Bar’chu
et YHVH ha-m’vorach, Baruch YHVH ha-m’vorach l’O’lam va-ed!
Baruch
ata YHVHEloheinu melech ha-olam asher bachar banu m’kol ha-amim, v’na-tan lanu
eht Torah-to. Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”
(Bless YHVH the blessed One; Blessed is YHVH, the
blessed One for all eternity. Blessed are you, YHVH, our Elohim, King of the
Universe, you have selected us from among all the peoples, and have given us
your Torah)
Exo 22:25 “If you do lend silver to any of My people,
the poor among you, you are not to be like one that lends on interest to him.
Do not lay interest on him.
The Hebrew verb word
for “interest” is “nashech” means to strike with a sting like a serpent – to
bite.
We see how banks and
loan sharks impose overwhelming burdens on so many, especially the poor. Who
struggle to repay loans because of the high interest rates.
In Dev/Deut 23:20-21
it is specifically permitted to charge interest (nashach) to a foreigner
(nochri). This may include business loans which carry some measure of risk.
What
Is Islamic Banking?
Islamic
banking, also known as non-interest banking, is a banking system that is based
on the principles of Islamic or Sharia law and guided by Islamic
economics. Two fundamental principles of Islamic banking are the
sharing of profit and loss, and the prohibition of the collection and payment
of interest by lenders and investors. Islamic law prohibits collecting interest
or "riba."
Exo 22:26 “If you take your neighbour’s garment as a
pledge at all, you are to return it to him before the sun goes down.
Exo 22:27 “For that is his only covering,(kesutah) it
is his garment for his skin. What does he sleep in? And it shall be that when
he cries to Me, I shall hear, for I show favour.
Covering – “Chesutah”
covering used for protection. Note the use of the “ketiv” and “Qere” in the
Hebrew text – “Kesuto”
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כו כִּי הִוא כְסוּתֹה
לְבַדָּהּ, הִוא שִׂמְלָתוֹ לְעֹרוֹ...
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26 for that is her only covering, she is
his garment for his skin…
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Why femine nouns? There is certainly a deeper Midrash hidden
in this verse.
Exo 22:28 “Do not revile an elohim, nor curse a ruler
of your people.
Here the sages
understand “elohim” to mean judges, who speak on YHVH’s behalf (Ex 21:6;
22:8,9) …”insubordination to YHVH’s appointed leaders is equivalent to
insubordination to YHVH Himself.”
Ruler (nasi) – Yahshua
was a ruler – an elohim- and yet he was cursed by the people, and in some
instances remains a curse word until this day. Have you noticed how people use
‘Jesus Christ’’ as a curse word when they are angry?
Exo 22:29 “Do not delay giving your harvest and
your vintage. Give Me the first-born of your sons.
“Honouring YHVH and
His appointed leaders is now linked to giving the first fruits of crops, herds
and even the first born of one’s sons(who were redeemed Ex 34:20)
In replacement
theology of the emerging church the bishops replaced the “Cohanim” (Priests)
with their own priestly order. Today many churches teach that the Torah has
been done away with, except the part where it comes to tithing to the church
leaders. This does not mean that spiritual leaders who proclaim the truth about
YHVH’s word and His covenant are not entitled to be supported by those whom
they teach – see 1 Cor 9
Exo 22:30 “Likewise you are to do with your oxen, with
your sheep. It is to be with its mother seven days. On the eighth day you give
it to Me.
Exo 22:31 “And you are set-apart men to Me, and you do
not eat any meat which is torn to pieces in the field, you throw it to the
dogs.
Exo 23:1 “Do not bring a false report. Do not put your
hand with the wrong to be a malicious witness.
Exo 23:2 “Do not follow a crowd to do evil, nor bear
witness in a strife so as to turn aside after many, to turn aside what is
right.
Exo 23:3 “And do not favour a poor man in his strife.
5 Prohibitions of a
witness:
- Cannot give unfounded hearsay testimony
- Collusion on part of a witness with one of the
parties for fraudulent or deceitful purposes is prohibited.
- No consideration is to be given to one’s
social standing in the judicial process
- Not to pervert justice by referring to the
majority view, if majority view is wrong.
- Cannot favour a poor person just because he is
poor.
Exo 23:4 “When you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey
going astray, you shall certainly return it to him.
Exo 23:5 “When you see the donkey of him who hates you
lying under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving it to him, you shall
certainly help him.
Yahshua taught much on
the issue of how to treat our enemies.
