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Mankind
has tried many forms of government over the millennia,
with varying degrees of success. In this week's
Sedra, the organizational structure for the government
of the Holy People is detailed for us.
What are
the essential elements for a good society? Good
religion is essential - the true knowledge of
the Living God who alone can really help us. For
example, atheism, secular humanism isn't strong
enough to sustain a healthy civilization - that's
the main reason why ours is decaying today, as
the disgusting things that took place this week
at the MTV awards amply demonstrate; a good society
needs good laws; it needs a good judicial system;
it requires good leaders, with checks and balances
for the leadership structure: priest's supervised
the religion and the law. Kings supervised the
people. Prophets supervised the priests, the kings
and the people!
In this
Parasha, the Lord, speaking to us through Moses,
details these essential elements. We start with
chapter 16, verse 18, with the judicial system.
A good justice system is essential for a healthy
society. Society must be based on justice, on
the fair application of good laws between the
members of that society. The judges and officers
must judge the people with righteous judgment,
judging them according to God's righteous laws.
This is
so important that it's repeated twice for emphasis:
"tzedek, tzedek teer-dof - justice, justice, you
shall pursue." It Israel would put effort into,
and seek diligently after doing what was right,
treating everyone rightly and fairly; if we would
pursue justice more than pursuing money or wealth
or materialism, the result would be life - a life
close to the God of Justice, and a long and good
life in our holy land.
Judges
or witnesses must not pervert or distort the judicial
system by showing favoritism to someone they like
(say the leader of their political party, or a
friend or relative, or business associate), or
taking a bribe.
True religion
is essential to a healthy society. No asherah,
who was a female goddess, or any carved wooden
image of Ashera, was to be implanted in the ground,
to be reverenced or worshiped. No pillar, perhaps
something like a totem pole, was to be set up.
False
religion is so corrupting to a society, so destructive
to a nation, that radical action must be taken
to remove it at once. In chapter 17 Moses tells
us that if any Jewish person, man or woman - it
didn't matter, violated our covenant with God,
and worshiped any other god, and was involved
in false religion, and this matter became known,
the matter had to be thoroughly investigated.
If, after it was thoroughly investigated, and
there were at least two or three witnesses who
could verify it, and it was found that this detestable
thing had been done, then the man or the woman
was to be stoned to death. The witnesses must
cast the first stones, and then the rest of the
people threw their stones. The witnesses had better
be telling the truth!
May I
suggest that the equivalent for our situation
today is heresy - really serious and destructive
errors in the Teaching. If it is suspected that
such errors are being promulgated, it must be
thoroughly investigated.
Listen
to some quotes from three leaders within a major
Messianic Jewish organization:
"If
Abraham Heschel is not in heaven, I don't belong
there either, regardless of what I think about
Jesus. This is a person who had a deep personal
connection with God."
(Quote from an interview with Tony Eaton, found
on page 74 the Senior Thesis of Gabriela Karabelnik,
titled, "Competing Trends in Messianic Judaism:
The Debate Over Evangelicalism." The Thesis
was published for Yale University, the Department
of Religious Studies, April 12, 2002. Gabriela's
advisor is Professor Dale Martin. Her reader
is Professor Christine Hayes.)
Do you
believe that Abraham Heschel, who rejected Yeshua,
is in Heaven? Tony Eaton does. Tony Eaton illustrates
the point with the following scenario:
"The
day is going to come in the judgment when all
these devout Jews are going to come before the
Messiah, and when they approach Him they're
going to look at him and say, 'Didn't I know
you?' and He'll say, 'Yeah, you did, you just
didn't know my name."
(Quote from an interview with Tony Eaton, found
on page 74 of the Thesis).
Is it
true that Jewish people who have died rejecting
Yeshua will one day come be accepted by Him? No.
Mark Kinzer
is quoted as saying:
"Because
of the validity of the Abrahamic covenant, I
believe it's still as possible for a Jew who
doesn't know Yeshua to have a living relationship
with God, just as a Christian. But of course
Yeshua is still the Messiah and any Jew who
knows Him is in a better place and has more
access to God than before."
