Dr. Denton’s Torah Commentary

Dr Justin Elwell 8/6/26 Dr Justin Elwell 8/6/26

Re’eh (see!): Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

On the road to Emmaus, Yeshua met with two of His disciples and, beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. (Luke 24:27). For our Torah studies this year, therefore, week by week we will seek to discover how all of Torah prepared the way for the coming Messiah.

8th August 2026 (25 Av)

Re’eh (see!): Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17

Do we sometimes study the fine detail of Torah and Halakhah so closely that we miss the bigger picture? As Yeshua said, with characteristic hyperbole, we can “strain out a gnat but swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:24)

Torah is the teaching of God and Halakhah is how our life’s walk is founded on this teaching. Surely God has His eyes of blessing on those who seek to live according to all that Moses taught on His behalf, carefully interpreting every statute, judgement and commandment into an appropriate way of life. Yet the bigger picture – the overall result for the nation of Israel and all other nations – is of paramount importance.

Israel was about to cross the Jordan to establish a nation that in every way was a witness to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were to be a prophetic presence among all nations, a light to the Gentiles, as the manifestation of the teaching of God in the world:

I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles. (Isaiah 42:6)

God’s presence among His people was to be understood by the way they lived. His presence would be in the Temple just as it had been in the Tabernacle, but also in daily life. Our portion this week includes the command for the land to be cleansed of all idolatry and of the presence of foreign gods (Deuteronomy 12:29-32). Foreign gods and idols were to be replaced by a central place for the people to gather before the God of Israel, to stand before Him, honour Him and bring prescribed offerings (Deuteronomy 12:11-12). The sanctity of life was to be respected even in the way animals were eaten after draining their blood (Deuteronomy 12:23). Care must be taken to ensure a clarity and purity of the Word of God, with the removal of those who prophesied falsely (Deuteronomy 13). In matters of both life and death there was to be dignity (Deuteronomy 14:1-2). There was to be purity in what was eaten (Deuteronomy 14:3-21), also how tithing was administered and how the Levites were cared for (Deuteronomy 14:22-29). There was to be no profiteering regarding how loans were made and debts repaid (Deuteronomy 15: 1-6), how the poor were looked after (Deuteronomy 15:7-11), how servants were treated, hired and released (Deuteronomy 15:12-18) and how animals were managed (Deuteronomy 15:19-23). Each year was to be a regular and prescribed cycle of the Feasts of the Lord, defined by Him in clear detail and purpose (Deuteronomy 16).

From these passages and others, we understand that God has an ordered way in which His people must live. There is much detail, covering every aspect of life, but out of this detail should emerge an overall picture defined by two over-riding principles: in all things the nation of Israel should be seen by all surrounding nations as loving God with all their heart, soul and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5) and their neighbours as themselves (Leviticus 19:18).

All of this seems achievable. If every teaching of Moses is interpreted correctly then surely the sum total would be a nation visible to the world attracting them to the God of Israel as a moth to a shining light. Yet even Moses, the pure prophetic mouthpiece of God, knew that he had failed on at least one occasion, when his human-ness broke through when he struck the rock twice in anger. Likewise, the entire history of Israel has also revealed human weakness, despite an overall desire to live up to the calling of the Chosen People. The light to the world that should be the overall result of teaching from God through Moses has not shone as brightly as it should.

At a time when Israel recognised its failure, Psalm 80 was written as a prayer for restoration. In it, is a picture of God’s purpose for the nation, likened to a fruitful vine:

You have brought a vine out of Egypt;
You have cast out the nations, and planted it.
You prepared room for it,
And caused it to take deep root,
And it filled the land.
The hills were covered with its shadow,
And the mighty cedars with its boughs.
She sent out her boughs to the Sea,
And her branches to the River. (Psalm 80:8-11)

This beautiful metaphor was God’s overall intent for His people, a visible result to all around of the outworking of the detail of the Torah. Yet, we can come back to Psalm 80 time and again and recognise that generation after generation somehow does not attain the overall result intended, as something goes wrong for each of us in our interpretation of Torah into Halakhah.

It is the same for all nations, not just Israel. The Bible has been available across the entire world for hundreds of years. From time to time one or other nation takes hold of its truth, works it into its laws and into its ways of life, yet look at the overall result and you will not find any nation shining forth as a strong and lasting light from God – sometimes a strong but temporary glimmer, sometimes rays of hope, but always an eventual falling away.

This is where we must consider the wonder of God’s presence in Yeshua HaMashiach. If we take a moment to pause and consider the call on Israel as a whole, to fully live by the teaching of God through Moses, reaching out beyond what was achieved to what was intended, we realise that there are depths that were never plumbed to obtain the fulness of God’s desire. For Yeshua to be what He claimed to be – and He was and is truly what He claimed – all of the fulness of the Torah must have been realised in Him.

Look at it another way. Israel was given the Torah, first on tablets of stone, then through the mouth of a man, Moses, to take into their human lives. Just as all Creation is a manifestation of the spoken Word of God, so is Torah, but Torah filtered through our humanity is unfortunately tainted in its outworking. Torah, an expression of the life of God, could only be perfected outwardly if received inwardly as the manifestation of God Himself into man. God chose the Man Yeshua for this purpose. This is why John could say that Yeshua is the Word made flesh (John 1:14), God in man. Only in this way could Israel, as a whole, ever have succeeded to shine a light all around. Theirs was a hard lesson to find this out, and their lesson is also our lesson.

The magnificence of God, at the climax of His redemptive purposes, was to ensure that both the detail of Torah and His overall purpose were fulfilled through His Son. Torah includes a sacrifice for sin and forgiveness of sin through faith. This too was within the ministry of Yeshua. Taking all the purposes of the Kingdom of God into His own wonderful life:

It was said of Him, Out of Israel I called my son. (Matthew 1:15, compare Psalm 80:8)

He said of Himself, I am the true vine. (John 15:1, compare Psalm 80:8)

And I am the light of the world. (John 8:12, compare Isaiah 42:6)

In one sense, it is not that Israel failed to be that light, but that Israel bore a Son (Isaiah 9:6) to be their King and redeem them from their otherwise failure. The Kingdom of God is the final realisation of the Kingdom of Israel for which Moses prepared his people on the East side of the Jordan. Now, the Children of Israel and every other person who is called can enter into God’s light-giving purposes in Yeshua, the true vine.

The Light of God in Yeshua will be shared with everyone who asks in faith, so that they become citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven prepared by God. The standard set by God cannot be attained in the flesh alone but now can be realised by the life of God by His Spirit:

So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! (Luke 11:9-13)

Only in this way can we fulfil the earnest overall desire of Moses for his people, outworked through the Torah of God, reiterated by Yeshua as now possible through the indwelling of the Spirit of God – our measure of that same Word that became flesh in Him - thereby fulfilling the call which God foresaw through Moses:

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 7/30/26 Dr Justin Elwell 7/30/26

Ekev: Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

1st August 2026 (18 Av)

Ekev (as a result): Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25

Moses ensured that the Children of Israel remembered all that happened in the forty year journey from Egypt to Canaan. There are many profound issues to consider. God dealt with the Egyptians in a way that no other nation has witnessed. He also disciplined His people in ways that are unique among all nations – the discipline of a Father to His children. Such discipline is remembered to this day. What other nation has seen the ground swallow up a group of people as it did with Dathan and Abiram, their households and all they possessed?

In the midst of all this strong discourse from Moses, there is a small but powerful word that can be skimmed over too lightly. The word is love, and it appears six times in our study this week. Moses refers to God’s love for Israel, Israel’s call to love God and also their neighbour.

The Hebrew root of the word love is ahav (אהב). This is not a word that can be understood fully from the dictionary. Ahav, whether in terms of the Old Covenant or the New Covenant, is Hebraic and is understood through action. It is the essence of Torah, but can be lost to view in the many other details. If we link two verses in our study this week we will begin to open up the right doors of understanding:

Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you … (Deuteronomy:7:12-13)

Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. (Deuteronomy: 11:1)

God’s love for Israel will be expressed and defined through action, according to the blessings that He promised: blessings on the children who would be born, the produce of their land, their animals, their health and protection from their enemies. God can influence the weather, take care of produce from the land, and keep away enemies and diseases. The God of Creation is willing be active within the created order. Such love is conditional, however, requiring the right response, or it will be withdrawn. The necessary response is to fulfil all the requirements of God’s statutes, judgements and commandments. Fulfilling all this is defined as the love of God’s people for their heavenly Father – love defined by action. As God’s people are active in their love for God, so He is active in His love for them.

Time and again, however, in our reading of Torah, we discover the consequences of the Children of Israel not showing this active love for God. We will come to this more fully in later chapters and thereby have a doorway to understanding thousands of years of the history of Israel – times when God loved His people in positive blessing and times when such love was withdrawn, with all the consequences of history.

But, for now, let us stay with the subject of God’s love, especially as it was later revealed through Yeshua HaMashiach. When the word love appears in the New Testament, it comes from the same root meaning as in the Tanakh (Old Testament) – whatever language is used for translation of the Scriptures, including Greek and English, the root meaning comes from ahav, across all Scripture.

Consider the actions of Yeshua throughout His entire earthly ministry. There is nowhere where we find hard-heartedness in Him. Always He brought a compelling message about the love of the Father manifest in Him. John 3:16 is the central example of this:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

The condition for God’s love was being newly emphasised as belief in Yeshua, rather than fulfilling, in one’s own strength, the requirements of God’s statutes, judgements and commandments. There is a reason for this, because God does not change. We must come to that.

The only robust words of criticism and warning from Yeshua were given to the interpreters of Torah from the various rabbinic schools. This too, nevertheless, was out of love because Yeshua desired that the people of Israel be rightly taught and Torah be rightly interpreted for the sake of both the teacher and those taught.

Apart from this, the account of Yeshua’s ministry is one of a fresh and compelling demonstration of the love of God. It can be compared directly with that of Moses, who spoke on God’s behalf about God’s love, but there is a difference. As the Apostle Paul realised:

God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them… (2 Corinthians 5:19)

God Himself came in the form of a Man, Father and Son in complete unity. When Philip asked Yeshua to show him the Father, Yeshua replied unambiguously:

Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. (John 14:9-11)

An era of history began through Moses when God required that His love, outworked in blessings for His people, required their response in fulfilling all the statutes, judgements and commandments. That era taught all the world that fallen mankind cannot respond sufficiently to gain the love of God through their own efforts.

Central, however, to God’s fatherly loving purposes was a way of covering transgression through sacrifice, so that at the right time the sacrifice could be complete when a new era began through the life and ministry of His Son. God so loved the world……

Love then, is still in action. It became the action of self-sacrifice that took Yeshua to the Cross. As He Himself said:

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. (John 15:13)

Yeshua defined the greatest aspect of His love to those who believe, as becoming the sin sacrifice for all time, freeing us from the curse for inevitable transgression of God’s statutes, judgements and commandments to remain in the love of the Father.

Love still has conditions, and is to be active and not passive, and we can discover the balance of our loving response to God through His Son by studying the Gospel accounts in full. Much understanding is interwoven in the special record of what Yeshua said in John Chapter 15:

As the Father loved Me, I also have 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. (John 15:9-10)

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (John 15:12)

There is profound harmony between God’s teaching through Moses and His teaching through Yeshua. God’s people are still to be Torah observant, but through right interpretation. The promise of being able to live according to right interpretation was foreseen by Jeremiah. He announced the New Covenant, which we now know was dependent on the sacrifice of Yeshua. The giving of the Holy Spirit as the perfect and personal interpreter of Torah is the means of fulfilling all for which Moses earnestly pleaded in his final discourse with the Children of Israel:

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah - not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

It is necessary for us all to find both the conditions for and the means of receiving God’s love, now fully and finally through faith in Yeshua.

What Yeshua said of Abraham would also be true of Moses:

Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad. (John 8:56)

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 7/23/26 Dr Justin Elwell 7/23/26

Va’etchanan: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 (5786).

25th July 2026 (11 Av)

Va’etchanan (and I pleaded): Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

It was a wonderful thing that Israel heard from Moses, recorded at the end of this week’s portion:

… you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. (Deuteronomy 7:6)

Who would not want to hear this and do their utmost for the God who so loved them? Oh that it was as easy as that!

It was clear that God’s love for Israel was not because of their own merit, but because of His covenant faithfulness:

The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 7:7-8)

The wonderful promise of God’s favour on His chosen people carries with it a warning - there are conditions which must be remembered. In particular, they must not follow false gods like other nations who are to be displaced and utterly destroyed to make room for them in the Land of Canaan. They will soon see a victory against these seven nations, but remember also a warning that they too can come under God’s judgement. The condition for God’s continued favour is obedience in keeping all that God has commanded them:

Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them. (Deuteronomy 7:9-11)

These passages from Moses’ teaching are to be remembered for all generations. It is why Moses repeated, at this time, the requirements of God for His people, founded on the Ten Commandments that were given so fearfully and memorably from Mount Horeb.

God promised so much to His chosen people, but within the expectation that they must not be tempted into following false gods and thereby also depart from His ways. The warning must be passed on and heeded by every generation:

For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. (Deuteronomy 4:24-28)

God will never forget the covenant He made with Abraham, and will provide a way back to Himself. Nevertheless, these words of warning are for all time.

The wonderful status of being the chosen people of God bears conditions and consequences.

In our portion this week is also the Shema, the foundational statement of faith for Israel, along with the command to teach every generation the way to walk with God (Halakhah):

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

These direct quotations from Moses’ words are among the most important instructions God has ever given to His people, and Moses must have spoken deeply from the heart of a pastor to reiterate them to Israel at this time.

Soon Moses’ life would end and Israel would cross the Jordan. From then on, through every generation they must remember what they have been taught. This is why Torah is foundational to all the teaching of the Bible. Torah itself must then be interpreted into Halakhah, the way to walk to please God, for every generation.

Israel has indeed taken this command seriously, built families who teach their children and developed a rabbinic system that sought to interpret Torah to each generation. All this, and yet still there have hundreds of years of exile from the Promised Land, just as Moses warned. These are matters to be understood and for deep lessons to be learned.

God’s requirements for Israel and all who have joined them from the Gentile world, through faith in the God of Israel, still go on from generation to generation. They are called to be the holy people whose journey began with Moses, out of Egypt and with Joshua into the Promised Land.

The continuity of God’s covenant purposes continued seamlessly at the time of Yeshua HaMashiach and on into the era of the New Covenant. Each generation still needs to appropriately interpret Torah in their day, following God’s requirement at the time of Moses.

Yeshua did not change God’s requirements for Israel, but enabled them. He came to rightly interpret Torah. This was typified in His teaching on the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and it was the reason for such clear statements as:

Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil. (Matthew 5:17)

Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. (Matthew 7:24)

In the manner of the Rabbis of His day, He gathered disciples, teaching them how to interpret Torah into a walk with God. Furthermore, His teaching was confirmed by wonderful miracles of deliverance and healing.

It was unfortunate, but also expected, that He was opposed by other Rabbis, as they sensed His usurping their position of authority. After all, in their own mind they were doing exactly what Moses commanded, to interpret Torah into Halakhah for the people. Yet, they did not realise that they were bringing control through their strict requirements, codified as they were into diverse systems of rabbinic Judaism. Yeshua, justifiably, was uncompromising in His warning about this as recorded, for example, as a series of woes in Matthew 23:

…..But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in….

Such warnings were in accordance with Moses’ commands that Israel must live rightly by Torah or suffer consequences. Such consequences were already part of Israel’s history in the scattering of ten tribes following the invasion of the Assyrians and then the Babylonian captivity of Judah in 586 BCE. Yeshua followed the manner of warning the leaders of Israel that the earlier Prophets had brought, and was opposed in just the same manner.

Yet, there was something profoundly more special in the leaders of Israel’s opposition of Yeshua than in the case of any earlier Prophet. Their antagonism to the One who came to lead the way to the right interpretation of Torah led to the crucifixion of Yeshua, but this unknowingly was the means by which Yeshua sacrificed His life as the perfect Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world (Isaiah 53, John 1).

Yeshua followed Moses’ exhortations to Israel to rightly interpret Torah to each new generation and then became the sin offering for all who would accept His sacrifice by faith. He was both the perfect teacher and the One who covered the transgressions of those who could not perfectly keep the commandments of God given through Moses.

A new era began with Yeshua’s life and sacrificial death but in complete continuity of what God taught through Moses. The requirement of the people of God to be a Holy People continues today in the new framework of faith and obedience opened up by Yeshua. This is why the Apostles of Yeshua were to establish the new community of faith through right interpretation of Torah in light of Yeshua HaMashiach. This is enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit, whilst living through faith in Yeshua’s sacrifice that through grace we need not be under the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13). It is why pastors and teachers, in the light of the New Covenant, still have the commission that goes back to Moses to rightly interpret the teaching of God and to fulfil what was first stated by Moses, and then confirmed through Peter:

… you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. (Deuteronomy 7:6)

…..you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light. (1 Peter 2:9)

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 7/16/26 Dr Justin Elwell 7/16/26

Devarim (words), Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 (5786).

18th July 2026 (4 Av)

Devarim (words), Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22

Almighty God ordained a period of thousands of years to complete the work of redemption since the banishment of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. He has ordained only tens of years for the life of each human being. As Moses himself said:

The days of our lives are seventy years;
And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labour and sorrow;
For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. (Psalm 90:10-11)

Everyone completes their life’s work and the next generation takes their own responsibility, sometimes in continuity of ours. This has been so for thousands of years. In particular, the covenant purposes of God go forward from generation to generation.

Just as Moses prepared his people for his departure from this world, so did Yeshua, Moses in his imperfection, Yeshua in His perfection.

Our final Torah portions for this year, records Moses’ last words to Israel prior to his death. His lifespan was 120 years, but like everyone else his life came to an end.

