Montana Mattot Mass’ei

July 22 2017 9:00 pm

“Adonai, you are Creator of all. You created this calf. We ask you that this calf may live. His father is Taurus, named after you and your strength. You created this bull calf to produce life. I do not believe that his mother would conceive him, give birth for him for him to die. We pray life over this calf. And if possible L-rd, that you would show us a sign of life. Would you please just lift his head,….his hoof… that we may see life in him. He does not have to walk. We thank you for his life.

I pray this in Yeshua, Ha Messiach. Amein.

This prayer was spoken in all sincerity of heart. Four believers stood in wonder when the calf that appeared dead lifted his head and then he lifted his right hoof. His head sat upright as he rested it on his raised front right hoof. He held it there for at least a minute giving testimony for all four of his owners to bear witness to the Hand of  G-d on him.

No one could doubt that the prayer had been answered exactly as it was prayed. In fact, when the head was lifted….all voiced their praise to God. And then when his right hoof raised up…all four stood in ‘awe’. There was a silence among them as they each searched their own heart witnessing the ‘Hand of God’ on this calf. Was it by chance that his head and hoof were lifted up for us all to see? Or was it the Hand of God so often spoken of by the one that lead the prayer? The one that lead the prayer had never ask anything like this before and was shocked to see such an answer. But, also in her heart she had always prayed that The Creator would use her in some special way in life…to put her in for the fight for what was Righteous to G-d on the earth. This action by the calf would more than stir her heart for just that moment.

Was it also by chance that her daughter-in-law and grandson of whom had witnessed the near-death experience of the calf  would also witness the wind that rose up as they drove home from the site of the miracle?  A huge branch could have dropped on their vehicle as they drove out the lane.  Several branches from large trees were downed by the strength of the wind and were only carried off with a tractor.

The wind was so strongly that it dropped the flagpole to the ground?  It had held two large flags: USA and Israel.

In the destruction of the wind the blessing came. The temperatures dropped twenty to thirty degrees so that the calf Montana could finally breathe in his still valley of death. He was down in a gully that no one could carry him out. He had been given electrolytes twice and now his eyes were glazed with no life. The wind helped the entire herd to breathe once again after a long week of 100 degree temperatures in Missouri with high humidity.

Would be alive on Sunday?

The one who spoke the prayer was in awe and was heard declaring how the prayer was answered specifically…with the head and the hoof being lifted up. As the calf lifted his head and hoof she admitted that she didn’t know why she had prayed it that way. But, she found herself in prayer of thanksgiving to The Creator for giving such a testimony to them. In her prayer of thanksgiving she again said that that was enough and the calf did not have to walk. But, she thanks The L-rd out loud for answering the specific prayer of the signs of life in the calf. She was thankful that her family could see how The Creator talks us.

As the sincerity of her heart for this calf to live came out of her mouth, she wondered why she had prayed what she did. She was not one to ever lay a fleece before the L-rd. The lifting of the head was intentional but to continue to ask for the witness of the hoof to be lifted was not part of the planned prayer. The words just came forth and yet she would not take the words back. And, as the prayer continued she found that she was claiming that this calf would continue in his life to produce babies.

“Would he remain a bull and not go to the slaughter?” she wondered as the words poured from her mouth. She wondered about the prayer that was telling his future even as she prayed it.

When she told the calf’s anointing story at her next Shabbot class…it was mentioned, “You can’t sell that calf.” She did not think deeply upon that until a few weeks later as the calf would now become part of a bigger story.

Two close friends would get cancer at a similar time in the fall of 2015 and early 2016. The day of the calf’s rising LR would occur the evening before The Celebration of Life for LR. July 23 2017 was a final time to share his life with friends. LR would pass on August 27 as Harvey was still battering Texas. It would be the worst natural catastrophe to hit America even over Hurricane Katrina.

LR passed at 3:45 a.m. with a 6.4 earthquake occurring at 4:17 a.m. He loved seeing the Hand of G-d in the earthquakes and this friend saw The Creator welcome him home with shaking the earth.

The second friend was also battling for her life in Iowa as fluid continued to fill her lungs from the cancer that was back with a vengeance. Two gene-therapy cancer treatments had run their course and it was time to visit my friend five hours away. I had sent her some stories I had written and how it was fun to note how a donkey and horse are proud as they sit down with their front legs still up after their bottom goes down. I had noticed that the bull was a perfect sacrifice as it always bowed as lays down and gets back up. Even in pain she would whisper to have me tell everyone about a calf’s humility. She is still part of this story as she seemed to raise her head and her hoof after I left as she again trusted in the name above all names…Yeshua The Messiah. She is very familiar with His name as she loves Israel.

