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(CHAPTER 26)
3. "‘If you walk in My statutes [b'Huqothai], guard My commandments, and carry them out,
If: when we do our part, which shows Him we are serious about the relationship (v. 9), He will do His part. Statutes: Rulings that remain in effect permanently, as contrasted with mishpatim (judgments) which apply on one occasion, i.e., must be tailored specifically to each situation. The ideal is that hearing the commands will make us want to carry them out. Walk in them: not simply be aware of them, but participate in them, letting them bring change in us. Doing is to lead to observing (learning from) His commands, which leads us to His heart--the spirit of the letter--which in turn makes us want to carry them out even more fully, which is not accomplished until all of Israel is living them. So once we start obeying, we need to teach others to do the same too. Yeshua said that as we seek first YHWH’s Kingdom, our other needs would be met as well, since YHWH knows what they are. Make them our concern, and the other things will not be a worry, as the next few verses show. We will not need elaborate schemes to prop up securities that cannot support their own weight. Then we will have more time and energy to “beautify” His commands. We need to give Him room to prove these promises true by keeping everything else secondary; if we look elsewhere for our security, how will we know when it comes from Him? As we walk in His cycles, our truest needs will become apparent, and what is in season on His calendar is what we need most at that time. At Passover, our greatest need is liberation, and that is what He teaches then. At Yom Kippur, it is a covering over our sins that we need most. He gives what we need when we need it:
4. "‘then I will give you your rains in their [proper] season, and the land shall yield her produce, and the tree of the field shall give its fruit,
In season: Rain out of season could wash away crops or topsoil, or make already-harvested grain rot. There are many proverbs about how irritating something that comes in the wrong season is, and in this case it could be a matter of life or death. And if we do not receive rain at the right time, the crops will not grow as they should. If we are acting out of season, our fruit will fail also. Water is a symbol of the teaching of the Torah, which is best learned "in season"--at the times when the feasts are to be celebrated. The Torah teaches us how to walk in season. Although it is a season for growing, you will not learn the lessons of the season if you do not plant anything. You must prepare yourself so that when the rain comes, something will be there to grow. In other seasons, the things He gives us to do are the “rain” that will bring the fruit we need in each season.
5. "‘and your threshing will last until the vintage, and the vintage will last until the time for sowing, and you will eat your bread until you have enough, and will dwell securely in your land.
Last until: or "overtake", "outlast". The harvest would be so abundant that you would still be harvesting one crop when the next was ready, as in the Garden of Eden when there were no seasons, only a perfectly-balanced climate and environment. Amos 9 uses the same language in regard to the return of the House of Yosef. But until "that day" when everyone sits under his own vine and his own fig tree, the seasons outlined in Torah are signs for us that point the way there. Constant involvement with the land will enable us to see the pictures of what He wants our lives to be.
6. "‘Moreover, I will grant peace in the Land, and you will relax, and no one will make you tremble from fear. And I will rid the land of harmful beasts, and no sword will pass through your Land.
Relax: Aramaic, "dwell undisturbed". It would be a mixed blessing to have plenty but always have someone trying to steal it. We who have lived in a land with few major security threats have much less of a feel for how wonderful this would sound to a nation used to ruthless marauding bands where there was no international court of appeal and there were dangers on every side. There is clearly something wrong in the Land of Israel now, because there are certainly “wild beasts” there. YHWH says it could be otherwise: we will not even have to be concerned for security on any front if we walk in His ways, not worrying about what the Gentiles worry about. (Mat. 6:31)
7. "‘You shall also put your enemies to flight, and they shall fall by the sword before you;
If the enemies with swords even try to enter, they will be scared off if you simply "flex your muscles". Rashi says this means they will each fall by one another’s swords before they even get to us.
8. "‘five of you shall chase away a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.
The proportions of what is accomplished are not the same in each equation. The rabbis deduce that this means that if many of us are working together, what is accomplished will increase exponentially over when only a few of us are involved.
9. "‘For I will turn My face toward you and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.
What we sow, we reap. If we walk out our part, YHWH will keep His promise and increase the fruit we bring forth.
10. "‘And you will eat provisions that you have had stored up, then you will clear out the old in the face of the new.
Provisions that you have stored up: Aramaic, "old grain", the supply remaining from the last harvest. Archaeology has shown that storage pits under the house were very common in Israelite cities. Ancient dried grain, figs, and dates have even been found in them. Does this mean to get rid of the old—that “Old Testament”—because we have something new? No, it says to eat the old first. We can both be sustained by the ancient revelations which we kept locked away for so long through our own erroneous thinking, and are only now rediscovering, and also partake of the spirit behind the letter--the "new treasures" as well (Mat. 13:52), but we must partake of the old before we can receive those. We cannot understand the “New Testament” properly until we take the “Old” fully into ourselves. Our bread must be made according to the recipe of our righteous ancestors, for it is the necessary foundation for what we need to do today. Many do not know there are old storehouses (they are told to start reading in the book of John), but the matzah we make for Passover must, according to Torah, be from the old grain; we are not permitted to eat of the new harvest until the firstfruits are brought AFTER Passover. (Lev. 23:14) Passover is about “feeding” our children what our forefathers stored up for us. (Ex. 13:6ff) The result will be that there will come a day when we will receive a new story, a greater exodus (Yirmeyahu/Jer. 16:14ff). What more could we ask for? This is like a dream--the best one could ever hope for in a world where there are still enemies. Yet there is more...
11. "‘I will also set my dwelling place in your midst, and my soul shall not abhor you.
This is the goal of all of the commands, because they are what allow us to begin to think in the patterns by which He thinks, and to know His mind. Physical security is nothing if we are not of one mind--if we do not also form a community He can dwell among. This would be the Kingdom itself, were it accepted.
12. "‘And I will [continually] walk among you and be your Elohim, and you will be My people.
Walk among you: like in the Garden of Eden! If we obey Him, we will see the Kingdom come on earth, not in Heaven, as if He had made some mistake in creating the earth and had to take us somewhere else instead. If we do things rightly, He is the one coming to camp among us. Heaven thus comes to earth. So why would anyone want to go to Heaven? To get away from YHWH? Absurd. A nation that did obey Him and thus come to know Him intimately would be an oasis of peace, freedom, and truth amid the "normal" patterns of this fallen age, and justice will come to the world that was ruined by Adam’s fall, as its original intent is restored during the Kingdom.
13. "‘I am YHWH your Elohim, who has brought you out from the land of the Egyptians, from being their slaves, and I will break the bars of your yoke and let you walk upright.
If He merely removed our yoke, someone could put it back on us again, so He goes further and breaks the yoke. Who would not want to obey an Elohim like this?
14. "‘But if you will not listen to Me, and [if you] do not carry out any of these commands,
15. "‘and if you reject My statutes and your soul abhors My ordinances, so that you will not carry out all of My commandments, so that you annul My covenant,
Annul: or "break"; Aramaic, "alter”, which is what we have done more frequently.
16. "‘this in turn is what I will do to you: I will indeed appoint over you [as overseers] sudden terror, a wasting lung disease, a burning fever that will consume away the eyes and cause the soul to pine away in sorrow. More than this, you will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.
Sudden terror: unexpected attacks that will cause us to panic, the opposite of confidence in YHWH. Cause the soul to pine away: i.e., it will be a life of constant depression. If we could not handle the simplicity of pressure from one source only, the consequence is pressure from many different sources. This seed can also refer to our children, for the Gentile ideas to which we turn them over will end up consuming the best of their energy for profitless purposes.
17. "‘And I will set my face against you, and you will be struck down before your enemies; those who hate you will tread you down, and you will run away when no one is chasing you.
Part of the curse is to be terrified of things that do not even exist--the logical conclusion of such a state of mind.
18. "‘And if [after] these things, you will still not listen to Me, then I will punish you seven more for your sins.