(Quote from an interview with Mark Kinzer, found
on page 75 of the Thesis).
Thus,
Yeshua does not provide the only access to God.
The status of belonging to the Abrahamic covenant
as a Jewish person can suffice for a present relationship
with God. It is not that one either has access
to God or not, but that one can relate to God
to a greater or lesser degree. In this way the
believer versus non-believer dichotomy is turned
into a gradation.
In a recent
article in the Jerusalem Post, Messianic Rabbi
Rich Nichol said that he "does not believe that
Jews who have not accepted Jesus are doomed to
hell." (Jerusalem Post (Daily Edition), July 3,
2003. “Zaka gets donation from Messianic Jews”,
pg. 4)
But what
does the Word of God teach? Very early in human
history, our first parents rebelled against God,
and sin and death took control of humanity. Instead
of drawing nearer to God, Adam and Eve ran away
from HaMakor - the Source of Life. The entire
world was now cursed, along with all mankind;
Adam and Eve were exiled from the Garden of Eden,
and forbidden to eat from the Tree of Life. The
whole world (which includes the Jewish people)
remains dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians
2:1). The whole world is perishing, decaying and
headed for destruction like a rotten piece of
fruit (John 3:16).
Rabbi
Paul, the great theologian sent to the Gentiles,
wrote the Church at Rome that he was not ashamed
of the Gospel, "for it is the power of God for
salvation, to everyone who believes, to the Jew
first, and also to the Greek." Paul made it clear
that Jewish people not only are not exempt from
the need to receive Yeshua, but in fact the Good
News is supposed to go to us first!
Paul went
on to declare that "all who have sinned without
the Law will also perish without the Law, and
all who have sinned under the Law (the Jewish
people) will be judged by the Law ... we have
already charged that both Jews and Greeks are
all under sin... for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God" (Romans 2:12, 3:9,
23).
Simon
Peter, one of the leaders of Yeshua's Emissaries,
standing before the Sanhedrin, declared to the
priests, Torah scholars and rabbis of Israel that
there is salvation in no one other than Yeshua
of Nazareth, and there is no other spiritual reality
anywhere in the universe which can bring us salvation.
It doesn't get much clearer than that! John, one
of the other Emissaries and Yeshua's closest friend,
wrote that, "He who has the Son has the life;
he who does not have the Son of God does not have
the life." It's as simple as that. The Son of
God Himself said that He was the Way, the Truth
and the Life, and that apart from placing faith
in Him, no man could get to the Father. Rabbi
Yeshua said to a group of Jewish leaders (men
who believed in God, who knew the Torah, who went
to the Temple in Jerusalem and who offered sacrifices),
"Unless you believe that I am He, you shall die
in your sins" (John 8:24).
If we
could be saved by non-Messianic Judaism, Messiah
Yeshua wouldn't have said to a Jewish man like
Nicodemus that it wasn't enough to be born once,
even if one was a knowledgeable or pious rabbi.
Even a leading Torah-teacher like Nicodemus needed
to be born again - to undergo a spiritual rebirth,
in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. There
are scores of places in the Holy Scriptures which
teach that all of humanity (including the Jewish
people) is utterly lost, and that each and every
Jewish person (along with everyone else), in order
to be saved, must hear and believe the Good News
about the Messiah. If you confess with your mouth
that Yeshua is Lord, and believe in your heart
that God has raised Him from the dead, you will
be saved. And if you don't believe and don't confess?
You remain lost - alienated from God.
I call
upon our movement to thoroughly investigate the
statements of these men, and other teachings they
have made, and take the appropriate action.
Back to
the judicial system, in verse 8: if there was
a case that was too hard for the local judge to
decide, then that case could be brought to a higher
authority, a superior court - the Priests who
were to be found at the Temple, and the judges
there. When they decided the case, with their
superior knowledge and wisdom, that was the final
decision, and it was to be obeyed. The person
who wouldn't obey was rebelling against God, and
was to be killed, to end that rebellion, and to
set an example for the rest.
