Faith in 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth-

בראשׁית ברא אלהים את השׁמים ואת הארץ׃

Genesis 1:1

The most ancient form of the name for the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that I am aware of, is 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, meaning I will exist. Many times in scripture God is referred to as Elohim. The word “God” is probably not even a title we should be using for Elohim, or Yahuah, because of it’s heathen origin and it’s meaning to invoke. Yah, short for YHWH, or Yahuah, told Moses His name, and throughout scripture, we are told to declare His name and call on His name.

Exo 3:13 But Moses said to God, “Look, if I go to the Israelites and I say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is his name?’ then what shall I say to them?”
Exo 3:14 And God said to Moses, “I am that I am.” And he said, “So you must say to the Israelites, ‘I am sent me to you.'”
Exo 3:15 And God said again to Moses, “So you must say to the Israelites, ‘Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my remembrance from generation to generation.’
Exo 3:16 Go and gather the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, appeared to me, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, “I have carefully attended to you and what has been done to you in Egypt.”

What does this have to do with faith? How can a person have faith in an Elohim without even knowing His name? It doesn’t sound like a very close relationship. Jesus knew the name of His father, and said He would declare it. “Name” in Hebrew is shem, and it means more than what a person is called. Name is the essence of the person. It is their authority, reputation, fame and character.

Joh 17:26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.

Jesus, or Yahusha in Hebrew, not only declared His father’s name, He was closely associated with the name.

Joh 8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”
Joh 8:57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”
Joh 8:58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
Joh 8:59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

Just as Yahuah told Moses “”So you must say to the Israelites, ‘I am sent me to you”, Jesus declared, “before Abraham was, I am”. This information is all important concerning faith. If someone does not know who it is they have faith in, then they can be tricked and deceived very easily. So, what is faith in Yahuah and Yahusha, “God”?

Gen 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth—

“In the beginning” is used in English for the first Hebrew word in the Bible, which is actually a prefix “bet” and the word “rasheeth“. We could translate this as “first things first”. If one struggles with this first sentence in the Bible, then their faith is already flawed. They won’t understand anything else I say in this blog post, and may as well go read The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, by Darwin.

Isa 40:21 Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
Isa 40:22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
Isa 40:23 who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
Isa 40:24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
Isa 40:25 To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.

Faith in Yah or Yahusha (Jesus), is everything about believing what they said, and doing it. The Hebrew word pronounced shema means listen, hear and obey. So many people own a Bible and treat it like a good luck charm, never reading or believing. Others read, but have convinced themselves that everything it says is for someone else. Perhaps it is for a different dispensation, a different people group, before refrigeration, before the enlightenment of the current age etc.. Or they are told, “just call on the name of the Lord to be saved”, and they reason in their heart, “that’s all I will do”. They say a prayer and get back on with life, never knowing or caring about the creator of the universe and His instructions.

The Ten Commandments were given in an audible voice by Yahweh himself to His people. It was not only the “Jews” who stood by the mountain and heard His voice, it was all of the twelve tribes and a mixed multitude. Exodus 12:49, “There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you”. Faith in Yahuah is believing what He said, so much so, that a person does it by faith.

Rom 1:17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Paul is quoting Habakkuk.

Hab 2:2 Then Yahweh answered me and said, “Write the vision and make it plain on the tablet so that it might be read quickly.
Hab 2:3 For there is yet a vision for the appointed time; it will give witness to the end, and it will not lie. If it tarries, wait for it, for it will surely come and not delay.
Hab 2:4 Look! His spirit within him is puffed up; it is not upright. But the righteous shall live by his faithfulness.
Hab 2:5 How much less the defiant; the arrogant, treacherous man? He who broadens his throat like Sheol, and who, like death, is not satisfied, and who gathers to himself all the nations, and harvested for himself all the peoples, will not succeed.

A righteous person lives by his faithfulness, but faith in what? Faithfulness to what? It is believing and doing every word of Yahweh. Matthew 4:4, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Is your faith in Yahweh enough to believe that He knew what He was talking about when He told us what animals we should and should not eat? Do you have more faith in your preacher who says we can eat all things now by distorting what Jesus and the apostles taught? Science even supports Yahuah’s menu. The animals He told us not to eat are filters and bottom feeders that carry all the Earth’s toxins in their meat, which then transfer those toxins to our body. We have science now to show that is is not good to eat pigs, rats, mice, bats, shrimp and lobster. True faith is not partaking simply because the Father said not to. Notice, “Then Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron”.

