Anger, Murder, and the War Inside the Heart | Decoding the Torah Season 3

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: How do we honor parents that continued to reject us or criticize us? And even still today, if we've tried to reach back out, we're still met with denial and a refusal of them to take any responsibility for some of the harm in our life growing up. One of the things that we've seen over the past years is the breakdown of the family. And so the question becomes, how do we honor fathers and mothers when they haven't treated us or raised us in a way that was healthy? I'm reading from the book of Exodus today, chapter 20 verse 12. We're looking at the law of honoring our fathers and mothers. Hear the word of God. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. This principle and this command of honoring our father and mother is woven deeply into God's divine moral fabric that he built in to his creation. In honoring our father and mother, we're recognizing that there were three partners in bringing us into the earth, three partners in our individual creation. God the Father, our earthly father, and our earthly mother. All three played a part in bringing us into the world. And in God's command telling us we need to honor our father and mother, we're recognizing that that our parents had a role to play even if you were raised in a home where there was a lot of brokenness and dysfunction, if you were raised with abuse, if you were raised with criticism and rejection, still, even beneath that at the very core is the fact that you would not be alive if it weren't for your father and your mother. And so this command to honor them acknowledges that. And we're going to try to work through some of the discussion about how do we honor parents that as I said rejected us or how do we honor parents that continued to reject us or criticize us? And even still today, if we've tried to reach back out, we're still met with denial and a refusal of them to take any responsibility for some of the harm and hurt that they've caused us in our life growing up. I know some of you today were raised by godly parents. Many were raised by good parents that prepared you for life and instilled within you spiritual and moral values that prepared you for the challenges that you would face ahead, equipping you with the strength that you would need to raise your own family in health. And it's such a blessing to have been raised in an environment like that. And we're thankful for the skills that we might have received from our parents. So in honoring our father and mother, we recognize that some of the skills that we have or some of the strengths that we have individually came to us through our parents. Even if there was a lot of brokenness or dysfunction in the home, you still might be gifted in a way in your life because of the gifting that was on your parents. And so in honoring our parents, we're recognizing this. And in so doing, we're recognizing the almighty and his divine process in bringing us into the world. Practically speaking, this involves showing affection. I love it when my daughter reaches out to me. It just thrills me to hear her voice and just to take that time to stay in relationship. So when we take that first step often times and call our parents and just do special things for them by showing affection, that blesses our parents so much. Honoring our parents involves sharing verbally with them the appreciation that we have for the fact that they cared for us in our youth, that many of the gifts and capabilities that we have now as adults came to us through them. And it involves beloved expressing our appreciation for the sacrifices that they made when we were infants and young children growing up and they paid for our meals and put a roof over our head. All these things need to be appreciated and they need to be articulated. For example, in my walk with my parents, my dad and I were on very different walks and he did not acknowledge my faith in Jesus and it became a big source of contention. But I still expressed to my dad the fact that a lot of the abilities that I had today came to me because of him. And the same is true for my mom. A lot of the abilities and gifts that I have today came to me through my mom. And so even if we don't see eye to eye with our parents on many things, we need to respect them and appreciate them and express to them our thankfulness for what we have received through them. And in doing this, what we do is we set a pattern for our own children to appreciate us and show us respect and love and tenderness in our old age. God built this into the moral fabric of his creation. And he promised us that when we walk this out, we would receive a blessing from him. Again, before moving on, I want to acknowledge the fact that some of you have been raised in homes where your parents really didn't provide for you that which you needed to grow up with a whole heart. And some of you have come from divorced homes, some have come even from abusive homes. And it's very very challenging and I don't want to minimize that in any way, shape or form. But the commandment holds true to honor our father and mother. So in situations when we've been raised in less than ideal environments, what we need to do is to honor them where we can and how we can with boundaries. Perhaps it just means sending a birthday card with a little note in it. However you can do it, do it and God will bless you for seeking to be obedient to him. This commandment or this mitzvah to honor our parents, it extends to those that have mentored in us in life, those that have helped us to grow up, those that have trained us, those that have been our caregivers. It extends to honoring them as well. Recognizing, for example, that mentors that have played a significant role in our lives, helping us to grow perhaps in our profession, perhaps to grow as people of the Lord, as a son or a daughter of the Lord, we need to acknowledge and honor them as well because all of us are not just a product of our own efforts or the product of the Lord and those others that have made investments into our life. And so let's be people of appreciation and acknowledge and show respect and gratitude to those that have made once again a significant investment helping us to become the people that we are today. Now we need to distinguish between the positive commandments and the negative commandments. Of the 613 mitzvot, and again mitzvot is another word for law or commandment. Some are positive. For example, the one we just looked at is positive. Thou shalt honor thy father and mother. And some are negative. And we're going to look now at a negative commandment. It's taken once again from the book of Exodus chapter 20 verse number 13. It's the prohibition against murder. It simply states you shalt not murder. And we need to distinguish between wrongful killing versus types of killing or deaths that are within the boundaries of God's word. In Jewish law, we distinguish between acts of violence that occur in the context of capital punishment, war, or self-defense versus the deliberate killing of innocent people. So not all killing is considered murder. For example, someone gets killed in a war, that's not considered murder. Someone is hung or is put to death because of a crime they committed under the law. That is not considered murder. But killing somebody with murderous intention, that is what this commandment is addressing. The first murder recorded in scripture is when Cain murdered Abel. And why did Cain murder Abel? Because both Cain and Abel brought a sacrifice to the Lord and the Lord accepted Abel's sacrifice, but he did not accept Cain's sacrifice. And as a result of this, Cain was angry. So Cain killed his innocent brother because of his own anger. Let's read. God said to Cain, why are you angry? And why is your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door and is desirous for you. But you must master it. This teaches us a great lesson that murder isn't just about an outward act that originates in the heart. And we have to put ourselves under the responsible blade of God's truth and recognize that anger actually has a murderous intention to it. And we have to root it out of our lives. In fact, Yeshua taught that he that hates his brother in his heart is a murderer. 1 John 3:15 we read, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And Yeshua said about Satan, he was a murderer from the beginning.
