News Letter 5846-010
23rd day of the 2nd month 5846 years after creation
The 2nd Month in of the first year of the third Sabbatical Year
The Third Sabbatical Year of the 119th Jubilee Cycle
It is now the now the 35th day of Counting the Omer which began on Sunday April 4, 2010

May 8, 2010

Shabbat Shalom Brethren,

In the news this week once again another disaster is coming upon the shores of Louisiana. After seeing the oil slicks on the news and how they treat them with chemicals to break them up, I saw that they were red in colour. Then it occurred to me what is written in Revelation 8: 8 And the second messenger sounded, and what looked like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood (This passage has more than one meaning, but I am looking at the plain message right now)

And in Revelation 16: 3 And the second messenger poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood, as of a dead one, and every living creature in the sea died. 4 And the third messenger poured out his bowl on the rivers and fountains of water, and they became blood.

I am not saying the Gulf oil is what is being spoken of as blood here but it has occurred to me that when this oil is treated with chemicals it does turn red and looks like blood on the water. And as the oil kills off the shrimp and plankton the rest of the food chain will be affected. Again, is this what Revelation is referring too, I am not sure.

The severe tornados and flooding rain storms racing across the USA and killing and destroying homes and businesses is once again confirming prophecy. Having been to Nashville I was surprised to see how deep the waters were at the Grand Old Opera House. These events come right from Lev 26 and the curses for not keeping the Sabbatical years, as well as the rest of Torah. And there are more curses to come where more lives will be lost.

This week thetrumpet.com had this article which I feel you ought to be aware of. We have been warning you of the current food crisis which is not made the headline news as yet.

U.S. Food Prices‘ Spiralling Out of Control’
U.S. food prices jumped by 2.4 percent in March 2010 in the largest monthly leap in more than 26 years, and the sixth consecutive monthly increase. The National Inflation Association (nia) issued an alert to its members April 22 warning that the sharp upswing in U.S. food inflation will soon lead to a situation as severe as that currently plaguing India.

Here are some of the most startling year-over-year price increases in the U.S. markets: Fresh and dry vegetables up 56.1 percent. Fresh fruits and melons up 28.8 percent. Eggs for fresh use up 33.6 percent. Beef and veal up 10.7 percent. Dairy products up 9.7 percent.

In the alert, the nia reminded its members that it has long predicted food sector inflation, but admitted having
“never anticipated that it would spiral so far out of control this quickly.”

The rising prices, alongside pandemic unemployment, have nudged tides of Americans onto the food stamp program.

After the 14th consecutive monthly increase, 39.4 million Americans are now enrolled in the program. This figure is up 22.4 percent from one year ago, and the U.S. government is now paying out more to Americans in entitlement programs than it collects in taxes.

Many pundits are proclaiming that the U.S. recession is over and that inflation threats have been neutralized. But their hasty optimism does not factor in that 58 percent of February’s year-over year increase in retail sales was not from improving consumer confidence, but from surging food and gasoline prices. …

Before this spike, inflation had not been a driving factor in the current economic downturn, and the Federal Reserve expected inflation to remain low throughout the year. But this unexpected jump in food prices and in other areas could quickly change that, especially when the increases are inevitably passed along to consumers and retail inflation starts to rise.

As shocking as it might be to a nation that has grown accustomed to abundance and convenience, mounting inflation and economic hardship will continue to feed each other, and eventually result in severe food shortages. The seeds of such a crisis have already been sown.

In Europe there is much unrest due to the great financial trouble Greece, Portugal and Spain are in. The grim outlook for Greece sent investors and speculators looking at the next likely victim, Portugal. And Portugal’s debt was aggressively sold, sending yields jumping to more than three times the levels of early last month.

And downgrades soon followed. S&P downgraded Portugal’s credit rating two notches and downgraded Greece by three notches, to junk status.

There was more …

With the Portugal domino starting to wobble, the biggest, most threatening weak spot in the euro zone, Spain, came under the spotlight. As a result Spanish bonds were dumped, and S&P responded in kind, with a downgrade on Spain and warnings of possible further downgrades.

All of this sent the euro tumbling further, and sent shockwaves through global financial markets.

Nonetheless, the dominos for a sovereign debt crisis are clearly in line.

As fears over deficits and debt continue to spread, expect the problems in Europe to test the lifespan of the euro, and ultimately present challenges to global financial markets and global economic recovery as fears spread to the UK, Japan and the U.S.

All of these things that I am saying are being noticed by the press as well. Look at this article and then read the comments to see just how some are treating these warnings. http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/why-do-so-many-bad-things-keep-happening-to-the-united-states

The way they see them shows you how they are going to be as told to you in Revelation. They will curse YHWH and they will not repent.

In last week’s News Letter I told you about my wife’s best friend who gave The Prophecies of Abraham to her well read Baptist brother. This week the jury is in. The official word is no comment. No comment….., they could not find anything wrong with what I said. They did not like it but it was in line with the bible; So no comment.

This way they can continue to stay where they are and continue to tell my wife I am crazy.

Last week I also had many who could empathize with me sharing my feelings and one who could not. I heard from one lady from South Africa who brought tears to my eyes reading her note. No brethren, you who suffer the slings and arrows from your own family and are made to feel as if you are in this all alone, rest assure you are not alone; we are not alone. Those of you who have a supportive spouse, reach out to those with unconverted mates and spend some time with them. Give them an ear and just listen. Do not offer advice, just listen; you might learn a thing or two. Remember Yeshua too has an unconverted mate that He is dealing with. He too knows how much it hurts.

I share my feelings with you all as a way for me to cope, but also to let those of you who are also in this sort of battle, to let you know you are not alone. Do not lose hope, stay strong and continue to study. I have read each and every one of your emails and I thank you and there are so many of you. I also empathize with you too. There are just too many emails to answer them all, so please let this note suffice. You are not alone! Yeshua is working with each of us very closely to refine us even more.

