The best acne treatments in the world are no substitute for solid teaching and sound doctrine, straight from the Torah. Here’s my commentary on Yitro. Or listen to it!
Shabbat Shalom.
Our parashah for today is Yitro, or “Jethro,” and covers Exodus 18:1 through 20:26. This week’s parashah is perhaps one of the most important of the entire Torah. The action takes place in the days following the crossing of the yam suf. During this time, Moses gets a visit from his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, then we are told of the preparations the people make to hear from God directly, and then the Ten Commands are given.
As this week’s reading begins, we are told that word of the destruction of Pharaoh’s army had spread throughout the region, and this news brought Jethro to where Moses and the people of Israel were staying. Moses’ wife, Zipporah, as well as their two sons, Gershom and Eliezer, came as well; they had been sent by Moses to Jethro prior to the exodus from Egypt, and now the family of Moses is reunited.
Jethro decides to stay for a while, rejoicing with Moses and the people over the great victory The L-RD had won over Pharaoh and his army, but as Jethro observes Moses’ daily routine, he becomes concerned and lets Moses know it.
Exodus 18:13-18
The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?” Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and laws.” Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.”
What Jethro observed here is not merely a concern over Moses being a “work-a-holic.” Keep in mind what we have learned in recent weeks about the children of Israel. There was easily over a million, and perhaps close to two million, people who had left Egypt as part of the Exodus. As a people that had grown too complacent, too blended into the Egyptian culture they had lived in for well over 400 years, they were used to relying on their leaders as one relies on God – as the source for all their answers. While in Egypt, they had come to rely on Pharaoh more than the L-RD; now, in the wake of a great victory, the people were starting to put Moses in the place of Pharaoh in their lives, rather than the L-RD Himself.
So Jethro, due to his position as a priest and familiar with the burdens of leadership, teaches Moses an important lesson about delegating authority to trustworthy people. While that is important, the underlying message is even more critical; he was helping Moses to avoid slipping into accepting the role of Israel’s false god, replacing one Pharaoh for another.
Importantly, Moses accepts this advice from Jethro. Moses is a man accustomed to hearing from God Himself, and fresh off perhaps the largest victory ever in terms of a man obeying The L-RD, and yet does Moses get defensive and tell Jethro to mind his own business? Does he tell him, “I just brought over a million people out of slavery and through the yam suf – I think I know what I’m doing?”
No. Moses is humble enough to accept the advice of others when it is offered. This is part of the reason why Moses is praised by The L-RD in the Torah and declared to be “the humblest man who ever lived.”
After Jethro returns to his home, Moses and the people of Israel finally arrive before the mountain of the L-RD and prepare to meet with the L-RD. We read, in:
Exodus 19:3-6
Then Moses went up to God, and the L-RD called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’”
It is here that God first sets down the terms of the covenant he is about to make with the children of Israel. His plan for Israel is for them to become his priests, his messengers to the rest of the world. They are to teach the rest of the nations the Torah and the worship of the Father. But there is a condition, isn’t there?
Part of the condition is found above; they must obey The L-RD fully and keep His covenant with them. And the covenant includes allowing The L-RD to speak his truth to them directly. Only if these conditions are met can the promises be fulfilled that Israel will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Yet, as the Torah teaches and Rabbi Stan has often pointed out, the story doesn’t end there, does it? Israel keeps up their end of the covenant, right up until the L-RD speaks the 10 Commands in chapter 20. And then what happens? We read about it initially in:
Exodus 20:18-21
When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” Moses 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.” The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.
So, what is the nature of an agreement like a covenant? It is an agreement between two parties – in this case, God and the children of Israel – and both sides must agree to the terms. So what did the children of Israel do here? They changed the terms, didn’t they? But the L-RD’s response doesn’t come here in Exodus; we find it later on, in:
Deuteronomy 18:15-19
The L-RD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the L-RD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the L-RD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.” The L-RD said to me: “What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.
