Category: April 2022

Send on your behalf – Sh’lach l’Cha & the “One New Man”

By Eric Carlson in April 2022, newsletter-post on March 31, 2022

Shalom Mishpocha,

I would like to share with you the “One New Man” in Ephesians 2:14-15. In this passage Sha’ul tells us “For he himself is our shalom – he has made us both one and has broken down the m’chitzah which divided us ¹⁵ by destroying in his own body the enmity occasioned by the Torah, with its commands set forth in the form of ordinances. He did this in order to create in union with himself from the two groups a single new humanity and thus make shalom,” We know Biblically that it is the Father’s heart that we (Jew and Gentile) come together as one in Messiah Yeshua. I would like to show you a prophetic revelation of the “One New Man” found in Numbers Chapter 13 (in order to save space I will ask you to read Numbers 13 at home from your Bible). This passage is about the Children of Israel’s refusal to enter in and conquer the promise land as God had ordered. The Israelites chose instead to send spies and reconnoiter the land, even though God had already given it to them. God spoke unto Moses and said “Sh’lach l’cha” (send for yourselves as it translates to English) spies. God didn’t need spies, or the land reconnoitered! He had already made known His covenant promise, the Promised Land was ours! This spirit of hardened hearts and rebellion that Israel displayed is still prevalent today among those serving the Lord! Through Yeshua we have God’s promise of Healing, Wholeness, Restored Relationships, Restored Marriages, Restored Minds, Broken Curses, Cured Addictions, and ALL Our Provisions met! The promises are ours, given to us by Yeshua! Many today fail to claim these promises. This is why we are so often not victorious; our hearts are hardened. We hesitate, reconnoiter, and attempt to send spies to scout our problems, to find a way around them, instead of claiming victory over, and conquering them! We can do this because Yeshua has already won the battle and given us the authority to do so!

Twelve spies, one from each tribe, were selected and sent to reconnoiter the promise land for 40 days. Upon their return they brought reports of abundant crops and a cluster of grapes so large that it took two men to carrying it on their shoulders slung on a pole. Despite seeing evidence of all of the “milk and honey” as God had promised, ten of the twelve spies reported to Moses and the people that the land was filled with large giants who made the Israelites look like tiny grasshoppers. They reported that the land “could not be taken”. Considering the miracles God had granted them in the Exodus from Egypt, it is nearly impossible to comprehend that the Israelites cried out again, saying it would have been better to stay Egypt, even though they knew God was with them by evidence of all His miracles! You could take them out of Egypt but you couldn’t take Egypt out of them!

Two very famous spies of the twelve, Joshua (also known as Ephraim Hosea, son of Nun) and Caleb made a very different report. Caleb said in Numbers 13:30 “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” God’s anger flared at those who balked at taking possession of the land and the entire generation would perish in the wilderness and never enter the land. Caleb and Joshua however found favor with the Lord for their faith, belief, and their representation of the Lord. These two men of God were allowed to enter the Promised Land and receive their inheritance!

Now, here’s the “One New Man” scriptural revelation! Caleb was not Jewish! He was a Kenizzite (Numbers 32:12), a group of people from the area North and East of the land of Israel in what is now present-day Syria. Caleb was a proselytite, a convert the Jewish People. Caleb was integrated into the tribe of Judah and was selected as one of the twelve spies. Caleb and Joshua were one of the first of the “One New Man” in the bible, a Jew and Gentile who came together as one to inherit the promises given to Abraham. Not only were Joshua and Caleb a prototype “One New Man”, but they were also the only two of the twelve spies who said the land could be taken. The promises, fullness, and completeness of the Kingdom of God are for the Jew and Gentile, together as the “One New Man”. It is the “One New Man” who will enter God’s rest in Hebrews 4:6-11. Yeshua’s plan for us is to stand together as one!

Joshua and Caleb set a mighty the example for us! Our report should be “The Harvest is ripe and it is ours! We should immediately reap for we are able and harvest fields are ripe! We can take it! There are many giants, there will be troubles, but we can do it for the Lord is with us! Yeshua has already won the victory!” Don’t send spies when you are in tribulation! Don’t hesitate when you need a healing! Don’t give up on unsaved family members or friends! Claim your victory! Enter your spiritual Promised Land! For we are well able to overcome any tribulation, sickness, or curse for we have overcome by the blood of Yeshua, He has given us the promise! It’s up to us to take the victory!

Rabbi’s Comments for April 2022

By Eric Carlson in April 2022, newsletter-post on March 31, 2022

Shalom Mishpocha!

The New Year is upon us (5782)! We look forward to restarting both the Biblical Calendar and the Annual Feast Day Cycle! The redemption of Israel from slavery in Egypt occurred this month, (14^th of Nisan). The world was delivered from the slavery of Sin occurred in the same month through the Messiah who was born 1^st of Nisan. Happy Birthday Yeshua!!! Yeshua was also crucified on the stake 14 days from now in the same month during Pesach!