Starting
with verse 14, we are given the instructions for
the highest political authority in the nation
- the king. The king of Israel had to be a Jew.
He could not be a foreigner. Similarly, the President
of the United States must be born a US citizen.
He was
not to multiply horses, since that might lessen
his trust in God to give victory in battle. He
was not to cause the people to go down to Egypt
to increase the supply of horses, since the Lord
didn't want us to return there. Once Israel was
delivered from this corrupt world system, which
Egypt represents, we were to stay far away from
it - as should we!
Nor was
his harem to get too large - that would be a distraction,
and turn his heart away from serving God and the
people.
Nor was
he to be greedy and think that he was in his position
to greatly increase his personal wealth.
On the
positive side, when he attained his position,
he had to write his own personal copy of the Torah,
while being supervised by the Priests. He was
to read it and study it and know it and do everything
written in it. After all, the Torah is the basis
of Jewish society, and the king the chief administrator.
This is
what we call a limited monarchy. The king was
under the Law - not above the Law. His power was
limited. He could only do what the ultimate King
allowed him to do, for the good of the citizens
of Israel. The king of Israel was under God -
the Great King, the King of kings, and the Lawgiver.
A good
society needs good religious leadership, and they
must be supported. Chapter 18 begins with the
provisions for the Priests and Levites. They are
to be supported by the offerings and gifts of
the rest of Israel. The Priests are to receive
the first and the best portion of our grain, wine,
oil, and the shearing of our sheep. They serve
God, and the Lord should get the first and the
best of the resources that He has blessed us with!
May I suggest that in our day, the Lord should
still get the first and the best of our resources?
Our money, our wealth?
Verses
6-8 tell us that the Levites, or, some say that
it should be understood to mean the Levitical
Priests, who live anywhere throughout Israel,
can come to the Temple, and serve there, whenever
they want. If it is a Levite, he served by singing.
If this refers to the Levitical Priests, he served
by helping with the korbanot - the sacrifices
that enabled us to draw near to God. All those
who served were entitled to receive the same amount
of food that the other priests who served there
were entitled to eat.
The rest
of chapter 18 gives us very important instructions
about the office of the prophet. Humanity seems
to have an innate desire to peer into the future,
and to connect with That Which Is Beyond Us. There
is a proper God-ordained way to do this, and many
improper ways, that will bring about the punishment
of God.
First
we have a list of the forbidden, occult techniques:
sacrificing your child by making your son or daughter
pass through fire, divination, witchcraft, interpreting
omens, sorcery, casting spells, a medium, or a
spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
These
forbidden, occult, old age techniques, which are
part of the new age movement, make the one who
practices them detestable to the Lord because
they put the practitioner into contact - not with
God, but with evil satanic and demonic forces.
Sadly,
in Western Civilization, due to the salt and light
influence of the Word of God, these occult practices
almost died out, but with the rejection of the
Judeo-Christian heritage that has been taking
place over the past 50 years, they have greatly
increased. We must not have anything to do with
them, and we should warn those who are involved
with them, or thinking about getting involved
with them - how dangerous they are, and how displeasing
they are to God.
The Lord
knows that we desire to know more about His realm,
and know something about the future. And so from
time to time He will send a prophet to His people,
who will tell us more about the Invisible God,
and God's realm, and the things to come.
However,
we are warned to be cautious, because false prophets
will also arise - not sent by God, but coming
by their own initiative. How do we recognize the
false prophet from the true? There are several
ways:
He should
be a man of good character and integrity, since
generally those are the only ones that the Mighty
One will entrust with this kind of spiritual
authority.
He can't
speak in the name of other gods. He can't be a
proponent of false teaching. His message must
be consistent with the Word of God.
If the
prophecy is about the future, it must come to
pass accurately. It generally is specific, not
vague and open to interpretation. The Lord may
give a prophet a message about the distant future,
that can't be verified for a long time, but if
He does that, He will also generally give that
prophet short term prophecies, that will be fulfilled
in a matter of days, months or years. If the short
term predictions come to pass, then we know that
the long term ones will as well.
