In this enlightening episode, Rabbi Schneider delves into the concept of ’emunah,’ the Hebrew word for faith. Drawing from the scriptures, he explains how biblical faith transcends mere belief in doctrines. Rather, it is a deep trust and an active clinging to the nature and promises of God. Rabbi shares a personal story to illustrate how faith involves trust beyond understanding, highlighting the need for believers to see beyond temporal situations and trust in God’s eternal plan.
God is ruling the world, listen, and it’s all for the good. Just look at creation. You’ll see His beauty. Beloved, God wants you to trust Him. I want to talk with you about principles of emunah. Now, emunah is the Hebrew word for faith. And those of us that are familiar with the Word of God know that faith is one of the primary foundations of our relationship with our Creator, Hashem. The Word of God actually teaches us that by grace we’ve been saved through faith. Listen to the Word of God as I read from the book of Ephesians, chapter number two, verse number eight. We read that for by grace you’ve been saved, listen now, through faith. So by grace we’ve been saved. But the way that grace saved us, beloved one, was through, Paul teaches here, faith. And that faith that we’ve received, the scripture tells us, is not of ourselves, but it was a very gift that was given to us by our Creator, by Hashem, by God. When we go into the Torah, we read in the book of Bereshit, in the book of Genesis, that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteous. And that word there, believed, is related to this word emunah. In fact, every time that we say amen, We’re actually speaking about emunah. We’re proclaiming that we believe that. Let it be amen once again from the Hebrew word emunah. So we’ve said that emunah is faith, it’s belief, but let’s try to better understand what this means and how we can apply it to our life. First of all, let me say this. Through understanding the Hebrew scriptures, We find that emunah, or faith, is not just believing certain doctrines. In other words, biblical emunah, biblical faith, is not just believing certain facts. Faith is not just believing, for example, that God exists. In fact, the scriptures tell us that even the devil believes that God exists. So when we speak about biblical emunah, when we speak about the faith that saves us, we’re not talking about giving mental or intellectual assent to certain doctrines. But what we’re actually talking about, beloved ones, is faith. Trust. Children of Hashem, listen. I’m talking about trust. What do we actually trust? Let me share with you something that happened to me. You may have heard me share it in one of my earlier broadcasts, but it’s worth repeating here. When we speak about trust, when we speak about emunah, we’re speaking again about more than certainly believing certain things. We’re speaking of something else. Here’s what happened. Years ago, I was ministering in a church. It was a very cold winter night. And I brought a dance team with me. They were doing Hebraic dance before I ministered the Word of God. And so these dancers came, and it was this, again, frigid, cold night. We were ministering there close to 930 at night. After the time of ministry, I was getting all my things together. And all of a sudden, somebody had run back into the building from the parking lot. And they said, my wife just fell on the ice in the parking lot. Come and pray for her. She’s in a lot of pain. And so they all went outside and prayed for her. But I began to think to myself, Lord, This woman believes in you. She came here to dance for you. I mean, you could have prevented this from happening. Why did you not prevent this from happening? I said, Lord, I know that you can cause all things to work for good, but I don’t see how this would have been for good. Why did this happen? And I was really struggling with this. How could this be? I was even to the place, Lord, how could I believe you for myself? when I see that so many other people seem to be believing you, and yet they’re falling and failing in life so often? And so I said, I need an answer, God. In order to move forward in my relationship with you, I need to understand why so many people that say they believe in you seem to be failing in life. I’m not talking about falling. Everybody falls now and then. I’m talking about not the type of fall that the woman had in the parking lot, but I’m just meaning we all fail at times in things, and we grow from those experiences. So I’m not talking about occasionally falling or failing at something, but I’m talking about people that claim to believe in God, and yet everything in their life almost continuously seems to be really falling apart. And I had such a hard time. I said, how can this be, Lord, when your word says that through faith we can reign in life, yet here are so many people that say they believe in you, and rather than reigning in life, they seem to be living in continual defeat. How can this be explained? And I said, Lord, I can’t go forward with you until I have an answer. So I just decided I was going to just wait on God. I was very sad in my heart, but I had