IYAR 3
Following
“But Kĕpha followed Him
AT A DISTANCE …” (Mat 26:58, emphasis
mine)
For those of us who are part of the FaceBook ‘platform’,
we have an option available to us in how we deal with people on our ‘friends’
list. It is called ‘follow’ or
‘unfollow’: we can choose to ‘follow’ (or not) everything that is posted by
others. Everything that our ‘friends’ (that we follow) write and post –
good and bad – will show up on our timeline.
And we can also choose whether we want to recognize these posts, and if
we even want to respond to them in some way.
This is a good example of ‘following at a distance’, the phrase found in
our opening verse, for we can choose how involved we want to be with each
person we ‘follow’.
How many of us, do you suppose, treat our Messiah
King the same way?
We know
that Yeshua is Messiah, that only He
has the words of life (John
6:68). We understand that Yeshua is THE way, THE truth, and THE life
(John 14:6). We have been taught that
none of us will be able to come to the Father except through Yeshua (John
14:6), and we comprehend that Yeshua is the Word (Torah) made flesh (John
1:14). We know that if we truly love
Him, we will not only watch over His mitzvot, His commands, but will keep them to the best of our ability
(John 14:15). And yet, knowing all these
things, we still choose to ‘follow at a distance’, never allowing ourselves to
get close enough to reach out and touch Him.
By choosing to keep his distance, Peter denied
Yeshua three times (see Mat 26:75), being more concerned about the judgement of
man, than the honor and esteem of our Messiah.
When we choose to ‘do our own pleasure’ on the
Saturday Sabbath (see Isa 58:13-14), are we following at a distance, and
denying our Messiah? When we gorge
ourselves on BLT’s and shrimp dinners, instead of following the dietary laws as
laid out for us in Lev 11, are we following at a distance, and denying the One
who delivered us out of Egypt? What of
the feast days of our Elohim, days – called ‘holy and set-apart’ - that we are
commanded to observe (see Lev 23)? Are
we following at a distance and denying our Elohim when we choose to not honor and obey the mitzvah concerning these feast
days? And finally, what about something
as simple as the wearing of tzitzit –
does this fall under the category of being more afraid of what others would
think (following at a distance), as opposed to being obedient to the command
(Num 15:38)?
There are many – yes, MANY – who call themselves ‘Torah Observant’, yet follow our King
at a distance, not wanting to take the stand that is required of those who
profess to belong to Him. Being set-apart means just that: we are to be set apart from the rest of the
world, and we are to be noticeably different in our living, our lifestyle. The way in which we live our lives is to be
the light that shines brightly in this dark and troubled world. We cannot do this if we are following at a
distance, too concerned about what the world around us may say or do in
critique and judgement of us.
For every cause, there is an effect; for every
action, there is a reaction. This is a
known Biblical principal: “Do not be led astray: Elohim is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he shall also reap.” (see also Gen 1:12; Job 4:8) When we make the conscious decision to
follow at a distance, ignoring the commandments of our Elohim, and justifying
ourselves that they are ‘not for today’, there will be repercussions of this
choice. We can take that certainty to the bank …
“And it shall be, if you
DO NOT OBEY the voice of יהוה your Elohim, to guard to do ALL
His commands and His laws which I command you today, that all these curses
shall come upon you and overtake you …” (Deu 28:15, emphasis mine)
“For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of
righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the set-apart command delivered
unto them.” (2Pet 2:21)
©2021
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