I now realize that Monday’s Montana was exactly 60 days old when he was reborn. He was born in the dirt as I found him on Monday morning, May 22, 2017. Our son’s family was pulling out of their driveway and his wife noticed a new baby. They were gone for a week. He did not receive the normal ‘calf welcoming’ with cheers and pictures from those particular four grandchildren. In fact, our other son had his entire family on vacation in Montana that week and they did not see him either. Thus his name was Monday’s Montana….but I hugged him and sent them his newborn pictures announcing his birth. He was the ninth calf and only the second bull to be born.

May 22 – July 22…60 days old. My husband had been hosing him down with water for two days and finally drove 30 minutes to buy electrolytes on Saturday. They were issued at 3:00 pm Saturday. The Creator had placed this bull calf in a deep ravine that hid him from his mother who was frantic for two days trying to find him. He could not call loud enough for her to hear him. There was no moon and it was the hottest of night in Missouri.

On the Hebrew calendar it was 28 Tammuz 5777. The Fast of Tammuz 17 had past but I had fast with Israel for the sins of worshiping the golden calf. I had never expected this bull calf was to be offered up. The Sabbath was closing as I searched for the calf. It was dark and I could not find him on my own. We later found him but only to push down to a creek bed that was less dangerous from rains that were expected to come. He had taken refuge in an area that not even four men could carry him out. He was at the bottom of ‘Bone Hill’ where we laid our twelve-year old Yorkshire Zeno to rest 30 days before. If his calf was to die, then he was in the right burial place. Would those that knew how to put the electrolytes into his stomach return to do it? A text went out.

Around 9:00 pm the electrolyte team arrived. A grandson (21), a son (35) and a daughter-in-law (43) and grandma (66) all headed to the woods. The son is a fireman paramedic and Erica is a nurse. But, where was Montana?

He was still surrounded by steep hills and two small streams that when the rains came that night could still swallow him up. The two men drug him ten feet to the east and his head dragged behind him collected dirt.

He joined the herd but was not noticed by many….until the days of his demise. He would not be named Shemini for (8th) or Yuddie for being number ten. He would not be named Mordicai, a bull calf whose mother claimed the name Hadassah…from the Book of Esther. Monday’s Montana would be found to be that severing number 9. This Hebrew letter was ‘Tet’ meaning to surround, to twist like a snake. He truly was being twisted and severed. But now he would be anointed to have a different name.

Name Change: Monday’s Montana to Mattot Mass’ei

May 22 to July 22 2017. Mattot Massei 60-day journey.

Only three bull calves were born and each on a Monday; seven days apart.

May 15 2017 – Mordicai # 7 calf (30 Day Counting of Omer) 19 Iyyar

May 22 2017 – Montana (Mattot) #9 calf (37 Day Counting of Omer) 26 Iyyar

May 29 2017 – Yuddy #10 calf (44 Day Counting Omer) 4 Sivan

In sixty days Monday’s Montana would be set apart to death. The Sabbath of Mattot Massei came to close and he rose. His name would now be Mattot Mass’ei…tribes and journey. There were two Torah portions the day of his near death. He was anointed by his Creator and he would live.

He would be the calf that would be given witness to in the book, Adom’s Umbilical Cord which was already being written by the one of whom prayed over him. She would rub his chest and shake his head trying to lift him up. He seemed dead as they all watched in dismay at losing this animal. Death was being pronounced over him…the nurse, the fireman looked into his eyes…his breathing could barely be seen by the ever-so-slight lifting of his diaphragm.

Since it was not a leap year, two Torah portions were read and discussed: Parashah 42 and 43.

Mattot: meaning Tribes, Parashah 42: B’Midbar (Numbers) 30:2-32:42; Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 1:1-2; Mathew 5:33-37.

Mass’ei: meaning stages/journeys. Parashah 43: B’Midbar (Numbers) Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 2:4-28, 3:4; 4:1-2; James 4:1-12.

At the end of the Mass’ei Torah reading it reads:

Hazak, hazak, v’nit’chazek!

Be strong, be strong, and let us be strengthened!

