Today the AVINU blog is the result of a challenge from one of my parishioners about bringing out the good stuff. What is meant by his statement is, I once served as part of a Hebrew studies school. My function was to create an automated online Bible college, which was years of dedication and focus. I wouldn’t exchange that experience for anything.

Courts of Heaven

Editor: Val Gunter

The God of the Bible allowed me to sit in the presence of some of the top Hebrew scholars, both men and women, who were authors and Bible contributors, toward modern Bible translations. While sitting in a room listening to them dropping Hebraic translational bombshells, a pursuit and hunger for the Word of ADONAI, GOD of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob resulted in a never before personal enthusiasm.

Please don’t take offense for the length of this blog; my excuse is, I pulled from several commentaries based on Jewish sources.                     

Okay, let’s go to school for about ten minutes.

I just used a clause “dropping Hebraic translational bombshells,” a phrase that functions as a “hyperbole [hīˈpərbəlē].” However, no one in the days of the writers of the Book of Matthew would have understood “bombshells” because the bomb wasn’t in use in those days, as exploding weapons are far into the future. Sometimes, Yeshua (the Jewish Messiah) Jesus Christ of Nazareth, used metaphors in short stories to illustrate, Natural things against spiritual matters were known as parables. Yeshua was a master of storytelling.

1. Eternity=(Sinner x germination )* Yeshua 

Yeshua was the early exponent of Eternal life.

I don’t get it!  

Now, a “hyperbole” is another method of teaching used by the Messiah designed to drive home an essential point that is imperative to understanding its intent within the parable. As a figure of speech, it is usually not meant to be taken literally, because in some applications, the task is typically impossible. However, some prophecies seem to be so extreme and unlikely, that one has to think this has to be a hyperbole. 

Such as the prophecy, can ADONAI make a nation in one day? An impossible task that came to pass in 1948, as the United Nations voted to recognize Israel as a sovereign National. 

Can A Nation Be Born In A Day? Celebrating Israel’s…

As definitely foretold here and in Ezekiel 37:21, 22, Israel became a recognized nation, actually “born in one day.” After being away from their homeland for almost 2,000 years, the Jews were given a national homeland in Palestine by the Balfour Declaration in November, 1917.

Even more incredible, I read an article in a magazine, that NASA used a formula that accounts for the Sun standing still so that Israel could fight their enemy while the Sun was shining. But at a different time, the Sun moved backward for King Hezekiah.

2 Kings 20:9-11

9 And Isaiah said, This is the sign to you from the Lord that He will do the thing He has promised: shall the shadow [denoting the time of day] go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?

10 Hezekiah answered, It is an easy matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps; so let the shadow go back ten steps.

11 So Isaiah the prophet cried to the Lord, and He brought the shadow the ten steps backward by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz. (AMPC)

I am breaking the writer’s rules of not supplying a citation of the article. Still, I loved the part where they alleged that the mastermind who discovered the missing day submitted his evidence from his Sunday School lesson.

Now, here is an example of a hyperbole.

Matthew 18:9

 (Complete Word Study Bible Dictionary)

If this passage is to be taken literally, the Greek word for “offend,” means, your eyes can cause you to go to Hell. The thought is undisciplined eyes are a gateway to eternal damnation. Lust of the eye.

Matthew 18:9

 4625. σκάνδαλον skándalon; gen. skandálou, neut. noun. The trigger of a trap on which the bait is placed, and which, when touched by the animal, springs and causes it to close causing entrapment. The word and its deriv. belong only to biblical and ecclesiastical Gr. In the Septuagint (ancient writings that predate the Bible) it answers to the word for pagís (G3803), trap. However, pagís always refers simply to a trap hidden in an ambush and not to the results; whereas skándalon involves a reference also to the conduct of the person who is thus trapped. Skándalon always denotes an enticement to conduct which could ruin the person in question. See Sept.: (Complete Word Study Bible Dictionary)

Unforgiveness

Students get mental images that linger for the rest of the day, of our Heavenly Father’s judgment on broken or sinful relations. Broken relation is what happened when Lucifer walked away from the Throne of God with a third of the angels.

The eighteenth chapter of Matthew requires a Hebrew background to make sense of half of the chapter, because the writer of Matthew places the readers in a legal argument of a broken relationship which requires the passages of their judicial system for interpretation.

It’s okay to stop hurting. I know this will shock you, but our Messiah is on your side. He came to set the captives free, for free. There is no love like the Messiah’s love. He says that you are beautiful and valuable to Him. He has already paid your Ransom and you are free to go.

Most of the church recognizes the responsibility of the vertical devotion offered up to our Lord and Savior, Jesus of Nazareth, unfortunately, we mishandle the requirements of our horizontal relationships with each other. Horizontal relationships carry an important determinant of one’s salvation. 

Yeshua came to live in us, as a light in the darkess.

Secret soul ties attached the thing we have affection for in the spirit realm.

