When You Go Out - See the Good

This scripture is quite interesting, because it start off in a very rough area, but actually this describes out relationship with God. When we were created, we once belonged to the Lord. However, we chose to sin against God and in our sin making not entering into a covenant with the most High. However, He loved us dearly that He gave Himself. Literally went out against His enemies, but He saw us and desired us… we were/are the best of His creations, because in us was/is His very breath!! Then the Lord brought us back in, but He has to remove what doesn't belong to Him. While we were once clothed in His dignity, we dressed ourselves with the desires of our flesh, and so in order to fully reveal ourselves, though it hurt, He drew out our beauty. This is what is meant of by being in the potters hands.

Jeremiah 18:1–10 TLV

The word came to Jeremiah from Adonai, saying: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was making a work on the wheels. Whenever the pot that he was making from the clay became flawed in the hand of the potter, he remade it into another pot, as it pleased the potter to make. Then the word of Adonai came to me, saying: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares Adonai. “Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I may speak about a nation or about a kingdom, to uproot, to pull down or to destroy it. But if that nation turns from their evil, because of what I have spoken against it, I will relent concerning the calamity that I planned to do to it. Or at another time I may speak about a nation or about a kingdom, to build up or to plant it. But if it does evil in My sight, not listening to My voice, then I will relent of the good that I had said I would do to it.”

Isaiah 54 (TLV)

“Sing, barren one, who has not given birth. burst into singing and shout, you who have not travailed. For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married one,” says Adonai. “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch out your tabernacle curtains. Do not hold back— lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right hand and to the left. Your offspring will possess the nations and will resettle the desolate cities. Fear not, for you will not be ashamed. Nor cringe, for you will not be disgraced. For you will forget the shame of your youth, and you will remember the reproach of your widowhood no more.

For your Maker is your husband —Adonai-Tzva’ot is His Name— the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. He will be called God of all the earth. “For Adonai has called you back like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of one’s youth that is rejected,” says your God. “For a brief moment I deserted you, but I will regather you with great compassion. In a surge of anger I hid My face from you a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says Adonai your Redeemer. “For this is like the waters of Noah to Me: for as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more cover the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor will I rebuke you. Though the mountains depart and the hills be shaken, My love will not depart from you, nor will My covenant of peace be shaken, says Adonai who has compassion on you.

Afflicted one, storm-tossed, unconsoled, behold, I set your stones in antimony, lay your foundations with sapphires, make your pinnacles of rubies, your gates of crystal, and all your walls of precious stones. All your children will be taught by Adonai. Your children will have great shalom.

“In righteousness you will be established. You will be far from oppression —for you will not fear— and from terror— for it will not come near you. Behold, anyone fiercely attacking is not from Me. Whoever stirs up strife with you will fall because of you. Behold, I created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its work, and I created the destroyer to ruin. No weapon formed against you will prosper and you will condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of Adonai’s servants— their vindication is from Me.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

The whole Message of the Old Testament brings us to the Redemption, Sanctification, and the Unification through Messiah Yeshua. This is why Isaiah 53 is so profound! In fact, Isaiah 53 is what is supposed to be read last week and this week in the parsha, but for some reason, it is not included at all within the haftarah portion. I have to ask, why is it that Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12 is not included?

That whole chapter literally bridges the gap between Redemption and Sanctification! Yes! We start with the Lord Going Forth! But what happened in between? What is it that is supposed to happen in order for us to receive His Sanctification! Here it is....

Isaiah 52:13–53:12 (TLV)

“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.

Wow! So we see as it is written the King is in the field to Redeem, Sanctify, and through His death Unify us to Himself. His death was the Atonement! His Resurrection is the glorification of His life!

It is written that He chose you as firstfruits for Salvation through Sanctification by the Ruach and Belief in the Truth. He called you to this salvation through our proclaiming the Good News, for you to gain glory of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

2 Thessalonians 2:13–17 (TLV)

But we should always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits for salvation through sanctification by the Ruach and belief in the truth. He called you to this salvation through our proclaiming the Good News, for you to gain the glory of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold on to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by our letter. Now may our Lord Yeshua the Messiah Himself and God our Father, who loved us and by grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good deed and word.

As I was online I happened to fall upon an Aviation Instruction manual, and intrigued by it I read and saw some very insightful things on learning...