So when the L-RD sees that the people find it too hard to listen to His voice directly, He accepts a change in the covenant terms, but He makes a change, too, doesn’t He? Now, He promises a “prophet like Moses” to become the eternal intermediary between the L-RD and man; not Moses, but a prophet like Moses. This is a reaffirmation of the promised Messiah, a promise the L-RD first made in the Garden of Eden, and ultimately fulfilled hundreds of years after Moses, in the Messiah Yeshua.
Now, many Christian churches today will teach that we are “set free from the Law,” and for most of them, they will claim that this includes the 10 Commands. This arises from a basic misunderstanding of what “the Law” means. Depending on how it’s used, the phrase translated as “the Law” can refer to the Oral Traditions of the rabbis, the Torah, or the laws of Moses, which are usually contained primarily in the Leviticus. Very rarely is the phrase “the Law” used to refer just to the 10 Commands. Why is that? It is because of source differences.
The Oral Traditions of the rabbis are the teachings of men; the Torah comprises the God-inspired first five books of the Tenakh. The so-called “laws of Moses” represent, as Rabbi Stan teaches, a mediation between God and Moses, a minimum standard of behavior required for someone to be found acceptable to the L-RD. But the 10 Commands are different; they were spoken by The L-RD Himself, directly to all the children of Israel. This means they are different; they do not represent a minimum standard; they are non-negotiable.
So when I hear some teachers talk about the 10 Commands no longer being relevant and how we are “set free” from them, the question that always comes to my mind is… which of the Big Ten do you want to be set free from? What is it that is so important that you want the grace offered through Messiah to cover you for, so that you can ignore it?
Now, most folks will agree there’s nothing wrong with many of the commands. Murder, adultery, stealing, false testimony and coveting form the basis of most of the world’s legal systems.
Honoring one’s parents is a bit trickier, especially here in America. Few of today’s young people understand the value to be gained by caring for your parents in their old age, just as they cared for you in your infancy and adolescence. Yet most would agree it’s a “good value.”
No, it is the first four commands, the ones directed at our relationship toward the L-RD, where many more stumble. While most believers would agree with having no other gods before The L-RD, in practice it is not as easy as it appears. It’s incredibly easy – too easy – to put just about anything and everything in front of our commitment to the L-RD. And even if we manage that, many believers will feud over the definition of who God is.
What about graven images? Well, if one means carved statues as objects of worship, it’s usually not a problem for most people. If one starts to broaden the definition to include things like collecting comic books or baseball cards, then it gets a bit trickier, doesn’t it?
Misusing the name of the L-RD? Here, I would suggest nearly all of us fall short, because it’s not just about swearing; it’s about using the name of the L-RD to add credibility to our own opinions as well. How often have you heard someone say, “The L-RD told me…” and then follow it up with a bunch of nonsense where it becomes obvious that whoever told them that, it wasn’t God?
And as for the Sabbath, well… very few who claim to follow Yeshua worship Him on the seventh day. They cling to a human tradition with no Scripture to back it up, claiming that somehow the day of worship was changed to the day of Yeshua’s resurrection.
Before I became Messianic, I went to many sermons, seminars and retreats held by various Christian denominations, and one of the most popular themes was, “Finding the will of God in your life.” None of them had good, solid ideas what it was, ideas based on Scripture. It became an exercise in personal convictions and subjectivity and relativism.
That’s because, too often, people set aside the 10 Commands as irrelevant. But if you want to get a starting point for understanding God’s will for your life, here it is. The 10 Commands are God speaking to all who wish to obey Him, unfiltered by anyone else.
Although the so-called Golden Rule summarizes them, it does not wipe them out. Yes, none of us can ever live up to the L-RD’s perfect standard; that is why the grace found through the blood of Yeshua is necessary. We should live, as Rabbi Stan teaches, far above the minimum standard set in the Torah; but one can never live above a minimum standard by changing it.
The 10 Commands were set by Yeshua Himself, as the Word of the L-RD. He spoke them to Moses and the children of Israel, only He had the authority to revoke them, and he never did. Let us seek the strength to walk in His ways, rather than our own.
Shabbat Shalom.