Many of you have also written to give me your thoughts about the name Yahovah which I have now been using. As I said I do not want to have some huge debate about the name of our Elohym. I am using what I believe is correct according to my understanding and I am not a Hebrew language expert, but others are. So I have a short article which you can read and if this is of interest you can go to the web site and learn more or purchase the book which explains this in detail. Again I am not going to argue with you.

Yahovah; Using the Wrong Tool by Keith Johnson.

We have been talking about Noah’s Ark in our Torah studies the past few weeks. And recently there is a claim by some to have found the ark at a different site than the one I have been showing you. I do hope you all have taken the time to read those supplemental articles I have sent along each week. In them is the proof that you need in order to know which is the right Ark site.

To those of you who do not have the time to study those things I am sharing with you, or even just to read them, I ask you what are you spending your time doing? What is more important than knowing the one who is about to bring to a close this age? What will become of your important events then?

We will continue with this week’s triennial Torah Study. Our Triennial Torah reading this week which is laid out to cover the entire bible in 3 ½ years is found on our website.

Gen 8 / Josh 19-20 / Ps 18 / Mat 11 – 12:21

Genesis 8

13 And it came to be in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth. And Noah? removed the covering of the ark and looked, and saw the surface of the ground was dry. 14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

This year was the year 1657 after creation that the earth was dry.

A couple of things to note here; Noah made a sacrifice of each of the clean animals. So the Clean and unclean laws again were known to him. He did this on an altar.

If you go to my Gallery at https://sightedmoon.com/sightedmoon_2015/gallery/ you will see a picture of Noah’s Ark in the foreground. In the background is Mount Masher or what Gilgamesh referred to as the two breast of a woman going down into the earth.

The mountain point on the left hand side is known to this day as Pilgrimage point. Because this used to be the place that people returned to each year as a holy place. The mountain point of the right hand side is known as Sacrificial Point as this was where Noah made the sacrifices of the clean animals.

When you sit on this mountain and look down over the vast valley below you can just imagine Noah and his family watching the water recede each day, and you can feel the cool wind blowing across this mountain. You can hear the quietness of this place and feel as Noah did knowing that there were no other people in the entire world. It was extremely humbling to think on these things while I was there and consider how Noah felt at this time.

Noah preached 20 years before he got married and had children at age 500. His wife would later be known, I believe, as Semiramis the Mother of all living, although her name is never mentioned in the bible.

Ancient Babylonians had believed in an even older fable, “an egg of wondrous size had fallen from heaven into the Euphrates river” and the fishes rolled it to the shore where the doves hatched out “the Queen of Heaven”, or Ishtar (Woodrow, Ibid., pp. 152-153). Hence the egg became a symbol of Ishtar, and is used today by Christianity in its celebration of Easter.

As I have explained in previous notes Noah’s Ark looked like a giant egg due to the KPR (Kaphar) which covered the ark. Noah’s wife came out of the ark and was the mother of all that would be born.

The legends merge with that of Ishtar who was Nimrod’s wife. Semiramis also known as Aphrodite and as Venus can be seen in this painting by Botticelli coming ashore in the giant egg on the Euphrates River. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus_(Botticelli)

I have a final article from my Noah’s Ark series titled Explanation of How Noah felt warning everyone and only His eight heeded his warning.

• Newsletter 5843-018    Explanation of How Noah felt warning everyone and only His eight heeded his warning.

In the book the Prophecies of Abraham which you can order on the Sightedmoon Marketplace, I show you in the beginning of the book how Noah was the first example of the Law of the Jubilee cycle being fulfilled. Each Jubilee cycle has 7, seven year Sabbatical cycles in them. Certain events are prophesied to happen in each Sabbatical cycle if the people at that time are not obeying Yahovah.

As we have read the world in Genesis 6: 11 And the earth was corrupt before Elohim, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And Elohim looked upon the earth and saw that it was corrupt – for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth – 13 and Elohim said to Noah?, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. And see, I am going to destroy them from the earth.

When we look at the year of the flood in 1656 after creation of Adam and compare it to all the Sabbatical cycles in history we see a pattern come to the fore front of which Noah is the first example we have. The End of Noah’s age takes place in the middle of the 6th Sabbatical Cycle.

This pattern of the Jubilee cycles is repeated in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and in the execution of Nimrod. It will be the middle of the sixth Sabbatical cycle in our day when Satan is locked away. That is at the end of the 3 ½ year of the tribulation in 2033 AD. You need to read the book to see how all of this is tied together.

Another question that most young people ask is ‘Were there dinosaurs on the Ark?’ and most people do not know how to answer this. I would like to share this article with you and let you decide if indeed there were dinosaurs on the Ark and if Noah did transport them. The following is just a short quote from the article explaining that these Chupicuaro Indians lived with and made models of Dinosaurs 800 to 200 BC and we have only known of dinosaurs for the past 200 years. So how did these Indians know of them? They knew them because they lived with them.

http://www.bible.ca/tracks/tracks-acambaro.htm
In 1945 Waldemar Julsrud, a German immigrant and knowledgeable archeologist, discovered clay figurines buried at the foot of El Toro Mountain on the outskirts of Acambaro, Guanajuato, Mexico. Eventually over 33,000 ceramic figurines were found near El Toro as well as Chivo Mountain on the other side of town. Similar artifacts found in the area are identified with the Pre-classical Chupicuaro Culture (800 BC to 200 AD).

The authenticity of Julsrud find was challenged because the huge collection included dinosaurs. Many archeologists believe dinosaurs have been extinct for the past 65 million years and man knowledge of them has been limited to the past 200 years. If this is true, man could not possibly have seen and modeled them 2,500 years ago.

