Ki Tetse – When you go
D’varim (Deut) 21:10 – 25:19
YeshaYahu (Isaiah) 54:1-10
Matthew 5:27-30; 1 Cor 5:1-5
What kind of news are most people inclined to click on and read? Do stories on acts of kindness and benevolence toward needy and hurting people make the headlines? What topics do get the attention of those who want to know what’s going on in the world?
Why do dark, negative headlines dominate not just the news, but also social media feeds and good old rumor mills? If it’s a ‘slow news day,’ fake news stories are fabricated, and the powers that be will make up stories to satisfy the demand, trying to grab the attention of more viewers. And yes, they have an agenda for the world. But so does YHWH Elohim.
Abba knows the inclinations of the human heart. Reports of bloody violence, rape, and other extreme criminal behavior grab our attention like nothing else. This Torah portion reveals the thoughts and intents of man’s heart and deals head-on with its evil inclination.
The enemy wants us to pay attention to bloody bad news, not the good news of the Messiah redeeming us by His precious blood. Are we willing to pay attention to the Torah of YHWH and the Gospel of Adonai Yeshua the Messiah, the goal of the Torah?
A Warrior Takes a Bride
The Torah portion starts with a war scene that makes for the riveting start of a Hollywood movie:
When you go out (Ki Tetse) to battle against your enemies, and YHWH your God has given them into your hands, and you have taken them captive; and you have seen in the captivity a woman of beautiful form, and you desire her, even to take her to you… Deuteronomy 21:10-11a
Watching a young warrior’s actions in the heat and passion of winning a battle will grab the attention of many a red-blooded man or woman. But what comes next in the Torah is a total departure from what a carnal, proud man would do unrestrained by the Law of God.
“When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive, “and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your wife, “then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails.
“She shall put off the clothes of her captivity, remain in your house, and mourn her father and her mother a full month; after that, you may go into her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. And it shall be if you have no delight in her, then you shall set her free, but you certainly shall not sell her for money; you shall not treat her brutally, because you have humbled her. Deuteronomy 21:11-14
The Torah goes on to address the need for the evil inclination to be restrained by Yah’s commandments. A hot-blooded man or woman needs the lusts of the flesh kept in check.
By the way, I did not come up with this idea, it’s one of those ancient Jewish sayings I believe is of God (Romans 3:1-2). I do not believe everything ‘rabbinic’ is a disadvantage to our faith. How do you answer Paul’s question: ‘What advantage then has the Jew?’
The apostle John called what is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). What is a nation to do about the law-breaking, fallen nature?
The only right thing to do when taking a woman in wartime is not immediately to consume her with a man’s lust, but to patiently go through a betrothal process showing kindness to her, and respecting the woman and her family. A woman should be treated with high regard as a wife in a marriage covenant relationship, never as a sex slave. The Torah gives instructions on how to treat her kindly, and what must be done to prepare for marriage.
The Torah, Our Guardian Leading Us to the Messiah
The principle to learn from these instructions is that children and young people especially must be trained in the way of how to live a righteous life. Before Messiah delivered and changed the heart, we were all slaves to trespasses and sin (Eph 2:1-5, Col 2:13). YHWH Elohim graciously gave us the Torah so that those who observe His Law have a custodian, a guardian, a tutor that keeps the flesh in check and the curses that result from living according to the evil inclination. A society needs law and order found in the Torah.
Now before faith came, we were being guarded under the Torah – bound together until the coming faith would be revealed. Therefore the Torah became our guardian to lead us to Messiah so that we might be made right based on trusting. Galatians 3:23-25
In a community of law and order, the people are better able to reach the goal of the Torah, the Messiah (Rom 10:4), before being devastated or slain by its curses. Our portion shows how violent and evil the human heart is when left unrestrained and unchecked. If there’s no repentance, death by stoning or hanging on a tree were the severe measures necessary to purge evil from the community.
The evil one doesn’t want anyone to live a life reaching his potential contributing to society and being a blessing to everyone around them. So he tempts us to sin and be cursed.
Should the severe measures of the Torah be changed, in principle, for the unrepentant, unrestrained, lawless criminals in today’s world?
I’ve heard through the anti-Jewish rumor mill that the Jews should be condemned for their violence against Hamas, whose name means ‘violence’ in Hebrew. The narrative goes that if those Jews were so righteous and God-fearing, they wouldn’t resort to violent means in dealing with a hostile nation. The Jews are just making Hamas terrorists even more hateful, so they say, by warring violently with them. The rumor mill goes that the root of much evil in the world, even in Gaza, originates with the Jews, especially those in the land called ‘Israel.’ Even if what they say is mostly true, isn’t that lashon hara?
