Three Women: Leah, Rachael, Dinah

Rachel leaves the house of her father, Laban, along with her sister Leah. Laban accuses Jacob of stealing his daughters, taking them captive as one who has a sword. Laban pursues Jacob in the hopes of bringing back his daughters? I think not. He is come for his household idols, not his beloved daughters.

Laban’s heart is exposed when Abraham’s servant came looking for the wife for Isaac. Laban’s eyes are dazzled with the gold jewelry given to Rebecca. Was the gold jewelry the coercion that caused Rebecca to go to Isaac? Who, by the way, is a generation older than she is?
Hmm, that sounds like a mountain scene with Miriam waiting at the bottom of the mountain while her little brother Moses is out basking in the glory of YAH. And the rest of the clan is collecting gold earrings to produce a calf on which they can bow down to. But that is a story for another time.

Without Jacob’s knowledge, Rachel has stolen the sacred family idols from Laban and hides them under the blood of herself on the back of an unclean camel. Just how badly did Laban want his daughters and grandchildren back? After turning the camp upside down looking for his mighty ones, we find him leaving, but not without a Mizpah between Jacob and Laban. Just what is a Mizpah? It is a watchtower that explains YAH is watching between Laban and Jacob that they should not do evil to one another.

Dinah is the 7th child of Leah and a woman. Her father is unknown (is he?), but her two brothers Simeon and Levi become enraged when an uncircumcised … takes their sister against her will. Hamor, the father of the rapist Shechem, tries to make peace for his son’s unclean, outrageous act by offering money, fields, whatever they want in, exchange for Dinah’s hand in marriage. Simeon and Levi understand that the circumcision of these unclean men’s genitalia will not give them a Jewish heart and they will never give their sister’s hand in marriage.

So Simeon and Levi devise a plan in secret to get justice. They explain that all the males of the town will have to be circumcised to win the hand of Dinah. Hamor and Shechem agree, and while all the men are recuperating, Levi and Simeon avenge their sister by removing from existence all the males and taking captive all the wives, little ones and livestock. Jacob is overcome by great AMALEK (this would be great doubt in Yahweh), and finds himself full of the fear of man. Jacob retorts, “I will lose everything, my family, my land, my house, my livestock; surely Dinah shouldn’t cost the whole family line’s livelihood! Jacob being beside himself like a good Jewish man, inquires of YAH; he is told to return to the very spot in which he wrestled with the angel for his blessing. The very spot he becomes Israel, prince of Yah, that is Beth El. In this place of anguish and striving, YAH tells him “Throw out the mighty ones, all the earrings, take a bath and change your clothes“. What mighty ones you might ask? Would these not be the ones concealed by Rachel’s uncleanness? Jacob takes these items and buries them under the Terebinth tree where Deborah (by the way means wasp, or is that bee?), Rebecca’s nurse was buried. This is called the place of the “weeping oaks”. Is not Torah sweeter than honey?

Do you have a terebinth tree? What idols have you concealed under your terebinth tree? Do you shed the blood of our precious Lamb over and over to continually conceal your precious idols? YAH requires the high priest of every family to give up their idols. Since you are required to give up your idols to save your whole family, would you be willing to look at the blood of the Lamb being used as an idol thereby making Him unclean? Is this not the unclean blood of Rachel? And is it possible that you have turned the pure, precious blood of the Lamb into the unclean blood of the harlot that we meet in the Greek mind-set church of an idol lifted up on a stick? This may be a harsh picture but I think you get the point, no pun intended. I hear the words, high and lifted up, lift him up and I will draw all men to him, as we so proudly wear crucifixes and decorate our houses with a cross and a dead man who has no life portrayed on our walls? This could not be further from the truth or the image that we want to portray to a lost and hurting world. Do you believe that the life of Yahshua, your Messiah, lives in you? If you have answered yes to this question, do the body of Messiah a favor, lay down on the floor; roll around a few times and stand up. Then speak the name Yahshua out loud. Is this not the true picture of high and lifted up? Yahshua is full of life, He is not a dead man on a cross, He is not a fish swimming in the ocean, He is Divine Life flowing through you touching others, thereby making him tangible.

