Exodus 20:12
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.” (Emphasis added. See also Leviticus 19:2-4; Deuteronomy 5:16)
As we move forward in our understanding of God’s commandments, it’s necessary for us to be mindful of what we’ve already learned from Genesis to this point. We saw, through the lives of Adam and Eve, what God expects of His human beings. He made us to be His own image and likeness. Then we learned about the devastating damage the Serpent’s lies managed to do to God’s beautiful Creation through the Sin into which he dragged the first two humans and all of their offspring. We considered the damage this did to our human nature and the genetic coding in our DNA.
But we also saw that none of this was able to change God or His Love Nature, or His Plan and purposes for His human Creation. God is relentless. He always backs up His Word and fulfills what He sent His Son to do to ‘cover’ the human race with His redemptive atonement and spiritual regeneration. His intent is to completely reverse and undo our ‘Sin decapitation’ and regenerate us on every level by the time this process is over. God is repairing all of the damage that the Sin of radical independence did to us. He promised to restore us fully – spiritually, mentally, volitionally and relationally. And, after He joins us to His Son’s Resurrection and raises us, He will also restore us physically. Our bodies will be fully restored to perfection and we’ll be equipped to be in God’s awesome Presence, Face to face, and we’ll abide with Him in the enjoyment of His Eternal Perfection!
1 Corinthians 15:16-28
“For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
“But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, ‘All things are put in subjection,’ it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be ALL in all.” (Emphasis added.)
So the Restoration into which our risen Messiah is leading us is progressive, rather than instantaneous. It is a Journey…an Exodus, not a quantum leap. Our Messiah is leading us out of Eternal Death…from stage to stage and glory to glory…toward the ultimate eternal Fullness of participation in Almighty God’s Eternal Life and Covenant Blessing and the Inheritance that comes with being as one with God. Scripture tells us that our Master Yeshua, has already done everything necessary to make this possible. He has already entitled us to share in it by the Gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit that God gives to those that repent and obey His Word. The Spirit living in us is our awesome Gift, the ‘Title Deed’, that gives proof of our adoption by God and our ownership of His Inheritance. God’s Spirit in us proves that this awesome Eternal Future is ours because He has already begun to abide within us.
So this tremendous indwelling by God’s Spirit is like the ‘earnest money,’ the very substantial ‘down payment’ God puts within the spirits of His own regenerated sons (men and women). It lets us know by this Gift that already abides in our spirits, that our souls and bodies and our past, present and future will also be immersed eternally into the Fullness of God, in the proper timing of His Plan. The Holy Spirit is our assurance that the full amount is forthcoming…that the transformation that has already taken place in our regenerated spirits, is also progressively renewing and restoring our soul (mind, will, imagination and affections) and the Fullness will be entirely ours when our bodies are either gloriously raised from the dead, or transformed instantly at the moment that the second coming of Messiah Yeshua takes place. Then, finally, we will enter into our Ultimate Eternal Fulfillment in and with our Messiah.
So we continue to emerge from the Darkness…moving further and further into God’s Eternal Realm of Light. And Yeshua’s Jewish apostle Shaul (Paul) wrote his letters to encourage God’s New Covenant people to persevere in this Journey. He shared the most awesome revelations with us even while he was a prisoner under house arrest. Even then he demonstrated and announced to the world that God’s awesome Grace has already made it possible for Yeshua’s disciples to continually rejoice and celebrate God’s Triumph over the works of the Serpent, regardless of their earthly circumstances. God’s Holy Spirit in us reveals that we already have this mind-boggling Treasure abiding within us. Eternal participation in the New Covenant Glory is already deposited in our Heavenly account. We know this because Almighty God Himself, through His Holy Spirit, is our ‘Earnest Money.’ And even now, He abides within us to guide, protect and provide for us while we are still en route to our eternal Home and Eternal Inheritance.
Disciples can Afford It… No Matter What “It” is!
So regardless of what passing earthly trials, setbacks or temporal disasters we must pass through and endure, the fact remains: we can afford it! We already know how everything is going to end. Thus we know how to react to whatever temporary things may take place between now and then. There is never a need to fret or panic. We already know, thanks to the assurance of Almighty God’s Holy Spirit abiding within us, that our Father has us and everything else – past, present and future…perfectly covered and provided and paid for. So, knowing that God Almighty is with us, and that He is loving, guiding and providing for us even now, we can afford to remain focused on Him and to serve Him faithfully and to cooperate with Him in blessing and ‘gardening’ His Creation to its full eventual Restoration. We can face and endure and deal with and overcome – anything!
