Shabbat Shalom Ros, the dwelling place of God -This week’s Torah Portion is Terumah (Offering)‏‏‏

From: Messianic Bible
Sent: Saturday, February 25, 2012 1:54 PM
To: pastorb
Subject: Shabbat Shalom Ros, the dwelling place of God -This week’s Torah Portion is Terumah (Offering)‏‏‏

Hebrew on a Torah scroll

Shabbat Shalom

Welcome to Terumah (Offering), this week’s Parsha (Torah Portion).

We invite you to read with us this portion of Torah that will be read during
this week’s Shabbat (Saturday) service in synagogues around the world.
We know that you will be blessed!

TERUMAH (Offering)
Exodus 25:1–27:19; 1 Kings 5:26–6:13; 2 Corinthians 9:1–15

In last week’s Parsha, we read how Israel received God’s laws (mishpatim)
at Mount Sinai after being delivered from bondage in Egypt.

This week’s Torah study describes the construction of the Sanctuary.
God wants to ensure that His people will remain in communion with Him, so
He commands Moshe (Moses) to build the Sanctuary as a visible reminder
that God dwells among them.

Timna National Park in Israel: A lifesize replica of the portable Tabernacle

The Sanctuary: God’s Tabernacle

“Then have them make a sanctuary (mikdash) for me, and I have dwelt
(shekhanti) among them.” (Exodus 25: 8)

The Sanctuary is a visible reminder of God’s presence.

In verse eight of Exodus 25, the Hebrew word signifying sanctuary is
mikdash. This word comes from the Hebrew root K-D-SH. Many other
words denoting sanctity and holiness arise from this root, such as kadosh,
which means holy, consecrated, or set apart for sacred purpose, and
kedusha, which means holiness.

“Make this tabernacle (mishkan) and all its furnishings exactly like the
pattern I will show you.” (Exodus 25:9)

In the next verse, God’s dwelling place is called a tabernacle.

The Hebrew here is mishkan, and it comes from a Hebrew root word
SH-KH-N meaning to dwell. Derived from this root is the word Sh’chinah,
which is the word for the Divine presence or “Shechinah glory” of God.

Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem

Interestingly enough, this same root word is used for the word neighbor
(shochen), one who dwells close to us.

What does this tell us?

That a spark of the Divine, the Shechinah glory of God, resides in each and
every person, since we have all been created by the Almighty God, Elohim,
in His image.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created
him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

Because that spark of the Shechinah resides in all of us, Yeshua (Jesus)
taught us that just as important as it is to love God, it is equally important
to love our shochen (neighbor).

God is love, and if we don’t really love people, then we have totally missed
His heart:

“The one who does not love does not know God because God is love.”
(1 John 4:8)

Chassidic Orthodox Jew praying at the Western
(Wailing) Wall in Jerusalem

Yeshua’s summary of the Torah deliberately put loving God first, since when
we put anything or anyone else before God, our world becomes topsy turvy.
When we love God, however, loving our neighbor becomes easier and
more natural.

“And we have this command from Him; the one who loves God must also
love his brother.” (1 John 4:21)

“No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and
His love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:12)

Do we want to be closer to God?

We may find that we don’t experience the Shechinah glory of God in our
own times of prayer as much as when we reach out with hope to the
hopeless, food to the famished, and a warm smile to those whose hearts
have grown cold.

“Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out
from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.”
(Isaiah 58:10)

If the Lord leads you to Help the Poor in Israel, Click Here

The compassion of God is for the outcast and the downcast, those on the
outside looking in, the ‘have nots’ who are too discouraged to even cast a
glance at all that the ‘haves’ are enjoying.

God dwells with those who are lowly and broken in heart and spirit.

“For this is what the high and lofty One says — he who lives forever, whose
name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is
contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive
the heart of the contrite.” (Isaiah 57:15)

When we obey the promptings of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to
practice “acts of random kindness,” we are constructing an ARK—a safe
shelter where people can find refuge from the storms of life.

We become a walking mishkan, bringing the Shechinah glory of God to the
wilderness areas of our cities and nations.

Moses and Joshua in the Tabernacle, by James Jacques Joseph Tissot

Offerings for the Tabernacle

“Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering
for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give.” (Exodus 25:2)

In this Torah portion, God tells Moses to ask the children of Israel to give
an offering (terumah) towards the construction of the Sanctuary.

Only those stirred in their hearts with a desire to participate in this holy
work are to donate their material goods. No one is to give grudgingly or
out of a sense of duty but out of love and gratitude towards God.

“These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver and
bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; ram skins
dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia wood; olive oil for the
light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx
stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.”
(Exodus 25:3)

But where had they acquired all this gold, silver, bronze, precious stones
and other symbols of wealth and abundance that they are to give?

Of course, it had all come from the Egyptians.

The Israelites’ memory of their own state of destitution before God rescued
and redeemed them is fresh. All that they have is a direct result of God at
work in their lives and belongs to Him. They are only too happy, therefore,
to give some of it back for the construction of a Sanctuary where they can
meet with God and commune with Him.

