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About Those Eggs You're Sitting On...
Ki Teitze "When you go out"
Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19
Isaiah 54:1-54:10
Psalm 32
Mark 7:1-23
The Torah portion Ki Teitze describes "going out" decisions, using all types of scenarios.
When you go out you find lost articles...
When you go
out you will make war...
When you go
out to collect your debts...
When you go out to write your will...
When you go out to harvest your crops...
When you go out and find some eggs...
Following
Shoftim
(Judges), which defines both official and personal judgment, now more examples define the "going out" process of internal judgment. There is a strange connection among the many goings-out of the portion. The connection is related to the Feast of Trumpets, Rosh HaShanah, which emphasizes pure garments for the King's arrival.
At Rosh HaShanah, there is a Book of Life. Who will live and who will die? There is another book in which each person's deeds are written. Whether you are an author or not, you are in the process of writing a very long book! The deeds are
measured and weighed
against what is written in the Torah, and a judgment is rendered
. Rewards are awarded based on what we write in our books.
Since we continue to make sins once we're saved, the question is, how do we appear in a spotless garment for the King's arrival? One probes his own life,
investigating even one's good deeds. Rabbi Luzatto says, "One must
observe if these deeds contain any aspect which is not good or something which is partly bad, that he must remove and destroy. This is similar to handling a garment to discern if it is good and strong or weak and frayed. In a like manner, one must examine his deeds as thoroughly as possible to determine their nature, until he remains purified and cleansed."
White garments are prominent both in tradition and Scripture. They symbolize obedience to the Heavenly
Throne, which is what is grown in holiness. There is a garment of salvation and a robe of righteousness.
A message to the assembly of Laodicea in Revelation hints to this need for obedience.
And
I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds
. (Re 20:12-13)
The month of Elul is a time to examine the garments. It is in repentance that we can bleach out the stains when we ask for forgiveness. This was important before Yeshua's sacrifice, and it is still important today:
"For
if we go on
sinning willfully
after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
but
a terrifying expec
tation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.
Anyone
who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
How
much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
For
we know Him who said, VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.And again, THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.
It
is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God
." (He 10:16-30)
Yikes! Repentance for sin is still in the recipe.
There are three main types of sin:
Chatah
= unintentional sin, to miss the mark or stumble
Avon =
a sin of lust or uncontrollable emotion. It is a sin done knowingly, but not done to defy
God;
perversity, moral evil, fault, iniquity, mischief.
Pesha
= a sin of rebellion, an intentional sin in defiance of God's authority
All sins are an avera. Avera means "transgression." All sins can be considered a "crossing" of the boundary. Think of it as a Hebrew (Ivri, "one who crosses over") who went back into the realm of death. He's crossed again, but the wrong way.
Why are these going-out details so important?
The Land of Israel must be honored, i.e., not "defiled" like a person,
tamei
. It is a light to draw others. It magnifies both its inhabitants' holiness and evil. Israel is like a magnifying glass.
Wrong (evil, ignorant, apathetic) decisions have an interactive relationship with the Land of Israel like no other. A defiled land is a people defiled by what "goes out" of them. What goes out of Israel is not measured by the physical food going in, but by what the heart studies or "devises" to do with it. A wrong "going out" decision was a wrong internal decision.
Tamei, or defilement,
sets a person farther from the holier spaces of Adonai's presence and community, and transgressions against these going-out commandments bring defilement to the Land and People.
There
are six things which the LORD
hates, yes
, seven which are an abomination
to Him:
Haughty
eyes, a lying
tongue, and
hands that shed innocent
blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans
, feet
that run rapidly to
evil, a
false witness who utters
lies, and
one who
spreads
strife among brothers
. (
Pr
6:16-19)
The inoculation and antidote is found in the following verses, which describe the injunctions of the
Shma
and
tefillin
:
My son, observe the commandment of your
father and
do not forsake the
teaching
of your
mother;
bind them continually on your heart
; tie
them around your
neck. When
you walk about, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk to
you. For
the commandment is a lamp and the
teaching
is
light; and
reproofs for discipline are the way of
life. (
Pr
6:20-23)
Tefillin
and teaching/study are
purposeful
ways to address one's thoughts, both awake and asleep. Even when we are sleeping, it is possible that where we let our thoughts purposely work will continue to "watch over you" in sleep and dreams. The words work silently, writing messages of the Spirit in our thoughts and plans. His words carve us into the image of Elohim if we use thoughts properly.
