(This article reflects the viewpoints of another and does not necessarily reflect the understanding of Qumran Bet Community or AmYHWH. Perhaps truth would be better served if you also added your contribution to this piece.)
The
Illusion of Freedom
By
Ken Graydon
Some of the Israelites spoke against Moses and Aaron and a plague came which killed thousands. [Numbers 17:6-14]
In this study we want to investigate the ETERNAL’s ways of doing things because He is calling us to a lifestyle that is ‘out of this world.’
The
Tanakh spells out for us the acceptable way of living established by the
CREATOR of the Universe. The ways of living are defined by rules and covenants
(or binding agreements) for a community. There are very few ‘rights’
spelled out – but there are many blessings for obedience.
Deut
28:1-12
Now, if you obey the ETERNAL, to observe faithfully all His commandments which
I enjoin upon you this day, the ETERNAL will set you high above all the
nations of the earth. All these blessings shall come upon you and take effect,
if you will but heed the word of the ETERNAL. Blessed shall you be in the city
and blessed shall thou be in the country. Blessed shall be the issue of your
womb, the produce of your soil and the offspring of your cattle, the calving
of your herd and the lambing of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and
your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be in your comings and blessed shall you
be in your goings. The ETERNAL will put to rout before you the enemies that
attack you; they will march against you by a single road, but flee from you by
many roads. The ETERNAL will ordain blessings for you upon your barns and all
your undertakings: He will bless you in the land that the CREATOR is giving
you. The ETERNAL will establish you as His holy people, as He swore to you, if
you keep the commandments of the ETERNAL and walk in His ways. And all the
people of the earth shall see that ETERNAL’s name is proclaimed over you and
they shall stand in fear of you. The ETERNAL will give you abounding
prosperity in the issue of your womb, the offspring of your cattle and the
produce of your land that ETERNAL swore to your fathers to assign to you. The
ETERNAL will open for you His bounteous store, the heavens, to provide rain
for your land in season and to bless all your undertakings. You will be
creditor to many nations, but debtor to none.
The
people called to (and responding to the call) will live a blessed lifestyle,
their crops will prosper, the rain will fall when it is needed, they will live
in good health and in true prosperity.
So?
Is this your experience and lifestyle? Do people stop you in the street and
ask you ‘what are you doing right?’
There
is an expectation of people living within caring communities who will not only
look after each other but will enhance the environment. The structure of the
community would care for the needy and discipline the greedy. Deut 23:14,15
outlines the hygiene requirements for a camp on the move. The Sabbatical law
of the land – giving it rest every seventh year, saves the land from
becoming depleted.
Deut
15: 7,8,10,11.
If, however, there is a needy person among you, one of your kinsmen in any of
your settlements that the ETERNAL is giving you, do not harden your heart and
shut your hand against your needy kinsman. Rather you must open your hand and
lend him sufficient for whatever he needs. Give to him readily and have no
regrets when you do so, for in return the ETERNAL will bless you in all your
efforts and in all your undertakings. For there will never cease to be needy
ones in your land, which is why I command you: open your hand to the poor and
needy kinsman in your land.
The
Tanakh instructs us to make loans to the needy rather than gifts. It is
forbidden to charge a brother interest. Offering a loan implies that you have
enough faith in him that the loan will be repaid. You give the gift of self
respect.
We
use the 1999 JPS Tanakh because the English is, most of the time, a true
translation of the original Hebrew. It is also really ‘in your face’ with
the truth. If you need telling off, this Tanakh will be the one to do it!
Our
goals and purposes lead us to help the people of the nations who are of Israel
to prepare for the coming Messiah and to be ready for the establishment of
ETERNAL’s government on the earth.
The
current lack of a Temple restricts us from the cycle of the sacrifices and the
need to visit Jerusalem three times a year but the balance of the faith and
practice of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses is current. It should be
our way of life because the consequences of not following this lifestyle may
be fatal!
Leviticus
26: 14-25
But if you do not obey me and do not observe all My commandments, if
you reject My laws and spurn My rules, so that you do not observe all My
commandments and you break My covenant, I in turn will do this to you: I will
wreak misery upon you-consumption and fever, which cause your eyes to pine and
the body to languish; you shall sow your seed to no purpose, for your enemies
shall eat it. I will set My face against you; you shall be routed by your
enemies, and your foes shall dominate you. You shall flee though none pursues.
And if, for all that, you do not obey Me, I will go on to discipline you
sevenfold for your sins, and I will break your proud glory. I will make your
skies like iron and your earth like copper, so that your strength should be
spent to no purpose. Your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the
trees of the land yield their fruit. And if you remain hostile to Me and
refuse to obey Me, I will go on smiting you sevenfold for your sins. I will
loose wild beasts against you, and they shall bereave you of children and wipe
out your cattle. They shall decimate you, and your roads shall be deserted.
And if these things fail to discipline you for Me, and you remain hostile to
Me, I too will remain hostile to you: I in turn will smite you sevenfold for
your sins. I will bring a sword against you to wreak vengeance for the
covenant; and if you withdraw into your cities, I will send pestilence among
you, and you shall be delivered into enemy hands.
It
is interesting when you read this about wild beasts being sent against us that
we have chosen to call the fluctuations of the stock market after wild beasts
– some of the punishment will be to our finances. If you read a newspaper or
watch news on television you will see that the punishments are being applied,
even now. Do you choose to be punished or blessed?
The
‘world’ is obsessed with rights. The United Nations ‘Rights of the
Child’ document tries to take away your responsibility for raising your
children. The United States teaches the world about freedom and democracy –
as long as you do not teach children to pray in school.
Other
governments have different regulations or styles but we want to follow the
ETERNAL’s ways as they are spelled out in the ultimate Manufacturer’s
Handbook – the Tanakh. The ETERNAL proposes a Theocratic form of government,
which He heads. He then chooses to work through one or two people. {e.g. Moses
and Aaron, Joshua and Eleazar, the individual Judges, individual Prophets}.
There is no concept of democracy in the Tanakh.
Freedom,
in the world’s terms, is an illusion. The ETERNAL offers you the security of
His care and guidance. The world offers you chaos.
The
food that is unclean and forbidden is generally the scavengers, the ones that
eat other dead animals or garbage. There is a practical reason for that to be
forbidden. Pigs, for example, do not sweat through their skin so the toxins
stay in their bodies. Prawns, crayfish, lobsters, scallops and other shellfish
scavenge on the bottom of the ocean eating garbage. Sharks eat the weak and
damaged fish or whatever else they can scavenge. The ETERNAL has your
interests at heart when He implies ‘do not eat this stuff, it is on the
earth for another purpose’.
The
first steps you must take are to ‘honour the Sabbath day’ and to keep the
appointed times of the ETERNAL. As you begin to come into obedience you will
receive more truth, more blessings and other people will come into your life.
The
laws of ETERNAL are called ‘commandments’, they are not ten suggestions,
or ten good ideas. The CREATOR of the Universe has said “Do it My way or
………….” It is a clear choice to make. You can grab at the illusion of
freedom (do your own thing) but be assured that the prophecies that ETERNAL
reveals to us in the Tanakh will come to
pass.
It is the real, ‘real thing.’
It
is before you now, the blessing for obedience or the increasing punishments
for disobedience.
We know that, after the return of the Messiah, we may expect to be called to The Land but in the meantime we have the obligation to live and worship as the ETERNAL directs. It’s simple but it is not easy.