It is good to reflect on the lives of those who went before, as well as our own life. It is how well we live that matters, and how we pass on our life’s contribution to the next generation.

Moses was a shepherd to his people within the prophetic ministry appointed by God. He was credited with being the humblest man on earth (Numbers 12:3). We have read the account of his lifelong journey, especially through the forty years since leading Israel out of Egypt. He had the great privilege of speaking with God face to face, as a man speaks to his friend (Exodus 33:11). He was patient with Israel and cared for them greatly as witnessed in his great intercession on their behalf after they had made the golden calf:

Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. So now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold! Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.” (Exodus 32:30-32)

Yet even this great man showed his anger for one moment in time, and did not give God honour, by striking a rock in the Wilderness of Zin twice in frustration:

Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” (Numbers 20:12)

So here we are on the edge of the river Jordan. Here, Moses began his final pastoral message to Israel by recalling their journey from Egypt. The generation of the men of war who came out of Israel had died because of their lack of faith, when they were in the Wilderness of Paran. They were prohibited from entering Canaan. It was the next generation’s turn to take their responsibility as the covenant people of God. Their fathers died because of unbelief, but now it was their turn to be prepared for the next step.

They were already trained for battle. The experience of this generation in defeating Kings Sihon and Og, was sufficient experience for them to conquer Canaan:

And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, ‘Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings; so will the Lord do to all the kingdoms through which you pass. You must not fear them, for the Lord your God Himself fights for you.’ (Deuteronomy 3:21-22)

Then followed Moses’ final words to this generation of the Children of Israel which we will study week by week, prior to Moses handing over authority to Joshua and dying on Mount Nebo. We will have the opportunity to reflect on the great ministry of Moses, tinged though it is with sadness concerning his error in striking the rock at the waters of Meribah.

Every generation of human beings comes and goes, passing on teaching and responsibilities, both small and great, to the next generation. It is so for us, as it always was throughout the thousands of years of history. The entire Bible brings us examples of the generations that have gone before us. The covenant purposes of God are fulfilled through God’s people. We can study many great lives and consider, even in Moses’ life, an inevitable imperfection in all humanity.

Adam and Eve displayed such imperfections in their fall from close fellowship with God. Even Noah, a great saviour of mankind through his obedience in building the Ark, was involved in an unfortunate incident when he was drunk, bringing a curse on Ham’s son Canaan (Genesis 9:24-25). Abraham is our great father of faith, but he was not without error. The birth of Ishmael and the consequences to world history are evidence of human weakness. Nevertheless, he grew in faith sufficiently to take his son to Mount Moriah as a sacrifice that was a foreshadowing of the Messiah’s sacrifice. So it goes on from generation to generation. Isaac did not discern God’s purposes through Jacob clearly enough to prevent enmity between Jacob and Esau. Jacob mismanaged his family sufficiently that Joseph was sold by his brothers to slavery in Egypt.

Jacob (Israel) summarised his life to Pharaoh as:

The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. (Genesis 47:9)

From generation to generation, human weakness and failure can be accounted to every person, despite their desire to fulfil God’s purpose in their life. This must be put alongside their testimony of faith which characterises, in a complementary way, those with covenant responsibility.

The Epistle to the Hebrews, Chapter 11, contains a wonderful account of the lives of the multitude of God’s people who lived by faith and so pleased God, despite their human frailty. The number is so great that the writer states in summary:

And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens…..(Hebrews 11:32-34)

Alongside these lives of faith could be written a parallel account of the weaknesses of each of these people. The Bible is full of the stories of one generation after another seeking to obey God’s covenant purposes yet falling short, even as Moses did. We learn that it was the faith they had, which earned them the acclamation of God. In highlighting human weakness, therefore, we are not seeking to display them as failures, only to show that there is a great reality that needed a remedy - possibly shown in its most profound form by the way even Moses was prohibited from leading Israel across the Jordan.

The balanced message is that God still has a plan of redemption that finally removes the stain of all the errors of all those who live by faith, despite human weakness.

This leads us to the need for the perfection of One appointed by God to be the means of such redemption – to Yeshua HaMashiach. Alongside every human life is the strength of Messiah to redeem mankind from the consequences of personal failure.

Yeshua was identified by Paul as this Redeemer:

Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. (1 Corinthians 10:1-5)

In the mystery of God’s redemptive plan His Son, not yet made manifest as the Man, Yeshua, was the unseen presence throughout all the stages of covenant history. He was with Abraham on Mount Moriah, and with Moses and the Children of Israel in the wilderness in anticipation of the great day of redemption that was ahead. Moses, the shepherd of God’s people, imperfect though he was, points to Him, the perfect shepherd of His people. All other human beings had weaknesses, which the Bible does not hide within the call to be victorious through faith. The object of their faith was ultimately brought to focus through the sacrificial death of Yeshua. Others were imperfect, but He came as the perfect leader of His people, bringing redemption from the Fall that no-one else could bring.

We can study His life in parallel with Moses, and this is the deepest meaning of our Torah studies. It is no surprise, therefore, that, just as Moses prepared Israel for their future in Canaan, so Yeshua prepared His disciples for when He would leave them following His sacrificial death on the Cross. The Gospels give us glimpses of how He spent His last days preparing His disciples, just as Moses prepared the Children of Israel. John chapters 15-17 could be a place to start our study of Yeshua’s concluding teaching, prior to His sacrificial death as the fulfilment of the perfect sacrifice for all who live by faith. But there is far more to Yeshua’s pastoral discourse with His disciples than even those magnificent passages in John’s Gospel. Nevertheless they are worth quoting briefly here by way of illustration:

But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father. (John 16:5-16)

Moses was to die. Before he died he would pass on the leadership of Israel to Joshua to complete the journey into the Promised Land, which became the earthly Kingdom of Israel. Yeshua raised the concept of the Kingdom to the higher place of His ruling from the right hand of the Father in Heaven. He will return one day to bring His people with Him into the fulness of the Kingdom. Meanwhile we, the generations that succeed one another with covenant responsibility as years go by, are left in the care of the Holy Spirit.

Moses prepared the Children of Israel for the battles that would arise in Canaan. Yeshua prepared His people for the ongoing Kingdom battles here on earth, now seen more clearly as spiritual battles (Ephesians 6). There has been no-one who could complete his covenant ministry like Yeshua. Nevertheless, like Moses and all others who are called to God’s covenant purposes, we are to be conscious of our part in God’s purposes as life still goes on from generation to generation. This is why we have the New Covenant teaching as well as the Old Covenant teaching.

How well are we doing? If Moses could make an error as serious as it was, let us take our own call and commission the more seriously, in fulfilling our purpose before God and preparing the next generation. Regarding some of the lessons with which we can begin, we can return to Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, where he refers to the time of Moses:

Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. (1 Corinthians 10:6-11)

Above all, let us live by faith in the One so much greater than Moses, who came to complete the redemption from the Fall of all mankind which began with Adam and his wife Eve. Let us seek to prepare the next generation as faultlessly as we are able, but above all to live by faith in our Messiah and His perfect sacrifice for our human weakness. This is the same as the faith of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve sons of Jacob and Moses himself, which was ultimately realised in the sacrificial death of Yeshua HaMashiach.

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 7/9/26 Dr Justin Elwell 7/9/26

Matot (tribes) and Masei (journeys)

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 (5786).

11th July 2026 (26 Tammuz)

Matot (tribes), Numbers 30:1-32:42, Masei (journeys), Numbers 33:1-36:13

This year, the last two portions of Bamidbar (Numbers) are read in the same week. We read how Moses gave clear instructions for how the Promised Land was to be divided among the tribes. Each tribe would have their own inheritance, decided by lot, to be administered by Eleazar and Joshua and eleven tribal leaders, with special arrangements for the tribe of Levi, and for Cities of Refuge. The land allotted to each tribe was not be transferred to another tribe. If women from one tribe married outside their tribe, any inheritance of theirs would remain with their original tribe. While simply stated, the rules for tribal inheritance in the Promised Land were fixed for the years to come.

Israel would not enter the Promised Land easily. They were a nation prepared for warfare. The recent census listed all the men above 20 years old as men of war;

And it came to pass, after the plague, that the Lord spoke to Moses and Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying: “Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel from twenty years old and above, by their fathers’ houses, all who are able to go to war in Israel.” (Numbers 26:1-2)

It was through warfare that Israel entered the Promised Land and this has been the character of Israel’s history until today: in order to retain identity and live in the land allotted to them by God there has been much warfare.

Judgement was brought to the Midianites because of their attempt to destroy Israel, either from a curse placed on them through Balaam, or by intermarriage and seduction into following false gods, as we read in earlier Torah portions. Prior to crossing the Jordan, Israel’s army defeated Midian as God instructed Moses; then the army was ready to cross the Jordan to defeat the seven nations in Canaan.

God’s righteous judgment on nations is an ongoing theme of the Bible, in His faithfulness to the Covenant He made with Abraham. There is never a glimpse of compromise, as He fulfils His purposes. Even when, in later years, Israel itself comes under the judgement of God, other nations have to be careful not to misinterpret what He is doing. For example, when Judah was led captive to Babylon in 586 BCE, some nations came under God’s judgement for their wrong intent, seeking to gloat or take advantage of Judah’s misfortune. Zechariah spoke of this:

So the angel who spoke with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “I am zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal. I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease; for I was a little angry, and they helped—but with evil intent.” (Zechariah 1:14-15)

Though Babylon itself was the agent of God’s judgement on Judah, it was later judged and fell from its high place as the prominent and powerful nation that it had been:

Come down and sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of Babylon;
Sit on the ground without a throne,
O daughter of the Chaldeans!
For you shall no more be called
Tender and delicate.
…..I will take vengeance,
And I will not arbitrate with a man.

As for our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name,
The Holy One of Israel.

Sit in silence, and go into darkness,
O daughter of the Chaldeans;
For you shall no longer be called
The Lady of Kingdoms.
I was angry with My people;
I have profaned My inheritance,
And given them into your hand.
You showed them no mercy;
On the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily.
And you said, ‘I shall be a lady forever,’
So that you did not take these things to heart,
Nor remember the latter end of them. (Isaiah 47:1-7)

God will not compromise, and this is a major theme of the Bible, in relation to the judgement of nations and also in other ways. For example, we see this when Saul made an unlawful sacrifice (1 Samuel 13), also when God brought justice for the Gibeonites (2 Samuel 21) and in the consequences that followed King David’s adultery with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11), and in many incidents we have studied in earlier Torah portions.

What can we learn, therefore, from the incidents of our Torah portion this week?

There is an immediate link to a frequently read passage in Isaiah concerning the prophesied birth of Messiah. Let us read this magnificent and uplifting passage again, in full:

Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed,
As when at first He lightly esteemed
The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
And afterward more heavily oppressed her,
By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,
In Galilee of the Gentiles.

The people who walked in darkness
Have seen a great light;
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined.

You have multiplied the nation
And increased its joy;
They rejoice before You
According to the joy of harvest,
As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

For You have broken the yoke of his burden
And the staff of his shoulder,
The rod of his oppressor,
As in the day of Midian.

For every warrior’s sandal from the noisy battle,
And garments rolled in blood,
Will be used for burning and fuel of fire.

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:1-7)

This prophecy of Isaiah follows warnings of difficult times for Israel under the coming invasion of Assyria. Yet, God also speaks of a time coming when there will be a King on David’s throne forever. This is a very popular passage from the Scriptures that is often read at Christmas among many Christian fellowships. Yet, there is a much greater reality before us than the adoration of a new-born baby in a manger. This is a prophecy that announces the coming of One who will defeat God’s end-time enemies just as Midian was defeated prior to the conquest of Canaan.

The promised child who would be born into the nation of Israel, specifically to the Tribe of Judah, would become a conquering King, defeating the enemies of God and those standing against His covenant purposes, in the same way that Midian was judged.

All nations should marvel at the baby in the manger but, far more than that, take seriously God’s ways and His prophetic purposes laid out and taught in all Scripture.

Why is this? Because it is as relevant today to the nations of the earth as it was to Midian prior to the conquest of Canaan.

The climax of history is recorded clearly, though sometimes mysteriously, in the Book of Revelation. Midian was judged and so was Babylon in the days of Moses and the biblical Prophets. Major world empires have also come and gone in the onward march of covenant history. Revelation speaks of the time when all the principles we should have learned from history will come to a final climax in the judgement of the world empire which is named after Babylon of old. Just as Moses brought God’s judgement on Midian, so Yeshua will be the conquering King who brings judgement to the final Babylon, which will be the united confederacy of nations deceived by satan into opposing God’s covenant plans. Through Yeshua, there will be no compromise at this immense moment of history which brings in His everlasting Kingdom:

After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.”

And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her. (Revelation 18:1-9)

The teaching from our portion this week points to this time, a time which is near. The establishment of Israel in the Promised Land, which followed the victory over Midian and Israel inhabiting Canaan, points to the time of Yeshua’s victory over antichristian nations prior to the final establishment of His Kingdom on earth and in heaven. As Yeshua Himself said:

… when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near. (Luke 21:20-28)

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 7/2/26 Dr Justin Elwell 7/2/26

Pinchas (Phinehas), Numbers 25:10-29:40

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 (5786).

4th July 2026 (19 Tammuz)

Pinchas (Phinehas), Numbers 25:10-29:40

When Israel’s enemies looked down on them camping on the west side of the Jordan, they saw a formidable nation on whom rested the covenant promise of God. While their enemies conspired to destroy them, God commanded Moses to number them, as a mighty army, a covenant people who would eventually expand and prevail over all their enemies. We must look towards the end-times to anticipate the final battle, whilst learning from the lessons of history.

Everything that we study in the Bible, especially in the Books of Torah, show us how precise and clear the God of Abraham is in all His ways, and in His expectations of His covenant people.

Even the death of Moses was to be in an ordered way:

Now the Lord said to Moses: “Go up into this Mount Abarim, and see the land which I have given to the children of Israel. And when you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was gathered. For in the Wilderness of Zin, during the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against My command to hallow Me at the waters before their eyes.” (These are the waters of Meribah, at Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin.)………..

And the Lord said to Moses: “Take Joshua the son of Nun with you, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him; set him before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation, and inaugurate him in their sight. And you shall give some of your authority to him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient. (Numbers 27:12-19)

Moses was to accept this command just as he had accepted every other command of God. Before his death he was to complete some major tasks. He was to prepare the community of Israel for their entry into the Promised Land, in an ordered way. He was to take a second census of Israel and bring confirmation of the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly offerings to God.

Soon after Israel left Egypt, God ordered a census to be taken (Numbers 1:1-2), before their journey of 40 years through the wilderness. Now, on the shores of the Jordan, before crossing from east to west to establish the nation, the nation was once more called to order. There seems to be a pattern of God bringing His people to readiness in preparation for the next stage of covenant history.

How might this apply to His preparation for the final phase of God’s purposes for His people, today?

What we learn of God’s ordered ways relating to life on earth, must surely be to teach us about His ways for all eternity. This has been the expectancy of many believers through thousands of years. When matters of life and death are considered, comparisons are often made with crossing the Jordan River, and many Christian hymns and songs make use of this imagery. For example, the beautiful song which is lovely to sing, The Sweet By and By (sweet bye and bye lyrics youtube - Search) has the following lyrics:

There's a land that is fairer than day
And by faith we can see it afar
For the Saviour waits over the way
To prepare us a dwelling place there.

….In the sweet by and by
We shall meet on that beautiful shore
In the sweet by and by
We shall meet on that beautiful shore.

We must be careful, however, of letting our emotions drive our hopes, when we need something tangible on which to cling for our hopes of the future. Nevertheless, God’s ways do not change and surely, just as there was an ordered entry into Canaan, so there is an ordered plan for our entry into the eternal home. But let us consider this matter carefully at this crucial time in history.

Just as many Christians consider crossing over to eternal life to be symbolised by the Jordan crossing, so Jewish tradition focuses on God’s keeping an ordered account of who will enter, comparable to the census. It is taught that God keeps a Book of Life containing the names of all who will have a place in the eternal Kingdom of God. When the High Priest entered the Holiest Place of the Tabernacle or Temple on Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement), his returning safely to the community was considered to be a confirmation that those who waited in trust and faith would have their names confirmed as in the Book of Life.

The following quotation from www.judaica-guide.com illustrates how this is still the expectation today, despite the fact that there is no longer a Temple where a High Priest from the Tribe of Levi ministers:

Starting on the first day of the month "Elul" ("Rosh Chodesh Elul"), many Jews get up every night and go to the synagogue, a custom which is known as Selichot. There they pray for forgiveness until morning comes, and then go to work. The custom becomes more and more intense, and reaches a peak on the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, known as the "Yamim Nora'im" ("The Days of Awe"). During these days Jews ask God and each other for forgiveness, and greet each other with the blessing "May you be inscribed in the Book of Life".

According to the Jewish religion, Yom Kippur is the "dead-line" for changing one's ways and being forgiven for bad deeds. The meaning of the name "Yom Kippur" is "The Day of Atonement". In order to be inscribed in God's "Book of Life" (and be granted a happy new year), it is not enough to pray and be forgiven by God, but a person must also make sure he hurt no other people, broke no vows, and was forgiven by others for any sorrow he accidentally caused them. One cannot be forgiven by God for hurting other people, and therefore it is customary to do soul-searching at this time of the year, and apologize to others for anything that may have caused them pain. At the end of Yom Kippur, God's "Book of Life" is closed and sealed until the next year.

Whatever we may desire or whatever we may imagine, it is according to God’s order and design that we complete our earthly journey and enter into eternal life with Him. So what symbolism can we take validly from this week’s portion as significant for our hopes for entry in the Heavenly Kingdom?

