Lessons in the Ladder Days

Candace Long: I'm Candace Long with Lessons in the Ladder Days, offering biblical commentary to make sense of the times that we're living in. Today I'm continuing the two-part series, Torah 101: The Way God Disciplines. In part one, we dealt with the blessings that God promises His children. I encourage you to listen to it because I'll not be going over that material again.

I will say, though, that the blessings, which are tremendous and binding on God's part, are predicated upon very specific actions that God expects from His people. In other words, if we are not engaged in what He has set up for Israel to observe and do to fulfill their part of the betrothal covenant at Mount Sinai, then the blessings are not a done deal. They are not guaranteed.

Now, what I'm going to share with you today is both revealing and disturbing. But it need not be frightening because if we are abiding in the Lord, there is nothing to fear. In this two-part series, we are dealing with one of the four pillars of Jewish doctrine. It's referred to as the Mishpatim, which is typically translated as judgments. The Mishpatim make up the entire judiciary record of divine law. These are the recorded decrees and verdicts that God made over the course of raising up His people.

Leviticus 19 says, "You shall observe all of my statutes and all of my judgments, my Mishpatim, and do them. I am the Lord." Now, never once did He say, nor did Jesus, that when Messiah comes, we don't need to worry about this anymore. It's in the Mishpatim where we find the promise of both blessings and warnings. Today, we'll examine what those warnings are. When you know what to look out for, what offends God and brings about harsh discipline, you can use these guidelines to keep yourself and your family on course. You will be the one that people come to for counsel and wisdom.

You know, the way to the kingdom is getting harder now because we're so close and because evil is multiplying and manifesting in so many families. Like the last episode, we are still in Leviticus 26. The passage begins with the blessings, but verse 14 begins a list of 29 warnings. Now, the sages explained that these warnings are not meant as revenge, but they're given in great detail to influence His people to repent.

A second thing I want to comment on is that God is honorable. It would not be just, fair, or right to inflict discipline or punishment on somebody without having adequately warned them what to do, what not to do, and the consequences. This is good parenting, and God is our Father. So the warnings are very much part of how God teaches us to walk in His ways.

I introduced a term last time that I'm going to talk about here again as well. The term in Hebrew is Middah Kneged Middah, which literally means measure for measure. This term has to do with the fairness and absolute justice of God's discipline. It is always measured fairly and proportionally to the sin. Let me tell you a story of Middah Kneged Middah in my own life.

This was not a pretty time, but before I share it, I want you to see it from God's point of view. He wanted me to understand a key principle in the Torah and had to teach it to me in a way I would never forget. So as I share my story, I want you to notice the fairness of the Father's discipline for me, how it pointed me back to the Torah portion that I violated, and most importantly, how I learned to do Teshuvah, which is biblical repentance.

This story concerns a warning found in Deuteronomy 27:16. "Cursed be he who dishonors his father or his mother." Now, this spiritual law is based on the commandment which says, "Honor your father and your mother that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you." Now, the converse is also a law. If you do not honor your father or your mother in a particular area, things will not go well with you in that area.

I learned this from the late John and Paula Sandford, who were pioneers of the inner healing movement in the eighties and nineties. They referred to it as a bitter root judgment. I listened as they told stories about people they counseled who had judged their parents in various areas, and they found that 100 percent of the time, these people reaped disaster in the very same areas they had judged. Now pay attention. 100 percent of the time, whatever they judged in their parents brought about the exact same thing in their lives. Middah Kneged Middah.

At the time I heard them speak, I had lost almost everything in a business venture that I share about fully in the episode, When Life Falls Apart. Every financial resource was wiped out of my life. So hearing the Sandfords speak about bitter root judgments against parents, I knew immediately why everything fell apart for me. You see, years ago, I judged my father in the area of financial instability.

There was a time in his life as a young father when he went from job to job trying to find himself, or so it appeared to us children. I hate to admit this, but I want to show you how these curses operate. They are very real. When my brother and I were in school, we had to fill out papers that always asked your father's occupation. Now, Daddy rarely had dinner with the family because he got in late. So sitting around the dinner table with Mother, we would bring this up with sarcasm and laughter. "So what do we put down this year for Daddy's occupation?"

I was guilty of a bitter root judgment toward my father, looking down my nose at his struggles to find himself. Now, I can only imagine those courts of heaven sessions when Satan demanded to sift my financial ventures and tear them apart. No doubt God asked him for evidence to support why he should be allowed to strip me of financial success, and all the enemy had to say was, "Candace dishonored her father."

Satan probably recounted all the dates and times when I laughed behind my father's back and spoke disrespectfully of him. The evidence in the courts mounted up. God had no choice but to find me guilty. That warning had been laid out clearly in Exodus and in Deuteronomy. God had to honor His word. So time and again throughout my life, things would fall apart financially.