This is what is said at the close of each of the five book known as, The Pentateuch. The Book of Numbers was completed that day and the class all repeated the words. Be strong, Be Strong and let us be strengthened….and the calf would be strengthened as his owner was strengthened to pray.

Grandma would arrive home at 6:00 pm to find every cow in distress because of the heat wave. The 300 gallon tank of water had been tainted and that was not found out until the next day on Sunday. The cows needed in the pond as they looked to perish with their blue tongues hanging from their mouths. The electric fencing around the pond had to come down no matter if the twenty-six cows and calves would destroy the landscaping. After about twenty minutes the cows were in the pond and two hours later they would be contained with new borders.

They were refreshed and enjoying their pond swimming pool. Grandma would now search for the missing calf. Her husband returned at dark to show her where the calf was held up in a gully wash that the mother couldn’t reach him. Montana’s mother had been pacing all day in the heat trying to find him to no avail. She was exhausted and wore out as well. Grandpa had been hosing him down with water for a few days. This calf was being baptized and prepared….just as Mosche brought all their children and cattle through the waters.

Our Creator knows us and directs our path. Men devise their own ways and yet we are brought to a moment of truth. On July 22 2017 in a ravine for stickers in the darkest of night, this child..a grandmother of eleven, saw her creator answer a life-long prayer….use me…show me…help me…to show others that you are REAL. I know you’re real as you show me every day that I stand in awe about. But, put that in my children….I prayed all the time.

Now, I stood there with shock…we all stood there…as death was denounced and life was claimed for this little 60 days old calf that would have gone to the slaughter house shortly. There on that dark hill I stood next to my daughter-in-law and I heard her gasp at the sight and she had heard the prayer. I stood there and looked down at my twenty-year old grandson who had pronounced death by morning over this animal. He loved also loves God and I heard his praise as he witnessed it. Next to him was my third child, a fireman who saves lives and puts his life on the line. He has asked me some time ago how God talks to me and I told him that it was in ways that I couldn’t explain. And, now he stood there and was speechless as well.

My Creator just answered the prayers of a mother and grandmother that for years has ask for her children see their Creator real in their lives. This was no accident and out of darkness came light. On Sunday morning I prepared a bag of electrolytes for the calf just in case he was alive. I didn’t know how I as one person would administer it by myself. When I arrived to Bone Hill where the stone marked Zeno’s grave, I looked down into the deep ravine to see the calf alive. He had even moved five feet further to the east. I climbed down the steep hill holding onto the rocks as I slid down.

There was my answer…he was lying directly under web wire fencing that was still there above my head. I found a rusty wire on it and attached the electrolyte bag to it above his head. He let me pet him but was not going to let me stick a tube down his throat. I had thanked Adonai that the calf was alive and to please help me with what came next. The calf stood up but was very weak. I ask Adonai to please direct this calf on how to get out of this gully. The calf turned to the east and stepped into a very tiny stream of rocks. It only looked like a big mass of stickers ahead but I gave him a push from the rear. He took three steps and I pushed him again….. If he went any further I was not going with him…I ask The L-rd to please turn him up the hill. The calf looked left and took three more steps. I pushed him and he took three more steps…I pushed him for got three more steps. After five pushes he had made us a path to walk through and we were to the open field I had wanted him.

My husband asks me sometimes who I am talking to and it is The L-rd. That Sunday morning I was talking out loud a lot. I was praising our Creator as I still ask for His mercy and grace in uniting this calf with his mother. Would she still own him after so many human hands had been on him. Would he smell like death to her? If the calf had laid down at least I would know where to bring his mother.

I got the golf cart and with a bucket of grain. I had to get all twenty-five cattle to follow me in the golf cart as I shook the bucket making noise with the grain. Why would they leave their cool pond water and follow someone with noise of grain who kept driving away from them. But, one special cow started the entire herd to come. She would lead all of them to what she knew would be good.

Where was the baby? How far would I have to lead this herd?

He had stepped inside a large ring that should have held a bale of hay. But instead of hay being in the ring there had been mineral blocks placed there to encourage them to then get fly repellent on bodies. He was inside of that ring licking an empty black rubber feeder. I again praised the L-rd for directing this baby to exactly what he needed.

