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.