#41 Haftarah Pinchas - God revealing His character to Pinchas, Elijah and Us

[Music] you [Music] you this morning's haftorah is the 41st haftorah in the cycle of tour portions so you go from the last day of Sukkot in the year which is always in the fall and you end the tour portion the annual cycle of reading with this holy day called Simchat Torah which means rejoicing in the Torah and it's a day that we rejoice in having read the whole of the Torah throughout the whole year and then we start anew so we start counting from that time in the fall which is usually October and here we are in our 41st Torah portion which is called Pinkus and it's about Pincus who is the son of Eleazar son of Aaron so he's part of the lineage of these high priests and to remember last week when bollock King of Bay or desired to curse Israel but he could not get bilam this false prophet to curse them because as long as Israel was unified with God it's their center no curse could come upon them only blessings so what did they do they got Israel to curse themselves and that's the way it is in our life no one can curse us we're under the blood covering of Yeshua amen and we have an immense power as long as we stay in harmony with God's principles that gives us a blanket of protection and health and wellness in all areas of life prosperity but when we sin what we're doing is we're removing ourselves from Hashem is covering and we place ourselves in this other domain where positon the enemy is and everything else is a domain of death and that loss of blessings that loss of health that loss of prosperity is defined as a curse but it's not God cursing us we curse ourselves and so here how did bilam get Israel to curse themselves was by removing themselves from Hashem Torah through fornication with the Midianites they had in prostitution as a part of their pagan false worship and they had these beautiful women come down and entice the men of Israel so in our torah portion this morning Pinkus you're gonna find and we will it's just a small section of the tour portion I think we will go back and read it to establish the principle he has this righteous indignation he's very zealous for God's name and for his holiness amongst history and he sees Israel losing the blessing so much so that 24,000 people have already died in Israel they've brought a plague upon themselves so when there's people weeping and mourning for this loss and at the entrance of the tabernacle here lo and behold while everybody else is repenting this brazen Israelite comes down with a woman from Midian and he's going to have relations with her right there in front of everybody he's not even hiding it and this righteous indignation rises up in Pinkus and he takes a spear and he just goes and he throws the spear and Pierce's both of them has they're together and this tough Torah it sounds brutal and it sounds very graphic but we're going to parallel the tour portion with the haftorah of Elijah Eliyahu the Prophet who has this righteous indignation against the prophets of Vail and remember after he proclaims that God is the only one true God and he brings fire down from heaven and it consumes the altar and the water and they the rocks and everything what does he do he rises up and he kills the 450 prophets of Vail now we always talk about how great these acts are of Pincus and Eliyahu today father's given me another take on it to kind of look at the other side in how sometimes we do things in our righteous zealousness but it's not necessarily in harmony with God's character and God and his loving mercy understands when we do something selflessly selflessly for him even though it might not be perfect like many people have imposed their religious views upon others and I don't believe that force or manipulation or coercion or violence of any form is a part of the character God so what does God do with these righteous men when they're living up to the light they have but they don't have all the light he brings them gently a little further and we're gonna see how he introduces this covenant of peace to Pincus even after Pincus kills this Israelite in this Midianite woman and how he introduces himself to Elijah in that still small voice reveals another aspect of his character after Elijah kills the 450 prophets of bail and then runs from Jezebel it's like God is revealing his character to each one of us and we all have limited amount of understanding and light and all God asks us is to live up to that light and sometimes we do things in our religious zealousness and our righteous indignation that is not necessarily a part of the character of God and it can cause division and it can cause harm God says you shall not kill you should not bring harm to another life you know God's form of punishment is not to arbitrarily kill anyone he allows the cause and effect of our sins to take place where we can learn from our sins and we see the loss of blessings and health and prosperity and so it's really amazing how God in his character will meet us where we're at but like especially through Yeshua he desires to take us further Yeshua says you have heard it said you shall not kill but I say to you anyone who's even angry with his brother has already committed murder in his heart and I you've heard it said he you shall not commit adultery but I say to you anyone who lust miss heart after a woman has already committed adultery so he's taking the oured action that torah tells us what is good and what is not good what's selfless and what's selfish and he takes it further to a mindset into a heart relationship and this is what we're going to explore in not only the Torah portion and the haftorah this morning but also through Yeshua and the Apostles and look at the application of it in our lives how can we go that next step in our spiritual growth do not even think in a way that manipulates others to not use force in any aspect of our being or coercion or any element that's not a part of the character of God so we before we get into the haftorah which is found in first Kings 19 we're basically going to read that chapter 19 let's get the principle established with Pincus and you can find it in numbers chapter 25 and we'll just read the first 19 verses and then go into the hospital now with Pincus a new type of person and a new type of religious focus in Judaism arises it's called the zealot everybody's heard of the zealot right somebody who is just full of zeal for vindicating God and his character pinkest son of eliezer son of are on the priest has turned my anger away from the israelites by being zealous with my zeal in their myths so that I did not put an end to them in my zeal numbers 25 11 so we see zeal used a lot now what kind of zeal is God's zeal God zeal is he is such an intimate relationship God he desires to be right there with us at our Center but if we're harboring darkness what is the light of his love look like it's like a consuming fire and so while Israel was harboring the sins he couldn't even be in their midst otherwise it would consume them and here he is the Shekinah glory dwelling in the most holy place of the tabernacle and so we see all these people that engaged in this immorality began to die because they're in the presence of God and darkness cannot coexist with light so he's basically saying I understand what Pincus is doing because of his heart for me his zealousness and it has actually turned away what's called anger in the Bible is not anger in the sense of human emotion like we a lot of times to recreate God in our image then we do them a great injustice because our dad our Heavenly Father is so much better than we can even imagine he does not have anger in the form of a situational God where when we're good he's good and when we're bad he's bad