Touching the Holy

Ki Tavo "When you go in"

 

Ever wonder why there has been such a surge of rebellion and putrid words and actions against law enforcement, institutions, authority in America in recent years?  The last two Torah portions may hold a key.  Last week it was Ki Tetzei, "When you go out."  It emphasized the importance of human relationships when one goes out into the world.  This week it is Ki Tavo, "When you go in."

 

"Love your neighbor as yourself" is the acknowledged twin to loving the Father.  However, the study of relating to other people is less exciting than debating finer points of the Scripture.  What if Torah, however, teaches that right relationship with others PRECEDES one's gifts to Adonai?

 

If an Israelite did not apply the multiple commandments of treating fellow Israelites with justice in Ki Tetzei, then how can he expect to be Ki Tavo into a Land that DEMANDS an attitude of joyful giving of tithes?  Cain and Abel are the prototype.  Cain brought of THE fruit of the ground, but Abel brought the CHOICEST.  These gifts to Elohim would be shared with one another in eating the holy tithe.  Kain was not cheating Elohim alone, but Abel, his brother, because he had no joy in his tithe.  He was keeping something back.  Ki Tavo holds a tithe liturgy in which the Israelite assures the priest that what is in the basket is the CHOICEST of the fruit of the ground, not the defective portion of Cain.    

 

In a sense, farming good relationships with all the people listed in Ki Tetzei is the preparation for giving a joyful tithe to Adonai in Ki Tavo, in the Holy Land.  The tithe can only be set at the feet of the priest with joy.  If not, how will the farmer honestly make the declaration that he has touched none of it while in an overly emotional state of grief? 

 

Striking out at authority and people who hold different opinions with violent words is a symptom of one who cannot "Ki Tavo."  Those souls are incapable of setting down a basket of tithes joyfully.  It would involve bowing before priestly authority.  Adonai sets people in authority over us to see how our hearts are truly set toward Him.  He already knows, but it allows us to find out what we don't know about our own Cain hearts.  We've held something back, and our countenance fell long before we brought the tithe. 

 

Striking out at legal and ethical authority is one symptom of a soul slave.  The soul is appetite, emotion, desire, and intellect.  The soul knows it is enslaved, but it does not discern its master is itself.  Because the soul is enslaved to its own desire and intellect, the spirit within the person also is chained down to the feelings of discontent and wrong thinking.  The person knows something is wrong, and the person is discontent.  To relieve the discomfort, a rebel is born.

 

The wilderness journey is a process of giving the holy spirit of the physically free person authority over the soul.  It is only there that a free man learns to free the soul from "I feel" or "I think" to "It is written..."  The first stop upon the exodus from Egypt was Sukkot.  Israelites were given a glimpse of the goal from the beginning of the journey. 

 

The wilderness was a place of experiencing deep emotions and the thoughts that flow from emotion, not the spirit of a man that connects to the Holy Spirit.  This slavish life resulted in many unnecessary physical deaths.  What kinds of emotions enslave thoughts of the heart?

 

Grief.  Sadness.  Anger.  The Torah portion Ki Tavo contrasts the preceding portion "When you go out" with "When you go in."  Ki Tavo's tithe is first mentioned in Genesis Three, where Kain "went out" with his fruit of the ground.  Ki Tavo cautions that something is different "when you come in" to the Land.  You must be able to bring FIRST fruits of the ground and freely make a declaration to the priest that you did not perform the commandment with mourning or grieving. 

 

Kain's face fell when his offering was found wanting, but the text indicates that compared to Abel, his face had fallen before, for only Abel "gam hu," which means he offered HIMSELF with his offering.  A whole heart.  The feast tithe declaration of Ki Tavo cannot be made in grief over what one has given up for God.  It must be the declaration of a fully free human being. 

 

Many times the Israelites felt that they did not receive what they deserved.  They were being unfairly punished and treated.  The deliverance promise was a betrayal of their expectations.  While their bodies were free of Egypt, they were still a soul-proud people.  The soul-pride framed everything they saw.  In order to reach Sukkot as a completely free and joyful people, they would have to surrender soul pride to the Spirit.  They would have to learn to follow the Angel of the Presence, not their own appetites and internal maps of thought. 

 

Emotional viruses spread through the nation.  In this state of perpetually rising and falling tides of emotion and sad thought, they were not fit to serve the Holy One in a Holy Land.  When they could master emotions, then the Israelites could Ki Tavo, which required service with joy. 

 

Those today who believe emotion or intellect is the basis for existence are troubled.  The spirit that Adonai put within them is in conflict with their social and intellectual doctrines.  Those doctrines are not founded on "It is written," but "I think" and "I feel."  The increasing unrest is within, but to find relief, they attack those outside of themselves, not understanding that forcing and tormenting others into their own soul feelings and thoughts can never bring peace, neither within themselves or in the world.

 

As Zechariah prophesied, it is only the spirit of Sukkot, a spirit of joyful rendering of the whole heart tithe to established authority in its established holy place that will bring peace and Divine acceptance. 

 

So let's bring this unrest closer to home.  Do those walking in Torah today also conduct themselves in anger, grief, depression, and, as Cain did, in doing violence to brothers who find joy in the commandments?  An Israelite could not touch holy things in a state of grief, for it was rejected.  Even Aaron could not eat the holy after his sons died.  We cannot pretend to find joy in the holy Torah if our soul is sad because we're keeping back part of our whole heart tithe. 

 

The never-ending confusing spiral of strange doctrines will become worse and worse.  If intellect is the soul master of a person's spirit, then that will produce anger against anything or anyone that Scripture assigns authority.  It often hides in the costume of correctness or holy prophetic gift, and that person's inner anger, resentment, and grief is concealed.  How can we identify these souls among us?  We don't have to.  They identify themselves with their angry words and angry faces.  Even words of holy Torah are the vehicle for that inner grief.  Their countenances fell long before they kept the commandment. 

 

Even if you don't FEEL joy when you deal with some aspects of the Torah, especially giving of your produce or income, make a decision that you ARE joyful whether you feel the emotion or not.  Simply decide, and someday emotion will follow.  As you continue to fight the war for joy inside, your Ki Tetzei relationships will improve, for you will quit blaming people who don't yet accept Torah and those who don't follow Torah like you do.

 

It's time to quit being newspaper scholars, facebook scholars, or chem-trail scholars.  Overuse leads to fear and over-intellectualizing.  It's time to become Torah scholars so that when the war inside begins, the Holy Spirit within us will prevail with "It is written..."   When we can do that, we can repent and Ki Tavo.  No fear.  No grief.  No anger.  This is how we touch holy things.

LaMalah Children's Centre

 

Orphanage Update

  Special thanks to our regular donors and our new donors. The history of LaMalah Children's Centre is now located on our website www.thecreationgospel.com. 

 

If you have children's clothes or children's books (in English) to send, you can mail them to:   

 

Peter W Ndungu
P.O.Box 724
Limuru 00217
Kenya
East Africa

If you can help toward this goal, as always, we welcome your assistance.  For those of you who send monthly support to the orphanage, we can't thank you enough for fulfilling Messiah's commission.