mordekhi v yisraela

Torah: Tetzaveh (You shall command), Sh’mot (Exodus) 27.20-30.10
Haftorah: Yekhezk’el (Ezekiel) 43.10-27
Suggested Messianic Writings: Heb 13.10-16

Shalom,

Sh’mot 27.20: “You are to order the people of Isra’el to bring you pure oil of pounded olives for the light, and to keep a lamp burning continually.” Pure oil – oil prepared from olives that had been cleaned of leaves and dust, and then beaten in a mortar. This oil, which flows out by itself from the beaten olive, is of the finest quality and a white color, according to Keil & Delitzsch. The pure oil was to be put into the menorah in the Tabernacle, which was to be lit and kept burning from evening to morning, every day.

As a young child in Sunday School, we sang the little song, “Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burnin’ for the Lord….” The Jesus movement (affectionately known by Messianics as “the Yeshua movement” – after all, the Messianic Jewish revival began at that time) came up with more illuminating verses as, “Give me oil in my Ford, keep me chuggin’ for the Lord…” and so on. Some of you may remember other such enlightening lines.

Oil. The substance that has come to represent the Ruakh HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit). The substance that Yeshua warns us in parable form in Mattityahu (Matthew) 25 to be wise and have our lamps full of. Without the oil in the menorah in the Tabernacle, it would have been dark and the priests would not have been able to fulfill their duties. Having the menorah, the lamp, by itself was not enough. It needed oil to be able to provide light. The five foolish virgins of Mattityahu 25 had their lamps, but no oil. The lamps represent the work without the power.

The Ruakh HaKodesh is no doubt the most misunderstood member of the triune G-dhead. The Hebraic terminology concerning the Ruakh is in the feminine form, although the “Ekhad G-d” is not expressly either male or female. Yeshua became a man and is thus a male, but the spirit forms of Elohim are neither man nor woman. The Ruakh is the power available to believers today to aid us in our walk, but the Ruakh is also a personality. We should to never refer to the Ruakh as “it”. The Ruakh is not a mysterious floating mist, “the force,” or any other such nomenclature. The Ruakh is G-d, just as much as the Father and the Son are G-d. None of us can ever expect to fully understand or explain the tri-unity of the one G-d.

As believers today, globally, we understand so little of what the Ruakh is trying to tell us. We are more in tune to what our own wills want. Yeshua said that the Ruakh “will guide you into all the truth” (Yokhanan/John 16.13). With around some 38,000 different church denominations in the world, that makes for a lot of differences in hearing the “truth”. Possibly the missing key overall may be found in Yokhanan 16.14: “He will glorify Me”. All too often our programs, our ways, our prejudices overrule glorifying Yeshua. And yet, on the other hand, we are the bride that is being prepared; perhaps we are all pieces of the puzzle. But only the pieces that fit properly are used to form the puzzle. “Lord, Lord! Didn’t we prophesy in your name? Didn’t we expel demons in your name? Didn’t we perform many miracles in your name?” Our only goal should be to glorify Yeshua and let the Ruakh show us what else to do. That is holiness.

Oswald Chambers noted that, “The New Testament example of the believer’s experience is that of a personal, passionate devotion to the person of [Yeshua the Messiah]. Every other kind of so-called Christian experience is detached from the person of [Yeshua].” We should note that in this parashah, the oil is called for first, before the Priests were set apart. 1 Kefa (Peter) 2.9 tells us that we as believers are a royal priesthood (or as Stern reads, “the King’s cohanim”). The Priests of the Tabernacle and Temple were to be set apart as ministers unto G-d. Set apart – that is holiness. As priests of Yeshua today, our lives are to be set apart. Why? Continuing with 1 Kefa 2.9, so that “you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light”. How do we do that? The first step (after that of accepting Yeshua as Messiah, Savior, and Lord) is to be filled with oil, or the Ruakh HaKodesh. Then we can be placed into His service as a Priest. Dare not go forward in His service without oil, or you will be as one of the foolish virgins.

Holiness. Glorifying Yeshua, that is obedience, and that is holiness. First published in 1853, Stephen Charnock wrote this regarding holiness, in his magnificent book The Existence and Attributes of God: “The holiness of His Spirit doth sparkle in His ordinances; the holiness of our spirits ought also to sparkle in our observance of them… All worship is an acknowledgment of the excellency of God as He is holy… How can any person sanctify G0d’s name that hath not a holy resemblance to His nature? If he be not holy as He is holy, he cannot worship Him according to His excellency in spirit and in truth; no worship is spiritual wherein we have not a communion with God.”

In a Biblical paradox, we can only receive the oil through the shed blood of the Messiah. The Messianic Writings portion this week deals with that thought, stating that “Yeshua suffered death… in order to make the people holy through his own blood. Therefore, let us go out to Him… and share His disgrace… Through him, therefore, let us offer God a sacrifice of praise continually. For this is the natural product of lips that acknowledge his name. But don’t forget doing good and sharing with others, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Hebrews 13.12-16).

Purim is upon us, and the words of Mordekhi to Queen Ester (Ester 4.14) are applicable in our day to all who serve the Master Yeshua, who are covered by His blood, filled with the Holy Oil of the Ruakh HaKodesh, and are operating as a Royal Priest: “For if you fail to speak up now, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from a different direction; but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows whether you didn’t come into your royal position precisely for such a time as this.”

