Member of the IAMCS

"Jethro"

Ex. 18:1 - 20:23; Is. 6:1 - 7:6; Matt. 5:17 - 32

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This week's Parsha contains the giving of the Commandments on Mount Sinai. Each year we read these words and there is hardly a believer who is not very familiar with the events as told in this Parsha. What have become known as the Ten Commandments begin in Chapter 20. I would like for us to look first at some verses in Chapter 19 for this Drash (Study). I feel that these verses will help some to more clearly understand why it is so difficult for people to accept that G-D has given us these commandments for our betterment and not for our punishment. In Chapter 19 we find G-D speaking to Moshe and telling Moshe to speak to the Children of Israel and to tell them to prepare to receive the words that G-D was going to speak to them. This is the thought I wanted to share in this week's teaching. In order to receive G-D's word we cannot be listening with a carnal mind. We must first prepare to receive G-D's word. This preparation takes place when we become what the Scriptures call Kadosh (Holy). The word Holy seems to have changed in it's meaning over the years, however, Biblically it means separate. Separate from this world. Separate from the thought patterns of this world. This separation is taught in the Brit Chadasha in many places; one of these places is Romans chapter 8:7-8. In The Complete Jewish Bible it is written this way, "For the mind controlled by the old nature is hostile to God, because it does not submit itself to God's Torah - indeed, it cannot. Thus, those who identify with their old nature cannot please God." The King James say it this way, "7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." When we have the privilege to share the Word of G-D we must always remember that our minds and hearts must be prepared to receive, just as the case was with the Children of Israel at Sinai. This is why it is so vital that we pray for the fallow ground of hearts to be prepared so that the seeds of Scripture will land on fertile ground and bring forth good fruit.

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There are a lot of things for us to learn within this week’s parsha. I would like to focus on one of them in this email. As we read this section of verses we find Moshe’s father in Law watching Moshe at work. As Yitro (Jethro) is watching Moshe handle the problems of the people, Yitro Speaks to Moshe with wisdom.

13 The following day Moshe sat to settle disputes for the people, while the people stood around Moshe from morning till evening. 14 When Moshe's father-in-law saw all that he was doing to the people, he said, "What is this that you are doing to the people? Why do you sit there alone, with all the people standing around you from morning till evening?"

Many times we look at this group of verses and see Yitro telling Moshe that trying to judge all of the people by himself is too much for Moshe. However, that is only part of the story as we read here that Yitro’s concern was also for the people. He asks Moshe, “What is this you are doing to the people?” When G-D calls us to a position within the body of Messiah we need to realize many things. Two of the leading things are as follows: one, we don’t need to do everything by ourselves and two, when we try to do everything all by ourselves we can actually be doing more harm then we are doing good. We need to understand that by trying to do everything on our own we not only cause the people of G-D to suffer in some way but we also rob other people of the blessings they would receive by growing in their gifts and talents. Let us as a body made up of gifted, talented, called people learn to share the load with one another to better accomplish the tasks that G-D has given to us.

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The enjoyment of YHVH's blessings is dictated by our level of obedience. If we are simple, knowing little of YHVH's law, we can enjoy a life with Him within the bounds of our limited knowledge. Once we begin to grow, show fruit, and mature in our faith, we come into more and more truths. At each of these growth periods, we are forced to decide what to do with a newly revealed truth. What we do with that new information directly affects our relationship with the Almighty. Let me give you an example.

When I began reading to Bible for myself, allowing the Spirit of YHVH to write His words upon my heart, I came across the concept of "Remembering the Shabbat and Keeping it Holy." I had to make some decisions in my walk with YHVH, and I had to determine exactly what that said. I read commentaries from both the Jewish sects and the Christian sects, and they, for the most part, were widely split. The Jewish commentaries said the Shabbat was to be kept from Sundown on the sixth say of the week until sundown on the seventh day of the week. Christian commentaries were not so accurate; they merely said the first day of the week was the Shabbat. I had to disseminate all this information, looking up every possible support passage, and I came to the conclusion that the Shabbat was INDEED sundown to sundown, the seventh day of the week.

Had I decided that since everyone else sharing the belief that Yeshua the Messiah is the Son of YHVH keeps the Shabbat on the first day of the week, therefore the Scriptures countering this idea are wrong or are replaced by the writings of a man named Paul of Tarsus, my further growth in Faith would come to a screeching halt. Until I got to the point of accepting this truth, my Spiritual growth would stop. In fact, I would run the risk of stagnating.

This is just one of many examples where we come into knowledge of higher truths and we need to either accept it as our own and live or be rebellious and die. Such is the case of this next topic. This is the hardest of the commandments to follow, and is, therefore, extremely important that we decide how to go about trusting in YHVH for His grace to BE obedient to it.

First of all, I would like to tell you that we will be studying Shemot 20:2-17. If you would, open your favorite bible translation and read those verses over. It is a very popular passage. A US judge is being sued because he wants to post them in his courtroom. These are the Ten Commandments, or the Ten Words as they are referred to in Jewish circles. When you read them, did you pick up on the number of commandments there are in this passage? Did you read 10? Did you read 11? Did you read 12? Look again! There are 12 commandments in this passage, but they are still called the Ten Commandments (Devarim/Deuteronomy 4:13). Therefore, I would like to pose a slightly different numbering structure for the Ten Commandments, and I would like to concentrate on one part of one commandment� the HARDEST commandment to keep.