The Israelites were to cross the Jordan for an inheritance in this life. Moses, himself, did not cross the physical Jordan or give the impression that it was a metaphor for being taken into God’s eternal presence. Indeed, like all others of whom we read in the Scriptures, he was to simply come to the end of his earthly life at that place. Elsewhere in Scripture, rather than a “crossing over a river” the symbolism is of being taken to a higher place. Take, for example, the way Elijah was taken into Heaven:

Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. (2 Kings 2:11)

Yeshua, likewise, was taken up into Heaven:

So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. (Mark 16:19)

Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11)

We have the descriptions of eye witnesses to help us understand the way Yeshua went from this life to the heavenly domain, but it was not the crossing of a river. The description “taken up” describes a transfer from this lower earthly place to a greater reality of the heavenly existence. Yeshua was able to come and go from one reality to the other, as we read in other parts of the Gospel account:

Now behold, two of them were travelling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. (Luke 24:13-15)

…….So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.

Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, “Peace to you.” But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” (Luke 24:33-39)

It is true that life is like a journey, and we can draw much from the wilderness journey of the Children of Israel. As Paul said, what they learned of righteous living became our examples (1 Corinthians 10:6). Nevertheless, the entry into Canaan is not to be the overused metaphor of passing into eternal life by crossing a river. We must build a better expectation based on Yeshua’s teaching. When Lazarus was raised from the dead (John 11) he had gone from this life to the next and back again without crossing a river. These are some other things that Yeshua said:

I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. (John 11:25-26)

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. (John 10:27-28)

Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. (John 14:1-3)

Yeshua builds a picture of passing from this life to the next which transcends the imagery of crossing a river. Much else is said in the New Testament writings that builds a different expectation and this is what we should study at this crucial time of history.

But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Corinthians 4:13-18)

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4)

The warning, therefore, is to not to over-allegorise the journey from Egypt to Canaan. These were real people on a journey to a real Promised Land on this earth as the then present stage in God’s redemptive plan. We must learn what is to be learned but not force truth so hard that it becomes error, leading to romantic speculation, and even imagery borrowed from other religions, including the Greek myth of crossing the River Styx from this life to the next.

So what should we learn from this week’s Torah portion? It is the time in God’s covenant purposes that we are in, not the geographical position where we stand, that should motivate our thoughts, prayers and preparations. With signs all around of Yeshua’s soon return, we can learn most from our portion by the way God told Moses to order the community. God’s order is a major theme in the New Testament, just as it was in the Tanach. Listen to the Apostle Peter:

……the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless. (2 Peter 3:10-14)

The Children of Israel were on the edge of the Jordan, prepared by God through Moses, for crossing into the next period of covenant history. Discipline and order was called for. This is the common theme throughout the Bible and takes us up to today. People who live through faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are to live a life of ordered and dignified witness waiting always for the next step of faith, both personal and corporate.

Does God keep a Book of Life as is considered across the Jewish world? Revelation 20:12 indicates that God does keep a record of those who will attain eternal life. There is something likened to a census prior to the final entry of all who are saved through faith in the One True God entering eternal life:

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.

However, we must be careful. In our portion this week, we read of the offerings to be made on all the appointed times of the Feasts of the Lord. These Feasts can no longer be held in the manner of those former days. There is no Temple nor any Levitical High Priestly ministry on Yom Kippur, except that all the Feasts are now fully focussed on Yeshua HaMashiach, our High Priest of the New Covenant, and He fulfils the purpose of every offering. Right now, as the Writer to the Hebrews said:

….Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.

Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. (Hebrews 7:22-27)

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Whether Jew or believing Gentile, it is timely to consider together how to become one ordered body of true believers in the One True God through the atoning sacrifice of His Son, Yeshua, (the One New Man of Ephesians 2), waiting for that great moment of His return to gather together His treasured people for eternal life. We can certainly take this from our meditations on how God ordered Israel to cross the Jordan.

He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:31)

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 6/25/26 Dr Justin Elwell 6/25/26

Balak (Balak), Numbers 22:2-25:9

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 (5786).

27th June 2026 (12 Tammuz)

Balak (Balak), Numbers 22:2-25:9

In the Christian Church we can so focus on a personal application of a Bible account, that we forget its deeper and ongoing reality in the world today. The Bible is not a book of theology, founded on Greek academic principles of interpretation: it is a book that is full of the history of God and His people. Here, for example, is a paraphrase of a portion of a typical sermon personalising the account of Balaam and Balak:

Balak’s story reminds us of the futility of opposing God’s plans, where fear and pride influence our actions. His attempts to curse Israel reveal God’s sovereignty and faithfulness to His people. No human effort can reverse what God plans for us, challenging us to consider our own response to difficult circumstances, whether we trust God’s divine authority or not. It challenges us to reflect on our own responses to situations beyond our control—will we resist or trust in divine authority? Worldly solutions will always fall short when put in opposition to God’s ultimate power in our life.

Whilst we can find understanding concerning God’s character in our Bible study, and there can be some personal application, we must be careful not, as many do, to treat the Bible as only for this purpose, and thereby miss the main point.

It is so easy to read the account of Balaam and Balak as if we are watching a modern-day pantomime, rather than reading a clear account of what actually happened. It would be the nature of our spiritual adversary to blind our eyes to this. Indeed, our spiritual adversary has blinded many eyes.

Every nation of the world should study this week’s Torah portion, especially those who seek to do Israel harm. Yet, the world is full of those who follow false gods or no gods at all, relying on their own intellect to seek to discern a logical path and thereby making great errors, especially concerning God’s continuing purposes for Israel.

Israel was soon to enter the Promised Land, chosen by God for His own purposes not because of their innate righteousness. Here we are today with signs all around concerning the final steps in God’s eternal plan of redemption and Israel is back in its own land – that same land that God promised long ago to Abraham. How more relevant could our Torah portion be, therefore?

When the State of Israel was proclaimed anew as a nation in their own land, on May 14th 1948, Israel’s Torah Portion in the Diaspora was Kedoshim (Leviticus 19:1–20:27). This Parasha emphasises the call for the Israelites to live a life of holiness and social justice, including the commandments to love one’s neighbour as oneself, observe the Sabbath, and care for the poor. It would not have been out of place for the nations of the world, in response, to read about Balak and Balaam, as we are this week, and welcome Israel to their homeland instead of, as has happened in all the years since, seek to destroy them.

When Abraham’s son, Ishmael, left home to settle on the other side of the Jordan, he became the head of the nation that became known as Edom. He knew about the One True God of His father Abraham and so it is likely that his people, hundreds of years later, also knew about the God of Israel. This is why Balaam could, despite his confusion and sorcery, understand that it was Almighty God to whom he could pray for guidance when Balak summoned him to curse Israel.

Words have power. They are both spiritual and physical in nature. So blessing and cursing is more than human words of kindness or hatefulness. Balak knew this and sought to place on Israel a power that would ultimately destroy them. The massed nation of Israel in the valleys beneath them had the potential of being a formidable foe, they having also recently defeated the neighbouring Amorites.

Balaam may have remembered, at least in part, the promise God had given to Abraham, when he found himself blessing Israel instead of cursing them:

How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?(Numbers 23:8)

The full promise to Abraham, as a consequence, should have been considered by Balak, that he might repent of his folly:

I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12:3)

Indeed, God gave Balak a second warning in Balaam’s third prophecy:

How lovely are your tents, O Jacob!
Your dwellings, O Israel!

……He bows down, he lies down as a lion;
And as a lion, who shall rouse him?’

“Blessed is he who blesses you,
And cursed is he who curses you. (Numbers 24:5-9)

It is the same in the world today. In the Middle East there is a partial understanding of Abraham and the God of Abraham, but distorted enough that, just as Balak feared Israel and sought to do them harm, the same goes on today among the nations round about. Meanwhile, in the wider world, there is so much ignorance of God’s purposes for Israel that they are often needing to stand alone, yet still fulfilling what God has ordained for them of His covenant purposes.

Greater even than Israel’s place in God’s purposes is another level of prophecy spoken by Balaam, concerning Israel’s coming Messiah:

His king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. (Numbers 24:7)

I see Him, but not now;
I behold Him, but not near;
A Star shall come out of Jacob;
A Sceptre shall rise out of Israel,
And batter the brow of Moab,
And destroy all the sons of tumult.

And Edom shall be a possession;
Seir also, his enemies, shall be a possession,
While Israel does valiantly.

Out of Jacob One shall have dominion,
And destroy the remains of the city. (Numbers 24:17-19)

Yeshua HaMashiach was foreseen by Balaam. Yeshua is the King of the Jews (Luke 23:3), and will fulfil all the promises given to Abraham. The entire world will shake prior to His coming and He will judge the nations in all righteousness. Not just Balaam, but all the biblical Prophets speak of this. Haggai had this to say, as is also recalled and put into the context of today by the Writer to the Hebrews (Hebrews 12):

For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of hosts. (Haggai 2:6-9)

When the Children of Israel were on the borders of the Jordan at that time, it was planned by the God of Abraham that, in the future, Israel would bring forth the long awaited Messiah. It is no wonder that by every means available, satan would seek to destroy or discredit Israel. Thereby, satan would be opposing the God of Israel and His Son, Yeshua HaMashaich.

If satan does not win a battle by one means he will try another. At the end of our study, we find that his next trick is assimilation. If Israel can be made to intermarry with other nations and follow their gods then they will disappear, as will their remembrance and their purpose in God’s covenant plan. The battle goes on to our day on this and many other fronts. Wars erupt because of satan’s schemes, but Israel will prevail through all their troubles, however painful, and however much they themselves will be answerable to God for their own errors.

Our portion this week should be read in this way, especially in the Christian Church, who must look beyond academic theology and personal application of scriptural principles. If the strange prophet Balaam could speak the words of God, how much more should all God’s people perceive the more important prophetic purposes of God today.

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 6/18/26 Dr Justin Elwell 6/18/26

Chukat (statute of), Numbers 19:1-22:1

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 (5786).

20th June 2026 (5 Tammuz)

Chukat (statute of), Numbers 19:1-22:1

“What must I do in this situation, my teacher (Rabbi)?”, is the ongoing question of anyone who seeks to abide by the teaching of God (Torah). There is no teacher like Almighty God who set out principles, through Moses, for every part of life. These principles can be interpreted, with mature insight, for every generation. While God’s teaching is for every moment, it also spans history. In around 6,000 years God’s overarching plan has been the recovery of mankind from the banishment from Eden of our forefather Adam, to the restoration of mankind into the eternal Kingdom through faith in God and His Son Yeshua HaMashiach.

Thus, when we read any Torah portion, we have lessons for the here and now, but also lessons for God’s eternal purposes. The former is for immediate application and the latter is part of a very long and gradually developing purpose. We must hold both in balance. We must not look so much to our personal needs for today as to forget to hold our heads high in faith for that more wonderful greater fulfilment of God’s purposes. Neither should we be so full of our future heavenly calling as to forget to live a life worthy of that calling each day of our life.

The Bible has many examples of people who responded to God for His purposes in their day, not realising how their relatively simple motivations and obedience was part of God’s greater eternal purposes. Take, for example, Hannah’s grief when she could not bear a child (1 Samuel 1). In human thinking at that time, it was shameful for a wife not to bear offspring for her husband. Yet, God led her to a vow, when He granted her a child, that she would dedicate the child to His service. So, out of an immediate human need was born Samuel, one of the greatest Prophets of all time, used by God to restore Israel back to God. Nevertheless, even Samuel, in going about his earthly ministry could not foresee enough of the greater picture to understand that God would eventually anoint a King for Israel, David, who would be a shadow of the coming Messiah.

Samuel mourned because Israel wanted a king like the other nations (1 Samuel 8), and God’s response to him did not open even his eyes to a step in history that would have eternal consequences:

And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.” (1 Samuel 8:7)

Granted that Israel first received the weak King Saul, bringing its own lesson that their motive was wrong to want a king like the other nations. Nevertheless, God’s plan of redemption was proceeding all the time. In hindsight we can perceive it but, at the time, the daily journey of the people of Israel was not always easy or clear concerning God’s long term purposes.

Whilst Samuel took His part, another plan of God was quietly proceeding which would converge at the right time with God’s purpose through Samuel. With hindsight, we know how it turned out when Naomi, her husband and two sons went to Moab at a time when food was short in Bethlehem (Ruth 1). The immediate needs of this good woman were perhaps all she knew as she lost both her husband and her two sons and then returned to Bethlehem some ten or so years after she left, with her daughter-in-law Ruth, and with the sad testimony:

Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me? (Ruth 1:20-21)

She had no idea that long after she, Boaz and Ruth had died, her great-great grandson would be the same David who, having a heart after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), would be anointed by Samuel as King (1 Samuel 16):

Now this is the genealogy of Perez: Perez begot Hezron; Hezron begot Ram, and Ram begot Amminadab; Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon; Salmon begot Boaz, and Boaz begot Obed; Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David. (Ruth 4:18-22)

So it is that throughout the history of Israel, through sometimes a difficult journey, the teaching of God has a long-term interpretation, which is embedded in the lives of His people, whether they perceived it or not.

Perhaps the best example of one who could understand that God’s immediate purposes also had eternal meaning, is Abraham. It took him a long time to reach this place of faith, but he was a willing learner. He was commended by God for his willingness to deepen his walk of faith through the experiences of life - which were often difficult. His obediently taking his son Isaac as a sacrifice to Mount Moriah (Genesis 22) proved that he had reached the required depth of faith, and where he could perceive the higher purposes of God beyond the immediate daily walk:

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God…..

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. (Hebrews 11:8-19)

Our Torah portion this week, therefore, should be read with these things in mind. Israel was on a journey through the wilderness. Time and again there was difficulty, and once more we find the people complaining both for lack of water and concerning the diet of daily manna (Numbers 20, 21:5):

And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.”

Yet, like their forefather Abraham, they were learning to live a life of faith and obedience.

The rules for purification in Numbers 19 are ongoing evidence of God’s requirement for both external and internal purity. Their emphasis was to be on life and not death. To be in contact even with a dead relative required cleansing, for which there was provision of the ashes of the Red Heifer. This was also the time when both Miriam and Aaron died.

Even the difficulties that they had in finding a route to journey through Edom, Moab and the lands of the Canaanites and Amorites had eternal purposes for the judgment of the nations. For example, God eventually built up a case for judgment against Edom, which is spoken of by the Prophets in later days (Obadiah 1:1-4, Isaiah 34:5-6, Jeremiah 14:17-18 and Ezekiel 25:12-14):

Thus says the Lord God: “Because of what Edom did against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and has greatly offended by avenging itself on them,” therefore thus says the Lord God: “I will also stretch out My hand against Edom, cut off man and beast from it, and make it desolate from Teman; Dedan shall fall by the sword. I will lay My vengeance on Edom by the hand of My people Israel, that they may do in Edom according to My anger and according to My fury; and they shall know My vengeance,” (Ezekiel 25:12-14)

Whilst Israel and Judah have many times come under the discipline of God, nevertheless, they are His chosen people to bring a prophetic message to the world. To come against the nation with wrong motive is to misunderstand God’s eternal purposes and come under God’s judgment. As Jeremiah said of Israel in contrast with other nations, typified by Babylon:

The Portion of Jacob is not like them,
For He is the Maker of all things;
And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance.
The Lord of hosts is His name.

You are My battle-ax and weapons of war:
For with you I will break the nation in pieces;
With you I will destroy kingdoms. (Jeremiah 51:19-20)

Despite the hard journey of Israel in the wilderness, God was preparing for Himself a people within a long-term vision for the purification and redemption of the world.

Most importantly, our Portion this week has some deep-rooted meaning for God’s eternal purposes through Yeshua.

The entry into Canaan, the immediate goal of the Children of Israel, was not to be God’s final destination for His covenant people. Abraham’s example of seeing beyond the immediate to the Eternal Kingdom, though not completely clear as to how and where, should be the perspective of all God’s people.

Aaron, the first High Priest would not even enter the Promised Land, and neither would Moses. They were God’s choice for leading Israel from the Kingdom of Egypt through difficult times, but their not even being granted to be leaders into Canaan bears much importance. The error at Meribah was sufficient to show that an even greater leader would one day be needed. In hindsight, it was inevitable that the limitations of even Moses’ humanity would make him inadequate for the absolute fulfilment of God’s eternal purpose of redeeming mankind from its banishment from Eden.

Yet, the pattern was established in all things, which is why Torah is at the foundation of all God’s teaching, not just for Israel, but for the entire world. The pattern of the Priesthood and of God’s speaking through human beings, exemplified by the great Prophet Moses was for all time.

While Aaron and Moses were shown to fail, there would be one whom Moses foresaw (Deuteronomy 18:15-19) who would come to lead God’s people in later times. All this points to Yeshua the Messiah. We see it so clearly in hindsight, weighing all of Torah, the Prophets and the Writings against the New Testament. Once the veil goes from one’s eyes, one sees it logically and also through eyes of faith.

Even the Red Heifer for purification pointed to Him. The Writer to the Hebrews understood this. What he wrote should be cross-referenced with Numbers 19:

We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. (Hebrews13:10-16)

For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:13-14)

Life and death is still the issue. The sprinkling with the water of purification containing the ashes of the red heifer are symbolic of purification by the Holy Spirit and they also bear witness to the life of the Holy Spirit as opposed to the dead works of the natural man.

We have yet another symbol of profound implication in our portion, the Bronze Serpent of Numbers 21. Here the physical conflict with fiery serpents who bite and thus bring physical damage to the body which needs healing, points back to a prophecy in Genesis which speaks of One who would come. Yeshua is the One who was foreseen soon after Creation. The fiery serpents become a symbol of the attacks of the spiritual powers of darkness led by satan himself, likened to a serpent:

So the Lord God said to the serpent:

“Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life.