faith He would answer me. So several days later, I was in a parking lot coming out of an appointment. I was in my vehicle. And suddenly, beloved ones, the Holy Spirit spoke to me. I didn’t hear him audibly. But in my heart, it was so clear. I knew exactly what he was saying. And I knew for a fact that the Holy Spirit was speaking to me. And this is what he said. He said, the reason that you’re seeing so many of my people falling and failing in life is because, he said, they’re not trusting me. Now, when we hear that word trust, when we hear the word trust, you know, we hear it so often that it almost rolls off our back like water off a duck’s back. Forgive me for saying it, but frankly, that’s what it is. Sometimes we become so familiar with the word that it fails to move us anymore. We hear trust God so often. It can almost become cliché to us because it’s too familiar. But when the Holy Spirit said to me that day as I was in my vehicle in the parking lot struggling with how could it be that so many of God’s people are failing in life and yet they say they believe, the Holy Spirit said the reason that you’re seeing what you’re seeing is because my people are not trusting me. But beloved, when he said the word trust to me, I didn’t just hear it in my spirit, but I knew exactly what he meant. The word was filled with revelation. I understood what the Spirit was saying. In other words, I understood the fullness of the word trust. And what he was saying to me was, they’re not clinging to me. In other words, he said the word trust, But when he said the word trust, I knew that the meaning of it he was giving me was the word clinging, that my people are not clinging to me. They’re not holding on to me. They’re not firm in their walk with me. They’re letting go of me. And so when we speak about believing in God or even trusting God, we’re not just talking about giving intellectual assent to certain doctrines, but we’re talking about trusting in certain aspects of God’s character or trusting in his promises in such a way that we’re clinging to his character and we’re clinging to his promises, right? So knowing then that emunah, that biblical faith, is not just about intellectually agreeing with something, but it’s about clinging to the nature of God, clinging to his promises, aggressively believing, and aggressively actively trusting, let’s now ask ourselves, what are three aspects that we should cling to? What are three truths concerning God’s nature and makeup and his dealings in the world that we should believe in and cling to? Here’s number one. True emunah, true biblical faith is believing that God rules the world. Now often as we see things happen in life, we see tragedies, we see earthquakes, we see tsunamis, we see train wrecks, we see plane crashes, we see things happen and it causes us to wonder if God is really reigning Why do these things happen? But we have to step out, beloved, of our temporal surface vision of things and look beyond to what the Word of God says. When we study the Torah, when we study the Hebrew Bible, we find that God takes responsibility not just for the good things that happen, but we see Hashem, we see our Creator also taking responsibility for the bad things that happen. For example, when Israel lost a war, God took responsibility. He said they lost the war because they weren’t being faithful to me. Therefore, I judge them. When the children of Israel were not being faithful to Hashem, when they were not being faithful to their God, what did God do? He sent the fiery serpents to bite them and thousands and thousands died in the wilderness. Why did those serpents bite them? Not because it was just an act of nature or a free coincidence, but it was literally a judgment of Hashem. We find oftentimes in scripture that when someone was unfaithful to the Lord, they died. The point is, is that the Hebrew scriptures teach us that God is Adon Olam. He’s master of the world. We may not be able to understand everything he’s doing, but we have to believe if we’re going to have true biblical faith that God rules the world.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’re listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus with Rabbi Schneider, and he’ll be right back. But first, have you thought about the legacy you’ll leave when you’re no longer on this earth? Planning for the future, it’s an important step in walking with wisdom. So we’ve partnered with Freewill, a free online tool that makes creating a will simple, secure, and accessible to everyone. I’ve used it myself, and it’s really easy and efficient. And this tool, it also gives you the opportunity to make a lasting impact. And if you want to support this ministry, you can include a financial gift to us in your plans to help us share the love of Yeshua with generations to come. You can get started today at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Just click on our resources and need a will tab. It’s completely free, whether you choose to give to this ministry or not. So check it out today. And for those of you who do choose to give, thank you so much. And now back to Rabbi with the second half of today’s lesson.