His intent in all of this is to make life outside of the covenant as hard as it can be so there will be motivation for stubborn people to come back into the valuable things they once had. The same pattern is seen in the plagues in Egypt and in the book of Revelation where over and over it is said, "Still they refused to repent!" If we refuse to be taught by His punishment, we will wish we had done so, since He will bring it again either in seven ways or seven more times. These are penalties for failing to come through with our side of the covenant. If you think the credit card companies charge high late fees, try 700%! If we remain in rebellion, we eventually dig ourselves into a hole too deep to get out of. This is why it has taken until our day for the exile of the Northern Kingdom to near its end. Angus Wootten calculates from 734 B.C., when the majority of the Northern Kingdom became vassal to Assyria, Y’hezq’El/Ezekiel (4:4-5) was told to lie on one side for 390 days for the number of years YHWH would punish Israel, and the other side for 40 days for Judah's years. In Jeremiah 16 YHWH doubled Ephraim's sentence (to 780 years), but here it also says that if our ancestors would not repent, He would increase their punishment seven times (to 2,730 years). So there are two sentences running concurrently for Ephraim. The first ran out in 46 C.E., right when Paul began his missions to the “Gentiles”—whom he searched for in the synagogues! Individuals from Ephraim began responding to Yeshua, and Hosea's judgment of "no pity" was no longer in effect. But Hosea's other sentence--that of not being a people--was not up... until right around 1996! If we begin counting from 722 B.C., when the capital city of Samaria was finally destroyed, we come out to 2008. That 12-year interval may have been like a transitional “decompression chamber” to get us ready for the real thing. Now that it is time for the second door to be open, YHWH is raising the standards so we can be used to them before entering the Land and therefore be able to stay this time. But it is not automatic. We have reached the end of our mandatory exile; from now on, any unnecessary delay is our own fault. (v. 24)
19. "‘And I will cripple the [proud] majesty of your [firmly-established] power, and your heavens shall be like iron, and your earth like brass,
Iron and brass: symbols of stubbornness (Isaiah/Yesh. 48:4; Jer./Yirm. 6:28); they would not yield rain or crops. But this could also mean that YHWH would not hear our prayers. He leaves no way out if we will not straighten up. He stops using positive reinforcement. It is up to us whether these things come upon us.
20. "‘and your energy will be spent in vain, because your land will not yield its increase, nor will the trees of the Land yield their fruits.
Everything you have worked for will be lost.
21. "‘But if you walk casually in relation to Me and will not listen to Me [or obey], I will add seven [more] plagues upon you according to your sins,
Walk casually: the Hebrew term comes from a word meaning "a chance encounter" (as seen in Deut. 28:17-18, the philosophy of Amaleq), as if to say all of YHWH’s mighty acts on our behalf were just coincidences, part of the normal ebb and flow of life on earth, and things would eventually have improved regardless. Or it can mean being indifferent to YHWH (Targum Yonathan), overconfident in our dealings with Him (Ibn Ezra), considering it a burden to walk with Him (Rashi), or to in any sense trivialize who He is.
22. "‘and send against you wild animals that will rob you of your children, chew away your livestock, and decimate your [own numbers], so that your pathways become desolate.
It is unsafe to walk on them any longer. He removes everything that competed with Him for our affections.
23. "‘And if you [still] will not let yourselves be corrected by Me in these matters, but will [continue to] walk in opposition to Me,
In opposition to Me: When we kept Sunday as "sabbath", YHWH stayed home. Was the spirit that was meeting with us really His? In another way, He met us where we were, but we must realize that where we were was not acceptable to Him, and move on from there.
24. "‘then I will also walk in opposition to you, and I myself will strike you seven [more times] on account of your sins,
If we still think we can get along without Him, He will ignore us too, and see where that leads. His leaving us alone is the worst thing to fear. Seven more times: We have completed the former sentence of "seven times” 390 years. (Y’hezq’El 4.) Now we are at another crossroads; what will we do with this open door? This may also relate to the plagues in Revelation that come in sevens, His final attempt to get some recalcitrants of the House of Yosef to recognize who they really are and repent.
25. "‘and I will bring a sword upon you that will avenge the quarrel of [the] covenant, and when you are gathered together in your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you will be delivered into the hands of the enemy.
Gathered together: to escape the armies outside the walls. But it will be "out of the frying pan, into the fire"--a worse thing will await them in the place of supposed safety, because there is no hiding from YHWH. Pestilence: Based on the word for "talk" or "declare", so it may imply the "plague" of an informer who gives away the secret to how to enter the city.
26. "‘And when I have broken the shaft of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back your bread in weighed-out rations, and you shall eat, and not be satisfied.
Ten women…one oven: i.e., there will not be a need for many ovens, because there will be so little to bake. So many of one's male friends will have died, that their widows will be seeking protection by the few males who remain, but there will be so many people to take care of that there will not be enough for anyone to eat his fill.
27. "‘And if despite [all of] this you do not listen to Me, but walk in opposition to Me,
28. "‘Then I will walk in furious opposition to you; I Myself will also discipline you seven [times] for your sins,
Furious: or boiling. I.e., worse than ignoring us, He will now be “indifferent to us with a vengeance”, leaving us to the ways of Amaleq (the fury of chance), since we chose that path. Is this a third multiplication by seven?
29. "‘and you will eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat!
Even this took place when Israel’s cities were under siege by their enemies. YHWH was not exaggerating. The devil did not do all of this to Israel; it was YHWH’s judgment--a sober warning to us.
30. "‘And I will annihilate your cultic worship-platforms, and cut down your sun-pillars, and cast your corpses on the monuments of your images, and My soul will abhor you.
We did not remove them ourselves, and over and over the book of 2 Kings says that our kings refused to remove these worship-platforms, so YHWH Himself had to step in. Corpses...monuments: both the same word in Hebrew, in an interesting play on words. Both refer to a lifeless body or form.
31. "‘I will let your cities become decayed ruins, and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not delight in the sweet fragrances of your soothing aromas.
32. "‘And I will bring the land to [such] desolation [that] your enemies who settle there shall be appalled at it.
Appalled: or horrified. Until His people began to return, it had become scarcely more than desert in some areas and malaria-infested swamp in others, in which Mark Twain said even a chicken could not scratch out a living.
33. "‘And I will scatter you among the pagans and draw out a sword after you, and your land will be devastated and your cities [made into] ruins.
Scatter: the word also means "sow"; Hoshea brings out both meanings by naming his son "Yizra'el"--Elohim will scatter, or Elohim will sow. (Hos. 1:4-11) A sowed harvest will later be reaped, and that was the blessing within the curse. By Yeshua's time, the fields were "white unto harvest". Ruins: Go there today and you will see many such cities, but they are being reestablished and resettled (cf. Isaiah 61:4).
34. "‘Then the land will enjoy her sabbaticals as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies' lands; then [indeed] the land will rest and enjoy her sabbaticals.
Enjoy: or be paid back, be appeased for. For 490 years our ancestors did not obey the command about leaving the land fallow in the Sabbatical year. The Babylonian captivity ended after exactly 70 years, fulfilling YHWH's promise to the day. (Yirm. 25:11-12; 2 Chron. 36:21)
35. "‘As long as it lies desolate it will rest, because it did not rest on your sabbaticals when you lived on it.
36. "‘And as for those who are left alive of you, I will send timidity into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, and the sound of a leaf driven [by the wind] will send them running, and they will disappear as if running from a sword, and they will fall [on their faces] when no one is chasing them.
The sound of a leaf: Yet the word for “leaf” is from a root word meaning to ascend, and this is the underlying purpose in His sending the wind (the same as spirit in Hebrew).
37. "‘And one of them shall stumble over another as if [running] in front of a sword, when no one is pursuing, and you will have no power to resist your enemies.
This proved the case despite the great riches of Jews in Germany and the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
38. "‘And you will be exterminated among the Gentiles, and the land of your enemies will burn you up.
What could be a better description of the Holocaust? But these promises must also have been fulfilled in many other ways for the Northern Kingdom, which left the covenant first. To treat His ways as common is to descend—and our ancestors tumbled down the steps. We defile the Land when we descend, so again He defends the honor of His Land, which does not consume its inhabitants, by not bringing this on us while still in His Land. It is a place of protection, so when it is time for His hand to be heavy, He removes us from it first.