Beloved, we can afford to be patient, forbearing and kind, compassionate and merciful to everything and everyone we encounter in God’s still-wounded, fallen Creation. We know it won’t be like this forever. We know how badly wounded and mutilated and broken the human race has become. So we can understand why people are the way they are and realize that the Serpent and his powers of Darkness are deceiving, manipulating and enslaving them. Demonic deception is driving people to do the wicked things they do. But Almighty God is here…with us…in us…loving, forgiving, healing, freeing and restoring at all times. He is here to supply whatever is lacking, correcting what is twisted and ruined, replacing Darkness with Light and wicked selfish corruption with His Eternal Lovingkindness, Righteousness and Heavenly Reality. He does this for anyone that can will hear and receive His Word and reunite with Him. And since the Word has commissioned us to follow Him as His New Covenant disciples, we can rest and be at peace…overflowing with outrageous confidence in Him. The Holy Spirit fills us with poise, serenity and courage just as He once filled Joseph, Moses, the prophets, and the Perfect Humanity of our Messiah Yeshua and His apostles when they walked the earth. We know that God is with us, just as He was with those that went before us:
Acts 7:9-10
“The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him, and rescued him from all his afflictions, and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and all his household.” (Emphasis added.)
Acts 10:36-38
“The word which He sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all) — you yourselves know the thing which took place throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed. You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” ( Emphasis added.)
Philippians 4:4-13
“Rejoice in the Lord always (not just occasionally); again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men (regardless of what temporary situations and conditions you may have to endure. I say this because). The Lord is near (so near that at all times He is living and working from within us! Therefore,) Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the Peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension (and abides within His indwelling Word and Spirit), will guard (garrison) your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on (and remain focused upon God’s Perfect Nature that always gives to you) these things (even as we continue to make our way to our final, eternal Glory with our God). The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things (regardless of what temporary afflictions we may have to endure along the way), and (if you do as I am doing,) the God of Peace will be with you (regardless of any of the temporary circumstances the powers of Darkness try to impose on you).
“But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who (always lives within me and ceaselessly) strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my (present, temporary) affliction.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Beloved, can you see it? For those who truly believe and trust in and obey the lead of our beloved Lord and Master, the war between Darkness and Light is essentially over. The enemy has no chance because our Master has already cut him off at the knees! In Yeshua, the Triumphant Lamb of God, we have already won the Eternal Prize. The Eternal Perfection of His Finished Work is our Covering. In Him we have our Victory and endless Triumph! Since we are already one with Him in the Covenant and by sharing in His Holy Spirit, He already lives and abides within us permanently! So what can the Serpent and his minions do to us? The authority Adam surrendered to them has been stripped away from them. And now, Yeshua has all Authority in Heaven and on Earth! So what can the defanged Serpent possibly do to those who belong to the living Word of the living God, who reigns with His Father as Supreme Lord of Heaven and on Earth? If God Almighty Himself is for us, what can stand against us? What can the Serpent do to us now…now that His Conqueror, the Messiah has made us His own and fills us with His own Spirit so that He can abide within us at all times? The answer is: The Serpent can do NOTHING!
1 Corinthians 15:54-55
“But when this perishable will have put on the Imperishable, and this mortal will have put on Immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in Victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” ( Emphasis added.)
So, dear disciples of the Last Days, because of the Perfection and the eternal Completeness of our Master’s overwhelming conquest over the Serpent and Sin and the Death sentence it once inflicted on us, we who have been redeemed and set free can, even now, as we continue our Exodus trek to our Eternal Home in the Land of Promise, abide in the outrageous joy of this certain knowledge. We can overflow with the invincible confidence that comes from knowing that Messiah Yeshua has already overcome and vanquished our mortal enemies. In Him, we are already victorious! He who is Triumph and Freedom Personified, abides eternally within us to live and operate in us and through us, sharing His Eternal Perfection with us as He leads us…all the way Home! So we do not obsess over ourselves and our circumstances in this present stage of the Journey. We keep our eyes on the Final Destination and continue to move toward it relentlessly:
2 Corinthians 4:7-18
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.
“But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed, therefore I spoke,” we also believe, therefore we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace, which is spreading to more and more people, may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the Glory of God.
“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Victory in the Finished Work of Yeshua Is Ours
Beloved ones, it is absolutely essential that we know and abide and remain rooted in the absolute and total Victory that is already ours in Yeshua, our glorious, risen Messiah! He has done it all! Everything necessary that His Heavenly Father sent Him to do…is done to Perfection! And God, abiding and working within us, is the one who equips and empowers us. He is our Righteousness and our Obedience to God that empowers us to fulfill all of the other commandments that concern our relations and interactions with God’s other creations.
John 19:28-30
“After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘IT IS FINISHED!’ And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”
It is finished indeed! What Yeshua proclaimed with His last breath on the Cross was not anything new. It was a resounding reaffirmation and confirmation of what He had uttered from the very beginning, as recorded in human words, through Moses and His Torah:
Genesis 2:1-3
“Thus the Heavens and the Earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His Work, which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His Work, which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His Work which God had created and made.”
