Simchat Torah 5785/2024
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Biblical Observance
Biblical Observance
What is the Biblical observance of Simchat Torah? Deut. 31:9-13
Moses wrote down this Torah and gave it to the kohanim, the sons of Levi who carry the Ark of the Covenant of Adonai, and to all the elders of Israel. Then Moses commanded them saying, “At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of cancelling debts, during the feast of Sukkot, when all Israel comes to appear before Adonai your God in the place He chooses, you are to read this Torah before them in their hearing. Gather the people—the men and women and little ones, and the outsider within your town gates—so they may hear and so they may learn, and they will fear Adonai your God and take care to do all the words of this Torah. So their children, who have not known, will hear and learn to fear Adonai your God—all the days you live on the land you are about to cross over the Jordan to possess.”
So what do we see from Scripture? Every 7 years during Sukkot Beni Yisrael were commanded to listen to the entire Torah being read. Men, women, children and outsiders were all told by Adonai to come and hear and learn from the Torah. We are all to listen to the words of Adonai and learn to fear Adonai our God and do all the words of this Torah.
So we have heard the reading of the end of Deuteronomy and the beginning of Genesis, and now we are going to read some more selected Scriptures and look at how Yeshua the Messiah is the Torah HaEmet (the True Torah).
Reading of Scripture
Reading of Scripture
Let’s begin with Deut. 18:17-18
“Adonai said to me, ‘They have done well in what they have spoken. I will raise up a prophet like you for them from among their brothers. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will speak to them all that I command him.
I will declare the decree of Adonai. He said to me: “You are My Son— today I have become Your Father. Ask Me, and I will give the nations as Your inheritance, and the far reaches of the earth as Your possession. You shall break the nations with an iron scepter. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s jar.”
My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Distant from my salvation are the words of my groaning. O my God, I cried out by day, but You did not answer, by night, but there was no rest for me. Yet You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In You our fathers put their trust. They trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to you and were delivered. In You they trusted, and were not disappointed. Am I a worm, and not a man? Am I a scorn of men, despised by people? All who see me mock me. They curl their lips, shaking their heads: “Rely on Adonai! Let Him deliver him! Let Him rescue him— since he delights in Him!” Yet You brought me out of the womb, made me secure at my mother’s breasts. From the womb I was cast on You— from my mother’s womb You have been my God. Be not far from me! For trouble is near— there is no one to help. Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan encircled me. They open wide their mouths against me, like a tearing, roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax— melting within my innards. My strength is dried up like a clay pot, my tongue clings to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me. A band of evildoers has closed in on me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They stare, they gape at me.
A psalm of David. Adonai declares to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” Adonai will extend your mighty rod from Zion: “Rule in the midst of your enemies.” Your people will be a freewill offering in a day of your power. In holy splendors, from dawn’s womb, yours is the dew of your youth. Adonai has sworn, and will not His mind: “You are a Kohen forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
Therefore Adonai Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive. When she is giving birth to a son, she will call his name Immanuel.
For to us a child is born, a son will be given to us, and the government will be upon His shoulder. His Name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God My Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and shalom there will be no end— on the throne of David and over His kingdom— to establish it and uphold it through justice and righteousness from now until forevermore. The zeal of Adonai-Tzva’ot will accomplish this. Adonai sent a word to Jacob, and it fell upon Israel.
Then a shoot will come forth out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch will bear fruit out of His roots. The Ruach of Adonai will rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and insight, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Adonai.
Behold, God is my salvation! I will trust and will not be afraid. For the Lord Adonai is my strength and my song. He also has become my salvation.”
Behold My servant, whom I uphold. My Chosen One, in whom My soul delights. I have put My Ruach on Him, He will bring justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise His voice, or make His voice heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break. A smoldering wick He will not snuff out. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not be disheartened or crushed until He establishes justice on earth. The islands will wait for His Torah. Thus says God, Adonai, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and Ruach to those who walk in it— “I, Adonai, called You in righteousness, I will take hold of Your hand, I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations, by opening blind eyes, bringing prisoners out of the dungeon, and those sitting in darkness out of the prison house.
“Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Just as many were appalled at You— His appearance was disfigured more than any man, His form more than the sons of men. So He will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of Him, for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will perceive. ‘Who has believed our report? To whom is the arm of Adonai revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, nor beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, One from whom people hide their faces. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our pains. Yet we esteemed Him stricken, struck by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities. The chastisement for our shalom was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us turned to his own way. So Adonai has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter, like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. Because of oppression and judgment He was taken away. As for His generation, who considered? For He was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of my people— the stroke was theirs His grave was given with the wicked, and by a rich man in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased Adonai to bruise Him. He caused Him to suffer. If He makes His soul a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the will of Adonai will succeed by His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul He will see it and be satisfied by His knowledge. The Righteous One, My Servant will make many righteous and He will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoil with the mighty— because He poured out His soul to death, and was counted with transgressors. For He bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.
“Behold, days are coming” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He will reign as king wisely, and execute justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell in safely; and this is His Name by which He will be called: Adonai our righteousness.
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah— least among the clans of Judah— from you will come out to Me One to be ruler in Israel, One whose goings forth are from of old, from days of eternity.
Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you, a righteous one bringing salvation. He is lowly, riding on a donkey— on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
“Then I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication, when they will look toward Me whom they pierced. They will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son and grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for a firstborn.
Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, against the man who is My companion! It is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot. Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered! I will turn My hand against the little ones.
One Final Word
One Final Word
I will conclude this with one word from Yeshua in John 5:39-47. Yeshua said,
You search the Scriptures because you suppose that in them you have eternal life. It is these that testify about Me. Yet you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life! “I do not accept glory from men. But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me. But if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that comes from God alone? “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have put your hope. For if you were believing Moses, you would believe Me—because he wrote about Me. But since you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”
Let’s close in prayer.