Romans 1:26 describes what the anger or the wrath of God is Paul describes it as God finally giving people over to the lust of their flesh allowing them to experience the full cause and effect that he's been withholding in mercy he's sustained our life even while we're in sin that's the mercy of God the anger is that he finally allows you to experience a little bit more of that cause and effect sometimes it manifests in health loss of health or loss of prosperity or a loss of protection and like I said everything else is a domain of death Satan his accuser of the Brethren and he's just waiting to be able to claim our lives and so God is a God of mercy and a saving God and he realized that what what Pinkus had done was in an attempt to stop this spread of this plague killing all of Israel he was followed many centuries later by one other figure in Tanakh described as a zealot the Prophet Eliyahu he tells God on Mount Horeb which is Sinai I have been very zealous for yo-dee-hey Vevey God Almighty and we'll look at that in our haftorah so we're gonna look at the theme of zealousness but see how much zealousness is in harmony with God's character and what aspects we have to be careful that in our zealousness we don't use sir or go ahead of God's character or act outside of God's character of love our parsha begins with the reward that pinkest receives for his zealotry it's important to internalize pincus's uniqueness and understand that the special covenant of peace that he received and the many miracles that helped him were given specifically to a person of his rare qualities the only other person who seems to have been able to exhibit pincus's approach to zoetry is elijah the prophet this similarity may be the basis for the Talmudic opinion that elijah actually has the same soul as Pincus and we've talked in other messages how the spirit of Elijah is made manifest in different generations like Yeshua says John the Baptist is Elijah if you can receive it so we often think about it starting with Elijah and then going to John the Baptist and then the third Elijah will be the spirit of Elijah on God's witnesses in the last days who will be zealous for his name and standing up for this error of Israel mixing having a wrong union with a false religious system in the last days but we don't often think about how it proceeded Elijah the prophet in the person Pinkus so we have multiple manifestations of this same spirit upon God's people so let's look at chapter 25 in numbers first one and we'll get a little picture of what was happening there at Israel after bilam the prophet got up and he couldn't curse them he returned to his home and bollock king of Eylure also went back to his home down in moab and israel stayed there at Cheatham and there the people began to with the women of Moab is so the very king that wants to curse them gets his women to come in and to entice them and these women invited the men to the sacrifices of their gods where the people ate and bowed down to their gods with israel thus whoring or join to Baal peor this is about intimate word with israel thus joined it's just like we're supposed to be joined to gosh em we're supposed to be joined to the Holy One of Israel and we sever that bond and we go into spiritual adultery when we embrace any form of paganism and so here they are engaged in spiritual adultery with Baal peor and the anger of adonai blazed up against israel once again we see this wrath is him allowing israel to experience okay you don't like what it's like being connected with me all the blessings all the health all of that he doesn't have to arbitrarily do anything he just allows them to experience the absence of the blessings that come from being connected with him and i don't i system O'Shay take all the chiefs of the people and hang them facing the Sun before Adonai so that the raging fury Avadh and I will turn away from Israel Moshe said to the judges of Israel each of you is to put to death those in his tribe who have joined themselves to this false God they all pay or just then in the sight of Moses and the whole community of Israel as they were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting a man from Israel came by bringing to his family a woman from Midian when pikas the son of Eleazar the son of a her own the priest saw it he got up from the middle of the crowd took a spear in his hand and he pursued the man from Israel right into the inner part of his tent where he thrust his spear through the both of them the man from Israel and the woman through her stomach this was the plague among the people of Israel and it stopped thus the plague of Israel stopped nevertheless 24,000 people died in this plague not and I said to Moshe Pincus the son of Eleazar the son of Haran the priest has deflected my wrath from the people of Israel by being as zealous as I am so that I didn't destroy them in my own zeal therefore say I am giving him my covenant of Shalom it's very interesting when God tells us that he is only a life giver not a life taker but in ancient times people didn't understand about the character of Satan they didn't understand that he was a murderer and a thief from the beginning and so they attributed everything to God for the first 3,000 years it wasn't until the time of David actually in 1000 BC that we start seeing mention of Hashem hafsat on everything was attributed to God good and evil light in darkness and so they thought that they were justified taking life because they thought this is what God asked of them and when you take a life there is a piece that is broken in your own soul there is a disconnect and what's amazing is in this word here where God he understands why Pincus is doing this and he's very zealous for vindicating God's character in the eyes of Israel and yet he's living up to the knowledge he has he doesn't realize that he should not kill and what happens is when it says behold I give to him my covenant of peace it's God's Way of expressing to Pinkus I'm much more than the one who performs the deed of punishment the punishment is inherent in the sin sin arises from selfishness and all self seeking is self destructive you end up destroying yourself when you live out of harmony with the eternal principles but all God's principles can be summed up in a hovel love and peace and that's why in the New Testament it says the fruits of the spirit are love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness and self-control so what he's doing is he's taking Pinkas further and he's saying instead of rebuking him he's just revealing that he is a God of peace not of violence not of force and when Moses was inspired to write this the word peace is Shalom and what's interesting about the word Shalom is you see the sheen which looks like a fire and fire is used to consume or destroy things the lammott is a shepherd staff and that's to lead or authority the volve is a connector it's like a nail it can just like our and it's used as and in the Hebrew and the mem is waters which are oftentimes chaotic so it has a connotation of chaos so the actual pictograph even hints at destroying the authority connected to chaos that's what brings peace when you destroy the chaos in your life and what was bringing chaos to Israel was their immorality and you we saw widespread death because of it so Pincus righteously wanted to save Israel and the only way he knew how to do it in that moment was make an example out of this brazen man who's going to fornicate with this woman in front of everyone and so God tells him I'm gonna give you my covenant of peace but look at what happens to the vows that I in the Torah where a Hebrew letter is broken because even in trying to bring peace to Israel something became broken in Pinkus and God wants to restore that