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Gleaning – An Act of Torah

One of the beautiful things about Israel is the opportunity to watch Scripture lived out. The lifestyle in Israel is different than it is in the United States because this nation is built around Scripture. Of course, there’s the tug of war between secularism and serving God, but even among the wrestling, you can see the obedience of the Jewish people toward their God. Here the country shuts down Friday evening going into the Sabbath, more so now during the second COVID-19 lockdown, but even normally you are hard pressed to find an open store during the Sabbath in many cases. The sound of a city voluntarily going to sleep as sundown approaches is one of the most enjoyable moments of my life.

During our second or third day here in Israel we got a glimpse of another act of Torah that surprised me. A simple act of obedience to Torah is enough to make me cogitate on something for weeks! Our hosts stopped by our window one afternoon and set some fruit on the window ledge for us and then took several steps back. When we opened the window to chat with her, she let us know that they had been gleaning in an orchard across the road and they were sharing from their findings.

For those of you that don’t know, gleaning is going to a farm and taking from the leftover produce. The fruit that lands on the ground or the fruit that was overlooked during harvest becomes a resource for gleaners. If the farm is not yet harvested, whatever is still attached to the plant (in most cases) is not available for gleaning. Whatever is on the ground is available for anyone in need of it. After harvest, whatever remains attached to the plant also becomes the domain of gleaners. There are some additional points of interest in Scripture on this topic, both teachings and examples of it lived out. Even our Master Yeshua gleaned during His ministry. Remember the false accusation against Yeshua’s disciples for breaking the Sabbath for picking heads of grain and eating them? They were partaking of some of the gleaning instructions handed down by God.

The interesting thing in Israel is that this country is founded on the teachings of Moses. The words are not allegorical here. Nor are they obsolete or burdensome. These people still value those words and take joy in performing them. Not as a “do this or die,” but more as an act of love toward their covenantal partner. In Israel they are literal and immediately tangible, especially if you’ve studied the Scriptures and you know what you’re looking for. It’s a beautiful thing to watch God’s teachings lived out before your eyes, even more when it’s at a national level.

While I’ve cogitated on this, I’ve come to think that the Father intended for the farmer to wear their hearts on their sleeve with this particular teaching. It’s the farmers who joyously serve HaShem that leave the most bountiful gleanings. It’s those who wear the mask of false faith that tend to leave their land bereft of fruit after their harvest. As Yeshua was teaching us from the Mount of Beatitudes, He wants us to live out the Spirit of the Father’s teachings not just the minimalist actions required by the words. The farmers have the option to purposely minimize how much fruit is left behind for gleaners. So far as I understand, they also have the option of completely closing their land to gleaners as well, though I believe very few elect this option.

The heart controls the actions.

The farmers that choose to live out a passionate love for their God choose to be very generous with their farms. They optionally “drop” additional fruit for the gleaners and leave more on the branches during harvest which is literally taking money out of their pockets for the poor. In part, they are learning this from King David’s grandfather Boaz in the book of Ruth, but still the heart controls the actions. If the farmer is living for the material gain of their harvest rather than passionately pursuing their God, they may instruct the hired workers to be extra diligent with getting all the fruit from the trees or vines. Alternatively, they may instruct the laborers to leave every tenth fruit or some other calculation. Keep in mind, this does not count as the tithe. This is above and beyond that.  

I love the idea of gleaning. It’s a form of giving to those in need, but without destroying their dignity as we too often do with those in need back home. With gleaning they still labor for their food, but the food is available through the generosity of those who grow it. It is charity with dignity.

For the gleaners there is also the lesson of intent which can again be seen spelled out nicely in the book of Ruth. This Moabitess served for her mother-in-law, not solely for herself. In our experience, our host was also thinking of others and not just themselves during their time of gleaning. They considered Earlene and I. While we are certainly not in the typical categories of those in need, we are currently “home bound” under a mandatory quarantine. So, the woman and her daughter shared their findings with us. They provided for us during the time when we were unable to go out and find our own food.

There are actions of the heart that speak louder than the physical deed behind them. Gleaning seems to encapsulate a view of the heart for both the giver and the receiver. That is one of the several lessons that I seem to be learning and relearning through our little window of life right now. Tomorrow is the last day of our quarantine. I pray that the Father will reveal even more life lessons through our time in Israel and our observation of His people living our Scripture before our eyes.

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Rosh HaShana/Feast of Trumpets

Today we are entering into Rosh HaShanah or the Jewish New Year where the calendar will change from the year 5780 to 5781. This is one of four new years the Jewish people tend to observe, but so far as I understand this one is primary over all the others.