39. "‘And those who are left of you shall rot away on account of their guilt in their enemies' lands, and also on account of the guilt of their fathers, with them they shall rot away.
Rot away: or, pine away, wither away. With all the promises made if one would obey, these “ifs” are YHWH’s mercy. He gives us the option of obeying instead; He is not looking for an excuse to push us down the steps. He wants us on the top, but we must get there on His terms. Each of these symptoms is designed to make us ask if we have started going wrong. The Torah is all about relationship with Him, and these things are not punishment but chastisement--a means of keeping us from going further away when we have exhausted all the better reasons to come back. The roadblocks get tougher and tougher, because after the 49th step there is no more covenant (v. 15). After that, someone has to die for the covenant to remain in effect--and that did take place. But it is better to die and be unable to go further into sin than to go that far.
40. "‘But if they admit to their crookedness and the guilt of their ancestors in the unfaithful treachery by which they have trespassed against Me, and also that they have walked in hostility to Me,
Admit to: literally, "throw up their hands for"; Aramaic, "confess". Treachery: or treason--betrayal of one's NATION. Yirmeyahu 16 clarifies that this means admitting that our fathers inherited lies. Half-truths, in some cases, but still not true. The key to our returning is that we right their wrongs rather than continuing to let their effects continue. And also that they: Not just our ancestors; when we say, “Our fathers have inherited lies” we must add, “We have, too.” Walked in hostility: Aramaic, "acted stubbornly"—i.e., were interested only in doing things our own way.
41. "‘when I have walked in hostility to them and brought them into the land of their enemies, if their uncircumcised heart should then be brought into subjection, and they accept the punishment of their iniquity,
If: This is a conditional promise. Uncircumcised: having been in violation of or opposition to the covenant. Heart: or core—the innermost center, which is harder for anyone but YHWH to measure, but if our outward actions appear submissive, but the heart is not, none of it counts. Brought into subjection: literally, to bend the knee (in submission). Accept the punishment for: or "pay for”, “satisfy the debt for". I.e., do more than just recognize that the punishment is just; more appropriately, repair what was broken! Yeshua made a big down-payment, but we have more payments to make to complete what he began. The term also means “to delight in”, i.e., be glad that He still cares enough for us to bring us back through whatever harsh measures might be necessary. This proves He still has hope for us.
42. "‘Then I will remember My covenant with Yaaqov, and also My covenant with Yitzhaq, and My covenant with Avraham I will remember; I will also bring the Land to remembrance.'
All of these covenants were the same one in essence, with some further detail or focus added upon each renewal. Note that he lists them backwards, just as we are moving back to our roots. We can come back up the steps very quickly and pick up where our ancestors left off, and be to YHWH what each of the patriarchs was, if we confess that we were crooked. When we make restitution for what our ancestors did wrong, His hostility disappears instantly.
43. "The Land itself shall be left behind by them, and shall enjoy her sabbaticals, while she lies desolate without them; and they shall accept [the punishment of] their iniquity, because--because indeed--they despised My ordinances, and because their soul abhorred My statutes.
Sabbaticals: which we had neglected. Despised My ordinances: Compare Hoshea 8:12, where the House of Efrayim counted His Torah "a strange thing". Still many “believers” cringe at any mention of the “Law”; this is how Yeshua judges who will be counted greatest and least in His Kingdom. (Mat. 5:19)
44. "Yet even after all this, while they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I abhor them so as to utterly destroy them so far as to nullify My covenant with them, because I am [after all] YHWH their Elohim.
He was not as heavy-handed as He could have been, because He wanted a remnant to survive. He sent Yeshua after the sentence was doubled (Yirmeyahu 16:18), so there was at least mercy again, though it took five more cycles before He was ready to allow us to be His people again. (Hoshea 1) But now we are at the point of “after all this”, yet most are still outside His Land. This chapter has been a legal document—a wedding contract with divorce clauses too. It has specific time frames, and we are precisely at the termination point of the period of separation, so we are perfectly poised to ascend again, if we will just walk through the gate that is again open!
45. "For their sakes I will bring to remembrance the covenant of their ancestors whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations; I am YHWH."
Ancestors: again, the covenant was renewed with the specific focus being on returning to the Land. But it is not only for the patriarchs’ sakes; He will want to do it all for us too, once He sees us acting like they did. He has opened the contract back up, and is looking for people who will uphold it to sign on to it again.
46. These are the statutes and the ordinances and the instructions that YHWH made between Himself and their descendants in Mount Sinai, by the hand of Moshe.
CHAPTER 27
1. Then YHWH spoke to Moshe, saying,
2. "Speak to the descendants of Israel, and tell them, ‘When a man makes an extraordinary vow, by your valuation the souls shall belong to YHWH:
Extraordinary vow: This is a very unfamiliar concept today, but this unusual command can be understood if we slow down and read it in Hebrew. It has to do with coming before the priest and vowing a person, whether oneself or someone else over whom one has authority, to YHWH. One cannot vow what does not belong to him. One could not vow someone else’s children—or the Brooklyn Bridge! One must have the authority to make this promise. One might dedicate his child to YHWH at birth. Or, his children might be spared an impending disaster, and out of gratitude he might turn them over to YHWH--not physically, for this would become an undue burden on the priesthood if all of these were, like Shmu’el, actually turned over to the custody of the Temple. They could not all be fed from the altar. Rather, one would dedicate the person to YHWH—declare that he belongs to YHWH—and then redeem him, that is, “get him back” by paying the amount at which the person is valued to the priest in their name or for their sake. Thus the person is “wonderfully distinguished” (another way of translating this word for “extraordinary”). This high-level honor is where we can see the connection today. Putting a value on one’s soul is a foreign concept to most of us, but it is a statement of how important YHWH is, and it says this person is worth setting apart to YHWH. It is his soul (motivating force) that is vowed. So what is a soul worth? Very few people today have ever thought in such terms, but the next few verses tell us very precisely:
3. "‘Your valuation shall be like this: for the male from twenty to sixty years, your valuation shall be fifty sheqels of silver, according to the sheqel of the sanctuary.
Though the modern sheqel is a currency, it was originally a unit of measure (a fraction of an ounce) against which silver was weighed. There were different types of sheqels, which is why the “sheqel of the sanctuary” is specified. In 1,800 B.C.E. a sheqel was worth the weight of one bushel of grain. The vow is not vague or haphazard, but for a purpose. One is saying, “May this person’s soul be put in the place where it is most valuable to YHWH” so his full value can be realized. An appraisal is conducted. But if the values are already listed for a person in each category, how is it that they are being evaluated? Couldn’t the priest just “look at the chart”? The fact that the values have already been given suggests that the evaluation means more than just finding the value. The Hebrew term means “to arrange in order” or “prepare for battle”. It is based on one’s place in the army of YHWH Tzava’oth (the “commander-in-chief of the armies”). In fact, the people in this first category are those who are eligible to go to war, with those from fifty to sixty years old being the ones who train the younger warriors. Twenty is the age at which one becomes responsible for his actions to the fullest extent. Who is His army? Israel. Being counted among Israel gives us our most basic value, but no one should be content with this. One’s service brings added value. Generals are worth more than privates, for there are far fewer of them. Avraham, Moshe, and Y’hoshua have much greater value than the average Israelite. These men worth fifty sheqels are worth 100 souls (for elsewhere each soldier pays half a sheqel). Not that they should be arrogant; it means they should be able to take responsibility for 100, possibly being “rulers of 100”. Consider how many a soldier is protecting while he is in battle. Avraham and Sarah “acquired souls”. How many people have you invested in? Are you satisfied with how many people you have affected positively? How do you add value to a human being? By making him a productive part of Israel, or showing him how he can bless Israel if he is not part of it. No one is as valuable as he should be if he is not in the right position. We need to “weigh ourselves out” to determine how profitable we are to Him.
4. "‘and if it is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty sheqels.
This is the age of fruitfulness for a woman, and her service is to produce faithful children who continue in His path. She is connecting their souls to Israel, adding to their value by investing time, knowledge, wisdom, and care in them. The woman actually runs the household day to day. She is busier with them than her husband is, so she is given responsibility for fewer souls.