SPEAKER 03 :
We think that we understand what’s going on because we see something in the moment and on the surface. And we can’t possibly really understand what’s going on if we’re trying to evaluate life and circumstances simply by the temporal moment that we view them in and through the surface that we’re seeing. Let me give you an example. You might look at another human being. You see the color of their skin. You see the color of their eyes. You see the color of their hair. You see how tall or short, fat or skinny they are. Do you know them? You might think you know them. Some people have even fallen in love with somebody at first sight because they looked at them and they love the way they look. But you know what? When we look at somebody and think we know them because we see what their flesh looks like, we are totally deceived. Put it this way. Do you know what’s going on underneath their skin? Do you understand what is behind their eye’s ability to see? Do you understand what they’re thinking about? Do you understand the invisible force that keeps their heart beating on time every second of every day? Do you understand, just by seeing a person’s flesh, the deep nature of their physical makeup? Are you able to see inside their flesh? Are you able to see their kidneys and their organs and their lungs? Are you able to see how their brain is working? No, and yet we see somebody in the flesh and somebody says, that person’s my type. You don’t know anything about the person. All you see is the surface and you don’t have any insight at all into who that person really is. And it’s the same thing, beloved, with evaluating most things in life. We don’t see God’s eternal purpose. We only see the temporary. We only see the now. We can’t understand what’s going on. I know this is a hard message, but I’m trying to help us understand, beloved, that we need to have biblical emunah and believe that God rules the world and not be deceived because we’re evaluating something by our own puny, limited human understanding. The book of Isaiah tells us, the Lord is speaking there. He says, I am God and there is no other. I cause well-being and I create calamity. He said, I am light and I create the darkness. God is taking responsibility for everything. He is God and there is no other. We need to come out of the natural and out of our humanness and small-mindedness and begin to declare with faith that God rules the world. Now, I know that there are many questions that some are asking. Well, did God cause me just now, for example, to pick up my glasses? Did God make me do that? Did He cause that to happen? If God’s ruling the world, is He ruling and causing every little thing to happen? Did He make me turn the page? But let me put it to you this way. Take a step out of the forest. We can’t see the whole forest. We’re in the middle of the forest. We get blinded because all we can see in front of us is the trees in front of our face. We need to come out from the forest to see the big picture so that we can look down on the forest and see what’s really going on. At the end of the day, we’re going to see that God reigns and He rules the world. Now, principle number two as we move on from here, if God rules the world, where do I go with that? Where you go with that is this, that God causes everything to happen, listen now, for the best. Again, you have to step out of the now to be able to understand what I’m saying. God rules the world, and he causes everything to happen for the best. Here’s an example of what we get stuck in. Let’s say, for example, you’ve got a party somewhere that you need to be in a few hours, the family reunion. You get to the airport and you get in line to get your ticket. When you get to the ticket counter, the airline clerk says to you, I’m sorry, the flight has been overbooked. We don’t have a seat for you on this plane. And they can’t do anything for you. You walk away steaming. Your mind is 100 miles away from God. Your mind is 100 miles away from believing that God rules the world and that he does everything for the good. You’re just mad. You think something went wrong. This ought not to be. But imagine this, what happens if five hours later you’re watching the news and you see that that flight that you were supposed to be on crashed and everybody in the airplane was killed? Would you then say that God didn’t rule the world or would you instead say, wow, God, you saved me. Thank you that I didn’t get on that flight. I see your hand in my life. You see what I mean, my friends? We should not be so prideful to think that we understand because we can only see such a small part of what is going on. So I want you to join me next broadcast here, the next episode in this series, as we look at biblical principles of emunah. If we’re going to walk with God, we must have faith. We must believe that there’s a loving creator that rules the world. and that he’s got a great plan, that God’s plan is good. We look in the world and sometimes because of fear, we can be overwhelmed with the negative things that happen in the world. If you watch the news every night, you would come to the conclusion that 90% of what happens in life is negative because all they show us is the killings and the bombings and the gossip. But the reality is, beloved, over 90% of what’s happening in the world is good. There’s so much more good in the world than bad in the world. God is ruling the world, listen, and it’s all for the good. Just look at creation. You’ll see His beauty. Beloved, God wants you to trust Him. He wants you to cling to Him. He wants you not to be afraid. And when you know that He’s ruling the world, and that He’s working it all out for the good, as you look to Him, you know what will happen? Fear will be removed from your life, and you’re gonna enter into a freedom that you’ve not known before. By grace, we live our lives in our relationship with God, and it’s through faith. So let’s take a hold of faith, beloved, and enjoy the gift of relationship that Father has given us through Jesus, Yeshua HaMashiach, His Son.