Biblically speaking, and more importantly, this is Yom Teruah or the Day of Trumpets and it’s on God’s Biblical calendar. After conversations with Christians of various denominational backgrounds I’ve come away understanding that the Day of Trumpets is the Appointed Time that is least understood – if they know it exists at all! Most know Passover and the Feast of First Fruits because of how our Master fulfilled these in such a literal way. With varying degrees of familiarity, they will usually at least recognize the names of the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. It really surprised me the first few times someone answered with a “what’s that?” when I said something about the Day of Trumpets. It’s actually a really important day when considering the prophetic foreshadowing and implications of this day.

This is a unique holiday within the Appointed Times of God for a couple of reasons.

It’s the only Appointed Time that seems to have an end date. I haven’t been able to find where God says “this is a statute forever, throughout your generations.” It’s as though this day is pointing to a singular event and it’s not meant to be an anniversary date after the event it’s looking forward to. I looked twice, but if I missed it please tell me. 

The other exceptional element of this day is that it is the only one that lands on the first day of the month. That is, of course, a Biblical month which is tracked by the moon. Why is that important?

In the second Temple era they required two witnesses to report to the Temple to proclaim that they saw the first sliver of the moon. Until they had those two witnesses, they couldn’t blow the trumpets from the Temple to announce the new month. Therefore, the Jewish people were unable to obediently observe this Appointed Time until that happened. During these times, the entire nation sat at the edge of their seats waiting to shout to God and celebrate the feast day. They knew the timing was within about a 48-hour period, but until they saw the moon, the Holy Day that was Appointed by God was not celebrated. For that reason, the Feast of Trumpets received a nickname within Judaism.

What did they call it? Just a little thing known as “the day and hour that no one knows.” 

When you follow the Trumpet through Scripture you come up with an interesting picture of Yeshua and the second coming. Try it sometime! In any case, due to the Day of Trumpets being an Appointed Time, we have a pretty good idea of the season in which Yeshua will return. It may not be a specific year, date or hour which we can nail down, but the hints that He dropped and the hints that the authors of Scripture shared with us give a pretty clear connection. Of course, be ready for any day all the time, but approach the special days that God appointed with a special awe. He didn’t just pick these days out of a hat. He has a purpose for them. Anyone that may study the events of Yeshua’s gift on the cross and its alignment with Passover should see that.

I hope and pray that this year is the year we receive our King, but there still seems to be a lot to accomplish in prophecy. After seeing the Land and watching Scripture lived out (I will share more on that in coming posts) I tend to take prophecy pretty literally. I know the allegorical understandings are the preferred method for much of the Body, but watching it all unfold in front of your eyes makes the case that God meant it literally – at least in most of the Bible.

I’m not adverse to watching for the metaphorical potential though. By keeping the mind open to the metaphors, I can say that this Yom Teruah makes for a unique event beyond its recurring characteristics.

Among many things we’re watching for in prophecy is the abomination of desolation that will put a stop to the sacrifices as spoken of in Daniel. In an allegorical fashion I can see that happening this year to some extent.

For the last 2,000 years the Jewish people have maintained the Temple service to the best of their abilities. Christianity tends to view their ways as nothing but traditions, but they actually do carry a lot of purpose. They pray three times a day to align with the appointed times in the Temple. They also have the weekly, monthly and annual celebrations and prayers that align with the Temple services. Through maintaining these prayer times, the Jewish people seek to continue the Temple service as best as possible through their hearts and prayers. How does it correlate? There seems to be a correlation to the sacrifices and prayers in Psalms 141:2, Hebrew 13:15, 1 Peter 2:5 and I believe several others.

Now how does this year allegorically align to the abomination of desolation? Israel is going into a nationwide lockdown. It began at 2:00 P.M. local time yesterday in Israel and it will go through the entire Fall Feast schedule to the end of the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) and the 8th and Greatest Day. During this time prayer services will be minimized. They attempted to put a complete stop to them, but then they gave a little bit. I think everyone is still confused on how it will work. 

Those imposing the lockdown claim that it is necessary to reduce the number of virus infections, but if you dig just a little more the details become pretty sketchy. They could have shut the country weeks ago because they knew where the numbers were projected to go. The virus may be spreading, but it’s got a death rate of 0.68% in Israel which is among the lowest in the world. The timing of it all, going after God’s appointed times, just seems too coincidental. They shut down during Passover previously and they couldn’t manage to find three weeks anywhere else in the year except this three weeks. Is it coincidence? The “red zones” within Israel are all areas of faithful communities. The more secular communities are supposedly not affected in the same way. Just as we see in Daniel, we see a pretense to force the worshipers of God Most High to stop their worship.

