mordekhi v yisraela

Torah: T’rumah (Contribution/offering), Sh’mot (Exodus) 25.1-27.19

Haftorah: M’lakhim Aleph 1 Kings 5.26(12)-6.13

Suggested Messianic Writings: 2 Corinthians 9.1-15

Shalom,

We now begin the section with the instructions for the building of the מִּשְׁכָּן mish-kahn, the Tabernacle. From Sh’mot 25 through chapter 30, where these instructions are found, a comparison can be made with creation – this is in essence a re-creation, a new beginning of the relationship between the Creator and the created. Here is a look at some of the similarities.

In B’resheet (Genesis), after each act of creation, we read, “Elohim said….” At the construction of the Tabernacle, we read, “Adonai said….” The Tabernacle can be seen as a return to the Garden of Eden. B’resheet 2.12 tells us that, “The gold of that land [Eden] is good; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there.” In Sh’mot 25.3-7 Adonai said “The contribution you are to take from them is to consist of gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn; fine linen, goat’s hair, tanned ram skins and fine leather; acacia-wood; oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; onyx stones and other stones….” The best could be found in Eden; the best was to be given for the Tabernacle. Notice also that acacia wood was to be used in the construction. The Hebrew term for the tree is שִׁטִּים sheet-teem, and is generally translated acacia. “The acacia is really the only tree that would have been plentiful in the Sinai Desert. Acacias are commonly found in Israel’s and neighboring deserts, often being the only trees in an otherwise empty landscape. For this reason some believe that the Burning Bush spoken of in Exodus Chapter 3 was an acacia tree” [from bibleandtrees.com]. The Targum (Aramaic translation and commentary) to the Song of Songs associates שִׁטִּים sheet-teem trees with the trees in the Garden of Eden. The Septuagint translates שִׁטִּים sheet-teem in this Sh’mot passage as “incorruptible trees,” thus inferring an association with the “Tree of Life”. And so the Creator chose, nay, designed this particular hardy wood for the construction of the Tabernacle and its contents.

The sanctuary inside the Tabernacle was intended to be a dwelling place for the Creator, His home among the people (Sh’mot 25.8). The Holy of Holies inside the Tabernacle was a place that only one mediator could enter, that being the High Priest. The Ark inside the Holy of Holies was guarded, as it were, by k’ruvim (cherubim) and we know that after man was sent out of the Garden, the way back to the Holy abode of the Creator on earth was also guarded by k’ruvim (Gen 3.24).

After the creation, “Elohim blessed the seventh day and separated it as holy; because on that day Elohim rested from all his work which he had created, so that it itself could produce” (Gen 2.3). The last instruction from Adonai to Moshe concerning the Tabernacle construction is found in Sh’mot 31.13-17, “You are to observe My Shabbats….” Again the seventh day was blessed and set apart, just as at creation.

After the close of the account of creation, we read of the fall of man. In Sh’mot 32, following the commandments of Tabernacle construction, we have the account of the golden calf, another “fall”. There is a slight difference now. Following the fall from the Garden, Elohim promised man that He would send a redeemer, an interceder as it were, to rescue them; after the golden calf incident, Moshe filled the role of the interceder, sparing Israel from total destruction at that time. Thus began the progression to reach the ultimate interceder, who is now sparing all who call upon Him from eternal destruction.

Moshe was to construct the Tabernacle “according to the design you have been shown on the mountain” (Sh’mot 26.30). This is reiterated in Hebrews 8.5, concerning the items and services in the Tabernacle, “But what they are serving is only a copy and shadow of the heavenly original; for when Moshe was about to erect the Tent, God warned him, ‘See to it that you make everything according to the pattern you were shown on the mountain.’” Moshe’s Tabernacle was a facsimile of the heavenly tabernacle, the heavenly abode of the Creator; thus, a Moshe’s Tabernacle gives us a picture of heaven come to earth. And being a copy of the heavenly, then every piece of furniture and every feature was a copy of the heavenly. However, the purpose of each of the items in their heavenly usage is not explained, thus we are given a great mystery of which we “see through a glass darkly,” that is, we understand little at this point of the supernatural realm.

As believers in Yeshua haMashiakh (the Messiah), we know that He is what all this was pointing to. Hebrew 9.11-14 gives an explanation: “But when the Messiah appeared as cohen gadol [high priest] of the good things that are happening already, then, through the greater and more perfect Tent which is not man-made (that is, it is not of this created world), he entered the Holiest Place once and for all. And he entered not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus setting people free forever. For if sprinkling ceremonially unclean persons with the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer restores their outward purity; then how much more the blood of the Messiah, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself to God as a sacrifice without blemish, will purify our conscience from works that lead to death, so that we can serve the living God!”