There was an absolutely astonishing breathless moment as one object was unwrapped and there before us a virtually perfect representation of an Iguanodon. This was one of the first dinosaur skeletons discovered. The early concept of it’s appearance was almost comical in the mid 1800’s. By the turn of the century it had improved considerably but fell far short of what we now know. The figurine exhibits knowledge we have gained only in the last few years. No hoaxer could have made this model in the 1940’s.

In the article is another dinosaur that no one knew about and they figured the Indians made this one up. Then long after they had seen the sculpture in clay a dinosaur that had never been found before was unearthed nearby somewhere in Mexico. It was the exact same one as these Indians had made centuries before.

Not only this, but the colours and dots on the clay models of the dinosaurs are proving also to be correct because the skin of the triceratops were found in Peru with the same markings on it. Enjoy the article.

Josh 19-20
Here again in Joshua 19 we are reading about the dividing of the land amongst the Israelites.
But in verse 47 we have an interesting statement 47 And the border of the children of Dan went out from them. And the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem and captured it. And they smote it with the edge of the sword, and possessed it, and dwelt in it, and called it Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their father.

This was a national characteristic of the tribe of Dan. I have covered this in our series on The Throne of Britain: Its Biblical Origin and Future . But I would like you to read this one page about the tribe of Dan.

http://www.giveshare.org/israel/judah/part3ch04.html

In Chapter 21 we will learn that one of the cities Kirjath arba which is Hebron belonged to Caleb as we read back in Joshua 14: 10 “And now, see, ???? has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years since ???? spoke this word to Mosheh while Yisra’?l walked in the wilderness. And now, see, I am eighty-five years old today. 11 “Yet I am still as strong today as I was on the day that Mosheh sent me. As my strength was then, so my strength is now, for battle, and for going out and for coming in. 12 “And now, give me this mountain of which ???? spoke in that day, for you heard in that day how the Anaqim were there, and that the cities were great and walled. If ???? is with me, then I shall dispossess them, as ???? said.” 13 Yehoshua then blessed him, and gave H?eb?ron to Kal?b? son of Yephunneh as an inheritance. 14 So H?eb?ron became the inheritance of Kal?b? son of Yephunneh the Qenizzite to this day, because he followed ???? Elohim of Yisra’?l completely. 15 Now the name of H?eb?ron was formerly Qiryath Arba (Arba was the greatest man among the Anaqim). And the land had rest from fighting.

Caleb readily gave up one of his cities to be a city of refuge for those who had killed by accident. We will see in the next chapter that He also gave up this city to be a Levitical city to the tribe of Levi.

What kind of man was this Caleb who was still willing to be obedient in his old age and give up some of his small territory?

Ps 18
When I read Psalm 18 all I could think of was King David’s vast empire which no one ever comments on. He was being attacked and thought he was going to die. Then he cried out to YHVH and the enemies are delivered into his hands.

The following short article shows this but not to the degree I would like to.
http://www.ucg.org/brp/brp.asp?get=daily&day=30&month=November&year=2002&Layout=

Chariots of Mesopotamia
(2 Samuel 10; 1 Chronicles 19; Psalm 60; Psalm 108; Psalm 83) November 30
This section of Scripture is quite interesting. Focus here is often placed on the fight against Aram, i.e., Syria, which stretched northeast to the Euphrates River. Yet across the Euphrates from Syria was the empire of Assyria—not yet risen to the major superpower it would ultimately become, but still a great force to be reckoned with. And, though Assyria is not directly mentioned here, we do see that there were forces arrayed against David from Mesopotamia (1 Chronicles 19:6), the land between the Tigris and Euphrates, which included Assyria. Indeed, it also included Babylon to the south. Some try to argue that the words translated “Mesopotamia,” Aram Naharaim, denoted just a minor district on the upper Euphrates. But this is negated by the mention of 32,000 chariots (verse 7)—a huge number in any ancient context and unimaginably so if the traditional view of Israel fighting against just a few small neighboring powers is correct. At the height of his power, King Solomon had only 1,400 chariots (1 Kings 10:24-26). In addition to this, we know of 33,000 soldiers from the Aramaean, i.e., Syrian, states (2 Samuel 10:6), but there were probably untold thousands more in conjunction with the chariots sent from Mesopotamia.

While some might argue that the figure of 32,000 chariots is a copyist error, such an error seems highly unlikely since such a number of chariots would have screamed out at ancient readers and scribes as a mistake—unless it were known to be true.

(While the Philistines were said to have had 30,000 chariots in 1 Samuel 13:5, it should be noted that these foremost of the Sea Peoples, who almost defeated Egypt shortly before the time of Saul, were a much greater force in the Mediterranean world than they are often reckoned to have been. The fact that Israel overcame them was itself miraculous.)

Surprisingly, then, it appears that what we may be looking at in our current reading is a massive Middle Eastern coalition that included the entire national armies of Assyria and Babylon—all engaged against David. The figure of 32,000 chariots is probably a combined total from all the armies fighting Israel.

What, then, of the instigation of this conflict by the disgracing of David’s messengers by the Ammonites? Author Stephen Collins gives some intriguing insights in this lengthy quote from his book, The “Lost” Ten Tribes of Israel…Found!: “The Ammonites were a small tributary nation subject to David and were no doubt aware that David had executed two-thirds of the Moabites who had rebelled against him. Why then would they dare to take the apparently suicidal action of humiliating David’s ambassadors and provoking David into a warlike response (I Chronicles 19:1-5)? The only logical explanation is that the Ammonites were acting as agents for someone else who wanted to challenge David, and that the Ammonites knew they would be backed by powerful friends who supported their hostile action. The rest of the account supports that conclusion.

