Devarim (Deuteronomy) 21:10-25:19, Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 54, Luqa (Luke) 22-23, Galatim (Galatians) 3
Shabbat Shalom everyone, I am your host Ulices Rodriguez. Welcome to this week’s Parasha Ki Tetze. This week’s torah portion has a plethora of commandments given by Yahweh, all of which can be generally summarized as loving thy neighbor as thyself. However, our focus for this week is going to be two verses in our torah portion. As we study these two verses, it should help us understand the unique and complex character of Yahweh, and what it means to walk as Messiah Yeshua walked. And why it is pleasing in Yahweh’s eyes.
The two verses from our torah portion that we will be studying are Deuteronomy chapter 21 verses 22 and 23, which read:
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 21:22-23
22 “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,
23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by Elohim. You shall not defile your land that Yahweh your Elohim is giving you for an inheritance.”
Now, what is so profound about these two verses, as I mentioned earlier, is that we get an idea of the unique and complex character of Yahweh. Yahweh is so Set-Apart and pure, that sin cannot exist in His presence, because sin is utterly repulsive and deplorable in His eyes, it contradicts His very nature. And Yahweh takes that same basic principle and extends it to the land of Israel. Now the land of Israel is clearly not regarded as sacred as heaven, but to develop an in-depth understanding of Yahweh’s view on sin, we must study His unique nature and character.
Heaven is Yahweh’s Kingdom, and His Kingdom is regarded as utterly Set-Apart. It is such a sacred space, that any form of disobedience, and rebellion is considered evil and if it is not purged from His midst, it would completely defile and corrupt the very essence of what purity is. However, because Yahweh is incapable of becoming corrupted. This is why sin is so repulsive to Him, this is why He cannot allow sin to go unpunished. He is the very definition of purity. He is the very essence of purity. In fact, He is so pure that He is incapable of producing an evil thought.
Now, Yahweh desires this same level of purity for His people. Purity is how we remain in connection with Him. In fact, it’s the only way to have any sort of connection and relationship with Him. There is a reason why Yahweh has very specific rituals for cleansing ourselves before we approach Him.
Shemote (Exodus) 19:10-11
10 Yahweh said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments
11 and be ready for the third day. For on the third day Yahweh will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
Now, this is an outward way of purifying ourselves, and it’s meant to be more profound than this. What Yahweh truly wants is purification of our hearts, and we will go over this more, a bit later.
Yaakov (James) 4:8
8 Draw near to Elohim, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
As mentioned already, Yahweh extends this concept of purity to the land of Israel. By commanding that we purge the land of evil, by putting evil doers to death.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 19:19
19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
We know if evil is allowed to flourish, it will undoubtedly corrupt everything it comes into contact with. Hence, why Yahweh flooded the world at one point. Because as Yahweh has stated, man consistently produces evil.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 6:5
5 Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Now even though Yahweh has commanded that we put evil doers to death, so that the land would be purged of evil thus it would be kept from being defiled by evil. Yahweh Himself is so pure, that He will not allow the impurity of death itself to remain on a person or the land.
Bemidbar (Numbers) 19:13
13 Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died, and does not cleanse himself, defiles the tabernacle of Yahweh, and that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not thrown on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him.
The reason for this is because death itself is still a byproduct of sin. Originally death was not a part of Yahweh’s design in His creation. Therefore, sin is what brought death and decay into the world. Thus any kind of death makes us impure. Sin is the root of all impurity, and sin violates the very nature and character of Yahweh.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 2:17
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
And this is why Yeshua said that Elohim is not an Elohim of the dead but an Elohim of the living because death is associated with sin, death is a result of sin. Whereas life is associated and is a direct result of Yahweh’s righteousness, His Justice, His purity, and salvation. Yahweh is the very essence of life. He is the very source of life. This is what makes Yahweh The Elohim of the living and not the dead.
Luqa (Luke) 20:38
38 Now He is not Elohim of the dead, but of the living, for all live to Him.”
Therefore, even though we are commanded to purge the land of evil, Yahweh does not want His sacred land to be defiled by the death of the evil doer, thus in principle, defiled by sin.
