Current Torah portion & commentary

Torah scroll

It's very important to note at the outset, that when we speak of the Torah we are refering to the first 5 books of Moses (Moshe) and never to the Talmud, Midrash, Kaballah or other Rabbinical or esoteric writings. These books are in the Christian Bible as well as the Hebrew Bible as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

The Apostle Paul used the term 'the scriptures' in 2 Timothy 3:15 as being synonomous with the Torah of Moses and to explain to us that its the scriptures that are profitable in that they are able to make us wise as to the salvation that comes through faith in Jesus as the Messiah.

Its strange to us that many Christians are still taught that the Torah (the scriptures) are not profitable to the New Testament believer. For years we were told to focus on the New Testament exclusively , we routinely encouraged new believers to focus on the book of John and mature believers to focus on the Epistles, especially Ephesians.

Paul however, saw no conflict between that what had been revealed to him by the Spirit and which is now part of the Apostolic Scriptures and the Torah of Moses. This is why the NT writers quote from the Torah or 'Law', especially Deuteronomy, over 80 times to reinforce their theology!

In Paul's time there was no 'New Testament' - that came some 300 years later.

All Jesus and the Apostles had was the Tenak or Hebrew bible which consists of the the Torah, Writings, the Prophets. The Torah of Moses was widely held as the most important component of the scriptures because any prophet that contradicted it was to be considered a false prophet, even if his prophecy came to pass and especially if he worked signs and wonders to back up his new revelations. (Deut.13v1-11) Its the scriptures (in essence the Torah) that are inspired or God breathed and is profitable for teaching about righteousness or right living and its the scriptures that are able to equip the man of God for every good work. Jesus Himself said that the scriptures cannot be broken even before there was a New Covenent , John 10:35. Therefore we should not expect the Old and the New to contradict each other or that the one should supercede the other. There is a unity and a harmony within all of Adonai's Word that is seldom appreciated today.

Worldwide, all Jewish synagogues, Messianic congregations, study halls and prayer groups use either an annual or 3 yearly cycle of Torah readings. In this way, we all cover roughly the same material each week, along with many believers from all over the globe. There is a sense of being part of something that is bigger than the individual and there is a real sense of being united.

At Grace of Life Fellowship we will advocate that followers of Yeshua read the Torah through once a each year and we also encourage believers in Jesus as the Messiah in addition to read the Apostolic Scriptures through once a year. An excellent bible reading schedule for 2010 that covers the Torah, Writings, the Prophets as well as the New Covenant Scriptures can be accessed courtesy of the Seed of Abraham site, by clicking here.

One may suppose that such an approach is far too stayed or 'static' or that it would in some way impede being Spirit Led in our individual study of scripture. Far from it! In fact we never cease to be amazed at how powerfully relevant these timeless portions are and how Lord uses it to speak freshly to our hearts through it!

On this web page you can read the weekly passages themselves, studying them alongside the excellent teaching notes from Tony Robinson of Restoration of Torah Ministries. There are, of course, many other commentaries available on the internet - please contact us if you require more information.

An excellent older children's activity accompanyment can be found at the Calvary Chapel Children's Ministry.

Below is the current and automatically updated Torah Portion...

Ki Tisa - "When you elevate"

