Shabbat Bible Study for 27Jan2024
©2021 Mark Pitrone & Fulfilling Torah Ministries
Year 2 Sabbath 45 – 27Jan2024
Leviticus 25:39 – 26:2 – Isaiah 24:2 – Psalm 89 – Galatians 4:1- 5:1
Links:
Look at Paul’s letter to Philemon for a NT application of this passage – joint heirs.
Vayikra 25:39 – 26:2 – Last week we saw the ‘kinsman-redeemer’ and how that was to be played out. Basically, if your kinsman needed money, he could lease you his land for it’s market price divided by the number of years to either the Sh’mithah or Yovel year. This week we’re going to see how an Israelite could lease HIMSELF into indentured service on the same basis. He would sell his service to another Israelite for the number of years until the next Sh’mithah or Yovel. He would sell his service for its market value and then be cared for by the master better than the master’s other servants were. I infer that this sale/lease of the man was to the kinsman-redeemer, as well – at least he would be the first to be offered the lease/sale. This was NOT a sale into indentured service forever. No Yisraeli was to EVER be OWNED, lock, stock and barrel, by another Yisraeli. The Yovel or Sh’mithah year would end the time of the service, whichever filled the term of the contract. If the kinsman-redeemer was ABLE to purchase both the produce of the man’s field AND the man’s labor AND care for his needs, he was duty-bound to do so. Of course, the man selling his produce and service must truly need to have the relief and not just be taking advantage of the financially blessed near-kinsman. I expect that the blessing on the kinsman-redeemer would be GREAT. Perhaps this was why Boaz was so blessed in Israel? We are NOT told if he’d acted as Kinsman-redeemer before Ruth’s day, but I expect that his great wealth was at least a partial reward for his obedient faithfulness to Yah’s ordinances in this regard. In fact, Naomi may have known of his Torah observant reputation before coming to BethLechem.
The Israelite brother was to be treated as a hired hand, not as a slave because he was NOT a slave, but a brother. Slaves were the master’s property; the brother was not, even though he or, rather, his services were ‘purchased’ after a fashion. Slaves did menial work, not usually trusted with technical or precise work, but a brother was to be given work commensurate with his abilities, even if it was only fieldwork. His term of service was at the most until Yovel, at which time he was released from his debt and sent back to his inheritance.
The idea was that he would be able to use the time of service to get back on his financial feet. This was accomplished because his needs; food, clothing, and shelter; were taken care of AND the master paid him the going wage for the day – if the man who’d sold himself into service was frugal with his wages, his time of servitude could be shortened by as much as ½. If he was frugal and worked for the master all the way to the Yovel, he could start anew with a nest egg of some considerable amount. If he were frugal AND set aside the purchase price, he would be able to buy his service back very quickly and also have a nest egg to start over.
In a way, this is what Yakov did with Lavan. He entered into service for a 7-year period – do you suppose the first year of service was a Sh’mithah year, where he could live with his brides for a year and NOT have to work the fields? And then in the next Sh’mithah he was also able to let the land and the animals/servants rest? Perhaps, though it was not certain in Lavan’s home. I know what you’re thinking: this chapter has the first mention of Sh’mithah. This IS where we get the first mention of it, but Yah has told us that Avraham, and presumably all the Patriarchs, kept all his Word;
Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. (Genesis 26:5)
Compare that to what we’ll discuss next week;
1 Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I Yah Elohechem. 2 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I Yah. 3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; 4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit….. (Lev.26.1-4)
Those are the first 4 of 13 verses of specific blessings that shall follow us, IF we do as Avraham did, who was merely following his Elohim as Yeshua did.
When his term of service was over, not just the brother, but his children also, were to go out to his inheritance. I assume the wife or concubine in this case was the master’s property. But if the man went into the contract married, I assume that his wife would go out, as well. He is not sold into service forever, because he is Yah’s servant and not any Israelite’s. An Israelite’s bondservants were to be Cana’ani or other heathen, not fellow Israelites. The Cana’ani slaves were actual property, and were willable to the next generation, but a brother Israelite was not to be treated as such, but went out to his own inheritance in the Yovel or Sh’mithah year.