If not, we carve the commandments with our imagination, in error or in wickedness. Thoughts carve things silently, internally. The word for "devise" in Hebrew is charash:
to scratch, i.e.
to
engrave,
plow;
hence (from the use of tools)
to fabricate (of any material
); figuratively, to devise (in a bad sense); hence (
from the idea of secrecy) to be silent
, to let alone; hence (by implication) to be deaf (as an accompaniment of dumbness
),
cease, conceal
, imagine,
leave off speaking
, hold peace, plow(-
er
, man), be quiet, rest,
practice
secretly, keep silence, be silent, speak not a word
Something is constantly being written on the heart below and in the book above. Silently, we are either formed into the image of Elohim and what is in His Book, or we try to carve Him into our image. Well, we only imagine it; it is a vain
charash to think we can wrap Adonai around our plans.
A heart that devises wicked plans is a person making a garment or using a tool. The plans are thoughts. They are manufactured in the heart from raw material, the input data of a wandering donkey, a dispute with one's wife, lending or borrowing, and the long process from seed to harvest to tithe with all its laborers. Ki
Teitze
warns of bad "going out" seeds that will defile the entire harvest: isolationism, mingling with idolatry, and pride.
The garment is cut from the cloth of the commandments, which beautify the thoughts of one's heart
or
conceal thoughts of ambition, greed, or apathy.
Charash
means more than engraving the going-out decision on one's heart, it adds the possibility of silence or holding one's tongue when it should be used.
An evil heart "writes over" the holy commandments written on the heart, destroying the intent and spirit of what the Holy One intended. It adds to and takes away, carving a graven image deep inside one's self, a graven image that defiles the person and the Land of Israel, which is to be image-free.
You shall also have a place outside the camp and go out there,
and
you shall have a
spade
among your tools, and it shall be when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and shall turn
to
cover up your excrement (tzei-atekha).
Since
the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to
defeat
your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy; and He must not see
anything
indecent among you
or
He will turn away from you
. (Dt 23:12-14)
When an Israelite goes out to war, then things will go out of him. Tradition says that the manna was so pure, ground in the mills of the Third Heaven, that those who ate only the manna excreted no waste. Those who went out to war might eat natural food products, departing from the purest Word. They would begin to excrete the waste products, and it would not be a pure camp as in a time of peace. The same root word applies to the going-out commandments and excretion. Adonai demands a holy camp.
Yeshua
uses an analogy that gives us the opportunity to examine our thoughts many times throughout the week. Out of the abundance of what is devised in the heart, the mouth speaks. We can repent of
potty
-mouth and think about our laundry. We can think of what kind of words we would speak if we ate only pure manna and didn't have to go out to war.
- Mat 15:18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.
- Mat 15:20 These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.
Yeshua
points out the human heart is the "filter" or judge of everything that passes his eyes, ears, and mouth, sifting away chaff:
- Mar 7:15 There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.
- Mar 7:23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man.
In Torah, something that "goes out" is a type of emission: excretions, semen [seed,
zerah
], blood. Each in some way symbolizes how the body processes the Word and filters away defilements that may be added from an impure heart.
What goes in? The pure Torah. What comes out? The defilement that occurs when the Word is not set properly in the thoughts.
The Jewish Encyclopedia
(1906) says of the manna:
...the wicked were compelled to grind it
and prepare it until it was fit for food, while
for the righteous it was ground by angels before it fell from heaven
.
Being a heavenly food, the manna contained nutritious matter only,
without any waste products
, so that during the whole time the Israelites lived upon it the grossest office of the body remained unexercised
.
The manna is reserved as the future food of the righteous, for which purpose it is ground in a mill situated in
the third heaven (
Ḥag
. 12b; Tan., l.c
.).
The millstone is a significant symbolic reminder of either "wicked" grinding of the Word or heavenly grinding that goes in the body purely, falling directly from the Garden of Eden.
Yeshua
is the "Teacher" in the Garden according to Miriam, who cried "Rabboni," for she recognized the purest manna from Heaven at his resurrection. The going-out commandments concerning a millstone make more sense. A poor Israelite should never lose the ability to grind the manna permanently. There must be a "return" of the millstone, or repentance, teshuvah.
This is similar to the repeated commandments to handle garments with great care, always returning them if possible.
Ki
Teitze
mentions garments repeatedly.
If person becomes separated from his garment of
mitzvot through loss
, he should return (
tshuv
, repent), and inquire to find it again. He must investigate to find the garment so that he will not lose it again, and it is only after the loser investigates that the finder returns it.