Two Orthodox boys overlook the crowded plaza at the Western (Wailing) Wall

Why Be a Generous Giver?

“For God so loved the world that He gave.” (John 3:16)

No one can outgive God. Generosity is one of His core attributes and He is
gives generously. When He gave us Yeshua He gave us His very best and
most beloved of all.

Moreover, everything we have also comes from the hand of God.

We should also, therefore, be willing to give back to His work cheerfully and
willingly.

In the New Covenant (New Testament) portion of this week’s Parsha, the
Word tells us that each of us should give as we have purposed in our heart,
“not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.”
(2 Corinthians 9:7)

With this in mind, we also need to understand the spiritual law of sowing and
reaping: He who sows sparingly will reap a sparse harvest, and he who
sows abundantly will reap an ample harvest (2 Corinthians 9:6).

This principle doesn’t just apply to our financial giving, but is a spiritual law
that applies to every area of our life.

The orange harvest in Israel

Whatever we are generous in dishing out, we are going to receive back in
equal measure – whether that is anger, bitterness, judgment, criticism, and
condemnation – or grace, mercy, kindness, encouragement and love.

With the same measure that we give, we will be sure to receive back upon
ourselves in one way or another (Matthew 7:2).

So let’s make sure that we are giving generous praise, encouragement, love,
help, blessings, and all the good things that we would want to receive
generously in return, including our material offerings (terumot).

“A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be
refreshed.” (Proverbs 11:25)

Reading from the Torah scroll using a yad (Torah pointer) to follow the text
and ensure that the parchment is not touched.

click here this Shabbat if you enjoy our Torah teachings

According to the Pattern shown to Moses

“Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will
show you.” (Exodus 25:9)

The children of Israel could not build a Sanctuary for God any old way they
wanted to; they had to build it according to the specific pattern that God
showed Moses on the mountain.

The Old Testament tabernacle was a copy and shadow of a heavenly reality.
(Revelation 15:5; Hebrews 8:5)

The Sanctuary, or Mikdash, was a portable structure to accompany the
Israelites on their wanderings.

It basically consisted of three parts: the outer court, the inner court (Holy
Place), and the Most Holy Place (Holy of Holies).

Replica of the Temple Mount during the Second Temple Period: the outer
court surrounds the central building which houses the Holy Place and the
Most Holy Place.

The holy places were divided from the outer court by a veil and only the
priest could enter them. The inner Holy of Holies could only be entered
once a year on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) by the Cohen HaGadol
(The High Priest).

When Yeshua died on the cross, this all changed.

The veil was torn and through His blood we have all been made priests who
can have access to the presence of God. May we never take this privilege
for granted.

“In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and
confidence.” (Ephesians 3:12)

The three sections of the Mikdash can be interpreted as representation of
our humanity. We have an outer court – our physical bodies and all of its
systems, an inner place where our mind, will and emotions function, and the
most holy place, the most inner, secret place where our spirit dwells and
communes with God.

Model of the building housing the Holy of Holies

Building our Lives According to His Pattern

Our homes are meant to be a mini Beit Mikdash–a mini Holy Temple–a
place where God’s presence dwells with us. A serious question we need to
ask ourselves is, “Would my home be a place where God can feel
comfortable to dwell?”

In the same way that the Sanctuary had to be built according to the pattern
shown to Moses on the mountain, we also need to build our homes and lives
after the heavenly pattern that God revealed in the Torah which He gave on
Mount Sinai.

No guess work is involved.

Everything we need to know, all the wisdom and understanding we need to
build a blessed home and a blue print for our lives is found in God’s word.

Thankfully, Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit) is always at work in our lives
to show us areas that need to be brought into a closer alignment with the
heavenly pattern rather than our own faulty design.

Jerusalem, Old and New City. You can clearly see the Temple Mount in
this photo. Behind the green trees in the center, is the top of the “Wailing
Wall,” and many feet below is where the Jewish people worship at the Wall.

In the prophetic portion of Scripture read this week, King Solomon builds a
Temple for God in Jerusalem that his father, King David, had yearned to build.

David was not allowed to build it because he was a man of war, he had too
much blood on his hands. (1 Chronicles 22:7-9)

There is such a profound lesson in this for us today!

The Hebrew name for Solomon is Shlomo, which comes from same root
word (S-L-M) from which shalom is derived which means peace.

Indeed, as Solomon’s name testifies, during his reign peace was established.

“And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as He promised him; and there was
peace between Hiram and Solomon….” (1 Kings 5:26)

May we find comfort in the knowledge that one day, the Mishkan
(Tabernacle) of God will be with us in the New Jerusalem, and God will
dwell with us and will wipe away every tear from our eyes. There shall be
no more sorrow or conflict or pain, for the former things will have passed
away. (Revelation 21:3)

Together we can reach millions of Jewish people with the life-saving message
of Yeshua the Messiah who provides everlasting Peace (Shalom) and Salvation.

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“For out of Zion shall go forth the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 2:3)

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