(Today's Torah portion is Kedoshim. I originally wrote and posted this to my previous blog on 04/30/2007.)
Readings:
TORAH: Vayikra (Leviticus) 19:1-20:27
HAFTARAH: Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 20:2-20; Amos 9:7-15
KETUVIM NETZARIM: MattithYahu (Matthew) 5:43-48; Kefa Alef (1 Peter) 1:13-16
In Vayikra 19, YHWH continues to instruct us in how to be set apart (holy):
Lev 19:2 "Speak to all the congregation of the children of Yisra'el, and say to them, 'Be set-apart, for I YHWH your Elohim am set-apart.
He starts by restating a summary of what is generally known as the first 5 of the 10 Commandments:
Lev 19:3 'Each one of you should fear his mother and his father, and guard My Sabbaths. I am YHWH your Elohim.
Lev 19:4 'Do not turn to idols, and do not make for yourselves moulded mighty ones. I am YHWH your Elohim.
He stated them this way previously:
Exo 20:2 "I am YHWH your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim, out of the house of slavery.
When I was taught to memorize the 10 Commandments as a child, this vitally important commandment was omitted. He wants us to know who He is so that we will worship Him and not some other god. He identifies Himself specifically by Name and by deed and wants us to recognize and acknowledge Him the same way.
Exo 20:3 "You have no other mighty ones against My face.
Exo 20:4 "You do not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of that which is in the heavens above, or which is in the earth beneath, or which is in the waters under the earth,
Exo 20:5 you do not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, YHWH your Elohim am a jealous El, visiting the crookedness of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
Exo 20:6 but showing kindness to thousands, to those who love Me and guard My commands.
When we adore anyone or anything more than YHWH, to Him it is like we are shoving it in His face. A much neglected part of this commandment is the prohibition of images--not only are we not to bow down to them nor worship them, we're not even to make them for ourselves, yet many wear them on their bodies and decorate their homes with them.
Exo 20:7 "You do not bring the Name of YHWH your Elohim to naught, for YHWH does not leave the one unpunished who brings His Name to naught.
For most of my life, I didn't know the Name of YHWH because it has been brought to naught by translators who inserted substitutes instead of preserving His Name intact.
If you want to see how serious YHWH is about His Name, look at The Scriptures version, in which His Name is preserved in Hebrew.
It is quite an eye-opener to see how prevalent His Name is on nearly every page, revealing how emphatic He is about wanting us to know His Name!
In Hebrew, His Name is spelled (from right to left) with the Hebrew letters Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey:
The name Yehudah (Judah-the tribe from which Yeshua Messiah came) is spelled with the Hebrew letters Yod-Hey-Vav-Daulet-Hey:
If we remove the 'daulet' (the 'd' sound), we may come close to the correct pronunciation of the Name of YHWH -- 'Yehuah'.
'Jehovah' is not correct because Hebrew does not have a 'J' sound, and English didn't even have a letter 'J' as recently as 400 years ago. This is also how we know that the Messiah's name is not 'Jesus'. His Name is Yeshua, which means 'Salvation of YH' (YH is the shortened poetic form of YHWH).
Many Bible translations are pretty candid in their introductions to explain that they have substituted 'LORD' for the Name of YHWH. But what is sad about that is that the word for 'Lord' in Hebrew is 'Ba'al'. You may remember Elijah having a show-down with the priests of Ba'al (1 Kings 18).
Another name frequently used as a substitute is 'God', which originally came from German (Gott) and is pronounced exactly like the name of the Hebrew tribe of 'Gad'. What YHWH uses as a title for Himself is 'Elohim', Hebrew for 'Mighty Ones', which makes a lot more sense.
Exo 20:8 "Remember the Sabbath day, to set it apart.