If an Israelite became poor and sold himself to a Cana’ani sojourner baAretz – in the land, the near kin were duty bound to redeem him, if it was in their power, or if the man became able to redeem himself, he could do so. The sojourner may not like it, but this was the Torah in Israel. Schottenstein’s Chumash says that this was a ger who had agreed to live ‘according to the Noachide laws’ [no such thing in Torah; he was to live as a sojourner until he became competent in Torah] and was then permitted to live baAretz. He would have to also abide by the Torah’s ordinances, statutes, commands, and judgments. The redemption price was calculated according to the time left until Yovel, and the compensation must be fair. The Israelites were not to withhold just payment just because the ger was a ger. Honest weights and measures were always to be the norm in Israel.
Now, if the man sold himself into servitude to a ger, the question comes to my mind why his kinsmen didn’t come to his aid before? Of course, that assumes that he’d approached his brethren with his need in the first place. Perhaps he was too proud to ask his brother for help. In v.49 we see the reason the Israelite who had sold his service was to be paid the going wage for service – so he could buy his service back to himself, if there was no near kinsman able to redeem him, or if all his near kin were rotters who WOULD not do their duty for their brother Israelite. Please notice that in Israel, an Israelite could purchase a ger in perpetuity, and could pass that servant on to his children as inheritance because they were his property, but an Israelite NEVER became another’s willable property. His service was limited to the next Yovel. The Israelite served Yah, and never became another Israelite’s bondservant. Yah owns all Israelites, who are Yah’s bondservants. Noone may purchase them as property.
Lev.26.1-2– Israel was not to make any images of wood or stone or any other material. Images in scripture are phallic symbols, a representation of the male sexual organ. The Cana’ani worshiped sex in all of its aspects, because it was through the ritual sex of Molech and Asherah worship that they created the human babies for sacrifice to the false gods of those cultures. They offered the newborn babies of the temple prostitutes to Molech on the first day that the daylight part of the day grew noticeably longer, a harbinger of the resurrection of the trees and herbs of the field, after the Winter solstice. That day was December 25th. Then on the first Sun-day following the 1st full moon of Spring (Easter), they would use the blood of the babies that weren’t born in time for the offering to Molech to ‘bless’ the altar in the Tophet cave in the Hinnom Valley where the rising sun was worshiped as the temple prostitutes engaged in the ritual sex to produce the NEXT year’s offerings for the pagan false gods. Can you imagine bowing before a giant phallic symbol – like the Washington Monument or the obelisk in the court of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City or Cleopatra’s Needle in Central Park, NY? I can’t think of much that would tick Elohim off much more than worshiping sex through bowing to a giant penis. Then in v.2, he makes the point more sure by saying that we are to keep his Shabbats and honor his sanctuary. V.2 is in contrast to v.1 – don’t do that; do this. Q&C
YeshaYahu 24:2 – Here are vv.1-2;
1 Behold, Yah maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. 2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
V.1 describes the earth after Yah brings His judgment for failure to understand and heed His warnings that He will warn us about NEXT week in Vayikra 26.14ff. There we will see how He gives us ever more strident warnings, and our world will not heed them, mainly because our churches have convinced themselves and it has helped convince the heathen as well, that Yah doesn’t work that way anymore. As it was with Israel, so it will be with the world.