This is the most awesome, stupendously relieving and liberating Good News that human ears and hearts could ever receive! This is the revelation that is able to pierce the Darkness of the Serpent that has enshrouded the earth. This Truth cuts cleanly through his suffocating, crushing coils. This is the Light from God that pierces and penetrates and dispels the Darkness and strips Sin and delusion and bondage away from us. This is the Light that frees us from all of the desolation and frustration and anguish and grief that have tortured and crippled and strangled and murdered human hearts since the first moment that Sin decapitated the human race! God has done everything necessary to redeem, free and restore the mortally wounded, Sin-disfigured, guilty, corrupted, lost and forsaken human race. The living Word of our God has been sent to seek us out. And He has found us and filled us with His Spirit…to embrace and fully cleanse, liberate and restore us back to His own beloved image and likeness!
Reality vs. Deception
And so, in essence, the conflict that continues between the Children of Light and the Children of Darkness is the conflict between Reality and Truth and Sanity vs. Delusion and Falsehood and Insanity. God’s Light has invaded and dismantled the domains of demonic Insanity and Delusion. The Lord who is utterly real and substantial has invaded the Darkness of what is totally unreal, empty and non-existent. So we’re not fighting something that really exists and operates in Truth. We’re fighting a pack of lies and delusions that are entirely devoid of substance! The lies of the Serpent generate emptiness and unreality. They are totally unable to make good on their false promises. We are fighting our way through all of the cobwebs of those deceptions. We’re learning to ‘see through’ the bait the Serpent keeps placing before our eyes…bait behind which he has hidden his lethal ‘hooks’ that he hopes to embed deep within our innermost being. The bait appears real…but it is not real. It is a lethal trap, a pit of concealed hatred, malice and murderous intent. But the hooks behind the bait are real! And so we must be trained to know the difference between Light and Darkness.
And this is what God’s living Word came to declare and reveal to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is what He commissioned their Family and spiritual descendants to believe, absorb, obey and embody so that the Word’s Light could invade the Darkness and liberate the rest of the world. The entire fallen world and its systems are built and based upon the shifting sand of demonic Unreality. And before we can do anything that is going to be real, true and substantial, we must make our Exodus from that shifting sand…over to the granite-solid Bedrock Foundation of the revelation of Almighty God and His ways and His Truth and Reality. We must first sink our foundational footings into this bedrock before we can be or have or do anything real and true.
We must be deeply rooted in the one true living God…before we can be rooted in a true relationship with ourselves and the other creations that God has made. Therefore, before we can deal with God’s other creations, before we can love and ‘honor’ our parents and all the other human beings in our life that the following six commandments require of us…we MUST be able to know, love and honor the Lord who created and owns us all! This revelation is for all men of all time, regardless of their color, creed, culture or criminal history! And this is why Israel’s task is so vitally important and precious to the whole world. And this is why the Serpent and his powers of Darkness remain so intent on destroying Israel and obliterating the transmission of God’s living and written Word…and of what God has done through His Word and His chosen people, on our behalf.
In light of this it is much easier to understand why God holds Israel so accountable…and why He holds every generation of chosen disciples of His Word so accountable. It is up to His Word’s faithful disciples to obey, preserve, protect and maintain the pure integrity of what is in His Word…with total accuracy and precision and faithfulness. If we do not hold our God-given Ground…if we begin to compromise and collaborate with the enemies of God…if we begin to ‘cut corners’ and hide Truth ‘under the rug’ and ‘make deals’ and compromise with the lies that God-less decapitated slaves of the Serpent continue to spout, then the Light of God’s Truth will begin to flicker and diminish…and the Darkness will increase and intensify. Therefore, God commands Israel and all disciples of God’s living and written Word to hold their Revelation Ground…to remain true and faithful to the God’s Word and His Salvation and the Restoration process of Creation that God has invited them to share with Him. This is the Treasure that He has entrusted to their care:
Deuteronomy 13:6-11
“If your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods’ (whom neither you nor your fathers have known, of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end), you shall not yield to him or listen to him; and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him. But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. So you shall stone him to death because he has sought to seduce you from the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you.”
Ephesians 6:12-15
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace…” (Emphasis added.)
Nothing is more important than the obedience that true faith in Almighty God requires of us. Nothing is of higher priority than God’s Word of Revelation and Authority. The Word is the Lifeline that God lowers to the drowning human race. If humans do not reach for and grab hold of Him…they will perish. And since Israel and all disciples of God’s Word are entrusted with keeping and protecting and preserving this ‘Lifeline’ for the rest of the human race, God commands us to remain faithful and true to the Treasure that God has entrusted to our care and stewardship. And to make sure that we would be equipped and emboldened and strengthened to remain faithful in the Arena of World Testimony, God promised to send His living Word to become one of us…to send Him in the flesh…as our Messiah…so that we could relate fully to Him and understand God’s Word in human terms…to make sure we got it right. And so the Spirit of God abides in us and transmits into us and through us, the living Resurrected Presence of our utterly triumphant Messiah. This is what God promised to Israel, through His servant Moses, to do for the them, and for the entire world:
Deuteronomy 18:15-20
“The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to Him. This is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the Voice of the Lord my God, let me not see this great Fire anymore, or I will die.’
