Inheritance and Delight! ~ Clothe us with Power and Might!

Shabbat Shalom!

 Adonai is my portion and my cup.
You cast my lot.

My boundary lines fall in pleasant places
—surely my heritage is beautiful. 

Psalm 16:5~6

A few bloggers (you all, dear blogfriends!) have shared your word for the year 2023 and encouraged me so I will also share mine!

My word is `heritage/inheritance`. 

In Hebrew it is:  NACHALAH נַחֲלָה,  NACHAL נָחַל

I receive it for this year, 5783/2023, in keeping with the Biblical Calendar which started in the Fall!  Remember we also are preparing our hearts to come into the new year starting in the first month of Springtime that was given by God to the Children of Israel!  (We have many New Years!)

“This month will mark the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year for you."   Exodus 12:2

When I was in NY this Chanukah trip I had several conversations with my Dad, we are always talking,  I love my Dad, and it was through one of our conversations that I felt to delve into the word `heritage` and ask the LORD to speak with me about it and it became my word.  I am seeing already how it is about restoration, family, my Jewish heritage which I only recently returned to in Messiah, as well as the larger eternal heritage which we are beneficiaries of in Messiah!

Where your heart is there your treasure will also be.  Matthew 6:21

In this time of the Restoration of All things I am excited and forever thankful to have come back to covenant with our Covenant keeping God and seek to better understand what is our heritage in Him!

Here are a few examples from the scriptures of aspects of `heritage`and `inheritance` that we find from the beginning and all the way to eternity!! (though Eternity is before the beginning!).  Starting with the verse above from Psalm 16, the LORD is our portion! And continuing with these which are just my beginnings of looking into this word!

1.  Heritage as it speaks of the Torah

Your testimonies I have as a heritage forever, for they are my heart’s joy.  Psalm 119:111

2.  Heritage as it speaks of the generations and children:

Behold, children are a heritage of ADONAI ~. The fruit of the womb is a reward.  Psalm 127:3

3.  Heritage as it speaks of the Land of Israel 

But when you cross over the Jordan and settle in the land that Adonai your God enables you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you, you will dwell in safety.          Deuteronomy 12:10

4.  Heritage as it speaks of our spiritual heritage in Messiah

I pray that he will give light to the eyes of your hearts, so that you will understand the hope to which he has called you, what rich glories there are in the inheritance he has promised his people, and how surpassingly great is his power working in us who trust him. It works with the same mighty strength he used when he worked in the Messiah to raise him from the dead and seat him at his right hand in heaven,  far above every ruler, authority, power, dominion or any other name that can be named either in the ‘olam hazeh or in the ‘olam haba. 

Ephesians 3:18~21

5.  Heritage as it speaks of Eternal inheritance 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah! In His great mercy He caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Messiah Yeshua from the dead.  An incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading inheritance has been reserved in heaven for you.       1Peter 1:3~4

 Inheritance in Psalm 37!

I also opened up a psalm this morning when I had been thinking of the word heritage the night before and the bible just `happened to` open up to Psalm 37.  I had never realized that `subtitle` on the Psalm, or maybe just hadn`t really connected with it as I did today when seeing it in terms of `my word`!  Here are a few of the verses! Please read the whole Psalm as well to see the verses in context and how in many of the verses the Psalmist speaks of the `Inheritance of the Kedoshim` (Kedoshim = holy ones) 

Inheritance of the Kedoshim

Psalm 37

³ Trust in Adonai and do good.
Dwell in the land, feed on faithfulness.
⁴ Delight yourself in Adonai,
and He will give you the requests of your heart.
⁵ Commit your way to Adonai.
Trust in Him, and He will do it.
⁶ He will bring out your vindication as light,
and your cause will shine as noonday.
⁷ Be still before Adonai and wait patiently for Him.
Do not fret over one prospering in his way,
over one carrying out wicked schemes.
⁸ Put away anger and turn from wrath.
Do not fret—it only leads to doing evil.
⁹ For evildoers will be cut off,
but those who wait for Adonai—
    they will inherit the land.

And lastly, notice the word `delight` in verse 4!  And verse 11:

 But the meek will inherit the land, and delight in abundant shalom.

The reason why I mentioned `delight` in the title is that I was `delighted` to see the word inheritance in so many places together with `delight`.  

It also appears in this combination in one of my favorite verses, from Isaiah 58:13 about keeping the Shabbat!

