Torah Portion Ki Tisa Does God Care?

Torah portion Ki Tisa (Exodus 30:11-34:35) is so rich with information, I am going to examine only a few of the insights it provides.

The first is the question, “Does God care what we do?”

When I talk with Christians, they seem to generally believe, no, God does not care what we do. As long as someone says the salvation prayer, they are good to go. After all, didn’t Paul say, “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Peter warned us about Paul’s epistles. “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to understand, which they that are unlearned and unstable [in the Torah] wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:16)

Portion Ki Tissa has a different lesson.

The children of Israel were definitely in a covenant relationship with Elohim (God): They had a promise Elohim gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that their descendants would inherit the land of Judea. Elohim promised them, “I will rescue you, I will take you out… and I will take you to myself…. I will be to you Elohim, and you will be my people.”

And then Moses tarried on Mount Sinai. He was gone for over a month. The people confronted Aaron and told him to make them a golden calf. While Moses was up on the mountain, Elohim said, “The people have corrupted themselves, I will destroy them.” Moses pleaded with Elohim not to destroy them, and gave logical arguments why He should spare them. Elohim agreed not to destroy the people.

Of course, at the time Moses was making his pleas, he had no idea what the people were up to.

When Moses came down the mountain and saw the calf and the people worshiping it, I think he changed his mind. He broke the tablets with the commandments on them, destroyed the calf, sprinkled the gold onto the water and made the people drink it.

Moses showed the people he was really mad. Calf destroyed. The people punished. Good enough?

Not quite.

He called the faithful, “‘Who is on Yehovah’s side? Let him come to me.’ And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. And he said to them, “Thus says the Yehovah Elohim of Israel; ‘Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’” And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.” (Exo 32:25-28)

It wasn’t just a tongue lashing from Moses the people received. About three thousand died.

Why?

The people who were in covenant with Elohim disobeyed Him and worshipped a calf. It seems to me Elohim takes things like that very seriously.

Yet today, people who have made a covenant with God turn their backs on His commandments and instructions. “All we have to do is love our neighbors,” I hear them say. Not quite, I think. Love your neighbor is the second commandment.

The first, and greatest, is “Love Yehovah your Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

What did Elohim say in the Torah? “Those who love me and keep my commandments.” How do we know if we love Him? If we keep his commandments.

Yeshua said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” He also said, “Who are my mother and my brothers and sisters? Those who hear the word of God and do it.”

“Yeah, but all those Old Testament commandments were for the Jews,” I hear too many say. I think they have never actually listened to the words of the Torah.

“Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: [whose Sabbaths? Israel’s? No, Yehovah’s] for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that you may know that I am Yehovah that sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy to you: every one that defiles it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever does work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to Yehovah: [holy to whom? Israel? The people? No. To Yehovah] whoever does work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days Yehovah made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.’” Exo 31:14-17

“Why are we supposed to keep it today? We are not the children of Israel,” I can hear my Christian friends say.

Because those in covenant with Elohim are called the children of Israel.

“And if some of the branches be broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, [the children of Israel] and with them partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if you boast, you bear not the root, but the root you… if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not you. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if [big if] you continue in his goodness: [obedience to His commandments] otherwise you also shall be cut off…” (see Romans 11:17-28)

When anyone comes into covenant with Elohim, such as saying, ‘the sinner’s prayer,’ they are grafted in to the house of Israel.

What then?

If they continue in sin, they will be cut off. What is sin?

“And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the Torah: for sin is the transgression of the Torah.” (1 John 3:3-4)

Note: John advises every person to purify himself. How? By obedience to the Torah. God still cares what we do, and how we do it. He loves those who are obedient to His instructions.

I’ve talked too long. May your week be filled with the presence of the Spirit of the Holy One.

HaBerachah (The Blessing) Devarim 33:1-34:12

“And this is the blessing that Moshe the man of Elohim blessed the Children of Israel before he died.” If you are hungry for Torah, you are really going to want to know what Moshe’s final blessing to Israel is.

He has led Israel through the wilderness for forty years. He has been with them day and night. Suffered when they suffered...and when they rebelled, he rejoiced when they rejoiced.

The Good News and the Bad

Imagine, the reason Moshe was sent to lead Israel, was because of Elohim’s commitment to the children of Jacob. Moshe had the opportunity to experience all of the things he saw because of the Israelites. He stood on Sinai and saw Elohim pass by. He had regular face to face encounters with Elohim. He saw miracles...and was the instrument Elohim used to make them happen. All because he was chosen to lead Israel.