Now, truly comprehending how pure Yahweh is, can be really difficult for us. Because there is almost nothing in this realm of our existence that is, that pure. There is nothing that we can relate to in that way. The most relatable example I can think of would be the disaster of Chernobyl. The lands of Chernobyl are so saturated with radiation, that it cannot properly sustain life for us, which would bring us nothing but corruption, decay, and death. There are signs posted all around the disaster of Chernobyl warning people to not enter. This would be the simplest way to explain how Yahweh views sin.
Therefore, if someone is hung on a tree to serve as a public example, then they must have really committed some sort of egregious sin that is so reprehensible, that there is no other option than to have them publicly displayed, and shamed. To serve as a reminder for the people, to never do what they did.
Which would imply that this is a curse that was bestowed upon the sinner by Yahweh Himself. That Yahweh wants this to happen, because what they have done is so deplorable, and Yahweh is warning His people that this should never be done again. But keep in mind, Yahweh is so pure that He views all sin this way. Yahweh does not pick and choose which sins are worse than others.
Now, why these two verses in Deuteronomy are so profound, as I’ve already mentioned, is because; they give us an idea of the unique and complex character of Yahweh. Yahweh is not really looking to publicly shame people for their sins, just for the sake of doing so. Rather if things can be reconciled privately for the sake of the honor of the person who has sinned. So that, when they repent. There remains no condemnation for them, and this should be how we resolve sinful matters amongst each other. We can see this is a part of Yahweh’s nature and character by what Yeshua said in Matthew chapter 18, what we call, the Matthew 18 process.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 18:15
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the assembly. And if he refuses to listen even to the assembly, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.
20 For where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them.”
However, Yahweh’s character is so complex, that even though He would not condemn any who would repent, sin is still utterly repulsive in His eyes. Therefore, sin must be punished, and if someone is hung from a tree, Yahweh wants this person to be publicly shamed for their sin because it is utterly reprehensible in His eyes.
When we can fundamentally comprehend how these two things go together, it should be entirely understood that we, as sinners, deserve such a curse. Yet, in Yahweh’s loving righteousness, and mercy. He put that curse on His Son Yeshua for our sake. Even though Yeshua was perfect in every sense of the word. Even though Yeshua was guilty of nothing and deserved no such curse. Yahweh still placed the curse upon Him. Yeshua willingly bore the curse for us.
To take a deeper dive into the significance of this the curse that Yeshua bore for us, were going to take a deeper dive into the significance of the curse Yeshua bore for us, we are going to take a look at Galatians chapter 3 verses 13 and 14 which say:
Galatim (Galatians) 3:13-14
13 Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
14 so that in Messiah Yeshua the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Now the curse that Yeshua redeemed us from, is the curse of sin and death. Contrary to what is popular doctrine amongst certain circles, Yeshua did not come to redeem us from walking in obedience to Yahweh’s commandments. Obeying Yahweh’s commandments is not the curse.
Romim (Romans) 8:2
2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Messiah Yeshua from the law of sin and death.
In fact, the curse is placed upon us when we disobey His commandments. Yeshua did not come and die for us so that at our own leisure and discretion, we could choose to obey or not obey. In Galatians, we read:
Galatim (Galatians) 3:10
10 For all who rely on works of the torah are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the torah, and do them.”
The apostle Paul makes this assertion, based on Deuteronomy 27:26 which Yahweh states:
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 27:26
26 “‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this torah by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
Therefore, it should be clear and evident that Yahweh expects us to obey Him, and to obey Him perfectly. However, not a single person in the history of mankind has been able to do this except Yeshua. The key to understanding Yeshua’s perfect obedience, and sinless nature, we must understand that Yeshua wasn’t necessarily striving for perfect obedience to the smallest detail of the torah, rather it was Yeshua’s perfect obedience to the precept of the torah.
Here are a few examples from Psalm 119, and after we have gone through them, we will cross reference them to some examples from Yeshua’s ministry to help us gain a better understanding of what walking in obedience to the precept of Yahweh’s torah looks like.
Psalm 119 verses 1-4:
Tehillim (Psalm) 119:1-4
1 Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the torah of Yahweh!
2 Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart,
3 who also do no wrong, but walk in His ways!
4 You have commanded Your precepts to be kept diligently.
Psalm 119 verses 97-100:
Tehillim (Psalm) 119:97-100
97 Oh how I love Your torah! It is my meditation all the day.
98 Your commandments makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me.
99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation.
