Simon Pease reviews ‘Revelations of Jesus Christ from the Book of Revelation’ by Philip Wren (Christian Publications International, 2019)
Torah Portion: Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19
This week’s Torah Portion encompasses a varied group of instructions to Israel regarding anything from marital relationships to what to do if you stumble on a bird’s nest. Running through the instructions are common threads which reveal God’s nature and heart for his people, including justice (fairness in relationships, not taking advantage of people), compassion (care for others, including the most vulnerable) and purity.
God’s Attention to Detail
This call to purity is nowhere more visible than in Deuteronomy 22:9-11, whose verses at first glance appear relatively unconnected and perhaps a little strange:
“You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled. You shall not plough with an ox and a donkey together. You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together.”
The prohibition on mixing seed demonstrates that God has appointed particular places for everything he has created, including the smallest and seemingly inconsequential things. As he said through the prophet Isaiah: “Does he [the farmer] not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and spelt in its field?” (Isa 28:25)
Yoking an ox with a donkey would have been cruel for the donkey, a slighter beast with less strength and a different step. God encourages compassion for the beasts of the field but we are also reminded of Paul’s instruction to believers to “not be unequally yoked with unbelievers” (2 Cor 6:14). Notably, oxen were clean animals while donkeys were unclean.
Finally, blending together plant fibres (e.g. linen) with animal fibres (e.g. wool), which differed markedly in just about every way (e.g. strength, washability), would not have made for good quality garments and may have defiled people’s worship by causing them to sweat in God’s presence (e.g. Ezek 44:17-18).
God’s Appointed Order
In these verses, we catch glimpses of God’s heart: the significance and beauty of order, compassion for his creation, and practical concerns too. But these verses are also united by another principle: the importance of respecting God’s designated boundaries.
We live in the era of ‘trans’: transgenderism, trans-speciesism, even trans-humanism is on the horizon. Today it seems every boundary is made to be transgressed, every distinction to be blurred, every separation to be confused. But God’s people have always been called to preserve his created order with its given distinctions and relationships – each of which paints a picture of the most crucial distinction and relationship of all: that between humanity and God. After all, it was man’s sinful desire to usurp God’s authority and glory – “ye shall be as gods” – which precipitated the Fall.
With this in mind, we see in Deuteronomy 22:12 a command to Israel to make tassels on the four corners of their garments. This is a reference back to Numbers 15:37-41, where God told Moses that it was his purpose that the people would look at these tassels and thereby be reminded to obey all of his commands and not to chase after the lusts of their own hearts and eyes.
Likewise, let us today “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Yeshua, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Heb 12:1-2).
Author: Frances Rabbitts
Vayera (He appeared) Genesis 18 - 22
The great parliamentarian Edmund Burke said “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”.
Back in Genesis ch14 Abraham with his private army of 318 trained men, on hearing that his nephew Lot had been taken captive by an enemy, obviously with passionate and energetic determination, gave chase over some 100 miles or so, attacked and defeated the combination of four armies, evidently a vastly larger force. He recovered all that had been stolen including his nephew Lot and family plus other captives. Fantastic!
Now at the start of ch18 Adonai, the Lord, comes accompanied by two serving angels, all in human appearance, to Abraham’s camp, reinforces His covenant promises and eats a veritable feast that Abraham and Sarah provide.
They then head off towards Sodom, accompanied by Abraham who being the good host is seeing them on their way. Then, in the light of the eternal covenant promises that God had made to Abraham, He decides to tell him what He is about to do by way of judgement for Sodom & Gomorrah’s evil.
Now here something surprises me. Abraham did not plead with God to save Lot and family or ask that time be given for him to go with his private army and get Lot out of the line of God’s fire. He did not even mention Lot. Why?
Allow me to speculate:-
- Maybe Abraham felt he had sacrificed enough for Lot who after being rescued had gone straight back to live in that wicked city.
- Perhaps more than physical distance had come between them so that nephew and uncle had become more like strangers.
- Abraham may not have been sure that Lot worshipped the one true God anymore and so, having neglected such a great deliverance (Hebrews 2.3), he may not deserve to be saved yet again.