But are those negative, dark sayings against the Jews true? Does the New Testament forbid using violent means to stop evil-doers by a government founded on righteous laws grounded in the Torah? The Gospel preacher Paul addressed the subject:
For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.
Romans 13:3-4
The Jewish Government is justified to bear the sword against violent, evil rebels, who hate all Jews and want the entire race to be eliminated from the River to the Sea.
Better yet, thanks be to Yeshua for the Good News that enmity is slain through the work of the cross! The Gospel reaches those who pay attention to the story of how Yeshua took on the full force and cruelty of man’s hatred and sin against God. The Holy Spirit can stop the violence through the preaching of the Gospel and the born-again experience.
Pray for military and police forces, but especially pray for hearts to be changed and souls to be delivered from violent hatred through the preaching of the Good News of Shalom.
He did this to create within Himself one new man from the two groups, making shalom, and to reconcile both to God in one body through the cross – by which He put the hostility to death. And He came and proclaimed shalom to you who were far away and shalom to those who were near. Ephesians 2:15a-17 TLV
Our top priority for prayer to stop the violent conflicts and hostilities in the world is to pray for the Gospel to go forth, hearts to be changed and souls to be saved. Support evangelism! Yah’s wise strategy is that the Jews who know the Torah with a goal of the Messiah are to be reached first with the Gospel. To the Jew first! Romans 1:16
Beaten Like a Pinball
This portion has a common thread with the red heifer ceremony foreshadowing Yeshua being crucified outside the camp for the rebellious sinner. Remember the Gospel message of the Messiah slain on the cross in the scarlet thread, the hyssop and the cedarwood all cast into the midst of the burning heifer (Numbers 19:6) slain outside the camp?
Also, note the common thread with the Gospel running through the rebellious son taken to the gateway, judged by the elders, and stoned to death outside the camp (Numbers 15:35).
Then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown. They will say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious – he does not listen to our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his city are to stone him with stones to death. So you will purge the evil from your midst – and all Israel will hear and be afraid. Deuteronomy 21:19-21
Yeshua was judged by the elders and crucified for the rebel sinner outside of the Temple courts, to ‘purge the evil from your midst’. For those who do listen to His voice and believe the Gospel, we are saved from the severe consequences of sin and purged from its defilement and the stain of guilt and shame, cleansed by His precious blood.
Stoning rebels is a picture of what the Messiah suffered at the hands of the elders – the chief priests during His trial. Compare stoning to the beating of Yeshua by the Council:
And they all (the chief priests and the Council) condemned Him to be deserving of death. Some began to spit on Him, to blindfold Him, and to beat Him with their fists, saying, “Prophesy!” Also, the guards slapped Him around.
Mark 14:64-65
Worse than being stoned, our Savior was struck from all sides, not with inanimate objects, but with human fists. I learned as a parent not to spank with my hand but with an inanimate object, like a paddle, for the child not to equate the hands that loved and held with what I used for chastisement. The Greek words ‘kolaphizo’ and ‘rhapisma’ mean ‘to blow or strike with fists and the palm’. Boxing Yeshua with their hands was more cruel and humiliating than if they would have stoned Him.
During the beating and slapping around, the head of the innocent Messiah was like a pinball. One of the Council would catch Him with his fist and beat His head over to the next guy who would slap His head over to the next guy, until His head was a bruised and bloody mess. Isaiah prophesied that He would be crushed (Isaiah 53:5,10) and disfigured beyond recognition. His appearance was marred more than any man (Isaiah 52:14).
Boxing is a worldwide sport that gets a lot of attention. What do people like to see? Heads hit with fists, bouncing around with blood splattered and running down heads. If preached to sinners, the words of the prophets and the Gospel about what the bloody Messiah suffered can grab the attention of even a hardened and rebellious criminal.
Hanged On a Tree
Suppose a man is guilty of a sin with a death sentence and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree. His body is not to remain all night on the tree – instead, you must certainly bury him the same day, for anyone hanged is a curse of God. You must not defile the land that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance. Deuteronomy 21:22-23
For the Messiah to fulfill the Torah, He could not remain all night hanging on the cross. Amazingly, we read how Yahweh Elohim orchestrated the events of the crucifixion and its timing. To perfectly fulfill the Torah, the Body of the slain Lamb had to be removed from the cross before sunset, the end of the Hebrew day.
The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was a high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. John 19:31
That high sabbath day was the first day of Unleavened Bread. It was the day that Jewish authorities moved Passover, from the fourteenth to the fifteenth of the first month. Notwithstanding, the Hillel calendar does have errors and needs to be corrected. But I find it fascinating that Adonai Yeshua expressed no issue with the Jewish calendar.
