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G2. Acknowledging Our Belief in God and in Yeshua the Messiah.    [Make a Comment]

We are to acknowledge and never deny our belief in God and in Yeshua the Messiah.

This precept is derived from His Word (blessed be He):

Key Scriptures

Numbers 15:38-40 (Maimonides RP14; Meir MP10; Chinuch C386)
Speak to the people of Isra'el, instructing them to make, through all their generations, tzitziyot on the corners of their garments, and to put with the tzitzit on each corner a blue thread. It is to be a tzitzit for you to look at and thereby remember all of ADONAI's mitzvot and obey them, so that you won't go around wherever your own heart and eyes lead you to prostitute yourselves; but it will help you remember and obey all my mitzvot and be holy for your God.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (Maimonides RP12-13, 15; Meir MP8-9, 12; Chinuch C421-423)
Sh'ma, Yisra'el! ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI echad [Hear, Isra'el! ADONAI our God, ADONAI is one]; and you are to love ADONAI your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources. These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart; and you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them on your hand as a sign, put them at the front of a headband around your forehead, and write them on the door-frames of your house and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 10:20 (Maimonides RP6; Meir MP16; Chinuch C434)
You are to fear ADONAI your God, serve him, cling to him and swear by his name.

Deuteronomy 11:18-20 (Maimonides RP13; Meir MP12; Chinuch C421,423)
Therefore, you are to store up these words of mine in your heart and in all your being; tie them on your hand as a sign; put them at the front of a headband around your forehead; teach them carefully to your children, talking about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up; and write them on the door-frames of your house and on your gates -

Deuteronomy 11:22-23 (Maimonides RP6; Chinuch C434)
For if you will take care to obey all these mitzvot I am giving you, to do them, to love ADONAI your God, to follow all his ways and to cling to him, then ADONAI will expel all these nations ahead of you; and you will dispossess nations bigger and stronger than you are.

Job 1:13-22
One day when Iyov's sons and daughters were eating and drinking in their oldest brother's house, a messenger came to him and said, "The oxen were plowing, with the donkeys grazing near them, when a raiding party from Sh'va came and carried them off; they put the servants to the sword too, and I'm the only one who escaped to tell you." While he was still speaking, another one came and said, "Fire from God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants; it completely destroyed them, and I'm the only one who escaped to tell you." While he was still speaking, another one came and said, "The Kasdim, three bands of them, fell on the camels and carried them off; they put the servants to the sword too, and I'm the only one who escaped to tell you." While he was still speaking, another one came and said, "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, when suddenly a strong wind blew in from over the desert. It struck the four corners of the house, so that it fell on the young people; they are dead, and I'm the only one who escaped to tell you." Iyov got up, tore his coat, shaved his head, fell down on the ground and worshipped; he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will return there. ADONAI gave; ADONAI took; blessed be the name of ADONAI." In all this Iyov neither committed a sin nor put blame on God.

Daniel 3:13-18
In a raging fury N'vukhadnetzar ordered that Shadrakh, Meishakh and 'Aved-N'go be brought. When the men had been brought before the king, N'vukhadnetzar said to them, "Shadrakh! Meishakh! 'Aved-N'go! Is it true that you neither serve my gods nor worship the gold statue I set up? All right, then. If you are prepared, when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, harp, zither, lute, bagpipe and the rest of the musical instruments, to fall down and worship the gold statue, very well. But if you won't worship, you will immediately be thrown into a blazing hot furnace - and what god will save you from my power then?" Shadrakh, Meishakh and 'Aved-N'go answered the king, "Your question doesn't require an answer from us. Your majesty, if our God, whom we serve, is able to save us, he will save us from the blazing hot furnace and from your power. But even if he doesn't, we want you to know, your majesty, that we will neither serve your gods nor worship the gold statue which you have set up."

Matthew 10:32-33
"Whoever acknowledges me in the presence of others I will also acknowledge in the presence of my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others I will disown before my Father in heaven."

1 John 2:23
Everyone who denies the Son is also without the Father, but the person who acknowledges the Son has the Father as well.