Or
If someone takes a garment for collateral on a loan, it cannot be taken from permanently. The borrower's ability to recover it to "sleep" in is not lost. Sleep is figurative of death as well as a time to contemplate the
mitzvot, for the Proverb says the commandments "watch over" us at night
. The poor person should never lose the ability to obey the
Shma
by losing his garment of the
mitzvot, nor should he enter the Garden without an appropriate garment
.
The captured woman:
She
shall also
remove
the clothes of her captivity
and shall remain
in your house
, and mourn her father and mother a full month; and after that you may go in to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife
." (Dt 21:13)
The clothes of captivity are clothes of sin. Like the Proverb says to heed the teaching of one's father and mother, that teaching is what establishes a person in his/her faith, whether true or pagan. The Bride must mourn wrong teaching and therefore, thinking. New house, new commandments. New thinking.
The
captured woman becomes a full partner in the covenant.
Even the wife who is slandered by her husband finds vindication in the cloth "simlah" of her virginity. In tradition, this is not necessarily a cloth with the literal blood of virginity. A stain could fade, the cloth be lost, motheaten, or altered. The "proof" offered by the girl's parents was a case presented before the court. They spread out her simlah, which is: "a dress, especially a mantle; an outer garment." In other words, the garment of her character, her reputation, her deeds. They brought character witnesses, for her deeds are her garment.
The parents proved the purity of the girl's heart and dared the slandering husband to bring proof of adulterous behavior. A sick thinker is difficult to heal:
And
rend your heart and not your garments
. Now
return to the LORD your
God, for
He is gracious and
compassionate, slow
to anger, abounding in
lovingkindness and
relenting of evil
. (Joel 2:13)
A sick thinker believes the problem is external, but it is internal. The garment is manufactured in the heart, and it must be healed in the heart.
A lost garment is a true sign of internal danger. In ancient times, garments were so valuable that they were used as collateral on loans. If one would tear his garment in repentance, how much more valuable is the heart torn in repentance?
The change of garments Joseph gave his brothers was deeply symbolic. Repentance is reflected in garments; the garments can't conceal a wicked heart, though.
So what about those eggs you're sitting on? "If you happen to come upon a bird's nest along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young..." (Dt 22:6)
It's hard to heal a silently sick heart because it sits on the wrong eggs:
The
heart is more deceitful than all else
and
is desperately sick
;
who
can understand
it?
I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind
,
even
to give to each man according to
his ways
,
according
to the results of his deeds.
As
a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid, so is he who makes a fortune, but unjustly; in the midst of his days it will forsake him, and in the end he will be a fool
. (Je 17:9-11)
Riches are whatever is valuable to you: money, attention, achievements, security, social connections, power, goods...whatever you hold dear.
Without using the scale with a fair weight and a true measuring stick, it may be that the heart will grow sick and weigh those riches wrongly. The commandments carry the exact weight and measure, but the mind picks the stones according to what's desired or convenient. The garment goes missing. The millstone is traded away. Even a shovel can't cover it.
Heart-searching is vital, for a heart will sit on a nest of eggs and nurture them. On the day of judgment, those eggs will hatch, and they either will be exactly the little holy chicks the heart expected, or some monstrous flock that follows the deceitful heart around testifying and cheeping that yes, indeed, this person sat on us, nurtured us, and here we are. We are the little chicks of Transgression, the proper reward of all that time and effort pursuing things valuable on earth, but not able to cross over to the Garden of resurrection.
Now Yeshua's parable about the things that go out of a person makes sense:
Then
he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.' Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests. But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?'
And the man was speechless
.
Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' For many are called, but few are chosen. Mt
22:1-14
Does this sound harsh? The Torah portion uses the Hebrew cognate to the Greek words for "speechless":
"You
shalt not
muzzle (
lo-tachsom
)
the ox when he
treads
out the corn
." (Dt. 25:4)
The filthy man in defiled clothes was "speechless." In other words, he neither wore the garments of repentance and holiness to the wedding, nor could he even utter a word of repentance. He kept himself as speechless as if he wore a muzzle. A muzzle is a thoughtful, planned method of preventing anything from passing through the mouth. This man's defilement was internal; there was nothing he could say from the inside to justify what the king saw on the outside. He imagined that he could conform the King to his own idea of wedding clothes.
Shabbat is understood in Judaism to be a type of wedding ring identifying the Bride Israel. The physical intimacy of marriage is a Shabbat tradition, a parable of the spiritual intimacy with the King by the Bride.