5. "‘If [the person] is from five to twenty years old, your valuation shall be twenty sheqels for the male, and ten sheqels for the female.
One can look at a child and see a fairly clean slate; he is not set in his ways or jaded. This is the age of potential, so it is not valued as highly as those who are actually doing the work, but it is valuable still, because aptitudes are being developed now that the “recruiter” will be looking for. If we raise their value now, they will be worth much more later. Twenty sheqels is the price Yosef’s brothers sold him for when he was in this age range. They unwittingly gave him to YHWH so that many lives could be saved. So when he gave their silver back, saying, “I already received it”, he may have been recognizing that this is what they had really been doing.
6. "‘And from a month old up to five years, your valuation shall be five silver sheqels for the male, and three silver sheqels for the female.
These children are the raw materials, so they are not worth much yet in terms of ability to serve. But one’s traits are usually determined by the time he is three years old. This is the time when he is learning what to fear, like, or respect, and what not to. If he is loved and taught properly at this stage, he can become very valuable to YHWH. So one cannot start too soon. The patterns can be changed later, but only with much more difficulty. The sooner we set our children apart unto YHWH and support them in that, the less it costs us to shape them specifically for the task they were chosen for. He has no baggage to leave behind, as compared to one who is older and has more habits, possessions, or practices to give up in order to be the clean vessel ready to be used by YHWH. If the child is raised in Torah from earliest days, he doesn’t even have a sense of giving anything up to follow YHWH, because this is all he knows. Teaching them is a greater investment than teaching adults. A month: Just as a son must experience one Sabbath before he is circumcised, the child to be vowed must experience one new moon (renewing) before being turned over to YHWH. As the kingdom draws nearer, we have less time to wait, but latecomers can stand on our shoulders to add to everyone’s progress, because none of us has yet made it to the mountaintop.
7. "‘And from sixty years and above, your valuation shall be fifteen sheqels if it is a male, and ten sheqels for the female.
If one waits until he is old to be set in order, like a field sold not long before the yovel, he has fewer cycles left to be useful, but is counted as more valuable than a child, who has many left, because of their knowledge and experience. But it is more costly to change his ways, though one may appreciate the truth more if he has had to fight and dig to find it.
8. "‘But if he is too poor [to pay the price at which] you value [him], then he shall present himself before the cohen [priest], and the cohen shall set a value on him; according to the ability of the one who vowed [to pay], the priest shall set a value [tax] upon him.
Poor: The term means one who has had his treasures taken from him, and this perfectly describes Israel of both houses. So we need to be set in order again with the tool of the Torah. Even if we have been worthless up to this point, we can still become valuable to YHWH. Ability to pay: literally, “according to the mouth of the reach of his hand”. In Hebrew, too, our actions do indeed speak louder than our words! They tell our real story and define who we really are. It is best not to make promises one cannot keep, but YHWH knew there would be moments of euphoria when great intentions well up within us and we “bite off more than we can chew’. But He does not say, “Just don’t worry about it.” The priests may be able to help him locate resources he is overlooking. Moshe did not recognize the potential that was in the rod in his hand until YHWH showed it to him. (Ex. 4:1ff) Boxers are measured by how far they can reach. The priest judges not just by what we can reach, but how far we are willing to reach. One may have shorter arms, but still try harder and accomplish more than those who have greater potential but do not use it.
9. "‘And if it is a beast from which men [may] bring an offering to YHWH, any such thing from among them which is given unto YHWH shall be holy;
10. "‘he may not replace it or exchange it, a healthy animal for a bad [one], or a bad animal for a healthy [one]. But if he shall exchange any one at all, then [both] it and the one substituted shall be holy.
If this applies to possessions, how much more to our lives? “You are not your own; you have been bought with a price.” (1 Cor. 6:19) If we try to take our lives back for selfish use, “what could a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mat. 16:26) Whenever we promise to turn over any part of ourselves to YHWH, that part belongs to Him, and if we decide we want them back, we are stealing from Him, so there is a penalty to pay. He takes them both, because He does not like us to be double-tongued.
11. "‘But if it be an unclean beast, from those which cannot be brought near as an offering to YHWH, then he shall present the beast before the cohen,
Unclean beast: such as a donkey, which can be redeemed. Israelites would own few other unclean beasts. Some inclinations within us are selfish. We are not expected to turn them all over to YHWH at once, but as we become aware of each one.
12. "‘and the cohen shall set a value on it, according to whether it is healthy or not. As you, the cohen, set the value, so will it be.
How can an unclean beast be consecrated to YHWH? The idea seems to be that someone made a vow to YHWH along the lines of, "Get me out of this situation, and I will give you..." Sometimes the vow is rash and he actually needs the use of the thing he vowed to give, so he can pay a certain amount of money to have it back, but he has to pay a 20% fine (v. 13, etc.) for again profaning something that was made holy. There are exceptions; some things can never be bought back (v. 10), because they are too holy.
13. "‘But if he is to redeem it at all, he must add one-fifth to your valuation.
YHWH makes sure it is not worth our while to keep something that we had previously wanted to give Him. There is a high price to pay for profaning it again—far more than it is worth. It is always costly to remain selfish. So concentrate on being valuable to YHWH; see what you can add to the Kingdom. Take stock of who you are an example to, and make them worth more to YHWH.
14. "‘But if a man consecrates his house to be holy unto YHWH, then the cohen shall evaluate it, as to whether it is useable or not. Whatever the cohen sets as the value, that is what it will remain.
15. "‘And if the one who consecrated his house wants to redeem it, he must add one fifth to the price of your valuation, and it shall be his.
16. "‘ And if a man consecrates to YHWH [part] of a field from his ancestral heritage, then you shall value it according to the [amount of] seed [that can be grown] in it: a homer shall be valued at fifty silver sheqels.
Homer: 100 omers. (Modern equivalent: 220 liters or 58 gallons/7.96 cubic feet.) From this valuation we derive the fact that an omer (which symbolizes one person) is worth half a sheqel (each person's temple tax, as in Exodus 30:13ff.) A homer is not a measure of land area as such, but this is referring to the area that requires a homer of barley seed to plant. The Talmud tells us that one se’ah (of which there are 30 in a homer) could plant 2,500 square cubits--an area half the size of the Tabernacle enclosure. So a homer could plant 75,000 square feet on average (a square 274 cubits on each side), or the equivalent of 3.87 acres. It has the same value as a human male. (v. 3) If the land was of poorer quality, one would have to donate more acreage to achieve the same yield.
17. "‘ If he consecrates his field [beginning] from the yovel year, according to your valuation it will be established.
18. "‘But if he consecrates his field after the yovel [year], then the cohen shall calculate for him the price according to the years that remain until the yovel year, and it shall be deducted [pro-rated] from your valuation.
19. "‘And if the one who consecrated the field ever wants to redeem any of it, then he must add one-fifth to the price of your estimation, and it shall be confirmed to [be] his.
Confirmed: possibly by checking the records of property ownership. By the Second Temple, priests did own fields beyond those attached to their cities to be used for purposes like watching the barley to know when it was in the stage that allowed the Passover to be proclaimed.
20. "‘But if he [himself] does not want to redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it is never to be redeemed again.
It can keep giving to the priests after the donor dies.
21. "‘Rather, when it is released in the yovel, it will become holy to YHWH like a devoted field; it will become an inheritance for the cohen.
Devoted: The Arabic word harem comes from the same root--meaning something off limits to everyone else. The cohen does not receive the actual ownership of the field until the yovel, but the value of its produce is what is paid to him in the meantime. If we just leave it there and keep our hands off it, it is no longer our problem; the priest will determine how it is used, and we do not have to worry about getting all we expected out of it. The field is a picture of the world. (Mat. 13:33) The more we turn over to YHWH of what we own in the world, the more property belongs to the Kingdom. We should be eating of His garden, but He cannot plant it if we keep holding onto our own fields.
