in front of the TV set or going out to movies with family and friends, going to dinner, having closeness and oneness with the world? They want their children to merge, to mesh well at school. Their idea of serving Yahweh is not to be a people set-apart unto Him, but maybe they might want to post some verses on Facebook (or some social media). They might want to get together on Shabbat, and break bread, and sing a few songs together. Maybe a little messianic dance?

All right, well, when we read the Parasha, Yahweh tells us that our view of ourselves in these last days (somehow) is not the same as His view of our performance and behavior in these last days.

In Yechezkel (or Ezekiel) chapter 36 starting in verse 31, Yahweh tells us the times are coming very soon, we will remember our evil ways in our past and our deeds that we are not good. And that is when we are going to have true repentance, we are going to loathe ourselves in our own sight for iniquities, and for our repeated patterns of sin; for all our lukewarmness and our abominations.

Yehezkel (Ezekiel) 36:31
31 Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities and your abominations.

Verse 32, He says that not for our sake is He going to do this. We need to acknowledge this. This is what He wants. He wants us to acknowledge the existence of sin in our lives. Not just that we have sin, but that our nature is sinful, that we have to learn to be ashamed and confounded for our ways, O House of Ephraim. Because we have rebelled continuously against the ways of Yahweh our Elohim.

Yehezkel (Ezekiel) 36:32
32 Not for your sake do I do this,” says Yahweh Elohim, “let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O House of Israel!”

Well, are we ashamed and confounded over our sins yet? Are we repenting and turning back to Yahweh yet? The reason we ask is because for our Brit Chadasha portions, we are going to talk about what Ephraim can do in order to become a people pleasing to Yahweh again. And therefore, if we are pleasing to Him, we can escape His righteous judgments that are going to come upon the whole earth.

So, like it or not, there is still some things that we, Ephraim, need to learn as a people. For one thing, we are all called to learn how to hear His voice and to obey what it says, diligently.

So, hearing His voice, that includes obeying His written commandments as well. It is not an option; it is not. Well, we are doing okay now, but one day maybe we are going to tithe, maybe one day we are going to obey congregational discipline, maybe one day. That is not how it is. That might be how it is in the church, that is not how it is in Scripture.

So, another thing that we need to learn in the House of Ephraim is we need to be doers of His Word and not just hearers only like our ancestors, deceiving ourselves. That is what our ancestors did that is what the church wants. Still is, that we deceive ourselves. And forgive me, that is what the Rabbis want, also. They are part of the Babylonian system.

Now, in Mattityahu (or Matthew) chapter 9 starting in verse 35, Yeshua speaks to His disciples about how large the harvest is and how few laborers there are (we understand this in Nazarene Israel). and He says that His disciples should pray to Yahweh to send out laborers into His harvest.

Verse 35, “Then Yeshua went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Good News of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.”

Mattityahu (Matthew) 9:35-38
35 Then Yeshua went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.
37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
38 Therefore pray the Master of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

The only question is, why are not there more true laborers working in His harvest? Because if we are walking the right way, we are already promised it is not going to be easy, Yeshua tells us it is a narrow and afflicted path that we seek. It has persecution and it costs money. The kingdom runs on our sacrifices, on our donations. So, anytime you really serve Yahweh, you are giving, it is paid to play (so to speak).

Well, the reason there are not more true workers, the sad truth is that most of us are interested only in what we can get from Yahweh. We approach Yahweh like a thing of the world.

In the world you want to see how much can you get for how little, that is the basic law of supply and demand (and this kind of a thing). But to treat Yahweh that way, to treat Yahweh like a thing of the world, we are trying to get as much from Yahweh as we can, trying to see how little we can get back to Him. Yahweh is not mocked.

When we start talking about how a man will reap even as he sows. Now, let us start talking about our walks. Now let us start talking about: How do we show Yahweh allegiance? How do we honor Yahweh? How do we glorify His name? That is going to cost us something, to glorify His name, that is not going to be a free walk.

So, the number of people who are willing to participate in the worship when it is free is this much, and the number who are willing to pay the cost (the true cost) drops down once they hear sacrifice is involved.

And that is how Yahweh knows the difference. Because only those who truly love Him enough first to learn what He wants and then to do it to implement it in his life so that everything that he does is in line with Yahweh’s priorities for our lives. We have to lay down our lives and our priorities for our lives. We have to pick up our burden, we have to begin living for Him in a very real way, when you begin living to build His kingdom.

And the numbers drop way down because Yahweh does not like lip service. No matter how much we claim to believe in Yeshua and no matter how much we claim to be His followers. No matter how much we claim to be His people, He is not impressed when we pick and choose which of His commandments we want to keep. And He is not impressed with that.

Well, a very important study that everyone needs to know about is in The Torah Calendar study, near the end, it is called “About “Service””. And most people have no idea what service means to Yahweh.

Most Christians you say, “Well, that is not what that means to me.” It is like, it does not matter what it means to us, it matters what it means to Yahweh. So, in the Torah Calendar study, in this chapter on About “Service”, we talk about how Yahweh views service. And we never stop to think about it, but in Scripture, service is effectively anything we pay attention to.

If we are giving our attention to something we are serving something. If we are paying attention to Yahweh, then effectively we might be serving Yahweh. If we are doing what He says.

If we pay attention to Yeshua, we might be serving Yeshua if we are doing what He says, diligently. Because we are eager to do so. Because we love Him, we want to see His kingdom built. We are going to be ruling and reigning over it, after all.

