Rabbi's Drash

Mishpatim

( Rulings )

5769

 Exodus 21:1-24:18
 

The essence of Mishpatim, is that G-d is not giving us a set of legalistic rules to do or not to do, but instead, He is giving them to us to show us how to live a full life. When Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive Torah, he was actually establishing a link between G-d and us. G-d was showing us that He will be with us through His Word, His Torah. The book of Yochanan begins with "In the beginning was the Word…" and we as Messianic Jews understand that he was showing us that Torah is alive and abides in us through Yeshua, the Living Torah. One of the issues which our sages have problems with is in the chronology of chapter 24 of Exodus. It is important to know that the book of Exodus is not chronological. It is not a systematic book instead it demonstrates to us that G-d is speaking in the past, present and the future. He was speaking as much to those who stood at the base of the mountain with Moses as He is speaking to us today. The main intention was that G-d would give us something that would set us apart from the rest of the nations-His teachings, rules and regulations to live by so that we could have the wisdom to avoid life's many problems if we would only follow them. How can we understand the statement in chapter 24:10…"and they saw the God of Israel…" knowing that no-one can see G-d without dying. The Hebrew language is replete with euphemisms. It is not a systematic language, it is a holistic one. It is a language which paints pictures to bring images to the mind of the hearer and cannot always be taken literally. In this case, it is being said that they saw the glory of G-d, His Presence, a manifestation of G-d similar to what Yeshua said in several places in the book of Yochanan that when we saw him we were seeing the Father for he and the Father are one (Yochanan 10:30). The idea of the Theophany is common in the Scriptures. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, his face was shining. The rabbis wrote in Jewish folklore that Moses became like an angel, a super-special human being. This is how the people could understand this super quality of Yeshua when he came to earth. It was already in our folklore, in the legends about Moses who was borderline elevated to the position of an angel. Our sages write that even the angels were upset about this position of Moses for he was made higher than them. Isn't that what was written about Yeshua in the Messianic Writings? Yeshua used the words of Moses to show us that he was indeed the Messiah. In Christianity we find the title describing Yeshua as "Moses Redivivus" or the revived Moses (Deut 18:18-19). Messiah would fulfill all that Moses wrote about and all that he himself could not be for the people. Moses brought us Torah and Yeshua was the living Torah. The next step would be for G-d to fulfill what was written in Ezekiel 36:27 and Jeremiah 31:31-33 where He would take the Torah and write it on our hearts. He was not writing a new covenant as the misnomer would imply; He was going to take the covenant which He made with our forefathers and He would make sure that this last time, it would be finally kept. He would change our hearts of stone and give us a heart of flesh with Torah engraved in them. The words New Testament and Old Testament do not exist in the Scriptures and mislead the reader into thinking that a new one replaced the old. This is false and dangerous. This idea leads people to believe that the Torah was improved with Yeshua, instead of seeing that Yeshua brought us back to true Torah. By changing the understanding we have done something that NO ONE is permitted to do- to change the Torah or the Word of G-d, replacing it with his own understanding. We all need to do a lot of soul searching where we allow our own personal interpretations to invalidate the Word of G-d (Deut 4:1-2; Is 29:13-14; Ps. 78:36 ff; Matt 5: 17-20; Matt 15:8-9). We need to come to grips with the fact that the Word of G-d cannot be changed to accommodate a different era or according to our whims because of our so called tolerance, acceptance, egalitarianism, political correctness and now theological correctness. Let's put attention to what Shimon Kefas has to say in II Kefas (2 Pet. 2:1 ff) and keep our eyes, ears and hearts open to follow G-d's Word and not man's word. "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves." Remember what Yeshua said in Matthew 5:17-20, "Do not think that I came to abolish the Torah or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Torah until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."    May G-d add blessings to His Word!      Rabbi Percy Johnson      Netanel ben Yochanan      [nxy [b lantn      © 2008 Use by Permission      Kehilat She’ar Yashuv

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