The Ratification of the Sinai Covenant
24: 1-18

In the sense of direct revelation, this was a high point for the people of Isra’el. In the 1,500 years of their subsequent history it has never been matched. Yet, in the midst of the forty days and forty nights, they managed to rebel and build themselves a golden calf. However, the experience that was available to them only through their leaders, is now directly available to you and I forever. That is what the Tabernacle is all about, the word became flesh and lived for a while, or tabernacled, among us (John 1:14).

The actual ritual that finalized the covenant between God and Isra’el is highlighted by the literary structure in verses 1 through 11, where the first letter is parallel to the second letter, and so on, with the letter D being the turning point.

A Moses and the elders instructed to ascend and worship (verses 1-2)

B Everything God has said we will do (verse 3)

C Moses wrote down everything God had said (verse 4a)

D Sacrifices and blood ceremony (verses 4b-6)

C The words of the Book of the Covenant read by Moses (verse 7a)

B We will do everything God has said; we will obey (verses 7b-8)

A Moses and the elders ascend and worship (verses 9-11)⁴⁵⁶

I Am Sending an Angel Ahead of You
to Bring You to the Place I Have Prepared
23: 20-33

I am sending an angel ahead of you to bring you to the place I have prepared DIG: Why does the Holy Spirit emphasize these four themes? What is God preparing the children of Isra’el for?

REFLECT: In what ways do people sacrifice their children to the god of this world today? What, if any, agreements have you made with the world that you regret?

At the conclusion of the Book of the Covenant, God makes a covenant promise that He will bring the Hebrews to the Promised Land. He will accomplish this by sending His Angel before Isra’el to lead the people. There, He would destroy the pagan peoples. Isra’el would be the instrument of that annihilation. And, afterwards, God would richly bless Isra’el as long as they stayed away from the idols of Canaan.448 In anticipation of their eventual conquest of Canaan, certain regulations were established concerning their travel and their confrontation with the enemies that lived there. Four basic ideas emerge.⁴⁴⁹

First, God stressed the need for obedience.⁴⁵⁰ See, I am sending an Angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. This Angel must be obeyed. Pay attention to Him and listen to what He says. Do not rebel against Him because He will not forgive your rebellion, since My Name is in Him (23:22-21). Whatever He does, He does in My name. Only God can forgive sin, and because He is part of the Godhead, God’s name is in Him. This can only be Jesus Christ, or the Angel of the Lord, who appeared to Moses at the burning bush (3:1-6). Whenever the phrase: the Angel of the Lord is seen in the TaNaKh, it is always the Second Person of the Trinity or Yeshua Messiah. It is never a common, ordinary, run of the mill angel.

There would be a reward for following this Angel. If you listen carefully to what He says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you (23:22). My Angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out (23:23). The children of Isra’el were not to make any converts with the inhabitants of the Land nor with their gods. Joshua made the mistake of making a covenant with the Gibeonites. He did not do enough investigating. Of course, the reason the nation of Isra’el finally went into the Babylonian captivity was because they ended up practicing idolatry by serving other gods (see my commentary on Jeremiah, to see link click Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule). They did not heed God’s warning.⁴⁵¹

The second important theme of this section deals with the worship of the true God. The religions of the ancient Near East were idolatrous. Their gods were made out of wood and stone. They worshiped on the high places, or sacred sites with their sacred standing stones, or altars of sacrifice. How then would the Israelites worship the true God? They would have to demolish all the Canaanite gods and be completely separate from them. Ha’Shem said: Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces (23:24).

If the Israelites served only the Lord there would be five rewards for obedience. Worship ADONAI your God, and His blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you (23:25). A play on words occurs in this verse between food, the Hebrew word lehem, and sickness, the Hebrew word mahalah. The two are antithetical, and as opposites they demonstrate that God will take care of all things for the Israelites. For an expanded list of the blessings they were promised if they displayed obedience to God, see Deuteronomy 7:12-16. And none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span (23:26). Much of the religious ritual of the pagans was an effort to appease the gods so that they would ensure fertility for man and all that he owned. Acts such as temple prostitution and child sacrifice served to manipulate the gods so that productivity would result. The Israelites were not to participate in spiritual adultery. It is God and God alone who provides the fertility for humans, animals and fields. This teaching is reinforced in Deuteronomy 7:14.

If Isra’el would follow ADONAI to drive out the Canaanites, they were told that their obedience of Torah would lead to an ideal utopian world. As yet, this promise goes untested. There has never been a generation which might have merited it. Nevertheless, we see here the expression of the ideal Kingdom. When Messiah comes, the blessings of the Torah will be fully realized upon the righteous, just as the curses will be realized upon the wicked. Thus, the work of Messiah is the promise of Torah. During the Messianic Kingdom we will see the removal of the last elements of the Canaanites which corrupted the people of  God. As will all the commandments, these mitzvot are more than just antique legislation, they are the distilled essence of God. The warning about not being yoked with unbelievers (see the commentary on Second Corinthians Bi – Do Not be Unequally Yoked with Unbelievers) teaches us about the singularity of our covenant with God. It is a monogamous relationship.⁴⁵²

The third theme centers on the provisions that God would make for their victory while fighting in the land of Canaan. God also promised to give the Israelites the Land gradually. Their enemies, terrorized by God, would be confused and would retreat. God said: I will send My terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. That is exactly what happened to the Egyptian army as they attempted to cross the Red Sea (14:24-25). I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. Like running to escape the sting of a hornet, they would flee in fear and panic. I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. The hornet probably symbolized Egypt’s military strength (compare the symbolic use of flies and bees in Isaiah 7:18).⁴⁵³ This would be done gradually. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land (23:27-30). As the Canaanites would decrease, the Jews would increase until they inhabited all of the Promised Land (Judges 1:17-36).

I will establish your borders from the Red Sea in the south to the Sea of the Philistines in the west, and from the desert in the east to the Euphrates River in the north (23:31a). This territory was occupied during the time of Solomon (First Kings 4:21), though much of it was not fully under their control.⁴⁵⁴ This Land will not be totally occupied and under their control until the Messianic Kingdom. God said, however, I will hand over to you the people who live in the land, yet it is your responsibility to drive them out before you (23:31b).

The fourth theme of the epilogue focuses on the warning that no covenant should be made with the peoples of Canaan or their gods. The presence of these enemies in the Land was a constant threat spiritually. Therefore, He said: Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods like Moloch, whom the Canaanites sacrificed their first born child (23:32). Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against Me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you (23:33). Prohibitions against intermixing with the pagan peoples is a common theme in the Torah (Exodus 34:12-16; Deuteronomy 7:1-5). For what necessarily happened in such cases is that the people of God stumbled. This was a trap, or a snare, which they were to watch carefully and from which they needed to flee (Deuteronomy 7:16; Joshua 9:3-15, 23:13; Judges 2:3). The prohibition regarding idol-worshippers settling in the Land teaches us about the sanctity of the Land of Isra’el. It speaks to the very meaning of holiness. Isra’el is the Holy Land because it is set apart by the Holy God.

This final section of the Book of the Covenant came with the promise that ADONAI was guiding and leading His people to a place that He had prepared for them. No matter how difficult the way, no matter how many obstacles the people faced, God was still in control. He was the One in charge, directing His people to the Land of promise.⁴⁵⁵

A Holy People
23: 18-19

A holy people DIG: What two national festivals were these mitzvoth applied to? What was the purpose of these mitzvoth? What was the central point of these four mitzvot? 

REFLECT: What have you sacrificed to God this week? How has it drawn you closer to the Lord and made you more holy? Who are the Canaanites where you live and what should you avoid?

As a holy people, the Israelites were set apart from all the other nations because the holy presence of ADONAI was with them, and they received God’s holy Torah.

These sacrificial practices also applied to two of the three three national festivals. Therefore, yeast needed to be removed from their houses during the festival periods. We see in this mitzvah elements of mercy, repulsion at reversing the natural laws of nurture and compassion, and a separation between a life (mother’s milk) and death (meat). All of these are revelations of holiness.

Each of these mitzvot have to do with a religious festival. The first two have to do with the eight-day celebration of Pesach and Hag ha’Matzah, and the second two have to do with Shavu’ot. All four of these actions could be offensive to ADONAI: offering a sacrifice containing yeast (the symbol for sin in the TaNaKh) would be offensive; saving festival offering until the next morning would be offensive; not bringing the best of their firstfruits would be offensive; and not cooking a young goat in its mother’s milk would be hyperbole (presenting the mitzvot in its most extreme for to drive home the point), not recognizing the bond between a mother and her offspring (in the spring during calfing season) would be offensive. So this wasn’t merely a “because I said so” mitzvot, but it helps us slow down and realize that these are not just technical mitzvot, but stand for a value. That we should get to the point where we think we can provide for ourselves, but that ADONAI is the source of all of our food. Therefore, these four mitzvot would pont to the Israelites being a holy people (see the commentary on Deuteronomy Cw – A Holy People).

The substitutional sacrifice of animals was to be done in four specific ways. First, God, said: Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to Me along with anything containing yeast. Because yeast was a symbol of sin in the Scriptures. Secondly, He said: The fat of My festival offerings must not be kept until morning. It needed to be either eaten or destroyed. That commandment had been specifically related to the Passover, but then it became foundational to the agricultural calendar of Isra’el. Thirdly, He said: Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of ADONAI your God. This was so important that both holy names were used. Lastly, God said: Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk. What do these three mitzvot have to do with each other?

The particular prohibition of not cooking a young goat in its mother’s milk would be repeated three times in the Torah (Exodus 23:19b, 34:26, Deuteronomy 14:21). An additional reason for the prohibition was that the Canaanites, after boiling the young goat they would take the milk and sprinkle all the trees, fields, gardens, and orchards around for the purpose of making them more fruitful the following year. Then they would eat the young goat.⁴⁴⁷ Therefore, because it was an act of idolatry, God forbid it. On that note, the commandments of the Book of the Covenant come to an end.

An orthodox Jewish home always has two sets of dishes, pots, and pans. One set is used exclusively for meat and the other for dairy products. If one accidentally uses a meat dish and puts cheese on it, that dish is defiled and has to be destroyed.

Three Times a Year
You Are to Celebrate a Festival to Me
23: 14-17

Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to Me DIG: How are these three festivals like and unlike each other? What do they celebrate? Why does God forbid sacrifice with yeast? How far into the future will the festival of Sukkot be celebrated?

REFLECT: What can you do to celebrate God’s goodness in your life?

Having twelve tribes as the foundation of the nation created great concern when it came to the matter of national unity and identity. The one thing that provided the cohesion necessary for national unity was Isra’el’s God and her religion. The preservation of Isra’el’s national, spiritual, and social unity was provided for by three major festivals, which formed the core of Isra’el’s religious calendar (also see Leviticus 23).⁴⁴¹ Yet it is important to observe, that this section is closely tied to the Sabbath commands of verses 23:10-12. The foundation of each of the three festivals was the seven-day week, which climaxed on the Sabbath (Deuteronomy 16:3-4, 9, 13-15). Therefore, Sabbath was at the heart of Isra’el’s religious celebrations.⁴⁴²

Three times a year every able-bodied male Jew, who was at least twenty years old, was required to celebrate a festival to ADONAI, wherever the Tabernacle or Temple happened to be located (see the commentary on Leviticus Dw – God’s Appointed Times). First, it was Shiloh and then it was Jerusalem. These feasts are also mentioned in Numbers 9:1-14, 28:16-25, Deuteronomy 16:1-8.