“I Chronicles 19:6-9 states the Ammonites ‘hired’ a force of 32,000 chariots and an uncounted number of Syrian and Mesopotamian warriors to fight King David’s army on their behalf…. Since Ammon was paying gold and silver as tribute to Israel already (I Chronicles 18:11), it hardly had the resources to hire virtually the entire national armies of the nations in Mesopotamia. Indeed, verse 6 indicates the Ammonites had no gold left with which to ‘hire’ mercenaries and could pay only in silver. Apparently, the other nations wanted to challenge Israel in considerable force, and Ammon’s revolt was the pretext to arrange such a conflict…. That this huge Mesopotamian army would allow itself to be ‘hired’ without receiving any gold at all indicates that their presence was a national policy of Assyria’s king! A force of 32,000 chariots could only have been mustered with the approval of the Assyrian Empire, the dominant power of Mesopotamia.

“The Bible’s use of the term ‘Mesopotamia’ to describe the homeland of this vast force of foreign troops [rather than a specific country] indicates that it was a joint expeditionary force of many Mesopotamian nations (Assyria, Babylon, etc.). Verses 6-7 state that many Syrian troops were also ‘hired’ by the Ammonites to join the Mesopotamian armies in fighting King David. Since David had already conquered portions of Syria, the Syrians were eager to join a large alliance to fight against David. This battle then was an effort by the king of Assyria to defeat the growing power of King David. He arranged for virtually his entire army, along with other Mesopotamian allies and various Syrian kings to be ‘hired’ (for a pittance) by one of David’s subject nations (Ammon) to get rid of the threat posed by King David’s power.

“Interestingly, these Mesopotamian nations and Syria had enough respect for King David and Israel that they did not declare war openly, but allowed their national armies to fight as ‘mercenaries’ of a small nation. In this manner, if things went badly, they could go home and say that they were not technically at war with Israel on a national level. However, as evidence that these nations were actually arranging a war with King David, the Bible states that ‘the kings’ of the mercenary armies (the Mesopotamian nations and Syrians) came with their armies to personally watch the battle (I Chronicles 19:9)….

“This battle for supremacy of the ancient world was fought in two stages. The initial stage of the battle is described in I Chronicles 19:8-15. Israel’s army met the combined forces of Ammon, Syria, and the Mesopotamian nations, and defeated them in a two-front battle. The fact that Israel had to split its forces and fight in two separate directions indicates that Israel’s army was not expecting to fight so large a force and found itself surrounded by a numerically superior army. Israel’s army likely expected to fight only the upstart Ammonites, and was surprised by the presence of so many enemies. Nevertheless, Israel’s army won the battle, and the Mesopotamian army (i.e. the Assyrian army) apparently retreated to its own territory as they are not mentioned in the second stage of the battle.

“David quickly realized that this conflict involved far more than a revolt by the little nation of Ammon. It was actually an attempt to destroy Israel’s army and national power, and to prevent it from supplanting Assyria as the preeminent nation in the ancient world” (1995, pp. 8-10).

The superscription of Psalm 60 shows that it refers to these events. David speaks here of having drunk the wine of astonishment or confusion. He speaks of trembling. David must have been overwhelmed at what was happening. But incredibly, the ultimate victory in this apparently titanic struggle was given by the Almighty Lord of Hosts to him and the men of Israel. As David notes in verse 12, it is “through God” that “we will do valiantly.” David later uses much of this psalm to write the second part of Psalm 108 (verses 6-13—the first part of Psalm 108, verses 1-5, being taken from Psalm 57, written while David and his men hid from Saul in the cave at En Gedi, compare verses 7-11). Interestingly, Psalm 83, which seems to be a prophecy of end-time events, may also refer to this monumental battle we’ve been reading about. A psalm composed by the Levitical chief musician Asaph, it concerns a huge Middle Eastern confederacy whose goal is to wipe out Israel—to which Assyria is joined. Perhaps a coming end-time fulfillment of the apparent prophecy here had a prototype in David’s time. If so, the episode we’ve just read about would seem to be the only one that would fit. If Psalm 83 does refer on some level to this episode, we may regard the “inhabitants of Tyre” mentioned in the coalition as rogue elements in that city rather than King Hiram and those loyal to him, as he was a close ally to David and later to Solomon.

“In the second stage of the battle recorded in I Chronicles 19:16-19, the Israelites and the Syrians mobilized their entire national military resources and clashed anew. This time there was no more pretense that the Syrians were Ammonite mercenaries. Also, the Assyrians were apparently no longer engaged, but had retreated after being soundly defeated by the Israelite army. The account states that David ‘gathered all Israel’ and Syria ‘drew forth the Syrians that were beyond the River’ (meaning reinforcements from east of the Euphrates River). The second battle of this war involved King David and his fully-mobilized army marching eastward from the Jordan River to fight everyone the Syrians could muster. After suffering 47,000 dead, including their commander, the Syrians yielded to King David and ‘became his servants,’ meaning they became vassal nations of Israel who paid tribute to King David….”

“What began as an effort on the part of Assyria and its Mesopotamian allies to crush Israel’s military power resulted in Israel becoming sovereign over all the engaged Syrians, and the Mesopotamian powers being put to flight. The Assyrians and their allies learned firsthand that they could not successfully stand against Israel’s power” (pp. 11-12). Indeed, Collins goes on to quote secular history as explaining that after this point, Aramaean invaders invade Mesopotamia and exhaust Babylonia and Assyria—and he points out that this is while the Aramaeans are vassals to David, indeed that the Israelites might be referred to by the Assyrians as one and the same with these Aramaeans. “After David made the Aramaeans his vassals and (probably in concert with those vassals) subjugated Assyria and Mesopotamia, David was not just king of Israel and Judah, he was emperor over nations.

He was the dominant ruler of the known world, and Israel had become an ancient ‘superpower'” (p. 19).

David’s faith in God to grant victory is expressed in Psalm 20: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. They have bowed down and fallen; but we have risen and stand upright” (verses 7-8).