ADONAI knows the heart of a contributor because the gift is attached to the righteous requirement of the giver’s, vertical, and horizontal relationships.

Genesis 4:3-7

3 When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the LORD. 4 Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The LORD accepted Abel and his gift, 5 but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.

6 “Why are you so angry?” the LORD asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? 7 You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” (NLT)

Matthew 5:23-24

23 So if you are offering your gift at the Temple altar and you remember there that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift where it is by the altar, and go, make peace with your brother. Then come back and offer your gift. (CJB)

Exodus 25:1-3

 Offerings for the Tabernacle

 1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 “Tell the people of Israel to bring me their sacred offerings. Accept the contributions from all whose hearts are moved to offer them. : (NLT)

ADONAI does not receive nor honor any offerings attached to a heart filled with hatred or a spirit that refuses to pardon.

Matthew the eighteenth chapter is evidence of insufficient efforts to be reconciled to release one’s offense.

Leviticus 19:14-18

14″ ‘Do not speak a curse against a deaf person or place an obstacle in the way of a blind person; rather, fear your God; I am ADONAI.

 (RY: v, LY: ii) 15″ ‘Do not be unjust in judging—show neither partiality to the poor nor deference to the mighty, but with justice judge your neighbor.

16″ ‘Do not go around spreading slander among your people, but also don’t stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is at stake; I am ADONAI.

17” ‘Do not hate your brother in your heart, but rebuke your neighbor frankly, so that you won’t carry sin because of him. 18 Don’t take vengeance on or bear a grudge against any of your people; rather, love your neighbor as yourself; I am ADONAI. (CJB)

When we hurt a member of the body Christ, we have a responsibility to be reconciled, but if the person we injured refuses reconciliation, it will help to know both sides may fall into judgment, because both sides are responsible for the current state.

Matthew 18:15-17
¹⁵ If your brother wrongs you, go and show him his fault, between you and him privately. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother.
¹⁶ But if he does not listen, take along with you one or two others, so that every word may be confirmed and upheld by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
¹⁷ If he pays no attention to them [refusing to listen and obey], tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a pagan and a tax collector. (AMPC)

 τελώνης telṓnēs; publican (CWSB Dictionary)

 Such collectors in countries subject to the Roman Empire were the objects of hatred and detestation so that none, but persons of worthless character, were likely to be found in this employment. They were called hárpages (n.f.), extortioners, from harpagḗ (G0724), extortion. (CWSB Dictionary)

Matthew 18:6

6 But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in and acknowledge and cleave to Me to stumble and sin [that is, who entices him or hinders him in right conduct or thought], it would be better (more expedient and profitable or advantageous) for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be sunk in the depth of the sea. (AMPC)

a Hyperbole is a noun exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally, but in most cases, parts of the warnings are real. The problem here is the translation of the Greek word for an offense “σκανδαλίζω.”

 4624. σκανδαλίζω skandalízō; a trap, stumbling block. To cause to stumble and fall, not found in Gr. writers. In the NT, figuratively to be a stumbling block to someone, to cause to stumble at or in something, to give a cause of offense to someone. Trans.:

 (I) Generally, to offend, vex, particularly to scandalize. 

 (II) Causative, to cause to offend, lead astray, lead into sin, be a stumbling block or the occasion of one’s sinning. To be offended, be led astray or into sin, fall away from the truth. 

What Yeshua the Jewish Messiah is saying is that this new convert was offended because someone took advantage of their ignorance, or they weren’t mature enough to be positioned on a scale of intensity of heartbreak, which pushed them back into the world.

So, what if we go to the neighborhood lake and find Christians standing around with ropes around their necks? Now is the right time for real repentance.

Not only are your gifts rejected, but even your communion is in jeopardy.

1 Corinthians 11:27-30

 27-31 Failure at self-judgment (vv. 27-29, 31) opens one to demonic attack (compare 5:5, 10:20-22, which can cause sickness or death (v. 30). This is a good place to be reminded that the root meaning of the Hebrew word for “to pray,” l’hitpallel, is “to judge oneself.”

 30 Sin can lead to sickness. This resembles the modern theory of psychosomatic illness but points to spiritual rather than emotional roots of disease. (Jewish New Testament Commentary)

 4856. συμφωνέω sumphōnéō; contracted sumphōnṓ, fut. sumphōnḗsō, from súmphōnos (G4859), be in agreement with. To be in unison, accord, to speak together with another, thus to agree, concur. Intrans., with a dat. expressed or implied:

 (I) Generally of what fits or conforms (Luke 5:36).

 (II) Of agreement, concurrence (Acts 15:15).

 (III) Of a compact, to agree together, followed by perí (G4012), concerning, with the gen. (Matt. 18:19). Pass. with the dat. (Acts 5:9, “how is it that ye have agreed together”; Sept.: 2 Kgs. 12:8). Followed by the dat. of person and gen. of price (Matt. 20:13); by metá (G3326), with, and the gen. and ék (G1537), for, with the gen. of wage (Matt. 20:2 the ek indicating an intended goal, in this case, one dinar).

