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Billie Idol Went Missing
Re'eh "See"
Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17
Isaiah 54:11-55:5
Psalm 97
Matthew 8:18-22; Lk 13:22-35
A True Story...
Out of all the red and black pullets next door, there was one white hen. They nicknamed her Billie Idol because she had a spikey crest like the rock star's.
Billie and one red hen, Henny Penny, were a little more adventurous than the other hens. They found our garden accessible, right next door to theirs. Each day they crossed under the fence and ventured farther and farther down our side of the property line where there was a convenient game trail.
We kept shooing them back home, but they'd return. The bugs were plentiful, but they failed to notice the game trail led to an old deadfall with a small entrance. The deadfall is home to...
And last Thursday night, Henny Penny and...
The moral of the story is that Billie and Penny confused the term "free range" with "no boundaries." The Torah is a "perfect Torah of liberty," but life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness occur within its boundaries. Eden is called a "locked garden." (Sng 4:12) There is only life there. One who ventures outside loses life. The Torah of the hen-and-chicks (Dt 22:6) teaches the principle: if we stray from Yeshua's protective boundaries at the feasts, then the fox may be waiting along the fenceline. If we remain under Yeshua's wings, there is safety. "O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how many times I would have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks." (Mt 23:37)
In Re'eh, Moses teaches the Israelites a transition and a lesson in transformation. When they enter the Land of Israel, they are to take on a huge responsibility. They will no longer eat only portions of meat from sacrificial offerings; they will now be given the freedom to kosher-slaughter their own meat in all their towns.
There was great freedom in choosing to slaughter animals for meat in their own homes. It would have been a great burden to carry each animal to Jerusalem simply to have a steak dinner or roast leg of lamb. The farmers would also have great freedom to choose the size of the "corners of your fields" that was to be left for the poor. As long as one left corners, they could be as small or large as the owner wished. These were freedoms unable to be experienced in the wilderness. The wilderness journey required them to bring an animal as a peace offering to the Mishkan and slaughter it there. They were then expected to share portions.
This practice built a sense of community among the Israelites so that when they entered the Land of Israel, the habit of sharing portions would endure. Rather than seeing themselves as disconnected, "free" individuals, they would continue to share portions of their slaughtered animals as at the Ohel Moed, Tent of Meeting. Now that the Israelites would be free NOT to share portions in their personal meals and slaughter their own food, would they neglect the commandments to go up to the "place" to celebrate the three moedim and share portions each year? Would they cease to share portions when they slaughtered at home? In other words, Moses is explaining their new freedoms as obligations to continue sharing at home and to continue coming to the central place of worship, which would eventually be the Temple in Jerusalem.
There are important topical placements in Re'eh that show a relationship:
*A recap of the moedim of the three "foot festivals" or chagim, Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot, that would be observed in Jerusalem - It includes the tithes of those three feasts.
*The thorough destruction of idols, idolators, and idolatrous cities within the Land of Israel
*Instructions for slaughtering meat for personal consumption rather than sacrifices; a list of kosher animals
*Shmittah, or release of the indentured Hebrew servant and his own wife and children to their own inheritance in the Land of Israel
Notice how much real estate these topics occupy in the portion.
It's not that hard to learn how to eat kosher. It's not that hard to acquire a fundamental understanding of the feasts, but idolatry may be the most difficult thing for the 2020 mind to comprehend. We don't hang out with people who mold or carve idols and then worship them as gods. Whatever idolatry is to people of faith today, it's probably more subtle than in ancient times, perhaps as subtle as the serpent's invitation to Adam and Eve in the locked garden they failed to guard. It's something that kept us locked out of the Garden, our inheritance, and the inheritance we want for our children.
How can we identify idolatry in 2020? It has to be more than seeing a buddha statue in a restaurant. Idolatry and sorcery are mentioned from Genesis to Revelation in some form. It is a most egregious sin, for it is counter to the greatest commandment, "Shma, Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad." If the greatest commandment is that the Father is One, then there must be great personal danger throughout the generations of making more than one god. How do we move this past a mental assent with the Oneness of YHVH to everyday application of this faith?