And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.” (Genesis 3:14-15)

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:14-17)

This quote from John 3 is taken from Yeshua’s conversation with Nicodemus, one of the teachers from among the Pharisees,. When Yeshua talked with him, He foresaw His own sacrificial death on the Cross, as the fulfilment of the snake on the bronze pole. Those who look on His death on the Cross in faith will be saved from their sins.

The Apostle Paul was able to understand how, just as the image on the bronze pole was of a fiery serpent so Yeshua allowed Himself to embody the sins that were the result of satan’s temptations to us (like the bites of a fiery serpent):

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.(2 Corinthians 5:21)

All these deep matters have a beginning in the teaching from our Portion this week.

To take these matters on board personally requires us to seek purity in our transient daily lives just as was so often said by God to His people:

Be holy, for I am holy. (1 Peter 1:16)

We must seek to make the most of every day concerning our earthly responsibilities but, as through all covenant history, realise perhaps with limited understanding that God is always moving forward to complete His covenant purposes, even using our contribution in ways that can multiply in fruitfulness for His purposes. We should always have our minds on the present purposes of God with our heads held high regarding His future fulfilment:

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:58)

And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near. (Luke 21:25-28)

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 6/11/26 Dr Justin Elwell 6/11/26

Korach (Korah), Numbers 16:1-18:32

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 (5786).

13th June 2026 (28 Sivan)

Korach (Korah), Numbers 16:1-18:32

How important it is to both read the Torah portion in context and also to understand the relevance of its teaching for every generation.

God’s instructions to Moses were intended to bring order to the community among whom He would dwell. After the account of the rebellion in this week’s reading, we have a clear review of the order of service of the Tabernacle, both how the Levites should minister and how they should be provided for from the offerings made to the Lord. Even in the eating of their share of the meat and grain brought to the altar, there was to be utmost reverence. To Aaron and his sons, the Lord said:

Here, I Myself have also given you charge of My heave offerings, all the holy gifts of the children of Israel; I have given them as a portion to you and your sons, as an ordinance forever. This shall be yours of the most holy things reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every grain offering and every sin offering and every trespass offering which they render to Me, shall be most holy for you and your sons. In a most holy place you shall eat it; every male shall eat it. It shall be holy to you. (Numbers 18:8-10)

To the Levites, the Lord said:

When you take from the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave offering of it to the Lord, a tenth of the tithe…..

…. When you have lifted up the best of it, then the rest shall be accounted to the Levites as the produce of the threshing floor and as the produce of the winepress. You may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is your reward for your work in the tabernacle of meeting. (Numbers 18:26-31)

This might remind us of the order of our own lives, where provision comes in a different way. The Apostle Paul, in reviewing the Lord’s provision, both spiritual and physical, in 1 Corinthians 10, ended with the admonition:

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)

We must be careful not to take God’s gifts lightly and be so familiar with them as to forget the great privileges He brings us. The reality of this is seen when we realise that there is much in our Torah portion this week that links to matters of life and death. At this time, when God was beginning to form a covenant family for Himself, He made it clear that there must be order and discipline. This was the beginning of mankind being redeemed from the consequences of sinfulness in the fallen world. In terms of the service of the Levites when helping Aaron and his sons:

They shall attend to your needs and all the needs of the tabernacle; but they shall not come near the articles of the sanctuary and the altar, lest they die—they and you also. (Numbers 18:3)

These considerations add to our need to learn from the consequences of the rebellion of Korah from Chapters 17 and 18. If the earth opens up to swallow up those who were rebellious and if God, through the miracle of the budding of Aaron’s rod, takes the trouble to reinforce the importance of recognising who His appointed ministers are, then this is a lesson that we must consider carefully. It is God Himself who appoints whom He chooses for the outworking of His purposes.

If we were to look at this from the perspective of Korah, we might understand how easy it is to miss this point. In human terms, why was he any different from Moses and Aaron? Here are two old men who have brought them out of Egypt and not fulfilled their expectation of entering the Promised Land. Surely there were other men who could lead with greater success, so why not challenge the leadership? Very human thinking, perhaps full of ambition, perhaps democratically motivated, but full of error of judgement and great consequences.

This is a recurring theme in our Bibles. Consider Abimelech, Gideon’s son. Even after the great victory brought by his father, ambition drove him to murder his many brothers, thinking that this would confirm his leadership of Israel, but only disaster and many deaths were the consequence (Judges 11).

David the King brought a good but rare example of not overstepping the mark. Even though he was anointed as King and was pursued by the failed King Saul, on two occasions he would not take advantage of a situation to usurp Saul’s position, leaving God to be the judge of how he himself would become King in Saul’s place. The first opportunity to take Saul’s life was in the cave at En Gedi, but David declared:

The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. (1 Samuel 24:6)

The second opportunity came in the Wilderness of Ziph, when David and his men found Saul and his men sleeping, but again he would not take the opportunity offered to overcome Saul:

Do not destroy him; for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed, and be guiltless? (1 Samuel 26:9)

These are unique circumstances. By contrast, we read time and again of how challenges have come to those appointed by God. Even David’s son Absalom brought about a conspiracy to usurp his father’s throne, with immense consequences of death and division among the people of Israel (2 Samuel 15-18).

These are all lessons, beginning with the rebellion of Korah, through which we must learn. In the wider picture, God appointed the entire nation of Israel for His covenant purposes.

Remember His marvellous works which He has done,
His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth,
O seed of Abraham His servant,
You children of Jacob, His chosen ones! (Psalm 105:5-6)

Psalm 105 reviews God’s appointment of Israel, whilst also reminding all who consider this:

Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm. (Psalm 105:15)

Consequences of misunderstanding, forgetting or ignoring this have gone on from generation to generation. When Judah was led captive to Babylon for seventy years there was misunderstanding of God’s higher purposes. For this, He rebuked the surrounding nations who sought to benefit from God’s judgement on Israel:

Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said, “O Lord of hosts, how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which You were angry these seventy years?”

And the Lord answered the angel who talked to me, with good and comforting words. So the angel who spoke with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts:

“I am zealous for Jerusalem
And for Zion with great zeal.
I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease;
For I was a little angry,
And they helped—but with evil intent.” (Zechariah 1:12-15)

So we see the consequences of rebellion against God and whom He appoints, especially His purposes with the Nation Israel: this continues even to our day, with the same devastating effect. The lesson from Korah’s rebellion is still not learned.

For those in the Christian Church, we too must be careful not to misjudge God’s continuing purposes for Israel. There is a branch of theology called Replacement Theology which is based on the view that God finished with Israel at the coming of Jesus, and now the Christian Church inherits the blessings of Israel, ignoring the curses. There can be an element of pride in this. The Apostle Paul warned of it and its consequences:

Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!

I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. (Romans 11:11-21)

Of all the examples of failure to recognise God’s appointing to authority, the challenge to Yeshua’s authority is the most important. Sometimes in a veiled way and sometimes a much clearer way, preparation was made through the biblical Prophets for God’s people to understand that a Son was to born in Israel (Isaiah 9) who would be the Ruler of Israel, to bring in the New Covenant promised through Jeremiah to Israel and Judah (Jeremiah 31), and who would become the Lamb of God (Isaiah 53), to take away the sins of the world (John 1), replacing all other sacrifices for sin and for peace with God

When He came to earth, many religious leaders saw Him as usurping their authority and sought to repeatedly challenge Him, seeking instead to usurp His authority instead! The full accounts are in the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). He replied to their challenges with the correct interpretation of Torah, such as in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and by miraculous signs and wonders. These were not miracles that opened the ground to consume those who would usurp His authority as in the days of Moses, but wonderful gifts of healing and deliverance!

When on the Cross, suffering for the sins of those who sought to usurp His authority, He prayed:

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. (Luke 23:34)

Yet all the shakings of this world that have followed to this day, and which will follow into the future, are linked to His Crucifixion and necessary acceptance of God’s appointed King of the Jews, as He patiently waits for all who will respond in faith to His call of redemption through Him. One thing is sure: if God would not let Korah usurp the authority of Moses and Aaron, more so will He not let others usurp the authority of His Son, Yeshua HaMashiach.

Yeshua warned of the troubles that would occur on this earth prior to His return (Matthew 24, Luke 21). He also told of the coming antichrist, who would indeed try to usurp His authority. Satan once sought to do this in the wilderness, where Yeshua fasted for 40 days and nights (Luke 4). In the power of satan, one will arise who will seek for one last time, to draw all people of all nations under his reign. The Prophet Daniel foresaw these days, when talking of the abomination of desolation (Daniel 9:27, 11:31, Matthew 24:15).

For false messiahs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. (Matthew 24:24-25)

This is graphically described in the Book of Revelation. At the climax of the rule of the antichrist, the world will finally suffer the greatest woes since the time of Israel in Egypt, and then Yeshua will return in full authority as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This is the greatest event which we can foresee from meditating on our portion this week.

For ourselves, in the service of our Saviour on this earth until that great day, Yeshua appoints those whom He chooses.

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ……. (Ephesians 4:11-12)

His appointments are according to His choosing and for the good of all. If Korah teaches us a personal lesson, it is to respect the calling of others as well as take seriously our own:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. (Ephesians 12:1-8)

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 6/4/26 Dr Justin Elwell 6/4/26

Shelach Lecha (send for yourselves), Numbers 13:1-15:41

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 (5786).

6th June 2026 (21 Sivan)

Shelach Lecha (send for yourselves), Numbers 13:1-15:41

When Almighty God created human beings, He made us so that we could choose to love Him, so much as to desire to perfectly do His will and to be with Him forever. To have the ability to choose and respond to His love for us, also allowed us to fall short. The history of mankind from the day that Adam was formed from the dust of the ground until now, is that we have fallen short of perfection. The Kingdom of Heaven is not fully manifest on the earth.

From time to time, God has drawn those close to Himself through whom His covenant purposes could progress but, time and again, we have fallen short. When Abraham was appointed as the father of faith, in human terms, and the custodian of God’s eternal promises, he would surely have been full of expectation for a great work of God to draw together a family from all nations in a most magnificent way. He died many years before the events of this week’s Torah portion took place. He would surely have wept to see his physical descendants fail to have faith in God to conquer the land which he himself had been promised. This surely could not be the climax of God’s purposes through him and promised to him. Even after all the Children of Israel had known of God in their journey from Egypt, they were still full of fear of the enemies whom the Lord had promised to drive out of the Land.

In future portions, we will go on to read about the conquest of Canaan through the leadership of Joshua and the settling of the land through the strength of faith and purpose of those who could emulate Caleb. Even so, we will still discover that the history of all God’s people is tainted through failure, often through disobedience and always through lack of the fulness of faith in God. The time of the Judges confirms that life in Canaan, the Land of promise - the Land of Israel - did not become the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Likewise through the times of the Kings of Israel and Judah and until now, there have been high times as well as low, but never the fulness of the Kingdom of Heaven.

In later times, the Writer to the Hebrews could meditate on those who achieved a good testimony of faith. In Hebrews Chapter 11, names are mentioned that punctuate the history of the earth: Abel, who brought a right offering to God; Enoch, who walked with God; Noah, who prepared the Ark; Abraham and Sarah, who by faith begot Isaac; Moses, of whom we read in our Torah portions, leading a multitude to the borders of Canaan, and innumerable others of which it could be said, that they:

….through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again.

Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented - of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. (Hebrews 11:33-38)

Such testimonies bring hope and also shame to many others who did not achieve the goal of their faith, particularly those of whom we read today in the Book of Numbers. They did not trust God to help them subdue the evil powers that dominated the Promised Land, that it might be cleansed and prosper as an eternal dwelling place for God’s people with Him.

Yet, where do we read that it was the promise of God to transform this earth to be an expression of Heaven itself, where God dwells in complete purity? The Children of Israel were only looking for a homeland where they could be safe on this earth to live and prosper.

However, the Writer to the Hebrews, in reviewing the great journey in time from Creation to his day, realised that those individuals who did live by faith in a special way, saw something in vision beyond this world. Of Abraham it was said:

By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews 11:9-10)

Again, of them and others who saw into a distant future in faith:

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.(Hebrews 11:13-16)

And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. (Hebrews 11:39-40)

In our portion, this week, therefore, we must put the failure of the Children of Israel into perspective, and realise that we are learning not only about their failure, but also the nature of human beings. The Israelites had come out of Egypt with great signs and wonders, but still fell short on faith. Their extra time of forty years in the wilderness is our lesson as well as theirs. We read again, in Chapter 15, that God still gave them a way for unintentional sin to be covered through the sacrifice of animals. The grace of God allowed a covering for sin into the future, when all could be fulfilled in His covenant purposes.

So, let’s bring these lessons forward into our circumstances today. We are still on the pilgrimage, but our vision is now more clearly set on the heavenly Kingdom rather than journeying to a physical land of promise. Our atonement for sin is now more magnificently through the shed blood of Yeshua. Yet, the heavenly Kingdom is not yet established as it was declared by God to Moses and reaffirmed through other Prophets:

Truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. (Numbers 14:21)

For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:9)

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14)

We are very close to the fulfilment of God’s Covenant promises and can, in some ways, compare this last part of our journey to the Children of Israel’s journey to Canaan. Love of God and faith in Him is still to be the hallmark of our lives. Indeed, there are battles ahead which will test our faith, just as theirs was tested.

The battles in Joshua’s day were against a physical enemy. Nevertheless, they were against an enemy taken over by the powers of satan. The nations inhabiting Canaan were entrenched in the worship of false gods and of idols. Abraham was told that his descendants would not return to Canaan until the sin of the Amorites had reached its height:

But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. (Genesis 15:16)

Israel faced seven demonised nations -the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites – of which the Amorites were just one.

Paul the Apostle, with the insight of the history of his people and of the higher purposes now revealed in Yeshua, realised that the struggle of God’s people can come in human form but the real enemy is spiritual:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

Yeshua spoke clearly about the struggle that would take place prior to His return to bring the Kingdom of God fully in. This struggle against the spiritual powers of darkness will be manifested in many ways, as we see in the world today. What He said in answer to His disciples’ question as to the signs of His coming, is repeated in graphic detail in the Book of Revelation, with the same imagery that was given to Daniel and other Prophets, including Ezekiel and Zechariah:

“Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:3-14)

As these events increase on the earth, we should ask ourselves whether we are really as strong and full of love and faith in God as is required. The Christian Church is fragmented and there is some falling away, when unity should be our hallmark for strength and the blessing of God – not unity through compromise, but unity in both Spirit and truth. Barely do we find Church leaders studying the Scriptures together to search out the deeper place of unity in the Israel of God as described by Paul in Romans 11. Instead, it can often be likened to the Tribes of Israel in the times of the Judges: In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 17:16)

If we read the Scriptures carefully concerning the times ahead, we must prepare for those battles for the souls of men that is highlighted as coming with the rule of the antichrist (Revelation18:3). There is no real justification for a widely held and growing idea that Christians are soon to be raptured out of the earth before greater troubles beset the world. Instead, we are to be no less warriors in the spiritual battle than the Children of Israel were to be in the physical battles.

Our call is to live by the faith that typified the strongest of God’s people through the ages, as His Bride making herself ready for Him (Revelation 19:7). A telling question was posed by Yeshua, despite all that He has done for us to raise our expectation from an earthly kingdom to an eternal life with Him in His Heavenly Kingdom. Using a parable He showed the way to walk in faithful, persistent, expectant prayer to God, yet warning of the reality that faces many in times of trouble, the challenge to our faith:

Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’ ” Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:1-8)

It is easy to consider the generation of the Israelites on the border of Canaan as failures and think that we are by the Spirit, in the Lord, much stronger than they. Yet the weakness of our fallen nature is still an enemy to weaken us, so let us learn our lessons anew as we too face battles which require faith to the end. But what an end it is that coming in the purposes of God!

And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God. They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying:

“Great and marvellous are Your works,
Lord God Almighty!
Just and true are Your ways,
O King of the saints!

Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy.
For all nations shall come and worship before You,
For Your judgments have been manifested.” (Revelations 15:2-4)

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 5/28/26 Dr Justin Elwell 5/28/26

Beha’alotcha (in your making go up), Numbers 8:1-12:16

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

30thMay 2026 (14 Sivan)

Beha’alotcha (in your making go up), Numbers 8:1-12:16

Seven lamps were hung onto the lampstand by Aaron, facing outwards, shedding their glorious golden light into the Holy Place of the Tabernacle:

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Speak to Aaron, and say to him, ‘When you arrange the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the lampstand.’ ” And Aaron did so; he arranged the lamps to face toward the front of the lampstand, as the Lord commanded Moses. (Numbers 8:1-3)

The light of the lamps shone directly across to the golden table which held the showbread – the twelve loaves, renewed each Sabbath Day, one for each of the 12 Tribes of Israel. There were two rows each of six loaves. Frankincense was put onto the loaves as a memorial to God (Leviticus 24:5-9).

The structure and ordinances of the Tabernacle are full of imagery. Here we have a picture, easily interpretable as the light of God constantly shining on His people, the provision of God for His people, and the prayerful response of His people to God. Though the number seven has many applications in Scripture – for example, seven days of Creation, seven Feasts of the Lord – seven lamps suggests most meaningfully, the seven-fold Spirit of God. Whilst the Tabernacle brought a splendid representation of this, the Book of Revelation brings an even greater sense of the awesomeness of the reality of God’s light:

After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”

Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. (Revelation 4:1-5)

This picture of the Heavenly throne room with twenty-four elders, gives great emphasis to the appointment of the Levites (Numbers 8) and the anointing of the Holy Spirit on the seventy Elders:

So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tabernacle. Then the Lord came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and placed the same upon the seventy elders; and it happened, when the Spirit rested upon them, that they prophesied….. (Numbers 11:24-25)

When we read of these things and contemplate the depth of their meaning, we wonder why there was unrest among the Children of Israel. They doubted the Lord’s provision of Manna and so quail was given in such abundance that they would become sick of it. Not only that, but the authority of Moses - of whom it was said time after time, “and the Lord spoke to Moses” – was challenged even by his brother and sister.