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. Well, they’re all special, but there is just a lot in this one. 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 we do 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 of Israel had just been delivered from a pagan culture, and they now needed clear instruction about how to live HaShem’s way. None of us are any different today, needing instruction on how to truly live, and that is why we must constantly study Torah, including all of the Word of HaShem. That is the purpose of Scripture. If we trudge out 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. We see this just by observing the general state of the world. Torah is our foundation of living; Yeshua is our foundation of faith.

The portion begins by giving some rulings regarding slavery. In a nutshell, “you remember how the Egyptians mistreated you; that was wrong, so here is how I want you to treat others, whether they are a peer or whether they serve you.” A Biblical paradox is found in our serving Yeshua, in that 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 translates in the CJB, “not under legalism but under grace.” It is not obedience to the Law (better translated as Torah, or Teachings) that saves us; we are saved by grace. However, the Hebraic understanding of grace is not “freedom to do what I want in the name of Yeshua;” rather, it is, “the power to do the right thing”.

Thus, Sha’ul states that we are to sin not, because we are under grace. He continues by pointing out that we are slaves to the one whom we obey. A dictionary definition of slave is, “A person completely controlled by a dominating influence.” In most of the world’s economy, that dominating influence, or person, has evil tendencies; but that is not the intention of Heaven. 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 our former slavery to evil and bondages; that is what grace is all about. There really need not be a law vs grace debate; rather, they are intended to go hand in hand. An FFOZ 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.”

As we get near the end of this parashah, we see that 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 נִשְׁמָע, 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.” Although well-known as an anti-missionary (one who tries to convert Messianic Jews from believing in Yeshua as Messiah), 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.”

Thus, actual slavery to HaShem means serving Him even before He tells us what He wants us to do. In Yeshua we are indeed “free to be a slave”.

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – 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,

It is known that the Hebraic style of writing in the Tanakh is not necessarily chronological, as opposed to the typical Greek style writing that we in the western world are used to. Sh’mot 18 is one such possible example. The Sages and scholars have debated back and forth about the timing of the events in this chapter, and why it was placed here in Torah. Most believe that Yitro (Jethro), Moshe’s father-in-law, came to visit after the events at Mt Sinai – giving of the Ten Words (Commandments) and the teachings of Torah to Moshe. This reasoning is given in a couple of verses: verse 5 states the Moshe was encamped at “the mountain of God;” and in verse 16 Moshe explains to Yitro that he is explaining God’s laws and teachings to the people, which per the events in the other surrounding chapters had not yet been given.

So if Yitro came to visit after the Torah was given to Moshe, why would this chapter be inserted here? Again, the Sages debate, but one possible explanation is that the passage is here to contrast the difference between Amalek, an outsider, or foreigner, who in the previous chapter had come out to launch an unprovoked attack against Israel, and Yitro, the high priest of Midyan, an outsider who came and gave wise counsel to Israel. Centuries later, the descendants of Yitro were blessed by King Sha’ul (Saul). This people group was known as the Kenites, who at the time were living in the land controlled by the Amalekites. King Sha’ul came to battle Amalek, and he allowed the Kenites to leave, because they had shown kindness to Israel through their ancestor Yitro (Shmuel Alef/1 Samuel 15.6).

Sh’mot 18.2 says that Yitro had brought Moshe’s wife Tzipporah and their two sons out to Moshe; for Yitro had taken them in after Moshe had sent them back. There is nothing previously that had stated anything about Moshe sending his family back, so here is another mystery. Some commentators feel that after the events of Sh’mot 4, where ADONI had threatened to kill Moshe, and Tzipporah circumcised their son in an angry confrontation, that Moshe sent her back home, perhaps perceiving that this was about to become a dangerous journey he was undertaking. Other commentators feel that he sent her home because of her belligerence and disrespect of her husband’s authority in the family. At any rate, our current chapter is the last we hear of Tzipporah in the Tanakh. The sons of Moshe are only mentioned again in the genealogy listing in 1 Chronicles 23. There is even debate over whether the Ethiopian (or Cushite) woman that Moshe had married, in B’Midbar (Numbers) 12, is Tzipporah or not, since Tzipporah and her family were not Ethiopian; the term was sometimes used as a generic term for the general region of Arabia that they came from.

So Yitro had come out for two reasons: to bring Moshe’s wife and sons back to him, and because he had heard of all the great things that ADONI had done for Israel when 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 commentators – non-Messianic Jews – do the same when it comes to the events 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 the salt of the earth,” or as Stern words it in the CJB, “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, “Adoni 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, and so 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 ADONI and His people, as did Amalek, or supporting the work of ADONI. We can either be worthy salt and preserve the ways of ADONI, or else become tasteless and worthless to His kingdom. We as believers are to be a light and an example of how to walk in His Light, for we are a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. This is what Torah observance is all about, serving – through love and obedience – the One who created us, whose name is Yeshua. He too lived a Torah observant life. His is the Name above all names (Eph 1.21; Phil 2.9). He is the One who holds the world in His hands; He is the One in control of all, who has all authority. The Father has released all authority into the Son’s hands regarding this planet, and when the Son will return to earth, He will reign for 1000 years and put everything back into the proper order, 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).

Just as Yitro taught Moshe wise counsel, no doubt Moshe taught Yitro of the true destiny of mankind, and the purpose of ADONI’s Torah, teaching the heavenly way of life, which will culminate in the Messiah, Yeshua, reigning over all people.

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! Pray for those “Yitro’s” to come alongside the leadership of modern Israel and stand with her, giving wise counsel that the leaders will understand and accept. Pray for [spiritual] eyes to be opened to see Yeshua for who He is – Messiah and King of Israel. And pray for the modern day “Amalek’s” who oppose Israel to be defeated.