Wealth, position, status will mean nothing in the days of this prophecy. There will be such economic upheaval that everyone will be on the same level. And what will the Illuminati do when they have nothing that they’ve worked for all these generations? Basically the medium of exchange – money – will be; well, it IS, worthless. If things keep on as they have been going, and without a general spiritual vival they will, there will be no economic activity; indeed, there will be no economy except barter. If we have nothing to barter with, how will we get the things we need unless we’ve made preparations beforehand? What good will a limousine (Tesla) do if there is no fuel (electricity) to power it? The stuff is REALLY going to be hitting the fan before long. We will be able to barter work for goods, perhaps. Most of the people listening have made at least some preparations. Some have made none. Can you see the possibility of someone selling himself into service in those days to people who HAVE prepared? I can! The Torah for today lays out the rules for that service between believers. Yah will hold us accountable for how we treat our brethren AND the ger in our midst. I can see the day when he who loaned will come to the borrower for some of the stuff he got from the proceeds of the loan. The rich, who’ve never had to fend for themselves, will be lost when the plumbing or furnace fails. They will need tradesmen to help them, and will want to pay for their specialized knowledge, but with what? If they haven’t got a valuable commodity, how will they pay? With paper money? With debt? That’s how the uber-rich will be brought low. That’s an example of how the playing field will be leveled. Everyone will finally know that paper money and debt/credit is truly worthless, and the world system’s economy will stagnate and then putrefy. Knowledge of how things work and the ability to repair them will be a valuable commodity. Intellectual capital and the ability to use it will be king. I can build things and teach others to build things. My wife can care for sick people, as well as cook and bake and teach others to do all of that. How about you? Q&C
Before you read the Psalm, sing this ditty then follow the verses as they are laid out in the outline.
Tehellim 89 – Sing along, if you know the tune to Ps.89.1!
I will sing of the Mercies of Yahweh forever! I will sing! I will sing!
I will sing of the Mercies of Yahweh forever, I will sing of the Mercies of Yahweh!
And with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness, thy faithfulness!
And with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations!
I will sing of the Mercies of Yahweh forever! I will sing! I will sing!
I will sing of the Mercies of Yahweh forever, I will sing of the Mercies of Yahweh!
I used to teach that to my own kids and to the kids in my Sunday School classes many moons ago. I always loved it, even with the substitute name. Yah has made covenant with us, if we will stay faithful to him.
This psalm has a unique structure in that v.2 is an overview of vv.5-18, v.3 is an overview of vv.19-28, and v.4 is an overview of vv.29-37. It interests me, no end that Stone’s Tanakh has a note to v.4 that Elohim is the speaker in vv.4-38, when there are so many 2nd person references to Yah and his power and kavod. I agree that Elohim is the speaker, but I think it is Mashiyach about whom he speaks.
Vv.2, 5-18 – Yah’s faithfulness is established in the very heavens. As long as the heavens endure, so will his faithfulness to us-ward. Notice the likening of the heavens to the congregation of the saints in v.5. The souls of the saints do not congregate in the heavens after their deaths, but their spirits do.
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto Elohim who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:7)
There is a separation of flesh and spirit at death that negates the ‘soul’ until resurrection day. But the spirit is not, I think, without self-consciousness. When king Sha’ul had the witch of Endor call up Sh’muel, she was frightened because Sh’muel, and NOT her familiar spirit, actually was sent to make the final pronouncement against Saul. Had it been the spirit she was familiar with, she’d have kept control, and probably not known that it was the king.
Vv.6-18 are a kind of Micha Mocha; who is like you. The psalmist makes multiple references to the stars and the courses of nature. 6-10 speak specifically of the 1st heaven, that in which we move and all have experience, the earth and its atmosphere. He speaks of Yah’s complete command of everything on and in the earth, even the forces of the Adversary. In v.10, Rachav means fierceness, insolence, or pride and Gesenius says it makes poetical reference to Egypt (Stone’s Tanakh agrees in its note to v.10).
Vv.11-18 reference all the land of Israel, from Hermon to Tabor, even though Tabor is in the Galilee. Here’s what Easton’s Bible Dictionary says about Mt. Tabor;
The prominence and isolation of Tabor, standing as it does on the borderland between the northern and southern tribes, between the mountains and the central plain, make it a place of note in all ages, and evidently led the Psalmist to associate it with Hermon, the one emblematic of the south, the other of the north.
Hermon, about 40 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, is the highest peak in Israel – 9200 feet above Mediterranean sea level. Easton’s says;
In every part of (Israel) the Israelite turned his eye northward, there was Hermon terminating the view. One of the 3 peaks of Hermon is likely the mount of transfiguration.
Hermon is called Sion in Dt.4 and Ps.65. It may be the mount Sion John references in Rev.14.1
And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. (Revelation 14:1)
Vv.5-18 speaks of none save Mashiyach, who is the fulfillment in time of the faithfulness of Yah. Look at all the references to him in vv.13-18; mighty arm, strong hand, right hand, justice and judgment mixed with mercy and truth, the light of his countenance, the glory of our strength, our defense and our King. Justice and mercy are manifestations of Yah, while judgment and truth are manifestations of Elohim. Those manifestations find their physical fulfillment in the person of Yeshua. Who else but Mashiyach can that describe?