With the forces to the north defeated, there remains only a mopping-up operation to finish this whole episode. The terrified Ammonites, their help gone, flee to their capital city of Rabbah to hide behind its city walls. We will see the fight against them in our next reading.

Again in our series on The Throne of Britain we show you where King David’s Empire reached into Ireland and also to the North America where he took tons and tons of copper to make available to Solomon for the creation of the Temple.

People do not realize just how great and how encompassing was the empire of King David. His blow to the Assyrians knocked them off as a potential threat for 300 years when they came back and defeated the northern ten tribes.

You can read this in Stephen Collins book the Origins of Empire of Ancient Israel at http://stevenmcollins.com/html/books.html
I am way off line now so let’s get back to our Torah study.

Mat 11 – 12:21
Mathew 11 starts off taking about John the Baptizer and Yeshua tells us here that john was the Elijah to come. I have an article about this very point and it is very detailed. You may want to review it at:

• Newsletter 5844-017    What is a Prophet and Who is Elijah?

to learn what that spirit of Elijah is today and what the restoration of all things spoken of in Malachi is talking about.

Yeshua then goes on to speak to certain cities and tells them to repent. Repent of what?

All of you know you are to repent of sin and most Christians will say this and not have a clue what sin is. They will claim that sin is being bad or not doing good; but ask yourself right now, What is the biblical definition of what is sin? Do you know? If you do not then how can you know what it is that you are to repent of?

1 John 3:4 4 Everyone doing sin also does lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness

Sin is the breaking of the law; of not keeping the law. IN fact in Mathew 5:19 we read just a few weeks ago, 19 Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

The one law that most Christians will say is done away is the fourth commandment of not keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. But they cannot quote you a single scripture that says the Sabbath is done away or the Sabbath is now changed to Sunday. Nor can they quote you a single scripture why they will not keep the Holy Days which are told to us in Lev 23 which starts out with the first Holy Day we are to keep and that is the weekly Sabbath.

This would be a good time form many of you to review The Mark of The Beast at:

• Newsletter 5843-029    The Mark of the Beast and the Mark of Yahweh.

and for some of you this will be a huge revelation. What is the Mark of the Beast and what does it have to do with the Sabbath and sin?

But to those of you who are keeping the Sabbath and the Holy Days, are you doing so according which calendar. Have you bothered to prove which one is right? It does matter. Here at www.sightedmoon.com we keep the Holy Days according to the sighted moon being seen from Jerusalem and the months based on the barley being Aviv. We keep the weekly Sabbath on the seventh day of the week Saturday every week.

This week you once again have the opportunity to prove what Yeshua said that concerning the day of His return no man would know the day or the hour. The reason this is true is because Yeshua returns on the Feast of Trumpets which is determined by the New Sighted moon. And because no one can know when it will be seen, then no one will know the day or the hour the son of man is to return. Go out this week and look for the Crescent Moon and then you will understand this saying, and then you will understand which calendar you should be using to determine the Holy days.

What many do not realize is that the command to keep holy the Sabbath also includes the keeping of the seventh year Sabbatical year which we have just finished from Aviv 2009 to Aviv 2010. Many refuse to keep the Sabbatical year and as such are breaking the fourth commandment. They will not repent and find a whole host of excuses why they do not have to keep it. The same excuses christians use not to keep the Weekly Sabbath. They are in fact being lawless. Are you? If so then you need to repent and this means that you need to stop breaking these ten commandments and begin to obey them. It is that simple; just obey.

Yeshua warns us that had the things He did Chorazin and Capernum been done in the Land of Sodom those people and their descendants would have been here to this day. So the question is why?

We are told why in Genesis 18: 16 And the men rose up from there and looked toward Sed?om, and Ab?raham went with them to send them away. 17 And ???? said, “Shall I hide from Ab?raham what I am doing, 18 since Ab?raham is certainly going to become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 “For I have known him, so that he commands his children and his household after him, to guard the way of ????, to do righteousness and right-ruling, so that ???? brings to Ab?raham what He has spoken to him.” 20 And ???? said, “Because the outcry against Sed?om and Amorah is great, and because their sin is very heavy, 21 “I am going down now to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me, and if not, I know.” 22 So the men turned away from there and went toward Sed?om, but ???? still stood before Ab?raham. 23 And Ab?raham drew near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wrong? 24 “Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city, would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? 25 “Far be it from You to act in this way, to slay the righteous with the wrong, so that the righteous should be as the wrong. Far be it from You! Does the Judge of all the earth not do right?” 26 And ???? said, “If I find in Sed?om fifty righteous within the city, then I shall spare all the place for their sakes.” 27 And Ab?raham answered and said, “Look, please, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to ????, 28 “Suppose there are five less than the fifty righteous, would You destroy all of the city for lack of five?” And He said, “If I find there forty-five, I do not destroy it.” 29 And he spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose there are found forty?” And He said, “I would not do it for the sake of forty.” 30 And he said, “Let not ???? be displeased, and let me speak: Suppose there are found thirty?” And He said, “I would not do it if I find thirty there.” 31 And he said, “Look, please, I have taken it upon myself to speak to ????: Suppose there are found twenty?” And He said, “I would not destroy it for the sake of twenty.” 32 And he said, “Let not ???? be displeased, and let me speak only this time: Suppose there are found ten?” And He said, “I would not destroy it for the sake of ten.”

Abraham had asked if there were just ten righteous men in these cities would Yahovah then spare the cities. But not even ten righteous men were found and Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities were destroyed. It is to be taken from these verses in Mathew that there are not even found ten righteous people in Capernaum to spare it.

Again as we have shown you last week in Psalm 119:172 All your law is righteousness. 1 John 3:4 tells us what lawlessness is and Psalm 119:172 tells us what righteousness is.

