Rabbi Schneider - The Beauty of Boundaries
We're focusing on the Hebrew title of God, El Shaddai, God Almighty that provides for our needs, God Almighty that's able to do the impossible. And when we know that if we have El Shaddai in our life, we don't really need anything else. In other words, all the things that God brings into our life, right, all of it is important. But if it all fell away, God would be enough. El Shaddai, the supernatural God that meets our needs, that's able to do the impossible would be enough to us and He would bring into our life whatever we need.
And to live in that reality, to recognize that you don't need anything else. You don't need anyone else. That even if you lost it all, you'd still have the Lord knowing that, Beloved, will set you free. I just want to pray with you for a second about that, because I think it's such an important place to live. A lot of us are living in fear, because we're like afraid of losing this, or we're afraid of losing that. But I want you to know today that even if you lost that thing that you're afraid of losing, you'd be okay, because you would still have the supernatural El Shaddai's banner of love over you. And He would be providing for you and doing the impossible for you.
So, Father, we want to thank You for the knowledge of the truth. Father, we want to thank You for taking on flesh and blood in the person of Your Son, Yeshua, Jesus. And that when we receive You into our life we've received everything that we'll ever need, God, to be happy, everything that we ever will need to be victorious. Father, I realize that this is a process, that there's a walk we have to go through, that life isn't easy. But I also know, Lord, that what I'm saying is the truth, that You alone are enough. So Father we thank You for that today. We praise You for that today. In Yeshua's name. Amen and amen.
So what I want to do now is I want to just revisit briefly where we're at in the narrative of the book of Bereshit (Genesis) as we're looking at this term El Shaddai being lifted to the surface. Abraham is looking for the fulfillment of the promise that God would make His offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven. He'd been unable to conceive with his wife. He gets Hagar, the maiden of his wife, pregnant, that becomes a disaster. The whole thing just doesn't seem like it's working out. But you know what happens? God appears to Abraham again. Abram's name is changed to Abraham. When Abram got to the end, when Sarai got to the end, you know what? God showed up. And He does the same, beloved, for every one of His children. He will never leave you or forsake you.
So let's pick up now as we continue in the story in chapter 18. "Now the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. When he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth..." Now, it says that Abram saw these three men, and when he saw them he bowed to the earth. Why? We're going to see that these were no ordinary men, but that the Lord Himself stood as a pre-incarnate Christ before Abram.
And I'm going to share with you how we know that in a second. "Abram bowed himself to the earth and said, 'My Lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please do not pass your servant by. Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a piece of bread that you may refresh yourselves; after that you may go on, since you are visiting your servant.' And they said, 'So do, as you have said. So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah..."
Now notice that by this point Abram's name is changed to Abraham and Sarai's name has been changed to Sarah. "So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, 'Quickly, prepare three measures of fine flour, knead it, and make bread cakes.' Abraham also ran to the herd and took a tender choice calf and gave it to the servant, and he hurried to prepare it. He took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and placed it before them, and it was standing by them under the tree as they ate".
Now notice this. What is Abraham you're gonna see serving these three men, one of whom was Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh-Yahweh, a preincarnate Christ. Yahweh, He took curds of milk and, in verse 8, and a calf which He had prepared, and placed before them. And He was standing by them under the tree, get it now, as they ate. Why am I highlighting this? Abraham is serving Yod-Heh Vav Heh. I'm gonna show you this as Yod Heh Vav Heh in a second, because when we get down to verse 13, when we get to verse 13, it says, "The LORD said to Abraham..." And the word LORD there is in all caps, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Whenever you see the word LORD in all caps in the Hebrew Bible, that is Yud Heh Vav Heh, Yahweh.
So here is Yahweh with Abraham outside the tent and Abraham serves Him cheese or milk, dairy products and meat, the calf, and the LORD ate. Now why is this important? I know that for some of you, you might not get why I'm making a point of it. One of the biggest rules in Orthodox Judaism today is not to eat at the same meal milk and meat together. Yet here in Bereshit or Genesis 18, we find the Lord eating milk and meat at the same time which Abraham served him. How do we explain this?
Before I do explain that, I first of all want to give honor and love and respect to my Orthodox Jewish brothers and sisters, my friends that I admire and esteem so much. I so love the Orthodox lifestyle in the sense that there are so many boundaries in their lives to produce sanctity. It's a beautiful lifestyle that everything that you do is focused on Hashem, focused on God. The clothes you wear, the things that you eat. I mean, there are so many regiments and so many rules put in place so that one's life will be dedicated to Hashem. And I think that is extraordinary. I love it. It's empowering.
And I think Christians need to glean and understand the beauty of living a life that has such boundaries. But I also need to say that a lot of the rules and traditions in Orthodox Judaism are simply man-made traditions. To me I see no evidence in scripture about prohibiting one from eating milk and meat together. So where do Orthodox Jews get this concept of not being able to eat a dairy product and meat at the same time? It comes from a verse in the Torah where the Lord instructed the Israelites not to boil a calf in its mother's milk.