you know it's like our sins have broken God's heart and Isaiah 53 talks about how the iniquities of us all will fall upon mashiac and he was bruised for our iniquities and he was beaten for our chastisement and so this broken vom the valve is also the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet and it hints at a person just like six is the number of man seven is the number of perfection you can see that Pincus didn't understand everything and in the attempt to bring Shalom to the home of Israel he is actually doing a self-sacrificing act he's actually risking his eternal salvation in killing but he's willing to do it to save everyone so God understood this is actually a selfless act even though it goes against his character and he reveals that he's broken right there with him but in that brokenness there's gonna come healing and even mashiac being broken for our sins there's gonna bring Shalom and this is why Isaiah 9:6 calls Yeshua SAR Shalom Prince of Peace the same word is used SAR as Prince and Shalom is peace and it says that he gives a prophecy to Pincus because of his zealousness that priests like him will forever be his kind of priest that we would put God first so much that like Moses interceding rather to didn't see any of Israel be lost Moses said rather bought my name out from the book of life that's that completely selfless nature of self-sacrificing love when we're praying and interceding for our brothers and sisters in Israel so God gives him this covenant of peace and he's seeking to restore the broken peace due to this death that this priest has enacted and then he goes on to say and he shall have it and his seed after him the Covenant of an everlasting priesthood and this is the lineage that Zadok the tzaddik line came through as through Pincus which John the Baptist was actually of that same lineage and here Elijah has the same soul the sages say as Pincus and the spirit of Elijah comes on John the Baptist who is a descendant of Pincus and yet in John the Baptist day there's so much corruption in Jerusalem because the Greeks have brought in false priests to do what they want to do and so most of the real line of Zadok left Jerusalem and found refuge out in the in getti wilderness with the Essenes and this is why you schewe and John the Baptist's were so close with the Essenes there's actually four groups of Jewish men the Pharisees were like the religious priests the Sadducees were like those in government and the lawmakers and they had great wealth and they held on to their wealth by compromising their spirituality with the Romans then you have the Essenes who would live in austerity and who would just try to preserve the Word of God and they preserved all the Dead Sea Scrolls and then you have the zealots the fourth group so Pincus is a zealot John the Baptist would be both a zealot and a scene and coming from the Pharisees we're told that there were 80 high priests konima kattiline serving in the first temple times and 300 during the time of the second temple all were descendants of Phineas the seed of Phineas was in the loins of Abraham and if we are the seed of Abraham as Yeshua has said we are we too have the potential to not only have the heart of Pinkus with that zealousness but to be a kingdom of priests with the restored covenant that Yeshua says when he says this is the blood of the Covenant he's talking about renewing the original covenant that God made with all of Israel were all the firstborn from every tribe would reign as a kingdom of priests after they bowed the knee to the golden calf at Sinai of course that blessing went to only the tribe of Levi temporarily but God through Yeshua is restoring that original covenant back to us so we can be a kingdom of priests but as a kingdom of priests we have the blessing of the ultimate revelation of God's character through Yeshua he was the greatest manifestation of what selfless love looks like and so we can even go on further in our spiritual walk than even Pinkus or Elijah of old because we know that God is not a violent God God is only a life giver he's light and James says in him there's no variation and no shifting shadow he's only a life not death he's only light not darkness and he's only all of these things combined the essence of selfless love is the essence of life itself and so he's renewing us back to that image of God in selfless love through the understanding of God's character Paul says in Romans 12:11 never be lacking in zeal but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord so zeal is not a bad thing zeal is a good thing just be careful that your zeal keeps you in true spiritual fervor serving the Lord not serving yourself not serving your own agenda not forcing your agenda upon anyone else very important zeal is defined as the enthusiastic devotion to a cause in ideal or a goal and tireless diligence to its furtherance in Galatians 4:18 Paul says it is always good to be zealous for a good thing and Yeshua said no one and nothing is good except for God so it is a good thing to be zealous for God but what character do we express our zealousness in is the question paul also says it's possible to have misguided enthusiasm you know if you think about how many world wars have been fought in the name of God everybody says I'm doing this for God I'm imposing my religion upon others and I'm gonna kill you if you don't conform and assimilate and does God have any part of that absolutely not this is misguided zeal so we have to be so careful the only way that you will reflect the character of God is if you see it clearly because by beholding we become changed into that same likeness this is why we have the ultimate revelation in Yeshua those that worship another false religious system that believe that God is a punishing judgmental harsh God where he promotes killing the evildoer and the infidel we know a religious system I'm speaking of what do they do they emulate that and they become changed into that image and they feel justified and beheading people where we serve a God of love of life of light and we are to reflect that light in our acts of kindness and in our selflessness and even though we have these Bible stories that talk about these mighty men doing certain acts I want like Yeshua to clarify what is of God and what is not to look even deeper into these stories Paul actually says in Romans 10 - for I bear witness that they have a zeal for God notice it's a zeal but not according to knowledge this is huge my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge Hosea 4:6 without the knowledge of God's character we're gonna live in opposition to his selfless love and all self seeking self gratification self forced self exaltation is going to lead to self-destruction so my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge and what's that knowledge in his character to have a zeal is a good thing but to have it according to the character of God selfless love how many times have we seen this by those doing things in God's name God wants us to understand the difference between true power versus force the true power of the energy of the universe is selfless love force has no place in that character force only brings destruction destruction of others destructions of relationships destructions to ourself but the true power and it's so important for us to realize because people mistake this all the time they think Oh God has called me to be powerful and then what kind of Dominion do they have over the earth Adam was called to have dominion over the earth the kind of Dominion that tends the garden that's gentle and kind and wooing not the kind that lords over others and forces others to succumb to their agenda so it's very important for us in our spiritual walk to understand the