Of course, what Aaron witnessed in the Holy Place, was not visible to the general congregation of Israel, and though Moses heard directly from God time after time, others only heard the voice of Moses. It was possible to miss the depth of what God was doing day by day for His people and resort to human ways of thinking.

Going forward in time to the coming of Yeshua HaMashiach to the earth, the same thing happened. Isaiah foresaw how the glory of the sevenfold Spirit of God would now rest upon Him as it had once been symbolised by the lights of the Menorah:

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
    the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
    the Spirit of counsel and of might,
    the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord –

and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;

but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. (Isaiah 11:1-4)

Yet, as Yeshua’s disciple John perceived, many of those living in Yeshua’s day did not perceive the Light of God shining through Yeshua:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:1-13)

Though many of His own people did not perceive the Light of God shining in a new way, just as the anointing of the Holy Spirit came to the seventy Elders in the wilderness, so the Holy Spirit comes to anoint all who are disciples of Yeshua: those who perceive who He really is. This outpouring of God’s Spirit began at a yearly celebration of Shavuot and is described in Acts 2.

The Light of God, symbolically shining in the Tabernacle, but hidden from view to the wider world, is now made manifest through the Light that He shone fully thorough the life and ministry of Yeshua. Just as a share of Moses’ anointing was given to the seventy Elders, so Yeshua appoints each of His disciples for ministry according to His choosing.

Speaking of this light for ministry, He said:

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)

Just as we might be surprised at the disorder that could come to the Children of Israel in the Wilderness, we might be even more surprised that the worldwide body of the Lord’s disciples can be in disorder too.

Despite the giving of the Holy Spirit, listen to the Apostle Paul conscious, as elsewhere in his writings, of the ongoing wrestling between the natural man and the new man born of the Spirit. In Ephesians 4, after writing about the ministry gifts given by God through His Holy Spirit, he says:

This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:17-24)

Though we are reborn as a “new man”, the “old man”, the person we once were, can still struggle within us until we leave this earthly body.

A great gift of God through Yeshua was the taking away of the curse that Israel lived under for breaking the laws of God (Galatians 3:13), giving us the freedom to live a life founded on study of the teaching of God and gradually grow to maturity. However, Paul also warned about being careless with this freedom:

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? (Romans 6:1-2)

If we need convincing that things can go wrong in the congregations of Yeshua’s disciples, in some ways comparable to the mistakes made by the Children of Israel in the wilderness, we should read the first few chapters of the Book of Revelation. On the one hand, there is the glorious vision of the risen Yeshua and also of those redeemed from the Tribes of Israel and from all tribes and tongues of the entire world, gathered around the Throne of Heaven. On the other hand, is the very down-to-earth description of seven congregations, from Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. Each has their candlestick to shed its light, and each can have their candlestick removed if the light is not shining as it ought.

The light of God, symbolised by the Menorah, fulfilled in Yeshua and shared with His disciples through the gift of the Holy Spirit, must shine ever brighter in an ever darkening world. The Children of Israel lacked much understanding as they journeyed on their pilgrimage to the Promised Land, and so can much be lacking in our discernment today, of what God is doing in the Heavenly Place. We can take the opportunity from our reading of the Torah Portion this week to consider how brightly God’s light is shining in the world through us, and also how well our prayers, like frankincense on the Showbread, rise up in thankfulness to Him. Just as the showbread was renewed every Sabbath Day, so let our lives be renewed to God on this Sabbath Day.

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 5/21/26 Dr Justin Elwell 5/21/26

Naso (elevate), Numbers 4:21-7:89

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

22nd May 2026 (6 Sivan)

Shavuot (weeks), Exodus 19:1-20:23, Numbers 28:26-31

23rd May 2026 (7 Sivan)

Naso (elevate), Numbers 4:21-7:89

All Torah points to Yeshua, and very meaningfully so at each of the yearly Feasts of the Lord. This week, Shavuot is one day before our Sabbath reading, so we will include them both.

First, a reflection on Shavuot.

Moses was called up to Mount Sinai, the Mountain of God, soon after the Children of Israel were released from captivity in Egypt.

In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai. For they had departed from Rephidim, had come to the Wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain. And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain ….. (Exodus 19:1-3)

Then followed the dramatic experience of God’s presence descending onto the mountain. Moses went down and prepared the people for what God intended to do. It was something quite new at this, the beginning of Almighty God’s drawing near to His chosen people, to show them what was expected of them in return. It is good for us all to pause and consider this event as if we were there. It is intended that God’s people remember it, calling it to mind in a special way each year at this time.

Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. (Exodus 19:16-20)

God’s purpose was to give His people the Ten Commandments, ten things that form the basis of all His Torah, interpretable into the entire life of righteousness before God. To be given through such a powerful encounter surely impresses on us its importance. We must pause and read these commandments prayerfully. How much we need to return to them at this time, realising how consciousness of them so easily erodes away in this busy world. We have largely lost the depth of application in our lives, at a time when they are now not even taught to the multitudes of people of our generations. How many of us can write them down on paper, as God once wrote them on stone for His people?

And God spoke all these words, saying:

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

“You shall have no other gods before Me.

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

“Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

“You shall not murder.

“You shall not commit adultery.

“You shall not steal.

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

“You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbour’s.”

Israel left Egypt at Pesach, on the fourteenth day of the first month, arrived at Sinai at the beginning of the third month, and with the time for Moses to go up the mountain and back, call the people to prepare and return up onto the mountain on the third day, the number of days from the first Pesach to the giving of the Ten Commandments is understood to be fifty days.

From Leviticus 23:15-22, combined with the tradition of the Feast of Firstfruits being on 16th Nissan, two days after Pesach, Shavuot celebrates the giving of Torah fifty days from Pesach, traditionally on 6 Sivan.

It is important to remember these details, and the awesome day at Sinai when God first began to show Israel how to live as a holy nation, in ordered fellowship with Him and as a witness for Him in the world.

Otherwise, it is easy to detach the events of Acts 2 from their context. There is continuity between Acts 2 and Exodus 19-20.

Luke records how Yeshua’s disciples were instructed, following His Ascension to the Father (Luke 24:50-53):

He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts 1:4-5)

When the Day of Shavuot came, the disciples went to the Temple as was their custom, in obedience to the commands of God through Moses, where all of the men of Israel were called to be before the Lord at the three main Feasts. Their expectation, along with all others of their nation assembling there, from far and wide, was founded on the remembrance of the giving of Torah through Moses, beginning on the first Shavuot at Sinai. Then came a second awesome moment prepared by God for all the years since the first Shavuot. The parallels are clear with the flames of fire residing on the disciples just as it had on Mount Sinai, with the accompanying manifestations of God’s presence:

When the Day of Shavuot had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:1-4)

The house where they were sitting was an area of the Temple where they would be studying and praying together. Who knows what the discussion might have been, around their contemplation of Torah? Perhaps, somewhere the question, “when Lord will you fulfil your promise of the Holy Spirit?”

Whether or not the question was asked explicitly, it had been through the weeks from the Lord’s fulfilment of the first Passover in Egypt (1 Corinthians 5:7), His Ascension, presenting Himself as the Firstfruits to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:20) that they had waited – seven long weeks in patient anticipation.

What could not be achieved, however hard God’s people tried to fully obey Torah, was now made possible through empowering and inner transformation by the Holy Spirit, so we can both worship God and serve Him. Multitudes have born witness to this as even Gentiles, once excluded from the community of the Israel of God, can now be included (Ephesians 2). It was a long time for Israel from the events at Sinai to that special Shavuot recorded in Acts 2; a time of many centuries duration, when lessons were to be learned about the need for a greater fulfilment of the Feasts of the Lord.

As significant as those first celebrations were, more magnificent is their fulfilment.

We can now link this with the Torah study for this week.

Naso

Our entire purpose in this series of Torah studies is to show how they are fulfilled in Yeshua. Yeshua did not start a new religion but transformed all that went before into a new and living way. What was not possible on account of human weakness, despite the awesome presence of God among the Children of Israel, became possible through His sacrificial death and the giving of the Holy Spirit.

If we were able to return to the days when Yeshua walked the earth, many Christians might be surprised if they encountered Him. He would not be dressed in a grey suit, or wear a “dog collar”, or be addressed by His disciples as Jesus rather than Yeshua, the Hebrew name given to Mary by the Angel Gabriel (Luke 1), or many of the things depicted on “works of art” that transform His image into whatever we might like Him to be, to fit into our present-day culture. He would be found in Jewish clothes, speaking the language of Israel, with a prayer shawl, with tassels (tzittzit) on the fringe of His garment, and in all ways, fully complying with the true interpretation of Torah (i.e. without sin).

One must consider these matters very carefully. Though obvious when one discerns how Yeshua brought fulfilment to Torah, including the Feasts, a renewed mind is needed in tackling the many questions that might arise.

The Apostle Paul was clear concerning the continuity of God’s purposes as well as the new beginning through Yeshua. His letters, though sometimes needing close attention, have brought light onto difficult issues. He was gifted in raising matters in the First Century that have helped others over many generations, though much that he wrote requires careful and prayerful study. Peter once remarked about the difficulty of understanding some of the things that Paul wrote:

…as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. (2 Peter 3:16)

Paul, a Hebrew himself, of the Tribe of Benjamin, lived in the days when Yeshua was on the earth, and interpreted the new beginning in Yeshua from within the life of those days. As Paul said in one of the “difficult” passages to understand:

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4)

Yeshua, not only led the way to a right understanding of Torah but was born into the community of Torah-observant Jews, according to the right understanding of Torah. He embodied Torah, so that in following Him, we might be redeemed, whether Jew or Gentile, from the curse of the law (not freed from the law itself but from the curse for disobedience).

Christ (Messiah) has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:13-14)

There are difficult passages to interpret correctly. Therefore, we are encouraged, as are all who study the Bible, to search the Scriptures. We search them for full understanding, with the help of the Holy Spirit, and truly find God. That is how the difficulties are resolved and the continuity of God’s purposes are understood.

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7)

This was a natural thing to the Jews in Berea, when they were shown by Paul how Yeshua fulfilled Torah:

The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. (Acts 17:11)

How can we relate these things to our Torah Portion this week, in the context of Shavuot? First, a few points of continuity that could be missed, especially by Christians.

Our portion continues to describe the responsibilities of the Levitical Priesthood. We quickly come to a regulation concerning the age for service:

From thirty years old and above, even to fifty years old, you shall number them, all who enter to perform the service, to do the work in the tabernacle of meeting. (Numbers 4:23)

Many years later, this would apply to the years of service of both Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, John himself, and Yeshua. Though Zechariah was advanced in years (Luke 1:7), he and his wife were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. (Luke 1:6). Zechariah was “old”, but not too old to serve, according to the above command. He was therefore under the age of fifty, as required by the Torah.

It is said of Yeshua:

Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli…. (Luke 3:23)

From the account of the birth of John the Baptist and of Yeshua, in the first chapters of the Gospel accounts, we know they were born within a few months of each other. They were both, according to the Torah and conforming with rabbinical tradition, at the age of 30, designated as the right time to begin a priestly ministry. So it was for all of their lives that they kept Torah as interpreted from all that we are reading week by week. Yeshua was constantly challenged by the leaders of Judaism concerning His interpretation of Torah and He always met their challenges. Born within the precepts of Torah, He lived in accordance with Torah – therefore sinless.

Our portion, in Numbers 5, describes some of the reasons why a person would be excluded from the community – lepers, those with an unclean discharge, those defiled by a corpse and unfaithful wives. One must reflect much on this and ask, who really is clean before God?

When a woman caught in adultery was brought before Yeshua, in accordance with our Torah portion this week, His words convicted everyone present of their own sins, not only the woman who was brought before Him:

He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” (John 8:8-11)

In this and in accordance with all the requirements of Torah, Yeshua interpreted Torah and fulfilled it. Those who accused the woman according to what we read in our portion this week, needed to be sinless themselves for the whole of Torah to be observed. If one part of Torah is broken, the whole of Torah is broken (James 2:10). One cannot pick and choose – Torah is intended for all of life in a righteous community. Yeshua demonstrated that there was need for a greater means of attaining righteousness, through this episode and many others recorded in Scripture.

There is a requirement of one who has separated himself to God in the rules for one making a vow. Yeshua made such a vow on our behalf of those who would accept His sacrifice by faith:

He shall separate himself from wine and similar drink; he shall drink neither vinegar made from wine nor vinegar made from similar drink; neither shall he drink any grape juice, nor eat fresh grapes or raisins. All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, from seed to skin. (Numbers 6:3-4)

At the Passover before Yeshua’s sacrificial death as the unblemished Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29) He said:

I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom. (Matthew 26:29)

When He suffered agonising pain on the Cross, and was offered wine vinegar to ease the pain:

They gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink. (Matthew 27:34)

Yeshua, made a commitment before the Father on our behalf and still keeps it within the parameters of Torah. Yeshua was born according to the Torah and fulfilled the Torah in every way, raising it to a new level, but not neglecting all its precepts. He committed Himself to intercede for all who will believe, transforming that which could not be obeyed fully, because of the inherent weakness of fallen human beings, to a new possibility.

With this in mind, what was the blessing mentioned at His Ascension in Luke 24:50-51? Surely it was the High Priestly Blessing of Numbers 6:

Say to them:

“The Lord bless you and keep you;

The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.”

יְבָרֶכְךָ יְהוָה וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ (Yevarechecha Adonai veyishmerecha)

יָאֵר יְהוָה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וִיחֻנֶּךָ (Ya'er Adonai panav eilecha vichuneka)

יִשָּׂא יְהוָה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלוֹם (Yisa Adonai panav eilecha veyasem lecha shalom)

In our portion this week, the Levites brought their costly offerings, Tribe by Tribe, to inaugurate their ministry of the Tabernacle. Nevertheless, theirs was not to be a permanent ministry when the greater ministry of Yeshua was revealed. In light of Yeshua, the ministry of the Tabernacle and the Temple as a place of sacrifice and offerings to maintain peace and fellowship with the God of Israel, was replaced by the new and living way. For all the dignity, glory and honour that seemed possible from the awesome beginning in the wilderness of Sinai, the testimony of time and mankind showed that a new and permanent sacrifice was needed. Out of the depths of Torah emerged Yeshua to fulfil and be that sacrifice.

In those wilderness years, exclusion from the community, due to sin or other uncleanness, was a matter of constant concern. Indeed, the entire gentile world was kept outside of the camp of God’s people. Yeshua reversed this curse for those who accept the free gift offered by faith, made clean where it was not before possible – even Gentiles! This was made possible by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to cleanse and renew, beginning on the Feast of Shavuot recorded in Acts 2.

So, returning to our celebration of Shavuot, we see a continuity of God’s purpose. All Torah points to Yeshua, and very meaningfully so at each of the yearly Feasts of the Lord.

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 5/14/26 Dr Justin Elwell 5/14/26

Bamidbar (in the wilderness), Numbers 1:1-4:20

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

16thMay 2026 (29 Iyyar)

Bamidbar (in the wilderness), Numbers 1:1-4:20

What a wonderful thing it is to be called by God - by name!

Now God spoke to Moses……these are the names of the men who will stand with you…… (Numbers 1)

Israel’s time camped around Mount Sinai came to an end at the beginning of the second year after leaving Egypt (Numbers 1:1). Now came the pilgrimage through the wilderness to the Promised Land. It was time to order the nation. A census was taken to list the men of war – Israel was numbered by the tribal armies (Numbers 1:3). God’s choice of Israel would be contested by other nations – as it has been to this day.

God knows His people and their history. Their origins were known, going back to the beginning of time and particularly through their ancestors - to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob:

… and they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month; and they recited their ancestry by families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and above, each one individually. (Numbers1:18)

The community was ordered and prepared for times of dignified breaking and setting up of camp, each Tribe in its order by its Standard, and each named person taking his allotted responsibilities. The Tabernacle was to be taken down, carried and re-assembled according to a strict routine. Only those appointed from the Priesthood should handle the holy things and wrap them carefully before the appointed Levites would be brought forward to carry them. Contravening these commands would be subject to the penalty of death.

And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, when the camp is set to go, then the sons of Kohath shall come to carry them; but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die.

These are the things in the tabernacle of meeting which the sons of Kohath are to carry.

The appointed duty of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest is the oil for the light, the sweet incense, the daily grain offering, the anointing oil, the oversight of all the tabernacle, of all that is in it, with the sanctuary and its furnishings.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: “Do not cut off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites; but do this in regard to them, that they may live and not die when they approach the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in and appoint each of them to his service and his task. But they shall not go in to watch while the holy things are being covered, lest they die.” (Numbers 4:15-20)

When we read our portion this week, we are able to imagine the ordered community marching forward from camp to camp through the wilderness in the sight of any other nation through whom they passed.

Surely this picture of the covenant family of God is to be retained for all time. The Bible does not list every name of the thousands of families that marched forth, but each individual person had a role in God’s purposes, from the ordering of their own families to the oversight of the nation. Together they made up a nation that was a prophetic sign to the entire world, speaking of the existence of God, the order of God, and what it is to be the people of God.

O seed of Abraham His servant,
You children of Jacob, His chosen ones!

He is the Lord our God;
His judgments are in all the earth.
He remembers His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded, for a thousand generations,

The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His oath to Isaac,

And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute,
To Israel as an everlasting covenant,

Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
As the allotment of your inheritance,”

When they were few in number,
Indeed very few, and strangers in it.