Well, if we obey the Rabbis, then effectively we are serving the Rabbis (Elohim forbid). If we obey the Pope’s words, then we are effectively serving the Pope (Elohim forbid). If we in Ephraim adore a golden calf, or a cross, or a hexagram, or hexagram fish, we are basically paying attention to or serving those images and the Spirits that are attached to them (Elohim forbid).

[And for those who want to know about the images, we have a study called “Forbidden Images” in Nazarene Scripture Studies, Volume One.]

The thing is, when we pay attention to these visible objects, these graven images (if you will), these visible objects, these idols, they are receiving our energies and attentions. So, therefore, why are we doing that? Elohim says we are serving them. Elohim forbid, but that is what He says.

So, to give attention to anything is to serve that thing. So, now Yahweh (let us take this to the fullest extension), Yahweh tells us that He is a jealous Elohim and that His name means jealous and what is Yahweh jealous of but His wife’s attentions, and His wife’s loyalty, and His wife’s allegiance?

Shemote (Exodus) 34:14
14 (for you shall worship no other elohim, for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous Elohim),

The thing is, we only have so much time in this world. How much of it are we spending with Elohim? If we do not want to spend time with Elohim now, how does He know we will want to spend time with Him in eternal life? If someone does not want to spend an hour or two with you once a week, are you going to want to spend forever with them? I do not think so.

So, how does Yahweh feel when we are more interested to go to the movies, or to go to the bookstore, or to go to the mall, than we are to spend time in His Word?

How does Yahweh feel when we are more excited to go to dinner than we are to stay in His Word so we can know how to be of use to help His Son build His kingdom?

In Devarim (or Deuteronomy) chapter 6 and verse 13, Yahweh tells us that we are to fear Yahweh our Elohim and serve Him only, or to take oaths in His name (if we take oaths), but we are to serve Him only.

Devarim (Deuteronomy) 6:13
13 You shall fear Yahweh your Elohim and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name.

Brothers and sisters, if we give our attentions to the movies, we give our attentions to t-ball, basketball, track and field, vacations, prosperity doctrine, the things of this world, we are not behaving like loyal and allegiant soldiers of our King. And if we do not behave like loyal and allegiant soldiers, how will He know that we are loyal to Him?

In Second Timothy chapter 4, we see the time is going to come when we, Ephraimites, will not endure sound teachings based on Yahweh’s Word. Instead, our people, us, we are going to flock to whatever teacher or preacher tells us what we want to hear tickles our ears according to our desires. In other words, we do not want to know what Yahweh says, we want someone to tell us what we want to hear and dress it up like it is the Word of Yahweh. That is just what we saw on the Haftara prophetic portion.

Timotheus Bet (2 Timothy) 4:3
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;

Verse 3 tells us that the time will come when our people will not endure sound doctrine. Sound like today? But rather, according to our desires because we have itching ears we keep up teachers for ourselves, we go round up some dumb greedy dogs that do not know how to bark.

And it is the House of Ephraim, that is what we do, we turn away from Yahweh’s truth, we turn away from the Torah, we are turned aside unto fables again and again.

Brothers, Mystery Babylon is all about appearing to worship Elohim correctly when we are not really. It is about putting on a façade, it is a show, it is not the real thing.

And the thing is, in the Christian world and even to some extent in the Messianic world and in the Ephraimite world they are all about adoring Yeshua. So, we adore Yeshua, but when in the church, do we ever learn to walk like Yeshua?

And who among us does not need to learn to walk like Yeshua; become more like Yeshua before we can realistically build a unified global kingdom for him?

Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 2:6
6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

And that is the task that His Father sent Him to establish. And He in the parable of the minas, tells us it is our job to build the kingdom while He is off receiving the kingdom and then will return. It is our job to be busy, building it for Him now. That is a very different structure than the church.

If we are willing to receive it, the church is kind of like the ancient Roman amphitheater system. The people pay their money, they file in, they are entertained, now they leave. Did anyone learn how to walk like Yeshua walked or did it just sort of look like worship of Elohim in service to Elohim even though it was not really what He says to do in His Word?

And can we understand why Elohim would have a problem with that? What is Yahweh’s problem with that, anyway? Not even doing what His book says to do, what is His problem with that?

Oh! Oh! But we expect to be taken as part of His bride, right? Even though we are not doing what His book says to do, right?

Brothers, what it really comes down to, forgive me for being so bold, but what it really comes down to is that each one of us must make a very personal decision. Each one of us must take the time to sit down and count the cost and ask ourselves, do we want to learn to serve our King the way He says He wants to be served?

Or do we want to be one of the many that fall dead in the Tribulation in the wilderness; still outside the land just like our forefathers fell dead when they were leaving Egypt because they did not want to hear, they did not want to be zealous to do?

Well, brothers, when our people are scattered, when they are doing the wrong things, do we want to be like them? Or do we choose to become like the faithful Levites who chose Yahweh? They went down in history for choosing to be on Yahweh’s side, for taking up His cause. Is that not what we are supposed to do for Yeshua, is to choose to be on His side? To take up His cause?

Brothers and sisters, do we show allegiance to our King? Are we showing Him some reason to take us as a bride unto Him forever? Or are we like our ancestors, going to be lukewarm?

We must decide. And that decision influences life and death in the Tribulation time frame.

May He lead us to choose the right thing.

Shabbat Shalom.