The Jerusalem Prayer List – Wednesday, June 10, 2009

by Joseph Shulam

To be in leadership you have to make yourself vulnerable to criticism.  This last weeks portion of the Torah had the criticism that Moses received from his brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam.  If you can't take criticism and even un-fair and un-justified criticism you ought not be in leadership and that is especially true in the Body of the Messiah and even more so in the Body of the Messiah in Israel.  Yeshua knew this point very well and that is why He said:  “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.” (Matt. 23:37)

The essence of being in any leadership is the ability to make decisions that are hard and at times difficult because they go against the feelings of the people and against their desires.  This is of course the crux of the matter that brings people whom you love and care for and people whom you nourish to criticize you and to judge your motives and the wisdom of your decisions. 

In the Torah portion of Numbers 8 – 12, the last part is the criticism of Aaron and Miriam against Moses, but it is in chapter 11 that we find out this interesting story that gives the background for what Aaron and Miriam did against Moses, and the same background is also for the story of Korah in Numbers chapter 16: “Now Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, each man at the doorway of his tent; and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly, and Moses was displeased. So Moses said to the LORD, “Why have You been so hard on Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all this people on me? “Was it I who conceived all this people? Was it I who brought them forth, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which You swore to their fathers’? “Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me, saying, ‘Give us meat that we may eat!’  “I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too burdensome for me. “So if You are going to deal thus with me, please kill me at once, if I have found favor in Your sight, and do not let me see my wretchedness.” The LORD therefore said to Moses, “Gather for Me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. “Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit who is upon you, and will put Him upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you will not bear it all alone. “Say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, “Oh that someone would give us meat to eat! For we were well-off in Egypt.” Therefore the LORD will give you meat and you shall eat. ‘You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you; because you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before Him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’” But Moses said, “The people, a that they may eat for a whole month.’  “Should flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to be sufficient for them? Or should all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be sufficient for them?” The LORD said to Moses, “Is the LORD’s power limited? Now you shall see whether My word will come true for you or not.”  So Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD. Also, he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and stationed them around the tent. Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took of the Spirit who was upon him and placed Him upon the seventy elders. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do it again.” (Num 11:10-25) 

When God divided the Spirit that He had given to Moses to the seventy Elders it eventually they started to think as Miriam and Aaron stated: “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?”  The idea behind this statement is very clear.  Aaron and Miriam are saying – we too are prophets and we are equal to you dear Moses.  The same comes in chapter 16 of Numbers with Korah and his company.

 The big question that comes up here is how can we as leadership make wiser decision.  To this question we also have an answer in the Torah.  Let us see the following story about a very unusual case that the Written Torah did not address directly.  The case of the daughters of  Zelophehad.  This man  Zelophehad did not any sons.  He had only daughters.  Until that time in Israel women did not receive their father's inheritance and there was never a precedent before.  So here is the text from Numbers chapter 27:  “Then the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph, came near; and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah and Hoglah and Milcah and Tirzah.  They stood before Moses and before Eleazar the priest and before the leaders and all the congregation, at the doorway of the tent of meeting, saying, “Our father died in the wilderness, yet he was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against the LORD in the company of Korah; but he died in his own sin, and he had no sons. “Why should the name of our father be withdrawn from among his family because he had no son? Give us a possession among our father’s brothers.” So Moses brought their case before the LORD. Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “The daughters of Zelophehad are right in their statements. You shall surely give them a hereditary possession among their father’s brothers, and you shall transfer the inheritance of their father to them. “Further, you shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If a man dies and has no son, then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter. ‘If he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. ‘If he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. ‘If his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his nearest relative in his own family, and he shall possess it; and it shall be a statutory ordinance to the sons of Israel, just as the LORD commanded Moses.’” (Numbers 27:1-9)

Moses did not have an answer to these girls question and hardship.  So, what did Moses do?  “So Moses brought their case before the LORD.”  He waited for an answer from God and when God answered Moses – he did what God told him to do!  Can we today bring our case before the LORD?  Yes, we can!  If we can't our faith is a religion and a dead religion at that.  We must have open channels of communication with our Heavenly Father.  This does not mean that every time I eat pizza and have heart burn God is speaking to me, but it does mean that our receivers are open and ready to receive from the LORD.  How can we bring our cases before the LORD?  Well, the same way that Moses did – Moses talked to God and asked Him a question.  But, there are some reservations that come up from the text.  First the family of Zelophehad was a faithful family.  They did not participate in the Korahite rebelion. They have a proven good track-record in their relationship to God and to Moses.  Second, the daughters of Zelophehad confessed their problem honestly and also confessed that their father's sins. They did not try to come across as perfect saints, they made themselves vulnerable before Moses and before the LORD.  Their courage has brought an ammendment to the Torah and from that time on women can take their inheritance in Israel if they don't have brothers who can keep and preserve their father's name and inheritance. 