22. "‘And if what he devotes to YHWH is a field he purchased rather than one of the fields of his ancestral property,
These cannot be sold permanently, but have to be returned to the clan that owns them at least once every fifty years.
23. "‘then the cohen shall calculate for him the portion of the value to be paid up to the year of yovel, and he shall appoint your valuation that day as a thing set apart unto YHWH.
24. "‘In the year of the yovel, the field shall return [revert] to him from whom it was bought, to whom it had belonged as an inherited possession.
He cannot permanently donate what really belongs to someone else, but he can put it to Kingdom use for as long as he has access to it.
25. "‘Now all your value-estimations shall be according to the sheqel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall [equal] the sheqel.
No unequal weights or measures are allowed. (Ex. 30:13) Anything we weight out—every decision that hangs in the balance—must be based on the measure of its value to YHWH’s dwelling place: Does it bring us closer to Him?
26. "‘However, a firstfruit from the animals, which is a firstborn unto YHWH, shall no man consecrate, whether it be ox or sheep; it [already] belongs to YHWH.
We cannot give what is not ours to give; we can only turn them over to those to whom they belong. However, after the five sheqels had been paid to redeem Shmu'El (Samuel), he was no longer considered Hannah's firstborn, and thus he could be dedicated to YHWH after all.
27. "‘And if it is [the firstborn] from an unclean beast, then he can redeem it according to [whatever] value you assign, and shall add one fifth [of the value] to it; or if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold.
28. "‘ In any case, any devoted thing which a man dedicates to YHWH, from anything that belongs to him, whether man or animal or inherited field, may neither be sold nor redeemed; it is most set-apart to YHWH.
29. "‘Nothing devoted to destruction which is dedicated by a human being may be ransomed; [it] must certainly be put to death.
There are things in our lives that must simply be done away with; there is no negotiating with YHWH to have them back. Once we give YHWH a pledge to kill off something in our lives that hinders us, it cannot be taken back. Only one in authority over us can negate a vow—and only at certain times.
30. "‘And all the tithe of the land,[ whether] from the seed of the earth [or] the fruit of the tree, is YHWH's; it is set apart for YHWH.
Note that the tithe had nothing to do with money, but only agricultural products.
31. "‘And if a man redeems any of his tithes at all, he shall add a fifth of its [value] to it.
This might occur if a man is starving and yet has the reserve set aside to be consumed at Sukkoth, and so borrows from it because he has nothing else to eat, or from that which he is holding to take to the priests on his next trip to the Temple. This is understandable, but again there is still a 20% penalty.
32. "‘Now concerning the tithe of the flock and the herd: of all that pass under the rod, the tenth shall be set apart for YHWH.
The way a shepherd counted his sheep as they entered the narrow doorway to the fold was to have them walk under a rod. In Y'hezq'El/Ezekiel 20:37, when YHWH promises to restore the scattered House of Israel from among the nations, He will cause us to "pass under the rod" and then it will mean He is purging out the rebellious ones, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Here, all the sheep are to be counted by tens, and every tenth one, healthy or not, is to be set aside as for YHWH, being devoted for priestly use or consumption.
33. "‘ He may not take into consideration whether it is pleasant or not, neither may he exchange it [for another]; indeed, if he does exchange [another for] it, then both it and its substitute shall be holy; it cannot be redeemed.'"
Whether he thinks it an unfit gift for the king and wants to give a better one or thinks it is too nice to give up, it is out of our hands; it is still His. We can give another in addition, however.
34. These are the commands which YHWH gave to Moshe for the descendants of Israel at Mount Sinai.
Sinai is where we are headed during the Counting of the Omer, since the Torah was given there on Shavuoth. If we dedicate ourselves to be set in order so we will be worth something to the Kingdom, we will be counted among the righteous when the tally is made—and that is exactly how the next book begins.
(Khazaq, khazaq, v’nitkhazeq!)
TORAH PORTION
B'Huqothai
(Leviticus 26:3 - 27:34)
INTRODUCTION: This portion is one of the most amazing—and terrifying—in all of the Torah. Terrifying because we have seen the down-side of it come to pass with great precision throughout history, both in a more obvious way for the Jews, but also—and to a more horrific extent—to the Northern Kingdom.
But therein lies the hope as well, for if YHWH keeps His promises even when they go against everything He wanted for His beloved children, how much more will He “rejoice over us to do us good” (Deut. 30:9; Ts’fanyah 3:17) when we gratefully receive His gift of a new heart that wants to keep His commandments and actually do live out what He always intended Israel—and humanity—to be?
In this Torah portion YHWH said He would punish us seven times over if we did not learn our lesson the first time. And therein lies the key to understanding why the Northern Kingdom is only now reawakening to its identity as long-lost Israelites. How it has applied to Yehudah as well may be a challenge for Yehudah—the tribe of kings--to search out. (See Proverbs 25:2.)
More important for us than the math (to which YHWH has been faithful) is to be sure that we live up to Lev. 26:40-41 so that He can bring about the greatest possible fulfillment of verses 42-45.
The following chapter is a bit more puzzling in our day of equal rights and “no child left behind”, for it shows that indeed, some things—and even some people—are more valuable than others. To some extent that depends on us, for when we take what has been entrusted to us and use it wisely, we do in fact become more valuable to our Master. (Mat. 25:14ff)
But some of it also depends on our stage in life. Just as a field is more valuable when it has more years to be used until it is returned to its owner, so a person with more years to give is worth more, in one sense, than one with only a few years left to offer. A certain level of maturity is also factored into YHWH’s valuation, but the main point is to teacher us to “give of our best to the Master”—and to one another. There should not be a discrepancy between one and the other We already owe a certain amount; a gift is what is over and above that, from the prime of our lives and the cream of our crops, and this is what we get credit for.
Cultivating the Relationship
This Torah portion begins with the kind of words we like to hear—promises that YHWH will bring us rain at the right time (Leviticus 26:4), that we will know such a level of shalom that nothing will make us afraid, and that there won’t even be wild beasts to worry about. (26:6-7) He will make us fruitful to the point that we have the luxury of throwing away old food because there is plenty of fresh. (26:10) Anyone who has known privations knows that that is not a trivial prospect.
But the greatest blessings of all, and the most amazing, are that the Creator of the universe will turn toward us! Not just to pay attention, but because He wants to face us! (26:9) It also means showing us respect. We will be free from oppression by outsiders. (26:13) He will firm up the alliance He has with us; what on earth could ever harm us? Then we are told that He will not reject us, but will want to make His home with us. That is absolutely astounding, if you think about all the options He has! (26:11) And maybe best of all, He will walk in our midst, because that is just how we are told things were in the Garden of Eden! (26:12) It doesn’t get any better than that.
But—whoa! Then the conversation takes a 180-degree turn so quickly that it knocks us off our high horses! All of a sudden He is talking about bringing all the worst we can imagine on us. (26:16-39) What Yaaqov thought had befallen Yosef will befall us. (26:22) We will have to ration out food (26:26); we will still eat enough to survive, but not thrive. We will suffer from irrational fears—imaginary threats as well as real. (26:37) Some of the prospects are so hideous that I don’t even want to repeat them. (26:29) He will do the job that we were supposed to do, and resent us for it. (26:30) He will have His due; the Land will rest whether we give it a rest or not. (26:34) And He won’t be placated by the things we do to try to appease Him. (26:31)
How did we get to such an opposite extreme? We must remember that what we are talking about here is a rejection of His ways (26:15) that didn’t just occur overnight. There is a repeated pattern of filling up the “cup” (vv. 18, 21, 24) where He progressively turns up the heat to see if we might learn our lessons when He corrects us. But like any parent who has made the conditions as favorable as he can and yet still has children who ignore him, YHWH Himself finally says, “Why should I keep giving them nice things, when all they do is enjoy them ungratefully—or throw them back in My face?”
We all know how important it is to cultivate relationships so that they will stay at the highest level, because it does not take much for them to fall apart. But how often do we remember that our relationship with our Creator has to be cultivated also? The Torah is all about loving our neighbors as ourselves, but don’t forget the most important relationship—loving YHWH with all we are, have, and do. If human beings, made in His image, get frustrated and upset, should we be surprised if He does too? He doesn’t fit stoic definitions of a deity; He has feelings too!