If you turn back your foot from Shabbat, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call Shabbat a delight, the holy day of Adonai honorable, If you honor it, not going your own ways, not seeking your own pleasure, nor speaking your usual speech,

then You will delight yourself in Adonai, and I will let you ride over the heights of the earth, I will feed you with the heritage of your father Jacob.” For the mouth of Adonai has spoken.

Isaiah 58:13~14

Last but not least!

I also love to connect everything to what we are reading in the weekly Torah portion, as the cycle is so prophetic.  So it is not coincidence that we are entering into the book of Exodus with the `names` of the twelve tribes.  In Hebrew, the book of Exodus is actually called Shemot, which means `Names`!!   In Ezekiel 47:14, the land of Israel is divided equally as an inheritance and given to the twelve tribes of Israel.  And on the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem are inscribed the names of the 12 tribes!! 

My Dad said something about not being so concerned about our heritage in terms of the Torah and that made me want to take hold of our heritage ever more. See already we are learning so much!

Please share your insights from your word if you have one, and hope you might have been inspired or learned something new from my reflections of looking at `Heritage/inheritance`.  May we delight in the LORD through His word and His everlasting Love.

All love and blessings.❤️

Shabbat Shalom!

Love,

Shayndel

Song, `My Portion` to enjoy , from Psalm 16 ❤️

Kreplach with chopsticks

This High Holy Day week (actually 10 days) has been like a great homecoming, and I just wanted all the foods that go with it.  Returning to my Jewish heritage--through Yeshua!--after forty years in the wilderness---was something that I truly celebrated in this week.

We live in a small city in the South of Japan.  There is no way to find Jewish holiday foods anywhere around here,  so I searched a recipe and decided to make kreplach myself, after finding out that it is a traditional food to eat before the fast on Yom Kippur (recipe here). A food my grandmother might have made and generations even before that.

As I was rolling out the little squares of dough and putting in the meat filling, I thought about the holiday, which is about repentance and atonement.  We---"both the native-born and the outsider dwelling among you"--- are to observe this most Holy day on the Kingdom calendar year after year throughout the generations, as commanded in the Torah. 

"It is to be a statute to you forever, that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you are to afflict your souls, and do no kind of work--both the native-born and the outsider dwelling among you.  For on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you.   From all your sins you will be clean before ADONAI.  It is a Shabbat of solemn rest to you, and you are to afflict your souls.  It is a statute forever."      　　---Leviticus 16:  29 〜 30 

On this "tenth day of the seventh month" as it was now, I reflected on the miracle that my eyes were opened through Yeshua here in Japan just a few years ago.  Through His Salvation I was brought back to God and the Torah and to the Jewish roots of our faith.

Recently I watched the movie musical of Fiddler on the Roof.   Seeing it now I realized how it was the story of my ancestors.  Like Tevye and his family in the story, they had to leave their small towns in Russia and Eastern Europe because of their Jewish faith.  The scene was touching where they are packing to go.  The Rabbi takes the Torah and carries it on his shoulder.  The mother packs her Sabbath candlesticks in with their few belongings.  They were going to America!! Something about seeing that story touched my heart as I realized my family too started that way.  My grandfather's parents had to flee their towns, which were actually closer to this side of the world where I am now.  They came all the way to America, like Tevye the milkman in the musical and his family.  For the first time I could imagine my family that way, probably with their few belongings too, bringing what was  most dear to them and especially the faith in their hearts.

How could I have wanted to run away from my heritage, what was it I wanted to hide and turn away from?  I had no sense of the preciousness of what they were carrying.  I thought I could just decide to turn away from it and I did.  I didn't observe Yom Kippur all my years in Japan.  I had a lot to repent for on this day.   I looked at the flour covered board and the plump little dumplings, the dough covering and concealing the inside filling....just meditating on this first Yom Kippur in Japan,
preparing for the fast....making .... kreplach...

It is also said that it's good to eat melon before a fast.  I had watermelon.  The fast was very easy this year. I don't know if it was because of the watermelon, or because being in God's presence is so nourishing that I didn't hunger at all but rather felt very filled the whole day through from His word!

My children,

I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin.  But if anyone does sin, we have an Intercessor with the Father--the righteous Messiah Yeshua.  He is the atonement for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.     
                           
                                                                          

1 John 2: 1 〜 2  TLV