So, you see, in an allegorical sense, I can see the signs of the times. Personally, I suspect there will be something much more literal that we’re watching for, but it hasn’t escaped my attention that at least one family I know of felt the urgent need to depart Judea before the Holy Days in response to all this nonsense. That, again, harkens to the words of Yeshua urging those in Judea to flee to the mountains. Food for thought anyway!

All this to say, Yom Teruah is a special day that looks forward to the trumpet blast of Yeshua. We are entering the Bridal season. The season where the days all point toward a wedding. The season that all points toward Yeshua’s words “repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

We experience it in unique fashion this year, but nonetheless, we celebrate the days our Master has commanded. The Appointed Times are here. Are you participating?

One last thought – if you are Gentile (not Jewish) it is your calling according to Paul to make the Jewish people jealous in order for them to discover their Messiah. There is a growing movement in the Body to observe these days and the Orthodox Jewish community is beginning to take notice. In this article you can see in the last paragraphs where the Orthodox authors are questioning their calling in response to the Christians celebrating the days God has Appointed. Are you taking part in making the Jewish people jealous?

Shana Tova! Happy New Year!

Chag Sameach! May you have a joyous holiday season!

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COVID-19

No 2020 blog would be complete without mentioning the impacts of COVID-19. In a few ways, our lovely adventure through this year has been changed from the “original plan”. But what does that really mean? Only that His plan has continued to proceed unhindered. As it is written in Isaiah 22:22 and repeated in Revelation 3:7: “what He opens, no one else can shut; and what He shuts, no one else will open.” The door to Israel was clearly announced as a priority for us in late 2019 and, although there were times in 2020 where the door was literally closed to everyone who wasn’t Israeli, the timing of His plan for us did not significantly change in spite of the worldwide pandemic.

It will be hard for us to rewind the cogs back to March 2020 and adequately explain all the things that we experienced. However, the thoughts we had and the things we felt then are similar to what many of you went through as well. Part of this blog entry is more of a journal for us to remember in the years to come all the things that happened. Even now, some of it fades from memory. There will be some sentences in this post that you read and immediately think of as “old news.” Those are likely the spots that we chose to write just for us.

In mid-March 2020, the President declared a State of Emergency due to the coronavirus disease. This worldwide plague that was just a brief headline in November – December 2019 became a real problem within just a few short weeks for America. Aaron had taken a four-week sabbatical at his place of employment (an awesome perk for employees who had served ten years at the company) and was preparing for his first day back. He took the day to head to the mountains with his dad for one last day on the slopes before going back to work. The next day – while he’s back in the office and getting back in the groove – the news announces that Colorado’s first confirmed case of COVID-19 has arrived in Summit County which is where Aaron and his dad were skiing the day before. All Coloradoans who were in Summit County over the past few days were encouraged to quarantine, so Aaron notified his supervisor and prepared to spend the next two weeks working from home in quarantine.

Meanwhile, I was starting to experience the hectic and uncharted waters of COVID-19 at the City of Littleton (where I worked). We were in the middle of our annual audit, preparing for our auditors to arrive on-site. In a normal audit season (February – April), I would work 60-70 hours a week for two or three months. On top of that, this year we were told to prepare to all of our staff to work from their homes with barely a 24-hour notice. We were scrambling for meaningful ways for employees to stay connected, engaged and be productive as well as ensuring that they felt safe and continued to stay physically, emotionally and mentally healthy. Payroll laws were changed and needed to be analyzed, understood and implemented quickly. And since I worked in the finance department, my team was also tasked with figuring out how this pandemic would affect the financial future of the City and how we would need to adjust our spending in the near future (read “impact the livelihood of our co-workers”) to offset the negative impacts of lost revenues.

Within just a few days of the President’s announcement, our normal routine was upended. We could only leave the house for groceries or work. I was in the office no more than two days a week and Aaron was told that he would be working from home indefinitely. We had to find a new way to work, a new way to spend our non-working hours, a new way to work in close proximity and tight quarters, and a new way to engage with people whom we were used to seeing face-to-face. We had to find a new way to worship, a new way to learn and a new way to serve.  

