I appreciate solid Kohler bathroom sinks as much as the next one, but a solid Torah commentary might be of more value in the world to come. So here’s my commentary on B’har and B’chukotai. Or listen to it!
Shabbat Shalom.
We have a double Torah portion again this week, so our parashahs for this week are “B’har,” which means, “On the Mount,” and “B’chukotai,” which means, “In my statutes.” Together, they cover Leviticus chapters 25 through 27, and close out our time this year in the book of Leviticus.
One of the most important themes that jumped out to me in this week’s portions was the teaching The L-RD gives to Moses on the seven-year cycle for the land, as well as the pattern for the Year of Jubilee. This teaching is especially important in light of the parallel that can be drawn between the Year of Jubilee, and the Counting of the Omer.
The Torah operates on a series of patterns, and these patterns repeat over and over again. One of these patterns is the significance in time of the number seven. For example, there are six days in which the L-RD created the heavens and the earth, and then He established the Shabbat on the seventh day.
This pattern repeats in God’s 7,000-year plan for creation, with there being 2,000 years of desolation, 2,000 years of Torah, 2,000 years of Messiah, and then a 1,000-year Shabbat in which all of creation will rest in the glory of God and the earthly reign of Messiah.
We can detect the presence of this pattern once again in the L-RD’s instructions to Moses for the people as they enter the land of the promise. We read this in:
Leviticus 25:3-7
For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a Sabbath of rest, a Sabbath to the L-RD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. Whatever the land yields during the Sabbath year will be food for you–for yourself, your manservant and maidservant, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.
So, in this passage we see that the L-RD desires that even the land itself should enjoy rest of its labor, and so he institutes an agricultural Shabbat in which there are six years of production, followed by a year of rest for the land, in which it can produce whatever it produces naturally, but there will be no sowing of seed, tilling of soil or other working of the land.
This was perhaps a difficult teaching for some to accept. Remember that the Israelites were a highly agriculture-oriented society at this time; to take an entire year off from the main source of food and income would be quite a challenge to the faith of some. Yet the L-RD does offer some reassurances in this respect.
We read this in:
Leviticus 25:18-22
“‘Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land. Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety. You may ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?” I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.
So, we can see here that the L-RD promised a blessing beyond reasonable expectations and natural results if they act in obedience to His commands regarding offering the Land its part in the Shabbats of the L-RD. Their harvests in the sixth year will triple to consistently provide for them until the land’s Shabbat is over, and harvests are once again gathered.
So, there should be no reason for them to worry, right? The L-RD will provide for them richly, even in the Land’s year of rest. All they need to do is trust God and obey His instructions.
In addition to the Shabbats every seven years, however, the L-RD institutes an additional Shabbat that is to follow the seventh land Shabbat – a time known as the Year of Jubilee. Here is what we read of this time in:
Leviticus 25:8-13
Count off seven Sabbaths of years–seven times seven years–so that the seven Sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields. In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property.
This year of Jubilee goes beyond blessing the land, as we can see, to blessing the people as well. In the year of Jubilee, all debts are wiped out. The price of land is based on the number of years to the next Jubilee, and once a Jubilee arrives, all debts are canceled. Abuse of the Jubilee system is built into the command with a prohibition against taking unfair advantage of each other in light of it, a command that falls equally on both the seller and the buyer, the debtor and the debt-holder.
Yet whether this system of land Shabbats and Years of Jubilee was a sound financial system, whether they were ever actually observed as commanded or not, is less important to our study today than the parallel between the Year of Jubilee and the Counting of the Omer.
As Stan taught last week, the Feast of First Fruits is held on the first day of the week, the day after the first regular Shabbat following the Passover. We then see that to reach Shavuot, we count off seven regular Shabbats after the Feast of First Fruits, which is forty-nine days long, and then immediately following the seventh Shabbat comes the Feast of Shavuot.
The same pattern is followed with the Year of Jubilee; seven times seven years are counted off, forty-nine years in all, immediately followed by a Year of Jubilee in the fiftieth year. The only difference is that with the counting of the Omer, we’re dealing with days; and with the year of Jubilee, we’re dealing with years.
So, what is the connection between the Counting of the Omer and the Year of Jubilee? The unifying themes, I believe, are completion and forgiveness. The Counting of the Omer is symbolic of completion, in that it connects the first-fruits of the barley harvest to the first-fruits of the wheat harvest. In the New Covenant gospels, First-Fruits begins with the resurrection of the Messiah Yeshua, and is completed in the giving of the Holy Spirit in the second chapter of Acts. Resurrection completes the promise and sets us free from sin; the giving of the Holy Spirit empowers us to move out into our new life, led by the voice of God, rather than “following after our own eyes, after which we used to go astray.”
This pattern of sevens is reflected in Yeshua’s teachings.
