RSEA.D. Week 140

Torah Study Notes for Week 140 of the Torah Reading Cycle

thecord.life/notes/week140

Read
Aloud together to hear the Word (Leviticus 23:1-3; Nehemiah 8:1-4; Luke 4:16-17)

  • Torah (T): Devarim (Deuteronomy) 18:1 – 20:9
  • Prophets (P): Jeremiah 29:8-14
  • Apostolic (A): Acts 3:11-26
  • Additional (ADD): Sirach 49:1-16

Summary
Context and coherence (Nehemiah 8:8)

Deuteronomy 18

  1. His spokesmen carry His word of authority and justice.
    • Deuteronomy 18:19-20; It will happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he will speak in my name, I will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who acts arrogantly to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other elohim, that same prophet will die.

Deuteronomy 19

  1. His ministers execute justice under His authority
    • Deuteronomy 19:10-13; This is so that innocent blood will not be shed in the middle of your land which YHWH your Elohim gives you for an inheritance, leaving blood guilt on you. 11 But if any man hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises up against him, strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities; 12 then the elders of his city will send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. 13 Your eye will not pity him, but you will purge the innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with you.
    • Deuteronomy 19:15-21; One witness will not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, will [every](LXX) word be established. 16 If an unrighteous witness rises up against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, 17 then both the men, between whom the controversy is, will stand before YHWH, before the priests and the judges who will be in those days; 18 and the judges will make diligent inquisition; and behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has witnessed falsely against his brother, 19 then you will do to him as he had thought to do to his brother. So you will remove the evil from among you. 20 Those who remain will hear, and fear, and will never again commit any such evil among you. 21 Your eyes will not pity: [his](DSS) life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Deuteronomy 20

  1. His administration is governed by His officers to uphold justice.
    • Deuteronomy 20:2-4; It will be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest will approach and speak to the people, 3 and will tell them, “Hear, Israel, you draw near today to battle against your enemies. Don’t let your heart faint! Don’t be afraid, nor tremble, neither be scared of them; 4 for YHWH your Elohim is he who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.”
    • The War Scroll 1QM, Column 10; …Our [of]ficers will speak to all those prepared for battle, those willing of heart, to strengthen them by the might of Elohim, to turn back all who have who have lost heart, and to strengthen all the valiant warriors together…

Exhortation
Counsel, comfort, and encouragement (Acts 13:14-15)