SPEAKER 01 :
What a great teaching. And now here’s Rabbi and his wife, Miss Cynthia from the studio to share a little more today on this teaching.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, Rabbi, we say, Lord, I believe. But then there’s, oh, Lord, help thou my unbelief. Because that’s what we find. All of a sudden, we’re distracted by the bad reports that we get. Your ministry, your preaching to us just really trains us up so that the next time something like that happens, all of a sudden, we go into the big picture. God is over all and we are in him and he’s transforming this somehow to our good. We just have to look up and have peace knowing he’s got another plan that we don’t know about.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. You know, when you say the big picture, one of the things that I think is a faith challenge is that when we’re looking for God in the details, you know, something happens and we can say, OK, Father God, you’re in this. But then there’s a lot of little things that bog you down, and you say, or are you in this, Lord? Am I supposed to accept this from your hand? And my feeling is that sometimes there’s not like a direct connection for every second that Father God is causing every little thing to happen. but I think God is taking more of a broad approach. He lets a lot of little things happen, but he’s testing our faith because he wants us to say, Father God, I believe that somehow you’re allowing these things to happen, these even small things, and that when my response is faith, that you rule the world, God is doing something internally. This series that we’ve been in is called Principles of Emunah. Again, Emunah is the Hebrew word for faith. It reminds me of a story that I recently heard. A father went and presented his nine-year-old daughter with some costume jewelry. They were fake pearls. And the daughter loved this necklace that her father gave her. And about a week later, the father came into her bedroom and said, Honey, do you love me? And she said, Daddy, you know I love you. And he said, I want you to give me the necklace back that I gave you. And she just looked down. She was almost crying. She just couldn’t do it. She loved the necklace that her dad gave her so much. Again, a few days later, the dad came into a room, same thing. Again, the daughter looked down with tears running down her eyes. She couldn’t give up the necklace. She loved it so much. Finally, the third time, the dad went into the room and he said, honey, do you love me? And she reached under her pillow and she gave him the necklace. When she gave her dad the necklace, her dad pulled out of his pocket a brand new necklace made of real pearls. Beloved, that’s what happens when we trust God with our finances. I want to ask you to surrender to Him.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen, and if today’s message spoke to your heart, would you please respond today by giving a gift or becoming a monthly partner at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. You can also call us to give at 800-777-7835. You know, your support, it helps us continue broadcasting the gospel, teaching the word of God and reaching people all over the world with the truth of Jesus. And when you give, we want to send you Rabbi Schneider’s monthly teaching booklet. It’s one of the ways that we continue pouring biblical encouragement into the lives of those who are growing with us through this ministry. It’s full of extra exclusive teaching on a variety of topics. And you’ll also receive our ministry newsletter. And it’s a great way to stay connected to what God is doing through Discovering the Jewish Jesus. You’ll find ministry updates, a personal letter from Rabbi, and ways that you can pray with us to partner together as we continue sharing the gospel and standing with God’s plan for Israel during this important hour. And for those who are led to become new monthly partners, we’d like to also send you a very special thank you gift. It’s a handcrafted shofar that’s made in Israel. It’s an absolute beautiful gift and it’s a meaningful reminder of the biblical roots of our faith and also of your partnership that helps us bring God’s truth to more and more people every single month. Thank you for standing with us. If you’d like to become a monthly partner, go to discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Click the donate button and then partner. And now let’s receive God’s special blessing. Here’s Rabbi once again.
SPEAKER 03 :
The words from the Aaronic blessing in the book of Numbers chapter 6, verses 22 through 27. helps us to realize how good God is to you and I personally. So receive His blessing into your life, and then, beloved one, go bless somebody else in Jesus’ name today.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with His countenance. And the Lord give you, beloved one, His peace. God bless you and shalom.
SPEAKER 01 :
I’m your host, Dustin Roberts, and this program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus. Be sure to join us again when Rabbi Schneider reveals three principles for receiving God’s blessings today. That’s Tuesday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.