The herd was now almost knocking over my golf cart because of the grain. I poured it out on the ground and left them to it. Even the bull was with them and I stepped back. My prayer was that G-d would somehow have his mother see him. No one was paying attention to him and then he let out a soft cry. Out of all the cows, she was not more than ten feet from him. She heard his cry and let out her cry. He looked up and saw her and stepped out of the ring and made his way to her. She licked his head and he went to nurse. She kept licking his little rump and put her scent back on him.

I returned to the golf cart praising our Creator for a happy ending to little Monday’s Montana…Or was it over yet? I sat there five feet from them. I could have reached out and touched her. She was a very good mother and looked relieved to have her baby back. I was trying to make note of who his mother was as they all look so much alike. She had a small amount of white on just one udder and yet she was given white on her umbilical cord… I would remember her as she was part of this story.

He would not join his little herd for a few days. He camped out in the shade of the trees that held the ravines that kept him cool during the days of his distress.

As I drove to Iowa alone in my car for five hours on August 23 it was 1 Elul. The stresses of coming through three weeks of the Dire Straits were over and The Fast of the 9th of AV was over as well. The month of Elul saw Moses returning to the mountain of G-d to seek the children’s atonement for the Worship of the Golden Calf in Tammuz. The calf had been melted down and the gold powder had been put in the streams and thousands of Israelites died from poisoned water. The earth opened up and swallowed the families of Korach and Datan because they were jealous of Moses being chosen to be their leader. The lessons were many as we began the study of The Book of Deuteronomy. I would go to class and everyone would be updated about the calf and my friend Sue. LR would pass and it weighed heavy on our minds as he suffered in hospice.

The calf was renamed to Montana’s Mattot Massei. He was now 90 days old when I got the call that my friend Sue was not breathing very well and I needed to go. On Wednesday, August 23, she was in the Iowa City hospital. I would meet her family there. Then I got a call and said she would be released and I could meet her at her home. I arrived around 5:00 pm with an hour to spare before her daughter brought her. I would stay two nights and we would pray…talk…and give witness to her entire family about the calf now renamed Monday’s Mattot.

During the five hour trip into Iowa I downloaded a talk by Dr. Rabbi Shapiro. It was hard to understand his three-day conference that was covering about Yeshua becoming Esau. But, I absorbed enough to know and confirm that the name in which we pray is Yeshua. My trip to Iowa kept confirming the calf and the words said and the name in which it was prayed. Sue’s relatives that I love even drove two days to be with Sue. They brought a book with them by Johnathan Cahn that again referenced the name, Yeshua and that it meant ‘salvation.’

By the time I was ready to leave there was only joy in our hearts…and hope for the future. The calf had risen and so could Sue. She knew the ways of The Messiach. She could barely speak as the morphine to kill her pain was weakening her muscles. She could not sleep at night or day. She could not wait to take her next breakthrough morphine pill. Her house was full of family loving on her.

We read the next Torah portions with her brother and sister-in-law and their son as she listened. It is God’s word that lifts her up…she find such joy in it. She agreed on the name of Yeshua but it would be hard as she was so use to the name, Jesus. But, she wanted to write a book tell others about the name Yeshua meaning, ‘salvation’.

As she walked me out through her garage I prayed for God to lift her head and her hoof in praise of Him. I arrived back to hear of Hurricane Harvey hitting Texas as I sat in class on the Sabbath entitled Shoftim meaning ‘judges.’ It was Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9; Isaiah 51:12-52:12; Acts 10-12.

Hurricane Harvey hit, I received news that Lee had passed in the night and now I’m praying for Sue intensely. I called to tell her about Lee Sunday morning and I found that her New Jersey family was heading out the door making their way back home. Her brother Mike was rubbing her feet as she sat in her chair with him rubbing her swollen feet. She had skipped one of her breakthrough morphine pills and had slept all night. I cold hear her speaking in a louder voice. I praised our Creator for her resurrection and continue to pray for her complete healing as she claims His name.

I close this on September 13, 2017; 22 Elul. It is the month that our King is in his field. It is a month of judgment where all discord between brethern and the world should be resolved. Rosh Hoshanna, The Feast of Trumpets is September 21 beginning the evening of September 20. I have been blowing my shofar every day in Elul.  May we always call upon Him who keeps us safe under his wings..The Torah.

Sue is still fighting for life and will undergo a series of chemo and radiation to kill the cancer that is surrounding her body. She is in Dire Straits but knows she will be healed. She is not having a Celebration of Life party as she is does not plan on leaving. Thank you all for praying for her in the name of Yeshua, our Messiah.