I suppose that we, as leaders, ought to learn to take our cases before the Lord long before we use our own wisdom and acumen. 

Now back to the ways that the Lord hears our “cases” and our problems and answers them.  One of the ways that I know that I have heard from the Lord Himself is by a careful reading and study of His Words.  I am always surprised how the Word of God has specific answers to my situation and problems if I just read it.  For example the reason that I am writing this prayer list today is because for the last two weeks I have been dealing with a question that essentially plagued me, but reading the Torah portion in Numbers actually brought to my mind the answers that came direct from the Lord's own Words.  There are other ways too, but none for me is as sure and as clear as the Words of God written by faithful men guided by the Holy Spirit. 

Marcia and I will, the Lord willing, fly from Israel to Finland tonight.  We will be in Finland doing several seminars and several meetings in homes and in churches.  Our brothers and sisters in Finland are and have always been wonderful and special and they have always taken good care of us, but the best part is always their desire for deep and meaningful Bible study.  Please lift us up before the Lord and lift up the brothers and sisters in Finland who have made such a deep commitment to the Restoration of the First Century, New Testament church.  Many of our brothers and sisters have had to pay dearly for their walk of faith and we have a great privilege to be given the opportunity to share with them from God's Word.  Please keep us in prayer for our safe travel and good health during this trip to Finland and the United States.

Please keep praying for the sick in Israel and in the United States and Brazil and Finland and Japan.  We have not mentioned our dear sister Kemi in Japan.  She has some of the same problems that Marcia my wife has, but she is much older and in a much more difficult situation.  I pray for her and ask the Lord of mercy to comfort her and to strengthen her and enable her to feel and know His goodness and mercy in the here and now and eternally with the saints.  I also pray and ask you to pray for Ruby our dear sister who is suffering so much pain and for such a long time.  May the Lord heal Ruby in Yeshua's name soon and even now!  Paulo's situation in Brazil has become more complicated and I pray for him daily for a healing and strengthening of his personality and peace of mind.  We have also all the older sisters and brothers in Israel who need healing, Ahuva has a sever hearing problems, Lea needs relief from Astma, Liora has serious memory problems, Zvi and Sara have old age frailty and other problems, Aggi and Sharon have problems with cancer, and especially this week Bath-Sheva our dear sister is going through a serious surgery and needs our prayers. 

We have also many families that need financial healing because of the world economic problems.  This is especially true for single mothers and older families and the unemployed.  We have plenty of all those cases in Jerusalem and Yeshua said that the poor will always be with us, and in fact they are.  Reading chapter 15:26-27 of Paul's letter to the Romans forces me to say to you that what is written in that text is applicable to day as it was in the first century and in fact today the blessing is ever bigger because we are not standing before the destruction of Jerusalem like in the first century but we are standing at the rebuilding of Jerusalem and we see it happen every day.  You bless the children of Abraham after your read Genesis 12:1-5 and you will see that God's Word is true in every aspect of it and that is true for both the New and the so called, “Old Testament.” 

We have had some major expenses related to our building on Narkis Street.  The floors of the building in the entrance and in the kitchen needed repair and that cost us near 20,000 dollars and than one of our balconies started to separate from the building and became hazardous and that was another 20,000 dollars to repair and than the engineer that did the work told us that we had to fix also the roofs of our balconies and that was another 13,000 dollars.  At the same time back “on the farm” we still had to feed the hundreds of soup-kitchen “customers” and every day more knock on our doors and we have to say “no” to most of them because it is simply not possible financially to keep up with all the needs.  So, please know that the answer to hard times is to do our very best with what the Lord has given us.  This is really what we want to do and this is really what you ought to do.

God be with you and with us, at home and on the road, until we can have eternal fellowship with Him and with all of His children and all of Israel.

Joseph and Marcia Shulam


 

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