difference everything we think everything we say everything that we do let it be done with the power of eternal selfless unconditional love one is of the character of God one is not in this week's haftorah the prophet Elijah is the main focus with a zealous righteous indignation for God and the nation of Israel follows his ways according to tradition Elijah shared the same soul as Pinkus the hero of today's Torah portion they both is o ously believe they fought on God's behalf with sincere hearts to live up to the knowledge they had while disregarding the dangers and the loss involved regarding themselves I think of Elijah killing 450 prophets of bail he's incurring the wrath of Jezebel and the whole civil system because Jezebel is in a wrong relationship with a hab so she can get a have to do anything she wants and send out the soldiers against him so he's really selflessly risking his own life by trying to cleanse Israel with the knowledge he had same way with Pincus the whole people could have rose up against him and killed him but they're not thinking about themselves in these acts but they still both of them needed to understand more about the character of God and so God rewards them with that knowledge of himself and they need to go to the next level spiritually so we see God imparting that element of his character in the covenant of peace to Pincus what did he reveal to Elijah let's look in first Kings chapter 19 before the chapter starts the previous verse says the hand of HOD and I was on Eliyahu and after that amazing experience on Mount Carmel he just killed the 450 prophets of Vail they have the the raine had not rained upon the land for three and a half years there was a famine and this is a type of the final tribulation three and a half years of final tribulation where people are experiencing the cause and effect of their sins and we see a hab going to Jezreel in his chariot from Mount Carmel and eliyahu tucks up his garment and he runs ahead of Ahab so here's Mount Carmel I don't know if you can see this here this is the nation of Israel from the Red Sea all the way up to Lebanon border here the Sea of Galilee is here this is Mount Carmel it overlooks the valley of Armageddon and Jezreel Valley is down here and he's running and need beasts a Habs chariot this is how fast Elliot Oh Yahoo was and as we go through the tour portion I'm going to show you where he went in the different places along the way because there's quite a few Geographic references in this hospital it says a hab told Jezebel everything Eliyahu had done and how he had put all the prophets to the sword then Jezebel sent a messenger to Eliyahu may the gods do terrible things to me and worse besides if by this time tomorrow I haven't taken your life Eliyahu just as you took my prophets lives upon hearing that he got up and he fled for his life now here's an amazing man of God who's just brought fire down from heaven and proven God is the only true God and then kills the 450 prophets of bail and now at the words of Jezebel he's gonna be afraid what's wrong there remember the scripture says perfect love casts out all fear and I don't read any of these words lightly I dig in like why would such a powerful man have fear what had it just happened that love in his act of killing the 450 prophets of bail was lessened to see the love of God we have to be a conduit of that love right we often say to change the world we have to be the change to see love in the world we have to be that love what's happening when he's operating outside the character of God all of a sudden he's severing himself from that amazing connection that he had just had and now he has experiencing fear a man of God like Eliyahu should never experience fear it's all because of what he had just done so he gets up any fleets for his life and when he arrived he flees down south to bear Sheva in Yehuda and he left his servant there but he went by himself a day further into the wilderness so here he is up in Mount Carmel and he beats a hab to Jezreel Valley and then he continues on down with his servant to bear Sheva which is all the way down here this is where Abraham had the seven wells and where Isaac lived most of his life and it's kind of like the last part of greenery there's the Oasis and the wells down here and those of you that went to Israel with me we actually went to Abraham's well and then he what did it say he went a day's journey further south in that direction because he's heading this way into the Negev desert this is where he's at now he's by himself he left his servant here in Bear Sheva he covered a lot of land you know how much time it even took us to drive from Jerusalem to bear Sheva let alone running from Carmel all the way down so now we're gonna go even further there's a handy resource to refer to he comes to a broom tree down in the Negev desert he sits down under it and prays for his own death he's basically given up all hope he's totally severed now when we're connected to the life source we're on fire we feel that high energy and we are all pumped up what happens when you do something wrong have any of you ever had a real a powerful spiritual experience but then done some sin or had some sin come up in your life and you feel that severing from the source this is what he's feeling and he says I would would rather die enough now out and I take my life I'm no better than my ancestors then he laid down under the broom tree and he went to sleep suddenly an angel touched him and said get up eat God is so merciful he's meeting Elijah where he's at he's strengthening him in his moment of weakness and he looked and there by his head was a cake baked with the hot stones and a jug of water and he ate and drank and laid down again he's underneath a little shrub down here in the desert and just a little cake and that meal sustained his life you know prophets were known to fast for forty days at a time and Eliyahu was another one like John the Baptist and Yeshua and Moses who would fast for forty days at a time so he's very weak and he was probably fasting leading up to calling fire down from heaven that whole carmel experience must have been very draining so he falls asleep with a little sustenance and the angel comes to him again a second time and touches him and says get up eat or the journey will be too much for you what does the angel conveying God still got a purpose for your life God has a plan for you and God is going to strengthen you and sustain you for this next phase of your spiritual journey so Elijah got up and he ate and he drank and on the strength of that meal he traveled 40 days and 40 nights until he reached Horeb the mountain of God so now he flees all the way down here to the gals and wants to die under a broom tree and God sends an angel to sustain him and two meals on two meals he travels forty days and forty nights all the way down through the desert across the what we call the Aravalli the rviz the lowest land in the world it's below sea level very hot 120 degrees down here and he crosses over comes over here and just below this map is Mount finite and he's going all the way down to Mount Sinai and he goes to the very cave where God hidden Moses in a cleft of a rock when Moses says father I want to see your glory I want to know your character glory and doxa means character that our display of God's brightness there's no arbitrary display of look how great I am it's the it's the manifestation of his love that he can't withhold because love is always other centered so the very place where God says no one has seen my face at any time but I'll put you in the cleft of a rock and you'll see my back I'll pass before you and he verbalized his own character the Lord the Lord God Almighty gracious and kind full of loving kindness