Are there
genuine prophets today? I don't know of any who
hold the office of prophet, which carries with
it great spiritual authority, but we should be
open to the possibility that God will send one
in our day. And, we know that in the Last Days,
the Lord will definitely send true prophets among
us.
Are there
those who may not be prophets, but have the gift
of prophecy? There may be, but we need to be very
cautious and discerning, and test them, their
character, their message, and their accuracy.
There
is one Prophet in particular Moses who is most
like Moses. He too is from our countrymen. He
too faithfully spoke all the words that God gave
Him. Any Jewish person who dares not to accept
Him, or obey Him, will be most severely punished.
God will seek out his disobedience, and then punish
him for it (Hertz Commentary).
Of course,
we know that this great man of God, like Moses
- a mighty Deliverer, a wonderful Teacher of God's
Law, a worker of miracles, a true Prophet, a Priest,
a Leader of Israel, and a Bringer of a Covenant,
Builder of the Dwelling Place of God, and yet
a very humble man, has come!
Thank
God for Moses, and the blessing he was to Israel
in his generation, and the blessing he has continued
to be throughout the succeeding generations. But
thank God even more for Messiah Yeshua - whose
deliverance He brings is greater than our salvation
out of Egypt; whose teaching was more exalted
than Moses; who did great miracles; who always
heard from God, in every situation, and faithfully
passed on those words and who accurately told
us the things to come; a High Priest, who brings
us to God, and brings God to us, in a better way
than Moses was capable of; Yeshua - Messiah, King
of Israel, the long awaited Son of David, the
Anointed Ruler of Israel and all the nations of
the world; the One who brings us a new and everlasting
covenant with God - not just for Israel, but for
all peoples; a covenant that makes the complete
forgiveness of all of our sins possible, a covenant
made, not with the bloods of bulls and goats,
but His own precious blood!
Moses
built the Mishkan - a temporary tent where God
was able to partially manifest His presence, but
Yeshua is the true Tabernacle, the place where
God most fully dwells and manifests His presence
among human beings. And, He is able to make those
who love Him part of that special Dwelling Place
of God! Moses was the most humble man on Earth
in his generation, clinging to God, knowing that
He was dependant on His Maker for everything,
and Yeshua was likewise humble - close to His
Father, depending on Him for every word that He
spoke, every action He undertook. Moses was a
very special and great prophet, but the Rabbi
from Nazareth was far, far greater!
And, the
punishment for rejecting this Prophet greater
than Moses is likewise greater! If the ground
under the tents of Korach, Datan and Aviram and
everything that belonged to them, opened up, and
then sank under them, and then the earth closed
up again over them, and they were buried alive,
and died, so that they were completely destroyed;
if fire came from the presence of the Lord and
incinerated the 250 other leaders who joined their
mutiny, then how much greater punishment is in
store for those who rebel against the Son of God?
A healthy
society needs places of refuge for the innocent
to flee to if they make a mistake. In chapter
19 we have additional instructions about the cities
of refuge. If someone killed someone else by accident,
not intentionally, he could go to one of the three
cities of refuge on the east side of the Jordan,
or one of the three cities of refuge on the west
side of the Jordan. The cities were centrally
located, so they were accessible. They were to
have good roads leading to them, to make travel
to them easy.
If Israel
was blessed because we were faithful to the Lord,
loved Him and obeyed Him, He would expand our
territory, and we would need three more cities
of refuge. Charles Ryrie tells us that no additional
cities were ever added to the six already in existence,
because we never occupied all of the territory
promised to Abraham (see Genesis 15:18).
King David
subdued and took tribute from that larger area,
and his son Solomon inherited it, (see 1 Kings
4:21), but it remained composed mostly of non-Jews,
and was soon lost.