The first feast was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which came in the early spring at the beginning of the barley harvest in the month of Abib (Nisan). It was an eight day feast which included the feast of the Passover for one day and for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I command you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. No one is to appear before Me empty handed, but to come with the Passover lamb sacrifice (23:15). The phrase, before Me, literally means before My face. Therefore, the offerings needed to be brought to the Tabernacle/Temple. This feast had many spiritual lessons to teach the children of Isra’el. Foremost was the fact that God constantly wanted sin to be put away from their midst. It implied complete separation from that which was evil. Yeast is, of course, always a symbol of sin and error in Scripture (Matthew 16:6, 11-12; First Corinthians 5:6, 8).⁴⁴³

The second feast to be commemorated was known as the Feast of Harvest, with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field (23:16a). The Greek speaking believers called it the Feast of Pentecost, because it was to be celebrated fifty days after the Sabbath of Passover (Leviticus 23:15-16). It was also held exactly seven weeks after the sickle had first been put to the grain. Therefore, it was also called the Feast of Weeks or Shauv’ot in Numbers 28:26. This feast was always a joyous occasion (Deuteronomy 16:9-11), because it was an expression of gratitude for all that God had provided for them (see my commentary on Acts Al – The Ruach ha-Kodesh Comes at Shavu’ot).

The third feast was the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the agricultural year, when you gather in your crops from the field (23:16b). This feast was also known as the Feast of Booths or Sukkot, because the people were commanded to make small booths to live in during the festival (Leviticus 23:34 and 39, Numbers 29:12-34, Deuteronomy 16:13-15). This feast will also be observed during the Millennial Kingdom. All the Gentile nations that will populate the Kingdom will be required to send a delegation to Jerusalem in order to worship the King at the time of the Feast of Sukkot. At that time, the Gentiles will pay their obligatory tribute to the King (Isaiah 60:11). Although the Gentile observation of the feast will be mandatory, not every nation will necessarily be willing to obey. Therefore, if any nation fails to send a delegation, rain will be withheld from it for that next year (Zechariah 14:16-19).⁴⁴⁴

Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Lord, ADONAI (23:17). These were constant reminders to Isra’el of God’s provisions for His people.⁴⁴⁵ Some early manuscripts substitute the word ark for Lord in this verse. The Hebrew word for Lord is haadon, and the word for ark is haaron. The reason for this change is apparently that the translators understood that the three festivals were to be held in the presence of the ark of the covenant of the Lord. However, because the name the Lord, the God of Isra’el is a common name in the TaNaKh (Exodus 34:23; Isaiah 3:1 and 10:33), no such change was necessary.⁴⁴⁶ The men were specifically mentioned because they were the heads of the households, but it is obvious that the women and the children also participated in these festivals (Deuteronomy 16:11-14).

Be Careful to Do Everything I Have Said to You
23: 13

This verse is the climax of the Book of the Covenant. Be careful to do everything I have said to you on Mount Sinai. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips. The rabbis taught that the sin of idolatry violated all the commandments of the Torah. They taught that it was sinful to even form partnerships with idolaters for fear that they would swear by His name, and the Israelite be held responsible for what the idolater said. The Book of the Covenant started out with this command: Do not make any gods to be alongside Me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold (20:23), now it returns to it. Monotheism was the first commandment, and it marked the beginning and the end of the Book of the Covenant. Therefore, it bound it together. It is the main doctrine of Jewish theology in the Torah both during the days of Moses and today.

Six Days Do Your Work,
But on the Seventh Day Do Not Work
23: 12

Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do no work REFLECT: What are the benefits of observing the Sabbath principle in your life? Are there parts of God’s word that you are choosing to ignore? How are you doing in the human rat race? Are you in need of Sabbath rest?

Whereas the land was granted a rest every seven years, the people and beasts of burden were given a rest every seven days. Although the length of time was different, the Sabbath principle was the same. God said: Six days do your work, but on the seventh day you shall stop, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed. Also, the two groups who would benefit from the Sabbath principle, the needy and the animals, found parallels in the ox and the donkey, on the one hand, and the slave and the alien, on the other.

The verb for stop is the Hebrew word shabat, from which we get the word Sabbath. We get the concept of stopping normal, everyday work. Man and beast alike will be refreshed on the Sabbath. In 31:17 we are told that YHVH Himself was refreshed on the seventh day of creation as a result of His resting. Therefore, God’s work and rest serve as an example for our work and rest each week.

ADONAI reviewed this commandment with Isra’el when they entered the Promised Land. The subjects of the Sabbath Day, Sabbatical Year, and the Year of Jubilee are all dealt with in the book of Leviticus. The Sabbath Day was a day of rest every seven days. It is a joyous holiday, a day of spiritual refreshment, and reverent worship. It is a day for mankind to imitate his or her Creator, to be devoted to contemplation. Those who delight in the Lord in this way are promised that they would ride on the heights of the Land and to feast on the inheritance of their father Jacob (Isaiah 58:13-14).⁴⁴⁰

The scope of the Sabbath observance for the Jew is made know to us in the Torah through what is know as the Zakhor (the call to remember), and the Shamor (the call to observe). In the Zakhor, Isra’el is commanded by God not to forget that they were slaves in Egypt, and that God with a mighty hand and outstretched arm brought them out of slavery to observe the Sabbath day (Deuteronomy 5:15). They are to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy (20:8), and in that keeping, Isra’el is commanded by God to keep all of His Sabbath’s for generations to come as a sign that He is the One who makes them holy (31:13). With the Zakhor, Isra’el is commanded to follow the Shamor by observing the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as ADONAI your God has commanded you (Deuteronomy 5:12).

Through His infinite wisdom, God commanded the children of Isra’el to recharge themselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually. He modeled this principle when He created the universe; thus, the Sabbath day is the antidote for the human rat race.

During the Seventh Year
Let the Land Lie Unplowed and Unused
23: 10-11

This section concerning the Sabbatical year is introduced at this point to teach the lesson of kindness to the poor and to wildlife. For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused (23:10-11a). This was an extension of the Fourth Commandment (20:8-11). One aspect of the Sabbath was that the Israelites were to let their land lay fallow once every seven years. This was to remind Isra’el that the land was God’s, and they were merely His tenants. Further details were given in Leviticus 25:1-7, 18-23. There were two reasons given for the land being given a Sabbath. First, it was humanitarian. The needy or those who had no inheritance would have something to eat. Then the poor among your people may get food from it. They probably rotated the land that was left fallow so that the needy would be able to gather food every year, not merely every seventh year. Secondly, the commandment also benefited wildlife, so the wild animals would have something to eat. And the wild animals may eat what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove (23:11b). From this mitzvah we learn principles of relying upon God in the same way that ceasing from work on the Sabbath teaches us to rely on Him rather than on our own efforts. More than that, we learn here that the produce of the Sabbatical year is to be left for the poor and wild animals. God is the God of both humanitarian and environmental concerns.

Once the Israelites were in Canaan, they would ignore the Sabbath rest for the land for 490 years; therefore, God would send them into captivity for 70 years in Babylon (see the commentary on Jeremiah Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule). One year of captivity for each Sabbath rest Isra’el had ignored.

The Festivals of Isra’el
23: 10-17

The festivals of Isra’el REFLECT: What would happen if you followed these commands? How would this be good or bad for you? How does this help you see the reason for these commandments? What will you do today to get the spiritual refreshment God wants from you?

The final section of the Book of the Covenant lays down the religious festivals to be observed in ancient Isra’el. This is the oldest sacred calendar in the Bible. The foundational unit of the calendar is the weekly Sabbath observance. Tied to and built upon the Sabbath are the three national pilgrim festivals that Isra’el was required to celebrate yearly.⁴³⁹

Do Not Allow a Sorceress to Live
22:16 to 23:9

Do not allow a sorceress to live DIG: How do these laws relate to the Ten Commandments? To the sovereignty of God? To where you live? How are the Israelites different, or holy, compared to the pagans around them? On what basis is God entitled to the firstborn (see 12:24-30; 13:1-2 and 14-16)? How are justice and mercy related here?

REFECT: Even though you live in a sinful world, how can you seek to live a more holy life this week? How do justice and mercy compare to the typical way you “do business” or “live and let live?” How can you show justice and mercy to fellow workers, students, customers, family, or strangers because of what God has done for you?

This is a very long section that has one common theme, evil practices or crimes against humanity. Social justice was as important to God in the TaNaKh as it is today. All these commandments were part of the 613 mitzvot in the Torah.

The seducer (22:16-17): This first group of commandments are an extension of the seventh commandment: You shall not commit adultery (20:14). After the cases of stealing property, Scripture proceeds to deal with stealing from the heart. Unmarried and unbethrothed daughters in Israel were considered part of their father’s property; consequently the loss of a daughter’s virginity diminished her value and therefore compensation was due to the father.⁴²⁷ If a man seduced a virgin who was not pledged to be married and slept with her, he had to pay the bride-price, and marry her. The bride-price was a gift, often substantial (Deuteronomy 22:28-29), given by a prospective groom to the bride’s family as payment for her (see Genesis 24:53), a custom still followed in the Near East.⁴²⁸ By the time of Jacob, the custom was that the bride price was supposed to be held in trust in the event it was needed to provide for the wife if she were abandoned or widowed (see my commentary on Genesis, to see link click Hq – Jacob Flees from Laban). If her father was so angry that he absolutely refused to give her to him, he still had to pay the bride-price for virgins (22:16-17). The specific amount of the payment is not stated. But in a parallel passage in Deuteronomy 22:29, it was set at fifty shekels of silver. The demand for sexual purity and the demand to accord a woman with the dignity of marriage are both revelations of God’s nature. They grant us insights into His character and remind us how His ways are higher than the ways of mankind.

According to the Torah, if two people had sexual relations prior to betrothal, they were required to get married. The seriousness and severity by which the Torah regards the act of pre-marital intercourse ought to give us pause in the community of believers today. We live in an age where sex before marriage is not only commonplace, but appears to be the norm. God is not pleased with such activity. He is not honored by it. The message of abstinence must be proclaimed to a world that has believed the lie of Satan.⁴²⁹

Sorcery (22:18): A sorceress was not allowed to live (22:18). God was very serious about idolatry (see Deuteronomy 18:10, 14; First Samuel 28:9; Isaiah 47:12-14) and witchcraft. According to the belief system in the ancient Near East, all true power in the world was magic. The god who displayed the greatest magical feats was considered the most powerful. Ancient people also used magic to manipulate the gods to their own advantage. Of course, the Israelites were greatly exposed to such practices in Egypt. In fact, the term for sorcerers is used in 7:11 of the magicians of Egypt who contended with Moses and Aaron. Magic was said to be evil by Hebrew law, because it attempted to triumph over God’s will who is supreme over all the earth.

Bestiality (22:19): Anyone who had sexual relations with an animal was put to death (22:19). Bestiality (also see Leviticus 18:23, 20:15-16; Deuteronomy 27:21), although forbidden among the children of Isra’el, was common in both Ba’al and Canaanite worship. The practice seemed to be accepted in countries around the Eastern Mediterranean sea-coast. Hittite law was the only code in the area that discouraged against it. But even they did not condemn it in every case. Their laws said that people were exempt from punishment if they had sex with a horse or a mule! God’s word, on the other hand, allows no exceptions, because bestiality is simply an abomination (Leviticus 18:23, 20:15-16).

Idol worship (22:20): Whoever sacrificed to any god other than ADONAI was destroyed, because at that point he or she became cherem, or devoted to destruction (22:20). There are several examples of this kind of judgment in the TaNaKh (Numbers 31:15-17; Deuteronomy 7:2, 26:16-17; Joshua 10:11 and 11:12; Judges 21:11; First Samuel 15:3 and 27:9-11; Jeremiah 25:9). Probably the best-known example is that of Achan. The entire city of Jericho was declared cherem, or devoted to destruction by God Himself. That meant everything in Jericho wasn’t to be touched. But when Achan kept a beautiful robe, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, the Israelites were unexpectedly defeated in their next battle of Ai because of his disobedience. Because Achan had touched that which was cherem, he became devoted to destruction. As a result, Joshua, together with all Isra’el, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the gold wedge, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor and stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them (Joshua 6:18 to 7:28). The same fate waited anyone who sacrificed to foreign gods.