“Because of you.” Moshe blamed the children of Israel for not being able to enter the Promised Land, but it was also because of them that he was so intimate with Elohim for so many years. It seems to me like a good news/bad news situation. ‘Hey, I can’t enter the land, but what a ride it’s been these past forty years.’

Remember What You Saw

Moshe begins his blessing with a brief recitation of what Israel experienced in receiving the Torah.

“And he said, Yehovah came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of holy ones: from his right hand went a fiery law (dat) for them. You loved the people; all holy ones are in your hand: and they sat down at your feet; every one shall receive of your words.” (Devarim 33:2-3)

Now and Later

I see two sides to this statement. A fulfilled and a prophetic. Yehovah did come to the Children of Israel in the wilderness at Sinai and give them a law from the midst of fire and smoke. He gave them the ten words. The prophetic side is keyed to the statement, “from his right hand.”

In many places in the Psalms, David refers to Yehovah’s right hand in a manner that makes it clear it refers to Yeshua. Devarim 33:2-3 may be saying that it was Yeshua who brought the law to Israel, and it may show that one day Israel would sit at the feet of Yeshua in the flesh and receive His words. We have record of a partial fulfillment of this in the Gospels.

Elohim warned Israel through Moshe, “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto you, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.” (Devarim 18:18-19)

You probably recognize this passage refers to Yeshua. Peter attached this prophecy to Yeshua;

“And he shall send Yeshua haMashiach, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which Elohim has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. For Moshe truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall Yehovah your Elohim raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days." (Acts 3:20-24)

The Law, The Torah, and Yeshua

So we have Yeshua giving the law at Sinai, and being the prophet like Moshe that we better listen to and do what he says. Then Moshe says something that may seem curious to some new students of the Torah.

“Moshe commanded us a Torah, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.” (Devarim 33:4)

Notice the shifts here. Moshe doesn’t call the recipients Israel, he calls them the ‘congregation of Jacob’, and he calls the Torah, the 'inheritance,' not the ‘law,’ as in the previous verses.

Inheritance and Heritage

Some rabbinic commentary explain that while the Hebrew word morasha is translated here as inheritance, it is translated in Shemot (Exodus) as heritage;

“And I will bring you into the land, concerning which I swore to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for an heritage: I am Yehovah.” (Exodus 6:8)

The commentary explains the difference between inheritance and heritage as this. An heir has the right to spend, waste, and leave nothing behind of an inheritance. But a heritage is for the use of the direct heir, and the heir must maintain the heritage for the future generation intact, whole and pure for their use as well. The future generations must also preserve the heritage to pass on to their future generations in perpetuity.

The shift from Israel to Jacob shows the expansion of the heirs from the born descendants of Israelite parents to any who are grafted in and accept the covenant of Yehovah Elohim. If you have come into covenant with Elohim by accepting His offer, the Torah is your heritage, to listen to, to obey and to pass on pure and unchanged.

This is for You

Your responsibility becomes clearer as you read the words of the Shema. “These words which I command you today shall be on your heart, teach them diligently to your children, speak of them when you lie down and rise up, when you sit in your house and when you travel on the road.”

“...And he was king in Yeshurun, in the gathering of the heads of the people together with the tribes of Israel.” (Devarim 33:5 my modification to the text based on the Hebrew)

Allow us to take a short rabbi trail-

If the “heads of the people” refers to the people of the seventy nations, and they are gathered together with the tribes of Israel, then we are looking at a time in the future when the blessings invoked on the tribes of Israel will come to pass. As we look at the blessings, we can’t look back and see them fulfilled at any time so far. So we may be looking at a prophecy tied to Yeshua’s return, and perhaps to the time when all the nations of the earth must come up to Jerusalem for the feast of Sukkoth or they will receive no rain.

“And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, Yehovah of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, Yehovah of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.” (Zechariah 14:16-17)

Which, prophetically enough, we are celebrating the feast of tabernacles (Sukkoth) as you read this.

Yeshurun?

Who is Yeshurun? By definition, it is the straight or upright ones. The root is the word yasher, straight. If you question the honesty of a person and you ask “Is it yasher?”, you are implying you don’t trust them and you want to know if they are being honest. It is currently a somewhat offensive way of asking, but perhaps that demonstrates the moral decline of society that someone would be offended by being asked if they are dealing honestly.

Look around.

Is Yehovah Elohim the king of everyone?