he starts displaying all of his character in the same cave that cleft of the rock where God revealed his character to Moses he's now going to reveal his character further to Elijah and this is what he wants to do to each of us through our spiritual journey there's ups and there's downs but each phase each obstacle each trial is an opportunity for greater light if we will face it and each time we overcome he reveals more of his character and ultimately it's gonna be that way all the way through the Millennium until we're perfectly ready to be in the sight of a holy omnipotent God after a thousand years with Torah fully written upon our heart and his glory will not be like a consuming fire there'll be no darkness in us we'll be resonating at that resonant frequency of selfless love and we can be have total at one minute that's what the day of atonement is pointing to total intimacy at one with him once again so here he is in this cave verse nine and he spent the night there then the Word of God came to him and he said what are you doing here Elijah and sometimes God needs to ask us that in our life journey sometimes we take a detour from God's purpose and destiny for our lives and God has to say what are you doing here are you here for yourself are you here for me are you really serving my people my purpose Elijah answered I've been very zealous for yo Dave Ave the God of hosts we say out of nice save out in Hebrew so here again is this parallel of zealousness and he's reminding God see I did everything for you because the people of Israel abandoned your covenant and they broke down your altars and they killed your prophets with the sword now I'm the only one left and they're coming after me to kill me - he said go outside and stand on the mountain before Adonai and right then and there at an I went past and what followed the Spirit of God that blew past him was like a mighty wind and it tore the mountains apart and broke the rocks and pieces before Adonai but how did I was not in that mighty wind that tore the rocks apart he's revealing his character see the spirit goes but what follows is this mighty gust of wind and he's letting Elisha come to the conclusion of what is God and what is not God after this experience is God God of force is he a god of destruction no he says God was not in that mighty wind that tore apart the mountains and broke the rocks and pieces after the wind came a huge earthquake but how deny was not in the earthquake after the earthquake fire broke out and we know how fire consumes things and even God's glory could be misunderstood as when we call it a consuming fire as if he's doing a destructive act but he's not he can't withhold his light this is why he has kept us separate and all of the tour is about laws of love how we can draw near and holiness to him once again he does nothing arbitrarily but like he said darkness cannot coexist with light and so even the fire he's revealing he's not in that destructive force and after the fire came a quiet subdued still small voice this is the humble nature of God's Spirit this is how He desires to speak to you and me and our conscience and in our hearts and when Eliyahu heard it he covered his face with his cloak and he stepped out and stood at the entrance of the cave then a voice came to him and said what are you doing here Eliyahu this is the second time he's asking Eliyahu I want you to come to grips with who you are Who I am and what you are doing here and he answered again I've been very zealous for Adonai the God of armies because the people of Israel have abandoned your covenant broken down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword now I am the only one left and they're after me to kill me too now Adonai gives him further instruction revealing his purpose the next part of his calling he says I want you to go back by the way of the Damascus desert so here he is way down here he's just traveled the whole length of Israel had Mount Sinai in the cave and he's basically saying now I want you to go all the way back Damascus is right up here by the way of the Damascus desert this time don't go through Israel remember Jezebel has people looking for him they want to kill him this is why God told him to go through the Damascus desert so he's going through Jordan what his current day Jordan east of Edom and Moab now what was called the Damascus way he was a trade route and to go back up north to Damascus what's the purpose in Damascus when you get there I want you to anoint Hazael to be king over a ram now a ram is this whole area this nation up in the north they called him that era mites or the are Ami's and this is the area where I was you know goes all the way through Syria to where Abraham had come from and that's why at Passover we often talk about Jacob coming from Rami because Laban was considered to live in the land of Iran as well he says I want you to anoint him to be king over a ram also anoint Yahoo the son of nimshi to be king over Israel and anoint Elisha the son of shaphat of evelle Mikkola to be the prophet after you so each of these men the king over a ram the king over Israel and the prophet that's gonna succeed Elisha are men that are going to do a process of cleansing the nations from this paganism these were God's appointed men and he told him in advance what yeah-ha would do yeah who would do yeah who will kill whoever escapes the sword of Hazael and elijah will kill whoever escapes the sword of Jehu still I will spare seven thousand in Israel every knee that hasn't been down before baa and every mouth that has not kissed him so he left and found elisha the son of shaphat he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen very symbolic because he's gonna be a messenger to all twelve tribes of Israel and he himself was behind the twelfth pair of oxen remember when Yeshua sent out his apostles he had Twelve Apostles and he sent them out how two by two and these oxen have they're 2x2 because the yoke would basically have an older one who knew how to pull the plow training a younger one and so you have to buy two these twelve yoke of oxen well Elijah when he sees Elijah he leaves the oxen and he runs after Elijah just like the apostles when they saw Yeshua they left their nets and they left everything their families and they followed him they immediately recognized him as a man of God and Elijah said please let me kiss my father and mother goodbye which is a reflection of his character he's a compassionate man he has honoring his father and mother he's probably plowing this field for his father let me kiss them goodbye then I will follow you he answered go but returned because of what I did to you what did he do to him he anointed him hah just by putting his mantle on him or placing his hand upon him he knew that he was going to succeed him that was a type of anointing you're right he answered go Larry turn because of what I did to you Elijah stopped following him then he took the yoke of oxen slaughtered them cooked their meat over the wooden yokes of oxen and gave it to the people to eat another attribute of God's character kindness he didn't just keep this meat for himself and he didn't just burn it up in a sacrifice to the Lord he's understanding more of God's character in acts of kindness he gives it to the people and all good leaders need to take care of the people and their basic needs then he got up and he went after Eliyahu and he became his servant or in Hebrew his successor the one to follow him so this is the end of the haftorah for Pincus and we see in Pincus a parallel also that later in that tour portion I just read the beginning of it about Pincus it's a very short description of what Pincus did the tour portion goes on to talk about the census and then how Moses makes