This too leads us back to the Bond servant of Yahovah which we read about last week. We are to be obedient to death if necessary.

This lawlessness and righteousness then leads us into the next part of this Torah reading of Mathew 12 and this is one of those verses that Christians use not to keep the Sabbath. They say Yeshua worked on the Sabbath. See He picked grain.

1 At that time ????? went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. And His taught ones were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain, to eat. 2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your taught ones are doing what is not right to do on the Sabbath!” 3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what Dawid? did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he went into the House of Elohim and ate the showbread which was not right for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 “Or did you not read in the Torah that on the Sabbath the priests in the Set-apart Place profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? 6 “But I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the Set-apart Place. 7 “And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion and not offering,’ you would not have condemned the blameless. 8 “For the Son of Ad?am is Master of the Sabbath.”

Because He was the Messiah, Yahshua’s recorded handling of the Law can teach us a lot about what Yahovah actually wanted to convey. “At that time ????? went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. And His taught ones were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain, to eat.” As you’ll recall, this was perfectly legal according to the plain reading of the Torah. This is exactly what we have been reading these past few weeks about the 613 laws. In particular those laws that are numbered 41-50 which we have just looked at.

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am Yahweh your Elohim.” (Leviticus 23:22)

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am Yahweh your Elohim.” (Leviticus 19:9-10)

Do not gather gleanings (the ears that have fallen to the ground while reaping). “…nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard.” (Leviticus 19:9)

“And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger. (Leviticus 19:10)

“And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am Yahweh your God.” (Leviticus 19:10)

“When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this thing.” (Deuteronomy 24:21-22)

“And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am Yahweh your Elohim.” (Leviticus 19:10)

“And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am Yahweh your Elohim.” (Leviticus 19:10)

“When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. (Deuteronomy 24:19)

“When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.” (Deuteronomy 24:20)

When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.” (Deuteronomy 24:19) (see #41-50).

“And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your taught ones are doing what is not right to do on the Sabbath!”
Wrong. According to Deuteronomy 23:25, if you don’t use a sickle, you’re not “harvesting.”

25 “When you come into your neighbour’s standing grain, you shall pluck the heads with your hand, but do not use a sickle on your neighbour’s standing grain.

But Yeshua didn’t quibble over fine points of the Law with them. He (as usual) cut straight to the heart of the matter—that the Sabbath was made for man’s benefit, not the other way around, and that the ultimate benefit was to be the rest from our labours that only He could provide.

Clearly, there was more (and less) to the Sabbath Law than what the scribes and Pharisees had made of it.
“And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion and not offering,’ you would not have condemned the blameless. 8 “For the Son of Ad?am is Master of the Sabbath.”

We can read of the this mercy or compassion that Yeshua is referring to in Mathew 9 which we just read in recent weeks when Yeshua ate with the sinners. 12 And ????? hearing this, said to them, “Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 “But go and learn what this means, ‘I desire compassion and not offering.’ For I did not come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners.”

Again we can read of this in Hosea 6: 4 “Ephrayim, what would I do with you? Yehud?ah, what would I do with you? For your trustworthiness is like a morning cloud, and like the early dew it goes away. 5 “Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of My mouth. And my right-rulings break forth as the light. 6 “For I delight in kindness and not slaughtering, and in the knowledge of Elohim more than burnt offerings.

This will also lead us to Micah 6: 6 With what shall I come before ????, bow myself before the high Elohim? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Is ???? pleased with thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my being? 8 He has declared to you, O man, what is good. And what does ???? require of you but to do right, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your Elohim?

Did you get it? We are to walk humbly and to love kindness and do what is right.

Micah 7: 16 Let the gentiles see and be ashamed of all their might, let them put their hand over their mouth, let their ears be deaf. 17 Let them lick the dust like a serpent, let them come trembling from their strongholds like snakes of the earth, let them be afraid of ???? our Elohim and fear because of You. 18 Who is an ?l like You – taking away crookedness and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? He shall not retain His wrath forever, for He Himself delights in kindness. 19 He shall turn back, He shall have compassion on us, He shall trample upon our crookednesses! And You throw all our sins into the depths of the sea! 20 You give truth to Ya?aqob?, kindness to Ab?raham, which You swore to our fathers from the days of old!

