Exodus 21:1-24:18
2 Kings 12:1-17
Introduction
With this week’s portion, the tone of the Torah changes. Up to this point, it has been a narrative, with occasional references to laws such as those regarding circumcision and Passover. Now, the emphasis is reversed. From here on, the Torah will present the instructions by which the Israelites are to live.
Exodus 21:1-6 1 "Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. 2 When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. 3 If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out alone. 5 But if the slave plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,' 6 then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever. (ESV)
The issue of slavery in the Bible poses a problem for us because of society’s attitude towards slavery. It would seem that despite the Israelites spending all of those years in slavery in Egypt they were going to have or had slaves. The Lord wanted the Israelites to learn how to treat any slaves they would have and He wanted them to learn that even though they would have slaves they were not to be treated like the Israelites were treated by the Egyptians. Their slaves had the right to be treated like human beings something the United States did not do that led to the civil war. Slaves were looked upon as second class citizens, if that, but despite skin color we all bleed the same color blood – red! The outside does not define who we are it is what is inside of us. That is why the Holy One of Israel looks at our hearts to find out the truth not just what comes from our lips.
1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." (ESV)
Samuel had been sent by the Lord to anoint a new king for Israel and when Samuel first saw the eldest son of Jesse he thought this was the one who would be king because of the way he looked but the Almighty told Samuel not to judge a man by his looks but what is in his heart. Samuel went through all of the sons of Jesse and the Lord rejected all of them so he asked if there were any more. Jesse told him there was the youngest but he was not there. Samuel told Jesse they would not eat until the youngest son came. David was sent for and when he came before Samuel the Lord spoke to Samuel and told him:
1 Samuel 16:11 Then Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here." 12 And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him, for this is he." (ESV)
David was ruddy in complexion similar to how Esau was described and had beautiful eyes. If it had been left up to Samuel he would have chosen Jesse’s eldest son without another thought because he did not think to look further to see what was in the heart. How many of us do that today? Do we think to look beyond what is on the outside and look deeper into the heart of a person? Are we swayed by their words because they have smooth tongues but are we really listening to what they are saying? Does an individual live out in their lives what they talk about? In ministry we have to expect our leaders to live the life they are teaching us about and we have to expect the same level of obedience to God’s Torah from our fellow Believers as well. If a leader or an individual is not walking the walk and the words coming out of their mouths are not reflected in their lives why would we be willing to follow their lead? Have we really looked deeper into the lives of our leaders to see if they are being examples of Yeshua-Torah based lifestyles?
Do we take the time to see if our brethren are in line with the Biblical principles we are all supposed to be living? I am not saying we will all be living perfect lives. That will not happen simply because we are flawed individuals in whose lives sin has taken hold. It has become a part of us because the perfection man was created in has been tainted by his lack of obedience to the Holy One of Israel. I, for one, know I am far from perfect but I am trying to do the best I can do and the only way I can reach the goal is because Yeshua is there to help me. It is through Him I have received forgiveness for my disobedience. Disobedience was the first and is the main sin we all have fallen into. Adam and Chavah received one instruction from the Almighty and that was not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. One command and they could not do it. Every time we sin we are disobeying the Lord and disobedience is at the root of all sin and when we fall Satan relishes our fallen state because we open the door for him to come in instead of maintaining a place for Yeshua.
When a slave desired to serve his master after his seven years of service was over he would be taken before the Lord and he would have a hole struck into his earlobe to show his love for his master and his desire to remain in his master’s service forever. This is how the disciples of Yeshua saw themselves – as bondservants to the Messiah. They were willing to set aside everything else in their lives and commit themselves to the service of the one they called Master – Yeshua.
Luke 2:29 "Lord, now You are letting Your bond-servant depart in peace, According to Your word; 30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation 31 Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, 32 A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel." (NKJ)
These words were spoken about Yeshua when He was a baby being brought to the Temple in Jerusalem so His parents could perform the Pidyion HaBin-the Redemption of the Firstborn because the Almighty had taken the firstborn of Israel as a redemption price just as He had taken the lives of the first born of Egypt.
Romans 1:1 Paul, a bondservant of Yeshua the Merssiah, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God (NKJ)
The Apostle Paul considered himself to be a bond-servant or slave of Messiah and he was proud to be called that.
James 1:1 James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings. (NAU)
James or Yaakov also considered himself to be a bondservant of Messiah as well as Peter, Jude, and John. Do we consider ourselves in the same way they did in their relationship with Yeshua or do we accept how society views slavery today? Our society does have forms of bond servitude. I remember many years ago when I was employed by the City of Philadelphia I wanted to go back to college. My job would pay for my schooling but in return I had to commit to a certain number of years working for the city in return for them paying the school. In many ways this is the same thing the Apostles and others felt they were doing out of their love for their Messiah. They were willing to become bond-servants who would pierce their ear lobe through to show their love for their Master and their commitment to follow Him for the rest of their lives. Are we willing to follow their example and become bond-servants to the Messiah of Israel and commit our lives to Him and call Him Master? Are we willing to follow the example of the Messiah Yeshua and become bond-servants of the Lord God Almighty or are we willing to let ourselves sink down into the mire of the sin that waits to draw us in?
