Baruch atah, YHVH Eloheinu, Melech haolam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu laasok b’divrei Torah.
Blessed are You,
YHVH our Elohim, King of the universe, who has made us set apart through His
commandments and commanded us to engross ourselves in the words of the Torah.
Blessed are You, YHVH, Giver of the Torah – Amein
כי־תקרב אל־עיר
When you draw near to a city- note the use of the future tense singular
masculine verb – תקרב In
other words this action will be ongoing while the present heaven and earth
exist.
Why would you draw near to a city? Because the leaders
(Judges) of Israel had determined that the inhabitants of that city were a
threat, both physically and spiritually to YHVH’s people.
YHVH will not allow any individual or group of
individuals to destroy His people. YHVH may choose our enemies to have a
partial and temporary victory over His people – to chastise them to cause them
to return to His ways.
Deu 20:10 “When you draw near to a city to
fight against it, then you shall make a call for peace to it.
Deu 20:11 “And it shall be that if it accepts your
call for peace, and shall open to you, then all the people found in it are to
be your compulsory labour, and serve you.
Deu 20:12 “But if it does not make peace with you,
and shall fight against you, then you shall besiege it,
Deu 20:13 and יהוה your Elohim shall give it into your hands,
and you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword.
Deu 20:14 “Only the women, and the little ones, and
the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you take as plunder
for yourself. And you shall eat the enemies’ plunder which יהוה your Elohim gives you.
Deu 20:15 “Do so to all the cities which are
very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.
Deu 20:16 “Only, of the cities of these peoples
which יהוה
your Elohim gives you as an inheritance, you do not keep alive any that
breathe,
Deu 20:17 but you shall certainly put them under
the ban - כי־החרם תחרימם : the Ḥittite
and the Amorite and the Kena‛anite and the Perizzite and the Ḥiwwite and the Yeḇusite, as יהוה your Elohim has commanded you,
Deu 20:18 lest they teach you to do according to
all their abominations which they have done for their mighty ones, and you sin
against יהוה
your Elohim.
Deu 20:19 “When you besiege a city for a long time
by fighting against it to take it, you do not destroy its trees by wielding an
axe against them. If you do eat of them, do not cut them down. For is the tree
of the field a man to be besieged by you?
Deu 20:20 “Only the trees which you know are not
trees for food you do destroy and cut down, to build siege-works against the
city that is fighting against you, until it falls.
Midrash - Deut 20:10-20 – in the context of
the last days and the great tribulation- pleading and giving His enemies time
to repent – increasing the pressure if they refuse – what mercy!
Eph
4:8 That is why it says, “When He went up on high, He led captivity
captive, and gave gifts to men.” שבה שבי Psa_68:18. Eph 4:9 But what does
“He went up” mean, except that He also first went down into the lower parts of
the earth? Eph 4:10 He who went down is also the One who went up far
above all the heavens, to fill all.
"taking captive captivity" means
that Yahshua, through his death and resurrection, triumphed over death and
sin, essentially "capturing" the power that once held people captive,
signifying his complete victory over evil and his authority to deliver people
from its control’’
Perhaps this is the story of our Messianic redemption –
when it comes to laws of warfare, our Messiah King knew that we could not
defeat our enemies on our own, so, he went to battle on our behalf to conquer
our enemies – showing mercy to some and no mercy to others.
Note the singular masculine tense that is used in Deu
20:10 “When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then you
shall make a call for peace to it - כי־תקרב אל־עיר – In fact all the pronouns used in this regard are masculine
singular pronouns.
See
Deut 20:19-20 - Rev 7:3 saying, “Do not harm the earth, nor the sea, nor
the trees until we have sealed the servants of our Elohim upon their
foreheads.’’ (144 000 witnesses)
Isa
63:2 Why is there red on Your raiment, and Your garments like one who
treads in the winepress?
Isa
63:3 “I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was
with Me. And I trod them down in My displeasure, and I trampled them in My
wrath. Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, and I have defiled all My
raiment. Repeated in Rev 19:13
Isa
63:4 “For a day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed
has come.
Isa
63:5 “And I looked, but there was none helping, and I was astonished that
there was none upholding. So My own arm saved for Me, and My wrath upheld
Me.
Isa
63:6 “And I trod down peoples in My displeasure, and made them drunk in
My wrath, and brought down their strength to earth.”
Atonement
for Unsolved Murders
Deu 21:1 “When anyone is found slain, lying
in the field in the land which יהוה
your Elohim is giving you to possess, and it is not known who struck him,
Deu 21:2 then your elders and your judges shall go
out, and they shall measure the distance from the slain man to the cities round
about.
Deu 21:3 “And it shall be that the elders of the
city nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer which has not been worked and
which has not pulled with a yoke,
Deu 21:4 and the elders of that city shall bring
the heifer down to a wadi with flowing water, which is neither ploughed nor
sown, and they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the wadi.
Deu 21:5 “And the priests, the sons of Lěwi, shall
come near, for יהוה
your Elohim has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the Name of יהוה, and by their mouth
every strife and every stroke is tried.
Deu 21:6 “And let all the elders of that city
nearest to the slain man wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken
in the wadi.
Deu 21:7 “And they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands
have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it.
Deu 21:8 O יהוה, forgive Your people Yisra’ěl, whom You
have ransomed, and do not allow innocent blood in the midst of Your people
Yisra’ěl.’ And the blood-guilt shall be pardoned to them.
Deu 21:9 “Thus you purge the guilt of innocent
blood from your midst when you do what is right in the eyes of יהוה.
