Yom Kippur. Day of Atonement Readings:
Leviticus 16:1-34; 18:1-30; Numbers 29:7-11; Isaiah 57:14 – 58:14; Book of Jonah; Matthew 25:31-46; Romans 3:21-26; 2 Corinthians 5:10-21
Torah portion, Ha’azinu, Give Ear
D’varim (Deut) 32:1–52; Shemu’el Bet (II Samuel) 22:1–51; Romans 10:14 – 11:12
What is our identity as the people of YHWH Elohim? Yeshurun (Jeshurun) is proclaimed as a prophetic name for Israel for the first time in the powerful Song of Moses. Yeshurun simply means ‘the Upright One,’ a title for the Body of Yeshua the Messiah.
How do we see ourselves and identify with Yeshurun? In paleo-Hebrew, please give ear to what Yeshurun means (spelled with the letters – Yod, sheen, resh, vav, nun):
Yod – the working hand of Yah grabs hold and pulls, straightening out the crooked turns,
Sheen-Resh – a rope that presses to the top, to the Head, where it is anchored, tight, straight, and upright.
Vav – the Man nailed, Yeshua, Who fastens us to Himself and establishes us as upright
Nun – as a living entity, sprouting forth and shooting up, growing vigorously in the Spirit.
In other words, our Father in Heaven has a hold on His children and is pressing us through the trials of life to live right and walk upright before Him. We can stand upright only in the exalted Head, the Messiah Yeshua, by the Holy Spirit. We must choose to yield to Him like a rope yields to the pull of the hand. The Father’s work in us establishes and secures our upright relationship with Him through our Messiah.
As a living entity, a multi-membered Body, Yeshurun branches out and produces seed after its own kind. The Word of Life sprouts in our hearts by His Spirit. As His branches, we are firmly connected and supported by the upright Tree of Life, Yeshua the Messiah.
Then a shoot will come forth out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch will bear fruit out of His roots. (Isaiah 11:1)
The Amazing Palm Tree
The palm tree wonderfully pictures the upright one, standing tall and strong. Palms are one of the branches to be gathered on the first day of Sukkot (Lev 23:40), These strong trees can withstand destructive hurricane winds. Because these trees seek to wrap their roots around immovable rocks, they are kept from being uprooted by storms.
A palm tree also pictures a planting of YHWH being fruitful from the heart. Unlike other fruit or nut trees, these amazing trees produce highly nourishing, healthy, and energizing dates or coconuts from the heart of the tree, along its bole under its canopy of fronds.
Dates harvested from palm trees were used in ancient times to make honey. Isn’t His Word sweet and energizing, even better than honey?
How sweet to my taste has Your word been, more than honey to my mouth! Psalm 119:103
Seventy palm trees in an oasis in the wilderness was one of the 42 camps of the children of Israel. These represent how the greater Yisra’el stands upright and fruitful from the heart among the seventy nations of the whole world.
It’s amazing how straight up and down a palm tree can withstand strong winds. Here’s a photo of upright palms withstanding the fury of a hurricane:
With this in mind, please bring branches for the first day of Sukkot, if you can, in keeping with the commandment: ‘take choice fruit of trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook.’ (Lev 23:40)
For kinds of branches we like to bring, or other questions about the event, feel free to text or call your festival coordinator, David Klug, at 541-460-1872.
Having Done All, Stand!
Any time a greater authority walks by, any good soldier stands at attention, upright and unflinching. As soldiers fighting the good fight of faith, we should always stand our heads up and at attention to our Commander’s voice. With the utmost loyalty and respect of our great King, the Master of armies, soldiers of the Kingdom of Yah are eager to obey His every command.
After putting on the armor and having done all – stand! Ephesians 6:13
Many have an idea of false humility and hang their heads, mumbling and stumbling through life. That was me for many years, afraid to face confrontation and enemies in life. No more! We are members of benai Yeshurun, children of the Upright One! It is not pride to hold your head up, confident in Whom you believe and in Whom you are loyal when facing adversity. True humility is in the position of complete subjection to a higher authority. Our boast is only in YHWH, our mighty authority and all-powerful God!
In the Gospels, we find the humble Lamb of God looking up to Heaven, not hanging His head down when He prayed (Matt 14:19; Mark 6:41; 7:34; Luke 9:16) The martyr Stephen looked up to Heaven to the Messiah when breathing his last (Acts 7:55-56) Paul resolved that men pray everywhere lifting up hands, like a tree extending its branches to the light of heaven. (1 Tim 2:8)! Lift hands in praise and look up to our God!