Mat 5:38 “You heard that it was said, ‘An
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,’ [j] Exo_21:24. Footnote: jThis was the principle for the judges
to follow, while יהושע speaks
in the next verse of our personal conduct.
Mat 5:39 but I say to you, do not resist the
wicked. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him
also.
Mat 5:40 “And he who wishes to sue you and
take away your inner garment, let him have your outer garment as well.
Mat 5:41 “And whoever compels you to go one
mile, go with him two.
Mat 5:42 “Give to him who asks of you, and
from him who wishes to borrow from you, do not turn away.
‘’That seems plain
enough, doesn’t it? Well, that’s the problem. We see words we understand,
referring to things we can picture (even if we don’t experience them much), so
we assume that we can take it at face value. We treat the cultural context of
the Scriptures as effectively identical to our own cultural context.
“We,” I am happy to
say, it does not include scholars like Walter Wink. Walter Wink was a minister
and professor. He wrote several books, and coined (among others) the phrase
“the myth of redemptive violence.” Walter Wink did the hard legwork on this
passage. He looked at the history and the cultural norms at the time. The time
and place in which Yahshua lived was a Jewish nation under Roman occupation, a
nation subject to its own laws and norms as well as to an imposed Roman
occupying law. Walter Wink also worked through the physical implications of
this passage.
Yahshua didn’t
say a cheek or your cheek. He said the right cheek.
Say someone slaps you on the right cheek. They’re facing you. How do they do
that? With their left hand, right? No, wrong. The left hand was unclean. It was
not to be used for touching other people. No matter what. (This rule still
stands in some cultures.) So they’re backhanding you with the right hand. This
was a kind of slap of rebuke given to a social inferior. It wasn’t a fighting
blow; it was a reprimand. Master to slave. Father to son. Husband to wife.
Roman to Jew. Anyone who struck a social equal that way was subject to a fine.
The rule of law was important!
Now, if someone struck
you that way, and you invited them to strike the left cheek,
you were inviting them to an open-handed blow. That’s an entirely different
kind of slap. It was not a rebuke to an inferior. It was a challenge to an
equal. You’re inviting them to hit you again, but you’re inviting them to hit
you as they would hit an equal. If you are their equal, the first blow was
improper. If they are your social superior, the second blow would be. You’re
forcing them to be open about the imbalance, the injustice. It’s not violence.
It’s peaceful. But it’s resistance. It’s a dare. It’s cheeky.
How about if someone
sues you for your shirt? Let’s not forget that they didn’t wear three-piece
suits then. They wore an inner garment and an outer garment. These have been
translated as shirt and coat, but actually they
were khitona, or tunic, and himation, or toga. The
coat, the toga, was the outer garment, but it was actually more essential,
because it’s what you slept in at night. Deuteronomy 24, verse 13, lays down
the law that if someone gives you their coat – himation, toga – as a pledge,
you must return it by nightfall so they can sleep in it.
So, now, they’ve
demanded from you the shirt off your back. Literally, that’s what they’ve taken
you to court for. You push it. You get cheeky. You give them the coat too. They’ll
be required by law to return it. Oh, and if they have both your shirt and your
coat, what are you wearing? …Nothing. Which exposes you to shame – at their
instigation – but also exposes them to shame for viewing it. So you’re really
pressing the point. You’re not letting them get away with a halfway villainy, a
socially allowable injustice. You’re making them commit to an obvious
injustice, to face the full force of their actions: “Stop, why are you doing
that? You’re making me feel like a bad person.”
Now. How about that
extra mile? We know that “go the extra mile” line too. But this isn’t a running
club buddy asking you. It’s not your aunt saying “Can’t we stroll a bit
longer.” It’s not your friend saying “Dude, help me move this sofa to my new
place.” Judaea was under Roman occupation, and Roman law permitted Roman
authorities to require any inhabitant of an occupied territory to carry
messages and equipment for the distance of one mile – but prohibited forcing
them to go any more than one mile. They could be punished for
making you go farther. So. You’re walking along the road in your country ,
which is occupied by these Romans, and a Roman comes along and says you have to
carry something for him. This blows your lunch plans a little bit, maybe, but it’s
not terrible; a Roman mile was a bit shorter than a modern mile, and might take
a person 20 minutes or less to walk. It’s just an indignity, an injustice. But
it’s one permitted by law, so it’s OK, right?