But by the same token, though He may rant and vent as we sometimes do, He is not unreasonable. In all this wrath, He won’t completely hate us, and will remember His covenant even while we are still in exile. (26:44) He is willing to negotiate. If we accept our punishment quietly and admit we were wrong, then the things He has put us through can count toward “repayment” to YHWH. (26:41-43)
We might need to go to an extreme level of dedication for a while to try to find the balance again. (27:2)
And don’t assume it will be easy. There are parameters we have to follow in the process—and some of them very strict. (27:3-29) Though we have exhausted all our resources, some of our possessions are already His by default; we can’t count these as voluntary donations. (27:26) And if in our zeal to turn things back, we dedicate something big to YHWH and then realize that we bit off more than we could chew (27:13), or if we have made such bad choices that we have to borrow from our what we owe Him just to survive (27:31), there is a surcharge. That’s only fair; it’s part of our rehabilitation to have to taste the natural fall that comes as a consequence of our pride. (Proverbs 16:18)
But there is hope. YHWH has a long nose! The nose is a Hebrew idiom for anger (picture a snorting bull), so this is saying His fuse is far from short. He is not picky about some of the things He requires of us. (27:33) And even if families fall apart and we have to sell away our land to pay for our blunders, still, if we maintain the framework He set up, we can eventually come back home—and the home come back to us—at worst every 50 years. (27:17-24) He put a reset button in place if we are willing to go back to living as Israel. Why we would give up that greatest blessing in the world is unfathomable, yet all of us do it to one degree or another every day, so, where we stand right now, every day is a mixture of both blessing and curse in the measure we have “ordered” by our choices.
So as our unsustainable ways are exposed as such and our crookedness rots away (26:39), take that as a gift and use the occasion to humble yourself before Him, sit still, and listen (shema’—the most foundational principle of our faith. After all, that is the most important thing we can do in a relationship. We won’t understand His ways if we just want to keep spouting off our own ideas.) That may be very hard for some of us, but “afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness”, as one of our thoughtful forebears put it.
So another book ends with a reminder of Sinai, where the thunderings compelled us to obey. But that fades into the same-old day-by-day plodding through the wilderness, so it leaves us with the challenge of a choice—the same choice our griping ancestors had, and a choice we meet at each turn: whether we will do what it takes to maintain the relationship, and repair it if need be, or just part ways with the greatest thing that ever befell this planet because we think we prefer something different. It should be a no-brainer, given the consequences mapped out here for each path, but still He leaves it up to us, because in Hebrew the very concept of love implies picking one option as opposed to another.
Study Questions:
1. Which of these promised outcomes (Lev. 26:4-10) do you think are a natural result of following YHWH’s commands, and which are the results of His direct intervention?
2. Which of all the outcomes in 26:4-12 is the best of all?
3. What are the two aspects of His bringing us out of Egypt? (26:13)
4. It is hard to imagine a harsher description of what could become of us than 26:16-33. But when we read what He has done (26:13) and what He wants to do for us (26:4-12), could we imagine a more heinous response than that described in 26:14-15. Are these consequences not merciful compared to what anyone who throws it all back in His face deserves? What stronger reason(s) does Hebrews 10:26-31 give for taking His sacrificial gestures seriously and putting the right value on them?
5. How many times in chapter 26 can you find that YHWH will multiply our “sentence” by seven if we do not respond appropriately to His correction? Do you think these are cumulative or concurrent? Do you want to try it and find out? The Northern Kingdom of Israel has recently completed the first “seven times over”, which lasted 2,730 years (based on Ezekiel chapter 4). How long would the next one last if we do not return to being the People that He created us to be? And the next?
6. What does “gathered together in your cities” imply for an agriculturally-oriented people? (26:25)
7. Find some photographs on line of Israel even just 100 years ago. How does it compare to Lev. 26:32?
8. What does Lev. 26:34 and assume about Israel’s practice? Did it in fact turn out this way? (Compare Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 25:11-12 and 2 Chron. 36:21)
9. Can you think of a time not long ago when verses 36-39 were vividly carried out? Can you think of any less-obvious instances when the Northern Kingdom experienced the same kind of retribution?
10. How do 26:40-45 bring hope in the midst of this sobering chapter? What steps can you take to ensure that He is able to fulfill this conditional promise?
11. What do the differences in the redemption prices of different types and ages of people suggest? (Lev. 27:2-8) Does this mean YHWH inherently values some categories of persons less than others? If not, what practical reasons might there be for these value judgments? (27:16-18, 23 may give you some clues.)
12. Does YHWH allow us to substitute something different for what we have promised Him? If so, what are the conditions? (27:10-13, 27-29, 31)
13. Which things non-negotiably already belong to YHWH? (27:26-30) Can we therefore consider these things gifts when we give them to Him, or simply the payment of what we owe? How does Luke 17:9-10 show how we can carry this concept into other parts of our lives and attitudes?
Companion Passage:
The Sidewalk
for Kids
The story is told of a preacher who told his friends that one day “two and a half people” responded favorably to his message when he had called them to turn from their wrongdoing and begin working along with YHWH rather than against Him.
“Do you mean two adults and one child?”, they asked, since a child is smaller. “No, two children and one adult”, because they adult already had already wasted most of his life on worthless pursuits that did not help either him or anyone else, and could now only accomplish half as much good as those children might be able to, because they had a much earlier start in walking on the right path.
This Torah portion shows that, in fact, YHWH does put more value on some stages in our lives than on others. (Lev. 27) Not that He loves us any less at one time or another. But we are more useful to Him and to one another when we have all of our abilities than when we start to lose them.
So this is the challenge to you now: “Remember your Creator in the days when you are young” (Qoheleth/Ecclesiastes 12:1)—before your body starts wearing out and you can no longer do all that you can do now. You also learn much more quickly now than you will when you get older, and can change your ways much more easily than after 40 or 50 years with the same habits.
Will you give YHWH what is right—or what is left? Your best—or your leftovers?
The Renewal of B'HUQOTHAI
“If you walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and carry them out… you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword… I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you; and will establish My covenant with you… And I will station My dwelling-place among you, and My soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your Elohim, and you shall be My people.” (Leviticus 26:3-12)
“I am YHWH your Elohim, who has brought you out from the land of the Egyptians, from being their slaves, and I will break the bars of your yoke and let you walk upright.” (Lev. 26:13)
Sadly, that did not last, and He had to exercise the alternative outcome He went on to describe:
“But… if you reject My statutes and your soul abhors My ordinances, so that you will not carry out all of My commandments, so that you annul My covenant… I will appoint terror over you…” (Lev. 26:14ff)
He did renegotiate several times, in His mercy. But did the terms change? Does YHWH no longer threaten us with chastisement? Is His love unconditional now, as many claim?
What does the Renewed Covenant say?
“If we go on sinning willfully after having received the [precise, correct] knowledge of what is true, there is no further sacrifice left in regard to sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery punitive zeal which is about to consume those who oppose…[It is a] formidable thing to fall into the hands of the Elohim of [the] living!” (Hebrews 10:26-31) “Because YHWH our Elohim is a consuming fire.” (Heb. 12:29)
The crux of the matter is found here: “And I will break the pride of your power…” (Lev. 26:19)
Pride was the root of haSatan’s sin, and he constantly tries to inculcate the same attitude into human beings over whom he now wields influence. So again, YHWH’s correction is His mercy. He is cutting out that cancer that leads to so many other breaches of covenant. And do we need that any less now?