Please be accountable, throw out your idols, take them off your neck, off the walls of your house and the bumpers of your car and lift Him up by being a living stone. We have a shadow of this when Lazarus came out of the rock; Yahshua came out of the rock. Mount Zion has a rock that is not cut out by man’s hands. That is you, if Torah lives in you! If you are not accountable for letting the life of Yahshua your Messiah stand you up on your feet as did Lazarus and Yahshua so that the whole world can see the miracle of life in you, then you are an empty house waiting for the infiltration of idols and demons..

Are you IN or OUT?

Relationship with Yahshua is a journey. The longer you walk with Yahshua, the deeper your relationship. The Most High, Most Powerful Creator of the Universe, wants to have relationship with me, Wow! There are secrets to speeding up the process. You can have a deep walk now with Yahshua, Creator of the Universe. Would you like to know these secrets? Are you humble enough to be taught? Having a teachable spirit is what it means to be humble. Yahshua loves the one who seeks out a mystery. For it is to God’s glory that He hide a thing, but it is the glory of kings to search out a matter.

Let’s take a short look at relationship levels, starting from the least intimate to the most intimate.
(1) Enemies are out to destroy each other, (2) strangers don’t know each other, (3) neighbors know each other because of their neighborhood, (4) servants serve their master, doing what they are told, (5) friends care for one another, (6) children in a family have privileges others outside the family do not have, (7) spouses know intimate details that the children don’t know. These seven earthly relationships help us see the increasing levels of intimacy in relationships. Yahshua wants the most intimate relationship with each of us.

Let me tell you about Nick at Night, about Nicodemus, one of the rulers of the Jews who had a night encounter with Yahshua. Let's look at what happens to him in chapter three in the gospel of John.

John 3:1-2 1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Yahshua at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."

Nicodemus was a famous teacher; he knows his bible. He knows all the religious rules frontwards, backwards and upside-down, because he makes judgments on the ruling council. He comes to Yahshua at night, trying to flatter Him, to get close to him. He comes at night because he is fearful of what other people, especially his co-workers, will think of him. This is a shadow of how each of us meets Yahshua. We are in darkness and when we receive Him; the light of the world enters us, illuminating us and making us His glory.

John 3:3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

Yahshua doesn’t acknowledge the flattery Nicodemus tries to give to Him, he just starts teaching him truth. The kingdom of God is invisible to those who haven't been born again. You can't talk to them about things of the kingdom, you can only talk about right and wrong, light and dark, love and hate. No amount of arguing will let them accept or receive kingdom things because they are not allowed to perceive or understand. A veil of darkness is still covering them. Only those who are born again are permitted to SEE what is in the kingdom.

John 3:4 "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked.
"Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"

Nicodemus responds as a man who has not been born again because he is in his fleshly mind. His questions are based on earthly understanding and not heavenly perception, even though he knows the first five books of the Bible and can quote them. You become born-again when you hear what Yahshua did and believe what He said. Yahshua paid for all your sins by dying on the cross in your place. When you believe with your heart and ask Yahshua to live His life out throught you, you are born again.

John 3:5-6 Yahshua answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

Let me illuminate you about the difference in seeing the kingdom and entering the kingdom with this short story:

It is a winter’s night and a young man walks past a house on his midnight journey. When he's not born again, he won't even see the house, because he is wearing his dark sunglasses on his midnight stroll, so none of the light from inside the house can be seen. I don't know how he can see where he is going; he can't even see that dangerous slippery slope into the ditch in front of him and if he doesn’t change the direction he is walking, he’ll be in a lot of trouble.

But if the man is born again, the shades are gone from his eyes and he can see the house, and he draws close and can peer into the house through the window. He can see that there is a roaring fire in the fireplace, and can even accurately count the number of people inside, he can even figure out what the next move should be for the chess players sitting at the little table in the corner. There is a lot he can know about the kingdom by seeing it from outside the window. But it is still limited knowledge.

Once he enters the house, he discovers there are things he can know that he didn’t know outside the house. He can bask in the warmth of the fire in the fireplace and smell the fragrance of the beautiful roses on the table. Now he can talk to the pretty young maiden sitting on the sofa. Perhaps if he carefully approaches her, he might get a kiss from her which would never happen with him outside and her inside. In fact, now he can smell the banquet that is prepared in the next room. While he was outside, he had no clue about the fabulous feast about to happen.