Matthew 18:21-22
Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Yeshua said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”
With this command of forgiveness up to seventy times seven, we can apply our insight and understanding to this passage, knowing that this would include not only 490 years – 490 Yom Kippurs – but 10 Years of Jubilee, a time when all debts are cancelled. What that means is to forgive someone so completely that you’ll never live to see that forgiveness expire. Our forgiveness of others should last forever, just as we want the L-RD to forgive us.
Immediately following this exchange with Peter, Yeshua goes on to tell the story of the servant who owed the king more than he could ever repay, and who was forgiven his debt by the king; but when he was owed a small amount by his fellow servant, he did not forgive that debt but had the man jailed. When the king found this out, he rescinded his forgiveness of the first man’s debt. The parable concludes in:
Matthew 18:33-35
So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
Understanding the meaning and significance of the Year of Jubilee is key to unlocking the full meaning of this parable; when practiced as commanded, the Year of Jubilee is indeed a command to ensure that no one suffers poverty without a hope for release from their debt; that no one goes through life without the hope of forgiveness from what they owe, and a fresh start.
In the same way that we count the Omer, or the Shabbats of the land leading to a Year of Jubilee, so too are we to practice forgiveness and rejoice in what we have been forgiven. Yeshua is not alone in showing the importance to God this has, because stern warnings are given to the children of Israel if they fail to keep these land Shabbats and Years of Jubilee. We read this in:
Leviticus 26:33-34, 40-42
I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. Then the land will enjoy its Sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths … But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers–their treachery against me and their hostility toward me, which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies–then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
Forgiveness is the very nature of the L-RD, something He even revealed to Moses when He showed him His glory, as we studied several weeks ago. The reason the L-RD and even Messiah Yeshua speak so harshly about those who won’t obey his commands and forgive others is that without living out the forgiveness we have received, we are painting a false picture of the nature of God.
So it is this theme of forgiveness that reveals the meaning behind the Year of Jubilee and helps us to understand the nature of God better, so we can be a better reflection of Him to others in our daily lives.
Shabbat Shalom.
My 2010 B’har-B’chukotai Commentary
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
This opportunity to do a Torah commentary came up suddenly. Right through mid-week before the Shabbat, another fine Messianic Rabbi In Training (MRIT) was scheduled to do this one; he even had it written. But then he fell under the weather and needed a quick replacement. The rabbi called me Thursday night, during my men’s Torah study, to ask if I could fill in and assure me I could just use last years’ if I needed to. I told him I could probably do better than that.
I got the call around 8:30 PM Thuesday night. I didn’t get home and settled in front of my keyboard until two hours later. By 1 AM, I was done. Good thing we stayed on-topic in our Torah study; the portion was fresh in my mind and all I really needed to do was transfer some of what we had discussed into commentary form. It may not be exciting, but this is what I came up with. Or listen to it!
Shabbat Shalom.
This week, we have a double portion for our weekly reading. It includes B’har, a Hebrew word that means, “On the mount,” as well as the portion known as “B’chukotai,” a Hebrew word that means, “In my statutes.” This double portion covers Leviticus chapter 25 through Leviticus chapter 27, and brings to an end our time in Leviticus for this Torah year.
This week’s reading covers the concept of giving even the land the people of Israel will enter, the land God has promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, a Sabbath rest.
Now, when many people look at this passage, they comment on how marvelous it is, how it shows God’s wisdom that modern agricultural science bears out the idea of giving the land a rest from producing crops is such a good idea; they cite the science of crop stress, soil enrichments and all these wonderful facts about farming that confirm that God knew what he was talking about in this passage.
Well, I’m not here to talk to you about how wonderful it is that God knew all this. Of course He knew it! He’s God! I’m here today to mention how sad it is that it took us well over 3,000 years of the science of man, from the time of the Exodus to figure out that God was right all along!
Of course, I think it’s also important to dig deeper than that. You see, God’s not just some cosmic farmer handing down crop management tips from his heavenly Monsanto office. God is going well beyond general truths here; he’s laying down some very special promises to the people of Israel, and they are conditional promises, based on the obedience or disobedience the people of Israel display in response to the L-RD’s commands.
You see, this is not merely about agriculture here. This is actually a teaching the L-RD is giving about how completely He wants us to observe His Sabbaths. You see, it’s not just enough for us to observe it as believers. He wants His Sabbaths to be observed by all of creation, a point he makes clear here by pointing out that even the Promised Land itself should rest; not only on the seventh day of the week, when we are to do no regular work, but in the seventh year, when we are to rest the land for an entire year.
Now, some people might read this and say, OK, we get the point. Observing the Sabbath is a good idea. Got it. But do we really have to observe a year of not working the land once every seventh year? I mean, c’mon, that would ruin the economy, people would starve.