One of the most infamous of Israelite idolators is Ahab, who married a pagan princess, Jezebel. When Jezebel has Navot killed in order to obtain his vineyard for Ahab, we find significant clues for today:
Naboth ["fruits"] the Jezreelite had a vineyard which was in Jezreel
beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, "Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden because it is close beside my house, and I will give you a better vineyard than it in its place; if you like, I will give you the price of it in money."But Naboth said to Ahab, "The LORD forbid me that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers." (1 Ki 21:1-3)
Scripture gives us the reason that Navot's vineyard caught Ahab's eye. It was convenient. It was close to his palace, adjacent to his property. If he could convert Navot's inheritance to a vegetable ["green"] garden for the palace, it would reduce the enormous cost of procuring food for his court. Produce wilts and shrivels quickly in the heat. Grown in Navot's vineyard, the produce would be fresher when it hit the king's table. Juicier. Sweeter. Crisper. Brighter. This reminds us of the original act of idolatry:
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. (Ge 3:6)
The text doesn't leave the impression that Eve put the fruit in a basket and made a long journey to the far banks of the Pishon River. She just took it and ate it. She handed it to Adam, and he ate. It was convenient. She and her husband permitted themselves to eat "under every green tree." (Dt 12:2)
Not so coincidentally, trees are often metaphors of human beings in Scripture. The tree appeared to have a desirable form of life in it. It appeared to be green. It was new. It reflected exactly what Adam and Eve desired. It tasted good, it was beautiful, and it would make them smarter, like Elohim. Even today, the advertising world is driven by concoctions and treatments that will make us beautiful, smart, and will please our palates.
The 1/3 of trees burning up in Revelation may be these sorts of trees: trees of idolatry. Self-image. The promise of the serpent, the most cunning beast of the field. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is our first instruction in idolatry; therefore, we can look beyond the later additions of carved images and see what a tree or an idol is in its barest form: a sin of convenience that delivers what I desire, need, and what I want to be...now. A spiritual shortcut. It is refusing to wait for the cool of the evening, a conversation with Elohim, knowing that He will likely forbid what we desire to make Him accept or believe about us.
Ahab did as King Solomon. He made a political marriage in order to harness the massive trade network of the Sidonians. This is what Herod Antipas did. He took his brother Phillip's wife, Herodias, to add to and consolidate his adjacent territory, and had Phillip murdered.
Likewise, Jezebel murdered Navot because Ahab coveted his vineyard, and Navot would not sell it for money. The vineyard was near Ahab, accessible. The symbolism is important:
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children like olive plants around your table. (Ps 128:3)
Ahab coveted Navot's "wife," the spiritually fruitful vine who produced fruit around his table, good fruit that would inherit the Land of their father and their Father. Ironically, Yeshua calls Herod Antipas "That fox":"Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes." (Sng2:15) He's saying Herod Antipas, the "little fox," is like his father, Herod the Great, a murderer of any competitor.
Navot recognizes that his "vineyard-wife" is an inheritance from his father and his Father. In the Land of Israel, he's been given an earnest toward the inheritance in the locked Garden, the Bride of the Holy One. He is producing olive plant "fruits" in the Garden to sit around the table. Jewish tradition provides the expectation of a communal meal with the patriarchs of our faith when we cross over to the Garden.
Ahab seeks to destroy the inheritance of a place within the Bride. His idolatrous wife helps him to acquire the convenient vineyard, cutting off the "fruits" of Navot's inheritance. Because he is close, he becomes a convenient meal for the little fox.
An fox symbolizes an idol or idolator, one that covets the tender grapes of Adonai's vineyard. Wine and meat were important parts of an idolatrous meal, not just the disciplined, holy sacrifices and wine libations of the Temple service.
Basar, the Hebrew word for meat, is also used as a euphemism for carnal flesh. In other words, the uncontrolled lust for meat becomes a lust for sexual activity. Moses reminds the Israelites of this pattern in the wilderness when the Israelite men lusted for meat, and then they sinned with the Moabite women who conveniently appeared with an idolatrous meal, and then they worshiped idols under a "green tree." A convenient tree. A new tree. Fresh. Bright.
The vegetable garden desired by Achav (Ahab) was a "green garden."
You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. (Dt 12:2)
In this context, the word for green is ra-anan, Strong's #7488: to be green; verdant; by analogy, new; figuratively, prosperous:-green, flourishing.
The Gesenius entry for ra-anan gives additional clarity on the green tree as idolatrous, not just green in color:
"Metaphoric of happiness."
Idolatry's convenient green bait-tree is prosperity, newness, and happiness...now. The fake for the eternal.
Re'eh also cautions against false prophets and idolatrous cities. Jewish commentators note that this concerns prophets who lay claim to a sign or miracle. Because people want to believe the prophet, they become caught up in a community or group. They don't notice that the prophet's words subtly turn them away from acknowledging Adonai as the One and ONLY Elohim.
