Tag: torah

  • A River of Redemption Flowing from Eden – The Ten Commandments

    Then all the people responded together, “We will do all that the Lord has spoken.” So Moses brought the people’s words back to the Lord. – Exodus 19:8 CSB

    Everyone knows The Ten Commandments – 

    As we noted previously, commandment implies both authority and relationship. Jesus’ answer to a lawyers’ question, “Master, which is the greatest commandment?” did not mention even one of the Ten Commandments, but rather pointed toward our relationship to God.

    When someone asks you about the Ten Commandments, what is your immediate response?

    Do you know them? (It likely depends on your religious upbringing.)

    I was raised in a family which worshiped the Lord where children and youth were weekly schooled  in a primer of faith. Therefore, from my Sunday-school training I instantly regurgitated, ‘Exodus 20,’ as response of quick recall about the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20 is actually just one place the Commandments are mentioned, but let’s start there.

    How many of the Ten Commandments can you name?

    How did you do? According to a source quoting a USA Today poll, if you could name five Commandments you did better than six out of ten Americans. If you correctly named all Ten Commandments, you are one of only fourteen in one hundred Americans [14%] who could do so. Sadly, this knowledge of Scripture is even lower in many countries on other continents.

    Background and Context of the Ten Commandments

    Did you realize that the Ten Commandments appear multiple times in the Bible? Though not listed every time, the record of the Ten Words gives context to their application and emphasis to their authenticity.

    Exodus 20

    Exodus 24:3 Moses came and told the people all the commands of the Lord and all the ordinances. Then all the people responded with a single voice, “We will do everything that the Lord has commanded.”

    • 4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD… 7 He then took the covenant scroll and read it aloud to the people.
    • 12 The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay there so that I may give you the stone tablets with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”

    From the Hebrew:

    24:12  וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה עֲלֵה אֵלַי הָהָרָה וֶהְיֵה־שָׁם וְאֶתְּנָה לְךָ אֶת־לֻחֹת הָאֶבֶן וְהַתֹּורָה וְהַמִּצְוָה כָּתַבְתִּי לְהֹורֹתָֽם׃

    Law – תּוֹרָה – Torah and Commandment – מִצְוָה – Mitzvah

    The Two Stone Tablets

    18 When he finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God.

    “…and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.”

    The word of the LORD, of His chosen nation.

    Violation of the LORD’S spoken Word!

    Exodus 32:

    7 The Lord spoke to Moses: “Go down at once! For your people you brought up from the land of Egypt have acted corruptly. 8 They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them…

    9 The Lord also said to Moses: “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone, so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

    11 But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God: “Lord, why does your anger burn against your people you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a strong hand? … Turn from your fierce anger and relent concerning this disaster planned for your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel…

    15 Then Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides—inscribed front and back. 

    16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was God’s writing, engraved on the tablets.

    19 … Moses became enraged and threw the tablets out of his hands, smashing them at the base of the mountain.

    We will not here today dwell on Moses’ role as the hand of the Lord’s vengeful wrath. You may recall a sanitized image of the idolatry of the golden calf, but consider from scripture what took place.

    25 Moses saw that the people were out of control… 26 And Moses stood at the camp’s entrance and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.”

    … “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Every man fasten his sword to his side; go back and forth through the camp from entrance to entrance, and each of you kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’”

    28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and about three thousand men fell dead that day among the people. 

    Did you remember this terrible refining of the camp of the Hebrews and slaughter of three thousand men?

    I didn’t, for I had not read this scripture recently.

    31 So Moses returned to the Lord… 

    33 The Lord replied to Moses: “Whoever has sinned against me I will erase from my book. 34 Now go, lead the people to the place I told you about; see, my angel will go before you.

    But on the day I settle accounts, I will hold them accountable for their sin.”

    Would you have been among those slaughtered for your idolatry? Or would you be among those enduring earthly plague, never entering the promised land?

    Is it not a fearful for us to be held accountable for our sin?

    The Lord Again Writes Down The Ten Commandments

    Exodus 34:

    The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

    4 Moses cut two stone tablets like the first ones. He got up early in the morning, and taking the two stone tablets in his hand, he climbed Mount Sinai, just as the Lord had commanded him.

    34:5  וַיֵּרֶד יְהוָה בֶּֽעָנָן וַיִּתְיַצֵּב עִמֹּו שָׁם וַיִּקְרָא בְשֵׁם יְהוָֽה׃

    5 The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed his name, “the Lord.” 6 The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed:

    The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin.

    But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.

    8 Moses immediately knelt low on the ground and worshiped.

    Ten Words and More Commands

    10 And the Lord responded: “Look, I am making a covenant… 11 Observe what I command you today… 

    27 The Lord also said to Moses, “Write down these words, for I have made a covenant with you and with Israel based on these words.”

    28 Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat food or drink water. He wrote the Ten Commandments, the words of the covenant, on the tablets.


    This hearing of the Law: To be continued…

     

  • The Curse of Disease and Death – 2

    The Curse of Disease and Death – 2

    Moses, Privilege of the Wilderness

    In part one of this series about our attitude toward disease and death we briefly examined a story from the oldest book of the Bible, Job. Job was well-to-do, he had then lost nearly everything including his health, yet he blessed the Lord. תּוֹרָה‎Today we examine part of a too-familiar story from the Pentateuch [Torah ], written by Moses. The Book of the Law, or the first five books of the Bible, are written about the Lord and relationship to man (adam), but within this story we find a man not unlike Job, a man of privilege and wealth, Moses.

    Moses may have been the most learned man on earth in his day, raised as a prince of privilege in a palace of a most powerful man who accumulated wealth and knowledge from the many corners of the world he ruled, conquered or traded. The house of Pharaoh, a throne perhaps to which Moses could have ascended upon his death, was a Rome on the Nile to which the peoples of the land looked in worship.