When they went from one nation to another,
From one kingdom to another people,

He permitted no one to do them wrong;
Yes, He rebuked kings for their sakes,

Saying, “Do not touch My anointed ones,
And do My prophets no harm.” (Psalm 105: 6-15)

God calls by name and appoints each one He chooses for His purpose. Nowhere in the Bible do we find anyone deciding for himself or herself what to be, in the service of God’s Kingdom. Search and you will find through the Torah and the Prophets that, time and again, only God calls by name and appoints for service. In the days of the wilderness journeys, one can imagine those whom the Scriptures identified by name to carry the various parts of the Tabernacle. Each one surely recognised the honour that had been bestowed, and carried out their ministry with dignity.

But did this always continue? From time to time, did one look at another and wonder why he was given that particular task and not me? We know that this can be so from the time when the authority of Moses was questioned. Even Aaron challenged the authority of Moses (we will come to this in Numbers 12). The authority of both Moses and Aaron was also questioned (Numbers 16 and 17).

When the order of God’s call is challenged, disorder comes to the community of God’s people and their prophetic witness is marred. This can even be through good intent. Recall, for example when Uzza sought to steady the Ark of the Covenant which was being joyfully and victoriously brought back to Jerusalem by King David. Uzza was not permitted to touch the Ark and so lost his life:

And David and all Israel went up to Baalah, to Kirjath Jearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up from there the ark of God the Lord, who dwells between the cherubim, where His name is proclaimed. So they carried the ark of God on a new cart from the house of Abinadab, and Uzza and Ahio drove the cart. Then David and all Israel played music before God with all their might, with singing, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on cymbals, and with trumpets.

And when they came to Chidon’s threshing floor, Uzza put out his hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled. Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzza, and He struck him because he put his hand to the ark; and he died there before God. (1 Chronicles 13:6-10)

When Yeshua came to earth, a new ordering of God’s covenant family began – it was to be expanded into a new worldwide community covering the entire earth, but no loss of dignity or order was intended:

Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ:

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. (2 Peter 1:1-7)

You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light……you as sojourners and pilgrims(1 Peter 2:9-11)

Our Bible reading this week, of an ordered pilgrim people journeying through a worldly wilderness, helps us to envision the present journey of life and faith of today’s family of God on a pilgrimage to the New Jerusalem in Yeshua’s Kingdom to come. Just as the world could observe the Israelites on their journey to Canaan, so the modern world observes God’s people today. Is our witness worthy of our corporate prophetic calling?

Each of us is still called by name to salvation and then for particular service. Yeshua demonstrated the importance of understanding this when He spent all night in prayer, no less, before appointing His first Apostles:

Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles: Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot; Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also became a traitor. (Luke 6:12-16)

He also made it clear, later, through the commissioning of Peter and John to different ministries, that God’s choice of service is still central to His order. Peter had been reinstated when the risen Lord met them on the shores of Galilee. Peter was to be like a shepherd to God’s people. He asked what John’s ministry was to be - it was indicated that this was different and not a matter for Peter to know:

Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?”

Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”

Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?” (John 21:20-23)

As we go on to read Luke’s account of the Acts of the Apostles and read on to the end of the Bible, we see more clearly what Yeshua had in mind for the individual commissioning of each of the Apostles, as they set about ordering God’s expanding worldwide community.

One after another person has been called by name to salvation offered through the shed blood of Yeshua. According to Paul’s teaching, God then appoints each of us for specific purpose. It is no longer the carrying of the dismantled Tabernacle from one place to another in ordered procession, but to unique appointments of service to establish a worldwide prophetic community to honour Yeshua in unity and dignity, before a watching world.

There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. (1 Corinthians 12:1-11)

With this, comes the encouragement to carefully seek what God specifically requires of each of us and not be envious of another or manufacture some work of service that has not been given, because this leads to disorder, disunity and false witness, even headstrongness that is harmful, just as it would have been in the days of Moses and King David.

For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many.

If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? (1 Corinthians 12:12-19)

When God called Paul, by name, to be an Apostle (Acts 9), he sought the Lord daily in prayer to confirm and fulfil his ministry. By contrast, here and there were so-called super-apostles (e.g. 2 Corinthians 11) who had endowed themselves with self-appointed ministries and led people after them, to the harm of the body of the Lord.

We live in a turbulent age and there are multitudes of Christians seeking their role in the Kingdom of God, yet are we in the dignified unity that we picture from this week’s Torah study? Let us take the opportunity of considering our own wonderful call by name into the community of God’s people, and ensure through prayer and the testing with others that we have recognised accurately our particular place of service in the body of the Lord. God is still ordering His army against the powers of darkness, as witnesses and overcomers – truly a prophetic people for these last wilderness days. We must all be in the right place, for witness, strength, protection and unity.

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 5/7/26 Dr Justin Elwell 5/7/26

B’har (on a mountain)/B’chukotai (in My statutes)

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

9thMay 2026 (22 Iyyar)

B’har (on a mountain), Leviticus 25:1-26:2, B’chukotai (in My statutes) Leviticus 26:3-27:34

When the Apostle Paul told Timothy, we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out (1 Timothy 6:7) it would have been an overflow of his understanding of Torah. Our portion this week focuses on ownership. The Children of Israel were being prepared for life in the Promised Land. The Land would be apportioned to the Tribes and through the Tribes to individual families. They would take possession of land that they had not worked for, yet it would become their inheritance from generation to generation.

Later generations might think differently about ownership than those who first received the family inheritance. They might take possession, holding it to themselves too firmly as if by right rather than privilege and responsibility. All of us, whatever we count as our own possession, whatever it is, entered the world with nothing, as a dependent new-born baby. If we were able to trace any inheritance back generation by generation, we would eventually come to the first days of Creation and might then recall that everything still belongs to God our Creator.

When we consider inheritance and ownership from a biblical perspective, therefore, we should understand things differently. We must not skip over an important verse, in which God established balance of ownership of His land:

The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.(Leviticus 25:23)

God did not relinquish His ownership when each family eventually were given their inheritance in the Land of Canaan. This principle is at the foundation of understanding of inheritance and ownership as we live in this world. We are to be stewards of what is assigned to us by God. We are to be partners with Him in caring for the land and for one another, having been entrusted to that care. The moment we try to take full control independently of God, is the moment when problems can begin.

For Israel, the rules of stewardship were made very clear. In our portion for study this week, we find warnings (Leviticus 26) of the consequences when the principles of stewardship were not followed. If initial warnings were not heeded, ultimately it led to the following consequences:

I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas. I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it. I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate it shall rest - for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it. (Leviticus 26:31-35)

God meant what He said. It is a lesson to the entire world that God sent His people into captivity in Babylon hundreds of years later. A study of the Prophets shows how warning after warning was given until exactly what God said through Moses came to pass. The Land of Israel’s inheritance became the land of their enemies until the full number of Sabbath years was fulfilled. If one makes a calculation of the years of captivity (70 years) compared with the number of years Israel inhabited the Promised Land (estimated as between 400 and 600 years), it would seem that not many sabbath years had been kept, despite God’s clear teaching!

Hear the voice of Amos, reminding Israel of God’s warnings through Moses. The gradual heightening of signs that eventually lead to judgement are typified here:

I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
And lack of bread in all your places;
Yet you have not returned to Me,
Says the Lord.

I also withheld rain from you,
When there were still three months to the harvest.
I made it rain on one city,
I withheld rain from another city.
One part was rained upon,
And where it did not rain the part withered.
So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water,
But they were not satisfied;
Yet you have not returned to Me,
Says the Lord.

I blasted you with blight and mildew.
When your gardens increased,
Your vineyards,
Your fig trees,
And your olive trees,
The locust devoured them;
Yet you have not returned to Me,
Says the Lord.

I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt;
Your young men I killed with a sword,
Along with your captive horses;
I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils;
Yet you have not returned to Me,
Says the Lord.

I overthrew some of you,
As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
And you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning;
Yet you have not returned to Me,
Says the Lord.

Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel;
Because I will do this to you,
Prepare to meet your God, O Israel! (Amos 4:6-12)

Yet, here in our portion this week, is the simplest of requirements of God for blessing on His people in the land of their inheritance. Here is the pattern of life where man walks with God throughout all his days on earth, recognising the great privilege in sharing in the management of God’s creation and harvesting the rewards for a full and prosperous life. Here is a land management programme and a model of economics that does not fill the libraries of the world with endless books and take many years to study, being difficult to apply. It is contained in just a few chapters of the Books of Torah! It contains the principles of fairness, care for the poor, and respect for one’s neighbour. It involves yearly cycles of management of the earth ordained by the One who created everything. The cycles of seven years, leading up to the 50th year of Jubilee, where the ground rests in a similar manner to the weekly Sabbath rest of God’s people, contains understanding that we may not be able to completely fathom as to why it is best. Yet these are the rhythms of Creation ordained by the Creator who knows all about land and plant management and about the sharing that benefits all His people.

What a simple formula there is in calculating values of transactions depending on how many years are left to the Jubilee. Our minds, when filled by the desire to grasp after possessions, do not easily realise that assessment of value in these Scriptures is based on the amount of produce that can come from the land in the years to Jubilee, not on the value of the land itself. We are to be managers of God’s harvest fields and not own them in the absolute sense.

Sharing with God according to that which should be dedicated to Him out of all that He gave to His people, keeps one in mind of the fact that God desires us to be partners with Him. Just as great woes would follow departure from Him, so great blessings were received when man’s partnership with God was according to His ways. We are considering the most wondrous thing here, echoed across all Scripture and proved through the history of God’s people, that our Creator desires to be our friend.

Stewardship, learned through the practical matters of life with God, was also a preparation for greater fulfilment in other matters of God’s Kingdom. Remember faithful Daniel who was told:

Go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days. (Daniel 12:13)

The Lord Yeshua also taught about these things. For example, in the Parable of the Talents He likened His leaving this world for a period of time to a ruler leaving his servants in charge of his property:

For the kingdom of heaven is like a man travelling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. (Matthew 25:14-19)

Which of us would like to hear the commendation of the Lord for how we stewarded His possessions?

His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord. (Matthew 25:21)

There is a parallel between the inheritance of land referred to in this week’s portion and with other responsibilities given to God’s people Rremember our Lord also said:

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

God made preparations with Israel for how to live and steward their allotted land with Him. The principles still go on in every aspect of our life. God still teaches us that He will partner with us in our life through Yeshua. Israel was to be a light to the world to show the way other nations might learn together to live under His blessings. The offer is still there at every level that, if we will trust Him, we can live prosperous lives. Things that we cannot do for ourselves, are possible with God. The practical aspects of stewardship of what God has entrusted to us are still relevant.

Relevant also are the matters of the Kingdom of God here on earth in the present day. Each of us who have become disciples of Yeshua HaMashiach may be entrusted with some practical or spiritual ministry: work of service. Remember what Yeshua said when reinstating Peter after His denial during the trial prior to Yeshua’s crucifixion:

So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?”

He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”

He said to him, “Feed My lambs.”

He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?”

He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”

He said to him, “Tend My sheep.”

He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?”

And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.”

Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.” (John 21 15-17)

With the help of the Holy Spirit, Peter then fulfilled his ministry as an Apostle.

Yeshua also gives ministries to all whom He calls.

The ministries given to those who are chosen to help others, through their appointed service to the body of believers, are not limited just to these. The list is extended by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 to all manner of expressions of spiritual and practical abilities to help and build up God’s Kingdom through the lives of people whom He has called.

We learn from our Torah portion this week that what God commits to our stewardship is not for our personal ownership without Him. Both in practical and spiritual matters we are stewards of His Kingdom and His Creation in partnership with Him as we are called according to His purposes in Yeshua:

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 4/30/26 Dr Justin Elwell 4/30/26

Emor (Say), Leviticus 21:1-24:23

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

2nd May 2026 (15 Iyyar)

Emor (say), Leviticus 21:1-24:23

The word that is central to all our studies is Torah. It is a Hebrew word, so is not much used in the Christian Church. Whenever many Christians consider God’s requirements for Israel, the word law is mostly substituted. Yet, the framework of God’s words to Israel is teaching. It is a teaching that brings definite requirements, but within the framework of willing obedience and desire to search out the pattern of life that pleases God. From the time of Adam, later brought into focus through the life of Enoch, then Noah and, in covenant terms, most importantly through Abraham, life is considered as a journey – a walk with God.

The Children of Israel (Hebrews) over the centuries since God first told Moses to speak to them concerning their way of life, have sought to put Torah at the foundation of their walk - halachah. In the Jewish world today, the constant question is what must I do? to obey the precepts of Torah. The search is for the Hebraic lifestyle that is lived to please God. There are many things to consider, especially when the intended walk with God can turn into dry ritual or legalism. Nevertheless, the pattern of reading Torah and living the biblical cycle of life has been honoured and offered to the world through the Jews, most importantly through the King of the Jews, Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ).

When Gentiles began to be called to faith and were baptised in the Holy Spirit, the question was asked as to what was required of them. Beginning with consideration of whether circumcision was a requirement for believers among the Gentiles, the Apostles and leaders of the community of disciples in Jerusalem met together. This became known as the Council of Jerusalem and is described in Acts 15. There was a heated discussion. Yeshua’s brother James summarised the conclusion that was to be sent out in a letter to the emerging congregations of disciples around the world. The wording of it, in our translation to English, is:

The apostles, the elders, and the brethren,

To the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia:

Greetings.

Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, “You must be circumcised and keep the law”—to whom we gave no such commandment— it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.

Farewell.

A simple and mysterious letter, considering the great importance of the entire Torah to these Jewish leaders. Yet, in Acts Chapter 16, following the resolution to send out this letter, we read that many more Gentiles came to faith. We know too that millions have come to faith since then:

And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep, which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily. (Acts 16:4-5)

Despite the great expansion of what came to be called the Christian Church, at times we must take stock and look back to those early days, beginning with Moses to the great fulfilment of the sacrificial ministry of Yeshua, and to the early days of the Apostles.

Many of those who were the first to join the community of faith were Gentiles who already sought to belong to the Jewish community. They were called Godfearers and were allowed to share to some extent in the community of the Jews with minimal requirements and basic privileges. These were known as the Noahide laws – those things that God required of Noah after the Flood (Genesis 9:1-17). These laws later were codified into the Talmud and would be well known at the time of the Apostles:

The traditional enumeration of the Noahide Laws, as recorded in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 56a-b) and other rabbinic texts:

Do not worship idols – Prohibiting idolatry and affirming belief in a single God.
Do not curse God – Respecting and honouring God in speech and thought.
Do not commit murder – Upholding the sanctity of human life.
Do not commit adultery or sexual immorality – Maintaining sexual ethics, including prohibitions against incest, adultery, and homosexual relations.
Do not steal – Respecting the property and rights of others.
Do not eat flesh torn from a living animal – Ensuring humane treatment of animals.
Establish courts of justice – Creating a legal system to enforce these laws and maintain social order.

There is a remarkable overlap with the four injunctions of Acts 15, which can also be reasoned back to what God required through Moses in Leviticus 17 and 18. There is a reasonable interpretation of what lies behind the letter of Acts 15: within the call to be a holy people, to warn new believers of the traps which satan might set up to take them away from the walk of faith, thus opening up a new and wonderful path of learning with the help of the Holy Spirit of God. This helped the early disciples, called Godfearers, who wanted to belong to this new reformed sect of the Jews and who already wanted to study Torah in Jewish communities. A clue to the existence of Godfearers as the first disciples of Yeshua comes from reference to the groups whom the Apostles taught (for example Acts 13:16, 26, 43):

Then Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said, “Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen….” (Acts 13:16)

Along with the letter which was written by James and the other Apostles (Acts 15), we must also remember that the following was said:

Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath. (Acts 15:21)

The supposition is that though there is a new context for Torah, now to be read in the light of Yeshua the Messiah, it was assumed that the study of these foundational Scriptures of the Bible was open to both Jew and Gentile in the cities of the world. As in earlier days, so it would continue to be so.

Why should we reconsider this in our day? Torah – the teaching of God brought to us in the first five books of our Bible – is foundational to all else in the Bible and in our life of faith. The message of the Prophets is founded on Torah, calling the people of God back to Him, reminding them of their departure from Torah in anticipation of the future. The Writings similarly stand on Torah foundations. The New Covenant is the fulfilment through Yeshua of all that was prepared in the life of Israel, founded on God’s teaching. Every aspect of the life of faith and obedience emerges from a right application of Torah by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

In our portion this week are many matters to consider. Central to our studies is the weekly and yearly cycle of life defined by the Feasts of the Lord. Many Christians call these the “Jewish Feasts” - but this is not how they are described in the Bible. When they were adapted into a Christian cycle, the Christianised version became out of step with the biblical cycle and hence seemed to be a pattern for a new religion.

If we were to return to the first century after the death and resurrection of Yeshua, we would find new disciples of the Lord being brought into the new Jewish body who celebrated Yeshua as Messiah. Their membership of this body, in accord with Romans 11, would be as full members, beyond the limits that were set for Godfearers fellowshipping with Jews in the Synagogue. It was quite natural, therefore, to celebrate Yeshua as the fulfilment of the Feasts of the Lord with Jewish disciples.

It is rightly understood that Yeshua is the fulfilment of:

The Sabbath: Yeshua is our Sabbath rest (Hebrews 4)

Pesach (Passover): was raised to its highest meaning by Yeshua’s sacrifice (Luke 22-23)

Unleavened Bread: fulfilled in the sinless life of Yeshua and also required of His disciples (1 Corinthians 5:6-8)

Firstfruits: pointed to the Resurrection of Yeshua and the opening of the way for those who believe in Him (1 Corinthians 15:20)

Shavuot (Weeks/Pentecost): precisely coinciding with the yearly celebration of the giving of Torah at Sinai, the Holy Spirit came to enable Yeshua’s disciples to live according to Torah (Acts 2, fulfilling the promise of Jeremiah 31:33)

The Feasts of the Lord were established by God and fulfilled precisely according to His calendar of dates, to bring a yearly reminder and celebration of what God has done for His people, beginning at the time of Moses, also incorporating a weekly seventh day Sabbath rest to be shared with our Creator. He also established this in preparation for the greatest fulfilment in Yeshua, taking His people yearly through the pattern of salvation defined by the Feasts.