God is
concerned that the innocent manslayer be spared,
but He is also concerned that those who killed
intentionally, with hatred in their heart, with
premeditation, be executed by the community. He
should not be pitied, even if he flees to a city
of refuge. He is to be turned over to the avenger
of blood, a near relative of the victim, and promptly
executed. This makes atonement; it purges the
blood of the innocent, so that things will go
well for the rest of us. If the murderer is not
executed, God is offended, the land is defiled,
and it will not go well with us. Has this principle
ever changed? The state of Michigan says "yes."
I say, "no."
A healthy
society needs to have a good economic system,
with property respected, and verse 14 teaches
us that we are not to remove the boundary marker,
and steal a neighbor's property, in order to enlarge
our own. The property rights of others are to
be respected. Even the Government cannot remove
the boundary markers. So, Israel's economy is
based on the foundation of a capitalistic system,
where the individual has personal freedom to buy
and sell as he sees fit.
Questions
to ponder: does the continual raising of taxes,
and adding new taxes, and mandated transfers of
wealth programs, and when the government allows
the creation of inflation, remove our boundary
markers?
A healthy
society needs a good judicial system with faithful
witnesses. One witness is not enough to convict
- it's too easy for one individual to lie, or
bring a false accusation. Two or three witnesses
are necessary to convict.
If there
is a false witness who brings a false accusation,
to harm his Jewish brother, if it is discovered
that he lied and is a false witness, the punishment
that he intended to be meted out will be meted
out against him.
A healthy
society may at times need to go to war, and in
chapter 20 we have God's laws for conducting a
just war: Trust God more than the military assets
of the opposing side, even if their forces are
superior. Before the battle God's representative,
the priest, was to build up the people's faith
in God by telling them: "Hear, O Israel, you are
approaching the battle against your enemies today.
Do not be fainthearted. Do not be afraid, or panic,
or tremble before them, for the Lord your God
is the one who goes with you, to fight for you
against your enemies, to save you."
Being
in a right relationship with the Living God, and
trusting Him is so important for a successful
battle that all those who were still afraid could
leave the army and return home. All those who
didn't want to be there with their whole heart,
and wanted to live in a new house, eat the grapes
of a new vineyard, or marry, could likewise leave
and go home. God was our Ally, and so we really
didn't need the unwilling.
An offer
of peace must be made to cities outside of the
Land of Israel. If they accepted, they must be
spared, and the people become Israel's servants.
That wasn't too bad, since then they would have
opportunity to learn about the God of Israel,
who could redeem them! If the city didn't yield
to the offer of peace, then after it was defeated,
the men were to be killed, but the women and children
and goods could be kept as the spoils of war.
But the
peoples of the nations living in the Land God
promised to us were to be utterly destroyed. None
were to be spared. The Righteous Judge had pronounced
His judgment upon them. They were utterly corrupt,
and they would corrupt us if we tolerated their
continued existence. Harsh yes, but also necessary.
One last
detail about conducting a good war. The Merciful
God was concerned not only about the people, but
also about the environment, and so, when we besieged
a city, we could not cut down the fruit trees.
They provided valuable food, and were not to be
used to construct siegeworks. Other trees - not
fruit-bearing trees, could be used for that purpose.
By the way, I don't understand why more Americans
don't plant more fruit trees on their properties.
They are beautiful, and useful. My peach, plum,
apricot and Asian pears are coming in nicely!
The last
chapter of this Sedra deals with manslaughter.
Murder is very bad. It pollutes a land, and offends
the Lord, and turns Him away from that nation.
Do you know that about 40 people are murdered
every day in the United States? What does that
say about us as a people? If a murderer is caught,
he is to be executed.
But if
a person is found killed lying in the open country,
and the murderer can't be determined, and the
case remains unsolved, then the elders of the
nearest city are to take a female calf that has
not been used for work, take it to a valley with
running water that has not been used to grow crops,
which is a symbol of cleansing, and the calf was
to have its neck broken. While the priests supervise
this, the elders are to wash their hands over
the dead calf, confess that they, as representatives
of their city, did not commit the murder, and
don't know who did, and ask the Lord to forgive
the rest of the Jewish people.
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