“Initially, all learning comes from perceptions, which are directed to the brain by one or more of the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Psychologists have also found that learning occurs most rapidly when information is received through more than one sense. Perception involves more than the reception of stimuli from the five senses; it also involves a person giving meaning to sensations. People base their actions on the way they believe things to be. The experienced AMT, for example, perceives an engine malfunction quite differently than does an inexperienced learner. This occurs because the beginning aviation learner is overwhelmed by stimuli and often focuses on meaningless things, thus missing key information. It is important for the instructor to direct trainee’s perceptions initially so that the learner detects and perceives relevant information....(Unfortunately) Fear adversely affects perception by narrowing the perceptual field. Confronted with threat, learners tend to limit their attention to the threatening object or condition. The field of vision is reduced, for example, when an individual is frightened and all the perceptual faculties are focused on the thing that has generated fear. True learning requires an understanding of how each factor may affect all of the others and, at the same time, knowledge of how a change in any one of them may affect all of the others. This mental relating and grouping of associated perceptions is called insight. Instruction, however, speeds this learning process by teaching the relationship of perceptions as they occur, thus promoting the development of the learner’s insight.

This leads me to a little things I learned in how to work with what God has spoken in this parsha and what I learned in college about thinking with what is given.

A Jewish Economist expert Abraham Wald had a task in order to find the most appropriate place to put armor on planes. After perceiving planes coming in with many bullet holes across the plane, His insight was simply to ask: where are the missing holes? The ones that would have been all over the engine casing, if the damage had been spread equally all over the plane? Wald was pretty sure he knew. The missing bullet holes were on the missing planes. The reason planes were coming back with fewer hits to the engine is that planes that got hit in the engine weren’t coming back. Whereas the large number of planes returning to base with a thoroughly Swiss-cheesed fuselage is pretty strong evidence that hits to the fuselage can (and therefore should) be tolerated. If you go to the recovery room at the hospital, you’ll see a lot more people with bullet holes in their legs than people with bullet holes in their chests. But that’s not because people don’t get shot in the chest; it’s because the people who get shot in the chest don’t recover..... The military analyst has two options for explaining this: either the German bullets just happen to hit every part of the plane but one, or the engine is a point of total vulnerability. Both stories explain the data, but the latter makes a lot more sense. The armor goes where the bullet holes aren’t. To a mathematician, the structure underlying the bullet hole problem is a phenomenon called survivorship bias. It arises again and again, in all kinds of contexts. And once you’re familiar with it, as Wald was, you’re primed to notice it wherever it’s hiding.

After reading this, I realized why the Parsha is laid out in such a way. This Parsha begins with when you go out, and it shows how easy for us to lust after things. Yet God provides a way of Redemption through Yeshua. And we think that if we armor ourselves here and there we would be all set when in reality we weigh ourselves down. Yes we lay ourselves down by the law that says if we put more of this we will be alright. And we keep asking ourselves in fear that we will be brought down, where are we going wrong? And because of fear, we lose focus on understanding what would give us the most perception to see the salvation of our God. Then I realized, that we shouldn’t be asking where are we going wrong rather where are the missing holes? One thing we say is that we remember so that it would never happen again, and its this idea of learning from out mistakes thats leads us to understand that we have been given the opportunity to find the missing holes before its too late.

The Torah was made for us to know what will bring the plane down, and it describes how to keep the plane up. It says… Here is death and here is life; here is the blessing and here is the curse. We at times get so focused on the blessing and the curse that we forget about the resurrection of life. We forget the gospel message, we start with God goes forth, but end with judgement. Basically, we look at what we see is bad and remove it not noticing that we are removing what is good. Where if we focus on what is good then we will be able to remove what is bad.

Deuteronomy 25:19 TLV

Now when Adonai your God grants you rest from all the enemies surrounding you in the land Adonai your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, you are to blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heavens. Do not forget!

Blotting out what is bad:

When I read the rest of this chapter I realize more what it means to see why all these things were given. He wanted us to see the good.... that He is Good. That the key to do exactly what When we act to see all that is good we would be able to blot out anything that is evil. Amalek had no fear of God and did what was evil, and therfore the memory of Amalek from under the heavens shall be blot out. We must blot out that which affects our hearts, because God has transformed us. So let us...

Praise the Lord, because He chose us and Saved us through Sanctification by the Ruach and Belief in Truth - 2 Thess 2:13 See His Salvation.... See what is good first!

2. Declare His Goodness so that we may see His Glory (His Grace is Sufficient.. His power made known in our weakness) - 2 Thessalonians 2:14

3. Stand Firm and allow the Lord to strengthen your most vulnerable areas. 2 Thessalonians 2:15–17

In this you will be able to escape/flee from the enemy and fulfill His purpose in you life. As you see, no where in this scripture does it say find the evil.... rather no where in scripture does it say seek evil! Rather Scripture says :

DO NOT SEEK THEM! Leviticus 19:31 (TLV)

Matthew 6:33 TLV

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

The Key to putting on the full armor of God is to put on Yeshua! Let us all stand and pray that we may see His goodness!