Stand with Favor!
We not only can stand upright in the favor of our Elohim, but in Him, we also have the favor of man. (Prov 3:1-4, Luke 2:52) Don’t expect to be always rejected and not liked by those that we witness to about our faith. But stand upright and confident that like Yeshua, we have favor with Elohim and man. Pray we grow stronger in our faith.
Straighten up!
When disciplined and corrected by our Heavenly Father, He doesn’t intend for us to stay down, but to be strengthened and to make His people even more upright and holy. After being sifted like wheat, Yeshua wants us to strengthen the brethren (Luke 22:31-32).
Furthermore, indeed we have had fathers of our flesh as correctors, and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits, and we shall live? For they truly disciplined us for a few days according to the thing seeming good to them; but He for our profit, in order for us to partake of His holiness. And all discipline for the present indeed does not seem to be joyous, but grievous, but afterward, it gives back peaceable fruit of righteousness to the ones having been exercised by it. Hebrews 12:9-12
Because of this, “straighten the hands” hanging alongside, “and the enfeebled knees;” “and make straight tracks for your feet,” that the lame not be turned aside, but rather healed. Isa 35:3; Prov 4:26
Warning to the Proud Who Stand on Their Own
However, as Moses did, Sha’ul (Paul) wrote a stern warning to the proud, stiff-necked sons of Yisra’el, regarding their examples for us in the wilderness:
Therefore, let him who thinks he can stand, take heed so that he may not fall. 1 Corinthians 10:12
Moshe rebuked Yeshurun in its first reference as he exposed Yisra’el to be in a proud, waxed-fat state: His warning has echoed through the corridors of time until this day.
“But Yeshurun grew fat and kicked; You grew fat, you grew thick, You are covered with fat; So he forsook Eloah who made him, and scorned the Rock of his deliverance. They moved Him to jealousy with foreign matters, with abominations they provoked Him. Deuteronomy 32:15-16
To me, this sounds like a prophecy concerning the exiles of Israel in the obese and proud countries of the world today – like the good ol’ USA. Would you agree?
Catastrophic storms against this nation are a sign of the fury of His jealousy over all the adultery and idolatry in this land. Just one week before Hurricane Ian, the Biden regime declared a two-state solution to the world, calling for the land of Israel to be divided. How we need the Gospel to go out with repentance and for revival to sweep this land!
Chosen People
Yet YHWH by His grace and mercy still calls His people, Yeshurun, His ‘chosen.’ As exiled Yisra’el humbly does teshuvah (turning in repentance) and returns to YHWH, to His Torah and covenant relationship with Him, by His mercy He transforms His people by His Spirit. Through the Upright One, our Father makes us upright and prosperous, causing an increase in spiritual growth. Give ear to the prophet Yeshayahu (Isaiah):
“But now hear O Ya’aqov (Jacob) My servant, and Yisra’ĕl (Israel) whom I have chosen. Thus says YHWH Who made you and formed you from the womb, Who helps you, ‘Do not fear, O Ya’aqov My servant, and Yeshurun, whom I have chosen. ‘For I pour water on the thirsty, and floods on the dry ground. I pour My Spirit on your seed, and My blessing on your offspring, and they shall spring up among the grass like willows by streams of water.’
One says, ‘I belong to YHWH; another calls himself by the name of Yaʽaqov (Jacob); another writes with his hand, ‘Unto YHWH,’ and names himself by the name of Yisra’ĕl.
(Are we willing to take a stand identifying ourselves as Yisra’el?)
Thus says YHWH, Sovereign of Yisra’ĕl, and His Redeemer, YHWH of Hosts, “I am the First and I am the Last, besides Me, there is no Elohim (God). And who is like Me? Let him call and declare it, and lay it before Me since I appointed the everlasting people. And the events that are coming and those that do come, let them declare these to them. ‘Do not fear, nor be afraid. Have I not since made you hear, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there an god (strong controller) besides Me? There is no other Rock, I know not one.’ ” Isaiah 44:1-7 (The Scriptures 1998)
Wake up and Stand up!
Praise Yah, Abba is waking His children up from lives of empty, profitless idolatries of Babylon and the America that we live among. We need not fear any other mighty ones or strong controllers that are revered by our society around us. We will not stand for it! We stand only for One God, only for our King, our Elohim.