During this time, our world changed. Shelf-stable foods and meat were being rationed at the stores and you couldn’t find toilet paper, hand sanitizer or disposable masks anywhere! Entire countries shut their borders. Travel, tourism, restaurants, movie theaters, gyms, parks, museums, and churches closed down. Cities prepared for significant loss of life. Families were having to say goodbye to dying family members over the phone, through closed windows and via online video chats. Many elderly who did not have the technical skills to communicate via online means and many who did not have internet were suddenly disconnected from their family and friends. Families lost their children, their sisters, brothers, parents, grandparents, cousins, aunt and uncles. We started wearing masks everywhere, checking temperatures twice daily and using more hand sanitizer than we could imagine. We stopped hugging, touching or being close to others in an effort to stay safe and keep our families and friends safe.

In the middle of the chaos, we realized a few things immediately:

  1. We needed our jobs in order to fund the trip to Israel in the manner that we strongly felt He was telling us it was to be funded. And, in the face of nationwide unemployment spikes (the unemployment rate went from 3.5% in February up to 14.7% in April and the number of Americans who have lost their job is estimated near 50 million), neither of us had lost our job.
  2. Since the pandemic impacted the way that we all live, it also impacted the things that we value and our openness to course-correction. People around us became more focused on the people they love than the things they owned. Many of us who needed to see things in a different light and make life changes were given the ability and the mindset to do it.
  3. Although international borders were closing and travel, even locally, was severely restricted, we could tell that His plan for our year had not changed or been deferred.

And so, we continued to make plans and set wheels in motion. We realized that travel to a kibbutz that specializes in tourism was no longer an option. We met up with the family who would become our host family in a virtual meeting and a few things were confirmed for both us and them. This was the first post-COVID outbreak “yes” we received in response to our needs to travel and stay in Israel.

In late May, we turned in our resignations from our jobs and both received approval to continue working until mid-August. In June, Israel announced plans to re-open its borders to tourists in late August. That timeline was no surprise to us as that’s exactly when we were planning to leave the U.S. and come to Israel. We continued forward, buying plane tickets and sending a deposit to our host family. We booked the UHaul and moving companies for the weekend of Independence Day, and completed the move with no trouble. In mid-August, after our long month of saying goodbye to Colorado and all the friendships we had built there, we headed to Missouri.

On our drive out to Missouri, our host family contacted us and said that is was looking very unlikely that we would be able to travel to Israel on a three-month tourist visa at the end of August. This meant that we would need to complete the paperwork for a volunteer visa which requires a trip to an Israeli Consulate. This would allow us to enter Israel and probably result in a delay of less than a month of our previously planned date. We were shown great favor through this time. We completed the visa paperwork within a week (including getting new passport pictures taken, a special trip to the doctor, and new health insurance), had it reviewed by our pals in Israel in two days, received approval to pick up our visas in three days and, 48 hours later with visas in hand, were ready for our trip to Israel.

Our arrival in Israel ended up being only one week delayed from the original plan. In less than a week of our arrival, Israel announced a nationwide lockdown which will begin at 2 pm on Friday, September 18 and last for at least three weeks. During this time, travel will be restricted, businesses will be closed, and we will only be able to travel 500 meters from our Israeli home. We are praying for a swift healing in this nation, for the number of cases to recede and for those in Israel to be awakened to a new zeal for their Messiah during these times. We strongly believe when Messiah comes, He will choose a time during the fall feasts (known to many of our friends as the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles.) That is the time of year that we knew we were to be here and here we are.

It is clear to us that He opened a door, very briefly, for us to enter the Land and that He has shown us favor in many ways – not the least of which was ensuring our prompt journey to the Land so that we could participate in the things He is doing here. We are now waiting for Him to make Himself more real to us than He has ever been. And waiting for His purposes to be revealed to us so that we can complete the tasks He has reserved for us here.

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“Sukkot 2020”

I told you in our “Quarantine” post about the timing of how we will be coming out of quarantine around the High Holidays. It’s a fantastic timing that God has been working on for much longer than we realize.

We were told by Millie about the word for transition in 2020, and about our journey to Israel being part of that, sometime back in October or November. Earlene and I were specifically told to “test” the word that was given to us, but we weren’t sure how. One of the most challenging things in a life of faith is figuring out how to test something. All of Scripture holds a convicting message for each of us, but sometimes it doesn’t seem to help when trying to test someone’s word. Especially when it’s spoken directly to us and it’s personally for us.

How do you test a word like that?

If you have suggestions on how to do that, I would love to hear your thoughts.

We have been working on this plan for most of a year now and even now we need to continually test what we’re doing against the Father’s will and His desire for us. Our desires creep in there to override His all too easy so that is a challenge in itself!