6 March 2010 (Adar 20)

Read Restoration of Torah Ministries' commentary: HTML PDF

Exodus 30:11-34:35

^30:11	The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
^30:12	"When you take a census of the children of Israel, according to those who are numbered among them, then each man shall give a ransom for his soul to the LORD, when you number them; that there be no plague among them when you number them.
^30:13	They shall give this, everyone who passes over to those who are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary; (the shekel is twenty gerahs;) half a shekel for an offering to the LORD.
^30:14	Everyone who passes over to those who are numbered, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the offering to the LORD.
^30:15	The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when they give the offering of the LORD, to make atonement for your souls.
^30:16	You shall take the atonement money from the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the Tent of Meeting; that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before the LORD, to make atonement for your souls."
^30:17	The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
^30:18	"You shall also make a basin of brass, and its base of brass, in which to wash. You shall put it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it.
^30:19	Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in it.
^30:20	When they go into the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water, that they not die; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to the LORD.
^30:21	So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they not die: and it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his descendants throughout their generations."
^30:22	Moreover the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
^30:23	"Also take fine spices: of liquid myrrh, five hundred shekels; and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, even two hundred and fifty; and of fragrant cane, two hundred and fifty;
^30:24	and of cassia five hundred, after the shekel of the sanctuary; and a hin of olive oil.
^30:25	You shall make it a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer: it shall be a holy anointing oil.
^30:26	You shall use it to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the testimony,
^30:27	the table and all its articles, the menorah and its accessories, the altar of incense,
^30:28	the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin with its base.
^30:29	You shall sanctify them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them shall be holy.
^30:30	You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and sanctify them, that they may minister to me in the priest's office.
^30:31	You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, 'This shall be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations.
^30:32	It shall not be poured on man's flesh, neither shall you make any like it, according to its composition: it is holy. It shall be holy to you.
^30:33	Whoever compounds any like it, or whoever puts any of it on a stranger, he shall be cut off from his people.'"
^30:34	The LORD said to Moses, "Take to yourself sweet spices, gum resin, and onycha, and galbanum; sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be an equal weight;
^30:35	and you shall make incense of it, a perfume after the art of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy:
^30:36	and you shall beat some of it very small, and put some of it before the testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be to you most holy.
^30:37	The incense which you shall make, according to its composition you shall not make for yourselves: it shall be to you holy for the LORD.
^30:38	Whoever shall make any like that, to smell of it, he shall be cut off from his people."
^31:1	The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
^31:2	"Behold, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah:
^31:3	and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all kinds of workmanship,
^31:4	to devise skillful works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,
^31:5	and in cutting of stones for setting, and in carving of wood, to work in all kinds of workmanship.
^31:6	I, behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the heart of all who are wise-hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded you:
^31:7	the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the testimony, the mercy seat that is on it, all the furniture of the Tent,
^31:8	the table and its vessels, the pure menorah with all its vessels, the altar of incense,
^31:9	the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels, the basin and its base,
^31:10	the finely worked garments--the holy garments for Aaron the priest--the garments of his sons to minister in the priest's office,
^31:11	the anointing oil, and the incense of sweet spices for the holy place: according to all that I have commanded you they shall do."
^31:12	The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
^31:13	"Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, 'Most certainly you shall keep my Sabbaths: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.
^31:14	You shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
^31:15	Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death.
^31:16	Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
^31:17	It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.'"
^31:18	He gave to Moses, when he finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets, written with God's finger.
^32:1	When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him."
^32:2	Aaron said to them, "Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me."
^32:3	All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.
^32:4	He received what they handed him, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molten calf; and they said, "These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt."
^32:5	When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD."
^32:6	They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
^32:7	The LORD spoke to Moses, "Go, get down; for your people, who you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves!
^32:8	They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.'"
^32:9	The LORD said to Moses, "I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people.
^32:10	Now therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation."
^32:11	Moses begged the LORD his God, and said, "The LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
^32:12	Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, 'He brought them forth for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth?' Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people.
^32:13	Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.'"
^32:14	The LORD repented of the evil which he said he would do to his people.
^32:15	Moses turned, and went down from the mountain, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand; tablets that were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other they were written.
^32:16	The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tables.
^32:17	When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There is the noise of war in the camp."
^32:18	He said, "It isn't the voice of those who shout for victory, neither is it the voice of those who cry for being overcome; but the noise of those who sing that I hear."
^32:19	It happened, as soon as he came near to the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing: and Moses' anger grew hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mountain.
^32:20	He took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.
^32:21	Moses said to Aaron, "What did these people do to you, that you have brought a great sin on them?"
^32:22	Aaron said, "Don't let the anger of my lord grow hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.
^32:23	For they said to me, 'Make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him.'
^32:24	I said to them, 'Whoever has any gold, let them take it off:' so they gave it to me; and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf."
^32:25	When Moses saw that the people had broken loose, (for Aaron had let them loose for a derision among their enemies),
^32:26	then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Whoever is on the LORD's side, come to me!" All the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.
^32:27	He said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Every man put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and every man kill his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.'"
^32:28	The sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.
^32:29	Moses said, "Consecrate yourselves today to the LORD, yes, every man against his son, and against his brother; that he may bestow on you a blessing this day."
^32:30	It happened on the next day, that Moses said to the people, "You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to the LORD. Perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin."
^32:31	Moses returned to the LORD, and said, "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold.
^32:32	Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin--and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written."
^32:33	The LORD said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.
^32:34	Now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin."
^32:35	The LORD struck the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.
^33:1	The LORD spoke to Moses, "Depart, go up from here, you and the people that you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your seed.'
^33:2	I will send an angel before you; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:
^33:3	to a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of you, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you in the way."
^33:4	When the people heard this evil news, they mourned: and no one put on his jewelry.
^33:5	The LORD said to Moses, "Tell the children of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go up into your midst for one moment, I would consume you. Therefore now take off your jewelry from you, that I may know what to do to you.'"
^33:6	The children of Israel stripped themselves of their jewelry from Mount Horeb onward.
^33:7	Now Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it outside the camp, far away from the camp, and he called it "The Tent of Meeting." It happened that everyone who sought the LORD went out to the Tent of Meeting, which was outside the camp.
^33:8	It happened that when Moses went out to the Tent, that all the people rose up, and stood, everyone at their tent door, and watched Moses, until he had gone into the Tent.
^33:9	It happened, when Moses entered into the Tent, that the pillar of cloud descended, stood at the door of the Tent, and spoke with Moses.
^33:10	All the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the door of the Tent, and all the people rose up and worshiped, everyone at their tent door.
^33:11	The LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. He turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, didn't depart out of the Tent.
^33:12	Moses said to the LORD, "Behold, you tell me, 'Bring up this people:' and you haven't let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.'
^33:13	Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you, so that I may find favor in your sight: and consider that this nation is your people."
^33:14	He said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."
^33:15	He said to him, "If your presence doesn't go with me, don't carry us up from here.
^33:16	For how would people know that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Isn't it in that you go with us, so that we are separated, I and your people, from all the people who are on the surface of the earth?"
^33:17	The LORD said to Moses, "I will do this thing also that you have spoken; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name."
^33:18	He said, "Please show me your glory."
^33:19	He said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy."
^33:20	He said, "You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live."
^33:21	The LORD also said, "Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock.
^33:22	It will happen, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by;
^33:23	then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back; but my face shall not be seen."
^34:1	The LORD said to Moses, "Chisel two stone tablets like the first: and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
^34:2	Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain.
^34:3	No one shall come up with you; neither let anyone be seen throughout all the mountain; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mountain."
^34:4	He chiseled two tablets of stone like the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets.
^34:5	The LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
^34:6	The LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, "The LORD! the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth,
^34:7	keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children's children, on the third and on the fourth generation."
^34:8	Moses hurried and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.
^34:9	He said, "If now I have found favor in your sight, Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us; although this is a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance."
^34:10	He said, "Behold, I make a covenant: before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been worked in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among which you are shall see the work of the LORD; for it is an awesome thing that I do with you.
^34:11	Observe that which I command you this day. Behold, I drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
^34:12	Be careful, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be for a snare in the midst of you:
^34:13	but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherim;
^34:14	for you shall worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
^34:15	"Don't make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice;
^34:16	and you take of their daughters to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods.
^34:17	"You shall make no cast idols for yourselves.
^34:18	"You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib; for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt.
^34:19	"All that opens the womb is mine; and all your livestock that is male, the firstborn of cow and sheep.
^34:20	The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb: and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. No one shall appear before me empty.
^34:21	"Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest: in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.
^34:22	"You shall observe the feast of weeks with the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of harvest at the year's end.
^34:23	Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.
^34:24	For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither shall any man desire your land when you go up to appear before the LORD, your God, three times in the year.
^34:25	"You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left to the morning.
^34:26	"You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground to the house of the LORD your God. "You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk."
^34:27	The LORD said to Moses, "Write you these words: for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel."
^34:28	He was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
^34:29	It happened, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mountain, that Moses didn't know that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with him.
^34:30	When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him.
^34:31	Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them.
^34:32	Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all of the commandments that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.
^34:33	When Moses was done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.
^34:34	But when Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out; and he came out, and spoke to the children of Israel that which he was commanded.
^34:35	The children of Israel saw Moses' face, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