1 John 4:2-3
Here is how you recognize the Spirit of God: every spirit which acknowledges that Yeshua the Messiah came as a human being is from God, and every spirit which does not acknowledge Yeshua is not from God - in fact, this is the spirit of the Anti-Messiah.

1 John 4:15
If someone acknowledges that Yeshua is the Son of God, God remains united with him, and he with God.

Supportive Scriptures

Matthew 28:16-20
So the eleven talmidim went to the hill in the Galil where Yeshua had told them to go. When they saw him, they prostrated themselves before him; but some hesitated. Yeshua came and talked with them. He said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make people from all nations into talmidim, immersing them into the reality of the Father, the Son and the Ruach HaKodesh, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember! I will be with you always, yes, even until the end of the age.'

Mark 6:56
Wherever he went, in towns, cities or country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the tzitzit on his robe, and all who touched it were healed.

Luke 22:31-34
"Shim'on, Shim'on, listen! The Adversary demanded to have you people for himself, to sift you like wheat! But I prayed for you, Shim'on, that your trust might not fail. And you, once you have turned back in repentance, strengthen your brothers!" Shim'on said to him, "Lord, I am prepared to go with you both to prison and to death!" Yeshua replied, "I tell you, Kefa, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know me."

Philippians 2:9-11
Therefore God raised him to the highest place and gave him the name above every name; that in honor of the name given Yeshua, every knee will bow - in heaven, on earth and under the earth - and every tongue will acknowledge that Yeshua the Messiah is ADONAI - to the glory of God the Father.

Hebrew 13:15
Through him, therefore, let us offer God a sacrifice of praise continually. For this is the natural product of lips that acknowledge his name.

2 Peter 2:1
But among the people there were also false prophets, just as there will be false teachers among you. Under false pretenses they will introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and thus bring on themselves swift destruction.

Commentary

The undeniable weight of Scripture is that we are to always acknowledge our belief in God and in Yeshua the Messiah, and never deny it. Denial can be by lying or through silence that is misleading. The most common reasons that men deny their faith in God or Messiah are fear or to gain some advantage.

Temptations to deny our faith predate the Torah itself. Consider how Job was consistently urged to curse God, but he did not. That book was preserved for us in Scripture, that we might follow Job's example when hard times, danger, or even benefit befall us where logic and common expectation tells us that we will fare better and safer if we lie or mislead someone about our Messianic faith. The story of Job is one of success. Centuries later, the story of Peter is one of failure, as he denied that he knew Yeshua and that he was one of Yeshua's disciples - not once, but three times.

The temptation to deny the Lord can be subtle, and can come in many forms. Usually it comes from someone we want to please or someone we do not want to anger. It can occur when a co-worker blasphemes the name of the Lord and we do not (at the very least) walk away. It can occur when our employer makes a rude remark about the Lord's chosen people and we do not correct him or admit that we are one of them. It can occur when we go along with a joke that mocks marriage, sex, or other things that the Lord gave us and cares about deeply. It can occur when we hold back from witnessing to our parents, or when, as Jews, we acquiesce to eating treyf in order to be social. It can occur when we mislead another about our belief in Yeshua in our attempt to pursue Jewish conversion or apply for aliyah to Israel.

The Scriptures cannot be clearer, from the earliest in the Tanakh to the most recent in the B'rit Chadasha. The mitzvot to wear fringes (and by traditional understanding phylacteries) for all to see, to display m'zuzot on one's doorposts (again for all to see), and to cleave to God and love Him with all of our heart, being, and resources, are the antithesis of denying Him.

Regarding Yeshua, the New Covenant Scriptures make it very clear that our responsibility is to preach the Good News of His Messiahship, and that there are dire consequences if we hide it or deny it.

Classical Commentators

In their respective mitzvot, Maimonides, Meir, and HaChinuch interpret "clinging" or "cleaving" to God in Deuteronomy 10:20 and Deuteronomy 11:22 as "associating" with wise men. Although in his 12th Article of Faith, Maimonides warns against not believing in Messiah's coming or denying Messhiah's greatness, he makes no reference to it in his Sefer HaMitzvot.

NCLA: JMm JFm KMm KFm GMm GFm

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