Like the three men in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:18), let us determine to never bow down to the idols or pagan gods of this nation or any culture. Though the majority bow to save their necks, may we stand for our King Yeshua and no other.
It is time to be Yeshurun, to stand upright like a palm tree that can withstand the raging winds. We will bow, worship, and seek only YHWH, even when the storms of life hit us. We may bend, but we will not break. In Him, we stay upright, no matter what we face.
When Yeshua says “Shalom, be still” (Mark 4:39), like a palm tree we are upright and even stronger than ever in Him. In Messiah the Upright One, we are Yeshurun.
Cling to the Rock!
It is high time to sink our roots down like a palm tree and wrap them around the Rock of our Salvation, YWHW Tsur. Then like palms, we will not be uprooted by even hurricane forces. The Hebrew letters – tsade, vav, and resh of Tsur (Rock) – picture in paleo-Hebrew – a strong, internal, growing force that establishes us upright like a mighty rock cliff in the exalted Head, our Messiah. That’s us! That’s Yeshurun!
Blessed be the Rock of our Salvation, Yeshua the Messiah! HalleluYah!
Even in great tribulation, the remnant of Benai Yeshurun, children of the Upright One, will stand upright in the end with heads lifted up to see the return of our Messiah and King, the Lion of Judah! Look up for our redemption draws nigh! (Luke 21:28)
Standing Before the Judgment Seat
Of all things we have to stand up to in these end times, nothing really matters compared to having to stand before the judgment seat of the King of the Universe. Paul wrote to the Romans that we need to keep this in mind before we go judging our brothers.
But why do you judge your brother? Or why also do you despise your brother? For all shall stand before the judgment seat of Messiah.
Romans 14:10
Nothing puts the fear of Elohim in a believer like this upcoming encounter with Adonai Yeshua. Last Shabbat in preparing our hearts for Yom Kippur, 42 scripture readings were drawn by various congregation members of the Mid Valley Fellowship. In a Yah-incidence, I drew the one that put the fear of Elohim in me as no other words can:
It will not be that just everyone who says to Me, “Master, Master,” will enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but the ones who do the will of My Father in Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, “Master, Master,” did we not prophesy in Your Name, and in Your Name cast out demons, and in Your Name do many works of power? And then I will declare to them, from everlasting, “I never knew you;” depart from Me, those working lawlessness!” Psalm 6:8, Matthew 7:21-23
How can I know for sure that the Master, the King of the Universe, knows me? How can I be certain that He will not say those horrifying words to me – ”Depart from Me!”
What was His issue with not knowing those who said ‘Lord, Lord,’ who had done many mighty works in His Name? It wasn’t what they had accomplished for the Kingdom that qualified them as they had thought. The one disqualifier was – ‘working lawlessness.’
What law is Yeshua referring to here? We had better be sure. In the context of all the counsel of Elohim, Adonai Yeshua could only be talking about the highest law in the universe – His unchangeable, immutable Torah. Yes, this is ‘the Law’ that He said could not be abolished, not a jot or title would pass till heaven and earth pass away (Matthew 5:18).
After all, Yeshua is the Lawgiver Who gave the Torah to the children of Israel through His servant Moses. The Messiah could be the only One Who spoke to Moses face to face, for no man has ever seen the Father (John 6:46). The Son of Man is the visible part of YHWH Who revealed Himself however and whenever He chooses.
Every Knee Will Bow
When Paul wrote to the Romans that we will all stand before the judgment seat of the Messiah, he quoted Isaiah to declare then that every knee will bow to Him (Romans 14:11). To the Philippians, Paul made the connection that on that day, every knee would bow and every tongue confess that Messiah Yeshua is YHWH to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11). On that day, every tongue will confess that Yeshua is YHWH!
On that great day, Yeshua the Messiah will reveal in all His glory Who He truly is. That powerful revelation of His Divinity will bring every soul at the judgment seat to bow the knee. May we choose to confess Who He is now. May all bend the knee this Yom Kippur to the Judge of every soul who has lived and ever will live upon this earth.
Praise Yah for the blood of the Lamb, and for the mercy and favor of our Elohim by which we stand! Praise Yah we can stand upright and confident in who we are in Him!
Serving benai Yeshurun, children of the Upright One, in the Name of Yeshua,
David Klug, Mid-Valley Fellowship Festivals Coordinator (cell: 541-460-1872)
Another great teaching that spurs us on to more good works in Messiah!