So at the end of the
mile you keep going. “No,” says the Roman, “you don’t have to go any farther.
You can hand it over now.” “Oh, no problem,” you say, smiling. “I can do two.”
Why not? You’re keeping someone else from having to do that mile. And you’re
putting this occupier in an uncomfortable situation. “You’re making me look
bad!” “But I thought you wanted me to carry this for you!” Cheeky.
So you do not return
violence for violence, no. That would compound wrong on wrong. It would also
make you lose. They could have you arrested for it. Instead, you turn the other
cheek, go the extra mile. But, in its historical origins, that is also not meek
acquiescence. It’s pressing the point. It’s making the injustice plainer to
see. It’s making it awkward. Politeness lets injustices pass. But pushing
politeness can expose them, too, without giving any excuse for further
injustice. You just have to turn… cheeky.
The phrase turn
the other cheek is well ingrained in the language, of course, as
is go the extra mile. It would be far too much to expect people to
instantly change the usage to refer to a kind of meekness that presses the
point and exposes the injustice. Still, it’s worth knowing, to appreciate
historical context and to reconsider the value of the usual intention of the
phrase.
Because you are
willing to pay whatever price is necessary for the truth to reach people. Truth
is most powerful when one realizes how undeserving one is to receive such
goodness and favour. This kind of truth most often requires a selfless
messenger who is willing to lay down their lives so that others may receive
life.
YHVH is seeking an
intercessory remnant that will become one with His son in bringing a lost
humanity back to Him.
In idiomatic English, “Don’t try to get even with evildoers.”9 Not “competing” with evildoers is very
different from not resisting evildoers. Yahshua was not teaching that one
should submit to evil, but that one should not seek revenge. Yahshua’ statement
has nothing to do with confronting a murderer or facing an enemy on the field
of battle.
As Proverbs 24:29 says, “Do not say, ‘I will do to him as he has done
to me. I will pay the man back for what he has done.’”
See that none of you pays back evil with evil; instead, always try to
do good to each other and to all people. (1 Thess 5:15)
2Co 4:7 And we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
so that the excellence of the power might be of Elohim,
and not of us –
2Co 4:8 being hard pressed on every side,1
but not crushed; being perplexed, but not in despair; Footnote: 1See
1:8.
2Co 4:9 being persecuted, but not forsaken; being
thrown down, but not destroyed;
2Co 4:10 always bearing about in the body the dying of
the Master יהושע, that the life of יהושע might also be manifested in our body.
2Co 4:11 For we,
the living, are always delivered to death for the sake of יהושע, that the life of יהושע might also be manifested in our mortal
flesh,
2Co 4:12 so that
death indeed is working in us, but the life in you.
How does one know where to draw the line? Midrash. Luke
13:6-9 &
Where are the
intercessors?
Isa 59:14 And right-ruling1 (mishpatim) is
driven back, and righteousness1 stands far off. For truth has fallen
in the street, and right (truth and integrity) is unable to enter. Footnote: 1Amos
5:7. Isa 59:15 And the truth is lacking,
and whoever turns away from evil makes himself a prey. And יהוה saw, and it
displeased Him that there was no right-ruling. Isa 59:16 And He saw that there was no man, and was
astonished that there was no intercessor. So His own arm saved for Him, and His
righteousness upheld him.
Eze 22:30 “And I sought for a man among them who would
make a wall, and stand in the breach before Me on behalf of the land, that I
should not destroy it – but I did not find one!
Eze 22:31 “Therefore I have poured out My displeasure
on them, I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath. And I have put their
way on their own head,” declares the Master יהוה.
Only as the fullness
of Messiah is established in us (Eph 4:13) and as we are conformed to his image
(Rom 8:29) can we become the kind of intercessors YHVH seeks to bring redemption
to the world. This may happen before Messiah returns.
Exo 23:6 “Do not turn aside the right-ruling of your
poor in his strife.
Exo 23:7 “Keep yourself far from a false matter, and
do not kill the innocent and the righteous, for I do not declare the wrong
right.
Exo 23:8 “And do not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds
the seeing one and twists the words of the righteous.
Exo 23:9 “And do not oppress a sojourner, as you
yourselves know the heart of a sojourner, because you were sojourners in the
land of Mitsrayim.
Exo 23:10 “And for six years you are to sow your land,
and shall gather its increase,
Exo 23:11 but the seventh year you are to let it rest,
and shall leave it, and the poor of your people shall eat. And what they leave,
the beasts of the field eat. Do the same with your vineyard and your oliveyard.