We must pull ourselves up out of that hole we find ourselves in and grab hold of the one who set us free from sin – Yeshua!
Romans 8:2 Why? Because the Torah of the Spirit, which produces this life in union with Messiah Yeshua, has set me free from the "Torah" of sin and death. (CJB)
What was the Apostle Shaul-Paul saying here? Was he tossing Torah aside because the Torah is sinful? Of course he wasn’t! The Torah reveals sin and tells us the penalty for sin which is death or eternal separation from our Creator. The Torah lists what is sin and what the penalty for various sins are but the bottom line is sin is sin and it will separate you from the Holy One and if that isn’t death eternal then I don’t know what is? The Torah tells us what sin is but the Torah also tells us what it takes to become right with the Lord. So the Torah cannot be bad but only the sin it reveals to us that we allow to take root in our lives. We are a battleground between Satan and the Almighty and it is the choices we make that swing the battle from one side to the other. Our choice should be to follow Messiah and become His bond-servant willing not to just serve seven years to pay off our debt but willing to serve Him for the rest of our lives. He is the Master of our souls because He sacrificed His life for each and every one of us and He does not order us to submit to Him we must make the choice for ourselves. We must be willing to follow our “Moses” out of Egypt through the Wilderness and in the end into the Promised Land of eternity.
Think of this life like the Wilderness the Israelites had to wander in because of their refusal to listen to the report of the two spies and their willingness to heed what the other ten spies had to say. The Lord punished Israel to wander for forty years, one year for each day the spies had spent in the land, until the entire generation 20 years and age and older passed away because of their disobedience. They could not leave their slave mentality behind and fear filled their lives. This is not what Yeshua asks from us. We offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to Him willing to follow and to conform your life to what He expects from us? Are you ready to leave your life of bondage to slavery brought about by sin and become a bond-servant to a Master who cares about you, who loves you more than His own life? Society may trumpet we are free and our own man but what does it really mean? There is more fulfillment in a life given over to Messiah than in a life seeking out the riches the world offers. The world will not like the choice you make if you choose to follow Yeshua but in the scheme in things I choose to call Yeshua Master, whom do you choose?
2 Kings 12:1-4 1 In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba. 2 Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the LORD all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 3 But the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. 4 And Jehoash said to the priests, "All the money of the dedicated gifts that are brought into the house of the LORD-- each man's census money, each man's assessment money-- and all the money that a man purposes in his heart to bring into the house of the LORD, (NKJ)
Jehoash did as the priest Jehoiada instructed him to all of his days as king over Israel but the one thing he did not do was to remove the high places where the people came to make sacrifices to the false gods. Idolatry had taken hold of Israel and would not let go. Israel had opened the door to following false gods even when they followed the Holy One of Israel. They made a Golden Calf after coming out of Egypt while Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Words and other instructions from the Almighty. Jacob’s family had idols in their midst which Jacob asked them to give up before they encountered Esau. His own wife Rachel took her brother Laban’s household idols. So while Jehoash did his best to follow the Torah there were things he did not do that were contrary to Torah. It seems quite similar to us as we don’t remove the things from our lives that go against God’s Torah. We have no idea what the priest taught him but I would have to assume it was Torah because that was one of the responsibilities of the priesthood that they later stopped doing and the Pharisees took it upon themselves to do.
Numbers 33:52 then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places. (ESV)
The Holy One instructed the Israelites to drive out the nations in the Promised Land and to destroy the stone and metal idols and demolish their high places. Israel was told they were to do this without question but we know they did not do as they had been told and it would come back to bite them in the behind. Solomon, the wisest man who had ever lived started out on the right path in his relationship with the Almighty but over time he married many foreign wives and eventually built high places for them to be able to worship their pagan gods in direct defiance of Torah. In all that God had done for Israel they turned right around and symbolically spit in the face of their Creator by defying Him and worshipping the gods of the nations. The Israelites were instructed by God to drive out the nations living in the Promised Land and then they go and do what they had done. This is not to say that Israel was the only one who had done this, we all have done the same thing. We talk a good game but as I said earlier our words are not always reflected by our actions. Actions speak louder than words and we must be aware of our actions. Do they reflect what the Almighty wants us to do or are we doing what we want to do regardless of what Yeshua has done? Isn’t Yeshua our example and aren’t we supposed to try to do our best to imitate Him?
Deuteronomy 18:9 When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the abhorrent practices of those nations. (TNK)
Hebrews 13:7 Remember your leaders who have spoken the word of God with you. Consider the result of their manners of life and imitate their faith. (MGI)
3 John 1:11 Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. (ESV)
Don’t imitate what those who do not really know Yeshua do. I can honestly say I still have a long way to go in conforming my own life to that of our Messiah. I am a work in progress and I look forward to the day when my Master says to me: “Well done good and faithful servant.”
Matthew 25:23 His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.' (ESV)
This is a parable taught by the Messiah Yeshua. All parables are stories that carry a deep meaning meant to get across its teaching in a way we will understand. It was a typical tool of the Rabbis of Yeshua’s day and His using them shows He was right in line with the teachers of His day. I don’t know about you but I am not looking to be over much. I just want to enter into the joy of my Master.
Blessings, Mordecai Silver
Torah Man Says: “Only in America do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.”
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