The Moedim are a heavenly ordered Cycle of Time, a never-ending repetitive circle that can be repetitive but not exactly identical! Jewish thought regards time not in a linear, flat pattern but a spiral type of “helix,” a limitless forward, upward progression driven by a divine cyclic pattern that repeats certain divine patters in weeks, months, and years of life such as the Moedim or Feast Days beginning with the weekly Shabbat through the annual feast days.

This new year also begins the seven year cycle known as “sh’mittah”, a year of nullification of all credit and debt while the fields are left fallow and whatever it produces all will consume and eat (Lev. 25:2-7, Deuteronomy 15:1-4). Troubles times may await us! The single most important and critical thing we can do to get ready for what’s coming is to deepen our relationship and standing with God. He makes a covenant promise in the midst of His judgment for the righteous who are established in Him;

Isaiah 54:14-17. In righteousness you will be established for it will not come near you. ¹⁵ Any alliance that forms against you will not be my doing; whoever tries to form such an alliance will fall because of you. ¹⁶ It is I who created the craftsman who blows on the coals and forges weapons suited to their purpose; I also created the destroyer to work havoc. ¹⁷ No weapon made will prevail against you. In court you will refute every accusation. The servants of ADONAI inherit all this; the reward for their righteousness is from me, “says ADONAI.

What a phenomenal, supernatural promise of God. No matter what weapon, alliance, or accusation that is formed, made, stated, or issued against you shall not prosper or come to pass. That is the reward for righteousness says Adonai! Those who know Adonai, who walk in truth and righteousness before Him! Those who submit, obey, honor, and worship the King of Kings! Let us ring in the New Year with expectation and anticipation for we are established in the King of Glory!!

Blessings and Shalom,

Rabbi and Rebbitzen Carlson

Congregation Zion’s Sake

Sheva Moedim HaAdonai: The Seven Feasts of the Lord

By Eric Carlson in April 2022, newsletter-post on March 30, 2022

The Feast Days cycle follows a pattern of seven. Seven in Hebrew is Sheva and is represented by the letter Zain. Seven (Sheva) is the central key to God’s design, Sheva is the building blocks of the universe. The world was created in Sheva (seven) days. There are Sheva (seven) feasts of the Lord in the annual feast day cycle. There are Sheva (seven) days in the week. There is the shenat ha-sheva, the seventh year or Sabbatical year in which the ground is to lay fallow knows as a Sh’mittah year. Sheva shabtot shanim-seven sabbatical years are counted (49 years) which bring in the Yovel, the Jubilee on the 50^th year!

Sheva is also woven into biblical culture and lifestyle:

There are the shivat ha-minim, seven spices of the land of Israel found in Deut.8:8. Sheva berakhot, seven blessings of marriage that are recited under the Chupah, Sevah (seven) pairs of each clean animal were taken onto Norah’s ark. Sheva is the number of days it took the priests to be purified before they may enter into the Temple and Adonai’s presence on the eighth day. Sheve (seven) is the number of creation and is the numbers of perfection.

Exodus 12:3-11. (CJB) Speak to all the assembly of Isra’el and say, ‘On the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb or kid for his family, one per household – 4 except that if the household is too small for a whole lamb or kid, then he and his next-door neighbor should share one, dividing it in proportion to the number of people eating it. 5 Your animal must be without defect, a male in its first year, and you may choose it from either the sheep or the goats. 6 “‘You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, and then the entire assembly of the community of Isra’el will slaughter it at dusk. 7 They are to take some of the blood and smear it on the two sides and top of the door-frame at the entrance of the house in which they eat it. 8 That night, they are to eat the meat, roasted in the fire; they are to eat it with matzah and maror. 9 Don’t eat it raw or boiled, but roasted in the fire, with its head, the lower parts of its legs and its inner organs. 10 Let nothing of it remain till morning; if any of it does remain, burn it up completely. 11 “‘Here is how you are to eat it: with your belt fastened, your shoes on your feet and your staff in your hand; and you are to eat it hurriedly. It is ADONAI’s Pesach [Passover].

The Children of Israel had lived in Egypt for several hundred years. They had become immersed, imbued, overwhelmed, subjected too, infused into Egyptian Culture. They most likely had conformed to Egyptian fashions and as apparent in Exodus 12 that they live come to live in mixed neighborhoods with the Egyptians. They had begun to think like Egyptians including the paganism of Egyptian worship and their multitudes of gods. We see the Children of Israel in Diaspora in Egypt with no culture, no vision, and no hope; There was absolutely nothing Biblical or what would become known as being Jewish about them!! Why should God save them? Why would He save them? To fulfill His own promises and covenants He had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Ya’akov!