Warnings and Promises

As we come to the winter months with less time to be outside working or playing,  it will be a good time for each of us to spend time considering the Word of Yahweh. All through history, He has provided warnings and also made many promises regarding those warnings. Yahweh instructs us to be obedient to His commands and right-rulings, His Torah. We are not to submit ourselves to the rules and instructions of the gentiles by observing their holidays and feasts.

Eze 11:12  “And you shall know that I am יהוה, for you have not walked in My laws nor executed My right-rulings, but have done according to the rulings of the gentiles¹ which are all around you.” ’

Most of us have at one point in our lives considered ourselves gentiles. Yet we have ignored the warning Yahweh has made concerning gentiles. Far too many of my Christian friends keep telling me that they are reluctant to study Torah and be obedient to it’s instructions because they do not want to come into bondage. Sadly they do not realize that they are currently in the worst kind of bondage, the Law of Sin and Death discussed by Rabbi Shaul (Paul) in his letters.

Jer 10:1  Hear the word which יהוה speaks to you, O house of Yisra’ĕl.

Paul tells us that as Believers, we are grafted into Israel so this word from Yahweh is also addressed to those of us who do not consider themselves Jews but contend we are followers of Messiah Yahshua.

 Jer 10:2  Thus said יהוה, “Do not learn the way of the gentiles,¹ and do not be awed by the signs of the heavens, for the gentiles are awed by them.

Jer 10:3  “For the prescribed customs of these peoples are worthless, for one cuts a tree from the forest, work for the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool.

Jer 10:4  “They adorn it with silver and gold, they fasten it with nails and hammers so that it does not topple.

 As we come into this Christian holiday season, I encourage you to be strong. Many will receive a lot of pressure from family and friends with good intentions. As you have noticed, the season is already in full force in your local stores. Jeremiah is reminding us that the act of placing a tree in your home and decorating it is against the instructions of Yahweh. This custom of having a tree and bowing down at it with gifts follows the actions of ancient worship. There is no Biblical support for such a holiday as this. Trying to link a pagan winter festival to Messiah does not make it Biblical. Amazingly it purports to celebrate the birth of Messiah Yahshua but is not even the correct time of the year. However, it does match to the day the pagan birthday of an idolatrous god of Greek mythology.

Eze 11:14  Then the word of יהוה came to me, saying,
Eze 11:15  “Son of man, your brothers, your relatives, your kinsmen, and all the house of Yisra’ĕl, all of it, are those about whom the inhabitants of Yerushalayim said, ‘Keep far from יהוה, this land has been given to us as a possession.’
Eze 11:16  “Therefore say, ‘Thus said the Master יהוה, “Although I have sent them far off among the gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the lands, yet I was for them a set-apart place for a little while in the lands to which they came.” ’
Eze 11:17  “Therefore say, ‘Thus said the Master יהוה, “And I shall gather you from the peoples, and I shall assemble you from the lands where you have been scattered, and I shall give you the land of Yisra’ĕl.” ’
Eze 11:18  “And they shall go there, and shall take away all its disgusting matters and all its abominations from there.
Eze 11:19  “And I shall give them one heart, and put a new spirit within you. And I shall take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh,
Eze 11:20  so that they walk in My laws, and guard My right-rulings, and shall do them. And they shall be My people and I shall be their Elohim.
Eze 11:21  “But to those whose hearts walk after the heart of their disgusting matters and their abominations, I shall recompense their deeds on their own heads,” declares the Master יהוה.

Ezekiel tells us in Chapter 11:18 that Yahweh is going to take away all these disgusting matters that are an abomination to Him. He will require all those who love Him to:  walk in My laws, and guard My right-rulings, and shall do them. And they shall be My people and I shall be their Elohim.

 Please note the grave warning from Yahweh in verse 21. He does not take such actions lightly. Just because we have fond memories of certain holidays in our youth does not excuse us from this judgment if we continue after He has brought us out and given us greater knowledge.

These warnings and promises are interlocked together by the Father. These are not things that we as Believers have a choice in if we are to continue in His will. By refusing to be obedient to His Torah and keep His feasts and festivals,  we are removing ourselves from His people. We then will be faced  with all the plagues that such actions will bring us in our lives.
If you want to celebrate something this time of the year, do as our Messiah did when He was here on earth and celebrate the Feast of Dedication commemorating the great victory Yahweh gave His people over the Romans during the time of the Maccabees. John tells us about Yahshua being in Jerusalem during this feast and being in the temple: John 10:22. The Feast begins this year on the evening of December 8^th and continues until December 16^th.
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