Lev 11:1 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them,
Lev 11:2 “Speak to the Israelites, saying, ‘These are the animals that you may eat from all the animals that are on the land:
Lev 11:3 Any among the animals that has a divided hoof and has a split cleft in the hoof, such you may eat.
Lev 11:4 However, these you may not eat from those that chew the cud and from those that have a divided hoof: the camel, because it is a chewer of cud but it does not have a hoof that is divided—it is unclean for you;

What about the Sabbath? What did Yahweh say about the set apart day?

Exo 20:8 “Remember the day of the Sabbath, to consecrate it.
Exo 20:9 Six days you will work, and you will do all your work.
Exo 20:10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath for Yahweh your God; you will not do any work—you or your son or your daughter, your male slave or your female slave, or your animal, or your alien who is in your gates—
Exo 20:11 because in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and on the seventh day he rested. Therefore Yahweh blessed the seventh day and consecrated it.

The Sabbath is based on creation, therefore if one does not believe Yah created the universe, why would they think anything of the day Yahweh said to set-apart to honour the day He rested after creating everything? Faith in the Holy Catholic Church, or man, says the Sabbath was moved to Sunday and we are to work on Yahweh’s Sabbath. If one’s faith is in the pope, as the vicar of Christ, then they will honour Sunday.

Mar 7:6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
Mar 7:7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
Mar 7:8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

The church says, “but Jesus did away with the sabbath and preached against it”. Someone who has faith in Yahweh could never believe that because that would mean Yahusha, or Jesus, is not one with the Father. The Father said the Sabbath was forever.

Exo 31:12 And Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,
Exo 31:13 “And you, speak to the Israelites, saying, ‘Surely you must keep my Sabbaths, because it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, in order to know that I am Yahweh, who consecrates you.

Changing the day and telling us to work on the day Yahweh said was a sign between He and His people is a trick of the enemy. Distorting the words of Yahusha and Paul are more trickery to test your faith in Yahweh.

Deu 13:1 “If a prophet stands up in your midst or a dreamer of dreams and he gives to you a sign or wonder,
Deu 13:2 and the sign or the wonder comes about that he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (those whom you have not known), and let us serve them,’
Deu 13:3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer, for Yahweh your God is testing you to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all of your heart and with all of your inner self.

There are no secrets here. Yahweh says He will send prophets to try to get you to do things contrary to His word to test your faith, or “to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all of your heart and with all of your inner self”. The writers of the so called New Testament assumed their audience read the scriptures.

Mat 12:10 And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him.
Mat 12:11 He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out?
Mat 12:12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Mat 12:13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other.

Jesus tells us it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath by healing a man. This goes directly against the Babylonian Talmud, which the Pharisees adhered to, but not the law of Yahuah. This would have been a good time for Jesus to say “we are not going to do that Sabbath stuff any more”, if what the church tells us today is true. Jesus told us their would be many false versions of himself popping up and telling people not to obey Yahweh.

Mar 13:22 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect.
Mar 13:23 But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand.

Having faith in Yahuah will weed out all the false Christ’s and Jesus’s. Knowing Yahuah’s instructions and doing them is faith, but we must not neglect some of the weightier matters.

Mat 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

Justice, mercy and faithfulness are the sum of Yahweh’s instructions.

Mar 12:28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
Mar 12:29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Mar 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
Mar 12:31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Matthew 22:40, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” . No one “did away” with the law and prophets.

Eze 18:5 And if a man is righteous and does justice and righteousness,
Eze 18:6 and on the mountains he does not eat and he does not lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, and the wife of his neighbor he does not defile and he does not approach a woman of menstruation,
Eze 18:7 and he oppresses no one and he returns a pledge for his loan and he commits no robbery and he gives his bread to the hungry and he covers a naked person with a garment,
Eze 18:8 and he does not charge interest and he takes no usury, and he holds back his hand from injustice and he executes a judgment of fairness between persons,
Eze 18:9 and in my statutes he goes about and my regulations he keeps, performing faithfully—then he is righteous, and certainly he will live,” declares the Lord Yahweh.

Faith also gives us all the promises of scripture. The gathering, resurrection, millennial kingdom and new Jerusalem are all in front of us now thanks to Messiah Yahusha.

1Co 15:12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
1Co 15:13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
1Co 15:14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
1Co 15:15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.
1Co 15:16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
1Co 15:17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
1Co 15:18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
1Co 15:19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
1Co 15:20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
1Co 15:21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

When a person has enough faith in Yahuah to understand that He created everything in six days and told us to rest on the seventh, some animals were not meant to eat, that we should have mercy and promote justice based in the word of Yah and that we will be raised from our sleep when Yahusha returns, then no false prophet, preacher or christ will be able to lead that person astray.

The featured image is by Robert Pearce on Unsplash.