Vv.3, 19-28 – These verses speak of Yah’s servant, David – once again, the reference is prophetically to Mashiyach. In v.19, he speaks of ‘thy holy one’, which ultimately has but one reference. Both kings and priests were anointed, so both were technically Mashiyachs. And the reference in ZecharYah 14 to the ‘2 anointed ones’ may reasonably be seen as Mashiyach ben Yoseph and Mashiyach ben David. The sages saw 2 mashiyachim; one who would suffer for his people and sins – Mashiyach ben Yoseph,
But he (was) wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace (was) upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)
and one who would deliver his people from their political and spiritual enemies – Mashiyach ben David.
5 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. 6 And the disciples went, and did as Yeshua commanded them, 7 And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set thereon. 8 And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed in the way. 9 And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosheanu to the Son of David: Blessed he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosheanu in the highest. 10 And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? 11 And the multitude said, This is Yeshua the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. (Matt.21.5-11)
The prophecy that was fulfilled is from Zecharyah 9;
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. (Zechariah 9:9)
Yeshua haMashiyach is the ultimate Chasid of Yah, the Hebrew word in v.19 is la’chasidecha, ‘to thy holy one’. Ethan the Ezrahite, who authored this psalm, knew David. He was one of the Levites who helped bring up the ark from Obed Edom’s place. He saw David as Yah’s anointed king and deliverer, literally Mashiyach. In v.21, Yah’s hand is ESTABLISHED in David, as it is in the heavens in vv.2, 5-18, and as the enemy could not overcome David because Yah was with him, so he cannot overcome Yeshua, Mashiyach ben David, for Yah will beat down his foes (vv.22-23). Sorry folks, but the Adversary has no chance, and neither do his minions. But Yah’s faithfulness and mercy are David’s and his seed’s promised reward. Vv.24-29 describe Yah’s faithfulness to David and his seed, who is prophetically Yeshua and those found in him at his appearing.
Vv.4, 29-37 – ‘Thy seed’ also speaks of Mashiyach, who is the ultimate seed of Yah, as He is the ultimate seed both of the woman and of Avraham. We will explore those seeds in GalutYah, I think. Notice that it speaks of only one seed, not many.
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Mashiyach. (Galatians 3:16)
There is but One seed, One Saviour, One King Yeshua, the Son of David, the Son of the living Elohim. The Seed’s children (that’s us, folks) disobey or turn away from his Torah; he will chastise them in increasingly severe judgments until they return to him. We’ll see that very graphically in next week’s Torah portion, Lev.26.14ff. But even with all the severity of the judgments, if they fail to repent and make teshuvah, Yah will not utterly forsake the Seed’s children. Yah will always remain faithful to Mashiyach and his children. He says that ‘as the sun and moon endure forever’ so will His faithfulness to His Seed endure. So there really SHALL be a sun and a moon in the New Creation. Their light just won’t be needed in the New Jerusalem.
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of Elohim did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. (Revelation of John 21:23)
He’s told us that he will chastise us if we turn away from his narrow way, and we are the children of Mashiyach. Vv.38-45 describe the way our chastisement will feel after receiving the promises of Mashiyach, but failing to live in them.
In v.39 Yah makes void the covenant OF Mashiyach’s people, not his covenant TO Mashiyach and his seed/children. He will honor His end of the covenant He’s made with Mashiyach, because His covenant is eternal, ours are temporal. He is absolutely able to nullify any agreement we enter without consulting Him because we are His ‘wife’ and Mashiyach’s ‘children’. When we turn from His narrow way and make deals with the world system, the minute we turn back to Him and return to His house, Num.30 applies;
3 If a woman also vow a vow unto Yah, and bind herself by a bond, in her father’ house in her youth; 4 And her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she hath bound her soul shall stand. 5 But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth; not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she hath bound her soul, shall stand: and Yah shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her. (Num.30.3-5)
The same rule applies to the husband when he finds that his wife has vowed a vow. He can void the vow and she is free of it. So Mashiyach can nullify any vow we make without consulting with Him. So, if we enter a vow without consulting Yah and He finds out about it after the covenant has been made, He has every right to void that covenant. We had taken the throne in our own lives, crowned ourselves king. He casts that crown to the ground and destroys all our defenses and our ability to go on the offensive until we acknowledge our transgression and return to Yah, our King and Deliverer, and trust HIM to be our defense and our strong right arm.