No, they wouldn’t. God’s promises for both the seventh year Sabbath for the land, as well as the fiftieth-year Jubilee, show two important things: first, God will provide; and second, these really are special promises for His people as they enter the Promised Land, and not just good general agricultural principals that would work anywhere in the world. We read one of these promises in:
Now that’s a promise that definitely will not work just anywhere! I mean, go ahead and try it if you want to; find some secular farmers who don’t observe the L-RD’s commands and have them work the land six out of every seventh year, being sure not to work the land at all in the seventh year, but in no other way honoring God or observing His commands. I can almost guarantee you that their sixth-year crop will NOT be a triple harvest.
Remember, God’s promising to offer His people this triple harvest in the sixth year, before they actually observe the seventh-year agricultural Sabbath. The promise and provision will be obvious, giving His people confidence to indeed follow through with their obedience. The point is, these are special promises by the L-RD to His people, not just some guidebook to farming in Israel.
Yet there will still be doubters, people who say, “C’mon, I mean, we’re talking about dirt here. We’re supposed to let dirt rest? God can’t be serious, can He?”
Well, let’s take a look at just how serious God is about this command. We find this in:
So, what God is saying here is that while His people are certainly free to either obey His command for the agricultural Sabbath, or to disobey, there will be a penalty if they ignore this command: God will scatter his people among the surrounding nations, lay waste to all that was built there, and the land will lay desolate until all of the agricultural Sabbath years and Jubilee years they failed to observe have been fulfilled. I’d say this passage at least suggests that the L-RD takes this command many people read past quite seriously.
The parashah goes on from here to establish rules for observing the fiftieth-year Jubilee, in which those who sold property are allowed to return to it, those who are in bondage are allowed to go free, and those who are in debt are forgiven their financial burdens.
Once we enter chapter 26, however, the theme changes to the topic of obedience versus disobedience, and here is where we delve into the part of this week’s teaching that focuses on the life application aspect of these commands. Why is that important?
Well, how many here are farmers? Not many? OK, how many of you raising your hands are actually farmers in the land of Israel. Boom. Nobody left. Right?
You see, while agricultural commands are the topic, what applies to us all is our willingness to either agree with God, that His rules and instructions are right and just, and follow through with that by obeying Him – or to disagree with Him and walk in rebellion and disobedience.
We have that choice, all of us. We are free to do either and God will not step in and prevent it. However, there is a cost to disobedience, even for believers. Not just for the Jewish believers who looked forward to the promised Messiah, but for all of us looking back on the fulfillment of that Messianic promise in Messiah Yeshua.
Leviticus 26 makes it very clear where God stands. First, Hhe promises to reward the children of Israel richly if they obey Him. But then, He also outlines the penalties that will befall them, the correction they will suffer if they disobey. We read this in:
The passage then continues on to outline all the levels of punishment that the L-RD will dole out to Israel if they continue to walk in disobedience. As Rob observed in our men’s group Torah study this week, there’s an interesting parallel between these punishments, and the plagues the L-RD sent upon Egypt when Pharoah refused to fear and obey God in allowing Moses and the Israelites to leave for three days to worship God in the desert, and bury Joseph’s bones outside of the land of Egypt as he had requested.
The similarity is that God doesn’t correct or rebuke or punish all at once; it comes in waves, and between each wave, God offers a chance for repentance and a return to obedience. As each opportunity for repentance passes, the next wave of punishment gets a little more severe. Each time, this comes not because God loves dishing out punishment to His people, but as an attempt to wake them up to their rebellion and offer them a chance to return to the path of obedience.
We read this in:
So you see, between each wave of punishment, God inserts and if-then statement. If you continue to disobey, here’s the next thing I’m going to have to do, and it’s harsher and more severe than the last.
What’s the solution? We read this in:
If we confess, if we repent, if our uncircumcised hearts are humbled, if we pay for our sins, then the L-RD will remember his covenant with us and return us to right standing before Him. Now, some people believe this is all done away with; that repentance comes one time when we surrender our lives to Yeshua, and then is completely unnecessary because we’re forgiven. But that’s not so.
For as long as there is an ability to rebel against God, for as long as we are able to choose disobedience over obedience, there is a need for repentance, humbling, and payment for sins. It is important to remember that simply saying, “I’m sorry,” isn’t true repentance. It involves turning away from the disobedience. It involves making restitution to those we’ve wronged. Those are all things we are capable of, but in our rebellion, sometimes refuse to do.
Fortunately, the one thing we can’t do on our own – to pay our owner for his loss as a result of our rebellion – and our owner is the L-RD – is a price that has already been paid for us, by the Messiah Yeshua.
May we never treat the price He paid in our place, for our disobedience, as though it came from a dollar store.
Shabbat Shalom.
Tags: 2010 commentary, B'chukotai, B'har
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