Weekly Sabbath Portion Bible Study
Introduction to the Weekly Sabbath Portion Bible Study
In John 5:46,47 Yeshua (Jesus) said, “For if you really believed Moshe (Moses), you would believe me because it was about me that he wrote. But if you don’t believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” Yet, today many people discard the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) that Moshe wrote and these people think that that not relevant to them today! How can this be, my brothers and sisters, when Yeshua, himself, spoke of the writings of Moshe as a prerequisite to believing in him??? I submit to you that we have misunderstood these matters and are missing the richness of the whole Word of God. The purpose of Moshe’s writings, the Torah, has always been to point us to the “living Torah”, our Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus). By studying the Torah, we begin to see God’s progressive revelation that finds its ultimate fulfillment in our Messiah Yeshua. The Torah has been called ” the root of all Scripture”. This makes sense when we consider that the definition of the word actually means instruction. Therefore, God’s instruction is the root of all Scripture! It has been my experience that intently studying the Torah has increased the clarity of Yeshua’s words and made apparent that Scripture is a cohesive unit that is not in conflict with itself nor should should it be divided. God is one, and His Word is one. These studies will show the harmony of Scripture and reveal Messiah in places you may have never seen Him before! The current process of studying Torah in a yearly cycle goes back thousands of years even before Yeshua’s time. We see an example of this in Luke 4:16-18 when Yeshua reads from the accompanying portion of the prophets from the scroll of Isaiah at the synagogue on the Sabbath. The yearly Torah cycle study has been unchanged for many millennia it consists of one of the 54 Torah portions and an accompanying haftarah portion (usually from the prophets) being read every weekly Sabbath. Join us as we go through this weekly study and discover the depth of treasure that lies in the Torah that Yeshua described as the prerequisite to believing in the words that he spoke!
Portion 17
In the Torah, portions are named by words appearing in the first verse of the portion. This is because the Torah was written long before chapter divisions. So the portion to be read was located by looking for the key word in the first verse. For instance, the Hebrew title for the book of Genesis is Beresheit because the first word of the Bible is Beresheit which means “in the beginning”. Because this word appears first in the first verse of Scripture, it is the title of the portion and also the title of the book/scroll as well. This week’s portion is entitled Jethro (Yitro) because he is mentioned in the first verse and also because he plays a major part in the events that follow. This is not the first appearance of Jethro in the Torah. We previously met him when Moses had fled from Pharoah and was tending the flocks of Jethro in Midian.This time we meet up with Jethro again just after the exodus from Egypt and the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea. Previously in the Torah, Jethro was referred to only as the priest of Midian. However, this time he is called the father-in-law of Moses. Why the change in description? The answer is in the first verse of our portion – “Jethro had heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt.” In fact, Jethro, all the way in Midian, is not the only person who had heard of the mighty acts by which the LORD delivered his people from Egypt all the surrounding lands had heard the news! Moses had become great. He was no longer a homeless shepherd who had married the daughter of a great dignitary of Midian. No, in fact, the roles were reversed. Moses was now the dignitary. Therefore Jethro is referred to by his relation to the great leader of the people of Israel. During their reunion, Moses begins to fill in all the details of their deliverance from Egypt. After hearing this, Jethro is moved to bless the Lord and says, “Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods, by the victory over Egypt in all that they conspired against Israel!” This statement in verse 11 alludes to Egypt conspiring to drown the Hebrew infants at birth but instead God punished Egypt measure for measure by drowning their military forces in the sea. We will see this principle of measure for measure judgment over and over in our Torah studies. Upon seeing the hand of judgment on the Egyptians yet sparing his people, Jethro was moved to worship the LORD and brought offerings to God. Commentaries by the Jewish sages say that the offerings that Jethro brought are consistent with the offerings a convert would bring to join God’s people. This strikes me as significant because, often when people see God’s hand in our lives, it moves them to: exclaim their praise and excitement, examine the things of the LORD, and eventually join the people of God. Hearing about the goodness of God SHOULD lead people to God. That’s what happened here and they celebrated with a feast to the LORD. Verse 13 is the next day and the people are gathered around Moses they are zealous to hear him teach the ways of God and to render righteous decisions for the people. What Moses was doing was not bad but like they say, “the line was around the block.” Jethro upon seeing this decides to give Moses some counsel about how to more effectively serve this people that God has given him to shepherd. This advice is so monumental that it earns Jethro a place in the Torah forever and is still in use in almost every nation of the world