  1. As people of the covenant we are to uphold His authority and justice beginning within our hearts and expanding outwards.
    1. First, internal.
      1. Tobit 13:6; If you turn to him with your whole heart and with your whole mind (or soul), to deal uprightly (or do truth) before him, then he will turn to you, and won’t hide his face from you. See what he will do with you. Give him thanks with your whole mouth. Bless the Lord of righteousness. Exalt the everlasting King. I give him thanks in the land of my captivity, and show his strength and majesty to a nation of sinners. Turn, you sinners, and do justice (or righteousness) before him. Who can tell if he will accept you and have mercy on you?
      2. Wisdom of Solomon 8:7; If a man loves righteousness, the fruits of her labors are virtues, for she teaches temperance (or soberness), prudence (or understanding), justice (or righteousness), and fortitude (or courage). There is nothing in life more profitable for men than these.
    2. Secondly, within our households.
      1. Joshua 24:14-15; “Now therefore fear YHWH, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the elohim which your fathers served beyond the River, in Egypt; and serve YHWH. 15 If it seems evil to you to serve YHWH, choose today whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the elohim of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve YHWH.”
      2. Daniel 3:18; But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up.
    3. Third, within the Community.
      1. Proverbs 21:3; To do justly and to speak truth, are more pleasing to God than the blood of sacrifices (Brenton’s Greek Translation).
      2. 1 Corinthians 6:1-8; Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? 2 Don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3 Don’t you know that we will judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? 4 If then you have to judge things pertaining to this life, do you set them to judge who are of no account in the assembly? 5 I say this to move you to shame. Isn’t there even one wise man among you who would be able to decide between his brothers? 6 But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers! 7 Therefore it is already altogether a defect in you that you have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 No, but you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that against your brothers.
  2. We have been given the opportunity to participate in His kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
    1. How justice is administered carries a very heavy criterion. His expectations of right-ruling are non-negatable. This is evidenced by the fierce condemnation He scolds the wayward host of heaven in Psalms 82.
      1. Psalms 82:1-8; A Psalm by Asaph. Elohim presides in the assembly of elohim. He judges among elohim. 2 “How long will you judge unjustly, and show partiality to the wicked?” Selah. 3 “Judge (or give right-ruling) for the helpless and the fatherless. Do righteousness to the afflicted and dispossessed. 4 Rescue the helpless and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.” 5 They don’t know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the land are shaken. 6 I said, “You are elohim, all of you are sons of the Most High. 7 Nevertheless you shall die like men, and fall like one of the rulers.” 8 Arise, Elohim, judge the land, for you inherit all of the nations.
    2. We are to exercise justice with courage. This can be challenging if we have not tested our hearts. When the rubber meets the road that is when what we profess must align with what we do. If we have not submitted to the process of justice within; that is loving what is right above discomfort, then we will fail at upholding what is right before man.
        1. 2 Corinthians 13:5-7; Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know about your own selves, that Yeshua the Messiah is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. 6 But I hope that you will know that we aren’t disqualified. 7 Now I pray to God that you do no evil; not that we may appear approved, but that you may do that which is honorable, though we may seem to have failed.
        2. Acts 4:1-14; As they spoke to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came to them, 2 being upset because they taught the people and proclaimed in Yeshua the resurrection from the dead. 3 They laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was now evening. 4 But many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to be about five thousand. 5 In the morning, their rulers, elders, and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, with Caiaphas, Yochanan, Alexander, and as many as were relatives of the high priest. 7 When they had stood Peter and Yochanan in the middle of them, they inquired, “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “You rulers of the people and elders of Israel, 9 if we are examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 may it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Yeshua the Messiah of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, this man stands here before you whole in him. 11 He is ‘the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.’* 12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that is given among men, by which we must be saved!” 13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and Yochanan, and had perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. They recognized that they had been with Yeshua. 14 Seeing the man who was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
          1. Let our hearts be clean that His Holy Spirit can work in us when met with the opportunity to administer justice, or speak in boldness the authority of His reign (Numbers 5:1-3; Numbers 35:33-34).
            1. Numbers 5:1-3; YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Command the sons of Israel that they put out of the camp every infected one, everyone who has a discharge, and whoever is unclean by a corpse. 3 You will put both male and female outside of the camp so that they don’t defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell.”
            2. Numbers 35:33-34; So you will not pollute the land where you live; for blood pollutes the land. No atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, but by the blood of him who shed it. 34 You will not defile the land which you inhabit, where I dwell; for I, YHWH, dwell among the sons of Israel.
    3. Upholding justice is a witness and testimony to the sovereign and righteous rule YHWH welds over all creation. When crime is allowed to run ramped people succumb to their natural instinctive desires of self-preservation and self-governance. This ultimately leads to the leveraging their “will” rather than submission to Elohim’s “will”. This, however, does not conform with the purpose of mankind’s existence. We were made in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:26).
      1. Genesis 1:26; Elohim said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, [and over all the wild animals of the land],(syr) and over every creeping thing that creeps on the land.”
        1. Image = צֶלֶם tselem (H6754) literally means “to copy” and is a reproduction or imitation of the form of a person or thing. The form of something as a shadow of the original.
          1. G1504 (eikōn) from G1503; a likeness, that is, (literally) statue, profile, or (figuratively) representation, resemblance
        2. Likeness = דְּמוּת demuth (H1823) comes from the same root word as אָדָם adam which literally means “the flowing of blood” in the sense that a son from the blood of his father resembles his father and are “of the same blood”
          1. G3669 (homoiōsis) from G3666; assimilation, that is, resemblance: – similitude.
      2. I see this as our lives apart from His righteousness lives us empty and void, like functioning shadows. Until will are filled with The Holy Spirit we will never attain the potential of our creation.
        1. Proverbs 3:5-8; Trust in YHWH with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. 7 Don’t be wise in your own eyes. Fear YHWH, and depart from evil. 8 It will be health to your body, and nourishment to your bones.
    4. Justice that is not centered on YHWH leads to wicked, punitive, chaos. [article’s citations]
      1. Isaiah 9:7; Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on David’s throne, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of YHWH of Armies will perform this.
      2. Jeremiah 23:5; “Behold, the days come,” says YHWH, “that I will raise to David a righteous Branch; and he will reign as king and deal wisely, and will execute justice and righteousness in the land.
      3. The takeaway is until Yeshua returns the world will continue in a downward spiral of lawlessness. We, the people of the covenant, are called to witness, uphold, and show case the tenets of His kingdom to the nations so that;

Isaiah 43:9-13; Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the peoples be assembled. Who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified, or let them hear, and say, “That is true.” 10 “You are my witnesses,” says YHWH, “With my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither will there be after me. 11 I myself am YHWH. Besides me, there is no savior. 12 I have declared, I have saved, and I have shown, and there was no strange god among you. Therefore you are my witnesses”, says YHWH, “and I am God. 13 Yes, since the day was, I am he. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who can hinder it?”

Does anyone have specific questions or need any clarification from what was said during the Summary or Exhortation?

Application & Discussion
Living the Word and following Yeshua (Acts 2:37; Romans 2:13)
Questions, input, and sharpening (Proverbs 27:17; Luke 2:46)

Romans 2:13 For it isn’t the hearers of the Torah who are righteous before Elohim, but the doers of the Torah will be justified.

James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.

    1. What questions or comments came up during your family’s discussion of this week’s study?
    2. “What other related Scriptures did you find during your study of this week’s portion?”
    3. Have you ever experienced something from this study or something related to it?
    4. “What changes do you need to make in your life to align with what you learned during this week’s Torah Study?”