 Deriv.: sumphṓnēsis (G4857), the act of agreeing.

 Syn.: sugkatatíthēmi (G4784), to consent.

 Concordance

 4857. συμφώνησις sumphṓnēsis; gen. sumphōnḗseōs, fem. noun from sumphōnéō (G4856), to agree. Agreement, concord, unison, accord (2 Cor. 6:15, concord or agreement).

 Ant.: diákrisis (G1253), disputation; diastolḗ (G1293), difference.

 Concordance (CWSB Dictionary)

Matthew 18:15-21

 When One Brother Sins Against Another (Luke 17:3)

When a westerner reads, who has no training in the Jewish Culture of the Bible, they have taken Matthew 18; 18 and19 and have started a doctrine of error.

18 Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.

20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (CWSB)

Matthew 18:18

18 Truly I tell you, whatever you forbid and declare to be improper and unlawful on earth must bewhat is already forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit and declare proper and lawful on earth must be what is already permitted in heaven. (AMPC)

Matthew 16:19

 16:19 [249] 16:19 Charles B. Williams, The New Testament: A Translation: “The perfect passive participle, here referring to a state of having been already forbidden [or permitted].” (AMPC)

 (LY: iii) 23 “‘When you enter the land and plant various kinds of fruit trees, you are to regard its fruit as forbidden—for three years it will be forbidden to you and not eaten. 24 In the fourth year all its fruit will be holy, for praising ADONAI. 25 But in the fifth year you may eat its fruit, so that it will produce even more for you; I am ADONAI your God. (CJB)

Matthew 18:18

 18-20 Contrary to most Christian interpreters, I take the p’ shat (“plain sense”) of this passage to be dealing with making legal judgments and halakhah, not prayer.

 The words rendered “prohibit” and “permit” (v. 18) are, literally, “bind” and “loose.” These terms were used in first century Judaism to mean “prohibit” and “permit,” as is clear from the article, “Binding and Loosing,” in the Jewish Encyclopedia, 3:215:

 “BINDING AND LOOSING (Hebrew asar ve-hittir)… Rabbinical term for ‘forbidding and permitting.’…

 “The power of binding and loosing was always claimed by the Pharisees. Under Queen Alexandra the Pharisees, says Josephus (Wars of the Jews 1:5:2), ‘became the administrators of all public affairs so as to be empowered to banish and readmit whom they pleased, as well as to loose and to bind.’… The various schools had the power ‘to bind and to loose’; that is, to forbid and to permit (Talmud: Chagigah 3b); and they could bind any day by declaring it a fast-day ( … Talmud: Ta’anit 12a … ). This power and authority, vested in the rabbinical body of each age or in the Sanhedrin, received its ratification and final sanction from the celestial court of justice (Sifra, Emor, ix; Talmud: Makkot 23b).

 “In this sense Jesus, when appointing his disciples to be his successors, used the familiar formula (Matt 16:19, 18:18). By these words he virtually invested them with the same authority as that which he found belonging to the scribes and Pharisees who ‘bind heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but will not move them with one of their fingers’; that is, ‘loose them,’ as they have the power to do (Matt 23:2-4). In the same sense in the second epistle of Clement to James II (‘Clementine Homilies,’ Introduction), Peter is represented as having appointed Clement as his successor, saying: ‘I communicate to him the power of binding and loosing so that, with respect to everything which he shall ordain in the earth, it shall be decreed in the heavens; for he shall bind what ought to be bound and loose what ought to be loosed as knowing the rule of the church.’ “

 The article notes that a very different, non-Jewish interpretation, equating binding and loosing with remitting and retaining sins (Yn 20:23), was adopted by Tertullian and all the church fathers, thus investing the head of the Christian Church with the power to forgive sins, referred to on the basis of Mt 16:18 as the “key power of the Church.” Needless to say, I reject this later understanding which bears no relationship to the Jewish context.

 The usual Christian view of vv. 19-20 is that it defines a “Messianic minyan” not as the quorum of ten established by halakhah (Talmud, Sanhedrin 2b) for public synagogue prayers, but as two or three assembled in Yeshua’s name, plus Yeshua himself, who is there with them (v. 20). The problem with this is that the passage is not about prayer-although it is not wrong to make a midrash on it which does apply to prayer (see below and 2:15 N). Rather, Yeshua, speaking to those who have authority to regulate Messianic communal life (vv. 15-17), commissions them to establish New Covenant halakhah, that is, to make authoritative decisions where there is a question about how Messianic life ought to be lived. In v. 19 Yeshua is teaching that when an issue is brought formally to a panel of two or three Messianic Community leaders, and they render a halakhic decision here on earth, they can be assured that the authority of God in heaven stands behind them. Compare the Mishna: (Jewish New Testament Commentary)