1. I am YHVH Eloheinu (the Lord your God), who brought you out of the land of Mitzrayim/Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other elohim/gods before Me.
2. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, YHVH Eloheinu, am a jealous Elohim, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
3. You shall not take the name of YHVH Eloheinu in vain, for YHVH will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.
4. Remember the Shabbat day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Shabbat of YHVH Eloheinu; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days YHVH made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore YHVH blessed the Shabbat day and made it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which YHVH Eloheinu gives you.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

As you can see, I have included the DECLARATION or commandment to BELIEVE in the existence of the Almighty of Yisrael. Without this under our belt, the rest is a moot point. Who cares, then! The Tenth Commandment, I separated all the details out for the commandment really just admonishes us, "Do not covet anything." Very simple and straight forward unless you're sold on a doctrine that separates this ONE command into the Ninth and Tenth commandments.

Commandment the Second

This leaves us with the little-understood Second Commandment. It's always so easy to come to a quick, rash conclusion when it comes to these verses, but I encourage you to reread the second commandment as it's broken down for you below.

You shall have no other elohim before Me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, YHVH Eloheinu, am a jealous Elohim, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

The first declaration YHVH makes in this commandment is to "Have no other elohim before Him." After, which, He declares two points in which He assumes you are trespassing this command.

First of all, we are not to have a graven image (statue, engraving, woodcut, wood burning, etc) or ANY likeness (picture, photograph, tapestry, furniture covering, JPEG or GIF file, print on clothing, etc.) that resembles ANYTHING that YHVH has created in heaven, on earth, or under the earth.

Second, we are not to bow down to any elohim except YHVH. (Many people often paste this verse with the one before, this eliminating the need to remove any image or likeness from their home. It is clear that this is not the case.)

Third, this commandment has the promise we all love but it has the curse we all dread because no one really understands what YHVH is specifying here. A cursing that flows into the third and fourth generation is a horrid thing. So, whatever it is, WE DON'T WANT IT! Therefore, it becomes imperative that we begin to understand what's going on here in the Second Commandment and begin to apply its truths on a daily basis. (At the end of the commentary, I give one example of how to do this should you allow the Spirit to move you in that direction.)

I would like to give a few support passages for the separation of the "making for yourself images and likenesses" and the "bowing down to them," because the greatest heat I will receive will be from that angle. Please note that these passages do not combine the aspect of bowing with the making of likenesses or icons:

So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horev from the midst of the fire, so that you do not act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth. (Devarim/Deuteronomy 4:15-18)

And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. (Devarim 4:19)

So watch yourselves, that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which the Lord your God has commanded you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. When you become the father of children and children's children and have remained long in the land, and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord your God so as to provoke Him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed. The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you. There you will serve gods, the work of man's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. (Devarim 4:23-28)

In all the cases (except the blatant one where we are admonished not to worship the created), the idea of making an image is NOT connected with the worship thereof. Instead, the curse of Devarim 4:23-28 states that if we make these images and likenesses, we will be thrown from our land and FORCED to worship false gods. Therefore, it almost seems YHVH is telling us in Exodus 20, that we are not to make any images or likenesses, but since we WILL, we�re not to worship the gods of our captors when we are exiled.

What This All Means

This is a very hard line, I know, but here goes. The commandment is telling us not to have images or likenesses of any kind. This includes photographs, photo albums, clothes with nature prints, couches and furniture designed with flowers branches, certain camouflage clothing, wood tabletops engraved or wood-burned with lions and frogs, almost every book imaginable, much of the image files on our computers, some bumper stickers, some logos on cars and food products, food packaging, etc. The list is nearly endless.

The positive thing is that likenesses and images of things made by mankind (cars, computers, houses, assembly halls, etc.) are allowed as long as they are not "pagan" or idolatrous in nature (i.e., pentagrams, etc.).

The best way to handle this commandment, should you allow YHVH to prompt you in this direction, is to pray and ask YHVH to reveal to you things you can remove TODAY. If you try to do it all at once, you will end up with very few clothes and belongings, and you could end throwing your hands up in frustration and giving up on the whole thing, which means you would stop growing spiritually. If you can remove just three things a day, within a year, you will have successfully gotten rid of nearly 1,000 images and likenesses that displease YHVH. In that way, you would be pleasing YHVH in your strides toward perfect obedience.

Personal Convictions

My family and I have most of our things in storage. I've gone through storage once and was able to remove a pickup truck load worth of stuff in one swoop. There are still things in that storage area, but I will worry about everything else when I am able to better go through it (when I move into my more permanent home). The idea I'm using is that I will remove the stuff before I allow it into the home. It will be easier on my host: the man who is housing our belongings.

We have foodstuffs here as well with pictures of tomatoes, beans, corn, faces, etc. I am praying that YHVH would give me and my family the grace to be as obedient to this as we possibly can. I hope to put breakfast cereals into containers, re-label canned goods, etc. This is an area where I am currently weak (mostly due to time constraints and money), but I hope to kick this within the year.