When You Go Out

 

This week’s parsha is from Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19, it is called Ki Tetse, “When you go out”.

This portion includes roughly 50 separate commandments. 

When taken unto itself, it is a bit difficult to summarize the parsha into a single concept.  The beginning of the parsha addresses how men of war are to transition any women they take through a proper and respectful time of mourning and preparation prior to making them their wives. 

It then takes us through a progression of the laws on how to deal with stubborn and rebellious children, honesty and integrity amongst each other, gender identity, sanctity of life, responsibility for protecting others from accidental harm, mixing of fabrics, wearing of tsit-tsit, adultery, embracing outsiders into the assembly, the charging of interest, harvesting of the fields, divorce, kidnapping, leprosy, justice, mercy, and the list goes on and on.

With all this in mind I want to simplify while at the same time expanding out in two directions.  First of all, I want to discuss what this parsha teaches us about identity.  Secondly, I want to focus on what it is that Moses saw when God gave him the words of Deuteronomy.  It is important to view what we share in the bigger image of what aspect of His law God was asking Moses to expound upon when He asked Moses to share these words with the nation.

From here, I want to look at how these two concepts encourage us as we remain strong, diligent in our pursuit of righteousness, focused on a future, and hopeful knowing that what has been promised will hold true.  In looking at the first concept which focuses on identity, the first scripture that comes to mind is Deuteronomy 6:7. In this scripture we hear God speaking through Moses these most famous words relative to teaching His ways to subsequent generations. 

He says, “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”

Notice the concept of “teaching diligently” when in the home AND when walking by the way.  This scripture really resonated with me in regard to this week’s parsha. 

The “walking by the way” spoke to me in regard to the opening lines and the very name of this parsha “when you go out”.  At the same time, so much of the scripture included in this parsha addresses what life should look like within the communities.  These sections of the scripture make me think of that part of Deuteronomy 6:7 that says, “when you sit in your home”.

The next scripture that comes to mind is where God tells us that we are “to be holy”.  This comes up in Exodus 12:16, 19:6, 22:31, Leviticus 11:44, 11:45, 19:2, 20:7, and 1 Peter 1:16.  In each of these scriptures God gives us the image of being Holy because He is Holy.  In other words, He is our father, we are a part of His family, our identity is in His ways, and as such it is not in harmony with the ways of this world. By definition, Holy is “to be separate”. 

It is very easy to think about being holy in the context of avoiding unclean things while embracing those that God considers “clean”.  This is true, but we shouldn’t neglect the teachings of Yeshua when considering His definitions of clean and unclean.  In this I am taken to Matthew 23:23 where we read “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.”

Herein, is our first lesson that we gather from this week’s parsha.  When we look at the big picture contained within these laws, we see one common them.  Holiness, but not holiness in a pious nature like that of the “religious” leaders of Yeshua’s day.

One of the Ten Commandments is to “not take the Lord’s name in vain”.  When looking at the Hebraic definition of this term we are given a much deeper understanding of what God is attempting to communicate to us.  In the true context, God is telling us that misrepresenting His holiness is misrepresenting His NAME.  He is not a God who is interested in outward appearances, He is a God who is “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin”.  Mercy and grace are at the center of who He is, and as His representatives, this is who we are called to be.  This applies to when we “go out”, and “when we stay in”, when we are “at war”, and when we are “at peace”, when we are “in the midst of world” and when we are in the midst of “the congregation”.  Everything about our identity as being Holy must revolve around these understanding of Holiness.

With all this said, it is important to keep our focus on the bigger context of what God is sharing through Moses. From the beginning, God chose Abraham to be at the center of His plan of redemption.  From Genesis 12:1-3 we read: “Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so, you shall be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

From here I want to tie in something Paul teaches us in Galatians 3:17-18 where we read: “What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise.  For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.”

What Paul is getting at is this.  The nation’s walking in the Law does not dictate “IF” God will honor the promises.  At the same time, the nation’s walking in the law does control “when” those promises will come into fruition.  In other words, from the beginning, God knew that He would hold true to the promises that He was making to Abraham, and that those promises would ultimately come to pass.  At the same time, through Moses, He gave us a much more deep and rich understanding of how the promises will be fulfilled, what our role is in the promises, what must take place prior to the promises being granted, and more specifically, how He will interact with the nation as He makes us into the priests, He “chose” us to be.

This is the overarching concept of the entire book of Deuteronomy.  In essence, God, through Moses is saying, “Yes, I am true to my word, I am “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin”.

But I am also “He who will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

Ultimately, what Moses saw when sharing Deuteronomy with the nation is about the bigger picture.  It focuses on the dynamic of the God to Nation relationship.  It reveals the intimacy of the relationship and provides the backbone to the “Law” God applies to Himself when interacting with the nation as He transforms us into the image of “those that will see the fulfillment of the promises made to our father Abraham”. In this, we find not only our identity and our purpose, but we gain a sense of faith in the promises.  Just like the saints of old who are spoken of in Hebrews 11 who “by faith believed in the promises”, we too find faith in the same promises.  We can trust that someday the nation will be restored to the promised land, that we will be a part of that restoration, and in that time, we will be a part of the family that God uses to bless all the people of the world.  At the same time, we must understand that the “when” of these promises is deeply connected to what Moses is sharing in these scriptures. 

We must understand that the “blessing” of the nations is a direct result of our embracing our priestly role and living up to our commission as walking in harmony with what God defines as Holy as taught by our Messiah while resisting the temptation to fall into religious piety that “takes the Lord’s name in vain”.

This is what will lead the Nations to Him, to His ways, out of darkness, and into His marvelous light.  This is why all this is so important.  We simply are not a blessing when we are not doing Torah from our hearts, in love, and in His way.

I pray that the words that I have shared have been an encouragement, that they were of the Holy Spirit, and that in and through this time together we have all been moved into a place of deep contemplation.  I pray that as we allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us, we allow Him to show us where we might be struggling in extending an image of “His name” that is in harmony with the Holiness that He asks us to walk.  I pray that in and through our brokenness to what He is revealing that He gives us the will, the strength, and the desire to be transformed more and more into His likeness from one day to the next.  Amen.