One Torah For All

One Torah shall be to him that is home-born, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.
Exodus 12:49

Walking by Faith
A testimony concerning loss

2nd Corinthians 5:7
For we walk by faith, not by sight.

I believe in the sovereignty of Almighty YHWH. This means that everything that happens in this world is by His design. Everything! This is especially so for those who have given their lives to Him through Mashiach Yeshua and follow His Voice and walk according to His ways. This does not mean that I always understand what has happened or even why it was necessary for me to go through some ordeal. This is presently true.

Several years ago a dispute as to where our south property line was arose with the owners of the land to the south of us. Scripture encourages us to settle our disputes with others before it gets to court. We made every good faith effort to do this, repeatedly, but to no avail. The emotional upheaval within me personally was great and for many reasons. I was struggling with my emotions, even though I knew that whatever was going to happen was going to be according to His will for us. I just was not ready to accept the possibility of losing this small, but important piece of land. It was important because on it was our milking barn, holding pens, garden, and the orchard we had started.

I did finally give it completely into His hands, regardless of the outcome. For most of this dispute, I felt we were going to lose it. Most of these emotions were the result of my own personal past and did not have anything to do with YHWH impressing upon me what was coming. However, my dear wife Batya was strong in her faith that we would prevail.

Less than two weeks before the court date, we went in to see our attorney. We discovered at that appointment that he had done absolutely nothing to prepare for the coming court date. We walked away distraught, for we knew that we were about to lose our land. We made an appointment and went and saw another attorney. However, that yielded no comfort or relief.

We spent a lot of time giving the land to YHWH. It was His, not ours, and if He needed to place this small plot of land into the hands of someone else, then as Sovereign of the universe, He certainly has that right as well as the authority to do it. Furthermore, He did not need our permission, or approval. He would do as He would do. We just needed to be aligned with Him and His will regardless of what that was.

The night before court, I slept all the way through the night, which is quite unusual for me. I awoke completely at peace with the presence of YHWH very near to me. I was in tears most of the morning before we left for court because His presence was so tangible that morning.

During the court hearing, as I testified, I was in complete peace. I praise Him for this. This was miraculous! At the end of the hearing, when the judge asked for closing statements, he was somewhat incredulous that our attorney had not submitted, nor desired to submit, any prayers to the court. We learned later in the judge's ruling that he likely would have ruled in our favor if he would have had something to rule on. However, because we had a do-nothing attorney, he had nothing and had no legal recourse but to rule in favor of the opponents. Thus, we lost our important land, our barn, pens, gardens and orchard.

When we left, I confess I was no longer at peace within because of things the judge said at the end, knowing now that we didn't have to lose, but lost because of our attorney. I was angry. I was hurt. I felt betrayed. I had so many emotions that I did not know what to do with all of them. Batya was in the same boat as I was. We were completely devastated, even though we were pretty sure we were going to lose before going in. Now the reality of the loss had hit us squarely in the face.

I confess that I do not know why it was supposed to be this way, but I am convinced that this is the way YHWH wanted it to be.

The next day, we went home and began the process of moving all of our belongings off of that piece of land. It was an intimidating project. We had already begun our garden for this year. Moving that was not an easy task. However, I must say that the more we got moved, the stronger the peace Batya and I had. It grew with the passing of each day. After about two weeks, we got word that the judge had signed the order to vacate, and had given us until the end of the week to be vacated. We had been expecting thirty days to vacate. It was a very good thing that we had begun the day after court; otherwise, we would not have made this deadline.

It has been about a month now since we have vacated that piece of land. We are at peace with it. We may never know why YHWH removed this piece of land from our possession, which was somewhere between three quarters of an acre to one and one half acres. I must say that YHWH has more than made up for the loss by placing in our stewardship an additional 25 acres. We are so excited about this and praise Him for it.

There is so much more I could say about all this, like what this piece of land cost the opponents as compared to its value. They spent more than ten times what its present value is to obtain it. They truly did not count the cost of this endeavor. They could have come out ahead by simply selling us this piece of land at a reasonable price, but they were not willing.

We could talk about what it means to truly be a neighbor, but that would be a whole study in and of itself.

We acted in good faith when we bought this property. The barn and pens and gardens were part of what we purchased. They had been in the possession of the previous owners for more than ten years. It had been in our possession for more than three years. The barn has been there for all that time plus more. Yet, for some reason, YHWH picked this judge, the attorney we had, and all the circumstances in such a way as to remove this land from us. I am now okay with that. My emotions are still not one hundred percent in line with this knowledge, but we are moving towards that day by day. I know whom I serve, and He has done exactly what He has needed to do for His glory. HalleluYah!

Shabbat Shalom
Zerubbabel ben Emunah
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