my understanding of Exodus 15:26

If you diligently, diligently listen/harken
to the voice of the LORD your God
and do what is right in his sight
and give ear/listen/weigh/ponder/give good heed
to what he says
and hedge about/protect all his bound (=engraved law)
I will cause NONE of the diseases/infirmities upon you,
which I cast in upon the Egyptians;
for I am the LORD Rapha who make you whole/heal.

God loves us so much.
I still don't understand where to draw a line and how to read the law in the OT after knowing Jesus but I see the Father's heart that loves us so much even in the law.

Leviticus!

ויקרא

This is the title of the first part of Leviticus. It says "and He called." It is read "Vayikra."

The whole book of what we call "Leviticus" is titled "And He Called" in Hebrew.

Leviticus 1:3 is interesting.
I found an interesting website. When we compare different translations in one page like this we notice that the Hebrew word that means "of his own voluntary will" is not translated. I think this word's presence makes a big difference in understanding who God is. Immediately I thought of a verse from the Bible: He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Book of Hebrews). We call our God and Jesus who is the same yesterday, today, and forever but we think God in the OT is not a loving God. He has always been a loving Father! My desire is to know my Father and Jesus who was sent by our Father more from the entire Bible.

I learned that it is well known that the letter Alef (the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet), the one on the far left above, is written in a smaller size than the rest of the letters in the Torah.

Let's look. This website shows the English text on the right and the Hebrew text on the left. In the first verse, you can see in this one that the letter alef is written in a smaller size. (Hebrew is read from right to left.) Our Jesus is humble...

http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0301.htm

I hope that whoever comes to this blog can see it. It is totally God.

I learned that there are special-trained scribes who copies every little thing in the Torah. If the reader find an error, then the scroll would be given to the special place and the scribes would correct it. So every little thing counts. It is not an error that this letter is written smaller than other ones. Jesus said in Matthew 5:18

"For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (KJV)

"I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. " (NLT)

"I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."(NIV)

I learned that this small alef represents the LORD's small voice calling Moses from behind the tabernacle. The LORD is in many little things, not just in the big thunders and lightnings.

This is one of the unimaginable joy that God must have hidden in the original language. If our Father gives us the ability to read the original language and the help of the Holy Spirit, I can not imagine what kind of joy is available to us! We will fall out of our chair!!

Matthew 13:52 explains perfectly what those people are like. Those people can experience the unimaginable joy from both the OT and the NT.

Matthew 13:52
Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old. (KJV)

I prayed before I read

It is amazing how quickly I dry out if I don't go back to my first love towards God. "A little later" becomes too familiar and pretty soon I feel like I am okay without my time with the LORD and my in-depth word study. I must be deceived!!! The study session time alone with God is my fun time and God tickles my heart, but I was a little concerned that I may look crazy to spend time in my closet - literally I turned one tiny closet into my room where I leave the Bible or other study materials open on the desk(board). Then my friend's words encouraged me. She seems to think that God is actually guiding me into this place of studying the word of God! She is a wonderful woman of God, so I trusted her words. Her words freed me. Wait for me, my closet, here I come!

My friends from my Scripture-memorizing group used to tell me that if we were stuck in one spot and couldn't go on while we were trying to memorize a certain section of the Bible, then God is trying to say something to us. Well, I was not memorizing Leviticus. I was just reading chapter 16 over and over because I was stuck there somehow. Then I remember to pray before dealing with God's precious words. It is God's words. My flesh alone cannot understand God's way. I am thankful God reminded me...again.

So...

In my closet I said a little prayer before I started with Leviticus chapter 16, and started writing down some meanings of the original words, using the Strong's numbers and dictionary. Ohh... wow... I didn't know the Hebrew word for the ark was "ארון (arown) ". It sounds like Moses' brother's name "Aaron"!

אהרון (Aharown) - Aaron's name
ארון (arown) - ark, box, chest...Ark of Covenant

The difference between Aaron and ark is the letter "H" just like Abram's and Sarai's names.

Abram + H = Abraham
Sarai + H = Sarah

Aaron is in the line of Levis. His name is an ark plus "H". I think I wrote about the letter H which I learned from Hebrew For Christians (www.hebrew4christians.com). Letter H in Hebrew indicates the presence of God. So if I can still apply this to Aaron's name, then...

ark + God's presence = Aaron, the Levi, the priest

Isn't it a perfect name for him!

Just wondering...

I was researching a certain topic and encountered with many different people's blogs and websites. Since I started to be interested in the original language, my eyes have been opened to see more people's websites with this topic. I feel like I am often changing my course of how I understand the word of God. Most recent change is from 'from Jewish point of view' to 'from the ancient Hebraic point of view.'

Why? I will write one example. If some animals are unclean to eat, I would think that it would be not-kosher. Kosher means ritually pure, fit, permissible, etc... If the Biblical unclean animals can be made permissible to eat by making it kosher somehow, would it become permissible because of the culture that developed over the long period of time? Can you really do that???
Then I realized how a pig was valued in the Leviticus days are very different in the 21st century. If I study the modern Jewish culture, it may not give me the accurate explanation of the Bible.