Notice that the above passage said that the Messiah has entered the Holiest Place, the Holy of Holies, once and for all, thus setting people free forever. We noted earlier that inside the Tabernacle there was to be a sanctuary, where the Creator would live. The term in Hebrew for sanctuary is מִקְדָּשׁ meek-dahsh, “a place set apart from the rest for a special function”. This was where the Shekhinah glory of the Creator would dwell, and only one who was purified from sin could enter. In the case of man, the High Priest was the one, and only once a year could he enter. Yeshua, as the Great High Priest, entered in once and has remained.

Now we come to a point that might make us pay attention closely to this picture from the Tabernacle and its purpose. 1 Corinthians 3.16 reads, “Don’t you know that you people are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” Bible scholar William Morford points out that the proper translation should be “sanctuary,” that is, “you are God’s sanctuary….” His reasoning was that the Tabernacle (and the later Temples) “had a court where sin was welcome and an altar where sin was dealt with. Sin had to be dealt with before entering the sanctuary or the priest who entered was dead.” In other words, sin was welcome in that in the outer court, all were welcome to enter; the inner court was the place to deal with that sin, and have it “washed away”. Yeshua entered the Holiest Place, and if in essence that means where He now abides, that is, in His people, then as believers we are now the sanctuary of the Creator. He can only abide in, dwell in, inhabit, a Holy Place. Thus we see our duty to be sure that sin is dealt with, our sanctuary swept clean, and the ashes removed to outside the camp. And since we are weak humans, this has to be a constant daily house cleaning. When Sha’ul said to put on the full armor of G-d, I don’t think that referred to a one-time fitting, but to a daily “getting dressed and ready”.

And all this to say that there is purpose in what we read in Torah and the rest of the Tanakh. The Creator works outside of time, so what may seem like a long time to unfold a plan to us, is an instant to Him. If Moshe was given a heavenly pattern of what to do, then there must be a heavenly purpose for all that we see and read. The B’rit Khadashah, or Messianic Writings (New Testament) should never be seen as a separate entity, but rather a continuation of what had come previously. In Sh’mot 25.8, Adonai said, “They are to make me a sanctuary, so that I may live among them.” The Hebrew for make is עשׂה ah-sah, which can also be translated, “accomplish, achieve, become”. Thus the constructed Tabernacle is a picture of the spiritual Tabernacle, wherein we find the sanctuary of Elohim: “They are to become a sanctuary, so that I may live among them”.

You are God’s temple. The Biblical Temple at times fell into disarray and disuse, and the Shekhinah departed. We must ask ourselves, “What is the condition of my temple?” Looking deeper, “Who is abiding in the sanctuary within me?”

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

Torah: Mishpatim (Rulings/Judgments), Sh’mot (Exodus) 21.1-24.18
Haftorah: Melakhim Bet 2 Kings 11.17-12.17
Suggested Messianic Writings: Mattityahu (Matthew) 17.1-11

Shalom,

We come to a special section of Torah now. Israel had just been given the Ten Commandments
(as we read in the last parashah), the guidelines on how to live in obedience to HaShem, and now begins
the explanation of those rules – the commentary, the expansion, as it were. As the ArtScroll Commentary
points out, in Torah HaShem does not make a separation between “Church and State.” In HaShem’s
economy, there is no difference; i.e., all that we do – whether in worship or in work – should be done to
honor Him, and everything should include Him. The reason for all of Torah is summed up in a statement
that Moshe’s father-in-law told him in Sh’mot 18.20, and which we looked at last parashah: “You should
teach them the laws and the teachings, and show them how to live their lives and what work they should
do” (emphasis added). This people had just been delivered from a pagan culture, which had imbedded
itself into their own way of life, and they were pretty clueless about how to live HaShem’s way. None of us
are any different today, and that is why we must constantly be in Torah, and all of the Word of HaShem.
That is the purpose of Scripture. When left on our own without the guidance and wisdom of the Creator,
we really don’t know how to live properly or behave in a righteousness manner. Witness the state of the
world. Torah is our foundation of living; Yeshua is our foundation of faith.