Midrash - Atonement for unsolved murders
– Deut 21:1-10
Deu 21: 1-9 -
Purification - This is the essence of the Torah - Num 19:2 “This is a law of the Torah
which יהוה has commanded, saying,
‘Speak to the children of Yisra’ěl, that they bring you a red heifer, a perfect
one, in which there is no blemish and on which a yoke has never come.
Num
19:3 And you shall give it to El‛azar the priest, and he shall bring it
outside the camp, and shall slay it before him.
Heb
9:13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer,
sprinkling the defiled, sets apart for the cleansing of the flesh, Heb
9:14 how much more shall the blood of the Messiah, who through the
everlasting Spirit offered Himself unblemished to Elohim, cleanse your conscience
from dead works to serve the living Elohim?
Marrying Female Captives
Deu 21:10 “When you go out
to fight against your enemies, and יהוה your Elohim shall
give them into your hand, and you shall take them captive,
Deu 21:11 and shall see among the captives a woman
fair of form, and shall delight in her and take her for your wife,
Deu 21:12 then you shall bring her home to your
house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails,
Deu 21:13 and put aside the mantle of her
captivity, and shall dwell in your house, and mourn her father and her mother a
month of days. And after that you shall go in to her and be her husband, and
she shall be your wife.
Deu 21:14 “And it shall be, if you are not pleased
with her, then you shall let her go at her desire, but you do not sell her at
all for silver. Do not treat her harshly, since you have humbled her.
Midrash – Messiah marrying female gentile
captives – Deut 21:10-14
Psa
45:10 Listen, O daughter, and see, And incline your ear, And forget your
own people and your father’s house;
Psa
45:11 And let the Sovereign delight in your loveliness; Because He is
your Master – bow yourself to Him.
Eph
4:8 That is why it says, “When He went up on high, He led captivity
captive, and gave gifts to men.” שבה שבי Psa_68:18. Eph 4:9 But what does
“He went up” mean, except that He also first went down into the lower parts of
the earth? Eph 4:10 He who went down is also the One who went up far
above all the heavens, to fill all.
"taking captive captivity" means
that Yahshua, through his death and resurrection, triumphed over death and
sin, essentially "capturing" the power that once held people captive,
signifying his complete victory over evil and his authority to deliver people
from its control’’
Most scholars and students have difficulty in
understanding and explaining these ‘’miscellaneous’’ and somewhat ‘’obscure’’
instructions – What do laws concerning warfare, atonement for unsolved murders
and marrying female captives have to do with each other and establishing YHVH’s
kingdom on earth?
More than we realize!
Conclusion:
In the Apostolic scriptures Stephen clearly outlines the
reason why YHVH’s children do not take the Torah seriously: Act 7:51 “You stiff-necked Exo_32:9,
Exo_33:3, Exo_33:5 and uncircumcised in heart and ears! Lev_26:41,
Jer_6:10 You always resist the Set-apart Spirit, as your fathers
did, you also do. Act 7:52 “Which of the prophets did your fathers
not persecute? And they killed those who before announced the coming of the
Righteous One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers,
Act
7:53 who received the Torah as it was ordained by messengers, but did
not watch over it
Jas
2:10 For whoever shall guard all the Torah, and yet stumble in one point,
he is guilty of all.
Or if
you choose to ignore certain parts of the Torah you are guilty of ignoring all
of the Torah
Jas
4:11 …speaks against Torah and judges Torah. And if you judge Torah, you
are not a doer of Torah but a judge.
How do
we know there will still be stiff-necked people in the millennial rule? Because
Messiah will rule with a rod of iron during the millennium. (with the exception
of the Bride of Messiah)
Rev
2:26 “And he who overcomes, and guards My works until the end, to him
I shall give authority over the nations, Psa_2:8. Rev
2:27 and he shall shepherd them with a rod of iron, as the potter’s
vessels shall be broken to pieces, Psa_2:9 as I also have received
from My Father. Rev 2:28 “And I shall give him the morning
star.
Rev
2:29 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
assemblies.” ’
Even
at the end of the millennium there will be a massive rebellion against the
Messiah, His Bride and His Torah.
Rev
20:7 And when the thousand years have ended, Satan shall be released from
his prison,
Rev
20:8 and he shall go out to lead the nations astray which are in the four
corners of the earth, Goḡ and Maḡoḡ, Ezk_38:2 to gather them together for
battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. Rev 20:9 And they
came up over the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the set-apart
ones and the beloved city. And fire came down from Elohim out of the heaven and
consumed them. Rev 20:10 And the devil, who led them astray, was
thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur where the beast and the false prophet are.
And they shall be tortured day and night forever and ever.
The
New Heaven and the New Earth – Eighth day – shemini Atzaret
Rev
21:1 And I
saw a renewed heaven and a renewed earth,a Isa_65:17 for the
former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea is no more.
Footnote: aAlso see Isa_66:22.
Rev
21:2 And I, Yoḥanan, saw the set-apart city, renewed Yerushalayim, coming down out of
the heaven from Elohim, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev
21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the heaven saying, “See, the Booth of
Elohim is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His
people, and Elohim Himself shall be with them and be their Elohim.
Rev
21:4 “And Elohim shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there
shall be no more death, nor mourning, nor crying. And there shall be no more
pain, for the former matters have passed away.”
1Ch
12:32 and the children of Yissasḵar who had understanding of the
times, to know what Yisra’ěl should do, (Yesh sakar: Means
"there is a reward") - Mat 16:1-4 discerning signs
Isa
8:16 Bind up the witness, seal the Torah among my taught ones.
Blessed are you YHVH, 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 – Amein.