“The Lord said to me, ‘They have spoken well. I will raise up a Prophet from among their countrymen like you, and (He will appear in human form to comfort and lead them and) I will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command him. It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words, which He shall speak in My Name; I Myself will require it of him. But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My Name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’” (Amplification and emphasis added)
Let everyone take to heart what Almighty God, the living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob commissioned Moses to write in order to notify the entire world. What He says through these words is of the utmost importance to every human being that has ever or will ever, be born into this world. With this proclamation, God gives permanent notice, that any human or group of humans, that would, after receiving His Torah revelation…dare to change, alter or omit what God revealed and commanded through Moses…will suffer dire consequences for daring to do what God has specifically forbidden.
Deuteronomy 4:1-2
“Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You shall not add to the Word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.”
Do you think God was serious when He uttered these words? Do you think He’s ever going to change His mind about the Word He has spoken to us? Will He, in His Eternal Perfection, ever take back something He has revealed to the human race and commanded it to do? Do you think He will allow any false prophets and fraudulent messiahs that will come after Moses and allow them to get away with changing, contradicting or erasing any part of His one, Perfect Word?
Scripture has warned us in many ways, that in the Last Days, most of the world, no matter how religious and ‘spiritual’ it would try to make itself to be, will fall away from the one true Creator of all things. People will take it upon themselves to ‘edit’ God and cut and paste and morph and twist His living and written Word into alien shapes and configurations. Men are continually ‘exempting’ themselves from God’s Reality and Truth. And they try to slither out from under the absolute Authority of God’s Word. God told us it would happen, and…it is happening…all around us and even in our midst.
But God also warned us that He is going to expose those that choose to remain at enmity with Him. They will be found out for what they really are and discredited and put down. Their gross violations of God’s commands will be brought out for all to see by the glaring Light of His Truth and Judgment. What was done in the secret recesses of each human heart will be judged and dealt with publicly, unless we first judge ourselves and repent of our independent attitude toward God, while we still have the chance to do it. If we agree with His Truth…and allow Him to cleanse, straighten and correct us even while we are still en route, He will embrace and reinstate us. If we allow the Holy Spirit to do this utterly important work of correction and cleansing before we reach the end of our long Exodus Journey, we will be totally acceptable to our Perfect God, when the time comes for the rest of the fallen world to be judged. At that time, God’s living Word will be gloriously vindicated. And God will give final Testimony on behalf of His beloved Son and those that are one with Him. And God will establish for all of eternity, His Word’s Eternal Authenticity and Absolute Authority before all of the powers of Darkness, before the entire created universe, and deep within the heart of every man and woman He has ever created:
Psalm 2:10-12
“Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence; and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!”
Matthew 7:15-27
“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you (you never allowed Me to pierce, penetrate and impregnate you with My Life. You are not bearing My Fruit, therefore); depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness (Torah-lessness).’
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the Rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the Rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
In the modern world, amid the enormous ‘Religious Buffet’ that is spread out all around us and that we’ve already discussed, we hear many voices saying things like:
“All religions are in reality worshipping and talking about the same God.
“All roads lead to God.”
“We are all brothers, created by and destined for the same God.”
“Everyone has a right to his or her own opinion.”
“Whatever works for you is fine with me. We’re all entitled to our own views.”
“I can do what I want, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else.”
“God is much too loving to ever condemn anyone to Hell.”
“It is our basic human right to decide for ourselves what we believe is true or false.”
“It is up to each person to choose his or her own faith and beliefs and god.”
Beloved, if you see, and take to heart, what the one true, living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has revealed and commanded in the Torah of Moses and is fulfilling through His Incarnate Word, Messiah Yeshua, you will see how disastrously wrong, misleading and rebellious these popular and widely promoted deceptions really are. Truth is not the product or servant of human imaginations and desires. Truth is not a personal whim. Truth is objective. It is substance that emanates from the one and only Source…the Creator of all things…God’s living Word! The statements listed above are not even close to being true. They are deadly demonic lies…traps, like IED’s (improvised explosive devices) that the powers of Darkness embed along the Covenant Path that leads to our Eternal Home. They are meant to ‘blow up’ in human minds to maim and destroy God’s image and likeness Exodus people. They do to human souls what IED’s do to human bodies. They deceive, ensnare, decapitate and eternally separate unsuspecting, Torah-ignorant human souls from their Creator. They cause men to reject, ignore and bypass the only One who can redeem and save and restore them! This is what the Serpent is intent on doing…not because he loves and cares about what happens to us! He is intent on taking as many of us with him that he can…as God’s changeless Truth continues to lead him and his slaves to their inevitable eternal condemnation, perdition and punishment!
Most of what abides in that enormous ‘Religious Buffet’ that currently spans the globe, is bypassing and ignoring the Torah foundation upon which God commands all humans to build their lives and societies. These ‘alternate paths’ are blinding people to our dire need to join Israel in her Exodus to Eternal Salvation. They prevent people from following the lead of God’s Word. And so many remain caught in this fallen world’s death row existence and remain liable to the ultimate eternal capital punishment that Sin imposes.