A rather oxymoronic thought is that in true service to Yeshua, every one of us is free to be a
slave. When Sha’ul (Saul/Paul) points out in Romans 6.14 that we are not under law, in context he is
saying that we are not under the condemnation of law; or as David Stern translated in the CJB, “not under
legalism but under grace.” The point is that we are not saved just by obeying the law, but neither are we
saved in order to do whatever we feel like in the name of grace. Sha’ul declares that we are not to sin
because we are under grace. He continues by pointing out that we are slaves to the one whom we obey.
The nature of humanity is to abuse even a concept such as slavery. A dictionary definition of slave is, “A
person completely controlled by a dominating influence.” A magnificent obsession, if you will. The
paradox of our walk is that we are free to obey sin, or we are free to obey HaShem. “Free to be a slave.”
Sha’ul explains in 1 Corinthians 7.22-23 that Mashiakh (Messiah) has paid a price for us and has set us
free from whatever we were enslaved to; so now we are His slave, and we are not to return to being a
slave of our former nature. The purpose of Torah is to set us free from former slavery; that is what grace
is all about. There really need not be a law-grace debate; rather, they are intended to go hand in hand. An
FFOZ1 drash for this parashah began with the thought, “Things get backward if we start to believe that we
must keep God’s Law in order to be saved. Instead, we should keep God’s Law because we are saved.”

If we desire to be a slave to THE Master, Yeshua, here is what we are to do, per Sh’mot 21.5-6. If
we love our Master and want to stay with Him, we need to let Him “pierce our ear on the doorpost,” so
that we will be His slave for life. What does that mean? This is a spiritual picture. Yesha’yahu (Isaiah)
50.4-5 gives us a clue: “Each morning He awakens my ear to hear like those who are taught. Adonai
Elohim has opened my ear, and I neither rebelled nor turned away” [emphasis added]. In a very real
spiritual sense He pierces our ear to symbolize our permanent “slavery” to Him. This passage in
Yesha’yahu 50 is a Messianic portion, as well as these verses in Tehillim (Psalms) 40.7(6)-9(8), “Sacrifice
and grain offerings you don’t want; burnt offerings and sin offerings you don’t demand. Instead, you have
given me open ears; so then I said, ‘Here I am! I’m coming! In the scroll of a book it is written about me.
Doing your will, my God, is my joy; your Torah is in my inmost being.” Yeshua’s joy was obeying His
Father. Our joy should be the same, if we are His “slave for life.”

In Mattityahu 5.38, Yeshua expands upon the concept of eye for eye and tooth for tooth: “You
have heard it said… but I say unto you….” According to Biblical scholar David Bivin, the Hebraic
understanding of what Yeshua said is that one is not to get “even” with evildoers. Bivin explains, “Not
‘competing’ with evildoers is very different from not ‘resisting’ evildoers. [Yeshua] was not teaching that
one should submit to evil, but rather that one should not seek revenge. His statement has nothing to do
with something like confronting a murderer or facing an enemy on the field of battle… loving and praying
for one’s enemies in no way precludes defending oneself when in danger… however, one must forgive
and not seek revenge against those who have insulted or wronged them.”2 In instances in the Tanakh
where this commandment – eye for eye and tooth for tooth – is given3, it has to do with dealing with a
murderer or someone who has done malicious harm to another. But by Yeshua’s time, the commandment
was being taken out of context.

The people of Israel made a curious statement to HaShem in Sh’mot 24.7. Moshe had given the
commandments to the people, and they declared, “Everything that ADONAI has spoken, we will do and
obey” (emphasis added). The last word, obey, in Hebrew is נִשׁמְָע , neesh’mah, the root of which is ,שׁמע
sh’ma, which means,” to hear intelligently, with implication of obedience.” In other words, their response
essentially was, “We will do and [then] we will hear.” Actual servitude means serving HaShem even
before He tells us what He wants us to do.

Although well-known as an anti-missionary, the late Aryeh Kaplan made a good observation
about the above verse in his book, Waters of Eden: “Our sages stress the fact that their first statement
was, ‘we will do,’ and only then did they say, ‘we will hear.’ This indicates that when the Torah was given,
we were ready to keep the commandments and ‘do’ them, before we ‘heard’ any reason or logic for
them.” That is true “slavery,” and bears little resemblance to the slavery system than mankind has abused
for their own evil purpose. In Yeshua we are indeed “free to be a slave.” Yeshua, may we all learn to do
and [then] hear.

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלָםִ – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

Torah: Yitro (Jethro/abundance), Sh’mot (Exodus) 18.1-20.23(26)
Haftorah: Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 6.1-7.6, 9.5(6)-6(7)
Suggested Messianic Writings reading: Mattityahu (Matthew) 5.8-20

Shalom,

In the previous parashah, Israel had just defeated Amalek, the Amalekites, and now has another
“visitor” from the family. What we have here has been essentially a family gathering, for all the involved
are descendants of Avraham. Amalek is descended from Esav (Esau), the brother who lost his
inheritance to Ya’akov (Jacob). Yitro (Jethro) is descended from Midyan, who was a son of Avraham and
Keturah, Avraham’s wife after the death of Sarah. The spirit of jealousy that had developed in Esav
continued down his family line, and still continues to this day, in all the spiteful attacks against Israel. The
children from Keturah do not seem to have as deep a need for vengeance, and in our current picture,
Yitro from Midyan became an advisor and a helper to Israel.