    Egypt of MosesMoses, Prince of Egypt, ruled over the important day-to-day projects in the extensive north-to-south agricultural empire whose glory was tied to management of the rich resources of the 4,160 mile [6670 km] long Nile River.

    Moses gave up much, first in fleeing for his life at age forty and later in returning at age eighty to challenge Pharaoh at the urging of the Lord, only to be led to live in the wilderness of Sinai for forty more years.

    The Torah breezes quickly over typically the most notable years of a man’s life to tell most about Moses’ life after age eighty.

    [ctt title=”The Torah is five Books about the LORD, not a book about Moses.” tweet=”תּוֹרָה‎” coverup=”U9Qna”]

    Exodus 2:

    Moses Flees to Midian

    11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens…

    21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man [Jethro, Priest of Midian], and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. 22 She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”

    God Hears Israel’s Groaning

    23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God…

    Exodus 3 

    The Burning Bush

    Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed…


    Most of us are fairly familiar with this part of Moses’ story, yet with minimal thought of his again comfortable life with a wife and children and a good job of shepherd. We fail to remember that much time has passed and Moses has survived his own flight from Pharaoh (father of his adoptive Egyptian mother) to establish a good life in the family of a Hebrew priest.

    Now there is a new Pharaoh, perhaps a son who came to the throne of Egypt who would have grown up with Moses, a son perhaps even jealous of the many talents of the former Prince of Egypt who had fled to Midian so many years before. “Exodus 2:23 During those many days the king of Egypt died…” Easy to have missed this. Time had passed in life as always it will.


    Exodus 3:

    10 “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

    Moses is about to become (after a time) a man higher than the LORD’s High Priest, a mortal standing before the Lord as Adam had been in the very presence of the LORD! Yet first, much time would pass both in Egypt and in the wilderness.

    Exodus 4:19-20

    And the LORD said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand…

    27 The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him to speak, and all the signs that he had commanded him to do.


    Exodus 7:

    Moses and Aaron Before Pharaoh

    And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment.


    We know well the drama to follow: plagues and suffering of both Egyptian and Hebrew. What we may have missed in the big screen dramas is how the Lord used a now ordinary old man (Moses) to lead a suffering people to the promised land. We might not see the humble weakness of old Moses in light of the powerful work the Lord would do by his own hand.

    Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

    This, of course, was prior to the suffering of the plagues to follow or forty more years of a most difficult life dependant on the manna of God in the wilderness of the Sinai.


    Forty years of suffering

    You’ve lived a good life, one longer than most in those days, eighty years. Would you now choose to go out into the desert as leader of a difficult people? Would you now choose to suffer the severe hard life of a nomad refugee in desperate need of water and food, a people without home or shelter?

    Why would God allow this – yes, even command it?

    Like Job, Moses believed the covenant promise of the Lord. God does not always call us to receive double blessing at the end of our life. The Lord does not call us to always extend our years to one hundred and twenty, with sight of the land promised to your sons and daughters.

    If the Lord calls us to suffering, the loss of a child or loved one, the loss of city and home, the devastating loss of health; it is for His own righteous will and the redemption of His own worshipers.

    Are you a worshiper of the Lord God? Would you humble your flesh,  surrender your prideful ‘self?’

    Would you sacrifice your home, your wealth and everything you have ever known before Almighty God? For the LORD IS, He will judge of our souls and redeems the lives of His own. The Lord IS and He has suffered in the flesh for your sins and for mine.


    Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. – Hebrews 3:3


    To be continued…

     

     

  • Shin

    Shin

    Your Word Is a Lamp to My Feet

    Sin and Shin [Schin]

    161 Princes persecute me without cause,
    but my heart stands in awe of your words.

    Consider for a moment, authority; both legitimate and illegitimate. Government: leaders and those with power over other people. Explanation of “Princes,” used here holds complexity that could include many men and women of the world of many positions even in this day.

    שַׂר – sar – 

    prince, ruler, leader, chief, chieftain, official, captain

    from the root: From שָׂרַר (H8323)

    1. chieftain, leader
    2. vassal, noble, official (under king)
    3. captain, general, commander (military)
    4. chief, head, overseer (of other official classes)
    5. heads, princes (of religious office)
    6. elders (of representative leaders of people)
    7. merchant-princes (of rank and dignity)
    8. patron-angel
    9. Ruler of rulers (of God)
    10. warden

    Consider how many rule (lord it over) other men. What is the basis of their authority?

    Is it God, our Creator and LORD of all? Or have they no legitimate cause to lord it over anyone, least of all a righteous man?

    Further, consider the humility by which for your sin a righteous man would give the Princes and powers the authority to hang above His crucified body a sign proclaiming Him:

    Jesus, King of the Jews

    162 I rejoice at your word
    like one who finds great spoil.
    163 I hate and abhor falsehood,
    but I love your law.

    Surly the Princes are liars! Leaders who lie in wait to snare the righteous that they might reap the spoil of their meager wages.

    The Lord God will avenge the faithful, those who love His law.

    164 Seven times a day I praise you
    for your righteous rules.
    165 Great peace have those who love your law;
    nothing can make them stumble.

    Ezekiel 3:20 Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die.

    The Hand of God shall place before the evil ones the stumbling block of their fall and the snare of their demise.

    166 I hope for your salvation, O Lord,
    and I do your commandments.

    Yĕhovah sabar  yĕshuw`ah

    KJV – LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation

    167 My soul keeps your testimonies;
    I love them exceedingly.
    168 I keep your precepts and testimonies,
    for all my ways are before you.