Thursday, December 3, 2015

Torah Trails #9



Torah Trails
Rabbi Yehudah “Tochukwu” ben Shomeyr
Kristopher Shoemaker

#9 Vayeshev
Gen. 37:1-40:23
Amos 2:6-3:8
Acts 7:9-16
Memory Verses: Gen. 39:1, Amos 3:8, Matt. 1:24-25

Gen. 38

Human Jaded bias. Judgmental-ness. Having a critical spirit and jumping to conclusions. Human discernment and intuition; FLAWED! FLAWED! FLAWED! Relying on these will inevitably at some point end in embarrassing failure.

Just like science, ever-changing due to new discoveries. What was “true” and |scientific fact” 50 years ago in many cases is no longer the case today, due to advances and new discoveries in various fields. Just think how much is still wrong with science today but won’t be deemed as so until 20 years down the road. When new discoveries surface or new equipment built detects what was previously undetectable or unprovable.

I know personally of a business establishment that pretty much has a revolving door. Their employee turn-over rate is ridiculously high! The owner is so taken by the managing supervisor that she does not see that the supervising manager is the problem, not the employees she ends up firing.

In the same way, Judah couldn’t see his sons were the problem, not Tamar. She was no black widow! His sons were simply black souls! And so Tamar was treated and judged unfairly and had to resort to a ruse in order to wake Judah up to the fact there was a major problem in the family.

No one likes to be wrong and so our fallen nature always looks for a scapegoat and alibi. From Eve’s, “The devil made me do it!” To Adam’s, “It’s this woman who You gave to me God, it’s all her fault!” To today, “Oh, my Johnny/Sally would/could never do that!” Next time, before you go looking for a fall guy, examine yourself, examine your household to see if the problem doesn’t lie closer to home.

Amos 3:2

Judah and Israel’s failure and subsequent captivities and exiles are all Babylon’s fault, all Assyria’s fault! Right!? Not a chance! We all know due to the Children of Israel’s sin and breaking of the Covenant (Duet. 27-28) the Dispersion occurred. No one’s fault but Israel’s. Oh, they tried to blame other peoples and even their own prophets, but the problem was Israel’s and no one else’s.

Acts 7:9-16

A tattle-tail, a braggart! Joseph is clearly the problem, that little brat! Let’s get rid of him! Problem solved! Right!?  WRONG!

We all know it was Joseph’s brothers who were jealous. Insecure and had the problem. But despite their efforts to squash the dreamer, years later the brothers actions came to bite them in the tuchas (butt) and they realized they were the problem all along.

“Abba YHWH Elohim, hold our chin and make us face the mirror of Your Word (James 1:22-25) so that we can see ourselves in all our ugliness and flaws in order that we may go about and acknowledge and recognize such flaws and therefore be able to go about and fix them, instead of blaming others for our own faults and failures. In Yeshua’s Name, Amen!”