Dustin Roberts: This is discovering the Jewish Jesus with Rabbi Schneider and he'll be right back. But first we have a special announcement. Did you know the Bible says for Jesus to return a remnant of Jewish people must receive him? But right now most Jewish people don't believe in Jesus and we aim to change that. We created jews.com. It's a cutting edge place for Jewish people to explore Jewish identity and the truth of Messiah for themselves. Now we're taking this message beyond the website and into New York City. It's our biggest outreach yet. We're sharing the good news of Jesus the Messiah through jews.com. We have billboards up all over the city leading Jewish people to it. And all of this is possible because of generous listeners like you. But we can't do it without you. We need your support. So please consider partnering with us or giving a one-time financial donation today at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Thank you and now back to Rabbi Schneider with the rest of today's lesson.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: And so murder has to do with the heart. And if we hate somebody, we're actually guilty of the sin of committing murder. And this should wake us up because a lot of us think, oh, I've never murdered somebody because we're only looking at ourselves through the prism of our outward actions. But if we'll be real and examine our heart, I think we'll find that every one of us is a murderer or has been a murderer at some point in our life because we've wished or cursed other people in our heart. We've wished for their ill will. We've wanted them to suffer. We rejoiced when they were hurting. And this is the spirit of murder. And so this is why Jesus said that our righteousness must surpass the righteousness of a Pharisee. That we're not just guilty of murder because we've never physically put an innocent person to death. We're guilty of murder if we've ever wrongfully hated somebody in our heart, rejoiced at their downfall, wished for their ill will to happen, wished ill will towards somebody. And we have a choice to make. This is why the Lord said to Cain, choose what you're going to do. Life and death are before us as scripture says. Choose life that we could live. The book of Proverbs tells us that from our heart issues the spring of life. We have to guard our heart. And this involves being really introspective in our walk with God. I think a lot of us lack the ability or are unwilling to be self-aware. But we cannot grow spiritually if we're not willing to examine ourselves beloved ones and be self-aware. And we need to be aware as we're walking through life and journeying on this earth when there's a murderous intention coming from our heart towards somebody. And when that happens, what we do is we lift it up to the Lord and say, Lord, forgive me. I realize that this impulse in my heart it's not you. It's not good. It's a spirit of murder. Help me, Lord, not to yield to it. Sanctify me from this. And as we do this, as we root the spirit of murder, the spirit of hatred, the spirit of anger out of our heart, we ascend into the love and into the peace of God. But it takes warfare. Jesus taught that even sinners love their friends. But for those of us that have grown a big enough heart spiritually that we can love our enemies, we're truly then walking in a fullness of God's spirit. Judaism teaches that murder also happens when we speak ill of somebody with our tongue. Sometimes we don't realize that our gossiping and our criticizing and saying things about people to other people, that's actually committing murder. In fact, Judaism teaches that the tongue is so dangerous. It must be guarded by two walls, the walls of the lips and the walls of the teeth because from our mouth flow the springs of life and we can either put a curse on somebody or we can bless somebody. And James in the New Testament tells us that our tongue should not be a source of both cursing and blessing. He said, this ought not to be. So as we're examining from the Torah today, this command not to murder, we need to put ourselves under the blade of God's truth and under the authority of his spirit and ask ourselves, is there murder in our heart? Are there people in our life that we're wishing ill will towards? Are there people in our life that we have a murderous intent towards? In other words, that we're projecting spiritually hatred towards them? Remember the Lord said to Cain, why are you get this word now angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door and it's desirous for you. But get these next words, but you must master it. So the problem Cain had was his anger. And the Lord said to him, you must master that anger. I don't know about you, but I've struggled with anger in my own life. And as I've wrestled against anger and resisted anger, I found myself being brought up more and more into God's fullness and into his peace and into his love. And I feel better about life and about relationships and it's something that I had to resist and to warfare into. And just because you're perhaps struggling with anger yourself, it doesn't make you a bad person because you start from that place. But the place that you start from is the platform for you to ascend into greatness. In other words, the challenges that you have are God's opportunity for you to overcome and to excel into something great. In fact, the more you overcome, the bigger reward that you're going to have. So you might be struggling with the spirit of anger or spirit even of murder, but don't beat yourself up and feel defeated. Recognize what it is, confess it to the Lord, ask him for help, and then begin to warfare into it and against it. And as you're consistent in doing this, you'll overcome and you'll find yourself being expanded in the love of God even more so than somebody that never had a problem with anger or hatred towards other