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Well, it has been a while since the last Newsletter. There has been much that has happened that have somewhat prevented me from keeping up as I should. Some medical problems (that are resolved, Praise Him who heals us) and the Blessing of a new granddaughter, Elizabeth Grace! I emphasize BLESSING because she was born in March weighing just one pound and 13 ounces. I am BLESSED to say that she is now at home weighing over 12 pounds and doing wonderfully! Her doctors kept saying that babies that weighed as little as she did at birth just didn’t do as well as she was doing. I just don’t think they understood how many people were praying for this little girl!

The Torah Cycle is well underway again, I hope you are all keeping it. The new schedule is online if you need to reference it.

It has been so long since the last Newsletter, that I would like to back up a bit and touch on the last Parashas of the last cycle. It covered Deuteronomy 33-34.

            These chapters give us Moses Blessings to the Children of Israel. The main thing that stands out to me is that even though Moses knows he is about to die, and not enter in The Promised Land, and, knows that part of the reason was at least in some part caused by the Children of Israel, he is here with his final words, blessing them. Blessing them all. No matter what has been done to Moses by these people, and if you read the Torah, you will see time and time again what all they did, He is still blessing them.

            I think this is an important key here. Moses is the only ‘man’ to have seen God ‘face to face’. He was the closest ‘man’ to God. He knew God intimately, so to speak. He learned from God, He trusted God, He followed God. And here, I think He is emulating God.

            No matter what was done to Him, He was blessing them. No matter what, he was forgiving them. The whole Torah finishes with the theme of Forgiveness and Blessing. I think this is important for us to note. God’s ‘Theme’ is and always has been, forgiveness and blessing.

            I think it is also important for us to note, that although this is the theme, Moses did not get to enter Israel. I think this is a lesson also. Yes, there is forgiveness, and yes, there is blessing. But, sometimes those blessings are not in the form that we think they should be.

            Was Moses blessed? Definitely!!!!

Was Moses the most outstanding ‘man’ to God? Definitely, as I said before, Moses was the only ‘man’ to see and speak to God face to face!

Did Moses get everything he wanted? NO.

            Let’s look back over the Torah for a moment.

‘The Fathers’ consist of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Were they favored? Definitely! Were they blessed? Definitely!

Were they ALWAYS happy and rich and trouble-free?

Did they always have everything they wanted?

Hmmmmm.

Abraham was asked to sacrifice his own son.

Isaac thought he was to be sacrificed.  

Jacob lived a life of hardship and thought he had lost his favored son.

            What does all this tell us?

            God has HIS plans.

            They might not always meet our plans.

If we are HIS children, we will be happy knowing that HIS plans are being fulfilled.

Whether our plans are, or not.

            Much like Moses.

           

 

Blessings in He that gave us His Word, His ‘Logos’, His Son

 

Tony and Robin