Many years earlier, Moshe had been a wanderer in the desert when he “happened” upon the
camp of Yitro, where he ended up staying and marrying a daughter of this High Priest of Midyan. Now
Yitro comes, and throughout the chapter he is described as the father-in-law of Moshe – a role reversal in
a sense, as Moshe had become the greater leader.

Yitro had come for two reasons: to bring Moshe’s wife and sons back to him, and because he had
heard of all the great things that HaShem had done for Israel, bringing them out of Egypt. Amalek had
undoubtedly heard the same report, and here we have a contrast in what the mind and heart of a man will
lead him to do. Those whose hearts are angry and spiteful will remain the same, if that is their base
desire, and as we saw in the case of Pharaoh, their heart will be strengthened in that area. A heart that is
dark will only become darker, short of receiving Light from the Creator. Amalek came to fight, to defeat a
hated enemy. “Midyan” came to help out, to impart wisdom. Both had heard of the miraculous rescue of
Israel out of Egypt. The ArtScroll commentary notes that, “Miracles alone do not transform the beliefs of
the Amaleks of the world; those who refuse to recognize the hand of God will always interpret events to
suit their own purposes.” How true that is. Unfortunately, the ArtScroll authors – non-Messianic Jews – do
the same when it comes to the miracles surrounding Yeshua.

Yeshua gives us a picture of this contrast between hinder or help in this week’s Messianic
Writings reading, from Mattityahu (Matthew) 5, looking at verses 13-14: “You are Salt for the Land” – salt
is a preservative, and had Amalek used their strength to righteously defend, protect and preserve Israel,
they would have had a worthy history, but since they chose the opposite, “ADONAI will fight Amalek
generation after generation” (Sh’mot 17.16). On the other hand, Yitro from Midyan encouraged Israel to
be a Light for the world. His advice to Moshe has lasted for millennia: “You should teach them the laws
and the teachings, and show them how to live their lives and what work they should do” (Sh’mot 18.20).
That is the whole point of Torah, and Yeshua and Sha’ul (Saul/Paul) and Kefa (Peter) and the others in
the Messianic Writings built upon this foundation, as did the prophets and poets and writers of the Tanakh
– Isaiah and David and Hosea and Solomon, on and on – “This is how HaShem wants us to live and
work, not as the pagans do, but as He does.”

This world is still given the choice of fighting against HaShem and His people, as did Amalek, or
supporting the work of HaShem. We can either be worthy salt and preserve the ways of HaShem, or else
become tasteless and worthless to His kingdom. We as believers are to be a light and show others how
to live their lives in His Light, for we are a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. This is what Torah living is
all about, serving the One who created us, whose name is Yeshua. His is the Name above all names
(Eph 1.21; Phil 2.9). He is the One who holds the world in His hand; He is the One in control of all, who
has all authority. The Father has basically released all authority into the Son’s hands regarding this
planet, and when the Son will return to this earth, He will reign for 1000 years and straighten everything
out, and “then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when He has
abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under
His feet” (1 Cor 15.24-25).

As I have noted many times in past drashes, the true understanding of Grace is “the power to do
the right thing”. What is the right thing? “…how HaShem wants us to live and work.”

As we serve the One who created us, Yeshua (see Col 1.16), we come to realize that this One
who became a man, and is still a man, is somehow God at the same time – fully God, fully man, and a
part of the mysterious triune God-head of Av, Ben v’Ruakh, Father, Son and Spirit. And when we come to
that reality, then we have to understand that, as He works in the hidden spiritual realm, that there is an
enemy in that hidden realm also, and that enemy is against all who stand with Yeshua.

We are instructed by Sha’ul in Ephesians 6 to put on the full armor of God in our fight against the
enemy. Eugene Peterson states it well in his paraphrased Bible called The Message, “God is strong, and
he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best
materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way.
This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This
is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. Be prepared. You’re up
against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has
issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet” (Eph 6.10-13).

And if we have stood, when it is all over, we will be shouting halleluyah’s!

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלָםִ – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! Pray for
those “Yitro’s” to come alongside Israel and stand with her, imparting wisdom from above. Pray for
[spiritual] eyes to be opened to see Yeshua for who He is – Messiah and King of Israel.