Exo 23:12 “Six days you are to do your work, and on the
seventh day you rest, in order that your ox and your donkey might rest, and the
son of your female servant and the sojourner be refreshed.
Exo 23:13 “And in all that I have said to you take
heed. And make no mention of the name of other mighty ones, let it not be heard
from your mouth.
Exo 23:14 “Three1 times in the year you are
to observe a festival to Me: Footnote: 1The Festivals of יהוה are grouped in
three, for three different times of the year.
Exo 23:15 “Guard
the Festival of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you eat unleavened bread, as I
commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Aḇiḇ – for
in it you came out of Mitsrayim – and do not appear before Me empty-handed;
Exo 23:16 and the
Festival of the Harvest, the first-fruits of your labours which you have sown
in the field; and the Festival of the Ingathering at the outgoing of the year,
when you have gathered in the fruit of your labours from the field.
Exo 23:17 “Three
times in the year all your males are to appear before the Master יהוה.
Exo 23:18 “Do not
offer the blood of My slaughtering with leavened bread, and the fat of My
offering shall not remain until morning.
Exo 23:19 “Bring
the first of the first-fruits of your land into the House of יהוה your Elohim. Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.
Exo 23:20 “See, I
am sending a Messenger before you to guard you in the way and to bring you into
the place which I have prepared.
There is much speculation and
differences of opinion regarding the “pre incarnate” ministry and mission of
Yahshua. The book of Hebrews, chapter one plainly states that Yahshua is
superior to the Messengers. Note also how the translation uses a capital “M” in
“messengers” this distinction does not appear in the Hebrew text.
If Yahshua was this special
“Messenger” he would not have failed in his task to bring the children of
Yisrael into the land of Yisrael to be established in YHVH’s Torah, forever and
ever. We know this will only happen in the future when the Messiah returns.
Heb
1:13 And to which of the messengers did
He ever say, “Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies a footstool for
Your feet”?
Heb
1:14 Are they not all serving spirits
sent out to attend those who are about to inherit deliverance?
Exo 23:21 “Be on
guard before Him and obey His voice. Do not rebel against Him, for He is not
going to pardon your transgression, for My Name is in Him. (note capital
letters are added and do not appear in the original text. Sadly the translators
are adding to the original text)
Exo 23:22 “But if
you diligently obey His voice and shall do all that I speak, then I shall be an
enemy to your enemies and a distresser to those who distress you.
Exo 23:23 “For My
Messenger shall go before you and shall bring you in to the Amorites and the Ḥittites
and the Perizzites and the Kenaʽanites and the Ḥiwwites
and the Yeḇusites, and I shall cut them off.
Exo 23:24 “Do not
bow down to their mighty ones (elohim in Hebrew), nor serve them, nor do
according to their works, but without fail overthrow them and without fail
break down their pillars (their false pillars of worship).
Exo 23:25 “And you
shall serve יהוה your Elohim,
and He shall bless your bread and your water. And I shall remove sickness from
your midst.
Sickness and disobedience are sometimes related, however
in Yahshua’s sinless life he took upon himself our sicknesses.
Exo 23:26 “None
shall miscarry or be barren in your land. I shall fill the number of your days.
Exo 23:27 “I shall
send My fear before you, and cause confusion among all the people to whom you
come, and make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
Exo 23:28 “And I
shall send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Ḥiwwite,
the Kenaʽanite, and the Ḥittite
from before you.
Exo 23:29 “I shall
not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become a waste
and the beast of the field become too numerous for you.
Exo 23:30 “Little
by little I shall drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and
you inherit the land.
Exo 23:31 “And I
shall set your border from the Sea of Reeds to the Sea of the Philistines, and
from the wilderness to the River, for I shall give the inhabitants of the land
into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.
Exo 23:32 “Do not
make a covenant with them nor with their mighty ones (their elohim).
Exo 23:33 “Let
them not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me when you serve
their mighty ones, when it becomes a snare to you.”
See - Babylonian Talmud (Ketubot 110b-111a).
Baruch atah
YHVH, Eloheynu, Melech ha-‘Olam, asher natan lanu Toraht-emet, v’chay-yeh o’lam
nata-b’tochenu. Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”
(Blessed are you
Yahweh, our Elohim, King of the Universe, you have given us your Torah of
truth, and have planted everlasting life within our midst. Blessed are you,
YHVH giver of the Torah – Ameyn.)