The fundamental principles laid down in the Ten Commandments, which are reflected in the Book of the Covenant, still apply to us today. They are our blueprint for living. That is, idolatry is wrong and an evil activity. We are not to participate in it.⁴³⁰

Aliens in Egypt (22:21 and 23:9): Next, God protected the underprivileged and the needs of people low on the social scale are discussed (22:21-27). Grain was to be left behind for widows and orphans during the harvest (Deuteronomy 24:19-21), including the edges of fields (Leviticus 19:9-10). They were to be given special hospitality at feasts (Deuteronomy 16:11-14), they received a special tithe every third year (Deuteronomy 14:28-29; 16:12-13), and they were to be allowed to plant crops in others’ fields during the sabbatical year (23:11-12). Therefore, God said: Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt (22:21 and 23:9).

We should understand the commandment in its simplest form – we are not to be unkind to aliens, nor are we to take advantage of them. Whether they are alien to us ethnically, nationally, regionally or religiously is not the issue. By treating them well, we emulate ADONAI. The Master Himself taught us to become children of our Father in heaven by treating aliens with kindness (Matthew 5:45-47). However, this should not be misunderstood as a mandate to allow any and every alien full fellowship within our communities. In a society full of criminals, we do well to be on our guard. In practical measures, the alien who desires fellowship within a community of Torah should abide by the halachah of the community. His unwillingness to do so puts him in a place somewhat outside of the community, if not physically, then, most assuredly, practically.

Widows and orphans (22:22-24): Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan.  This is a revelation of God’s character.  Whereas the human tendency is to take advantage of the weak and the underpriviledged, disregarding the helpless, God is the Father of orphans and the Husband of widows. If you do and they cry out to Me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children orphans (22:22-24). The punishment was measure for measure. ADONAI is their defender and He demands that we take up their cause. So much more than a dry collection of legal material, Torah is the very revelation of God’s character!

Lending money to brothers and sisters (22:25-27): A Jew could not lend money to another Jew with interest. They could lend money to Gentiles and gain interest, but not Jews (Leviticus 25:35-37; Deuteronomy 15:7-11, 23:19; Nehemiah 5:7-12; Job 24:9; Proverbs 28:8; Ezekiel 18:13 and 22:12). Generosity in such matter was extended even further by Yeshua (Luke 6:34-35). If you lend money to one of My people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender and charge him interest, even if one is lending at a lower rate than the standard interest rate, this is a transgression of Torah. In addition, If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, return it to him by sunset, because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? When he cries out to Me, I will hear, for I am compassionate (22:25-27). We learn from these mitzvot that ADONAI is generous and His hand is open. He cares for the downtrodden and destitute. Once again, the mitzvot of lending are revelations of His character.

Some churches often tend to be hesitant in dealing with the needy with whom they come in contact. Part of this certainly stems from a desire not be characterized as a “social-gospel” group of believers, that is, mainly interested in social causes. Many churches consequently bend over backwards to make certain their theology is right, and that they are diligently proclaiming the gospel. That is good, but it should not be at the expense of helping the indigent and needy. Good theology and social activism are not mutually exclusive, but should work together. A proper understanding of the gospel is that it has social ramifications. Israelites during the Dispensation of Torah had no choice. They were commanded by God to care for the alien, the widow, and the orphan. We must do the same.⁴³¹

Next, ADOANI deals with commandments concerning those higher on the social scale (22:28-31). They deal with an expansion of the Third Commandment: You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God (20:7). The basic theme is not using God’s name thoughtlessly or lightly.

The ruler of your people (22:28): Throughout this parashah (see the commentary on Deuteronomy Af – Parashah), the word Elohim carries a double connotation of “God” and “judges.” That ambiguity is certainly present in this verse where we are warned: Do not blaspheme God or treat the ruler of your people with contempt (22:28). The word blaspheme means to take lightly. The emphasis here is not to treat God in a light-hearted way. Two examples of people doing this are found in Leviticus 24:10-13 and First Kings 21:1-16. The word curse means to despise another. 

As the Torah court wields God’s Torah and dispenses His justice on earth, judges on that court are regarded as God’s agents on earth. Even when that ruler is worthy of being cursed, he is not to be reviled or cursed. Thus, Paul repented of having spoken in judgment against the high priest as soon as he realized who he was (see the commentary on Acts Cr – Paul’s Witness before the Great Sanhedrin). In fact, Paul even quoted this passage of Exodus in his apology: I didn’t know, brothers, that he was the cohen hagadol; for it says in the Torah, “You are not to speak disparagingly of a ruler of your people” (Acts 23:5).

We learn from this that ADONAI invests His authority into the authorities placed over us. To despise the religious leaders that Ha’Shem has placed over us is, in some measure, an affront to YHVH. Hence the rabbinical blessing is as follows, “Blessed are You ADONAI our God, King of the Universe, who has appointed of His knowledge to those who fear Him.” The blessing for seeing a king is as follows, “Blessed are You ADONAI our God, King of the Universe, who has given of His glory to flesh and blood.”

Hastening to keep a mitzvah (22:29-30): The Israelites were reminded that their best belonged to ADONAI. Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats (22:29a). Literally this verse says: Do not hold back from your fullness and your dripping. This probably meant the firstfruits of the field and of the vine. The message was clear. Don’t hold back, give the best that you have to the LORD. The same held true for the firstborn of Israel’s sons. You must give Me the firstborn of yours sons. We have already seen in 13:1-16 that the firstborn belonged to God, which meant that they must be sacrificed (of course that meant that they were to be redeemed, or substituted, with a lamb). Do the same with your cattle and your sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days, but give them to Me on the eighth day (22:29b-30). There is a clear parallel here with circumcision on the eighth day (Gen 17:12), another type of dedication to God. This time likely represents a period of completeness after which the subject is adequately prepared to be given to God.

This commandment is a revelation of godliness as well. When there is good to do , we should not delay to do it. When we have a choice of fulfilling a mitzvah today or fulfilling a mitzvah tomorrow, we should always choose the most immediate path, for no one knows what a day brings. In the same way, this reveals to us that God hastens to do good for us! Though from our perspective it may seem that He waits and salvation is long in coming, in reality, He is not slow to answer prayer, but He does so immediately according to the best good that can be give to us.⁴³²

Torn meat (22:31): Animals killed by carnivorous beasts were not to be eaten by Isra’el, because eating meat torn by wild beasts made them unclean (Leviticus 17:15 and 22:8). You are to be My holy people. One of the signs of being a people who have been set apart was obeying strict dietary commandment. So do not eat the meat of an animal torn (Hebrew: traif) by wild beasts. Meat that is torn or died on its own is regarded as non-kosher and unclean, even if the animal itself is a clean animal. Throw it to the dogs (22:31, also see Leviticus 7:24). This mitzvah is also a revelation of the character of God. He states that we are not to eat the meat of a torn animal because we are to be “People of holiness.” According to human logic, the difference between eating a hamburger made from a cow that slaughtered and bled has nothing to do with holiness. But God’s ways are higher than ours, which is why we need revelation in the first place. According to ADONAI, it is a matter of holiness, an issue of separation.⁴³³

Not only does this section expound the Third Commandment, but it also reflects the teaching of the Fifth Commandment. It demands of us that we honor those in authority over us, whether it is God or man. It forbids us to despise them. When Paul stood before the Sanhedrin, he was seen rebuking one of the priests. After he was told that the priest was the high priest, Paul backs off by saying: Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written, “Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people” (Acts 23:4-5).⁴³⁴ We also need to honor those in authority over us (Romans 13:1-7).

Legal justice (23:1-8): The final cycle of mitzvot pertaining to social responsibility focused on matters of legal justice. Just as we have learned that the judicial mitzvot reflect directly upon ADONAI, His character and His person, so too injustice perpetrated by a Torah court is a direct blasphemy of YHVH Himself. Thus, Torah brings serious admonitions to the judicial process, demanding care when hearing witnesses give testimony, caution against being swayed by majority sentiment, warning against leniency toward a person because they are poor or underprivileged, warning against perversion of justice, warning against executing the innocent and the righteous, warning against accepting bribes and warning against denying justice to an alien.

Most of the commands that follow are expansions of the ninth commandment: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor (Exodus 20:16). Therefore, do not spread false reports in a court of law. No one was supposed to act in collusion with an evil person who was attempting to avoid the rules of justice. Do not help a wicked man by being a malicious witness (23:1). Violations of the basic principles found here are also written in Deuteronomy 22:13-19 and Proverbs 25:21.

Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. Much heartache in life could be avoided by obeying this commandment. Usually, the crowd isn’t bent on doing much else! We should only follow truth and justice. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, and do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit if he is in the wrong (23:2-3). In other words, he shouldn’t be able to get away with a crime just because he is poor (Leviticus 19:15).

Part of the teaching of this section of the Torah was, that believers were not to follow the crowd when the crowd was determined to do evil. Believers are also to stand against mob rule and against the will of the majority when it is wrong. But someone may say, “I am in the minority.” Yes, but praying people are in the minority. People who love God’s Word are in the minority. Honoring God’s day in His house is an exercise for the minority. But do not be discouraged! For we serve a conquering King who leads the minority! ⁴³⁵

This section continued with the basic idea that justice was to prevail. And that justice was to be unprejudiced, that is, to apply to all people in Isra’el. If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him. In this regard, the enemy is treated like a friend or neighbor (Proverbs 25:21).⁴³⁶ If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there. Be sure you help him with it (23:4-5). The word enemy’s and someone who hates you, probably means a legal adversary. The Israelites were to be kind even to the animal of someone with whom they had a legal dispute. A plain reading of these verses – affirmed by the Master’s instruction to love you enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:44) – reveals to us a piece of true godliness It is a revelation of YHVH that would never occurred to us naturally. Such a mitzvot teaches us about God’s mercy and compassion. The Torah speaks in human language. When we study the mitzvot of helping your enemy get his donkey up onto its feet, we have learned a little bit about ADONAI.⁴³⁷

Denying justice to the poor, giving false testimony in court, and accepting bribes were common problems in the ancient world. Therefore, God commanded the Israelites, “Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits” (23:6). This is the other side of the coin of 23:3. There, it forbid favoring them in court; here, it prohibited any form of bias against them for being poor. Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death (23:7a). Judges needed to be very careful not to put an innocent person to death. And if that meant that occasionally a criminal might go unpunished, there was no need to despair, because God would eventually judge them Himself. He said: For I will not acquit the guilty (23:7b).

ADONAI commanded: Do not accept a bribe under any circumstances, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists or perverts the words of the righteous (23:8). Someone who was blinded and perverted to justice was, and still is today, a very dangerous person. Taking a bribe became a symbol of individual corruption for the Jews. A wicked man accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the course of justice (Proverbs 17:23; also see Deuteronomy 10:17; First Samuel 8:3; Second Chronicles 19:7 and Psalm 15:5).

Each of these mitzvah of legal justice reveals the character of ADONAI as a God of justice. The Psalmist declares: Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne (Psalm 89:14). YHVH is a just judge. No false testimony can stand before Him. He cannot be bribed; He cannot be bought. He will not be swayed by sentiment, not will He condemn the innocent with the guilty. In Abraham’s words: Far be it from You to do such a thing – to kill the righteous along with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do what is just (Genesis 18:25)?.⁴³⁸

A Thief Must Certainly Make Restitution
21:33 to 22:15

A thief must certainly make restitution DIG: What various kinds of property are protected? From an inventory of the protected items, what things are most important to their society? What does that say about them? What role do the judges play and why are they needed? What extenuating circumstances limit liability? How would an oath settle an issue in a dispute?