We are shown in the prayer of Solomon that Yahovah will show us mercy when we pray and ask for forgiveness
2 Chronicles 6:17 “And now, O ???? Elohim of Yisra’?l, let Your word come true which You have spoken to Your servant Dawid?. 18 “For is it true: Elohim dwells with men on the earth! See, the heavens and the heavens of the heavens are unable to contain You, how much less this House which I have built! 19 “Yet, shall You turn to the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O ???? my Elohim, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant is praying before You? 20 “For Your eyes to be open toward this House day and night, toward the place You have said to put Your Name there, to listen to the prayer which Your servant prays toward this place. 21 “And shall You give heed to the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Yisra’?l, when they pray toward this place, and hear from Your dwelling place, in the heavens, and shall hear and forgive? 22 “If anyone sins against his neighbour, and he has lifted up an oath on him, to cause him to swear, and comes and swears before Your altar in this House, 23 then hear in the heavens, and act, and rightly rule Your servants, repaying the wrong by bringing his way on his own head, and declare right the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness. 24 “And if Your people Yisra’?l are smitten before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they shall turn back and confess Your Name, and pray and make supplication before You in this House, 25 then hear in the heavens and forgive the sin of Your people Yisra’?l, and bring them back to the land which You gave to them and their fathers. 26 “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, and they shall pray toward this place and confess Your Name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them, 27 then hear in the heavens, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Yisra’?l – for You teach them the good way in which they should walk – and shall send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance. 28 “When there is scarcity of food in the land; when there is pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemies distress them in the land of their cities; any plague or any sickness; 29 whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Yisra’?l, when each one knows his own plague and his own grief, and spreads out his hands to this house, 30 then hear from the heavens Your dwelling place, and forgive, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know – for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men – 31 so that they fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You gave to our fathers. 32 “Also, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Yisra’?l, but who comes from a far land for the sake of Your great Name and Your strong hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray in this House, 33 then hear from the heavens Your dwelling place, and do according to all which the foreigner calls to You for, so that all the people of the earth know Your Name and fear You, as do Your people Yisra’?l, and to know that this House which I have built is called by Your Name. 34 “When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, in the way that You send them, and they shall pray to You toward this city which You have chosen and toward the House which I have built for Your Name, 35 then shall You hear from the heavens their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause? 36 “When they sin against You – for there is no one who does not sin – and You become enraged with them and give them to the enemy, and they take them captive to a land far or near, 37 and they shall turn back unto their heart, in the land where they have been taken captive, and shall turn, and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have acted crookedly, and have done wrong,’ 38 and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their being in the land of their captivity, where they have taken them captive, and they shall pray toward their land which You gave to their fathers, and the city which You have chosen, and toward the House which I have built for Your Name, 39 then shall You hear from the heavens, Your dwelling place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You? 40 “Now, my Elohim, I pray, let Your eyes be open and let Your ears be attentive to the prayer of this place. 41 “And now, arise, O ???? Elohim, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength. Let Your priests, O ???? Elohim, be robed with deliverance, and let Your kind ones rejoice in goodness. 42 “O ???? Elohim, do not turn away the face of Your anointed; remember the kind acts of Your servant Dawid?.”

The admonition about being merciful apparently went right over their heads, for next we read: “Then he went over to the synagogue, where he noticed a man with a deformed hand. The Pharisees asked Yeshua, ‘Is it legal to work by healing on the Sabbath day?’ (They were, of course, hoping he would say yes, so they could bring charges against him.) And he answered, ‘If you had one sheep, and it fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you get to work and pull it out? Of course you would. And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Yes, it is right to do good on the Sabbath.’ Then he said to the man, ‘Reach out your hand.’ The man reached out his hand, and it became normal, just like the other one. Then the Pharisees called a meeting and discussed plans for killing Yeshua.” (Matthew 12:1-13)

I’ve never quite comprehended the Pharisees’ reaction. Simply suggesting that a man reach out his hand is not “work.” Did Yahshua heal the man, or did He not? Healing of this nature (i.e., miraculous, not medical) is obviously not within man’s ability. It is the work of Yahovah—the same Yahovah who instituted the Sabbath. So the Pharisees had a terrible problem here. If they accused Yahshua of healing the man on the Sabbath, they would also be admitting that He was exercising the power of Yahovah. By His act of mercy, Yahshua had forced the Pharisees to make a choice: commit intellectual suicide by denying the miracle they had just witnessed with their own eyes, or accept the premise that He was operating in the power and authority of Yahovah. They chose poorly.

We continue to study the 613 laws of which we just had some come into play in this weeks Torah study above. You can download all these laws at http://www.jewfaq.org/613.htm and this week are also using for commentary the owner’s manual, which we have also removed any of the Christian overtones.

http://theownersmanual.net/The_Owners_Manual_02_The_Law_of_Love.Torah
51. Not to refrain from maintaining a poor man and giving him what he needs (Deut. 15:7) (CCN62). See Tzedakah: Charity.
7 “When there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, within any of the gates in your land which ???? your Elohim is giving you, do not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother,

This is actually part of the instructions concerning the Sabbatical year: “But you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs. Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,’ and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing, and he cry out to Yahovah against you, and it become sin among you. You shall surely give to him, and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing Yahovah your Elohim will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand.” (Deuteronomy 15:7-10) Picture this: you’re an Israelite, the Sabbatical year is close, and your brother needs a loan. Ordinarily, you wouldn’t hesitate, because you’d get your money back. But Yahovah had said, “At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts. And this is the form of the release: every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbour shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbour or his brother, because it is called Yahovah’s release. Of a foreigner you may require it; but you shall give up your claim to what is owed by your brother.” (Deuteronomy 15:1-3) And you’re thinking, if I loan him the money now, I’ll never see it again. Here Yahovah is telling us: don’t calculate, don’t scheme, and don’t factor into your plans your beneficiary’s inability to repay you. Just meet needs where you find them, according to the resources He has already provided, at home first, and then further afield. After all, it’s only money, and Yahovah owns the universe—there’s a lot more where that came from.

By the way, the Sabbatical year (as well as Jubilee, a sabbatical of Sabbaths), are prophetic of Yahovah’s forgiveness of our debts—something all believers will experience viscerally during the seventh millennium, coming soon.

52. To give charity according to one’s means (Deut. 15:11) (CCA38). See Tzedakah: Charity.
11 “Because the poor one does not cease from the land. Therefore I am commanding you, saying, ‘You shall certainly open your hand to your brother, to your poor and to your needy one, in your land.’

Although the scripture quoted here doesn’t really support this particular mitzvah, we’ve seen the rabbinical principle demonstrated elsewhere in the Torah. The poor were to gather their sustenance from the crop Yahovah had already provided to the landowner. As Yahshua pointed out in His praise of the poor widow who contributed only a couple of pennies to the temple treasury (Luke 21:1-4), her small donation was seen by Yahovah as a fortune. As I said, His math and our math are quite different.