Remember it was to believers in Messiah that Yaaqov said, “You adulterers and adulteresses! Don’t you understand that the friendship of the world order is opposition of Elohim? Consequently, whoever makes it his purpose to be a friend of the world order [seeking fame or sophistication or a place in an “in group” that gives us power over others or makes us think we are better than they] –that makes him an enemy of Elohim! Or do you think the Scripture speaks for no reason? Does the spirit that inhabits us yearn toward envy?... It is on account of this that it says [that] YHWH ‘opposes those who are proud, while He gives favor to the lowly.’” (James 4:4-6, quoting Proverbs 3:34) “…Clean up your hands, you who are in error, and purify your hearts, you double-minded ones! Feel miserable and mourn and wail! Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your cheerfulness to dejection! Be humbled in YHWH’s presence…”
But He does end on a more positive note: “and He will raise you up to honor.” (4:8-10) Bavel, which tried to make a name for itself, fell, but YHWH made a name for Avraham, whose priority was to honor YHWH’s name at any cost.
But in the next chapter he starts again: “Come on now, you who are rich! Mourn and wail over the calamities that are overtaking you…” (5:1ff)
Actually we are held to an even higher standard now that the power to obey has been multiplied to us through the Spirit of Holiness: “Anyone who disregarded Moshe’s law died with no pity upon [the word of] two or three witnesses; how much worse a penalty do you suppose will he be deemed deserving of who has spurningly trampled the Son of Elohim and considered the blood of the covenant by which he was set apart [to be] a profane thing, and has insulted the Spirit of Empowering Favor?” (Heb. 10:27-28)
But again, that is not the end of the story: "Yet even after all this, while they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I abhor them so as to utterly destroy them so far as to nullify My covenant with them, because I am [after all] YHWH their Elohim. For their sakes I will bring to remembrance the covenant of their ancestors whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations; I am YHWH." (Lev. 26:44-45)
This is strongly reiterated in its fulfillment, seen from the perspective of retrospect: “While we were still powerless, at the right time, the Messiah died on behalf of those who were irreverent [toward YHWH]. Indeed, hardly anyone is willing to die [even] for a righteous person… but YHWH demonstrates His love toward us by the fact that while we were still sinners, the Messiah died for us… If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to YHWH through the death of His Son, won't we all the more, now that we are reconciled, be kept safe because he is alive?” (Romans 5:6-10)
But the fact that He started drawing us back even before we turned and repented does not mean we are meant to stay in our unrepentant state! That’s not being reconciled! The salient question is, “How can we who died to sin continue to live in it?” (Romans 6:2) It’s just no longer who we are, just as we are no longer Gentiles when we heed our Shepherd’s voice, even if we are still in exile.
The final renewal of this covenant, which remains yet to be ratified—the final rescue from exile--comes when the new heaven and earth of which Yeshayahu spoke (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22) finally comes about:
“I, Yochanan, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from Elohim out of heaven, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of Elohim is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and YHWH himself shall be with them, and be their Elohim. And Elohim shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:2-4)
This time it will be permanent, for we will no longer be in the state where He will have to set conditions on these blessings, but can finally bring about the blessings He has always wanted to give to His people, but for which we were seldom ready and never stayed ready.
Chapter 27 is mostly about kinds of vows that are largely unfamiliar to us, probably because of the common understanding that Yeshua forbade making vows. (Matithyahu 5:34, as usually rendered.)
But if he really meant to say that, what was Paul doing fulfilling a vow several decades later (Acts 18:18), and why did the chief apostles (Yeshua’s closest followers, who certainly must have understood what he was driving at) tell Paul to pay the expenses of some men who needed offerings to end their vow in compliance with the Torah? (Acts 21:23ff)
The answer, pointed out by Nehemia Gordon, lies in the original Hebrew reading of Matithyahu 5:34: “I tell you not to swear falsely at all…” Somehow the Greek version left out the “falsely”, causing a lot of consternation, appearing to put him in opposition to the Torah, which he said he would never do (in the very same chapter).
The Torah never requires anyone to swear (Deut. 23:22), and the rest of Matithyahu 5 does make it sound unnecessary, because our word should be our promise anyway. So it is indeed probably better not to swear, but the point of what the Torah is saying is “If you are going to swear, keep in mind who YHWH is, and be absolutely sure to make good on what you vowed to do.”
We Can Have the Very Best or the Very Worst
The promises of YHWH are unbeatable: e.g.,"‘If you walk in My statutes, guard My commandments, and carry them out, I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield her produce, and the tree of the field shall give its fruit, and your threshing will last until the vintage, and the vintage… until the time for sowing, and you will eat your bread until you have enough, and dwell securely in your land.” (Lev.26:3-5) Any planter knows what a rare blessing it is to have all of these occur at the same time!
Amos picks up on this theme: “‘Indeed, the days are coming,’ declares YHWH, ‘when the plowman will overtake the harvester, and the treader of grapes [will overtake] the one who sows the seed.’” (9:13) I.e., you will never run out of food and will have leftovers to spare. All the more by which to help others!
But it only gets better: "What’s more, I will grant peace in the Land, and you will relax, and no one will make you tremble from fear. And I will rid the land of harmful beasts, and no sword will pass through your Land…And you will eat provisions that you have had stored up, then you will clear out the old in the face of the new.” (Lev. 26:6, 10) Could it get any better than this?
Yes! What beats any of those things is, “I will even set My dwelling place in your midst; My soul will not reject you. I will keep walking among you and be your Elohim, and you will be My people.” (26:11-12)
But then follows the opposite: consequences if we don’t obey. They are the dark side of the proof that YHWH’s word is true, for they have come to pass. Mark Twain’s testimony in the late 19th century—“not even a chicken could scratch out a living there”--was a vivid fulfillment of 26:32-33. Even verse 29 came to pass. In YHWH’s mercy, it appears that this horror only occurred once in Israel’s history. (2 Kings 6:28)
What may be the scariest is that it could get so bad that He would no longer accept our attempts to approach Him (Lev. 26:31)—for someone who would treat His other creations so coldly is not someone He can support. We who are capable of such things have no right to criticize YHWH for placing different values on people by age or sex (27:2-8) for His purposes—as if we knew better than their Creator did!
“If [after] these, you will still not listen to Me, I will punish you seven more for your sins.” (Lev. 26:18) This is the anchor for the calculus of why only recently did we who are living this predicted exile realize we were actually Israel after all. Taken together with Y’hezq’El/Ezekiel (4:4-5) where the prophet lay on one side for 390 days, one for each year YHWH would punish northern Israel, 7 times brings us to 2,730 years. Though mercy came back first (after only a doubling per Jeremiah 16), Hoshea's sentence of not being a people was not up until 1996 or 2008, depending if we start the count in 734 or 722 B.C.E.
But in this very passage lies the door of hope for us today. This dark judgment still leaves open the possibility that we can repent and find YHWH welcoming us back--after He settles the score. (26:40-45)
The Amos passage cited above is followed by, “I will bring back the captives of my people Israel, and they will rebuild and inhabit the cities [that were] made desolate, and they will plant vineyards and drink their wine. I will plant them on their own soil, and they will never again be uprooted from their territory, which I have given them.” (9:14-15) Amos’ book is written to both houses of Israel—a rarity among the prophets. It does not only apply to the Jews, who can already return, but to all of Israel—including us.
But it is not automatic. We have reached the end of our mandatory exile, but He actually repeats the threat of this “seven times” punishment three more times (also in v. 21, 24, 28).
Is this just for emphasis, or does it actually mean He will multiply our exile by 7 again and then again--and yet again? That comes out to nearly a million years!
I don’t want to find out. Let’s not give Him any reason to do so.
The Right Way to Define Freedom
Freedom is clearly YHWH’s goal in giving us His commandments. (26:13) Why, then, do so many chafe under it (26:14ff) as if He was trying to put a yoke on us instead of breaking our yokes? Why do so many call it bondage?
Admittedly, to sinful hearts that think getting their own way is the path to freedom, it appears harsh and repressive for sure, but they are measuring from the wrong starting-point. They do not go back far enough, possibly comparing it with the supposed “freedom from the law” that was invented by a misreading of Paul (See 2 Peter 3:16). This is one of the lies our ancestors inherited, per this portion’s haftarah. (Jer. 16:19) What Paul was in fact trying to combat was not the Torah itself but men’s additions to the Torah that they tried to claim were part of the actual Torah. That was the “yoke” that the apostles said “neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear.” (Acts 15:10) They weren’t talking about the Torah, for in the very next breath they referred the Gentiles to those who read the Torah publicly every week—so they would learn from Moshe, not from those who did the very thing he told them not to do—add to his words! (Deut. 12:32)
Yeshua’s clarifications of the standard (making it obvious that outward compliance alone was not acceptable—a teaching well-grounded in the Tanakh, even as early as the ninth commandment) may have led some to decide it was too hard.