Later the Christian Church redefined these Feasts and added new traditions to them so that they are not now either in step or in clear focus. At times it is as if Christians, sometimes unwittingly, forget the warning of Paul in Romans 11:18, boasting against the branches of the Jews who have not realised that Yeshua is Messiah, and failing to fulfil the remit of Romans 11:11 concerning our ministry to the Jews:

I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!

If God has ordained certain days on the biblical calendar to celebrate what He has done and is doing, it should not have been changed. To be in step with Him and to be united as believers from both Jewish and Gentiles as the One New Man in Yeshua (Ephesians 2), it is time to put matters right. Sunday worship is not at stake by restoring the day of Sabbath rest to the seventh day of the week, and it is a small adjustment (with big consequences) to realign with the dates and emphases of the Feasts of the Lord.

We must get back in step as we also contemplate together the fulfilment of the three last Feasts of the biblical year, all in the seventh month of Tishrei. As well as continuing to remember what God has done in the past at the celebration of these Feasts, we anticipate a deepening walk with God as He completes the plan of Salvation and Redemption:

Trumpets will herald the return of Yeshua (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

Yom Kippur will be brought to its highest fulfilment when Yeshua, our High Priest, returns to earth from the Holiest place of Heaven, proclaiming the acceptance of His shed blood as an atonement for the sins of all who wait for Him (Hebrews 9:1-12)

Sukkot (Tabernacles): on His return, Yeshua will complete the meaning of all the Feasts when we, who are His disciples, live with Him forever (Revelation 21:1-8)

There will be false Christs and those who seek to change the times and the seasons (Matthew 24:4-5, Daniel 7:25) as the days get close to the return of Yeshua. Already many Jews, observing the way Christians have redefined the Feasts of the Lord, consider that false messiahs have been invented. This can be put right, and we should not let the opportunity afforded by our Torah reading this week pass by, without digging more deeply into this issue.

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 4/23/26 Dr Justin Elwell 4/23/26

Acharei Mot (after the death)/K’doshim (holy ones)

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

25th April 2026 (8 Iyyar)

Acharei Mot (after the death), Leviticus 16:1-18:30, K’doshim (holy ones), Leviticus 19:1-20:27

These can be difficult chapters to read. The Bible does not draw a line on exposing the nature of the sins of mankind. After an entire year since the previous Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) what would go through the minds of many of the Children of Israel as they, yet again, watched the Scapegoat wandering away into the wilderness?

The majestic animal was bearing the sins of those who watched. At the same time, a second goat was slaughtered for the same sins, before the High Priest entered the Holiest Place to stand before Almighty God on behalf of the people.

Though there were daily sacrifices, including those for the remission of sin, on this most awesome day of the year there was no clearer reminder that the sins which separate man from God are also a matter of life and death. Anyone desiring to be cleansed of sin would surely have trembled before God on this most holy of days.

Yom Kippur is still the most solemn day of the year in the Jewish calendar, preceded by ten days of introspection and repentance, called Yamim Noraim or Days of Awe.

To simply read the first chapter of our Torah portion this week is enough to humble us, just as it is intended to do. It is unfortunate that because of the separation of the Christian Church from its biblically Hebraic roots, the practice of reading the weekly Torah portion and hence the yearly deep searching is missed by many Christians.

So too are the regular reflections on the commands of God to the Children of Israel concerning sin. Our readings this week cover deep sins indeed, with a whole chapter allocated to what in God’s eyes are wrong relationships between men and women and even between humans and animals. The uncleanness that is defined is repeated, as an extra emphasis, in the fourth of this week’s chapters. We should have in our minds, as we consider this, the purpose of Aaron’s intercessory ministry:

So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. (Leviticus 16:16)

In reading these chapters we cannot doubt the gravity of transgressing the laws of God, which are put in even starker terms elsewhere in Scripture. Even our supposed good works are considered as falling far short of the perfection that God requires of us:

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. (Isaiah 64:6)

Again, the central theme of our study is holiness:

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. (Leviticus 19:1-2)

In this week’s chapters, most of God’s commandments through Moses concerned purity in relationships. The emphasis is on intimate relationships to be kept within marriage that is according to God’s order for mankind, relationships within family and also those in the wider community. One of the two commandments that Yeshua taught as being foundational to all else (Mark 12:30-31), is first stated here:

You shall love your neighbour as yourself. (Leviticus 19:18)

These are commandments concerning the way God’s community must live, with complete purity of relationships, dignity and honour in the family and in relationships with all people.

So much can be conveyed by a single principle of life, as we meditate on individual Scriptures. For example:

You shall rise before the grey headed and honour the presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:32)

If we do not study the Bible and apply its teaching to everyday life as for a growing number of people in a world that is falling away in large measure, we can now only imagine the wonderful order between the generations whose hearts are stirred by the respect that begins with such a principle and becomes magnified in many ways as a result. God still defines through the Scriptures the parameters within which His people must live in order to live under His blessings.

These are challenging Scriptures to read and could lead us to mourn for a lost generation, as well as to personal conviction. Yet, throughout the entire Bible, there is also a wonderful deeper undercurrent of truth.

The laws of God are not to bring us into bondage but into freedom within the boundaries that are set. James saw this when he wrote:

But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. (James 1:25)

The perfect law that brings freedom! We must look into this.

Our study this week begins with God’s injunction through Moses to Aaron, the High Priest:

Tell Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the Holy Place inside the veil. (Leviticus 16:2)

Yet there is access into the presence of God!

Relationships with God are to be pure, and so our impurities bring limitations on our access to Him.

Yet, the deeper undercurrent of truth throughout the Bible is about love between God and His people. Within the bounds that define holiness, there is also a developing desire for relationship.

This is echoed time and again through the Scriptures from those who desire that relationship. For example:

As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?

My tears have been my food day and night,
While they continually say to me,
“Where is your God?”

When I remember these things,
I pour out my soul within me.
For I used to go with the multitude;
I went with them to the house of God,
With the voice of joy and praise,
With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.

Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him

For the help of His countenance. (Psalm 42)

The desire for relationship between God and His people comes from our side, and also from God’s side. He likened Himself to a husband to Israel:

When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” says the Lord God. (Ezekiel 16:8)

For your Maker is your husband,
The Lord of hosts is His name;
And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel;
He is called the God of the whole earth. (Isaiah 54:5)

I will betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me
In righteousness and justice,
In lovingkindness and mercy;

I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,
And you shall know the Lord. (Hosea 2:19-20)

It is the intention of God to draw His people to Himself as a wife to her husband. No wonder He makes it clear how serious it is to fall away into following false gods, and how careful we must be in our own personal relationships. Paul expressed this clearly in his letter to the Ephesians. He described the worldwide body of believers as the one new man, a united body of all who live by faith in Yeshua, both Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2). He goes on to show how the relationship of human beings in marriage is an earthly representation of our relationship with God:

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Saviour of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:22-32)

We would do well to read the entire Epistle to the Ephesians alongside our Torah portions this week.

We are to seek purity in our human relationships, so that we will be worthy to develop our close relationship with God through Yeshua. In his summary of his search for meaning in life, Solomon touched on this:

Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun…(Ecclesiastes 9:9)

Solomon also made the beauty of pure relationship between man and woman more explicit in his Song of Songs.

Nevertheless, even with this wondrous purpose of God for His people, we cannot escape the fact that a remedy to mankind’s fallen condition is needed in order for us to attain the high place of God’s relationship with us. Even the Patriarchs could not achieve it of their own strength. Jacob, for example, broke the marriage laws before they were even known, as later shown by Leviticus 18:18, by marrying both Leah and her sister Rachel.

All of this points to the immensity of Yeshua’s sacrifice. We must constantly remember that this was because of the Father’s love for us and our Saviour’s loving obedience to be the fulfilment of all the sacrifices that went before, including the scapegoat who took the sins of Israel to a faraway place:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. (John 15:13)

In closing, just think of this. Relationship between God and His people is likened to a marriage, but one that must be within the bounds of holiness. The High Priest of the Old Covenant could only go into the closest presence with God once each year. In the Tabernacle, and later in the Temple, there was a veil separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, through which only the High Priest could pass on Yom Kippur. When Yeshua gave His life as our Sacrifice on the Cross, it was reported by eye witnesses:

Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom….. (Matthew 27:50-51)

The way was opened by God as never before. Consider this in the purity of meditative prayer.

With the New Covenant comes a new perspective on the Heavenly Bridegroom. There is both continuity and renewal as Old Covenant matures into the New. Our Creator God is known as our Father, and His Son Yeshua, is both as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), and as the Bridegroom betrothed to His Bride of the New Covenant. The New Testament contains much of this imagery and is completed in the Revelation of John:

Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.” (Revelation 19:7-9)

This is a completion of what began in the wilderness with Moses and is very much related to our Torah portions this week.

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 4/16/26 Dr Justin Elwell 4/16/26

Tazria (bears seed) Leviticus 12:1-13:59, Metzora (infected one) Leviticus 14:1-15:33

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

18th April 2026 (1 Iyyar)

Tazria (bears seed) Leviticus 12:1-13:59, Metzora (infected one) Leviticus 14:1-15:33

As we study this week’s Torah portions, let’s remember the place from which mankind is being redeemed:

Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:

“Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.” (Genesis 3:17)

He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:24)

If it were not for the Fall and the banishing of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, there would have been no need for a way back to God. But there is such a need.

God’s beginning the means of redemption of a covenant family, promised to Abraham, was through the Nation of Israel; it is a glorious and gracious thing. Yet the reality of the Fall must still be faced. Sickness and disease were still realistically a part of the lives of the Children of Israel, and to this day in the entire earth.

The description of the uncleanness that separated those afflicted from the presence of God, follows on from the requirement of holiness in our earlier study. There is no compromise. Israel was to learn from the consequence of physical uncleanness what it was like to be excluded from God’s presence in the Tabernacle. The wonderful invitation to fellowship with God in the beauty of His holiness and the grandeur of the Tabernacle is to be contrasted with the darkness of exclusion from His presence through seemingly incurable disease.

One of our portions deals with the identification of disease and consequent exclusion for the Children of Israel. The other portion brings a hint of the possibility of redemption:

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “This shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the priest. And the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall examine him; and indeed, if the leprosy is healed in the leper… (Leviticus 14:1-3)

Imagine the joy for the cleansed leper! One morning, a seemingly incurable disease, causing him to forever be outside the camp of Israel, seemed to be disappearing before his eyes. A message was sent to the Priests. He was inspected and found to be healed. Following the cleansing specified through Moses, he was fully restored to his family, his community and to God!

In the midst of the darkness that can so easily descend, whether through unresolved sin, or exclusion through physical uncleanness, a glimmer of the Gospel message began to glow.

The curse of Eden has fallen on the entire earth for all people and the reality of that curse, bringing separation from God, is experienced in every generation. But God, in His mercy, showed that there is hope. Israel became the prophetic people for that hope, as they lived before God as the chosen people.

Within Israel, that hope did not wane. Rabbinic sources draw from the Scriptures in looking for the time when God, through His Messiah, would bring healing to His people.

The Messiah Apocalypse of 100-80 BCE includes:

He frees the captives, makes the blind see, and makes the bent over stand straight…for he will heal the sick, revive the dead, and give good news to the humble and the poor he will satisfy, the abandoned he will lead, and the hungry he will make rich.

These expectations come from the biblical Prophets:

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then the lame shall leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the dumb sing.
For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert. (Isaiah 35:5-6)

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound. (Isaiah 61:1)

Signs were also given by miraculous healings of God at the hands of His Prophets. 32 miracles are recorded, for example, in Elisha’s ministry, including the cleansing of a leper. As such, Elisha’s ministry was a shadow of the coming Messiah.

When Yeshua walked the earth, healing of the sick was a significant part of His ministry. In our portion this week, we read of the circumstances that befell a woman who was constantly unclean because of a flow of blood that would not cease. It is no chance coincidence that through faith such a woman was healed by Yeshua:

Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped. (Luke 8:43-44)

A marvellous thing happened, even more than the miraculous healing. In the Law of Moses, if an clean thing touches something that is unclean, it becomes unclean. That is why the unclean person must be excluded from the community – uncleanness multiplies.

Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Now, ask the priests concerning the law, saying, “If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any food, will it become holy?” ’

Then the priests answered and said, “No.”

……. “If one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean?”

So the priests answered and said, “It shall be unclean.” (Haggai 2:11-13)

God, in Yeshua, reversed this curse on the woman, making what was unclean, clean, without compromising His own holiness. Only God can do this.

Likewise, Yeshua had the power to heal lepers:

Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. (Luke 17:10-14)

This was exactly according to the teaching of Moses as to how a cleansed leper should report to the Priests when God had healed him.

Yeshua showed His great compassion for the poor in bringing such healings, whilst also fulfilling His Messianic ministry. Twice, in Scripture it is described that He wept. He wept over Jerusalem, in sorrow for their missing the moment of their visitation and invitation to redemption:

Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. (Luke 19:41-42)

Was this not God the Father, through Yeshua, weeping with compassion for His people?

When Yeshua’s close friend Lazarus died and after He was compelled to wait for two extra days before going to see him, now dead in his tomb. He was filled with compassion:

Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, “Where have you laid him?”

They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.”

Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!” (John 11:33-35)

The Son of Man, with the compassion of the Father, wept for His friend, and with the same compassion raised him from the dead.

Yet, these healings, impossible to ordinary men, were also signs of who Yeshua was. When John the Baptist sent messengers to check on whether Yeshua was indeed Messiah, Yeshua answered by reference to the messianic signs foreseen by the Prophets and found in some rabbinic writings, as above:

And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, saying, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”

When the men had come to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’ ” And that very hour He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight.

Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” (Luke 7:19-23)

God, through Moses, and through the Chosen People, the Nation of Israel, prepared the way for the coming of the Great Redeemer. A glimmer of the Gospel message came at the time of Moses, with the ritual for cleansing lepers who were healed. But the full curse from Eden lived with mankind until Yeshua came, the One who now sits on the Throne of His Kingdom, through whom the door was opened to eternal life for all who will believe.

Eternity is shown us in vision through the Revelation given to John. He was shown the New Heaven and the New Earth:

Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. (Revelation 21:1-6)

If a leper who was healed at the time of Moses could find new joy, how much more those who enter the Heavenly Kingdom, completely healed, forever.

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 4/10/26 Dr Justin Elwell 4/10/26

Shemini (Eighth) Leviticus 9:1-11:47

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

11th April 2026 (24 Nisan)

Shemini (Eighth) Leviticus 9:1-11:47

By those who come near Me
I must be regarded as holy;
And before all the people
I must be glorified.

This is the prominent verse in this week’s Torah portion. It is necessary to understand what God required of Aaron, his sons and all the people of God, in those days - and for us today.

There are a number of translations of this verse. The above is from the New King James Version. The Complete Jewish Bible renders the verse as:

Through those who are near me I will be consecrated,
and before all the people I will be glorified.

The Stone Tanach translation is:

I will be sanctified through those who are nearest to Me,

thus I will be honoured by the entire people.

The Hebrew Masoretic text is:

בִּקְרֹבַ֣י אֶקָּדֵ֔שׁ וְעַל־פְּנֵ֥י כָל־הָעָם אֶכָּבֵד

Bi q'rovay ekädësh v’al-P'nëy khäl-hä äm ekävëd

The key verbs (underlined) are ekadesh and ekaved. They are both in the Hebrew niphal tense, which is a passive tense. This does not mean that God is passive. Indeed, He is very active towards His people in judgement and mercy – His treatment of Aaron’s sons shows this. It is also the case at every era of history. It is simply that the verb forms in this particular passage are passive, for the purpose we shall consider.

The Hebrew roots of these verbs are kadosh, usually translated holy, and kavod, usually translated glory. Let’s study this verse in detail, to ensure that we know just what God requires.

The passive tense implies that God requires His people to actively make Him known as being holy and glorious.

Being holy is being pure, clean, sanctified, consecrated, set apart – all these things.

Being glorified is to be full of splendour, honour and majesty, to be divine - the awesome presence of the most holy God.

Our Bible translations cannot fully convey all that this is. Even those whose original language was Hebrew, also needed to live in the full reality of the meaning of what is said in that language. Words can become shallow by constant use, and fall short of their deeper meaning, in any language.

God must be known in the entire earth by His character of holiness and glory, through the witness of His people, considered as such and approached as such. It is our responsibility that this is so. This is why the verbs are in a passive tense in this verse – it is His people who are to be active in making His holiness and glory known – to themselves and to the world. If we do not honour Him in that way, His wonderful character may remain hidden from the world in our generation, even though the knowledge of His glory and honour willone day come to earth, as it is prophesied:

For the earth will be filled
With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
As the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14)

What does that mean to us in fulfilling His command in our daily life? Certainly, when we approach God in prayer, offering, praise or worship, we need to have within us a living understanding of whom He really is. We are required to be respectful and not slovenly in approaching Him. We must make it known through word and action who our Mighty God is to us in our lives and, as a consequence, it will be made known to others.

The description of Aaron’s preparation as High Priest in separating him for service, adorning him with his garments of office and responsibility and presenting the awesome sacrifices that were made, teaches us much about this. The way his two sons lost their lives for transgressing the prescribed and ordered way of approaching God, confirm that God meant what He said.