But Yah will not hide his face from us forever, if we are truly His. V.48 is an allusion to the resurrection from the dead or translation without death. We can’t keep ourselves from death. But Yah CAN, and MAY, for Yah is NOT a man, but the Creator of all that is. Ethan reminds Yah to remember the reproach His people have had to bear and how He had acknowledged the sins of his people and claimed them as His own. Baruch Yah Olam. Amein v’amein. Q&C
GalutYah 4:1-11 – This passage is an application of Prov.17.2
A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren. (Proverbs 17:2)
In Gal.4, Sha’ul refers to the tutor, the governor, the child and father. My opinion is that the father represents Yah; the child, the Israelite heir who needs instruction in righteous living; the tutor, the oral traditions; and the governor represents revealed Torah. The governors and tutors were the trustees of a wealthy man’s estate. In his book, Galatians, Avi ben Mordecai makes the case that the greek manuscripts only use one word to describe Torah AND oral traditions (nomos, which is mostly translated as ‘law’ in English) and that contextual knowledge is necessary to know to which Paul refers. And I contend that this is pretty much the case in ALL of Sha’ul’s letters.
In v.3, Yeshua was born of a woman (from which you can infer ‘virgin’ since there is no mention of a man) and ‘subject to Torah’. In Phil.2, Paul describes this;
4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. 5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Mashiyach Yeshua: 6 Who, being in the form of Elohim, thought it not robbery to be equal with Elohim: 7 But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the tree. (Phil.2.4-8)
He ‘subjected Himself’ to His own Torah (would that Congress would take notice). Then in v.4, Paul refers to those who are ‘under Torah’. AENT has a salient note in the text on pg.568. So, according to AENT, to be ‘under Torah’ is to be under ‘religious authority’, not Yah’s authority (subject). We are free agents. We can subject ourselves to whomever we choose. May it be Yah and His Word, and not some guy’s interpretation of another’s word, as the Prushim were.
Paul’s use of personal pronouns in Galatians, as in all his letters, is important. When he uses ‘we’ he speaks of Jewish believers in Yeshua (subject to Torah); ‘ye/you’ refers to gentile believers in Yeshua (subject to Torah); ‘us’ refers to all believers in Mashiyach; and ‘they/them’ refers to Prushim believers in oral traditions (under Torah) and full conversion to Judaism, culminating in CC, before justification. Elohim sent Yeshua to redeem ‘them’ so that ‘we’ could receive our adoption as sons of Elohim. Now, ‘we’ are no longer servants, like the tutors and stewards (Tudors and Stewarts?), but sons who have Ruach in our hearts and are, therefore, partakers in Yeshua haMashiyach’s inheritance.
Vv.8-10 are a regular ‘bone of contention’ with our brethren in the Xian churches. But it does not have to be, if we read what’s written in v.8 and recognize the personal pronouns Sha’ul uses. He says, “when ye knew not Elohim”, referring to their former paganism. In this paragraph, he is clearly speaking to the gentile believers. It is the gentiles who, in v.10, were observing “days, months, times, and years”, not the Jewish believers – not even the Prushim CCers. AENT has another salient point to make on pg.569, note 51. Xmas, Ishtar, Valentine’s Day (Ooo! THAT’s gonna tick somebody off!), Hallowe’en, Ramadan, SUNday, MOONday, Wotan’sDay, Thor’sDay, Augustus, Julius, need I go on? What does this say about what Yah thinks of those who keep their own favorite pagan holy days, holy months and NOT those that he commanded us to observe until the heavens and earth pass away? Paul speaks of ‘doubtful disputations’ in Rom.14.1. That which Yah has commanded in his Word is not doubtful, but absolutely certain! While it may NOT result in loss of eternal life (cf.Ps.89, above), it shall result in loss of rewards, both temporal and eternal.