He used their deviation to be the Lamb slain at the same time as lambs were being slaughtered to be eaten that evening. By sunset, at the beginning of the first day of unleavened bread, His pierced and striped body, drained of blood, would be laid in a tomb, then resurrected leaving the grave, fulfilling the Jewish tradition of the afikomen observed on Passover. There are no unresolved conflicts with the fundamental Jewish observances of Passover that I can see. Yeshua Himself went to the Jew first with the Gospel!
Messiah liberated us from Torah’s curse, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) – so that through Messiah Yeshua the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so we might receive the promise of the Ruach through trusting faith.
Galatians 3:13-14
Yeshua had to die on the tree, becoming a curse, ‘so that’ we may receive the blessings of Abraham promised to His people. The greatest blessing of all is that we can receive the gift of His Spirit. Walking in the blessings comes only by believing the Gospel and walking not in the flesh but in the Spirit. We cannot be blessed by merely keeping the Torah. As we abide in the cross living the crucified life, we can keep the Torah, its blessings, and the goodness of God, as we walk in a covenant relationship with Him.
The song ‘Death Was Arrested’ by Aaron Shust resonates with the power of the Gospel:
‘Our Saviour displayed on a criminal’s cross.
Darkness rejoiced as though heaven had lost.
But then Jesus arose with our freedom in hand!
That’s when death was arrested, and my life began!’
Purge the Evil
Suppose a man is found lying with a married woman. Then both of them are to die – the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you are to purge the evil from Israel. Suppose there is a young woman who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her. Deuteronomy 22:22-23
Notice how the following five Alef Tavs are only connected to both the man and the woman sentenced to die by stoning. The highest concentration of Alef Tavs in this portion is in the narrative on stoning a man or woman found guilty of sex outside of marriage:
Good news alert! The power of the cross, the substitute of the Messiah nailed on the tree, is connected to sexual sinners by the agency of the Alef Tav. It’s all a part of Yah’s plan!
What a powerful sign of the New Covenant, applied to the sinner, that YHWH has planned to redeem by the work of the cross, since the very beginning! The ancient Alef pictures the powerful head of an ox with horns of authority, the first letter of El, God. Together the two letters encapsulate God’s plan of Salvation for mankind, the Gospel in a nutshell. YHWH has been working it out from the beginning (Genesis 1) to the end (Revelation 22).
For the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yeshua has set you free from the law of sin and death.
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:2-4
Adonai Yeshua came in the likeness of sinful flesh and all the horrors of the consequences for sin – taking the beating, smitten, and bruised for our transgressions. Now let’s take a look at another violent punishment that our Messiah took in our place:
Forty Stripes Save One
Suppose there is a dispute between people and they approach the court, the judges hear their case and declare one righteous and the other guilty.
Now if the guilty one deserves to be flogged, the judge is to make him lie down and be flogged before him, with the number of lashes in proportion to his guilt.
He may strike him 40 times, but no more. Otherwise, he would beat him with too many a wound beyond these, and your brother would be degraded in your eyes. Deuteronomy 25:1-3
In the nation of Israel, punishments were effective. No one received punishment by incarceration. Nobody went to jail according to the Torah. If the violator of the Torah was found guilty of sin, not unto death, he would be flogged with whips as a correction measure. The elders/judges at the gates would determine a ‘measure for measure’ punishment. He didn’t go to a ‘corrections’ facility to sit for a time receiving three hots and a cot. Our Father in Heaven did not spare the rod and spoil the child.
The thought of ribbons of bloody flesh hanging down the back of the Lamb of God, flogged 39 times with cat-o-nine tails, is a shocking picture and grabs our attention. But what was meant to weaken the Son of Man and expose a large amount of His body to infectious diseases, YHWH Elohim called ‘healing’ for those who come to Yeshua by faith.
Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him Who judges righteously: Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by Whose stripes you were healed. 1 Peter 2:22-24
Praise Abba for the Good News of the cross! Yeshua took on the full brunt of the wrath of Elohim against the worst of sinners – violent murderers, rapists, and even ‘good old boys’ who ignorantly or unintentionally violate the Creator’s Law. Once we find out what YHWH Elohim requires for punishment and for evil to be purged, we realize our desperate need for a Savior to take our place. The Scriptures teach us that It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews 10:31
May we all have a healthy fear and awe of our God. But may we all behold the Lamb of God and grow in the grace and knowledge of Yeshua the Messiah. May we all declare a Gospel that’s not watered down and easy to take, but grabs the attention of souls needing to come to terms with the consequences of sin in their lives and how that affects the community. May evil in our communities be purged by the preaching of the Gospel and the work of the cross saving souls.
BaShem Adonai Yeshua, Savior of the world!
David