One wears fine clothes on Shabbat just as on the High Sabbaths of the Biblical feasts, for it is the expectation of a wedding invitation. One desires to enter the cloud on Rosh
HaShanah
, be sealed in marriage at Yom
HaKippurim
, and enjoy the wedding feast at Sukkot.
Just like the other guests, the guest to the King's wedding had access to clean clothes, the commandments of Yeshua. Manna. Pure food. Otherwise, the king would not have been so enraged. Instead, the guest defiled what came out of him, and the King had no intention of polluting His wedding feast with what the guest devised and hatched in his heart.
The garment of salvation is Adonai's, and we receive it in faith. There is also a robe of righteousness. It is our "case" for virginity when the books are opened. Whether we establish ourselves in that new-house faith of new clothes and keep them mended and clean is an internal, constant thought process. It is intentional, and requires forever measuring and weighing the thoughts of the heart with the deeds that come out of it. Let us not trample under foot the blood of our Messiah, nor abuse his abundant grace.
Now, about those eggs you're sitting on...
Spotlight on Israel
Registration is CLOSED for Sukkot 2019, but put Sukkot 2020 in Israel on your calendar!
Here is another Israel testimonial from Kim Ruth, a disciplined student and practitioner of the Word. We were so blessed by her presence in Israel, and we still take classes together. Here's Kim's story:
"I had been stashing money in a drawer for about two years because I knew that I would be traveling somewhere, but I did not know where. During this time, I found Hollisa's teachings and began reading her weekly newsletter. One Erev Shabbat, her newsletter came, and I saw the announcement of the trip. I immediately knew this was the trip I was going to take.
This was my first trip to Israel, and I had no idea what to expect. The experience was nothing I had ever experienced before as it nourished my heart, soul, and body. I was amazed at the different landscapes and climates. All within three hours' drive we saw mountains, beaches and my favorite place, the desert in Tamar. Everywhere we visited was a learning experience from our guide, Hollisa, and the teachers in the group. The food was so exceptional that when I arrived home, nothing could compare to the food grown in the Land.
There were many life-changing experiences I had on this trip. If I had to choose one, it would be getting to know Hollisa, Alan, and my fellow sojourners. Like many of us on this walk, I left the "church" a bit tattered and torn. Hollisa and Alan created a safe, nurturing, and educational space. Everyone was gracious, kind, fun, and most of all, authentically loved Hashem and his Land. The meaningful interactions I had on this trip helped restore my hope for unity in the Church. It was good to be with like kind, and like mind in the life-giving land of Israel."
A New BEKY Book is Coming!
I finally finished the manuscript of the Resurrection book,
50,000 DEGREES AND CLOUDY. Now it's off for formatting, a cover, and then publication.
The rough estimate is four weeks from now to publication.
The first section is extensive, but concise, proof texts from the Torah portions. The second section is devoted to what happens when we die. Here is the Table of Contents:
Section I: Clouds of Glory
Words in the Hood
The Pharisees? Are You Kidding Me?
"Rapture" Texts in Jewish Tradition
Going Up or Settling Down?
The Garden, the Cloud, and the Dead
Firemen and Robes of Righteousness
Yeshua in the Exodus Cloud
Portions in the Cloud
50,000 Degrees
The Red Shadow
Section II: What Happens?
Beware the Wizard
Like Angels
Gateway to the Garden
Into the Garden
Respect for the Dead
Enoch and Elijah
How High Will We Fly?
The Righteous and the Intermediates
The Tunnel, the Light, and Beyond
The Resurrection Offering
Rivers of Living Water
Song of Songs for Passover
Conclusion
I don't think you'll find a better TORAH-BASED book on the ingathering. Perfect for those who are grieving over loved ones. Just in time for the high holy days! We'll post here when it is ready for order.
A good preparation is Pharisee: Friend or Foe? in paperback, which traces the development of the resurrection doctrine from the Torah, Prophets, and Psalms at Pharisee paperback ,
the REVIVE TV series at
Pharisee Video Series,
or on ROKU.
LaMalah Children's Centre
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! WE HAD AN AWESOME 4TH QUARTER OFFERING.
Right on time! We received the funds needed for the extra needs and to fund Sukkot for the Kenyan congregations. We shared updates from LaMalah last week in a special edition of our newsletter. If you would like to donate to the Children's Centre or other Torah-based orphanages through The Creation Gospel, click on the Donate link below. It will say The Olive Branch Messianic Congregation on your receipt. Our local congregation is the non-profit covering for our ministry. Checks or money orders may be sent to:
The Creation Gospel
PO Box 846
East Bernstadt, KY 40729
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