Tags: best acne treatments, Torah commentary, Yitro
This entry was posted
on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 4:55 pm and is filed under Torah.
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My Yitro Commentary
February 16th, 2009 by Craig Hansen
The best acne treatments in the world are no substitute for solid teaching and sound doctrine, straight from the Torah. Here’s my commentary on Yitro. Or listen to it!
Shabbat Shalom.
Our parashah for today is Yitro, or “Jethro,” and covers Exodus 18:1 through 20:26. This week’s parashah is perhaps one of the most important of the entire Torah. The action takes place in the days following the crossing of the yam suf. During this time, Moses gets a visit from his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, then we are told of the preparations the people make to hear from God directly, and then the Ten Commands are given.
As this week’s reading begins, we are told that word of the destruction of Pharaoh’s army had spread throughout the region, and this news brought Jethro to where Moses and the people of Israel were staying. Moses’ wife, Zipporah, as well as their two sons, Gershom and Eliezer, came as well; they had been sent by Moses to Jethro prior to the exodus from Egypt, and now the family of Moses is reunited.
Jethro decides to stay for a while, rejoicing with Moses and the people over the great victory The L-RD had won over Pharaoh and his army, but as Jethro observes Moses’ daily routine, he becomes concerned and lets Moses know it.
What Jethro observed here is not merely a concern over Moses being a “work-a-holic.” Keep in mind what we have learned in recent weeks about the children of Israel. There was easily over a million, and perhaps close to two million, people who had left Egypt as part of the Exodus. As a people that had grown too complacent, too blended into the Egyptian culture they had lived in for well over 400 years, they were used to relying on their leaders as one relies on God – as the source for all their answers. While in Egypt, they had come to rely on Pharaoh more than the L-RD; now, in the wake of a great victory, the people were starting to put Moses in the place of Pharaoh in their lives, rather than the L-RD Himself.
So Jethro, due to his position as a priest and familiar with the burdens of leadership, teaches Moses an important lesson about delegating authority to trustworthy people. While that is important, the underlying message is even more critical; he was helping Moses to avoid slipping into accepting the role of Israel’s false god, replacing one Pharaoh for another.
Importantly, Moses accepts this advice from Jethro. Moses is a man accustomed to hearing from God Himself, and fresh off perhaps the largest victory ever in terms of a man obeying The L-RD, and yet does Moses get defensive and tell Jethro to mind his own business? Does he tell him, “I just brought over a million people out of slavery and through the yam suf – I think I know what I’m doing?”
No. Moses is humble enough to accept the advice of others when it is offered. This is part of the reason why Moses is praised by The L-RD in the Torah and declared to be “the humblest man who ever lived.”
After Jethro returns to his home, Moses and the people of Israel finally arrive before the mountain of the L-RD and prepare to meet with the L-RD. We read, in:
It is here that God first sets down the terms of the covenant he is about to make with the children of Israel. His plan for Israel is for them to become his priests, his messengers to the rest of the world. They are to teach the rest of the nations the Torah and the worship of the Father. But there is a condition, isn’t there?
Part of the condition is found above; they must obey The L-RD fully and keep His covenant with them. And the covenant includes allowing The L-RD to speak his truth to them directly. Only if these conditions are met can the promises be fulfilled that Israel will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Yet, as the Torah teaches and Rabbi Stan has often pointed out, the story doesn’t end there, does it? Israel keeps up their end of the covenant, right up until the L-RD speaks the 10 Commands in chapter 20. And then what happens? We read about it initially in:
So, what is the nature of an agreement like a covenant? It is an agreement between two parties – in this case, God and the children of Israel – and both sides must agree to the terms. So what did the children of Israel do here? They changed the terms, didn’t they? But the L-RD’s response doesn’t come here in Exodus; we find it later on, in:
So when the L-RD sees that the people find it too hard to listen to His voice directly, He accepts a change in the covenant terms, but He makes a change, too, doesn’t He? Now, He promises a “prophet like Moses” to become the eternal intermediary between the L-RD and man; not Moses, but a prophet like Moses. This is a reaffirmation of the promised Messiah, a promise the L-RD first made in the Garden of Eden, and ultimately fulfilled hundreds of years after Moses, in the Messiah Yeshua.