Joshua his successor and here we see in this haftorah Elijah is told to make Elijah his successor so that's another parallel between this haftorah and the tour portion and it begs the question what are we doing here at this point in our lives are we exemplifying God's character do we understand our true identity do we understand God's purpose in revealing that identity to the Lost house of Israel and calling them back into harmony with Torah and the one true God of Israel and a love for his land are we making disciples and successors or are we just hoarding knowledge for ourselves you know even an intellectual assent to spiritual knowledge could be a form of selfishness and this is where ego creeps in in a lot of the spiritual teachers of today just having a head knowledge without the application of it in acts of kindness and love without making disciples of kindness and love what is it all about if I just hoard things to myself profiteth me nothing and so we have to ask ourselves just like Moses appointed Joshua Moses couldn't bring the people into the Land of Israel just like Joshua's first coming he couldn't restore the lost house of Israel back to the land but when he comes back he's gonna be a type of yahushua even his name is Joshua who will lead us into the Promised Land and so he calls us to go out to all the nations to tell the Lost house of Israel the good news and to make disciples of all men in Matthew 28 that great gospel Commission the original in Hebrew actually says go and teach all nations everything I've commanded you what did he command you what did he teach his apostles he revealed himself in the and the prophets and the writings all of the Tanakh the Old Testament was pointing forward to Yeshua as the savior and he revealed how he fulfilled the prophecies pertaining to himself as Savior and suffering servant and he wasn't Messiah in his first coming Messiah means Messiah which means anointed as king he was not intending to reign as King in his first coming that's gonna be in his second coming and so we go forth making disciples of all men recognizing not only Yeshua and everything that pointed to him is God's Word made flesh but everything that was revealed from Yeshua about God's character through the ultimate selfless act of laying down his life so let's look at some of these parallels of zealousness in Yeshua and his apostles some of the parallels that we saw already is that Pincus was a man of God and he was a priest from Jerusalem do you know many people the Scriptures tell us that Elijah was a from the land of Benjamin Benjamin and Judah lived together remember leave I had no inheritance in the land but Judah and Benjamin gave them places to stay one of the cities of refuge was actually in venture men and so it is speculated by some sages that Eliyahu was actually of the priestly lineage as well so we see this amazing parallel both men of God priests and prophets Pincus was zealous for God so was Elijah Pincus stood up against the pagan practices of the people they were having a wrong union of men of Israel with a false pagan system that was being worshiped and enticed by the women well King Ahab was supposed to lead Israel but he's having a wrong relationship with the false woman who has a false religious system Jezebel so very interesting parallel there Pinkus kills those leading others astray by their example because of his element jealousness but God wants him to grow further in his spiritual understanding and to understand peace in contrast to force Elijah kills the prophets of veil but then God seeks to reveal himself and his character more through that still small voice so both of them had a little lesson to learn after they used that force Pincus act his Ellis act stopped the plague of Israel Elijah's act stopped the plague of no rain for three and a half years Pincus is rewarded with his offspring holding the priesthood forever and we see that coming out on the spirit of Elijah and upon John and upon God's people in the last days who become a kingdom of priests and we know the witnesses have the Elijah message as we've talked about in our other message called the Elijah message and then of course the parallel of who's going to be their successor in mark 3:17 it says that James and John the sons of Zebedee were actually given a new title or a new name by Yeshua and in Aramaic it's been a rajesh Binet his sons Rakesh is like Thunderbolts it's really you know they're forceful they're zealous for God and literally what he was calling them is sons of zealousness so we can draw a parallel even from Pincus and Eliyahu with them but we're gonna also see their zealousness or overzealousness misguided zealousness if you will needing to be corrected by yeshua so in torah we say by the witness of two a matter shall be confirmed so once i a saw through the spirit the principle of how god was desiring to take Pinkus further and eliyahu further all of a sudden when you see the zealousness of james and john you also understand why you schewe rebuked them when they were overzealous in misunderstanding the character of god and wanting to bring fire down and consume those who didn't receive yeshua this is a named Binet Ragesh that is given as a witness to the fiery zeal of the sons of Zebedee because in their youth they appear to be zealous and uncompromising towards evil in Luke 952 it tells the story of yeshua sending them with messengers ahead of him as he's travelling down from Galilee where he loved to stay and this is Samaria where the Samaritans lived and they Assyrians when they took the northern house of Israel away they ceded the land with a different people from Syria a mixed and these Syrian people would not go to Jerusalem to worship at the temple they created their own worship center on Mount Gerizim so they knew that Jews looked down on them for not coming to the temple so they felt judged by the Jews and then they in turn did not like them yeshua is traveling down south to jerusalem and he's traveling through Samaria and he sins james and john with some messengers to prepare a place to stay at night and they went and they entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for him but the Samaritans did not receive him because he was travelling towards Jerusalem to the place to worship and they had their own worship center when the disciples James and John saw this the sons of zealousness they asked Lord do you want us to call fire down from heaven and consume them let's kill them look at they're not doing what we want they're not receiving you this is the old mindset and what did he say he's revealing God's character further he turned and rebuked them and said you don't know what kind of spirit you're speaking of this is not God's character he does not kill those who did not receive him he says for the Son of man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save isn't that beautiful zealous Ness misguided zealousness zealousness in purity in accordance with God's character is a wonderful thing but the minute we use force or manipulation or coercion or killing to push our agenda or what we think is God's agenda God's religious system what happens we are not partaking of the Spirit of God this is the spirit of the enemy who Yeshua clarified was a murder from the beginning Simon is another one in the New Testament who's referred to as a zealot remember the zealots became a whole system of Judaism so it's not just a person being Seles but there actually was a large group of zealots and Simon was introduced as Simon's aloneness which was the Greek word for meaning one with zeal or following the zealot cause now who were the zealots we'll talk a little bit about this but they were people who were against the Roman oppression of the Jews so they were