No. But He is King of those who honestly accept Him as their Sovereign and willingly come under His covenant to live the Torah with all their heart all their mind and with all their strength. For the rest of the world, He is not King. Many who don’t believe in Him and follow Him actively oppose Him. Others are passively opposed to Him.

If you are reading this, especially if you have been here at Hungry for Torah before and came back, I imagine you have a desire to follow Yehovah, Elohim of Israel. If you have accepted His Kingship, then you have also obligated yourself to obey His Torah and pass it on to the next generation as your heritage and theirs. Take this responsibility seriously, He does.

This is Serious

If you have any doubt about how seriously Elohim takes your responsibility, look at the warnings He enumerates in our last portion, in the Song of Moshe, Devarim chapter 32:1-44. As a born or grafted-in member of the congregation of Jacob, these warnings are all for you.

As Moshe cautioned us at the end of the song;

“Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this Torah. For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither you go over Jordan to possess it.” (Devarim 32:46-47)

May you have a blessed festival of Sukkoth. Remember, this is an appointed time, and Elohim will keep His appointment. If you are celebrating this time with Him, listen intently to hear what He will share with you this year. Keep the festival with the expectation that He will show you something. Why else set up an appointment?

Please take a few moments to share in the comments box below what Elohim gives you this year. As we share together our pieces of the puzzle, we grow in our understanding of Elohim's overall plan. And come back again next week hungry for Torah.

Chag sameach Sukkoth (Rejoice in the festival of Sukkoth), Shalom.

Nitzavim Devarim (Deuteronomy) 29:10 - 30:20

“You stand (nitzavim) this day, all of you before Yehovah your Elohim; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, Your little ones, your wives, and the stranger that is in your camp, from the hewer of your wood unto the drawer of your water: (Devarim / Deuteronomy 29:10-11)

All of You

Torah portion Nitzavim (Standing) begins with the injunction that all of you stand before Yehovah. So that none of you who are hungry for Torah has the excuse you didn’t know, or the claim that you didn’t take part in the covenant. None were left out, and in out Torah study today we will see that none were left with an excuse.

Even the ger, the stranger in the midst of the camp. These were not travelers who happened to be near the camp and 'just in the area' the day Moshe called the assembly. These ger are the ones who were not born into the house of Israel, but who decided to live within the camp and keep the Torah laws and instructions. Even these grafted in members are included in this covenant.

Take Part in the Covenant

Why are we all gathered and included?

So each of us can enter into a two-part oath and covenant – that Yehovah will be our El. And we will be His people – with all the ramifications that both of these covenants entail.

And not only to those who stand with Moshe physically on that long-ago day, but as he says, “...and also with him that is not here with us this day” (Devarim 29:15)

Those who were standing with Moshe knew first or second-hand about all of the things Elohim had done and continued to do for them. They saw His mighty acts, they ate of the manna*, and they experienced Yehovah’s protection against their enemies, human and animal.

But what about us?

Seeing is not Prerequisite to Believing

They saw, but we who were not standing there that day, have not seen.

Yeshua said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

That’s us.

We didn’t see Yehovah’s mighty works in Egypt or in the wilderness, all we have is the record of what happened but if we believe their account of the goodness and power of Elohim, we have faith, and choose to accept Him as our El, and agree to become one of His people, then we are among those who were not standing with Moshe that day, yet these are our promises – of blessing, and of chastising curses.

Choose Wisely

This covenant and oath belongs to us. As Moshe offered the children of Israel in his day, so the offer is made to us through his record – “I set before you good and life, and death and evil, choose life.” We can choose to accept and follow Yehovah our Elohim, or choose to turn away from Him.

If you choose Him, He chooses you.

You obligate yourself to keep His commandments, ordinances, judgments and statutes. You are no longer your own, you are bought with a price.

In Egypt, the price was the firstborn of Egypt for the firstborn of Israel. A shadow of the eventual firstborn of Elohim for His firstborn – Israel – all who accept His covenant and enter into His family.

When you accept the covenant to establish Yehovah – Creator of all things, author of the Torah, Savior, Redeemer, Sustainer of all – as your Elohim, and Yeshua as your Messiah, to follow Him, to obey Him and to love Him with all your heart, soul and strength, He accepts you as a member of His family. His firstborn. You are adopted (grafted) in to Israel.

Adopted as Children

You become one of the Children of Israel and can receive all the blessings and the chastisement promised to them.

Please don’t confuse this concept with the commonly taught replacement theology doctrine; That Christians somehow replace the natural-born children of Israel, or the Jewish people, as God’s chosen people. That’s not it.