Wisdom is still needed to turn on the power inside the house. There are mysteries as to how the electricity in the house works. When we walk with as Yahshua walked, one with Him in thought and purpose, power is released.

John 3:6-8 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

Yahshua points out that His Holy Spirit causes you to be born again. You didn't find Yahshua, He found you! Flesh cannot make spiritual things happen.

When you get baptized, immersed in water, your head comes off! All your hopes and dreams and plans die and you get a new head, Yahshua! You get His hopes and dreams and plans. You become the hands and feet of Yahshua on this earth. More about this intimacy journey later. Godspeed!

Building the Character of the Ox

Are you an ox? That doesn't seem very flattering, does it? The gospel of Mark teaches us about the ox. Why? Because Mark teaches us about the supernatural power of Yahshua, the right now things He does: casting out demons, healing the sick, demonstrating the power to forgive sin on earth. Mark 10:45 tells us Yahshua came to serve rather than to be served. Is your heart to serve rather than to be served? Is the desire burning in your heart the desire to please Yahshua immediately? If so, the ox that’s talked about in Ezekiel chapter 1 has been burned up as a free will offering on the altar. This means you have become a lamb, a sacrificial lamb, also making you the cherub in Ezekiel chapter 10 bringing the miracle of salvation to a hurting world. This makes you a new creature (Galatians 6:15). The ox is a beast of burden, so what is the burden? What is the burden of Yahshua today? It is people who do not have a relationship with Yahshua, the Creator. Matthew 11:30 tells us Yahshua instructs us to “take My yoke and learn from Me.” What do you learn from Yahshua in the gospel of Mark? You learn how to serve other people, especially those who are not born again or are in bondage. The yoke is symbolic of people who do not have a relationship with Yahshua. People on the earth today are potential homes for Yahshua. Yahshua doesn’t want to be homeless. Believers are the house of Yahshua on the earth today. This is what it means when you hear the words He tabernacles among men.

Let’s take a look at your personal walk and see what kind of servant you are. Have you shared your faith in Yahshua with anyone this week? Does this mean preaching, teaching and healing from the pulpit? Probably not, but when you were out walking your dog, did you notice the limp in the young persons walk and say, “My God can heal you. Let me demonstrate Yahshua's power for you today.” When you were standing in line at Wal-mart, did you speak love, peace and encouragement to the mom in front of you being overwhelmed by her children? Did you reach something on the shelf for the old person who couldn’t reach but had no store help to help them? Yahshua's heart is always to meet the need of others whether they believers or not. So I’ll ask you again, did you share your faith in Yahshua or demonstrate his power to somebody this week?

Mark 4:3 - 9 (NKJ) 3 "Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 "And it happened, as he sowed, [that] some [seed] fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. 5 "Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. 6 "But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. 7 "And some [seed] fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. 8 "But other [seed] fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred." 9 And He said to them, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

Who are you in this parable? Many of you out there today will answer the good soil. Many teachers out there today will use this scripture to encourage giving. But, I’m going to ask you to read it again. Who are you in this story? As I sat in morning prayer for a period of two weeks, I would blow on my bible, trusting that it would open to the place where Yahshua wanted to talk to me. It opened 14 days in a row to this scripture. Every morning, after reading it, I would hear the words “Who are you in this story today”? I would answer, “The good soil.”
After the seventh day of the same scripture and question, I started examining my own walk, thinking perhaps I wasn’t good soil. Perhaps I was seed in thorny ground and my walk with Yahshua had been choked out by the worldly cares. No, I determined I was still good soil. After the 13th day of this question-and-answer process, it dawned on me, my answer was not the one Yahshua was looking for, that’s why he repeated the question. I went back to read the scripture again, and stopped at the first sentence, “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.” I realized that I still was good soil, but that I had grown, making me the farmer and Yahshua the seed. I challenge you, read it again.

The farmer prepares the ground just as the ox prepares the ground. You are the farmer. You are the ox. You are the servant. Demonstrate God’s power today.