In Parashah, Sh’lach Lk’ha(Numbers 13:1-15:41),we are immediately confronted with the issue of a crisis of both faith and personal identity. At the beginning of Numbers chapter 13, Moshe is told of Adonai to send scouts into the territories of the Canaanites to reconnoiter the land. (vs. 1-2) The company of the men selected were therefore chosen by tribe and dispatched from the P’aran Desert and report back to their leaders for the purpose of God’s people what out in confidence and claim what the Father had faithfully promised the them! In verse 27, the scouts return with large bushels of fruit, reporting that the land was good, fertile and also “… flowing with milk and honey” and their report is followed by Kalev (Caleb) who in faith and optimism declares, “We ought to go up immediately and take possession of it, there is no question we can conquer it” (vs. 30). Yet, no sooner than Kalev speaks prophetically in trust and assuredness, the people who went with him respond, NO! - “We can’t attack these people because they are stronger than we are … [and]to ourselves, we looked like grasshopper in comparison, and we looked that way to them too.” (vs. 31, 33) Following this “Negative Report”(v. 32), Israel in the following chapter of the Torah, embraced Fear instead of Faith and as per the Sages of Israel, wept “false tears,” and in turn are judged by God. Although commonly ascribed to our observance in the Jewish Calendar of Tisha B’Av, these false tears remind of our immediate problem today of many non-Jews, when coming into Messianic Judaism choose to snub our calling as a One-New-Humanity and out of a “falsehood of identity crisis,” seek to obtain that which was not promised to them. For both Jews and Gentiles alike, when coming to faith in Messiah Yeshua - we all meet on the same place, and we are all saved and transformed by Yeshua, our single loving Savior! In the end, he (our Magnificent Obsession) is all that matters and he alone is the one who has broken down the wall of division between Jew and Gentile (Eph. 2:14) by making us a single people! Although Israel holds a covenantal calling before God, the Messianic Gentile likewise has a great calling as the Ger Tzaddik (Righteous Gentile) to dwell and thrive as a vital part of the Body of Messiah. (Ruth 1:16-17). Likewise, the Ger Tzaddikalone is called and anointed of God to serve in provoking all of Israel to jealousy in Yeshua their Messiah (Rom. 11:11)! In the end, for all of us - both Jew and Gentile - if we are to fulfill God’s calling, then we must never seek to “replace the other,” but instead remain in the special state God has called us! (1 Cor. 7:20) Pursue your Calling, Pursue your Anointing and celebrate who you are in Messiah our Lord! This is our Last-Days Calling!
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March 2024
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