Our Salvation Exodus
The Salvation Exodus from Darkness to Light is what is at stake. Erroneous statements such as those listed above are God-rejecting to the core. They contradict and reject and bypass His tremendous Torah revelation and the Moral Law He reveals through His Ten Commandments. This is why Deuteronomy 13 slams the door in the face of any ‘teacher’, ‘messiah’, ‘faith’ or humanistic philosophy of life that emerges in history after the time of Moses and dares to contradict, reject or deviate from what our true Creator and Source has entrusted to His chosen people and their God-ordained prophets and New Covenant apostles to share with the world.
God has commissioned His living Word, our risen Messiah, to confirm, reinforce, testify to and perfectly fulfill everything He has revealed, commanded and promised. Whatever follows the foundational revelation in God’s Torah…must confirm and align with what it has said. That is why Torah’s Truth and Reality constitute the basic Bedrock Foundational Ground into which the roots of Yeshua’s Last Days’ disciples must be firmly and unshakably embedded. There will be many in the Last Days’ generation that will deny, contradict and vigorously oppose this revelation. But the true disciples of Messiah Yeshua cannot be among them. God’s living Word lives within us to confirm, validate and fulfill everything He was told to say to us originally. So He calls and commissions His disciples to follow Him and embody His indwelling Presence…all that He is and all that He is here to do, from within our flesh! He will never lead us in any alien direction that deviates from or contradicts what His Father sent Him to reveal to our spiritual fathers in the beginning:
Matthew 5:17-20
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law (Torah) or the Prophets (Old Testament); I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until Heaven and Earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law (Torah) until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” (amplification added)
In traditional Hebrew culture, the term ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ is one expression, among others, that teachers and sages of Israel have traditionally used to avoid having to utter or write God’s actual Personal Name. This is very common and it is done out of tremendous reverence and respect for God and His holy Name. So when Yeshua used that term in the above text, we might understand His meaning to be something like this:
‘Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in Almighty God’s estimation; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in Almighty God’s estimation.’
The Command to Honor One’s Parents
Now that we’ve skimmed over the basic bedrock foundation revelation that God supplies in His first four commandments about our relationship with Him, we can begin to unpack some of the meaning contained in the next six commandments. What we know about God and His Perfect Nature and Standards and our true image and likeness of God nature that the Serpent and his Sin destroyed, will help us see more of what will be involved in the fifth commandment and the others that follow. Now we will see why our relationship with God is revealed first. It must preside over and determine the character and quality of all of our relationships with each other. What we truly believe and think concerning God will be clearly ‘mirrored’ through the ways we think, judge, act, react and interact with our fellow humans throughout our daily lives.
So let us consider the pure, simple revelation God gives of the original, primal relationships Adam, Eve and their children were to have with God…and, with each other. It is easier to see how God intended things to work when we look at humanity’s origins, when only His living Word and the first two human beings were in the picture. After the human race fell into Sin, and the state of spiritual and relational ‘decapitation’ and living death, things became enormously twisted, complicated and insanely confusing. But in the beginning, when the humanity God created was still pure and whole and unsullied, it is easier to see what God intended and created when He created us to be the image and likeness of the living Word through whom He revealed Himself and interacted with them.
When our first parents fell, they were decapitated from the Word who was their Life Source. So human nature became Sin-corrupted and fatally wounded. Thus it suffered severe damage to its DNA genetic coding. Now, humans were no longer spiritually equipped for eternal Life with God. They were no longer able to function as God’s image and likeness. Now human nature was grossly damaged, twisted and disfigured. The original genetic coding became ‘scrambled’ and altered in ways that God did not originally design and intend. So now He cannot, in His Eternal Perfection, recognize or claim that as His own. Humanity is no longer what God originally created. Now it is ‘damaged goods’… a product of the Serpent’s rebellious malice against God and what He has created.
So your parents and mine, and their ancestors did not originally receive the proper, God-originated legacy and inheritance that He intended us to have. Instead, the legacy our forebears received and gave to us was that Sin-damaged counterfeit substitute legacy and nature that seeps out of our state of Sin-corruption. So in this sense, our original parents were severely ‘abused’ and deprived and damaged by the powers of Darkness. And that is all that human parents have to pass on to their children and all that we have to pass onto our children. Because of Sin, the human family is mortally wounded, broken and very damaged. And the curse that Sin imposes upon us makes us prone to chronic frustration, disappointment and failure. Even our supreme moments of achievement and triumph continually crumble, deteriorate, fade away and leave us to face our eventual demise. We enter this world naked and empty and we leave it in like manner. Thus, our original corrupted mortal nature can never serve as God’s image and likeness. And therefore, it will never ‘pass’ the Judgment of our Eternally Perfect and changeless living, Almighty God.