! Jethro’s advice is the model by which all judicial systems are built on today with a system of higher and lower courts. The purpose of the judicial system is to instruct a nation in righteousness and justice. Jethro explains that this system will help this new nation arrive at its destination, the Promised Land, in peace. Verse 24 record that Moses did, in fact, heed the voice of Jethro. (continued)
Portion #17 Jethro (continued)
23 Feb 25
After making this monumental contribution to Israel and to all of humanity, Jethro exits the stage until a later point in the Torah. Now in chapter 19 of our portion, the climax of the exodus from Egypt is now at hand and the expectation of the people is palpable. Previous encampments on their journey from Egypt were marked with grievances against Moses and God but now here at Mt. Sinai there is not a word of complaint. In verse 2, the Hebrew word for encamped is in the singular, teaching us that the multitude encamped as one man – like a single person with a single desire. Verse 3 begins a cycle of Moses ascending and descending the mountain to relay the LORD’s instruction to the people to prepare them to receive the Torah. The Lord declares that He has borne them on eagle’s wings and brought them to Himself, which is an indication of His great love for them. An eagle carries its young on its back to use its body to shield its young from danger. The LORD says that if they will listen to Him and observe His covenant that they will be to Him the most beloved treasure of all peoples. This is really the crux of the matter today! Will we listen to the voice of the LORD and keep His covenant? Are our hearts in a posture to do what He asks of us, even if we don’t understand? Will we simply obey His voice because He has freed us from slavery and brought us to Himself? Israel was moved in the moment to declare in verse 8, “everything that the LORD has spoken we shall do!” They had chosen to obey the LORD even before they had heard what He would ask of them. After Moses tells the LORD that the people have agreed to receive the Torah, he descends the mountain to sanctify the people. I am reminded that our mediator, Yeshua, also descended to sanctify a people unto God. Verse 16 reads, “On the third day when it was morning, there was thunder and lightning and a heavy cloud on the mountain, and the sound of a shofar was very powerful, and the entire people that were in camp shuddered.” That verse is similar to one describing the resurrection of Yeshua on the third day and the guards at the tomb shuddered as the earth quaked. These imageries both describe the presence of God on Earth. In verse 17, God is already waiting for His people on the mountain and Moshe brings them toward God. Unlike kings who arrive after everyone has gathered, God is waiting for His people like a groom waits for his bride during a marriage ceremony. And indeed the scene prefigures a time when Yeshua will take His bride. What follows in chapter 20 is the utterance of God most people refer to as the Ten Commandments. They are referred to as the Ten Sayings or aseret hadibrot by Hebrew culture. They are referred to his way because they are not all written as a command in the imperative. The traditional Western accounting of the commands differ from Hebrew culture because of this understanding. By the Hebrew accounting, the first saying is not a command but a statement of fact from which all the rest are derived. The Hebrew accounting lists the first saying as “I am the LORD, your God…” Although stated as a simple fact, it is a positive commandment to believe in the LORD as the only God. This is a necessary prerequisite to any commandment, that the LORD is our God. The second through the tenth commandments don’t matter if we haven’t first accepted that the LORD is indeed our God. First and foremost, we must settle it in our own hearts and minds as to whether He is our God and if we will submit to Him or not. This is the root of all the commandments! Yeshua said in John 14:15, “if you love me, you will keep my commands.” Will we obey the voice of the LORD? I pray that we will say like Israel did after receiving the revelation of this great God of ours, “all that the LORD has said, we will do!”
Portion #18 Mishpatim, Exodus 21:1-24:18…
24 Feb 25
Portion #18 Mishpatim, Exodus 21:1-24:18
This portion is called Mishpatim which is the plural of the word mishpat (Strong’s #4941) that is translated in verse 1 as ordinances. The idea of mishpat is a decision handed down by a judge or a judgment. That understanding gives us insight when we think of the LORD as “The Judge” who has handed down these decisions about how we are to conduct ourselves. These decisions should guide our ordinary behavior therefore making them ordinances that we follow. There are 613 commandments in the Torah and 53 of them are in this portion which is referred to as “the epitome of the Torah”. This portion deals with civil law, murder and manslaughter, damages, restitution, laws and guidelines dealing with moral uprightness, Sabbath, and the Festivals of the LORD. We will investigate the LORD’s purpose behind giving his people these laws. What do these laws tell us about The Lawgiver? Are there deeper spiritual truths that can help us in our daily life today? What were these guidelines supposed to accomplish in this new nation that was newly freed from a life of slavery in Egypt? Is there a correlation between a nation of freed slaves who are being instructed in righteousness and a sinner who has been delivered from sin and death who has turn to God to be instructed in righteous living? Sometimes we can get so caught up in the seemingly mundane and archaic laws in the Bible and completely miss the spiritual truth that God was actually trying to teach us by that law, the spirit of the law. As we look at this portion of Scripture keep your eyes and heart open to see deeper spiritual truths from God’s Word.