Before leaving this subject, we should address the problem of who, precisely, are the “poor.” Who is a legitimate recipient of our charity? Clearly, it isn’t just “anybody who thinks they don’t have enough.” Many rich men fall into that category. And Yahovah’s attitude toward those who are poor because they’re lazy is clear: “How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep—So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, and your need like an armed man.” (Proverbs 6:9-11); “The lazy man will not plow because of winter; he will beg during harvest and have nothing.” (Proverbs 20:4) So greed and laziness are deal breakers. This category would presumably include poor people who have nothing because they are living in sin—feeding a drug habit, for example. I don’t believe God is asking us to facilitate their addictions. But there are people who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in dire straits. The story of Ruth has parallels in today’s society. First, Boaz’ charity was extended on an individual basis to someone who had already demonstrated character and loyalty without regard for her own welfare. Second, his aid was bestowed first upon a fellow believer—there was no shortage of poor people in Israel, but Boaz perceived that any aid Ruth received would ultimately honour Yahovah. It’s easy and safe for us today to ease our consciences by writing a check to some big charity factory. And it’s not necessarily wrong to do that. It’s Yahovah’s pattern, however, that we get personally involved in people’s lives—one on one. Don’t worry if you can’t write if off your income taxes.

Treatment of Gentiles

53. To love the stranger (Deut. 10:19) (CCA61). See Love and Brotherhood.
19 “And you shall love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Mitsrayim.

It’s easy to get it right when you say what Yahovah says. This mitzvah, of course, is merely a corollary to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Yahovah lists as reasons for doing this His own authority, power, and justice. Because Yahovah loves the gentiles, His Chosen are to demonstrate that same kind of love. We should not forget why the Israelites ended up as “strangers” in Egypt: it’s because Yahovah put them there. He was perfectly capable of keeping the famine from touching Canaan when Jacob and his sons lived there. But He wanted them as a nation to experience all the things that characterize the human race at large—servitude, for we’re all slaves to sin at some point; deliverance, for the Messiah died so that we all could live; choice, for we’re all faced with the decision of whether or not to seek Yahovah’s will. Israel’s four hundred years as strangers in Egypt was the first phase of their training to become the people who would deliver the Messiah to the world.

54. Not to wrong the stranger in speech (Ex. 22:21) (CCN49). (Note in all the places I looked they all have this one law as Exodus 22:20 when in fact it is verse 21. Always check)

21 “Do not tread down a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Mitsrayim.

The Torah draws a distinction between mistreating and oppressing the strangers living among the Israelites. “Mistreat” here is from the Hebrew Yanah: “to rage or be violent; by implication to suppress, to maltreat, destroy, thrust out by oppression, vex, do violence.” (S) The word for “oppress” is lachats: “to press, that is, to distress: to afflict, crush, force, hold fast, oppress, or thrust.” A whole range of negative attitudes and behaviors is indicated, all of which are taken care of with the observance of Mitzvah #53. Although “wronging strangers in speech” is clearly included, the Torah goes far beyond the mitzvah. Again, the Jews are instructed to remember their former status as slaves in Egypt and apply the golden rule with that in mind.

55. Not to wrong the stranger in buying or selling (Ex. 22:21) (CCN50). (Note in all the places I looked they all have this on law as Exodus 22:20 when in fact it is verse 21. Always check)

21 “Do not tread down a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Mitsrayim.

This is based on the same verse as #54; the rabbis are extrapolating again. Being greedy and shrewd in your financial dealings with gentiles -is in direct violation of this mitzvah. He’s speaking specifically to Israel here, telling them that their national job is going to be bearing the signs and means of Yahovah’s deliverance to the rest of the world—to the gentiles—culminating in Yahshua the Messiah. For that reason, they are to treat the “strangers” with the same kindness and sense of purpose with which Yahovah treated them. Yahovah’s salvation, in other words, may be of the Jews (John 4:22), but it’s not exclusively for the Jews: “4 who are Yisra’?lites, whose is the adoption, and the esteem, and the covenants, and the giving of the Torah, and the worship, and the promises, 5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Messiah according to the flesh, who is over all, Elohim-blessed forever. Am?n.” (Romans 9:4-5).

56. Not to intermarry with gentiles (Deut. 7:3) (CCN19). See Interfaith Marriages.
3 “And do not intermarry with them – you do not give your daughter to his son, and you do not take his daughter for your son

And why does Yahovah want them to take these drastic precautions? “For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of Yahovah will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.” (Deuteronomy 7:1-5).

There is a parallel to this in 2 Corinthians. “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Messiah with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of Yahovah with idols? For you are the temple of the living Elohim.” (II Corinthians 6:14-16) This applies to any relationship, but especially to marriage. As the “body of Messiah,” believers today are faced with a conundrum similar to the one the Israelites faced—how to live in the world without becoming contaminated by it. We—like they—must be holy, for Yahovah our Elohim is holy.

57. To exact the debt of an alien (Deut. 15:3) (affirmative).
3 “Of a foreigner you could require it, but your hand is to release whatever is owed by your brother

“At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts. And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbour shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbour or his brother, because it is called Yahovah’s release. Of a foreigner you may require it; but you shall give up your claim to what is owed by your brother….” (Deuteronomy 15:1-3) Here, they took a feature of the law of the Sabbath-year and turned it into a justification for withholding financial mercy from gentiles. Ignoring the context and the heart of Yahovah, they missed the point entirely. The law of the sabbatical year was a picture of grace. Every seven years, all debts among Hebrews were to be released, as we saw in Mitzvah #51. Debts from foreigners, however, were exempt from this particular amnesty. It’s pretty easy to see what Yahovah is doing here: He’s prophesying that those whose relationship with Him enables them to enjoy his ultimate Sabbath rest will be forgiven their debt of sin. Those who are “foreign” to Him—that is, those who have no relationship with Yahovah—will bear the burden of their debt.
In practice, this mitzvah has no meaning outside of the context of the celebration of the Sabbath year. All lenders who aren’t keeping the other provisions of the Sabbath year (like letting their lands lie fallow and forgiving debts to their brethren) are unjustified in using this as an excuse to be greedy and conniving in their everyday business dealings with gentiles.