That is why all of humanity is so desperately in need of being completely regenerated and made into a new, fresh, holy and righteous creation…by the only one who could do such a work…the Original Creator…God’s living Word! Instead of the awesome ‘Original Blessing’ that our first parents received from Almighty God, through His living Word who contains the Fullness of His Father, all Adam and Eve had to pass onto their first sons, Cain and Abel, and all their other children, was the cursed fallen, mortally-damaged state that the Sin-venom of the Serpent had injected into their innermost being. From that time forward, that is all that any of us have to work with and pass on to the next generation. And that continues to be the case with anyone who insists on living apart from, and deprived of, the Truth, Reality and Eternal Life that only comes from Almighty God, through His living Word, Yeshua, and His Holy Spirit.
Leading up to the moment when God sent His living Word to select Abram, the moon-worshipping Chaldean (Sumerian) in Genesis 12, and summoned him to be the first redemptive disciple of His living Word, all God had to work with was a human race that had inherited dead, decapitated spirits, Sin-corrupted souls, horribly damaged DNA with scrambled genetic coding and mortally wounded, disease and accident-prone bodies! This was true even after God included Abram into His Eternal Covenant and restored His Blessing to him and his family…through Isaac and Jacob…and down to Jacob’s sons…who became the patriarchs of Israel’s twelve tribes. This family was chosen and commissioned to be God’s ‘Light to the Gentiles’…but in themselves, all the Israelites had to give to their children, was the Sin-corrupted nature and the cursed legacy of frustration that fallen Adam and Eve passed on to Cain and Abel in the beginning.
Adopted by Our Heavenly Father
So how does God bypass and override that cursed, mortally wounded Sin-legacy that is the lot of every child of Adam? He does it by making each man and woman that will hear and believe and obey His living Word, one with the Word. When they embrace and accept and submit to Him, He becomes their Eternal New Covenant Representative and their restored spiritual ‘Head.’ And our Spirit-imparted Covenant union with God’s Word legally enables God to bond and become as one with us once more.
This is similar to a king who would legally ‘adopt’ a total stranger…a filth-ridden, homeless child that is totally uneducated and unrefined and used to surviving by deception and thievery and by finding scraps that others have left in trash bins and garbage cans. In his compassion for this child, the king brings him (or her) into his own family and installs that child as if he were the King’s own ‘flesh and blood.’ This is similar to what God does for those who repent and submit to His Word and Holy Spirit.
In the case of the homeless little beggar in our example…as soon as the king accepts him and enters into the legal agreement of adoption, the child remains grimy, uncouth and uneducated. He is still totally lacking in education and refinement. He does not know who he now is and what the adoption has given to him in terms of status and rights and inheritance. But…from the very first moment of the existence of that adoption, as soon as the legal agreement includes him into the king’s family, that child is truly the king’s son and legal heir. He may not be able to realize it or what it means, he certainly does not know how to act accordingly, but he truly is the king’s son and a full-fledged member of his royal family. The reality comes first, and the education and training that help him to catch up with this reality and operate in it fully, will come later.
This is similar to what God’s Eternal Covenant Salvation Mechanism does for us. If we believe and accept God’s living Word who became flesh so that He could legally represent us in the Eternal Covenant as our ‘Last Adam’ and New Covenant Representative, God includes us in the Eternal Blood Covenant that He made with His Word. If we’re one with the Word, we’re one with the Father who is one with His Word. And once we’re included in this Covenant union that exists between God and His Word, we are God’s full-fledged sons and Family members.
The Covenant union buys the time needed for God’s Holy Spirit to begin our ‘boot camp’ training. He begins to cleanse, train, educate and gradually transform us from the inside out. And as this continues to happen, the Word, our Master, continues to lead us steadily on our Exodus trek…out from the Serpent’s Darkness and further and further into His Father’s Eternal realms of Light. Thus He teaches us Almighty God’s Kingdom ways. And God can also reach out to those who do not yet know Him, as they notice and observe the transformation that takes place in His Son’s disciples. Their families and friends and acquaintances who knew them before the Lord called them, can see the awesome changes that are taking place and that forces the observers to realize that there is something they do not know and do not have. And they begin to understand that what God revealed to the world in His Torah and the other Scriptures, is absolutely True!
We become connected to our Head, God’s living Life-giving Word, through the obedience of faith that we begin to render to Him who has called us. And if we truly become His living members, filled with His Life and living under His Headship, God can reach out to the entire fallen, Sin-corrupted human race that knows us and is all around us. So it’s vitally important that disciples remain truly, precisely and accurately aligned with the living Word that abides within them, and the written Word that reveals and explains Him to the world. Everything must match. It must be the real, authentic, true Messiah that we embody and mirror to the world around us.
By experiencing the Life-giving Love of God’s Word as He is revealed and released from within His disciples, more and more of the decapitated people of this fallen world will be able to see and feel the difference that exists between those who, like them, have only been born once…and those that, like the disciples…were born twice.