So the Jewish people, wanting to protect the law, came up with a bunch of additional laws that they added to it. And sometimes these additional laws, in my humble opinion, led Israel and the Jewish people off track. For example, in this case when the Lord gave that command in the Torah not to boil a calf in its mother's milk so that we have a calf meat and milk also, the mother's milk together, don't boil a calf in its mother's milk, I don't think the Lord was speaking there about eating dairy and meat or milk and meat at the same meal.
What I think He was talking about was His tenderness towards every living thing in His creation, that to boil a calf in its own mother's milk is so inhumane and so anti-life and so insensitive to life that the Lord spoke to it and prohibited it, because He has feelings towards everything He created. Not only animals... I mean not only human beings, but also animals. Again, the Jewish people, because they wanted to guard the Torah, they sometimes looked at a verse in the Torah and they added a bunch of additional regulations to it. And I believe this kosher prohibition from eating milk and meat together is simply a tradition of man that isn't really getting to the root of what the Lord was speaking to.
Jesus addressed this in Mark chapter 7, when they said to Him, "Why do Your disciples eat with their hands unwashed"? And Yeshua said, "Why do you make all these rules up that are not commandments from God, but they're your own traditions? And your own traditions are actually obscuring the original meaning of God's commandment". And Yeshua accused the Pharisees of teaching their own traditions as if they were doctrines of God. Then we are explained there in the Gospel that they had all kinds of regulations about washing of pots and pans, and how Yeshua said it's not what goes into the man that defiles him, but what goes out of his mouth.
But it's interesting that this tradition of the elders, as it was referred to in Mark chapter 7, they accused Jesus there of breaking the tradition of the elders. And Jesus said that this tradition of the elders some of it was rooted in man's own tradition, not in God's heart. And this tradition of the elders became part of Judaism today. It was recorded in the Talmud, this tradition of the elders, later was written down in the Talmud. And Jewish people today, those that are practicing Orthodox Judaism, that's what they live their life by, the Talmud. And in effect, Jesus was saying a lot of the things that are in the Talmud, which is simply the tradition of the elders, it's not really God's Word, it's not really God's truth, it's not really the Torah. It's just man-made tradition.
So when I say this, this is not putting down Orthodox Judaism because I admire that community. I mean, I admire the good in the community. They've missed Yeshua. And I believe that there is no way to the Father or to heaven but through the name of Yeshua. That He is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but by Him. But I'm not gonna throw out the baby with the bathwater. There's some beauty in Orthodox Judaism and I appreciate and admire and receive the beauty that's there. I wish we as Christians had more boundaries in our life. I wish that Christian women dressed more like Orthodox Jewish women and were more modest. I wish Christian men guarded their eyes more like Orthodox Jewish men do. I wish there was more discipline in the Christian's life to have times of prayer and to study the scripture like the Orthodox Jewish community does.
So I just want to make it very clear that although I think in this case, this particular law of kashrut, they missed it. And in the case of rejecting Jesus as the Messiah, unfortunately, they completely missed it, which is tragic. But I also want to say I admire the beauty of the devotion of Orthodox Judaism. And I want to have that same devotion in my life, in my relationship with Hashem, with Father God, as I'm following His Son Jesus the Messiah. So we pick up Abram serves these men, one was Yud Heh Vav Heh, they eat the milk and the meat together.
And then we pick up in verse 9. "Then they said to him, to Abraham now, 'Where is Sarah your wife?' And he said, 'There, in the tent.' He said...'" This is now the Lord speaking. "The Lord said back to him, 'I will surely return to you at this time next year, and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.' And Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; Sarah was past childbearing. Sarah laughed to herself, saying, 'After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also"? In other words, her husband's too old to have a baby too.
"And the Lord said to Abram, 'Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Shall I indeed bear a child, when I am so old?'" Get this now, beloved ones, El Shaddai, God Almighty, is speaking to you and I here. He said, "Is anything too difficult for the Lord"? God makes this promise: "This time next year Abraham you're gonna have that child". Abraham had become discouraged, he had taken matters into his own hands and tried to have a child with Hagar, God appears to him again. Yod Heh Vav Heh, the Lord Himself. Verse 13, Yod Heh Vav Heh, God Himself.
Then God says to Abraham, "This time next year you're gonna have that son". Sarah laughs. She said, "Haha, look how old I am. My husband, look at him. How is that gonna happen"? The Lord said, "Why did she laugh, Abraham"? And I love it. "Is anything, is anything too difficult for your God"? Is anything too difficult for the Lord, for your Lord?
Father, right now I praise You for being the God of hope. Father, I ask You to break into the lives of Your people as they're hearing and watching right now. Father, I pray that You would break in and reveal Yourself to each one as God Almighty, the God of the impossible. That Father, for those that are struggling with discouragement, that don't know how they're gonna get through what they're facing, what the answer is, I pray that You would do for them what You did for Abraham. Show them that You're faithful, that You're gonna do for them what You promised them, that You're gonna conform them to the image of your Son and bring them into Your glory, that Father, regardless of what we're facing, because You are our God, we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. We praise You, Lord Jesus, as the God of the impossible, as God Almighty, El Shaddai.