In hindsight, God gave me over to these hard times to get my attention so I would deal with it. Thankfully, God straightened me out before my father passed away. I was able to ask his forgiveness for the awful things I said about him growing up. But through this process of restitution, God reconciled my relationship with my father and gave me insights into a level of healing that has become an important part of the work God had for me to do.

Let's return now to Leviticus 26 because there is a phrase repeated over and over that says, "If you will not listen to me." Now, this is God speaking. "I will punish you seven times for your sins." I was always confused by that term, the seven times, or your Bible might translate it as sevenfold. How does God punish us seven times for our sins? Now, according to Rashi, one of the great Jewish scholars during medieval times, the number seven is used literally.

Rashi explains that the sin is composed of seven components and was punished measure for measure in seven ways. Middah Kneged Middah. Commenting on verse 14, which says, "But if you will not listen to me," the meaning in Hebrew means, "If you will not engage in Torah study." Then it is inevitable that you will not perform the commandments. Rashi explains by not being diligent to study the Torah, there is a chain reaction of sins which are composed of seven steps, each one leading to the next. And here are these seven steps.

Number one: You do not dedicate yourself to study the Torah.

Number two: You stop doing the commandments and ordinances.

Number three: You become repulsed by other people who are loyal to the Torah.

Number four: You hate the sages who expound the understanding of the commandments.

Number five: You prevent others from being Torah-observant.

Number six: You deny God even gave the commandments.

And number seven: You ultimately deny the existence of God who made the covenant.

Now, the rest of Leviticus 26 outlines the five series of punishments that are measured out to individuals and nations who defect from God in these seven ways. Now, as I read through these five series, I want you to make note that each of them from one to five gets progressively worse. But remember that God's intent is to bring about repentance. If His people don't return to Him, then He brings on the next series and so forth.

The first series of punishments are seen primarily in individuals. They manifest in the physical and occupational areas of our lives in seven ways. Number one: swelling lesions. This means you might be suffering with damaged or infected organs or tissues, which could be ulcers or tumors. Number two: burning fever. Number three: a frustrated longing that life has passed you by. Number four: sowing seeds that produce crops for enemies. In other words, you're not enjoying the fruit of your labors. Number five: being struck down before your enemies. Number six: being ruled or controlled by enemies. And number seven: fleeing with no one in pursuit.

If you recognize yourself here, this is a wake-up call. So what you do is you look at what you're going through and you ask God to show you what door you have opened to warrant whatever it is you're experiencing. Remember His heart is that you return to Him. The second series of punishments are seven more consequences for continuing the seven defecting sins that we discussed earlier. Not studying the Torah, not keeping God's ways, etcetera.

Here's this list. Number one: destruction of the Temple, meaning your spiritual foundational system is dismantled. Number two: heaven is like iron. You don't hear from God like you used to. Number three: the earth is like copper. Whatever you try to do is impossibly hard. Nothing seems to be working. Number four: you spend your strength in vain. You end up with nothing to show for your efforts. Number five: the earth does not yield crops. Everything you are working on is fruitless. It's not sustaining you and your family. Number six: trees don't yield fruit. And number seven: whatever fruit does grow drops before maturity. So whatever it is you're working toward falls apart before it succeeds.

Now collectively, this series of punishments has to do with God's removal of evidential blessings on your life. In other words, nothing you do brings you pleasure or nourishes you physically, emotionally, or spiritually. In the third series of punishments, your perspective changes. You view everything that happens with indifference, as if life just happens by chance. In other words, at this point, you will no longer be able to see the correlation between the punishment and what you're doing wrong.

You will miss the point of why God has allowed these things in your life. So here are the seven punishments in this series. Number one: wild beasts. Number two: domestic animals. Number three: poisonous snakes. Number four: death of children. Number five: loss of livestock. Number six: population loss. And number seven: desolation of roads. As you can see, things are really ramping up now to get His people's attention. The punishments are getting worse.

Now, here are some ways that I see this series manifesting in our day. Bird flu infecting the poultry industry and wiping it out. An increase in chemical spills and pollution of our water. Killer bees. Sworms of mosquitoes infected with viruses. A record number of children dying from fentanyl. Massive fires and flooding which have led to the loss of crops worth billions of dollars. Tornadoes wiping out homes, roads, and cities. And the mass exodus of millions of our young people refusing to be the sex they were assigned at birth, which will ultimately lead to a huge loss in population.

Now, the worst part of this series is that those who are experiencing it no longer have a spiritual framework in place to see their condition from God's perspective. Everything is perceived as happening by chance. And what this says to me is that the percentages of those who would return to the Lord now are most likely very low. Now keep in mind, we're only at the third series.

