Your Daily Bread for February 5-11, 2023

Welcome to Your Daily Bread for February 5-11, 2023 by Dr Apelu Poe!

Key Torah Code for this Week: “Pekudei” (Sum of): Exodus 38:21-40:38.

Basic Principle of Our Judaic-Christian Faith: If we are to successfully complete the divine task to which we have been called, namely, the building of God’s kingdom, then we must recognize the fact that “no person is an island.” In other words, we have to understand that each one of us is not only part of the whole, but that we are each held accountable for the work entrusted to us

“I think that the Bible code exists so that we will have an advance warning, enough time to save ourselves,.” But we can’t wait five years and then suddenly try to do something. What we do today, what you do today will determine what happens five years from now.” I’ll get to the point in a minute.

But, first, let me say Talofa, and Shabbat shalom to you, my friends in the name of “Yeshua HaMashiach” Jesus the Messiah! As they say in Samoan, Malo le soifua manuia! Faafetai fo’i le fai tatalo! Congratulation on your good health! Thanks also for the prayers. May our God always grant us his lovingkindness!

Getting back to the point. If you have followed God’s calendar, which dictates and foretells the events of our lives to which the above quote refers, you will know that we are now entering the first week of the Proclamation season. What is the Proclamation season? Proclamation season, just as the name suggests, is a time in which we witness Jesus going from place to place proclaiming the secret about the kingdom of God and calling for unity and accountability. The biblical basis that supports this can be found in Mark 1:14 where it says, ‘Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Before we look at this week’s Torah portion, let me also say “thank you” to all of you, my regular readers. You’re a fantastic community of believers because you take the time to access my teaching on Facebook and LinkedIn. It is, indeed, a great inspiration for me to see that so many of you around the world have been following my teaching on social media from week to week. I call my Torah gift for you this week “Your Daily Bread for February 5-11, 2023.”

Why am I saying this? Well, for those of you who have been following my teaching, I’m saying this because, as you might have noticed, I have been using this same gift that God has given me for the past 40 years to help guide the destiny of those whose spiritual welfare God has entrusted to me. And now that I have retired from the ordained ministry in July 2021, I want you to have free access to it. My pastoral desire is simply this: For you to be the person God has created you to be. My prayer, then, is that you would be able to live according to God’s time so that you may discern God’s Divine path for your life and how it is that God wants you to live to best receive his blessing and to best shine his holy light.

Your Benefits from My Torah Gift I Can Give You This Week

So what exactly can you expect from the Torah gift I’m giving you this first week of the Proclamation season? Well, the first and foremost is self-awareness. Why self-awareness? Because life transformation begins with self-awareness. Remember what we said, to address any concern or any challenges that we face in our life today, we must, first of all, identify what is at heart, the root of those challenges. Without that, we will never be able to come up with an adequate or appropriate strategy that will resolve our challenges. So the Torah gift I’m giving you this week will help you become aware of the fact that we cannot build God’s kingdom if we do not communicate God’s Torah or God’s Word.

How do we know that? Well, listen, again, to King Solomon’s testimony: “Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits” (Proverbs 18:21). This means that the fruit of our action is in direct consequence of the words we speak. For example, if we continue to communicate lies and spread false propaganda, guess what we will get? More crabs to complain and lie about. Consider the consequence of the lies fabricated by Putin, the Russian President that led to their unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. For example, the deaths of over 100, 000 of their soldiers, the slow destruction of the Russian economy that affected everyone; continuously increasing Western sanctions, severing trade and other ties, global isolation, frozen assets totalling $350-400 billion, the destruction of their own infrastructure, the exodus of large international companies, the expulsion of the country from international organizations, termination of Russian contracts, cancellation of many flights, refusal to receive Russian tourists, and the mass exodus from the country.

On the other hand, if we speak and communicate words of wisdom, words of hope and inspiration. Guess what the universe will give us. More surprises to be grateful to God for. Remember the heart-moving story behind the Beetle’s song, Let it be that says mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, Let it be, let it be. Perhaps, it is for this reason that God himself asks us this rhetorical question, “Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these?” (Isaiah 40:26).

The second benefit that my Torah gift will give to you this week is self-discipline. It’ll help you learn to discipline yourself so that you will know what you should and should not do.

What do we mean by disciplining ourselves? Control our actions and our emotions. Why bother to control our actions and our emotions? Because that is how we produce people of character and great leadership. There is no more definitive indictment of the U.S. legal and political systems than Donald Trump’s entry into the 2024 presidential race, a week after his Big Lie candidates crushed Republican hopes and dreams nationwide. You’d think by now there would be another way to use the words Trump and indictment in the same sentence. But no. The fact is that all through his seven-plus years on the national political stage, Trump has demonstrated that despite our fondest fantasies about American exceptionalism and peaceful transfer of power, some people are above the law, the Constitution and the oaths they take to hold high office. It is no wonder why David said, “Even the darkness is not dark to you. And the night is as bright as day. Darkness and light are alike to you” (Psalm 139:12).

The third benefit that my Torah gift will give to you this week is a greater sense of clarity. It’ll help you develop a greater sense of clarity so that you will know that there can never be any peace in this world unless we are prepared to talk honestly about the question of global justice. Think about the words of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who warned that the rule of law is at grave risk of becoming “the Rule of Lawlessness.” He pointed to a host of unlawful actions across the globe from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and coups in Africa’s Sahel region to North Korea’s illegal nuclear weapons program and Afghanistan’s unprecedented attacks on women’s and girls’ rights. The U.N. chief also cited as an example the breakdown of the rule of law in Myanmar since the military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 leading to “a cycle of violence, repression and severe human rights violation.”