So Abraham makes what is no doubt a wonderful plea on behalf of at least ten anonymous righteous that evidently weren’t found in these cities to the effect of…nothing.
Let’s move on to the one “Righteous Lot” (2 Peter 2.7) in Sodom.
Now I speculate again:-
- Lot went back to and remained in Sodom, even after discovering how intensely evil it was, thereby keeping his family in danger.
- Lot did not take hold of the opportunity Abraham’s last rescue would have given him to relocate to safety.
- Having allowed this terrible situation to come upon him and his family, once he gave hospitality to the two men / angels, rather than risk himself by standing against the evil of the men surrounding his home, Lot offered his own daughters in order to appease the men”.
Lot’s passivity and appeasement approach, whilst he and his two daughters were rescued with just the clothes they stood up in, led to… the death of his wife and other family members, and probably his daughter’s decision to deduce him into sex, thereby creating two more enemy nations for Israel, namely Moab and Ammon.
If only Abraham had attempted to save Lot again…
If only Lot had taken the warning of his captivity and moved…
In all of this I see a lesson. At times I come to a point where I wonder if it’s worth continuing to pray for and do all I can to ensure the salvation of my family and friends who themselves seem so passive with regard to the great salvation our Heavenly Father has offered us through the sacrifice of His own Son, our Lord Yeshua. But I should take the Apostle Paul’s exhortation to Timothy as if it were to me…
“Proclaim the Word! Be on hand with it whether the time seems right or not. Convict, censure and exhort with unfailing patience and with teaching.”
Albert Einstein is quoted as saying “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything”.
Author: John Quinlan
Let us encourage one another to be active participants in the battle!
[TLV = Tree of Life Version. Other quotes NIV]
Torah Portion: Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9
Shoftim (‘Justice’)
The key word in this week’s portion is justice. Among the commands in this passage is that when a king is appointed over Israel he will write a book of the law and read it all of his days (Deut 17:18-19):
When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees.
This task would help the king discern how to rule the people of God, so that all could live under God’s justice and blessing. What is true for the kings of Israel is equally true for all leaders. Imagine the order and blessing that would be across the entire earth if leaders followed this principle whole-heartedly today!
Solomon, the third king of Israel, wrote that of the writing of books there is no end (Ecc 12:12). Indeed, so many books have been written today that no one library could contain them all. The majority of these books follow ideas other than is found in the Torah. This means that most people, from rulers of nations to ordinary citizens, do anything but study God’s law. Nations are ordered instead by the fallible principles of human philosophy. Today the weakness of governments is being shown up precisely because of this. The truth of Psalm 2 is very evident to all that will read it.
King Jesus Writes the Torah
But what about disciples of Yeshua? He is King of the Jews and King of all who are grafted into believing Israel – so as King, did He copy out the Torah and read it all the days of His life? We can imagine that He might have done, as a child growing up in Nazareth under the guiding hand of His parents, themselves under the guiding hand of God.
More than this, however, we know that all things were made through Him (John 1:3), so the Torah originated through Him and was fulfilled in Him. How then does He fulfil the law’s instruction to write a copy of the Torah?
The answer is that He writes it on the hearts of His disciples (Jer 31:33). This means that our lives are to be living evidence of the Torah of God. This was what Paul wrote to the Corinthians (2 Cor 3:2) when he called them living epistles – as if they were letters written to the world by their actions under the motivation of the Holy Spirit.
Witnesses to the Nations
Once the kings of Israel ruled by the written precepts of the Torah that had to be followed meticulously day by day. Today the Holy Spirit writes the teaching of God on our hearts, if we are willing. Israel of old was to be the living witness of the Living God through their outward obedience to the Torah’s precepts. It is the same for us - but we are witnesses of the Living God because of His working within us.
In that sense our responsibility to those around us in this failing world is no less than that of the kings of Israel to their own nation (and also as witnesses to the Gentile nations). Are we allowing the King of Israel to write the Torah on our hearts?
Author: Clifford Denton
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