REFLECT: If you were to rewrite the list of property protected under the Torah, what would you include from your possessions? Why? What does that tell you about today’s society? What does this passage say about the role of personal integrity in any successful judicial system?

The fine distinctions in these mitzvot reveal the very nature of ADONAI and His relationship with mankind, who are custodians over God’s property. All the He has given to us is given on loan. He holds mankind accountable according to that which He has entrusted us. To those who are given much, much will be required.

The Torah strongly affirmed the right to both life and property. These principles expand on the eighth commandment: You shall not steal (20:15). Our laws today say that if you destroy another man’s property, you must pay the damages. All that our society demands, when you damage or destroy a man’s property, is to replace the item or pay what it was worth. God’s command of restoring fourfold was much better (with human nature being the way it is). If we had to restore four times the amount that we destroyed or damaged, we would be much more careful. Human nature is always the same, and ADONAI is always the same. He deals with mankind on the basis of what is best for us.⁴¹⁹

Damage to livestock (21:33-34): The reasons for digging a pit in antiquity were many. They are known to have been used as receptacles for grain storage, as cisterns, latrines, refuse dumps, and robber’s pits. For purposes of safety, the owner of the pit was required to cover it up. If, due to negligence, a man uncovered a pit or dug one and failed to cover it up and an ox or a donkey fell into it, the owner of the pit was responsible for the loss; he needed to pay its owner, and the dead animal was his (21:33-34). This was important, because these animals were important property for the Israelites.

Having begun with human against human, the laws then treat in turn animal against human, human against animal, and now animal against animal.⁴²⁰ If a man’s bull injured the bull of another and it died, they sold the live one and divided both the money and the dead animal equally. However, if it was known that the bull had the habit of goring, yet the owner did not keep it penned up, the owner must pay, animal for animal, and the dead animal will be his (21:35-36). The owner took full responsibility; he was negligent and he was responsible to pay for the damages. Even these straightforward, mechanical mitzvot of liability and restitution are revelations of godliness. They are a distillation of heavenly wisdom.

Theft (22:1-4 and 9): In the Torah, incarceration is never used as punishment. It recommends a far more practical solution to theft. The thief must return what he has stolen and pay again the value of the object. Restitution for a stolen ox was more costly than for a stolen sheep, because a trained ox was more valuable than a sheep. If a man stole an ox or a sheep and slaughtered it or sold it, he had to pay back five head of cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep (22:1). No doubt this heavy compensation effectively deterred animal theft.⁴²¹

If a thief was caught breaking in and was struck so that he died, the defender was not guilty of bloodshed, because he killed the intruder in self defense; but if the thief escaped unharmed and was caught later and killed in broad daylight, then the homeowner was guilty of premeditated murder. Evidently the homeowner could get help to arrest the thief more easily during the daytime. Since the Torah prescribes restitution for theft, when one is able to see who has stolen something, restitution can be exacted. As a result,  daylight theft would be far less in a society that constantly exacted restitution. The thief needed to make restitution, but if he owned nothing of value, he was sold into slavery to pay for his theft (22:2-3). If the stolen animal was found alive in his possession – whether ox or donkey or sheep – he had to pay back double (22:4). In other words, the thief must return the stolen beast, and he must also provide another beast of like kind to the original owner.⁴²²

Trust between fellow Israelites was also important. When there was a dispute regarding the ownership of an article, it would be brought before the judges for them to decide. In all cases of illegal possession of an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any other lost property about which somebody said: This is mine. Both parties brought their cases before the elohim. The one whom the judges declared guilty had to pay back double to his neighbor (22:9). The penalty of 22:3 was applied to the guilty party. The thief had to make restitution, but if he had nothing, he was sold to pay for this theft.

These mitzvot also reveal the mercy of ADONAI. Other Ancient Near Eastern legal codes mandated that a thief’s hand be chopped off. But how does a severed hand compensate the victim, and how does it help to rehabilitate the thief? From these mitzvot we learn that God is interested in seeing the victim compensated and the thief restored to society. The means of redemption is established by spelling out a path of repentance. This concept is carried over to the B’rit Chadashah: The thief must stop stealing; instead, he should make an honest living by his own efforts. This way he will be able to share with those in need (Ephesians 4:28). This mitzvah is illustrated by Zacchaeus the tax-collector who, upon encountering the Master, chose the road of repentance and declared that he would repay four times the amount he had swindled from people (to see link click Ip – Zacchaeus the Tax Collector).

Restitution for grazing and fires (22:5-6): Negligence was also a crime. Restitution for destroyed property had to be made from the best of the guilty parties own resources, emphasizing the importance of quality and generosity.⁴²³ If a man allowed his livestock to graze in another man’s field or vineyard, he had to make restitution from the best of his own field or vineyard (22:5). But if damage was done through arson, the principle was also restitution. If a fire broke out accidentally and spread into a neighbor’s thorn-bushes (Micah 7:4) so that it burned shocks of grain or standing grain or the whole field, the one who started the fire needed to make restitution since thorn-bushes were often used as hedges (22:6). Again, these mitzvot are more than merely legal minutia; they are revelations of God’s attribute of justice.

Custodianship and borrowing (22:7-8 and 10-15): In the ancient Near East there were no banks, so personal property was sometimes given to a neighbor for protection. But the person’s liability was based upon whether or not he was a contracted custodian of the lost, damaged or stolen property being discussed. A contracted custodian of another’s property was held far more liable than one who was simply doing a favor for a friend. A contracted custodian who could not prove his innocence in the theft of an object with which he was entrusted could take an oath in the Name of God before the court and he would be absolved of all liability.

If a man gave his neighbor silver or goods for safekeeping and they were stolen form the neighbor’s house, the thief, if he is caught, must pay back double. But if the thief was not found, the owner of the house had to appear before the judges (who were the representatives of God and called the elohim), and take an oath to prove that he did not steal the other man’s property (22:7-8).

If an animal in safekeeping was injured or lost, the one taking care of it had to give evidence that he was not negligent or he had to pay double. If a man gave a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any other animal to his neighbor for safekeeping and it died, was injured, or was taken away while no one was looking, the issue between them was settled by the taking of an oath before ADONAI that the neighbor did not lay hands on the other person’s property. The owner was to accept this testimony and no restitution was required (22:10-11).

But if the animal was stolen from the neighbor, the neighbor must make restitution to the owner. Negligence was assumed on his part because he did not properly care for what had been entrusted to him for safekeeping. The neighbor merely had to make good on what was stolen. However, if the thief was eventually caught, he had to pay double restitution. But no compensation was due to the owner if the neighbor could prove that a predatory animal killed the owner’s animal.⁴²⁴ If it was torn to pieces by a wild animal, he brought the remains as evidence, and he was not required to pay for the torn animal (22:12-13). These laws were evidently in force as early as the patriarchal period (Genesis 31:39).

A person who borrows something; however, is fully responsible for the item which he borrowed unless the owner of the object was present with him when the damage occurred. A renter is not as liable as a borrower because the rent paid is meant to defer some of the risk of the rental. Thus, a renter is less liable than a borrower, but still has some liability for the object rented.

If an animal was borrowed, the borrower was responsible for its safekeeping. If a man borrowed an animal from his neighbor and it was injured or died while the owner was not present, he had to make full restitution. But if the owner was with the animal, the borrower did not have to pay, because it was assumed that he would watch over his own property. If the animal was hired there is no restitution, the money paid for the hire covers the loss (22:14-15). It was assumed that the one who hired the animal did not do so to kill or injure it, which would have been a complete waste of his money.⁴²⁵

Sins such as stealing have, by their very nature, an ironical quality about them in the Torah. Theft is a means by which people attempt to enrich themselves. However, if and when they were caught, they were required to repay at least double what was stolen. In this manner, the theft ended up actually impoverishing himself! This section also underscored the fact that the Israelites were accountable for other people’s property. What was lent to a person needed to be taken care of. If it was not, then restitution was necessary.⁴²⁶ What a concept!

If You Buy a Hebrew Servant
21: 1-11

If you buy a Hebrew servant DIG: How does God’s commandment about Hebrews serving Hebrews differ from their days serving Pharaoh? What freedoms, rights and needs is the LORD protecting? By freeing slaves every seventh year, how would that affect class barriers?

REFLECT: Do you think these commandments condone slavery? Why or why not? Other than God to whom or to what do you feel indebted, perhaps even enslaved? How does this passage help you to free yourself of that situation? How does your treatment of employees and fellow workers fit God’s ideal?

Parashah 18: Mishpatim (Rulings) 21:1-24:18
(see my commentary on Deuteronomy, to see link click Af – Parashah)

The Key People are Moshe, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, the people of Isra’el, seventy elders, Joshua and Hur.

The Scene is Mount Sinai.

The Main Events include mitzvot about servants, property, resting, and keeping the three annual travel feasts; an angel sent to lead Isra’el, going into Canaan, and driving out the enemies; Moshe telling ADONAI’s judgments, the response: We will do and we will listen; Moshe sprinkling the people with the blood of the covenant; Moshe going up on Mount Sinai to receive the tablets of stone, staying 40 days and nights, and the Sh’khinah glory like fire.

This portion begins to set forth some of the specific, day-to-day guidelines for life in the redeemed community under the Covenant. When we begin to interpret the specific rulings the first level is halachic (see the commentary on Deuteronomy, to see link click Ad – Glossary: Halakhah), trying to understand their application to every day life. In doing so, we need to figure out initially what these guidelines meant to Isra’el in the age in which they were first given by Moshe. The second level of interpretation is suggested by Messiah Himself. After His resurrection, Yeshua said to His apostles: This is what I meant when I was still with you and told you that everything written about Me in the Torah of Moshe, the Prophets and the Psalms had to be fulfilled. Then He opened their minds, so that they could understand the TaNaKh (Luke 24:44-45a). That means we can look at the Torah to see what it teaches concerning Yeshua and His person/work.

Therefore, if we are able to see what the specific rulings teach concerning Messiah, that in itself will provide much of the basis for the doing of them. In other words, we live out these rulings because of what they can picture in our everyday life concerning Messiah, what He did for us, and who He has made us to be. These rulings are God’s blueprint for living. Practicing these rulings, therefore, becomes a way of being a walking testimony of what Messiah did and who He is. Not only that, but obeying these rulings in this way will preclude all tendencies to legalism, where one receives credit for the doing of them, which is not what YHVH intended.

God said to Moses: And these are the rulings you are to set before them (21:1). The force of the conjunction and, is to emphasize that although the section on civil law is separated from the Ten Commandments by an intervening passage, both were given on Mount Sinai. These rulings concern the fundamental rights of the Israelites, and what punishments were expected when their rights were violated. They included civil and social rights. This first section describes the rulings involving Hebrew masters and slaves. They were not abusive, but very protective.

These rulings were to be set before all the people of Isra’el. No one was to be excluded from the knowledge of the Torah. That was important because in Egypt, as far as we can tell, there was no codified law. The word of Pharaoh was the law there – and he could change his mind at any time. Here the God of the Hebrews revealed His rulings in writing to all of the people.⁴⁰⁹ This section regulates that sale and treatment of slaves, or servants.