Now that we’re in Israel it seems appropriate to share one of the strongest confirmations that we received – once we remembered it. Even though we received the initial word from Millie in 2019, one of our confirmations happened straight from my own mouth back in 2017.

After several months of planning, one of our dear friends Larry* reminded me of the words I spoke after our first trip to Israel. When we got back from that trip, I walked into our congregation on Saturday morning smiling from ear to ear after the experience and I said “Sukkot 2020.” Those were among the first words I spoke that Sabbath after we returned in 2017. I had a goal to make pilgrimage to Israel for the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) during 2020.

As time passed those words faded in memory and that goal became a faint dream. For a short time, we were trying to plan that trip in 2019, but it didn’t work out for various reasons. God, it seems, was holding me to my word – Sukkot 2020.

It’s hard to express how baffling it was to remember that, and how encouraging it is to know that I had spoken those words in 2017 and they “coincidentally” seem to be falling in place for 2020. We were not purposely planning to meet that goal, but God seems to be orchestrating events and playing His galactic chessboard so our goal may come to fruition.

For us, this was one of the many major confirmations we received when planning this trip.

As with everything, there’s an important lesson in this. A long-forgotten word we speak, may not be so forgotten by the Creator of the Universe. Who else could orchestrate such a perfect timeline? 

It is interesting, however, to see how it’s still coming together. Just today as I’m writing this Earlene ran across an article that makes it appear that Israel will go into lockdown for the High Holidays. I have no idea what this means and how it will affect what we perceive as the plan, but I’m confident HaShem isn’t surprised in the least at how things are playing out.

I hope this testimony shows you that God hears your heart. Speak to Him of your desires and share those desires with the Body of Messiah. It may not happen as you expect, but He seems to completely faithful to follow through. That said, I would recommend that you write these things down. Maybe keep a prayer journal or some other record. This was almost forgotten and that would have been a great loss to our own testimony of God’s faithfulness.

What are your long-term desires? Can we join you in presenting those before our King?

As a bit of a side note, know that Israel is hurting. She is yearning for the Believer to brighten Her doorways again and for the joyous sounds of the multitudes worshiping our King. For those of you that don’t know this is a season of the greatest tourism spike each year. Millions and millions of Jews and Gentiles make the trip each year to come up to the Holy Mountain of God to celebrate the feast of Sukkot. For the Jew this is mandated in the Torah (the books of Moses). For the Gentile Believers this is in response to verses such as Zechariah 14:16 that clearly says we will all make the pilgrimage to Zion for Sukkot. Pray for the Land of Israel and pray that Her borders may be opened so that the worshippers of God Most High may come in and draw near according to His Word.

In this strange year of COVID-19, no one has any idea what the next day will bring. Except our great King and Bridge Groom. I’m praying that we will be welcome to travel to Jerusalem in the coming weeks, but only God will make that possible. Regardless, we are in Israel for “Sukkot 2020” – who else but God Himself could orchestrate such perfect timing?

*I wanted to put a note that I *think* it was Larry. Sorry if I’m assigning credit for that to the wrong person. It may have been any of 4 people I shared this word with.

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Our First Shabbat

As many of you know Earlene and I observe the Saturday Sabbath. I grew up that way as an Adventist and wandered away for a long time and then we found our way back to the Sabbath together toward the beginning of our marriage.

Being in the Land is a unique experience because this country is built around Scripture. They observe God’s teachings to the greatest extent possible, yes, even the believers in Messiah Yeshua (Jesus). Most of them prepare special meals for Shabbat before sundown on Friday and they go out of their way to celebrate the arrival of this island in time that God has blessed us with. The Sabbath is truly a special time that one can only fully understand by partaking in it. We’ve heard a story from a friend a couple of times about a gentleman that he knew who attended his congregation 7 times before having that breakthrough moment and telling our friend “I finally understand the Sabbath.”

On our first Shabbat we are very limited on what we have in our quarantine space. It’s secluded and we can’t go to the store or prepare for this special day. As with everything, God has us covered and taken care of.

The friends that have allowed us to use their home delivered to our door a Shabbat meal, Challah bread, and wine. It was absolutely perfect. Earlene and I opened our meal in prayer, blessed God for the wine and bread and enjoyed the flavorful meal that our friends provided. The blessing cannot be overstated.

As I write this on Shabbat afternoon, we can hear the joyous singing of some of those friends as they celebrate their God and the blessing of Shabbat. It brightens my heart! It encourages me to hear the singing and celebration of our God. There is indeed something special about this day that cannot be experienced on any other day regardless of how we may try – and through my wanderings, I certainly have tried.

Shabbat shalom!