mordekhi v yisraela

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: 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!