This portion begins with the conjunction AND which indicates that there is a connection between this chapter and the previous one (ch20) which describes the Ten Commandments and the altar (see portion #17). Just as the commandments in the previous chapter were given at Mt. Sinai, soon too were these ordinances in chapter 21, which mainly deal with civil/tort law (tort law is any wrongdoing for which action for damages can be brought). This teaches us that there is no realm of religion that is separate from daily life. All areas of life are intertwined and holiness is derived from pursuing a life of godliness in ordinary and mundane areas as much as in so called “spiritual matters”. In Hebraic culture, the concept of the temple exists in the courtroom as much as it does in the place of worship. A judge who rules correctly is considered a partner in Creation, and one who rules corruptly is a destroyer of God’s world. These seemingly mundane ordinances in this portion are just as much an expression of God’s greatness as the First Commandment which proclaims God’s existence and sovereignty over all His Creation. As I stated in the last portion, every commandment in the Torah is connected to the Ten Commandments. They are more like ten divisions that every commandment of God fits into. For instance, the civil law concerning personal property is connected to the Tenth Commandment, the prohibition against coveting. How can you know what not to covet without understanding the rights and property of other people? So, we see, these are not haphazard directives from an overbearing God rather, they were meant to instruct us as to how the people of a holy God should conduct themselves in ALL things! Ancient Hebrew teaching states that if one desires to be a religiously devout person, he should be careful regarding the laws of damages. We must not oppress or injure others by our careless actions. James 1:27 says, “the religious observance that God the father considers pure and faultless is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being contaminated by the world”. Interestingly, he puts protecting those who could easily be oppressed, neglected, or injured on an even footing with keeping your own self from contamination by the world. (continued)
Portion #18 Mishpatim (continued)
24 Feb 25
That proves, once again, that there is something deeper than the plain meaning of these seemingly mundane ordinances going on. There is a much deeper underlying spiritual principle the LORD is teaching us if we have ears to hear. Yeshua said in Luke 16:10, “he who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much”. Do we see these acts of compassion and kindness towards the weak and vulnerable as trifles that are too insignificant to be concerned with? Or are we endeavoring to be faithful even in the small, ordinary, and mundane of every day life? A major overarching theme of this portion is that all life is precious to God. And everyone, even the most degraded men and women in servitude, are created in God’s image and, because of this fact, the Torah carefully regulates their treatment. God declared that his people should be holy, or set apart, because He is holy. We are to be a reflection of the God we serve! God is holy, righteous, and just. By following these ordinances, the people of God would be seen to exemplify His nature and character. Some so called moderns would argue that these laws are antiquated and don’t apply today. This is, in part, that they don’t have a heart to say, “all that the LORD has commanded, we will do” and partly that they fail to understand the deeper spiritual principles upon which these ordinances are built. I submit to you that we should not only submit ourselves to the LORD to obey, even if we don’t completely understand “the WHY”, but that we should endeavor to discover the spiritual significance of His commandments to us. For instance, someone may not believe that the law of the bondservant,that this portion begins with in verses 2-6, is relevant in today’s culture where relatively no slavery exists. While this may be somewhat true in the letter of that law, what is the spirit of that law that applies today? On the day that the law of the bondservant was given to the people of God, they had just been freed from slavery in Egypt. None of this generation had ever known freedom. For one of these people to willingly go back to a form of slavery as a bondservant was a serious matter to the LORD, and so the Torah stipulates how this Hebrew brother must be treated. A Hebrew bondservant was usually one who lacked the means of support for himself and his family and would attach himself for a period of time to a master who would provide for them in exchange for labor. This could be a humiliated thing for one to submit to. In verse 5 of our portion, the Torah begins laying out the process by which a bondservant who loves his master may give up his freedom and serve in his master’s house forever. The plain meaning of these verses may appear antiquated until we examine it closer with spiritual eyes and ears. Many of the writers of the New Testament Scriptures refer to themselves as “bondservant of the Messiah Yeshua” when describing themselves. When we use this lens, the law of the bondservant in our portion comes into focus! We as the people of God can give up our self-will and join ourselves to the Master and serve in His house. Although we could go out free into the world, we have declared our love for the Master and our gratitude for the family He has given us and we have chosen not to go out but to remain in His house and serve Him joyfully forever! When we understand that the LORD was not just giving us His laws at Mt. Sinai, but that He was literally revealing Himself and showing us His heart for us we can be moved to gratefully exclaim with all our hearts, “all that the LORD has commanded, we will do!” That statement can only come from a heart that has the seen the revelation of who the Master is and His heart for us, his people!
Shalom, my brothers and sisters!