For example...
Right after I started to be familiar with some Hebrew words, I learned that the word 'Abba' was not Hebrew! It is Aramaic. But I heard some preachers (who studied Hebrew) say that it is Hebrew. Some people say that they heard little Jewish children say 'Abba' when they want their dad. I set this research aside for awhile because I didn't know what to think of it. Then I encountered with one website saying that the word 'Abba' used to be only in Aramaic, but in modern Hebrew language it is used as 'dad.' A-ha! Languages evolve. So if we learn from the modern Jewish culture, it may not give me the original meaning and intention.

So I thought that I need to go back to the original time and read the Bible through the ancient Hebraic point of view, and not form the modern Jewish point of view or from our own eyes in this time of the history in order to understand our God more. The Lord Jesus is for all of us who believe. I believe that. I am just curious to know more.

"But the Scriptures point to me! " says Jesus

“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! " John 5:39 (New Living Translation)

This scripture comes to my mind when I use my Torah pointer to read the Bible. Yes, it is called a Torah Pointer. I bought one for myself when I first started to be drawn to the Jewish culture woven into the scriptures. It was always my habit to follow the words using the back of a pen when I read the Bible. Then one day I happened to see a picture of a Jewish girl reading the Torah with something in her hand! It has a little hand and the index finger is pointing. I was so excited and did some research and found out what it was. Now I have one, and I like it a lot.

Easter is approaching. I amuse myself by reading Leviticus with this Torah pointer and think of what Jesus said.

“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!"

I wonder if there were any word-plays in the original text in this verse. Jesus was talking to the people who used the Torah pointer... Using the Torah pointer, especially when I read Leviticus, makes me ask myself to see if I am really reading the Bible as the living word or not.

Holy Spirit, speak to us today!

wise Joseph

Scriptures for today...

Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine. - Genesis 47:13

"Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? For our money is gone."-Genesis 47:15

It almost sounds like a lot of us, especially the second verse. Our money is gone, father!!

Then Joseph helped the people, and at the same time he made Egypt rich.

Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their land. - Genesis 47:22

This is happening before Moses' days. When did priests appear? I am not going back right now, but it is interesting to see that Joseph and Egypt left them untouched. God did not let the priest lose their land.

Here is an interesting verse.

"And at the harvests you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and your households, and as food for your little ones."- Genesis 47:24

Fifty percent went to Pharaoh (tax?), forty percent was for the people (we get to use this for ourselves), which is totaled 90% of the harvests. Where is the ten percent? Interesting.



Being born in the times when my parents' generation had nothing (though some were rich), my parents worked hard, and my sister and I were well taken care of. Now I am a parent and my husband and I are the ones to take care of the next generation. It is very scary sometimes. Is my God my strength today? Sometimes I lose faith, but then I remember that He is mighty.

Alpha and Omega, Alef and Tav

I saw a very interesting thing in the Bible the other day.

In Genesis, there is a word that appears here and there and that word doesn't really have any meaning to it. You can see it in Genesis 1:1. It is the word את (et). It looks like people debate about it. They are trying to figure out what it is. The word has letters א (alef) and ת (tav). "What is this alef- tav?" is what they say. Alef is the very first letter in Hebrew. Tav is the very last letter in Hebrew. It is like alpha and omega in Greek.

I am trying to memorize a few chapters in the book of revelation. After I was in Genesis for awhile, I went back to the New Testament and read the book of revelation. Then I saw it.

"What is this alef-tav?" we ask.

Jesus said in the book of revelation, "I am the alpha and omega."
If Jesus said it in English, it would have been "I am the a and z."
If Jesus said it in Hebrew, it would have been "I am the alef and tav."
People say that the word made up of alef and tav in Genesis is Jesus, and I couldn't figure out why they could say that, but now I see it. What a joy we experience when we actually see something directly from the Bible and understand what others are saying!

What is this alef-tav?

"I am the alef and tav," says Jesus.

Audio Bible and memorizing scriptures

I have been listening to the Bible in the car. I am listening to the end of Genesis, and on to Exodus. The other day I was listening to the part where Joseph had a dream. Then I laughed when I heard what Jacob said to Joseph regarding the dream.

This time he told the dream to his father as well as to his brothers, but his father scolded him. “What kind of dream is that?” he asked. (Genesis 37:10, NLT)

How do you answer to the question, "What kind of dream is that?" Isn't it unreasonable to ask a question like that? No one can control dreams. I thought it was funny.


memorizing scriptures
When I memorize scriptures, I try all sorts of things like listening, typing, writing, even drawing so that they will stick to my heart and brain. I used to be scared of the fact that I was getting older and forget things more. Then I heard an old lady say that if you can't keep the water in a colander, dip the colander in the water and keep it there. I agreed! So I decided to keep my mind in the Scriptures whenever I could. It's a good thing.