|
|
|
Items of
Interest
|
|
|
What's New
Compliments of First Fruits of Zion
reprinted by permission of FFOZ
Behar-Bechukotai � בחקתי / בהר : On Mount Sinai / In My Statutes
Torah : Leviticus 25:1�27:34
Haftarah : Jeremiah 16:19-17:14
Gospel : Luke 21�24
Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani said in the name of Rabbi Yonaton, �May the bones of those who calculate the end be blasted away. People will say, �Since the fixed time for his coming has arrived, and yet he has not come, he will never come.� But we must wait for him, as it is written [in Habakkuk 2:3], �Though he tarries, wait for him; [for he will certainly come, he will not delay].�� (b.Sanhedrin 97b)
In proportion to the extent of the years ? (Leviticus 25:16)
In the Torah, the year of Jubilee is the set time for redemption. Therefore it can be compared to the coming of the Messiah. Unlike the Jubilee, however, we cannot count down the years until Messiah. No one knows the day and hour, and every man who has ever calculated His arrival has been proven wrong.
It might seem tempting to try to determine the time of Messiah�s arrival. Calculators of the end times often point to the Jubilee cycle to draw inferences regarding the timing of the redemption. Daniel�s prophecy of seventy weeks has also been used by both Jewish and Christian eschatologists to calculate the time of Messiah�s advent. Throughout history, sages and Bible scholars have been searching the Scriptures for clues and furiously scribbling math equations to calculate years and dates regarding the coming of Messiah.
The conclusions of these end-time calculators are almost always the same. Messiah will definitely be arriving within the next five to thirty years; that is to say, within the lifetime of the person making the calculations. For more than two thousand years, Messiah has been due to arrive within the next few years. He is always coming but never arriving.
Those who set dates actually rob us of the joy of anticipating Messiah�s arrival. By setting dates, the eschatologists disappoint their adherents again and again. When we have set our hopes on a certain date and that date passes by without Messiah�s coming, we find it harder and harder to believe that Messiah is coming at all.
When you see a person prophesying about the Messiah, you should know that he is either engaged in witchcraft, or has dealings with demons ? and demons come and teach him calculations and secrets, to his shame and the shame of those who believe in his words ? for no man knows about the coming of the Messiah. (Sefer Chasidism)
Perhaps the witchcraft allegation is a little strong, but given the devastating effects that setting dates can have upon people, their lives and their faiths, one might rightly conclude that demons are well pleased with the work of those who set dates for Messiah�s coming. The medieval Torah giant Maimonides wrote, �One must not fix a time for [Messiah�s coming], nor interpret biblical passages so as to derive from them the time of his coming.� Yet even given this stern warning, Maimonides himself could not resist the temptation, and in a letter to Yemenite Jews, he calculated the date of Messiah�s coming to be just a few years off: 1210 CE. He was off by at least 796 years.
Please consider supporting FFOZ with a financial contribution.
 |
Shadows of the Messiah
"things into which angels long to look." (1 Peter 1:12) Are you ready for a fresh encounter with the living Messiah? Shadows of the Messiah is the completely revised and rewritten Torah Club 2, written by the author of TC 4 & 5. This new material lifts the veil and reveals the Messiah on every page of Torah. Start a new year of Torah study and encounter the living Yeshua. More info... |
FFOZ's Weekly e-Drash is based on our popular Torah Study
Program,
Torah Club. For an introduction to Torah Club
click here.
First Fruits of Zion, PO Box 620099, Littleton, CO
80162-0099 USA
Telephone 303 933 2119, Toll-free 800 775 4807, Fax 303 933 0997
|
|
|
|