It is no wonder why the apostle Paul put it this way, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:10-12).

The fourth benefit that my Torah gift will give to you this week is self-confidence. It’ll help you increase your self-confidence so that you will feel energized and motivated to help make this world a better place for all of us. Former NASA astronauts Douglass Hurley and Robert Behnken received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor presented by Vice President Kamala Harris on behalf of President Biden at a ceremony held in Washington, D.C. Hurley and Behnken received the honour “for bravery in NASA’s SpaceX demonstration Mission-2 (Demo-2) to the International Space Station in 2020. The pair were the first astronauts to fly a crewed mission to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in May 2020 following the retirement of NASA’s space shuttle and a nearly decade-long absence of astronaut-launching capability from U.S. soil. Question: How on earth were these two astronauts able to accomplish this historical feat? Answer: Because they put their complete trust in the hand of God. David acknowledged, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High; who abides in the shadow of the Almighty will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust” (Psalm 91:1-2).

The fifth benefit that my Torah gift will give to you this week is a deeper sense of gratitude and heartfelt appreciation. It’ll help deepen your sense of sincere gratitude and heartfelt appreciation knowing that our lives turn on the axis of God’s hand. How do we know that? Well, listen, again, to God’s word, “Fear not for I am with you, be not dismayed for I am your God, I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).

The Historical Proof that Supports our Need for Your Daily Bread that Sustains Us Spiritually

Does it surprise you, then, that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, did not forget to remind us about these things? That is why last week you heard Jesus speaking to us, saying, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you that everything that is written about me in the Law of Moses [Torah] and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled…” (Luke 24:44). ). Jesus, then, did something which I thought was quite remarkable and quite extraordinary. He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. Jesus said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:45-49).

Overview Summary of this Week’s Torah Portion

With this in mind, let us look at this week’s Torah portion, Exodus 38:21-40:38. In the Hebrew language (God’s sacred tongue) from which our English Bible translation was taken, this week’s Torah portion is called, “Pekudei” translated “Sum of,” see Exodus 38:21.

To understand this, one has to, first of all, identify the double references in the text. On a superficial linguistic level which is intended primarily for the Jewish audience, the reading focuses on the code “Pekudei” translated as “Sum of.” Thus, in the opening part of the reading, we see Moses making an accounting of the sum of all the things donated by the people of Israel for the building of the Sanctuary. For example, gold, silver and copper… etc. In the central part of the reading, we see Betzalel, Aholiav and their assistants doing the same thing with the eight (8) priestly garments they made. These include the apron, breastplate, cloak, crown, hat, tunic, sash and breeches according to the specifications communicated to Moses in the Torah portion of “Tetzaveh” (You shall command): Exodus 27:20-30:10; refer to the Torah portion for Sunday, January 15, 2023.

Please note that in this week’s Torah portion, we are actually witnessing the completion of the Sanctuary and all its components that Moses and the people of Israel were commanded by God to build. Moses, therefore, anoints the Sanctuary and all its components with the holy anointing oil. Moses, then, initiates Aaron and his four (4) sons into the priesthood. The portion ends with the appearance of a cloud over the Sanctuary, which signifies the Divine Presence that has come to dwell within it just as God had promised in the Torah portion of “Terumah,” (Offering), refer to the Torah portion for Sunday, January 8, 2023.

Indeed, on a profound theological level, this week’s Torah portion of “Pekudei” (Sum of) has an important message to us, the Church, and the Body of Christ. This message is evident when the Torah portion is interpreted in the context of this first week of the Proclamation season. And that is, if we are to successfully complete the divine task to which we have been called, namely, the building of the kingdom of God, then we must recognize the fact that “no person is an island.” In other words, we have to understand that each one of us is not only part of the whole, but that we are each held accountable for the work entrusted to us. How do we know that? Listen, again, to this week’s text, “This is the sum of the things for the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony as they were counted at the commandment of Moses for the work of the Levites under the direction of Ith’amar, the son of Aaron the priest,” (Exodus 38:21).

Unfortunately, in later years, the people who were called to this divine task neglected God’s call for unity and accountability. It is no wonder why the prophet Isaiah reminds the Israelites and us, saying, “In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth,” (Isaiah 19:23). David had this in mind when he exclaims, saying, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” (Psalm 133:1). Question: Why bother to give heed or to listen in to God’s call for unity and accountability in a time when more and more people have become more exclusivist thus caring only for themselves? Answer: Because we are all part of God’s global family serving the same God and the same Lord. Listen, again, to the apostle Paul, “There are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord, and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone,” (1 Corinthians 12:4-6).

Should you be interested in a more in-depth study of the weekly Torah codes on which our lives turn, Book I, Volume 1 of my III Books Series: 11 Volumes will be coming out on February 28. It’s called “The Hidden Secrets of the Master’s Mind: How You Can Live with God’s Time.” The book will be published by Create & Write Publishing: A Division of the Master’s Mind International. I would love to keep you updated on that. You can reach me at dr.poe@yahoo.com. Also, get your FREE copy of God’s calendar for this 2022-2023 ministry year that will help guide your faith journey.