people. You see the challenges that you face in life beloved don't define who you are. They're the opportunity for you to excel in to greatness. Your problems are God's opportunities. And the more that we overcome once again, the bigger reward we're going to have. I remember years ago when the Lord first convicted me of my anger of blaming other people for my anger. And he showed me that your anger is your own problem. It's not because of what somebody else did. It's not because of your circumstance. It's not because of what somebody else said. Your anger is your problem. You need to stop blaming people and take responsibility for your anger. And immediately after I recognized that and made a decision to own my own anger and to not blame people and to not speak anger, as soon as I recognized that and made a commitment to overcome it, I had a huge test. Something that previously I would have just exploded at somebody about. I was so upset and so angry about it. And in the natural would have been understandable why I would have been so frustrated. But the Lord had spoken to me, you need to take responsibility for your own anger. Because when I exploded at somebody in anger, that was a spirit of murder I was releasing on that person. That was a destructive spirit that destroyed. It was a spirit from the realm of darkness. So I held in my anger. And you know what happened? After I resisted that spirit of anger that day, all those years ago, it was like I was supernaturally changed. It took every spiritual fiber in my being, all my strength to resist that anger. But I held on for dear life. I resisted it. I didn't speak my frustration. I held my temper. And something happened that day. A transformation took place. And from that day forward, it's been easier and easier for me to stay in control, to stay in peace, and to not release that destructive spirit of murder into the environment. Beloved, God's given you a choice just like he did Cain. Will you resist the spirit of murder in your life? Will you resist hatred? Will you resist ill will? Beloved, we'll be known by our love. And the two great commandments are to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We need to learn how to turn the other cheek, own our own soul, and stay in Jesus's love and peace regardless of what happens to us. I know that's easier said than done. But by the grace of God beloved, we can gradually ascend in to unshakable peace and we can master anger and the spirit of murder and the love and the shalom of God. I want to encourage you today, you're a warrior. Let's keep pressing in or on the journey of perfection. And if you'll stay faithful, you're going to get there. Beloved, this principle of first fruits that we've looked at today really is a dynamic that should be functioning in all our lives in every dimension. In other words, Father has always called us to give him our first, the first of our time, the first of our talent, and the first of our treasure. Jesus is the first fruit of those that have risen from the dead and we want to live our lives putting him first. Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and everything else should be added unto you. I want to ask you today during this feast of first fruits, if you believe in me, if you believe that God is reaching the world through this ministry, would you offer him today an awesome first fruit offering through this ministry? Thank you and I love you very much. God bless you and shalom.
Dustin Roberts: Amen. And to give today, visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com or call 800-777-7835 or you can text give to the number 88777. You can also mail your gift in the mail. Send it to discoveringthejewishjesus PO Box 777 Blissfield, Michigan 49228. And we want you to know when you become a brand new monthly partner with discoveringthejewishjesus, we want to thank you by sending you a beautifully handcrafted shofar that's made in Israel. You know, throughout scripture the shofar called people to attention and it marked moments that they were not meant to forget. And we hope that your shofar would become a marked moment for you, something that you can remember in your home that remind you of God's faithfulness and your partnership in spreading his good news around the world. It's really a unique gift as well. I mean, how often have you seen an actual shofar in real life or blown it in person? Before I started working with Rabbi, I didn't see it too often. But what a great conversation starter it is to have in your home and what a great opportunity then it is to share its biblical history with your friends and family, whether they're believers or whether you may be want to share the gospel with them. So if you'd like to sign up as a monthly partner today and get your very own shofar, visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com or give us a call at 800-777-7835. That's 800-777-7835. Thank you so much for helping Rabbi teach God's word and reach people with the good news of Jesus. We're grateful for your prayers and your choosing to stand with us financially. And now here's Rabbi Schneider. He's going to speak God's sacred blessing over your life.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: In the book of Numbers chapter 6, we find a personal blessing from God our Father. This blessing should touch our hearts because it's so personal. Father God wants to intimately bless you. So receive his blessing into your life today with gladness and an open heart. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with his countenance and the Lord give you beloved one his peace. And now in Hebrew. God bless you and shalom.
Dustin Roberts: I'm your host Dustin Roberts and this program is produced and sponsored by discoveringthejewishjesus. Tomorrow Rabbi Schneider teaches us how to actually guard our thoughts so we can walk with God right here on discoveringthejewishjesus.