While slavery was a common phenomenon in all countries of the ancient Near East, the treatment accorded slaves differed from one land to another. In some land, Babylonia for example, the demand for slaves was greater than in others. This was due, perhaps, to a lack of free laborers. In order to meet the demand for slaves, large numbers were imported to the country or were captured in warfare. The economic conditions in Babylon as contrasted with Isra’el also had some influence on the manner in which slaves were treated. As far as the Israelite was concerned, it was unique because God was the source of the Torah and those commandments were based on unchanging moral and ethical norms, whereas other law systems were produced out of social and economic necessities.⁴¹⁰

First, the rights of Hebrew male slaves are dealt with. 21:2-6 describe the rights of a Hebrew forced to sell himself into slavery because of a debt. The Torah said he was to be released after six years of labor. If you buy a Hebrew servant because he was sold as to make restitution for his theft, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. If he comes alone without a wife, he is to go free alone (21:2-3a). If both he and his wife were sold into slavery, they were both to be set free after six years. But if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him (21:3b).

However, if the Hebrew became a slave as a single man and then he was given a wife by his master, and the wife bore him children, after six years his wife and children would continue to be slaves of the master who provided them in the first place. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children belong to the master, and only the man shall go free (21:4).

But after six years he did not want to be separated from his family he had the option of becoming a bond slave. If the slave declares, “I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,” then his master must take him before the judges who met in the gate of the city that had doorposts. He shall take him to the doorpost and in an upright position, pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his bond slave for life (21:5-6). There was a difference between a slave and a bond slave. Circumstances beyond one’s control made someone a slave. But a bond slave chose to remain a permanent slave. In that case his ear was to be pierced with a permanent mark, symbolizing his new status.

As a follower of Yeshua, the Paul called himself a bondservant throughout his letters. Because when Messiah redeems us from the slavery of sin, He sets us free. Then as believers, we can make the decision to become a bond slave to Jesus Christ. The means by which we do this is recorded by Paul: Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:1-2).

Here we also earn the powerful lesson of the slave who declares lifelong allegiance to his master. Though the Sages frowned upon one who would throw away his freedom, The Torah points out that he does so for the love of his family and the love of his master. This is the path of discipleship. We love our Master and we love our families; therefore, we put on the chains of love and declare our life long allegiance to Him. How would we know what it is to serve the Master of masters if we did not know what godly slavery looked like? In other words, the regulations regarding slavery reveal an aspect of God’s character that is essential to understanding our relationship with Him.⁴¹¹

Secondly, the rights of Hebrew female slaves are discussed. If a man sells his minor daughter who is under twelve years old as a slave, she is not to go free for six years as men slaves do (21:7). But if she, in her slavery, was engaged to be married to the master, but during the period of the betrothal she did not please her master, she could be released early. If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to Gentiles, or foreigners, because he has broken faith with her (21:8).

Concubines were permitted under the Torah and were not considered sinful. If she was engaged to the master’s son, who had other wives, she was to be treated equally with all the other women in that household. If he selects her for his son, he must grant her the rights of a daughter (21:9). If the son of the master subsequently took another wife after marrying the slave girl, he was still obligated to the female slave for three things. If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights sexually. If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free because of his failure, without any payment of money (21:10-11).

What does this teach us about the nature of God? How is this mitzvah a revelation of godliness? Just as ADONAI forbids a disenchanted husband from reducing his wife’s marital rights, so too, He Himself must continue to care for, provide for and preserve a relationship with us, even when we are less attractive to Him! We need not fear a change in His heart’s attitude toward us. He is not subject to whim. He will not abandon His beloved. He will not turn His back on us. These are important truths, often difficult to grasp, especially if we have been hurt, rejected and abandoned by others before. Yet the good mitzvot of the Torah reveal it to be true of YHVH. He is faithful and true.

Moses and the Torah
21:1 to 23:19

As the name of this parashah (see the commentary on Deuteronomy, to see link click Af – Parashah) indicates, this reading from the Torah contains the mishpatim, or the rulings. Like an Ancient Near Eastern legal code, the rulings of God come tumbling forth in some of the most densely packed and comprehensive legislation of the whole Torah. Several of the rulings speak of being brought before Elohim, thus it would seem that legal matters are to be settled directly by God. Yet, the context of these trials indicates that a human court of judges in meant. Which is correct? Perhaps both are correct. In Jewish thought there is no disconnecting between civil, moral, and ceremonial mitzvot, for they are all God’s Torah. An Israelite judicial court was a religious court. The legal issues they debated and decided were issues of the Torah legal system. As a result, to appear before a Torah court of law was to appear before YHVH, for the Torah court is the dispenser of God’s rulings.

Because Torah is both rulings and revelation, it functions in a dual capacity. On the one hand, it is a blueprint for living (see Dj – The Ten Commandments) which guides our conduct. On the other hand, it is the expression of Ha’Shem in human terms. We must learn to recognize that Torah is more than merely 613 commandments; it is actually the revealed character of YHVH dressed up as mitzvot. Torah is His spoken Word written down and His self-disclosure to the world. When one realizes this, one must also realize the enormous gravity of declaring it irrelevant to their lives today. Even the smallest commandment of the Torah is saturated with godliness. To declare any commandment as being irrelevant or obsolete is to deny the eternal and unchanging nature of God.

Sadly, far too many people today are put off by these commandments. The sudden jolting return to the culture of the Ancient Near East is more than they are prepared to handle. When the Torah begins to speak in a matter-of-fact manner about the institution of slavery, about selling one’s daughter, about repaying measure for measure, we quickly become queasy. The temptation is to comfort ourselves with the notion that all of these unpleasant commandments have been done away with and replaced by kinder, gentler, and nobler virtues. The problem with such thinking is that is is heretical. To suppose that God’s eternal Torah can simply be dismissed is an affront to the Holiness and Unchangingness of YHVH.

Every commandment of the Torah is spoken by the mouth of God. Each mitzvah is therefore Holy and Eternal. Whether or not a particular commandment seems to apply in our day is irrelevant. Human society may change, but the LORD does not change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Every commandment is a distillation of His essence, a pure revelation of His person. The study of the commandments is the study of God. As soon as we begin to discard commandments, we have begun editing ADONAI. We have immediately begun the process of reshaping the Holy One into an image that we have deemed more appropriate. So you see, when we try to change the Torah or do away with a commandment, it is actually God we are trying to change or do away with.

When the Torah was completed there would be 613 commandments, including the Ten Commandments. These teachings were divided into two groups, positive and negative. The positive ones start with words like: do or you shall; while the negative ones started with words like: do not or you shall not. There were 248 positive commandments and 365 negative commandments, one for each day of the year. There are a lot of mitzvot packed into this parashah. Of the 613 commandments, over 50 of them come directly from this portion. Yet there are far more than 50 commandments here. Some of them are repeated in later portions, while other fall under the general categories of broader mitzvot.

When we get to the B’rit Chadashah and we read about the traditions of the Elders (Matthew 15:2) or the traditions of my fathers (Galatians 1:14), those had nothing to do with the Torah. They were man made rules after the Babylonian captivity and were called the Oral Law (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ei – The Oral Law). The rabbis taught that Moses brought them down with him in written form Mount Sinai, but in reality God had nothing to do with them. By the time of Christ, the Pharisees and Sadducees not only treated them as being equal to Torah, but they actually held them in higher esteem. They said, “He who follows Torah does a good thing. But he who follows the Oral Law, does an even better thing.” Therefore, all of the conflict Jesus had with the religious rulers in Jerusalem was over the Oral Law. But Messiah had nothing to do with the thousands and thousands of oral laws, that is why He called them the traditions of men (Mark 7:8). So although the Torah was misinterpreted and corrupted by pharisaic Judaism, it continues to be a tree of life to those who take hold of its principles. Happy are those who view it as a blue print for living because its ways are pleasant and all its paths lead to peace (Proverbs 3:17-18).

Make an Altar of Earth and Sacrifice on It
20: 22-26

Make an altar of earth and sacrifice on it DIG: How does 20:23 compare with 20:3-4? What can the one true God do that metal gods cannot? How will this come back to haunt the Israelites (see Gr – The Israelite’s Sin of Idolatry)? Why only an altar of earth and not one of dressed stones? What does this say about the place where God is worshiped?

REFLECT: What have you sacrificed to ADONAI? Was it humble? Who knew about it? Do you have peace with God? What distracts you from meeting God? What can you do about it? When the Lord calls to you say, “Here I am, send me?” Or do you make excuses? What has to change? YHVH cannot tolerate sin. How can you be sinless and go to heaven? That’s right. To have Messiah’s sacrifice on the cross transferred to your spiritual bank account by faith. Then all the righteousness of Christ will be yours.

Then ADONAI said to Moses His servant: Tell the Israelites this: You have seen for yourself that I have spoken to you from heaven (20:22). God came down from heaven, His eternal dwelling place, to the top of Mount Sinai (19:20) in order to tell the Jewish people: Do not make any gods to be alongside Me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold (20:23). This statement was a reiteration of the first and second commandments. As a result, before giving the Torah, general principles were restated and elaborated on.

From inside the cloud, ADONAI told Moses that the Israelites could either make an altar of earth or an altar of stones. Altars were for the purpose of sacrifice. There was no altar in the Garden of Eden because God did not intend for them to break the Torah. An altar exists where sin flourishes and forgiveness is required. So it is not surprising that the same chapter that gave the Israelites specific instructions regarding the Torah also gave them specific instructions about an altar. It was an impossible standard and God made provision for when the people broke them. The altar would be a foreshadowing of Messiah, who would pay the ultimate price for our sin.

First the LORD said: Make an altar of earth for Me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. The earth, which had been involved in the curse of sin, was to be renewed and glorified, not by sinful men, but by the glorious hand of God.⁴⁰³ He said: Whenever I cause My name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you (20:24). The purpose of burnt offerings (to see link click Fe – The Burnt Offering) was to atone for sin, whereas the fellowship offerings (see Fg – The Peace Offering) gave the people an opportunity to enjoy communion with God.⁴⁰⁴

Isra’el was not to erect an altar in any place it might choose, but only in every place that God would bring His name to remembrance.⁴⁰⁵ Throughout the book of Genesis, the patriarchs were allowed to build altars anywhere they wished. Where Abraham settled, he built an altar. Where Isaac settled he built an altar and where Jacob settled he built an altar. In fact, each patriarch built more than one altar in his various travels. That was not to be the case now with the Torah. The first place God would choose after they entered the Promised Land was in the city of Shiloh, in the territory of the tribe of Ephraim. That would be a temporary place, because later in the days of King David, God would choose a new place, the city of Jerusalem. From that point on, Tziyon was the place chosen by God where He would be remembered and His altar would be built.

Secondly, God required a humble altar for sacrifice. He stressed: If you make an altar of stones for Me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it (20:25). The moment a tool was put to stones made for an altar, it was polluted. God rejected it. The Canaanites and others made their altars with cut, finished stones. Alters with elaborate craftsmanship and elevated platforms with staircases were common in the worship of false gods.⁴⁰⁶ The Israelites were not to be like them, so as not to be tempted into making idols.

God did not despise craftsmanship, as seen in the building of the Temple in Jerusalem. The fit of the hewn stones there is still marveled at today. But here, He wanted it natural, not marred by man’s works. The altar would be a place of faith, not works, once again pointing to Jesus Christ, a rock not cut by human hands (Dani’el 2:34).