Others, prior to that, were probably comparing it to the apparent liberty other (that is, pagan) forms of worship gave to the peoples around them (being quite without constraint sexually), not realizing the dissipation, social chaos, and disease such practices actually result in. Our modern world is finally reaping the consequences of adopting the same philosophy which is in realty not at all progressive, but very backward, taking us back to the conditions that result from having no guard rails—giddy, maybe, but most unsafe.
YHWH probably would not have even needed to directly “set His face against” the disobedient (26:17), since simply neglecting the safeguards that the Torah puts in place is enough to put one on a course for destruction. The absence of a standard like Torah gives (and the free-for-all that resulted) is what led mankind to the irreparable conditions that made the “reboot” of the human race necessary in Noakh’s day.
Careening toward a cliff with no brakes may feel exhilarating, but it is by no means freedom! In that situation, freedom means being able to stop. Torah was given to put major inhibitors on our natural tendency to choose the things that destroy us. When we see it from that perspective, comparing not to current ideas of what’s good, but to what we were all the way back in Eden (when we were really good), we can understand what Yeshua’s brother meant when he called it “the perfect law of liberty”. (James 1:25) It gets us out of a pit we’ve been stuck in so long that we saw it as normal.
Simply ending the hostility toward YHWH and His words is enough to turn the tide and put Him back on our side (26:40-44), if we can speak in such terms. Maybe a more accurate view would be to say that cooperating with Him is the key to “being on His good side”, as David, who committed some pretty serious sins and yet found not only forgiveness but the description “a man after [YHWH’s] own heart”, knew well. (1 Shmuel 13:14)
Does that mean we can skip Messiah’s cross and be back on good footing simply by repenting, as some would claim?
That is a short-sighted view of how deep our sinfulness actually runs, and an ungrateful stance toward the tragic lengths to which YHWH went in order to be both just and merciful, neither of which humanity can do without. Anyone who “knows the plague of his own heart” (1 Kings 8:38) and how deceitful it is (Jeremiah 17:9) is aware that he is incapable of changing his tendencies on only his own power, let alone repaying the deep debts to YHWH that his heart has incurred, since not only actions but thoughts and intents count as sin too. There’s only one way amnesty can be just, and to refuse His own solution—the means He Himself provided—to opt to go it on our own is not wisdom, but “turning away from YHWH and making flesh one’s arm” as the haftarah puts it (Jer. 17:5-8); it’s “forsaking the source of living waters” (Jer. 17:13) and still trying to grow a tree. The solution is to ask Him to heal us and save us (17:14), not try to save ourselves.
That is also why it’s premature to give up and throw in the towel upon finding out that YHWH requires not just right actions but a right heart—because along with such a tightening of the definition of what constitutes sin, Yeshua brought a new level of provision that far supersedes the increase in difficulty. So use what He’s given and be free indeed!
What Lies
Did We Inherit?
The haftarah begins with a passage often quoted in the Hebrew Roots movement: “O YHWH,… to You, Gentiles will come from the ends of the earth and say, “Truly our ancestors have inherited falsehood—a vapor, in which there is no benefit!” (Jer. 16:19) But while we (whom 1 Cor. 12:2 calls “former Gentiles” because we were only so because our ancestors chose to become Gentiles, per Hosea 7:8) have thought of many ways this confession can be applied, the context (v. 20) is specifically speaking about the lies associated with idolatry—promises that are never delivered on.
But what’s the next thing Jeremiah talks about? Not any further faults of these Gentiles, for they have repented. No, he addresses “the sin of Judah” and how indelible it has become. He holds His people to the same standard and puts the same question (“Can a man make gods for himself?”) to the only tribe left of what was supposed to be the holy nation, because they are now committing the same sin. (16:20) They have inherited a lie too—that they are inherently better than those who do not have Torah, whether they obey it or not. They boast of being circumcised, but YHWH speaks to Israel in the same language Jeremiah used of these Gentiles: “If they admit their crookedness and the guilt of their ancestors… if their uncircumcised heart is brought into subjection, … I will remember My covenant with Yaaqov, and … also bring the Land to remembrance.” (26:40-42) Having to remember it assumes a gap in the covenant, resulting in exile.
By Jeremiah’s time, the Northern Kingdom (which kept the name Israel) was already exiled. Jason Staples of N. Carolina State University notes that “Judah’s subsequent disobedience had paradoxically guaranteed Israel’s restoration, since Judah made Israel look good by comparison. (Jer. 3:11-12)”* The uncomfortable fact was that now even Judah was on the same footing as Gentiles who never had the Torah (Romans 1-2), but YHWH said, “even after all this, while they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them… so far as to nullify My covenant with them.” (Lev. 26:44) His remedy for the broken covenant is a renewal that Jeremiah went on to describe, and Paul said this opened the door for Gentiles to also be included in the Covenant Jeremiah (31:31) had only revealed was for Judah and Israel. Dr. Staples explains:
“If, as the prophets declared, Israel has become indistinct from the nations due to sin, do not the nations now have an opportunity to partake in Israel’s transformation and deliverance from that condition? ‘Everyone who calls on the name of YHWH will be saved’ (Joel 2:32), and everyone means everyone.” If they accept His solution, even those who were full-blooded Gentiles are said to have only been Gentiles, strangers to the covenant, “in the past”. (Eph. 2:11)
Another lie we inherited later, which a careful reading of Paul should have precluded, was that the (now largely-Gentile) Church replaced the Jews as YHWH’s chosen people. A more careful reading shows it is extremely arrogant to say that, since “the gifts and calling of YHWH are irrevocable”. (Romans 11:18-29) It is more accurate to read Scripture as saying if they, too, obey YHWH, Gentiles can also, in this Renewed Covenant, be grafted into the restored congregation of Israel, who, after being broken off, are reconnected to their own original root when they too repent.
One more lie, which contradicts Yeshua himself (Mat. 5:17), is that, because “the command reveals our sin but cannot remove it”, the Torah is therefore repealed or annulled in the Renewal of Covenant. But while this Covenant does have one outstanding difference from the original, Dr. Staples says,
“The problem is not with the command but with the inclination of the people… Sin had not been removed from the heart of Israel when the Torah was given… God will…fix the problem that had led to the broken covenant and its consequences, [not by removing obedience from the equation, but by] changing the inclination of His people and enabling them to obey… Jeremiah [31:33] declares that YHWH Himself will write His Torah on the hearts of Israel such that Torah becomes an intrinsic part of Israelites…, resulting in natural obedience... Other early Jewish evidence… associates the reception of the spirit with the new covenant… In the prophets, the promise of the spirit is all about Israel being empowered to obey… Israel’s restoration will be accompanied by [its] transformation into a just people… Paul therefore does not present his gospel as ‘law-free’ but rather as ‘law-implanted’ as the only way to accomplish full, faithful obedience…, reversing the cause of Israel’s current plight… He does not argue that his opponents’ Torah-keeping is the problem, but rather that they do not in fact keep the Torah adequately, declaring that faithful obedience to YHWH requires the new heart [Ezek. 36:26] and the indwelling sacred spirit granted to the followers of the resurrected Messiah.”
Because of this “amendment” to the covenant, which changes none of its core but rather changes its adherents, those “great and precious promises” seen at the beginning of our Torah portion (of His making His permanent home with us and those who join us) can finally come to fulfillment and the threats be averted this time around. This we can inherit, and it is no lie.
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*Jason Staples, Paul and the Resurrection of Israel (Cambridge U. Press, 2024). Dr. Staples represents an increasing trend of scholars who recognize Paul was addressing the return of Ephraim when using the term “Israel” in contrast to “Jews”, especially in Romans, as Paul’s contemporaries all still did.