As grafted in Israelites, we don’t replace anyone. We don’t dispossess anyone. We are grafted in to the ranks of Israel. We take our place within and alongside the natural born children of Israel. We flesh out their ranks and add to their numbers. That’s one of the methods Elohim is using to make Israel’s numbers as many as the sands of the sea.

Converting to Elohim’s Torah

In the past, we have discussed that the idea of converting Jewish people to Christianity is actually turning the process on its head. Yeshua said he came only for the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” The Jewish people have the Torah and they have the covenant.

At least in part, they keep the Torah, and don’t adopt or inculcate the religious practices of other gods. All they need to do is come home to their Torah, and accept their Torah teaching, Torah keeping, Torah fulfilling Messiah, Yeshua ben Joseph.

It is Christians overall who need to be converted. They need to turn their backs on their worship of other gods and get back to the Elohim of the Hebrew Scriptures. They need to stop the abominable practices descended from child sacrifices and nature worship, and convert to the Torah’s teachings and instructions and to the feasts of Yehovah.

Moshe warns about this very problem;

“If there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from Yehovah our Elohim, to go and serve the gods of these nations; in case there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood; And it is when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart...’” (Deuteronomy 29:19)

Once we knowingly accept Yehovah as our El, He expects us to abandon all those Torah forbidden practices. How does a new believer go about the process of eliminating all the pagan practices and worship rites and cleanse his life of sin?

The New Testament disciples discussed this very issue;

First Step

“My decision is that we don’t trouble them, which are turned to God from among the Gentiles: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses of old time has in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day.” (Acts 15:19-21)

The disciples decided that new believers should immediately stop certain practices that were so corrupt and disgusting that they wouldn’t even allow them to fellowship with other believers unless they stopped. If new believers weren’t willing to stop doing these few things, they wouldn’t even be allowed to go to synagogue and fellowship with other followers.

Were this list composed today, in the United States of America, it might be different. Most people living in the U.S. today aren’t involved in pollutions of idols. (Notice that two of the issues are food related.)

Now go and Learn

Notice also at the end of the Acts verse, “For Moses of old time has in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day.” This wasn’t an idle afterthought. It was an instruction. The new believer was to immediately stop doing a few degrading disgusting things, then he would be allowed to attend the synagogue. Each week he would hear the week’s Torah portion, just as we study here.

As the new convert learned the content of the week’s Torah portion, he could examine his life and begin, week by week to eliminate the things in his life that were sin according to Torah. He could start keeping the commandments, judgments and ordinances he learned about that Shabbat in synagogue. It would only take the new believer from one to three years to hear the Torah from beginning to end.

It is reasonable to conclude that as the convert heard the Torah instructions, he would obey them. That’s the key – Obey.

Why would a person who wants to be in covenant with Yehovah, and become one of His children, ignore Yehovah’s instructions and go after evil? Yet some do. I have talked with people who have a 20 year walk with god, but they are unwilling to keep His commandments, out of direct rebellion.

This Commandment is not too Difficult

I repeatedly hear refrains like, “Nobody can keep all those laws...” or “It’s too hard to keep all those commandments...” But Moshe disputes this concept.

“If you will listen and obey the voice of Yehovah your Elohim, keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the Torah, and if you turn unto Yehovah your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul.

“For this commandment which I command you this day, it is not too difficult for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, "Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?" Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, "Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?" But the word is very near to thee, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it.” (Devarim 30:10-14)

Who will you Believe?

Who will you believe? Men, who claim the commandments are too hard to keep, or Yehovah and Moshe who say they’re not too difficult? “Let Elohim be true, but every man a liar.”

Following Moshe’s assurance that we can keep the commandments, that they are not too hard for us to keep come two of my favorite verses in all Scripture:

“See, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command you this day to love Yehovah your Elohim, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that you may live and multiply: and Yehovah your Elohim shall bless you in the land you are going in to possess.” (Devarim 30:15-16)

“I call heaven and earth to witness this day that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live: That you love Yehovah your Elohim, and obey his voice, and cleave unto him: for he is your life, and the length of your days.” (Devarim 30:19-20)

Join me next week to study portion Vayeilach, Devarim 31:1-30. Please share your comments with me. Let me know if you don’t want me to share your comments with our brothers and sisters who study with us.

Until then, Choose Life. Shalom.

*Manna in Hebrew is actually Mahn, What. The first time they saw the bread from heaven laying on the ground, they exclaimed “What - is it?” “Mahn - who?” Through transliteration the two words became man-nah, and in turn manna that we use today.