But regardless, of weather they built an altar of earth or of stones, there was to be no sexual elements of their worship. Specifically, there were to be no steps associated with it, least the nakedness of the priest would be exposed. ADONAI said: Do not go up to My altar on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it (20:26). Later, when God allowed His people to build stepped altars (Leviticus 9:22; Ezeki’el 43:17), Aaron and his descendents had already been instructed to wear linen underclothes (Exodus 28:42-43; Leviticus 6:10, 16:3-4; Ezeki’el 44:17-18).⁴⁰⁷

Haftarah Yitro: Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 6:1-7:6, 9:6-7 (A), 6:1-13 (S)
(See my commentary on Deuteronomy, to see link click Af – Parashah)

When ADONAI called Isaiah, the prophet saw a vision of  YHVH sitting on His lofty throne (Isaiah 6:1). The Temple is filled with smoke, the S’rafim were crying out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy!” and the doorposts shook at the sound of their shouting (Isaiah 6:2-4). Then Isaiah heard the voice of God and said, “Hear I am (Hebrew: hinneh, meaning behold), send me” (Isaiah 6:8-9)! But the people are being hardened for judgment. The kings of Syria and Isra’el conspired against Ahaz, king of Judah, to remove him and install the son of Tabeel as a puppet government (Isaiah 7:6). Isaiah took his son, Shear-Jashub (meaning a remnant will return), and told Ahaz to stay calm and unafraid (Isaiah 7:4). The haftarah then skips ahead two chapters to announce that the zeal of ADONAI-Tzva’ot (the LORD of heaven’s angelic armies) will guarantee a Davidic throne – Messiah will come (see the commentary on Isaiah Cm – For Us a Child is Born).

B’rit Chadashah suggested readings for Parashah Yitro: Mattityahu (Matthew) 5:5:20-30, 15:1-11, and 19:16-30; Mark 7:5-15, 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-30; Acts 6:1-7; Romans 2:17-29, 7:7-12, 13:8-10; Ephesians 6:1-3; First Timothy 3:1-14; Second Timothy 2:2; Titus 1:5-9; Messianic Jews (Hebrews) 12:18-29; Ya’akov (James) 2:8-13 and First Kefa (Peter) 2:9-10

Some think it is silly that ADONAI could talk to Isra’el from a mountain top in Sinai. Here in Matthew, Yeshua speaks His famous Sermon on the Mount. Various groups receive favor from God: How bless are the pure in heart! for they will see God (Matthew 5:8). Yet, David had already written: The earth is ADONAI’d . . . Who may go up to the mountain of the ADONAI? . . . Those with clean hands and pure hearts (Psalm 24:1-4). Another favored group, the peacemakers . . . will be called sons of God (Matthew 5:9). Messiah, the promised Son to sit on David’s throne, is named Sar Shalom, or, the Prince of Peace (see the commentary on Isaiah Ck – He Will Be Called the Prince of Peace). In the Sermon on the Mount, the LORD extends His offer made at Mount Sinai. The righteous and holy may draw near to God. They are even permitted to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But standards are extremely high. Their righteousness must surpass that of the Torah-teachers (Matthew 5:20). In other words, perfection.⁴⁰⁸

Do Not Have God Speak to Us
or We Will Die
20: 18-21

Do not have God speak to us or we will die DIG: What link do you see between 20:1-17 and 18-21? In what sense were the people tested? How was the fear of God to motivate them?

REFLECT: At the end of his life King Solomon wrote these words. After looking back on my whole life, here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13). How are those words true for you?

The prologue describes Isra’el’s reaction to the scene at Mount Sinai. God has appeared to them in a cloud and fire on top of the mountain, and He has delivered the basis of the Book of the Covenant, the Ten Commandments, to them. Now, how will they respond to it? Earlier they had said: We will do everything God has said (19:8). Was that still true?

When the people heard the voice of God, they perceived it as thunder and lightning, the sound of a trumpet getting louder and smoke around Mount Sinai. As a result, they were shook to the very core and trembled with fear (20:18a). They were so afraid that they fled from the mountain. When the commandments were given to the Israelites they stood at the foot of the mountain (19:17). But now we find them standing at a distance. The Hebrew for at a distance normally means far away (First Samuel 26:13; Isaiah 22:3 and 23:7). But why did they run away? Like Isaiah when confronted with a holy and perfect God, they realized their sin before Him. It was as if they also said, “Woe to us. We are ruined. For we are a people of unclean lips, and our eyes have seen the King (Isaiah 6:5). Their guilt overwhelmed them.

They were so afraid that they said to Moses, who was their mediator: Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die (20:18b-19). They simply could not bear it (Hebrews 12:19). It was too difficult to face the Accuser and the accusation; the Judge and the judgment all at the same instant.

Therefore, Moses responded and said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning” (20:20). The Torah presented an impossible standard because the Torah of ADONAI is perfect. If you were trying to be saved by keeping the Torah you would have to be perfect. If you are not perfect, it cannot save you. I thank God that under grace He can save a poor sinner like me. Grace reveals something of the goodness and wonder of our God.⁴⁰⁰

What kind of test is Moses talking about? The Hebrew verb nsb, often translated to test, should not be understood in the sense of finding out how the Israelites will perform or react to something. God is not revealing Himself in thunder and lightening to see how they will react. It is much more convincing to translate the word here as experience. In other words, it is as if God was saying, “Do not be afraid. I am giving you a taste of Myself so that this memory will stick with you to keep you from sinning.” The people’s fear was to be tempered by the fact that God is giving them this experience for a reason. A debilitating fear would eventually give way to a healthy fear, one that would result in faithfulness on their part and the part of other nations as well.⁴⁰¹

The word fear used here does not mean a sense of terror or dread, but rather a reverence that leads to obedience (Deuteronomy 4:10). Their fear of God should have caused them to bow down before Him in reverence and awe. Sadly, Isra’el would soon lose their fear of Him. This would be a recurrent theme in her history.

The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was (20:21). From this point on YHVH would communicate only with Moses, and then Moses would relate all that God had said to him, to the people. Once through the thick darkness of smoke, which represented the presence of God, he would see the Sh’khinah glory. Moses then made another trip up Mount Sinai for a longer visit, to receive the commandments that would be called the Book of the Covenant.

In our natural state, we all stand quaking at the foot of Mount Sinai. Although we were not there with the Israelites (and we need to be careful not to allegorize), the fact is, that each of us stands condemned of living and being disobedient to the Creator. In our unregenerate state we stand guilty as charged. This is the verdict: “Guilty, guilty, guilty!” And that ought to make us tremble and fear for our lives. However, those who have new life in Christ do not approach Mount Sinai with condemnation, but they come to Mount Tziyon under the blood of Jesus. Messiah Yeshua took His people’s debt in the Torah and nailed it to the cross (see the commentary on Hebrews, to see link click Dc – The Earthly Sinai and the Heavenly Tziyon).⁴⁰²

The Book of the Covenant
20:18 to 23:33

The laws in this section are called the Book of the Covenant based on that phrase in 24:7. They are different and distinct from the Ten Commandments. They were written by the hand of Moshe and not from the hand of God. Moses presented the commandments on behalf of God to the people (21:1). The Hebrew word mishpat means to judge or to rule, and implies a law that rests upon prior precedent. Therefore, compared with Suzerainty Treaties, the Torah had specific conditions; these are laid out in the Book of the Covenant. Other specific social and economic issues are also mentioned in Deuteronomy 12:1 to 26:15.

The Ten Commandments are short and cover much ground, they were given to the whole nation on the same occasion, and although they are the most concise code of law, they cover most of the main diverse and moral challenges of a human being. However, to administer a nation, a people, it takes a much more detailed and elaborate code of law that addresses such issues as dealing with slaves that you employ in your household, or with a neighbor’s ox that fell into a pit, or with two men fighting in a public place and one of them puts out the eye of the other, or hits a pregnant woman and she loses her baby, or someone has taken land and appropriated this land for himself and was preparing to build a house on that land. In other words, Moses is adding to the skeleton of the Ten Commandments, flesh and sinew.

This means that the Book of the Covenant is made up of descriptive commandments that met the needs of the new budding nation of Isra’el. But it also had descriptive commandments that were based upon the prescriptive law of the Ten Commandments. For example, in 22:1 we see a commandment dealing with the repayment for the theft of another’s animals. That was based upon the principle of the Eighth Commandment: You shall not steal (20:5). In other words, the Ten Commandments emphasize the fundamental legal principles for any society to function properly. Those principles are just as valid today as they were when Moshe brought them down from Mount Sinai. The principles of the Book of the Covenant, like the Ten Commandments, are a blueprint for living for us today.

Do Not Think
That I Have Come to Abolish
the Torah or the Prophets
Matthew 5: 17-20

New Covenant believers should also love the Torah. At Pentecost about three thousand were saved (Acts 2:41). But about thirty years later, tens of thousands of believers were all zealous for the Torah (Acts 21:20). Therefore, the Torah is not merely for the righteous of the TaNaKh. Even the Rabbi Sha’ul said: The Torah is holy (Romans 7:12), perfect and gives freedom, provided one uses it in the way the Torah itself intends (First Timothy 1:8; James 1:25 CJB).

Christ is the model disciple, the perfect Son who fulfilled all righteousness by completely obeying the Father’s will (Matthew 4:4 and 10). That same obedience should characterize believers today. Obedience to God was to be a priority in the disciple’s life (Matthew 6:33), and complete devotion to God the Father was the goal (Matthew 5:48). Thus, this same righteousness and faithfulness to God the Father and His commandments that is seen in the words of Christ here (Matthew 5:17-20), not only speaks to the true nature of the Torah, but also its relationship to Christ.

Do not think I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish, but to complete (Matthew 5:17 CJB). Christ completed the Torah in that He accomplished all that the Torah or the Prophets had said of Him and His coming. Therefore, Messiah provided us with the fullest meaning of the Torah as demonstrated in His life and teachings. Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yud or a stroke will pass from the Torah – not until everything that must happen has happened (Matthew 5:18 CJB). The yud is the smallest letter in the Hebrew Alef-Bet, and the stroke refers to the tiny artistic marks on the tops of Hebrew letters. By saying this, Jesus reminded his listeners that neither the smallest letter nor even the tiniest part of a letter of the Torah would ever be done away with.

The rabbis teach that when ADONAI gave the Torah to Isra’el, He inserted both positive and negative commandments and gave commands, saying: The king must not acquire great number of horses for himself. . . neither shall he take many wives or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of sliver and gold (Deuteronomy 17:16-17). But Solomon arose and studied the reason for God’s decree, and said, “Why did ADONAI command this? Well, I will acquire great number of horses, take many wives, and still my heart will not be led astray. Because God granted him a wise and discerning heart (First Kings 3:12), Solomon thought that he could marry as many wives as he wanted.

At that time the yud, the first letter of the Hebrew phrase yarbeh (that means the king must not take many wives), went up on high and prostrated itself before ADONAI and said, “Master of the Universe! Have you not said that no letter shall ever be abolished from the Torah? Behold, Solomon has now arisen and abolished one. Who knows? Today one, tomorrow another, until the whole Torah will be nullified.” And God responded by saying, “Solomon and a thousand like him will pass away, but the smallest letter will not be cancelled from you.”

Therefore, it is interesting to see that Christ agreed with this teaching, and as believers, we should strive to obey God and all of His commands. For as Christ said: If you love Me, you will obey what I command (John 14:15).

So whoever disobeys the least of the commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever obeys them and so teaches others to do so will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:19 CJB). Actions speak louder than words. The teacher must apply the doctrine personally before being able to teach it to others. The scribes and the Pharisees did not practice what they preached (Matthew 23:2-4). Christ demands from us a much higher form of righteousness than the hypocrisy of false teachers.

For I tell you that unless your righteousness is far greater than that of the Torah-teachers and Pharisees, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:20 CJB). Here the term far greater can best be translated as far exceeds. Like a river overflowing its banks, it is something that far exceeds the norm. In this context, Jesus is teaching us that the righteousness that He requires is one of genuine holiness, which far exceeds the hypocritical standards of the world.