Then we have the list of foods that are clean and unclean for the people of God. We all eat daily. What we eat can separate us from others, an aspect of holiness. God gave the exercise of choosing daily only that which is clean as part of what being holy is, in fulfilment of the command:

I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. (Leviticus 11:45)

The Feast of Pesach has just passed. Those with insight will have remembered all that God did for Israel when they came out of Egypt, and also the greater fulfilment of His Covenant with Abraham through the sacrifice of Yeshua. This week, there has been much meditation on holiness – we call it Holy week. Yet, do we remember our holy calling continually throughout the year?

If Yeshua’s sacrifice had not been completely pure, sanctified and holy, it would not have been accepted on our behalf any more than the offerings of Nadab and Abihu. Yeshua opened the way, by His sacrifice, for all who will come by faith to enter the presence of God. As Paul the Apostle wrote, about this amazing privilege:

You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. (Romans 8:15-16)

Let us not, however, treat this great privilege of personally coming into God our Father’s presence with any less dignity, glory and honour than when Moses inaugurated the priesthood through Aaron. It is the Holy Spirit whom the Father sent to His people.

The same command applies to us today as it did for Aaron and his sons. Let us read it again in the light of our call as New Covenant believers:

By those who come near Me
I must be regarded as holy;
And before all the people
I must be glorified.

Let us realise that in our lives, our actions and our speech as well as our worship, we must actively proclaim the holiness and glory of God. Peter made this clear in his letter:

You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10)

Has God sent us a warning exactly parallel to the one He sent when the lives of Nadab and Abihu were taken? The Priesthood of the Old Covenant was inaugurated through Aaron. The royal priesthood, described by Peter was inaugurated in the community of Jerusalem soon after Yeshua’s sacrifice and ascension as High Priest into the Kingdom of Heaven. Offerings were brought to the Apostles of Yeshua, prominent among whom was Peter. A blemished offering was brought by Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-13). They thought that they would not be found out when they pretended to bring the whole offering from the sale of their land, but kept some of it back for themselves. But God knows our heart and, as a consequence, they both died just like Nadab and Abihu.

However, we are not to live in fear, but in the confident expectation of a close walk with the Living God, whom we can now know as Father, because of Yeshua. Yet our hearts are to be pure towards Him and our witness of Him be worthy of the honour He, and our Saviour, is due. The One True God, dwells in the completely pure realm of Heaven. If we saw Him, we too would respond like Isaiah. The angels he saw cried out:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!

Isaiah’s response was:

Woe is me, for I am undone!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King,
The Lord of hosts. (Isaiah 6:1-5)

These are eternal truths. Again, it was Peter the Apostle who walked with Yeshua, saw His transfiguration on the mountain, His crucifixion on the cross and His ascension into Heaven, who reminds us that nothing has changed concerning our call to honour God in holiness, and live lives worthy of His holy calling:

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy”. (1 Peter 1:13-16)

Aaron was taught a very important lesson that became a lesson for us all. He had seen God take the lives of his sons for trying to come near Him in an unholy manner. Our lesson, like his, is that we are witnesses to the world of God’s holiness and approach Him in the only way that pleases Him. There is no other way to be in God’s presence than that which God has ordained. Once the only way to the presence of God was through the Levitical Priesthood, in the manner prescribed. However, the Tabernacle and Temple are now replaced by a new and living way – the abiding place (John 15) is now the Lord Himself. In fulfilling all the types and shadows of the High Priest, Yeshua made the way known, clearly and wonderfully, but without compromise. He told His disciples what they have passed on to us. Yeshua said of Himself:

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)

This, now, is the way of holiness, which we are invited to take by faith, into the very presence of the Father.

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 4/2/26 Dr Justin Elwell 4/2/26

Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach (Shabbat during the intermediate days of Passover) Exodus 33:12-34:26

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

4th April 2026 (17 Nisan)

Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach (Shabbat during the intermediate days of Passover) Exodus 33:12-34:26

For those reading this on the first Sabbath after Pesach (Passover), the moon is beginning to wane, but is still almost full and still bright, lighting up the sky on a beautiful spring evening. We must keep in mind all that God’s people celebrated over the last few days, especially the evening of Pesach when, as a families, each gathered around the table to review the history of their people when they first came out of Egypt.

A few days ago the moon was full and we could stop and think that this was the very same moon that shone on the very same date over the Land of Egypt, bringing light to the path of all Israel in their great multitude, beginning on their pilgrim journey to the Promised Land.

God declared that Nisan was the first of the months of the year, and how appropriate that is. In the Land of Israel and in other nations of the northern hemisphere, Spring is waking up. The birds are singing and making preparations for their nests in the trees to build their new family. The buds are breaking and the warming sun brings forth beautiful new leaves, followed by a wonderous assortment of colourful blossoms, each with their special aroma. It is the season of new life from the comparative death of winter. Each year the cycle is renewed to help us with the memory of what God has done to deliver us from death to life, be it in comparison with the darkness of the Angel of Death moving across all Egypt, or every aspect of new life that is our present experience from here to eternity, through faith and obedience to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Year by year from when Israel settled in their Promised Land, as the moon approached its fulness on the days leading up to 14 Nisan, here and there throughout the Land, a stirring began as the homes prepared for Pesach. Those who should, were moved to begin their pilgrim walk to Jerusalem in accordance with God’s commandment that three times each year, the men were to appear before Him (Exodus 34:23). Often, this became a family pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. The families from the towns and villages, growing into a moving crowd, were like streams of water, merged into one great company. Fathers would tell their children of earlier days, perhaps when they made their first journey with their own father. They might compare their own pilgrim journey with that of Israel in the wilderness, camped around the Tabernacle or journeying to the next encampment. They might sing the songs of Zion as they enjoyed the beauty of an early Spring day together when, as on any Sabbath, work had ceased so that the glory of Creation could be experienced and the expectation of being in God’s presence increased.

God’s people are a pilgrim people, but let’s consider what this word pilgrim should not mean to us, especially in our day. Theirs was not a journey to Canterbury or Rome, or to the site of some shrine or relic of the past. However much God may have been present among His people in a special way for a certain point in history, we must not idolise the past. There are many places which are considered to be places for pilgrimage today, perhaps a place where a revered saint lived or where a movement began as in the days of the Celts in Britain, as also in the wonderful revivals of bygone days. The world is full of religious relics to the past. Yet, even if we were to visit a most sacred memorial to Pesach, the place where Yeshua was laid after His crucifixion, we might find a voice speaking to us as when an angel spoke to the disciples who found only an empty tomb: Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! (Luke 24:5-6)).

If our walk with God becomes locked into ritual and dry religion, where we try to extract something from a past that was once relevant but now obscures our vision of today’s new life, we must learn again: to remember but in the right way. Remembrance brings an encouragement, in thankfulness for the journey thus far, but for faith for today and into the future.

The pilgrim walk that includes Pesach is ordained by God, but not to try to revive something of the past, but to meet with Him today. Pesach is a time of experience with our living God. With the wonderful ordained feast of Pesach in mind we must establish a balance of looking back, living in the present and anticipating the future.

Moses and the Children of Isreal paused at Sinai on their pilgrim journey to prepare for their future and the future of their descendants. Our portion this week reminds us of the preparations for that future, with the renewal of the Covenant, the Commandments written in new stones, and with instructions for the weekly and yearly days of work punctuated by the weekly Sabbath and the Feasts. At Pesach, we are to remember the deliverance from Egypt but also remember that we are never to go back into such a worldly system, but walk on with God to a newer and more perfect future. Our meeting with God at each Pesach is a renewal of fellowship, a reminder of our great privilege and a new beginning of life for another year, like the flowers breaking forth on a new Spring morning.

In hindsight, we can review not only the pilgrim journey from Egypt but also the years of pilgrimage since. The need for a new and living way into the presence of our Heavenly Father was to be learned through experience. Hundreds of years were allowed by God before the coming of His Son, Yeshua, into the world to bring a greater sacrifice. Those locked too much in tradition missed what God was doing on that special Pesach when Yeshua, after three and a half years of public ministry, being the very presence of God on earth in human form, demonstrated this through Word and Power, walking among His people. Then He came to Jerusalem and presented Himself at the Temple among the gathered pilgrims and could be examined for purity for a few days like any sacrificial lamb at Passover (Matthew 23-27, Mark 11-15, Luke 19-23, John 12-17)

He became that sacrificial Lamb on the Cross at Calvary speaking at the Passover meal on the evening before His sacrificial death, of His fulfilment of Isaiah 53 (Luke 22:37). To suffer such a painful, undignified death is not the mark of anyone boasting. It is the testimony of our sacrificial Saviour bringing new life to the Passover Feast: what was becoming dry was to become full of new life, a life that could begin in Jerusalem and be sent to the outermost part of the world.

After 2000 years, we should have left behind anything that is simply dry ritual and also resist the invention of new substitutes for our pilgrim journey. All of God’s people, the natural branches of Israel and the ingrafted branches from those called to faith from the Gentile world (Romans 11) should by now, be celebrating Pesach in the fulness of meaning. It is a remembrance of all that God has done from Moses to Mashiach, from Egypt to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29).

If our pilgrimage takes us to the place of idolatry or if our traditions are losing the life they once had, it is time to confess it and let this year’s Passover remembrance be a renewal of the true reason God ordained the Feast – that we might come to Him and enjoy His Living Fatherhood. If our Passover is limited to the traditions that have kept us well in the past, we must look upward and onward more fully.

Pesach is a time of remembrance for all who are in the family of God – a time to experience afresh a meeting with the Living God. It is a Feast of remembrance of light out of darkness with anticipation for the future. It is time for all true disciples of Yeshua and children of the Living God, the One New Man, described by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians (Chapter 2) to remember together and in harmony of expectation. On the day ordained by God for Pesach (Passover), 14 Nisan, let us plan in future to meet in in thankful remembrance and also in anticipation for the return of the Living Messiah, wherever we are living in the world.

As we eat and drink in remembrance of Him, we must remember that through His death we have life. In remembering His death, we thank Him for this life:

Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.(Exodus 12:1-11)

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”

Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. (Matthew 26:26-28)

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. (1 Corinthians 3:23-26)

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech haolam, shehecheyanu v’kiy’manu v’higiyanu laz’man hazeh

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this season.

Shabbat shalom!

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr Justin Elwell 3/26/26 Dr Justin Elwell 3/26/26

Tzav (Command) Leviticus 6:8:1-8:36

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

28th March 2026 (10 Nisan)

Tzav (Command) Leviticus 6:8:1-8:36

A fire shall always be burning on the altar; it shall never go out. (Leviticus 6:13). This is God’s requirement of His people on earth. It was a physical reality in Aaron’s day and bears implications for all God’s people forever.

The Tabernacle and its ordinances were a representation of a heavenly reality, as was made clear by the writer to the Hebrews. The priests made their offerings on the altar,

the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”(Hebrews 8:5)

God’s chosen people were to live out on earth the ministry that is in Heaven. In God’s heart, despite the Fall, is the ongoing and continuous desire that His people will live in harmony with Him. This is the deep meaning of the ministry for which Aaron and his sons were prepared.

We read in our portion this week how the appointed Priests were prepared for this service exactly according to the pattern given to Moses, in obedience, order, dignity and honour.

It was at a cost. The lives of beautiful, healthy animals were sacrificed, and they were offered to God at the altar, so that the priestly ministry would be acceptable to God and that the priests could come into His presence on behalf of the people.

An era was to begin whereby there would be a continuous burning fire on the altar of sacrifice, just as there is a continuous ministry before God in Heaven on our behalf. It was necessary for God’s people to bring to earth the ministry of Heaven. There can be nothing more important for us than to be constantly in fellowship with our Creator God, for blessing on earth as well as preparation for the Heavenly reality when we leave this earth.

There is an image that is a forerunner of this, when Moses stood on a mountain with his arms raised as Joshua led Israel in battle with the Amalekites (Exodus 17:8-16). Aaron and Hur were with him and they experienced how when Moses’ arms were raised there was victory for Joshua, but when they dropped, Amalek prevailed. Perhaps Aaron would remember this when, in later days, he was to keep the fire of God burning continually, as well as the lamps shining in the Holy place.

We must interpret all these outward symbols as a matter of the heart: our prayers are continually and forever to be alive towards God – intercessory prayer for forgiveness as well as prayers that God will bring blessing to our lives, the lives of our family and all the community of His people.

The fact that the fire on the altar should always be burning is recalled throughout the history of the Children of Israel. It was not easy to maintain this. The Babylonian captivity, for example, brought an end to sacrifice and offering for 70 years, following the destruction of the Temple. This came about when fellowship with God had declined, coincident with the time when sacrifice and offering fell from the height of meaning made known at the time of Aaron’s inauguration. Even when Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah were to bring restoration to the Temple and its ordinances after the long captivity, prophets such as Malachi were still needed to remind the people of the importance of unblemished sacrifice and offering.

Prior to the Assyrian invasion of Israel and the later Babylonian captivity of Judah, warnings were given constantly by prominent prophets, including Isaiah and Jeremiah. Israel’s responsibility was not simply in the ordinances of the Tabernacle and Temple, but they were to be manifest in all aspects of justice and mercy of the Torah. The purity of sacrifice and offering and consequent intercessory prayer was to coincide with the righteousness of the nation. The light towards God was to be simultaneous with the light in the community and, as a consequence, to the world. But when one aspect decayed, the rest did also, even to the worship of false gods of the nations replacing pure undivided worship of the One True God.

Amos was among those who spoke clearly about this in his earnest plea to Israel (Amos 5):

Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!
For what good is the day of the Lord to you?
It will be darkness, and not light.

It will be as though a man fled from a lion,
And a bear met him!
Or as though he went into the house,
Leaned his hand on the wall,
And a serpent bit him!
Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light?
Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?

I hate, I despise your feast days,
And I do not savour your sacred assemblies.
Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them,
Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.
Take away from Me the noise of your songs,
For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.
But let justice run down like water,
And righteousness like a mighty stream.

Did you offer Me sacrifices and offerings
In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
You also carried Sikkuth your king
And Chiun, your idols,
The star of your gods,
Which you made for yourselves.
Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus,”
Says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts. (Amos 5:18-27)

When the fire did not burn continually on the altar according to God’s intent, it signalled the heart issue of God’s people, where the flame of God’s Spirit should always burn.

Mankind may fail, but God’s purposes prevail. His Heavenly fire and zeal has not dimmed. Thus, embedded in the prophetic Scriptures is always a word of hope and ultimate purpose of God. He covenanted with Abraham to draw from all nations a family to fulfil those purposes. History shows, sadly, that what gloriously began in the wilderness at the time of Moses and Aaron did not fully succeed, but that a greater and living sacrifice would fulfil the same purpose – the eternal fire will not go out and will find its representation on earth in God’s people in an even better way.

Strive though we may, to reinstate the Temple and its sacrifices such as at the time of Zerubbabel, we will always fail, by this means alone, to reach the perfection that God requires. God teaches this through the outworking of history, measured against His Torah, and through the message of the Prophets.

Isaiah, therefore, speaks clearly of the coming Sacrifice that would restore God’s people fully, through faith. It was at an infinitely greater cost than the old covenant sacrifice of beautiful animals on the altar:

Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground …..

Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed……

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth…..

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
He shall see the labour of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53)

The Prophets foresaw the sacrifice of Yeshua on the Cross. He is both the sacrifice and the High Priest that was modelled first in the ministry of Aaron, but which was not sustainable, as later history shows.

Isaiah was able to burst forth through the wonderful Scriptures that end his prophecies, based on the expectation of the coming Messiah. He was able to speak of a light that cannot be dimmed and that would break forth among both a remnant of the Children of Israel and also the Gentiles who are redeemed by faith in the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua HaMashiach:

Arise, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
And deep darkness the people;
But the Lord will arise over you,
And His glory will be seen upon you.
The Gentiles shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising.

Lift up your eyes all around, and see:
They all gather together, they come to you;
Your sons shall come from afar,
And your daughters shall be nursed at your side.
Then you shall see and become radiant,
And your heart shall swell with joy…. (Isaiah 60:1-5)

We began by considering the fire that should always be burning on the altar before God, representing a reality that is forever in Heaven. Yeshua also spoke of that light.

He spoke of the constancy of prayer that emanates from the Light of the Holy Spirit within His disciples, whilst our High Priest, Yeshua HaMashiach, ministers continually on our behalf.

He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)

He calls us into a new priesthood:

We have a responsibility which is the fulfilment of that given to the Aaronic priesthood:

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:19-25)

This is because of the New Covenant prophesied by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31).

In so doing, we fulfil what Aaron was commanded concerning the fire always burning on the altar. Yeshua’s sacrifice is forever before God as the fire on the heavenly altar. We, in Him, are the light that must not go out on this earth:

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Dr. Denton’s Torah Commentary

Re’eh (see!): Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17

Ekev: Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25

Va’etchanan: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

Devarim (words), Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22

Matot (tribes) and Masei (journeys)

Pinchas (Phinehas), Numbers 25:10-29:40

Balak (Balak), Numbers 22:2-25:9

Chukat (statute of), Numbers 19:1-22:1

Korach (Korah), Numbers 16:1-18:32

Shelach Lecha (send for yourselves), Numbers 13:1-15:41

Beha’alotcha (in your making go up), Numbers 8:1-12:16

Naso (elevate), Numbers 4:21-7:89

Bamidbar (in the wilderness), Numbers 1:1-4:20

B’har (on a mountain)/B’chukotai (in My statutes)

Emor (Say), Leviticus 21:1-24:23

Acharei Mot (after the death)/K’doshim (holy ones)

Tazria (bears seed) Leviticus 12:1-13:59, Metzora (infected one) Leviticus 14:1-15:33

Shemini (Eighth) Leviticus 9:1-11:47

Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach (Shabbat during the intermediate days of Passover) Exodus 33:12-34:26

Tzav (Command) Leviticus 6:8:1-8:36

“In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit..”

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