John 3:4-7
“Nicodemus *said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?’ Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”
It will not be what our mouths say that will pierce the heart of this fallen world. It will be what the Lord within us is making us to be that will do the piercing! Once the world actually sees the great difference that exists between the original Sin-state that we are all born with, and the spiritually regenerated disciple-state that we receive from God when we are truly the living Temple of His Holy Spirit, the people around us see for themselves and realize in their hearts how desperately fatal their spiritually dead state truly is. Then they can experience what is living in the disciples…they will see their own desperate neediness and realize why God calls to them to repent of their rebellion and radical independence from Him. And then…they too will obey the Word’s summons…to join Israel in her Exodus from the fallen Serpent dominated world and the system in which they are currently trapped.
Exodus 12:37
“Now the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children. A mixed multitude also went up with them, along with flocks and herds, a very large number of livestock.” (Emphasis added.)
The whole fallen world is summoned to join in Israel’s departure from Egypt. And as we all move closer and closer to the Land God promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their Covenant Family, the Holy Spirit can continue the cleansing and training and ‘updating and reconfiguring’ process that will bring us all into accurate alignment and union with God’s Eternal Truth and Reality. We begin as a mixed horde of selfish, self-centered individualistic rebels…and then God transforms us into ‘one New Many-membered Man,’ abiding under the Headship of His living Word and Holy Spirit, wholly integrated, eternally united, and completely one with Almighty God Himself!
So by the time that God has allotted to this fallen world for Repentance, Reconciliation, and Redemption comes to an end…His living Word and Holy Spirit will lead the disciples into their Ultimate Destination…the Eternal Fullness and Perfection of Creation’s Ultimate Redemption. As the temporary fallen world that the Serpent once dominated crumbles into nothingness, God will completely regenerate and restore the original Heaven and Earth…and transform them into His new, eternal, utterly Perfect Final Version. Thus will He finalize the renewal and restoration process that began when we were first ‘adopted’ or included in God’s Eternal Covenant when we repented and submitted to His Word.
Once members of Adam’s fallen, Sin-corrupted human family see the Light of God’s Word and hear His summons to follow Him, they can immediately join and become one with God and His Salvation. And then God can begin the ‘Boot Camp’ phases of their necessary training and reeducation. And then they can begin practicing and learning to work as one with God’s Word and Holy Spirit. They can begin to learn to defer to their indwelling Messiah…and allow Him to live His Life and obey His Father…from within their flesh…in their name. He will obey and perfectly observe the commandments through the obedience of the faith of the disciples. And by learning to do this with Him, they are allowing God to break their original family curse that was passed on to them by their parents and forbearers. And in exchange for that Curse of living death… the Eternal Life of God’s Word, and His infinite Inheritance and Blessing becomes theirs.
In that eternally blessed state and status, and from the authority that this new Life and Identity gives us in our Messiah, we can thus honor and bless and intercede for our parents and original family. We can bring God’s living Word, Salvation Himself, into the family and into the homes and lives and spheres of those who are part of that family, and beyond. We can bring Yeshua’s Spirit and His transforming Love-Influence to our family line and to all other humans. And even if the original bodies of our parents have passed away, the spirits and souls of our parents remain. Thus we can continue to honor them and their name and transform the legacy they left behind on the Earth into something Heavenly and Good. We can apply God’s Perfect Presence and Redemption and Blessing to our earthly families and homes…and they can be blessed, as much as they will allow God to bless them, so that Yeshua’s Redemption and Regeneration can pierce and penetrate and impregnate their past, present and future with His Life.
Thus does God’s Eternal Covenant and the union it makes possible for us to have with Him, finally break the original curse that the previous generations imparted to the following generations. And, in the name of their broken families, Yeshua’s disciples can begin to sow the seeds of Eternal Life and of God’s Truth and Wisdom that leads men to repentance and prompts them to join Israel in her God-mandated Exodus. We honor our original parents and families when we do whatever we possibly can (whatever they will allow) to bring God’s Love and Freedom and Compassion, Mercy, Grace and Truth into their Darkness. We do what the Lord told us to do…and we leave it to Almighty God, in His infinite Wisdom, Righteousness and Grace…to grow the seeds we have planted at His command…to their full maturity and fruitfulness in Eternity.
Even if at first our parents and family members resist and resent what has happened to us and the changes God has made in us, we can continue to release God’s Love and Grace to them…and intercede on their behalf at the Throne of God, as God requires us to do. And we can leave the outcomes in our Father’s most capable hands…and wait upon Him and His Wisdom, Timing and Strategy…until they too can hear His Voice and repent and join their Redeemer and His Exodus that will lead them into His Eternal Kingdom. Their repentance and obedience to God can help to release entire families from the grip of demonic Darkness. And then God’s Word will remove the Serpent’s curses from them, and cover them with the Perfect Original Blessing that Father sent Him to be for them. God has sent His living Word to be the Redemptive Covering for all men…and to reconcile with all men…so that He can make atonement for them and redeem and restore them. And since all of this was God’s idea from the very beginning, we can be assured that anything we do to cooperate with Him in its fulfillment, He will most certainly bless and finish off with His absolute and total ETERNAL PERFECTION!