In fact, not only does ADONAI require genuine holiness, He requires perfect righteousness. To be qualified for God’s kingdom we must be as holy as the King Himself. But of course, this is a standard we can never obtain by our own efforts. We are spiritually dead in our sinfulness. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). It is only through the grace of God, for while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). When we trust/have faith/believe in Him, all His righteousness is transferred to our account. We are justified and considered perfect in His sight. What Christ is saying here in this passage, is that the Torah is not abolished in this process – but completed. The true path of the true believer is demonstrated through obedience to ADONAI and His commands.

During the Torah procession in messianic synagogues today, believers in Messiah kiss their bibles and then touch the Torah as it passes by. They believe that the Torah points us to Yeshua, and represents the holiness and purity of God. This custom is taken from the Psalms, where the Ruach ha-Kodesh instructs us to kiss the Son (Psalm 2:12).

Therefore, Christ, as the perfect expression of obedience to God the Father, did not come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets, but instead He completes our understanding of the Torah by calling us to live lives in obedience to His commandments. Solomon referred to the Torah when he wrote: She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed (Proverbs 3:18). Lord, bind our hearts to Your commandments.

You Shall Not Covet Anything
That Belongs to Your Neighbor
20: 17

You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor REFLECT: Has my desire for another’s possessions or loved one turned into a preoccupation to get what I want no matter whose it is, or who it hurts?

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor (Exodus 20:17).

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures (James 4:1-3).

In some respects, the tenth and last commandment is the greatest of the last seven that are more horizontal and describe our relationship with one another. This last commandment gives the internal aspect because it focuses on the desires of the heart. If we keep this commandment, all the other commandments are more easily kept. No system of law has ever had a statute that deals with intent because there is no human way to enforce it. It goes beyond regulating outward acts to requiring us to control our inner thoughts. The apostle Paul said it this way: We demolish arguments and every arrogance that raises itself up against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey the Messiah (Second Corinthians 10:5 CJB).

We need victory over our thought life more than anything else. Covetousness makes people greedy and causes them to steal. Covetousness drives people to sacrifice the lives of others, even to kill, for what they want. Covetousness gives rise to that uncontrolled lust that plunges people into adultery. Covetousness endangers mutual trust and causes people to lie about themselves and each other to gain money, power, prestige or praise. In short, this commandment covers a multitude of sins.

So, what does it mean to covet? Does it mean to desire something? Absolutely not. Desires are a normal and healthy part of human life. Our desire for food makes us hungry. That’s how we maintain our health. Our desire for sex is a vital part of love and marriage. This leads to the creation of life. We desire approval and respect. That’s what makes us bathe ourselves and brush our teeth. Another legitimate desire is to get along with others for common goals within society. Basically, without desires we wouldn’t have life.

Therefore, does coveting mean desiring something that we don’t have? Not exactly. For example, many people attend college because they desire an education, something they don’t have. But this is not coveting. Almost everything we call progress, improvement or civilization has come from a desire for something we don’t have. Desire is even important in spiritual matters. The Apostle Paul said in First Corinthians 12:31, eagerly desire the greater gifts. Jesus also said: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. No, coveting is not merely a desire for something, even something we don’t have.

Covetousness is a desire that runs rampant over the rights of others and even over one’s own reason. It is out of control desire that will injure or destroy to get what it wants. It’s not wrong for a man to want a house, wife or a car. But it’s wrong for him to want his neighbor’s house, wife and car. This kind of desire is different because a desire for someone else’s belongings plants the seeds of a willingness to lie, steal or kill in order to fulfill that desire. When we feel this type of desire we may even destroy or injure ourselves to get what we want. Covetousness is a normal desire gone terribly wrong. It says, “I want this and I will get it whatever it costs me, whatever the consequences.” A practical substitute for the word covet might be greed. It’s hard to define, but you know it when you see it.³⁹⁷

Nathan the prophet saw it in King David (Second Samuel 12:1-13). ADONAI sent Nathan to King David after he had committing adultery with Bathsheba, his neighbor, and murdered Uriah, her husband. But instead of confronting him with the actual crimes he had committed, he told him a story. There was rich man who had a large amount of land with lots of sheep and cattle. One day one of his very best friends came to visit him and he wanted to have a great feast. But he didn’t go out and find one of his own sheep to slaughter, he took his sheep from a poor man who had only one little ewe lamb, a family pet. The rich man could have chosen a sheep from his vast herd, but he took the only lamb the poor man owned. Nathan pointed out that David was the rich man, and covetousness was David’s sin.

When Jesus came He taught that the cure for covetousness was to surrender to the Lordship of Christ. He wanted change from the inside out. He said that wrong ideas and wrong desires lead to wrong actions. No matter how pious our outer life may be, if we yield inwardly to covetousness, we are guilty of breaking the commandment. Only when we first seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness will everything else be given to us (Luke 12:31). To accomplish this change we need a new birth, a conversion, a change of outlook and a change of values. Since covetousness is a sin of the inner life, our supreme need is to be set right within our hearts.

Are you master or slave to your desires? The only way to change, to become master, is to surrender to Jesus Christ. We must find a new Master who brings us peace so that we can agree with the apostle Paul and say: For to me, life is in the Messiah, and death is gain (Philippians 1:21 CJB). The only answer to covetousness is to find our delight in ADONAI. So the B’rit Chadashah teaches us not to covet by being content in Jesus Christ.³⁹⁸

Yeshua summarized the Ten Commandments by condensing them into two. He said that the first and greatest commandment was to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all soul and with all your mind (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37). Then He went on to say that the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18; Matt 22:39). He concluded by boldly claiming that all the Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commandments (Matthew 22:40). Christ was saying essentially that love for ADONAI (that is, obeying the first four of the Ten Commandments) and love for neighbor (that is, obeying the last six of the Ten Commandments) form the basic teaching of the TaNaKh.

Messiah understood love, the most positive force in the universe, as the total intent and thrust of the Ten Commandments. Psychiatrist Karl Menninger says much the same thing in his definition of love as “the medicine for the sickness of the world.” The combination of ingredients in God’s prescription for human happiness known as the Ten Commandments is guaranteed, if taken, to keep us spiritually strong and healthy. To obey His covenant stipulations is to receive His bountiful blessings.³⁹⁹

You Shall Not Give False Testimony
Against Your Neighbor
20: 16

You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor REFLECT: Have I lied about another person or hidden the truth to protect myself at another’s expense? When I realize what I have done, how do I feel about it? Do I make amends? Has lying become a habit? What do I do about it?

You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor (Exodus 20:16).

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator (Colossians 3:9-10).

We live in a world full of lies and liars. Often lying is not even considered a vice, and some people think of it as a virtue, or at least an art. Advertisers lie to sell products, Politicians lie to get elected. Because of the relativism that has crept into our society today, most people believe that all truth is personal and nothing is absolutely true or false.

Against all of this stands the Word of God. In its original form, the ninth commandment probably involved a simple legal matter about not going to a court of law and lying about a neighbor. But the prophets, and later Jesus and the New Covenant writers, expanded and restated this commandment so that the Bible ultimately forbids every form of a lie. There’s a reason for this, the same reason we’ve discovered as the basis for all the other commandments. This commandment is founded on the very character of God Himself. He cannot tolerate sin or tell a lie. It is a vital part of His holiness.³⁹³

God is truth. The Son of God said: I AM the way and the truth and the life (John 14:6). Jesus proclaimed the coming Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth (John 14:17). That is why the Scriptures place such a high value on the truth. The Lord said that one of the basic characteristics of Satan is that there is not truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). Therefore, because God is truthful He wants us to be truthful. In First Peter 1:16, Peter quotes from Leviticus 11:44-45, 19:2 and 20:7, where ADONAI says: Be holy, because I am holy. Today we would say, “Be truthful, because I am truthful.” That is why the B’rit Chadashah emphasizes our truthfulness. Who do you follow? The father of lies or the Father the Spirit of truth?

The ninth commandment and its restatement in the New Covenant forbid lying in three ways: telling a lie, spreading a lie and living a lie. There is no reason to believe that this commandment is exclusively limited to the judicial realm. It is a law that lays down fundamental principles; therefore, we would expect a wider application. It is likely that the commandment generally protects a person’s name and forbids harming one’s neighbor through slander and uncontrolled defamation. The Hebrew word shaqer means to give an empty promise. Thus, to lie about your neighbor is forbidden. Such things as gossip, slander and needless flattery are also to be avoided.³⁹⁴

First, it forbids telling a lie. Proverbs 6:16-19 says ADONAI hates seven things and two items on that list are a lying tongue and false witnesses who pour out lies. In the book of Revelation, John concludes his overview of the New Heaven and New Earth with a serious and solemn warning. He describes those who will be excluded from any participation in the blessings of heaven – all unforgiven sinners. And the list in Revelation 21:8 concludes with these words: and all liars – their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. There are similar lists of the unredeemed in Revelation 22:15, Romans 1:28-32, First Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21 and Second Timothy 3:2-5.³⁹⁵ Acts 5:1-10 tells the heartbreaking and frightening story of Ananias and Sapphira, who sold their land and told the apostles that they had given all of the money to the church. But in reality, they had kept some of it for themselves. Before their sudden deaths, Peter said to them: How is it that Satan has filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit. You have not lied to men but to God.

The LORD, whose very nature is truth, who speaks only truth, who loves truth, cannot tolerate our lies. Our lies separate us from Him and hurt our fellowship. To be honest about it, lying is a sin. Before, coming to Christ, many of us were habitual liars. Lying was as easy as falling off of a log and it took a great deal of the Holy Spirit’s influence in our lives to finally break that stronghold and establish a pattern of telling the truth. You see, telling the truth is not a sometimes thing, it is an all the time thing. It is a habit. Some of us have lied so long that we don’t know the difference between the truth and a lie. There is only one way to break the habit, as soon as the Ruach Ha’Kodesh convicts you of lying, immediately tell the truth to the person you just lied to. It may be painful, but it works.

Second, the Bible forbids spreading a lie as well as telling one. In the final analysis, sins are marked by their effect on others. God’s blueprint for living is not merely a list of rules, but a practical guide on how to get along with other people. Giving false testimony against your neighbor is a sin because it hurts someone. Being very honest, many followers of Jesus do not see the harm in this. People who would never think of murder, adultery or theft, gossip their brains out. We need to be extremely careful about what we say to others. That is why James warns us against spreading a lie, calling the tongue a fire and a world of evil among the parts of the body (James 3:6). Proverbs also deals at length with the tongue because it’s so capable of ruining a person’s reputation. Once a lie starts spreading, it is impossible to take back. If you have ever done this, you owe it to your victim to go back to the people you have lied to and set the record straight.

Third, and this is perhaps the greatest meaning or the ninth commandment, we are not to live a lie. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (First John 1:6). Therefore, when we live a lie we deceive ourselves. When what we say is proven false by our life, we are living a lie. Jesus was extremely familiar with people who lived a lie. The scribes claimed to have knowledge they didn’t really possess. The Pharisees claimed to be righteous, but were not. False witnesses told stories of things they had neither seen nor heard. Judas was living a lie when he kissed Yeshua. And Pilate tried to wash his hands of the whole crucifixion, but ordered it nonetheless. You see, the greatest lies we tell are to ourselves. And the reason we do this is because of our pride.

For many people, the biggest lie is when they attempt to maintain a false image of themselves as sinless and not in need of salvation. They try to convince themselves that their lie is true and they try to persuade others that they are something we know they are not. This kind of living lie is described in First John 1:5-10, which ends by saying: If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our lives. The tragedy is that when people tell this kind of a lie to themselves over and over again, they tend to believe it. Once that happens it is very difficult to face the truth.

God faced the truth about you a long time ago. Maybe you’re just beginning to admit the truth about yourself and see that it’s not a pretty picture. Yet ADONAI knows everything about you and loves you anyway. All He wants you to do is admit the truth. Our sins don’t keep us from the LORD, but our attempts to cover up our sins do.