Instead of gathering to overcome the obstacles to worship together at the moedim and chagim, the "believers" gather on hills and mountains, which represent sources of power. They lose their way to Jerusalem because the NEW message conveniently stimulates the soul.
Idols are served when we serve ourselves, our self-image. Human beings are created in the image of Elohim. They are not Elohim. Let not the "newness" of Torah turn us into self-important messengers who believe everything that falls on our heads from every green tree. The greater tragedy than serving idols on the mountains, hills, and under every green tree would be to actually make it to the Holy City and find ourselves not transformed by the Spirit, but still working on our self-image.
A carved image usually has the form of a human or beast. Both are accurate! A person who serves something created is merely working on a self-image. A human who does not serve Adonai is reduced to the image of a beast. He serves his own soul like a beast: appetite, emotion, desire, intellect. He practices life in a more convenient manner than one who subjects his soul to his spirit. An idolator serves "I want, I feel, I crave, I think..." because they are easily and presently gratified. The appetite of the Spirit is not so tangible on this side of the Garden.
For this reason, it was difficult for the Israelites to be satisfied with spiritual bread and water or even Divine discipline. After forty years in the wilderness with Moses, though, they were given an opportunity to test their resistance to the instant gratification of idolatry, gathering under every green tree. They would have to use their freedom to remain in the vital community of faith rather than as an opportunity to escape it. They would now make greater sacrifices to make the journey to Jerusalem. Their sharing with others would become more difficult and costly with their new freedom.
Concerning the commandment of destroying the places of the gods upon the high mountains, the hills, and under every green tree, Rabbi Kahn writes this:
The mountains, hills, and trees in this verse seem an apt description of the Land of Israel, but this is no innocuous guide to the landscape. This seemingly benign phrase provides insight into the psyche (soul) of the sinner. The Land of Israel is full of mountains, hills, and trees. A person who wanted to serve his idol could easily and immediately turn to any available mountain, hill, or tree. This made idolatry extremely accessible; it was a wonderful solution, an 'instant' salve for those in need of immediate gratification. (Kahn, "In the Eyes of God and Man," Parashat Re'eh, p. 97)
Kahn discusses the difficulty of spiritual growth versus the minimal demands that idolatry places upon us with its bait of convenience, "happiness," and "newness." He points out that getting to Jerusalem and the Temple required an arduous climb no matter from which direction one came. It was SURROUNDED by mountains, which made it harder, like a locked Garden. Salvation doesn't require much work on our part. A sacrifice Lamb. Paint some blood on the doorpost. Spiritual growth, however, comes only through hard work, long hours, honest soul-searching, and sometimes, "withdrawals" from addictions of the soul, such as new or convenient things. We must cross the mountains and pass by the green trees along the way.
Jerusalem as a place of worship was meant to transform the worshiper because of the great effort and sacrifice of soul to attain it. For this reason, the additional burden of carrying an animal to Jerusalem just to slaughter it for normal consumption, or to drive a sacrificial animal all the way to Jerusalem for the feast, was recognized as an unnecessary burden on the tribes. Their freedom to kosher-slaughter their animals or bring money to Sukkot in lieu of actual animals didn't make the journey EASY. It made the journey attainable!
The great transformation of the journey to Jerusalem across its mountains is the reward of overcoming the temptations to worship under every easy green tree of distraction. The northern 10 tribes accepted the easier alternate altars so that could remain close to home. Jeroboam denied Israel the challenging journeys to Jerusalem that built them as a community of faith. Family and city groups traveled together, joining with other groups until their numbers swelled along with the increasing voices raised in the Songs of Ascent.
The roads of Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot lead to Jerusalem. We walk with a realization that the journey over the mountains was the Father's way of gathering us into His arms of protection. His sealed Garden. By gathering according to His will, His times, and His congregation, we conform to His image rather than vainly trying to force His will into the image of our own. Oh, the lies that have been told from Eden until now...the lies we've told ourselves to bend His ways to our own convenience. The freedom that we enjoy comes with great obligation to the surmount obstacles to returning to Jerusalem...together.
There is no Sukkot with the Bride under the chuppah unless we accomplish Yom Teruah personally and Yom HaKippurim together. Both books have to be balanced each year. Game trails lead to deadfalls.
The old fox will try to steal your inheritance in the Garden when your freedom within the Word becomes freedom from the Word under a convenient green tree. After all, aren't you the Bride, free in Yeshua?
O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. How many times Yeshua tries to gather us into the moedim so we'll bring peace offerings to share with one another.
It's too late for Billie Idol and Henny Penny.
But not for us.
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