This spiritual disconnect worsens even more in the fourth series of punishments. This list may seem haphazard according to the sages in that the consequences of their sin will be even less obvious and thus harder for people to recognize the truth. But here are these seven. Number one: the sword of foreign invaders. Number two: siege from outside borders, forcing people into the cities. Number three: plagues. Number four: food shortages. Number five: lack of fuel. Number six: crumbling bread. And number seven: constant hunger.

Right now in our country, those who are nutritionally insecure are relatively few compared to the general population. But in places like Somalia and Ukraine, many people are experiencing every one of these seven. In my two-part series on Ukraine, I showed you that this country is a perfect visual picture of what an enemy takeover looks like. I made note of three stages to look for.

First came the siege. This is stage one, which is a build-up of enemy forces around a country's border. Next comes stage two, which is called the breach. These are the physical places of enemy breakthrough. And stage three brings destruction. Everything is destroyed: a sense of peace, stability and the way of life, food, water, fuel supply, devastation of roads. This is what an enemy takeover looks like, and we are seeing it every day in Ukraine.

This happened to Israel multiple times, and I see it happening in our country at our southern border. We have witnessed the siege, the thousands upon thousands at our border. We've seen the breaches, with people pouring in and no one able to stop them. And the Torah instructs us what is to come, which is the stage known as destruction. The word of God does not lie. It gives us warning, and this is part of the fourth series of punishments for a nation who has defected from the God of Israel.

Now, you might think this passage has to do with Israel, not with America. I need to remind you of our nation's forefathers, many of whom dedicated our country to the God of Israel, that it would be a land of blessing and a haven for His people. We are dangerously far from that America now. The fifth and final series of punishments is difficult to hear, but this is what God has for His people as a final last-ditch effort to call them back to Him.

And as I read this series, I want you to note that it foreshadows what Israel will go through during the seven-year tribulation. I'm going to list these as the Torah does and then apply them to today. Number one: cannibalism. Now, we don't see people actually eating other people, but here's what we do see. In January of 2023, a Texas lawmaker proposed a bill requiring labeling for food products that contained fetal tissue. Now, many decry this as nonsense, but even the presence of a proposed bill suggests that we are teetering into a form of cannibalism.

Number two is destruction of defense structures, tearing down those things we thought would keep us safe. Number three is a massive loss of life. Number four: the loss of the Shekhinah, meaning there is no visible presence of God protecting this people. Number five: destruction of cities. Number six: desolation of sanctuaries. And number seven: God's refusal to accept offerings.

Now, the sages point out that there are two sections in the Old Testament containing all these admonitions and warnings. The first one is right here in Leviticus 26 that we've been reading. It was fulfilled historically and led up to the destruction of the first Temple. The second passage is found in Deuteronomy 28 at the end of the wilderness journey. Again, it was fulfilled, leading to the destruction of the second Temple. First Corinthians 10 says these things happened to our Jewish forefathers as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction upon whom the end of the ages has come.

So you might be thinking, "Wow, these punishments are already being released in our country. Is there anything that I can do to keep them from coming on me and my family?" Yes, there is. And the answer is found in the original seven sins people committed when they defected from God's ways. Number one on that list, as you recall, was they quit studying the Torah. So two things are needed for your safety going forward.

Step one is to do Teshuvah. Repent. Close the door. Repent for your indifference concerning Torah study. Our forefathers, the early followers of Jesus, were severed from Judaism in the third century by the Roman influence of Hellenism. So doing Teshuvah means to confess the sins of our forefathers, renounce their actions, and turn back to God's ways. Ask the Lord to instruct you as you begin to study the Torah and learn how to apply it to your life as a Gentile.

Step two is to take the first step toward restitution by committing to learn and grow in this wonderful spiritual discipline of regular Torah study. It doesn't have to be overwhelming. All God is looking for now is taking the first step. Just the other day, a man whose walk with God I highly admire asked me to point him to the right resources so he could grow in Torah study. He has walked with the Lord for many years, but the Father has stirred up in him that this is the part he's been missing. So I pointed him to several resources, and he was overjoyed.

I'm going to put those resources as links in the notes to this episode. The first one is my 17-page monograph that I've talked about before called Jewish Roots: God's Call to Reconnect. You'll find it in my online store at candacelong.com. Just look for Jewish Roots. It will explain the history of why Christians were disconnected from the Jewish part of Jesus and practically how to return to His ways without feeling overwhelmed. There is much to learn before we enter the kingdom. I want to help. If you'd like to share this episode, you'll find it on my podcast page at candacelong.com/podcast. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you join me again next time for Lessons in the Ladder Days. God bless.