As we stand before the cross, we realize the truth that we are bad enough to crucify the Son of God. That’s the truth about the human heart. ADONAI has known it for a long, long time and perhaps now you know it also. Admit it to Him. Confess it. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (First John 1:9). The moment you do, the power of the lie, the hold of darkness over you, will be broken. Then the Spirit of truth can begin a miracle in your life, leading you away from lying and darkness to truth and light.³⁹⁶

You Shall Not Steal
20: 15

You shall not steal REFLECT: Have I taken things or ideas that were not mine? Do I consider cheating at school, in my business or on my taxes? If I think I could get away with it, is stealing or cheating an acceptable option for me?

You shall not steal (Exodus 20:15).

He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need (Ephesians 4:28).

Of all the commandments in the Bible, this one seems to be the most clear-cut. On the surface it looks very simple. You would think it needs no explanation at all. To steal means the same thing today as it did when God wrote it on tablets of stone. It means the taking of something that belongs to someone else.

This commandment is probably the most universal of all the laws in the world. For example, some primitive cultures had no taboo against immorality as long as neither party was married. But if one of the parties were married, adultery was strictly forbidden, not because it was immoral but because it was considered a form of theft, or stealing another person’s spouse. Often the offender settled the matter by simply paying the husband in cows, goats, money, or the sum the husband originally paid for the wife.

Just as the sixth commandment: You shall not murder, safeguards life, and the seventh commandment: You shall not commit adultery, safeguards love and the family, this eighth commandment safeguards property. It forbids theft, the taking or keeping of something that belongs to someone else. This commandment is desperately needed today.³⁹⁰

Today theft is at an all time high. The cost of crime is now in the billions of dollars a year just in the United States alone. Many teenagers today think stealing from department stores is like a video game. But when they end up in jail with a felony count it is no laughing matter. Amazingly, most of the theft comes from the employees themselves! Therefore, in today’s society honesty is a quality that is highly valued by employers because it so rare. In fact, many godly employees will find security and advancement in their jobs, merely because they follow the eighth commandment.

In our schools and colleges plagiarism on papers and cheating on tests are almost the norm today. Students are infected with the “everyone is doing it” mentality. When caught, most have a “what’s the big deal” attitude. Plagiarism is more and more common because of this fact. Often in my lifetime different people have said to me, “Do you think that posting the Ten Commandments in our classrooms would make any difference at all.” My answer is, “Yes, I do.” ADONAI has said: The word that goes out of My mouth will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:11).

The Bible is clear that stealing can also be taking advantage of someone in need. From the biblical standpoint, to overcharge, to undersell or to deceive is to steal. It’s trying to get something for nothing. It’s trying to gain something at the expense of another person. This is exactly why Jesus drove out the moneychangers from the Temple of His day. Yeshua entered the Temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. It is written, He said to them: My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers (Matthew 21:13). The Temple was supposed to be a place of worship, quiet meditation, contemplation, praise and devotion, a place where God’s people could draw close to Him in worship, sacrifice, and offerings and could seek His will and blessing. But all of that was stolen from them by people who carried on their greedy schemes under the guise of serving and worshiping God.³⁹¹

To cheat is to steal anything, including an honor, which is not rightly yours. Stealing is getting the reward without paying the price, collecting the dividend without making the investment. It’s receiving money without working, its making good grades without studying, it’s getting to the top of the ladder without climbing the rungs. Like the other commandments, the eighth commandment is written from the nature of God into us because we were created in His image. Our lives are an investment. Life involves putting something into it and receiving something in return. Stealing, however, is the shortcut philosophy of life that contradicts this basic principle of God.

The human desire to take shortcuts formed the basis of Christ’s three great temptations in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11). Jesus knew that there would be no crown without the cross, and no redemption without the suffering of a redeemer, and no resurrection without a crucifixion. But Satan tempted Him to get all of that without paying the price for them, to steal them, if you will. Satan knew people were eagerly looking for a king so he told Yeshua to turn stones into bread, to throw Himself down from the highest point of the Temple so the angles would catch Him, and finally to bow down to Satan himself. In other words, to take a shortcut to the kingship without making the sacrifice. But Jesus would have none of it. He knew there could be no shortcuts when He redeemed us; He was willing to pay the price and be nailed to a cross to die as our substitute.

The Bible also describes another way of stealing, which, from a believer’s standpoint, may be the most serious of all. This is stealing by failing to give our talents or our tithe to ADONAI. This is perhaps the highest level of trying to get something for nothing. We steal by accepting something and giving nothing in return. This sin is not doing wrong acts but failing to use our God-given talents and gifts for Yeshua’s service. These were the people in the parables of Jesus who were condemned and punished most severely. We can also steal from God Himself. Malachi 3:8 asks: Will a man rob God? Yet you rob Me. It goes on to explain that we rob God when we fail to give our tithes and offerings. Like his grandfather Abraham who gave tithes to Melchizedek (Genesis 14:40) before him, Jacob acknowledged that everything he had belonged to ADONAI (Genesis 28:22). Later, tithing would become an obligation under the Torah (Leviticus 27:30; Numbers 18:21-24). Today, in the Dispensation of Grace, believers should tithe and it should be done cheerfully and gratefully, not grudgingly or with a selfish attitude (see the commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Do – When You Give to the Needy, Do Not Do It to be Honored by Others).

What seems to be a great help in understanding the original purpose of the Ten Commandments is their function within the community. These are commands given by a redeeming God to a recently redeemed people for whom He had a national purpose. As God’s people, His special possession, the Israelites had to know what He required of them. Being an Israelite was not a matter of private, personal faith. It had vertical and horizontal dimensions. After all, if Isra’el could not treat ADONAI with respect and treat each other as a special people, how could they be a light to the Gentiles? How could they ever be a kingdom of priests in a world that did not know the true God?³⁹²

You Shall Not Commit Adultery
20: 14

You shall not commit adultery REFLECT: Have I been unfaithful to my spouse? Am I involved in pornography? Are lust and a wandering eye affecting the relationship with my mate? Do I take that second look? Am I conscious of what I am looking at? Am I aware that others, co-workers or family members, are following my eyes? What is my witness in this area?

You shall not commit adultery (Exodus 20:14).

The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. God raised up the Lord, and He will raise us up too by His power. Don’t you know that your bodies are parts of the Messiah? So, am I to take parts of the Messiah and make them parts of a prostitute? Heaven forbid! Don’t you know that a man who joins himself to a prostitute becomes physically one with her? For the Scriptures say: The two will become one flesh; but the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.

Therefore, run from sexual immorality (see Genesis 39:12)! Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the fornicator sins against his own body. Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who lives inside you, whom you received from God? The fact is, you don’t belong to yourselves; for you were bought at a price. So use your bodies to glorify God (First Corinthians 6:13-20 CJB).

We live in a sex-saturated society today. Sins that used to be kept in the dark are now flaunted in public. Our sense of shame has been replaced with brazen defiance. Norms that used to be accepted are now being challenged; people living abnormal lifestyles now want to be accepted as normal. Sex sells everything today. It is in every industry, all the time, year after year, day after day, every minute, every second. We cannot escape it. Like Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah, we are swimming in an ocean of sexual excess and perversion while trying to stay clean. Sex crimes are at all-time highs, while infidelity, divorce, and perversion are now commonplace. We are obsessed with sex to a degree perhaps never seen before in the world.

We have the seventh commandment exactly because sex is God’s idea. Your generation didn’t invent sex. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). The commandment: You shall not commit adultery, is God’s response to our obvious abuse of His great gift of sexuality. He recoils at the thought of a woman leaving her home in the middle of the night to sleep with her neighbor’s husband. He is disgusted at prostitution. He is angry with the teenager who seeks to satisfy unrestrained lust. The seventh commandment is the LORD’s desire to protect us from ourselves.

ADONAI approves of sex within the confines of a marriage. Adultery is the abuse of this great gift. Like fire, it can be used for good or it can destroy. Fire in my fireplace can be a good thing. It warms my family and can cook our food. But fire in my living room can destroy both my house and my family. The same can be said for sex. Within the confines of marriage sex is a good and godly thing. But outside of marriage it can destroy my family. When Sha’ul wrote the church at Corinth he reminded them that since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of sexual self-control (First Corinthians 7:1b-5).

When Jesus, restated the seventh commandment in Matthew 5:27-28, He broadened it, just as He had the sixth, to include thoughts. You have heard that it was said, “Do not commit adultery.” But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Looking at a woman lustfully does not cause a man to commit adultery in his thoughts. He already has committed adultery in his heart. It is not lustful looking that causes the sin in his heart, but the sin in his heart that causes lustful looking. The lustful looking is but the expression of a heart that is already immoral and adulterous. The heart is the soil where the seeds of sin are imbedded and begin to grow.³⁸⁶ The point that Yeshua made is this: the fact that you may not follow through and act upon your thoughts does not makes you guiltless.

The Biblical standard is simply this: you shall not lust in thought, word, or deed. Faithfulness to your marriage partner is mandatory. This is the believer’s ethic of sex. You may not agree with it. The world certainly doesn’t like it. You may choose to reject it. But as a believer, you cannot repeal it or revise it.

The word adultery comes from the Hebrew word which means adulteration. The term was first used when the Israelites were worshiping idols, thereby adulterating the true worship of God with godless idols. They had perverted that which was originally pure and clean. That’s what adultery is. It is when we wipe our feet on the pure and clean love that God has given us. When we understand this deeper meaning of adultery, faithfulness and commitment in marriage makes sense; anything else seems unreasonable.³⁸⁷

What does the seventh commandment have to say to those who are not married? The New Covenant uses the term adultery to refer to sex outside of marriage. It uses a different word for sex between two unmarried people: sexual immorality (First Corinthians 5:1, 10:8; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:3). And the prohibition against sexual immorality is just as strict as it is against adultery. Many unmarried people today believe that they are in love, but they are actually in lust. Once the sex starts, they cannot tell the difference. Sexual immorality refers to premarital relations and adultery refers to extramarital relations, but the message is exactly the same. If you have no discipline in your sex life before you get married, you will have no discipline in your sex life after you get married. God doesn’t make mistakes on His counsel regarding sex in our lives.

Do you take that second look? Your eyes will see what they see. You can’t do anything about that. But once you see something provocative, you don’t have to take that second look. It’s the second look that will get you in trouble. King David was not at fault for seeing Bathsheba bathing. He could not have helped noticing her, because she was in plain view as he walked on the palace roof. His sin was taking that second look, dwelling on the sight, and in willingly giving in to the temptation. He could have looked away and occupied his mind in other ways. The fact that he had her brought to his chambers and committed adultery with her showed the immoral desire that already existed in his heart (Second Samuel 11:1-4).

A popular proverb goes, “Sow a thought and reap an act. Sow an act and reap a habit. Sow a habit and reap a character. Sow a character and reap a destiny.” That process perfectly illustrates the point that, no matter where it ends, sin always begins when an evil thought is sown in the mind and heart.³⁸⁸

In the 1920s American society whispered, “Follow your libido,” in the 1960s they boldly pronounced, “If it feels good do it,” and today our society screams proudly, “Love the one you’re with!” But why didn’t it work then, and why doesn’t it work now? You can’t swim in the toilet and come up smelling like a rose. Thousands of years ago Moses claimed that God gave him a command and he wrote: You shall not commit adultery. And this commandment came out of the holy nature and character of ADONAI Himself. Since you and I are created in the image of God, this commandment is written for our own good. If we follow God’s blueprint for living, we can prevent a multitude of health problems. But wrong choices always have their consequences. The explosion of pregnancies outside of marriage, in addition to the proliferation of AIDS and STD cases today proves that God’s plan is meant to insure our happiness and well being.³⁸⁹