Now, many Christian churches today will teach that we are “set free from the Law,” and for most of them, they will claim that this includes the 10 Commands. This arises from a basic misunderstanding of what “the Law” means. Depending on how it’s used, the phrase translated as “the Law” can refer to the Oral Traditions of the rabbis, the Torah, or the laws of Moses, which are usually contained primarily in the Leviticus. Very rarely is the phrase “the Law” used to refer just to the 10 Commands. Why is that? It is because of source differences.
The Oral Traditions of the rabbis are the teachings of men; the Torah comprises the God-inspired first five books of the Tenakh. The so-called “laws of Moses” represent, as Rabbi Stan teaches, a mediation between God and Moses, a minimum standard of behavior required for someone to be found acceptable to the L-RD. But the 10 Commands are different; they were spoken by The L-RD Himself, directly to all the children of Israel. This means they are different; they do not represent a minimum standard; they are non-negotiable.
So when I hear some teachers talk about the 10 Commands no longer being relevant and how we are “set free” from them, the question that always comes to my mind is… which of the Big Ten do you want to be set free from? What is it that is so important that you want the grace offered through Messiah to cover you for, so that you can ignore it?
Now, most folks will agree there’s nothing wrong with many of the commands. Murder, adultery, stealing, false testimony and coveting form the basis of most of the world’s legal systems.
Honoring one’s parents is a bit trickier, especially here in America. Few of today’s young people understand the value to be gained by caring for your parents in their old age, just as they cared for you in your infancy and adolescence. Yet most would agree it’s a “good value.”
No, it is the first four commands, the ones directed at our relationship toward the L-RD, where many more stumble. While most believers would agree with having no other gods before The L-RD, in practice it is not as easy as it appears. It’s incredibly easy – too easy – to put just about anything and everything in front of our commitment to the L-RD. And even if we manage that, many believers will feud over the definition of who God is.
What about graven images? Well, if one means carved statues as objects of worship, it’s usually not a problem for most people. If one starts to broaden the definition to include things like collecting comic books or baseball cards, then it gets a bit trickier, doesn’t it?
Misusing the name of the L-RD? Here, I would suggest nearly all of us fall short, because it’s not just about swearing; it’s about using the name of the L-RD to add credibility to our own opinions as well. How often have you heard someone say, “The L-RD told me…” and then follow it up with a bunch of nonsense where it becomes obvious that whoever told them that, it wasn’t God?
And as for the Sabbath, well… very few who claim to follow Yeshua worship Him on the seventh day. They cling to a human tradition with no Scripture to back it up, claiming that somehow the day of worship was changed to the day of Yeshua’s resurrection.
Before I became Messianic, I went to many sermons, seminars and retreats held by various Christian denominations, and one of the most popular themes was, “Finding the will of God in your life.” None of them had good, solid ideas what it was, ideas based on Scripture. It became an exercise in personal convictions and subjectivity and relativism.
That’s because, too often, people set aside the 10 Commands as irrelevant. But if you want to get a starting point for understanding God’s will for your life, here it is. The 10 Commands are God speaking to all who wish to obey Him, unfiltered by anyone else.
Although the so-called Golden Rule summarizes them, it does not wipe them out. Yes, none of us can ever live up to the L-RD’s perfect standard; that is why the grace found through the blood of Yeshua is necessary. We should live, as Rabbi Stan teaches, far above the minimum standard set in the Torah; but one can never live above a minimum standard by changing it.
The 10 Commands were set by Yeshua Himself, as the Word of the L-RD. He spoke them to Moses and the children of Israel, only He had the authority to revoke them, and he never did. Let us seek the strength to walk in His ways, rather than our own.
Shabbat Shalom.
Tags: best acne treatments, Torah commentary, Yitro
This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 4:55 pm and is filed under Torah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.