23 … this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your Elohim, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. 24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. (YirmeYahu 7.23-24)
When a baby falls down when he’s learning to walk, he usually still moves forward, gains on his goal. Not so with us. When we fall in our spiritual walk, we always suffer loss. Take my advice and lose any paganism you are still harboring. You will suffer in the world, probably (haSatan HATES to lose strongholds among Yah’s children), but your spiritual gain will be tremendous. Wait until next week’s Torah in Vayikra 26.2ff, where we will see what comes of our refusal to heed His warnings and acknowledge our sins and make teshuvah. Q&C
Vv.12-20 – Paul makes the distinction throughout this book between ‘we’ and ‘ye’, Jew and gentile believers. He is really afraid that the gentiles will go back to their paganism to have life a lot easier, as Israel was tempted to return to Egypt during the Wilderness Adventure and the priests who believed [Acts.6.7] were tempted to go back to the offering for atonement for the same purpose – to make life easier. Think, ‘Book of Hebrews’. He urges them to follow him as their example, as he follows Yeshua. They had received his message as from Elohim, as indeed it was. In v.17, ‘they’ were definitely the ‘full conversion’ Prushim CCers, who wanted to exclude the unCC’d gentiles from the synagogues. Watch out for those who will separate from or exclude believers because they don’t think exactly the same as them on other than salvific issues, or who make their traditions salvific. Sha’ul says that he is in doubt of their sincerity toward the gospel of shalom because they are being affected by both the CCers and their former pagan buds. He then starts in on those who wish to put themselves ‘under the oral traditions’ of the Prushim to the end of full conversion and CC. He wants to know if they shema Torah, does their faith show itself by their obedience to Torah or to tradition. Q&C
Avraham had 2 sons, one of the flesh by a bondmaid and one of promise by a free woman. He then shows by allegory the similarity between being under the oral tradition and a son of the flesh, and being subject to Torah and a son of promise. Remember that the Prushim, who are for revealed Torah + oral torah, believe that both came down from Sinai. Don’t let the mention of Sinai throw you off. The bondage represented in the allegory by the flesh, Hagar and Sinai in Arabia is the need of the Prushim to maintain control by insisting on the gentiles’ full conversion, with the finalizing action being CC. That describes ‘the Jerusalem that now is’, that is; after the death of Yakov haTzadik, Yeshua’s brother, who led the Netzarim sect in J’lem until his martyrdom. “The J’lem that now is” is in bondage to the traditions of the elders, as Yeshua said in at least 2 places.
Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat. (Matthew 15:2)
3 For the Prushim, and all the Jews, except they wash hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. 4 And from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables. 5 Then the Prushim and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? 6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath YeshaYahu [29.13] prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with lips, but their heart is far from me. (Mark 7.3-6)
The Yerushalayim above is the New Yerushalayim that will ‘descend’ to the New Earth from the New Heavens. This New J’lem is also called the Bride of Mashiyach, which I believe is the truest statement of them all, from our temporal point of view. Yah will dwell there in his tabernacle, which the Bride is. He will be the light of it, as the Ruach will enlighten us all both individually and corporately. All the allegorical promises seen in all the prophets find their ultimate fulfillment in Mashiyach’s Bride.
In v.27, Sha’ul makes the connection between Sarah, the Bride of Avraham, and New J’lem, the Bride of Mashiyach. And so now we, as was Isaac in v.28, are sons of promise. And then Paul makes the connection in v.29 for both the Jewish and the gentile believers between the Prushim CCers/Ishmael and the persecution of the seed – flesh vs. promise. Paul makes the application of the allegory in v.30, quoting B’reishit 21.10
Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Yitzchak. (Genesis 21:10)
We need to shema Avinu’s Words, prove that we’ve heard them by our obedience and STAND FAST in the LIBERTY we have therein and not get entangled in the yoke of bondage that is seen in both the oral law of the Prushim and the pagan rituals of the gentiles. Q&C
End of Shabbat Bible Study.
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