zealous to stand up like The Maccabees did the Maccabees were a model of zealousness but it became very customary to use force to pick up the sword and what did you say he who lives by the sword will die by the sword and that's exactly what happened to the last of the Jews because they this was such a enticing movement that the people in Masada were a part of the zealots and they were up there saying we're gonna make our last stand through force there was people in Jerusalem using force and then there was those in Masada every single one of those people died because they were using the principle of force he who lives by the sword dies by the sword Vishu says he who seeks to save his life will lose it but he who seeks to give his life freely for my sake will gain it and so we have to understand that even if somebody wants to take our life let it be is not our true identity it's the Spirit of God within us and we can operate within the character of that selfless love that that spirit which is selfless love which doesn't seek the need to even protect itself like Yeshua was led like a lamb to the slaughter he didn't even open his mouth he didn't even defend himself he didn't bring up arms when Peter took drew his sword when the officials came to take him by force Peter with that zel in mind took his sword and took a swipe at the guy and when the guy moved the off game is here and what did you shouid do to the very people who wanted to capture him and kill him He healed it that's our model so see we're taking it further yes we right tore upon our hearts but God had to meet Israel where they were at after 210 years of paganism in Egypt and they were very hard-hearted and very thick scald and so he's basically telling them on the most basic level this is you know when you do this you're operating in my character when you don't do this you know do this don't do that sounds like rules and restrictions but it's all about outward actions you shoe it takes it further and he says the intents of the heart and of the mind is what God is really after being totally in harmony with that character of peace and passiveness non-violence love so Simon there's not too much that's described about Simon in the New Testament and just Simon the zealot is an apt description that implies that he had a certain temperament or he was a part of this political and religious sect called the zealots and as I mentioned before the Jews had three or four major factions the Pharisees where we get the current rabbinical system today they held on to the Torah and tried to preserve everything that the priests did in the temple even after the temple was destroyed a lot of our blessings and a lot of our prayers come out of that system to remind us of the days when there was a tabernacle the Sadducees the religion are the ruling very wealthy and the Essenes the zealots were smaller faction founded by Judas the Galilean and Zadok the Pharisee so even the one who comes who's the offspring of the very first zealot starts this movement called the zealots and it's interesting that most of the poor people who didn't have much going from them they really felt the oppression of the Roman taxation it was the poor who would really join this group even though they were a small group by the majority of the poor people were a part of it Josephus notes that the zealots agree in all other things with the Pharisee achill notions that means they they were all about keeping the law of God but they have an enviable attachment to Liberty they're the kind of people that say God is to be our only ruler and God sounds like us today we want God we want the Bible and Bible only not the traditions of men we don't want heavy taxations we don't want big government we sounds like a lot of heart people here today they were modeled after Phineas the son of the high priest who set the example of zeal for God during a time of apostasy and testing in the wilderness the zealots were a political movement in the first century and second temple Judaism which sought to incite the people of Judea province to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from the Holy Land by force of arms there's that keyword again that misguided zealousness most notably during the first jewish-roman war now because law life Trump's all if somebody is coming to take your life for your family's life according to Torah we are allowed to preserve it to protect our family but we shouldn't be doing preemptive strikes and this is why Israel today you don't see them going on trying to conquer other nations they just want to protect the peace the Shalom in the home of Israel but zealot tree because Rome had basically come into their land and was raping their women and then creating very oppressive environment they took up arms to try to beat them out and sell the tree was the term used by Josephus for this fourth set of Jewish philosophy during this period the reputation of zealots was as forceful violent aggressive agitators to the Romans and while zealousness can be good when devoted to God it also must be in harmony with the character of God as Paul says according to knowledge the knowledge of him in addition to Simon others are also described in Scripture as having a zealous temperament Paul even calls himself a religious zealot for God in acts 22 3 while the disciples perhaps astounded by the clearing of the temple by Yeshua they noticed that he never physically hurt anyone so he was zealous for preserving the house of God in his sanctity and his holiness and as they were meditating on this how he did it but in a passive way you know when he picked up that cord it scared the animals the tables turned over the people fled they knew they were doing wrong he didn't have to do any act of violence it was actually just a display of his power without violence that almost like Henry David Thoreau promoted civil disobedience nonviolent opposition his disciples meditated on some of the prophecies watching everything that you shouid did and how he was fulfilling all of these prophecies they recalled an old scripture that in psalms david says zeal for your house will consume me a lot of times David in the spirit would speak in the first person and it would pertain to Yeshua just like in Psalms 22 when he says my God my God why has thou forsaken me these are all Messianic prophecies well here they realized Oh zeal for God's house is what has consuming him and yet it's non-violent so they could even by his example begin to emulate that deeper character of God whether Simon was zealous because of his temperament or a zealot through affliction we don't know with absolute certainty he did however become zealous about being a follower of Yeshua and he transformed and redirected his passion into total devotion and that's what I want to encourage you today be zealous for God but let it make you so zealous that you would rather die than commit any known sin or act of selfishness or hurt any person or cause any division be totally devoted and dedicated and committed to God and obedience to God just means living in harmony with his character of love don't take revenge my dear friends this is Paul speaking in Romans 12:17 what happens when we have misguided zealousness we take revenge Paul is saying don't take revenge leave room for God's wrath what did we describe God's wrath fast him allowing them to experience the cause and effect of their actions on their own you don't have to punish anybody God doesn't punish anybody this is what this really means let cause-and-effect take its place for it is written vengeance is mine and recompense why does God say vengeance is fine it's not that he's gonna punish them he's saying you don't worry about it I know how to let people learn and how to experience the cause and