The Sabbath day is the seventh day of the week, which is from sundown to sundown. Using the worldly names, it is from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday. In addition to the weekly Sabbath, there are 7 annual Sabbaths:
- The 1st day of Chag HaMatzot (Feast of Unleavened Bread)
- The 7th day of Chag HaMatzot
- Shavuot (Pentecost)
- Yom Teruah (Day of Trumpets)
- Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)
- The 1st day of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)
- Shemini Atzeret (Eighth-Day Assembly)
Sabbath days are set apart by not working, buying or selling on those days and by assembling ourselves together to worship and focus solely on YHWH.
Exo 20:12 "Respect your father and your mother, so that your days are prolonged upon the soil which YHWH your Elohim is giving you.
Learning to respect and fear our parents (whom we can see--natural) is essential to learning how to respect and fear YHWH (whom we cannot see--spiritual):
1Co 15:46 The spiritual, however, was not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.
These first 5 of the 10 Commandments show us how we are to love YHWH.
In this Torah portion, YHWH also elaborates on how we are to love our neighbor:
- By taking care of the poor, the deaf and the blind
- By not stealing, lying, deceiving or swearing falsely
- By not oppressing, robbing or withholding wages overnight (instead of paying workers at the end of the work-day)
- By right-ruling in disputes and not showing partiality to the rich, nor to the poor
- By not slandering or hating
- By reproving an erring brother
- By not taking vengeance or bearing a grudge.
YHWH is also serious about purity and gives us practical ways to remain mindful of that:
Lev 19:19 'Guard My laws. Do not let your livestock mate with another kind. Do not sow your field with mixed seed. And do not put a garment woven of two sorts of thread upon you.
Other instructions YHWH gives in this chapter are:
- Do not eat blood
- Do not practice divination or magic
- Do not shave your head or beard
- Do not mutilate your flesh with cuttings or tattoos
- Do not make your daughter a whore
- Do not consult mediums or spiritists
- Guard His Sabbaths
- Reverence His set-apart place
- Respect and care for the elderly
- Treat the stranger as you would a brother, loving him as you love yourself
- Be honest in all business dealings and legal cases
He expects us to be faithful to guard and do all these things.
In chapter 20, YHWH requires the death penalty for certain offenses:
- Child sacrifice
- Cursing father or mother
- Adultery
- Sexual relations between men
- Marrying a mother and daughter
- Sexual relations with animals
- Being a medium or spiritist
All of His instructions are for one purpose:
Lev 20:26 'And you shall be set-apart to Me, for I YHWH am set-apart, and have separated you from the peoples to be Mine.
Mat 5:48 "Therefore, be perfect, as your Father in the heavens is perfect.
1Pe 1:13 Therefore, having girded up the loins of your mind, being sober, set your expectation perfectly upon the favour that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Yeshua Messiah,
1Pe 1:14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts in your ignorance,
1Pe 1:15 instead, as the One who called you is set-apart, so you also should become set-apart in all behaviour,
1Pe 1:16 because it has been written, "Be set-apart, for I am set-apart."
If we want to be His and live in His presence forever, we must be set-apart to Him because He is set-apart.
Eze 20:20 'And set apart My Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between Me and you, to know that I am YHWH your Elohim.'
If we are not setting apart His Sabbaths, then who is our elohim?
Amo 9:8 "Look, the eyes of the Master are on the sinful reign, and I shall destroy it from the face of the earth, except that, I do not completely destroy the house of Ya'aqob," declares YHWH.
Amo 9:9 "For look, I am commanding, and I shall sift the house of Yisra'el among all the gentiles, as one sifts with a sieve, yet not a grain falls to the ground.
YHWH did not completely destroy the house of Ya'acob (used here to refer to the Southern Kingdom of Judah). The house of Yisra'el, though, was so scattered among the gentiles that they became indistinguishable from the gentiles. But YHWH knows who they are and sifts them out, "one from a city and two from a clan":
Jer 3:14 "Return, O backsliding children," declares YHWH, "for I shall rule over you, and shall take you, one from a city and two from a clan, and shall bring you to Tsiyon.
Are you listening for His voice? Is He calling you back to Him to be among His Kedoshim?
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