Ezekiel 36:16-38

^36:16	Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
^36:17	Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their way and by their doings: their way before me was as the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity.
^36:18	Therefore I poured out my wrath on them for the blood which they had poured out on the land, and because they had defiled it with their idols;
^36:19	and I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.
^36:20	When they came to the nations, where they went, they profaned my holy name; in that men said of them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.
^36:21	But I had respect for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations, where they went.
^36:22	Therefore tell the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: I don't do [this] for your sake, house of Israel, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations, where you went.
^36:23	I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in the midst of them; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
^36:24	For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land.
^36:25	I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
^36:26	I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
^36:27	I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.
^36:28	You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
^36:29	I will save you from all your uncleanness: and I will call for the grain, and will multiply it, and lay no famine on you.
^36:30	I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that you may receive no more the reproach of famine among the nations.
^36:31	Then you shall remember your evil ways, and your doings that were not good; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.
^36:32	Nor for your sake do I [this], says the Lord GOD, be it known to you: be ashamed and confounded for your ways, house of Israel.
^36:33	Thus says the Lord GOD: In the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be built.
^36:34	The land that was desolate shall be tilled, whereas it was a desolation in the sight of all who passed by.
^36:35	They shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited.
^36:36	Then the nations that are left around you shall know that I, the LORD, have built the ruined places, and planted that which was desolate: I, the LORD, have spoken it, and I will do it.
^36:37	Thus says the Lord GOD: For this, moreover, will I be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them: I will increase them with men like a flock.
^36:38	As the flock for sacrifice, as the flock of Jerusalem in her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men; and they shall know that I am the LORD.