effect of my actions give it to me don't take things into your own hands their foot shall slip and do time this is a beautiful description of cause and effect their foot shall slip in due time this is God's way of saying how he's going to take care of things for the day of their calamity is at hand and the things to come speaking of the judgment when Yeshua comes and the final judgment is hastily coming upon them for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay says the Lord and praise God he knows how to repay because he's a righteous judge like King David his justice is perfectly mixed with mercy do you know it said of King David that when somebody would come into his court to be judged and say they owed somebody money and somebody is calling them out he owes me and they pull out the record yes you do owe him but he's a poor man he can hardly feed his family but justice says you need to repay and fulfill your oath and so David would create the verdict yes I find judgment that he does owe you this because the records there's enough proof of it but then that mercy would perfectly balance it and David say but I will pay his debt just like you schewe paid our debt the debt that we cannot pay and that's perfect justice and mercy that's God's character Matthew 5:44 gives a beautiful description of God's character about 25 years ago when I was really getting these downloads about God's character this text really said so much to me Yeshua speaking and he says I say to you love your enemies bless those who curse you do good to those who hate you and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you that you might be children of your father you know Paul in Ephesians 5 says the one says be imitators of your heavenly father as little children so we look up at daddy and we say wow what does daddy like but if somebody tells us that our daddy is a harsh punishing judgmental condemning God all sudden we start behaving wrongly with our fellow man it's so important for us to understand him as he really is to be children of our Father which is in heaven means we love our enemies we don't kill them we bless them that curse us we do good to them that hate us we pray for them that even use us despitefully then he goes further and he describes God's character and here's the clincher for he makes his Sun to rise on the good and the evil God gives us the Sun in our solar system which gives life to all forms of life plant life human life everything it blesses everything it touches everyone you know without the Sun we would be a frozen rock out in space so really his son is a reflection of his son of righteousness his own son which gives life to all things and that's what we're supposed to meditate on when we look out into the heavenly bodies and we see that the moon has no light of its own it has two perfectly faced the Sun to reflect it just like we have two perfectly faced and understand the character of God to have light flowing through us reflecting through us and he sends his son not just on those who love him but on everyone the good and the evil because that's the kind of God he is and he sends his rain which brings forth the produce of the earth and gives sustenance on the just and the unjust this is the next revelation of God's character it's so far beyond what we've ever imagined it's so far beyond what even our forefathers imagined in ancient Israel God is a God of love and love alone he's a God of life and life alone this is why James says he is the father of Lights in whom there is no variation or shifting shadow we serve the God of peace you know even in the final judgment even overcoming Satan God calls us to be overcomers but how not through force through the example of Yeshua overcoming sin will crush Satan and this is why John Paul in Romans 16 verse 20 he says the God of peace because he's identifying his character first and foremost will soon crush Satan how not by force because he could have eradicated him out of existence even in the heavenly sphere right and when people hear that they say well he didn't do that because the angels would have worshipped him out of fear and they speculate and I say no he's an Almighty God if he eradicated same he could have erased the memory of him from all the angels and everything would have been a perfect environment there would have been no chance of sin entering this earth why did he not kill Satan because he does not kill even to prevent the deception and sin falling upon his greatest creation mankind God will not transgress his own character you know God transgressed his own character all life would cease to exist as we know it in all the cosmos so how does God gain the victory we vindicate his character we live out that selfless love and we become overcomers and that's what crushes Satan not through force not by might not by force but by my spirit says the Lord so this is a very powerful scripture the God of peace will soon speaking of when we have Torah fully written upon our hearts crush Satan under your feet you are going to be the one to end this great controversy between good and evil that's lasted for the last 6,000 years if you will join me in seeking to be overcomers and live out his selfless love and be unified together as we're unified in him so we see Pincus was zealous but he needed the covenant of peace Elijah was zealous but he needed to recognize that still small voice James and John were zealous but he needed to understand the difference between punitive killing and God's Spirit which gives life and Yeshua is the perfect example of zealousness without force without manipulation without coercion without any violence he perfectly exemplified the character of God for us to see and emulate so that by beholding God's true character we can become changed into that same likeness we're basically being restored into the image of God that Adam was created in and he was a beam of light that love was manifest in him so much so that until he did that first selfish act that light was lost and he looked and it seemed like he was naked because there was a loss of that light of God's love but we are being recreated back into that image so with that let's stand and pray Abba Father we thank you for revealing yourself and your amazing character of love through Yeshua our Savior and future Messiah we praise you Father and we just ask for your Holy Spirit to fall upon us to anoint us so that we can be mighty men of God zealous for you and your ways of selfless love without ever transgressing it without ever using force coercion manipulation or any form of violence we love you Lord and we thank you so much for revealing yourself to us and we just ask that we on this spiritual journey would encourage one another never point the finger never judge never condemn but like Yeshua just give life and edify and build up the body so we thank you for bringing us together at this time in Earth's history to vindicate your character and to encourage one another in this overcoming walk of living out your love in every thought and every word in every deed we praise your Holy Name father and we thank you for this Shabbat which is a little piece of heaven on earth which reminds us not only of creation but helps us to look forward to that seven thousand year that Millennial Shabbat the millennial rest in which Yeshua will reign as king and write your tour upon our hearts as the living Torah we thank you for this and we pray these things in your Holy Name Amen you

Channel: Assembly of Called-Out Believers

Views: 3,842

Rating: 4.884058 out of 5

Keywords: Haftarah Pinchas, Pinchas, Elijah, God's Character, Ahavah, Agape, Love, Selfless love, Character of God

Id: AkwxJx0ISP8

Length: 67min 52sec (4072 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 14 2018