Nothing short of this will do our parents and family any real good. If the honor we give our loved ones does not include an open door to Eternal Restoration and a share in God’s Infinite Perfection, what good will it do for them if we exert ourselves to do things for them that fall short and will not last into Eternity? Nothing short of God’s Perfection will give them true authentic honor, peace and joy. Nothing short of God Himself will bless and fill them with joy and satisfaction. And so, we honor our parents by making sure we really and truly honor God and keep the four commandments that precede this fifth one, so that we can become living examples and demonstrators of the God-given patterns that will lead entire families into God’s Eternal Life.
God’s Eternal Israel – Our Ultimate Destination
The apostle Paul said: “But we have this Treasure in earthen vessels (mortal bodies made of dust)…” In other words, we’re still on our Exodus Journey…en route to our Ultimate Destination…God’s Eternal Israel…the true Eternally Perfect and Complete Land of Promise. But even now, while much imperfection and many traces of all that original living death corruption and disfigurement still operate within us and hamper and slow our progress…even so…the title deed to that Ultimate Eternal Perfection with Almighty God is already ours. And that is why we can afford to rejoice in our Lord always…and why we can afford to allow God to give the same Fullness of His Perfect Forbearance, Patience, Total Forgiveness, Understanding and Compassion that He first gave to each of us…to our parents, families and all the other humans He brings into our daily lives. God can give of Himself to them, through us! That’s why we must stand our Heavenly Covenant Ground, and not deviate from the Truth…and never cease to pass along the Selfless Love of God with which we can honor our natural parents and families.
Even if our parents were wicked and malicious and totally undeserving of our love, affection and forgiveness…even then…we can rejoice in knowing that we were no better. What they were, we were. What they did, we did. What they deserved, we deserved. But God has forgiven and redeemed us all…even while we were yet His deadly enemies…even while we rebelled and opposed Him and worked against what He was here to do on our behalf! Even then, He loved us and gave Himself for us…and endured and overcame the fury and opposition of the powers of Darkness to the very end…for our sake. He is the Perfect Blood Covenant Representative…the Perfect High Priest…the Perfect Eternal Champion, Shepherd, Treasury and Fortress for us all. And because He has already created and paid for all of that, and has given it all to us, we can honor Him, the Father who sent Him, and the Holy Spirit who transmits His living Presence and Activity into us…because He loves us. We can give to others, what He first gave to us…in its pristine Perfection.
So we love and serve God by allowing Him to do for our parents, and our family members and neighbors and, yes, EVEN OUR DEADLY ENEMIES…the very same that He has already done for us! We can take what He has so freely given to us and pass it along, just as freely and wholeheartedly, to everyone else. This is why it is vital that we grasp and absorb and obey the first four commandments at all costs. If we are actually doing that, God Himself will equip us to allow Him to fulfill the other six commandments through our flesh. So we truly honor our parents and all other people, when we abide with God, remain as one with His Word and Spirit so that it is actually God, living and working within us…who is reaching out to bless and honor them, through us!
Leviticus 19:17-18
“You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.”
Mark 12:28-34
“One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, ‘What commandment is the foremost of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.’ The scribe said to Him, ‘Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that He is One, and there is no one else besides Him; and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.’ When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions.”
Philippians 2:12-13
“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Emphasis added.)
We will automatically honor our parents, and all others, by making sure we first honor and obey God. When His Word is our Head, Lord and Master, we will allow Him and His Holy Spirit to be our actual, indwelling, prevailing Life, Righteousness and Activity. No matter what we may think our parents were and are…by making sure that we love, honor and obey our Master, who is equipping us to include our parents, and all other people, in His Perfect Forgiveness and Redemption and Restoration process, with wholehearted agreement and obedience, we thus honor our Heavenly Father. And He can extend the mercy and grace He showered upon us, to our earthly parents as well, whether they are disciples of God’s Word in their own right, or whether they are poor, Sin-abused, Word-deprived and still trapped within the coils of the Serpent. In either case, God is here to bless and restore them too.
So, if we share with them what our Master Yeshua is to us, and if we include them in the Mercy, Grace and Perfect Goodness God freely gave to the entire human race…we are serving God as His image and likeness. Our God gives His Love wholeheartedly. And He requires us to mirror and reflect Him with faithful accuracy. He is Perfect, Self-less Love. And when we honor Him, as the first four commandments require…we do what He says…and receive all that He is here to give us and equip us to do…and then we’re able to pass it along to our parents, and to everyone else. We can allow our Master, Messiah Yeshua, the living Word of God, to BE God’s Blessing…to them…THROUGH US!
John 15:7-17
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another.”
Beloved, can God express His will and purpose with any more clarity and penetrating depth than this?