Sermon Tone Analysis

Month of Shevat - Month 11

Jan / Feb in the Gregorian Calendar

Hebrew Alphabet - 'Tzadik' - symbolizes the righteous one

Tribe - Asher

Constellation - Aquarius - the water carrier

Hebrew Alphabet - 'Tzadik' - symbolizes the righteous one

Jehovah Tzidkenu - Righteousness is one of the chief attributes of God as portrayed in the Hebrew Bible

Jesus our righteousness

Righteousness should be our foundation

tzadik was considered to be an intermediary between men and God - light & salt

the personality of the tzaddik is calibrated to the Manufacturer’s original specifications, so that everything about him is just as his Creator meant it should be, and all he desires is what his Creator desires.

Shevat- The month of the new year of trees

Commonly known as Tu Bishvat, this day marks the season in which the earliest-blooming trees in the Land of Israel emerge from their winter sleep and begin a new fruit-bearing cycle.

Tu BiShvat is the day that each tree ages a year for the purposes of determining if one can eat from it.

Tu B'Shevat was counted as the birthday for all trees for tithing purposes: like the beginning of a fiscal year

Jews plant the trees

It is also called Rosh HaShanah La'Ilanot (Hebrew: ראש השנה לאילנות), literally 'New Year of the Trees'.

... In contemporary Israel, the day is celebrated as an ecological awareness day, and trees are planted in celebration.

Bible connects us to a tree planted by the rivers of water

A tree needs energy from sunlight, carbon dioxide from the air, and water.

The root must be healthy connected to the water source.

Fertilize and prune.

God breathed into us made us human beings

Son of God the light of the world

Water - The Holy Spirit

Fertilize - Word of God our nourishment

Father God prunes us every ear

According to John 15:1-8, our interpretation of the sanctifying work that God accomplishes in our lives—especially during times of trial—is directly related to our understanding of pruning.

This, in turn, affects our response to personal suffering and to others in their time of trial.

If we view pruning as punitive, rather than restorative, we lose sight of God’s undying love toward us and we become like Job’s anti-gospel counselors who immediately assume God is punishing our fellow Christians and, therefore, we are now free to cast judgment and harsh treatment upon them.

Tribe of Asher

Asher 8th son of Jacob through Leah’s maid Zilpah

Asher literally means Happy

Beware of King’s delicacies- Daniel fast and good to mediate on the book of Daniel

The first month for us will set the stage for the rest of year

Who Was Asher?

The Tribes of Israel were often identified with the personalities and character traits of their founders, so let's start by getting to know Asher himself.

Asher was characterized as happy, intelligent, intuitive, open to others, and a little bit impetuous.

In fact, his name means ''happy one''.

Thus, the Tribe of Asher was known to be the happiest of the Twelve Tribes.

This happiness partly came from the fact that there were also amongst the most prosperous of the tribes.

They were described as enjoying all that life has to offer, particularly in terms of fine dining, even if that made them a little more wasteful than the other tribes.

The Blessings of Asher

Part of these characteristics are based in the prophetic blessings of Asher.

What are these?

Before sending them out to settle different parts of the region, Jacob gave each of his sons a blessing that would define their future.

Jacob described Asher as a most blessed son, saying that the land of Asher would have rich food and delicacies fit for kings.

As blessings go, that's not bad.

However, it's not the only blessing the Tribe of Asher would receive.

Moses also gave a blessing to each of the twelve tribes.

Moses' blessing said that Asher would be blessed with sons, pleasing to his brothers, and have his foot immersed in oil.

Pictures pleasure, happiness, delicious and fatness

Though the world may look dark, with no hope, and impossible to overcome – here is the promise of the Lord

“Let the Lord be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.”

(Psalm 35:27b)

Lesson from Asher

Despite all its blessings, the tribe of Asher failed to drive out the Canaanites, and “because of this the people of Asher lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land” (Judges 1:31-32).

In the time of Deborah and Barak, “Asher remained on the coast and stayed in its coves” rather than join the fight against Jabin, a Canaanite king (Judges 5:17).

This failure to aid their fellow tribes could indicate a lack of reliance on God, a lack of effort, a fear of the enemy, or a reluctance to upset those with whom they did business.

Thus, the example set here is a negative one: although Asher was richly blessed, they did not behave admirably; when the time for action came, they failed to trust in God and honor His plan.

Later in Judges, Asher does respond to Gideon’s call to repel the Midianites, Amalekites, and others from the East (Judges 6:35).

In another important gesture, Asher accepts Hezekiah’s invitation to the tribes from the Northern Kingdom to join the Passover celebration in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 30:11).

This was considered an act of humility, proof of a contrite heart before God.

In the end, we find that Asher received many great blessings from God.

Having received a blessing, they were expected to obey the Lord’s commands.

In this they sometimes succeeded and sometimes failed.

We, too, have been blessed by God (Ephesians 1:3), and the Lord expects us to obey His commands (John 14:15).

A month to get back on track

Constellation - Aquarius (the water carrier)

Aquarius is one of the most ancient constellations in the night sky and in most cultures is visualized as a man pouring water from a vessel, hence the Latin translation of its name meaning the “water-carrier”.

Matthew 10:42 AMPC “And whoever gives to one of these little ones [in rank or influence] even a cup of cold water because he is My disciple, surely I declare to you, he shall not lose his reward.”

Let’s immerse ourselves in the Word of Lord and in the Spirit of Lord this month and set the stage for the entire year.