100 I understand more than the aged, for I keep Your precepts.
Psalm 119 verses 127-128:
Tehillim (Psalm) 119:127-128
127 Therefore I love Your commandments above gold, above fine gold.
128 Therefore I consider all Your precepts to be right; I hate every false way.
Now keep all these verses in mind, while we cross over the example of Yeshua healing on the sabbath.
Starting in Mark chapter 3 we read:
Marquas (Mark) 3:1-5
1 Again He [meaning Yeshua] entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand.
2 And they [meaning the religious leaders] watched Yeshua, to see whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.
3 And He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.”
4 And He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.
5 And He (meaning Yeshua) looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
The torah never specifically addresses whether or not, healing on shabbat is lawful. However, the point of all of this is not about perfect obedience to the smallest detail of the torah. We need to stop looking at faith this way. This is not what righteous obedience to Yahweh looks like. Yes, the details are very important, yes the details are there for a reason and we cannot simply ignore the details and go about doing whatever we want to do. And then try to justify our actions by claiming we are free to pick and choose which commandments we wish to keep.
What, I am trying to relay to everyone, is that there is a proper way to keep the commandments. There needs to be a healthy balance between obedience to the details of the commandments, and obeying the precepts of the commandments.
Hypothetically, if you were Yahweh looking down upon this situation, would you not be upset with your own creation, with the very people you ordained to be your light amongst the nations? To be an example of your love and righteousness in the world?
To give a modern parable that might help us to better understand the sort of balance that Yahweh is looking for, would be, driving your child to the hospital.
Let’s say you need to rush your child to the hospital, but the speed limit of the street that leads up to the hospital is set for 25mph. In this particular moment, what is considered more righteous? Obedience to the letter of the law? Or the preservation of your child’s life, even though you would have to drive beyond the posted speed limit?
What if a police officer pulled you over and was determined to give you a ticket because you broke the speed limit, and was determined to make sure that you drove 25mph the entire way to the hospital? And their reasoning for doing this was that they are zealous to perfectly obey the letter of the law and that they would hold themselves and everyone to that same standard of righteousness, and by doing so they think of themselves as a righteous. However, would you view them the same way, especially if your child died as a result?
What if we went in the complete opposite direction? What if as a result of the police officer pulling you over, your child died on the way to the hospital therefore this has motivated you in your own self-righteousness, to advocate that there should be no speed limits, and no laws prohibiting anyone from driving however they want. This way, no police officer could pull you or anyone over again and prevent you or anyone from getting your child or their child to the hospital, and saving them. However, sometime later, now someone is recklessly driving and kills your other child, as they are trying to cross the street. However, because there are no laws in place against such behaviors, the reckless driver can not be brought to justice. Would we really say that this scenario is better than the first? Would we really agree and say that this scenario is more righteous than the previous one?
This is what a modern example of a Pharisee and Christian look like. Both think of themselves as very self-righteous people. And that is the problem, they both are trying to be self-righteous in the power of their own flesh, according to the wisdom of their human nature. But this is not what Yahweh wants, this is not what Yahweh has commanded. Yahweh has not commanded that we behave in a self-righteous manner. He wants us to walk in righteousness according to His standards. There is a proper way to keep Yahweh’s commandments. It is found in Yeshua.
When we ask ourselves, what was Yahweh’s Intent and purpose in giving us the torah? Well, the apostle Paul asks this same question, and gives us an answer in Galatians:
Galatim (Galatians) 3:19
19 Why then the law? [Why then the torah?] It was added because of transgressions, until The Offspring [which is Yeshua] should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through messengers by an intermediary.
The reason Yahweh gave us the torah, is because of transgressions. Simply put, we do not know how to be good to one another. We are so innately evil, that we are incapable of loving one another correctly, even if we tried. Left to our own human nature, left to our own wisdom, we would tear each other apart. And, the law or the torah was given to counterbalance this and act as our guardian until the promise of Messiah Yeshua would come.
The promise of Messiah is that Yeshua would serve as the example and embodiment of the character and nature of Yahweh. So that as we live by faith, we would be justified. And living by faith means, that we fundamentally understand that we are innately evil and we are incapable of redeeming ourselves, but we trust that Yahweh will redeem us, if we repent, and do as Yahweh commands us, by walking in His righteousness the way Yeshua did. Therefore it is Yahweh’s righteousness that redeems us, and not our own flesh.
Galatim (Galatians) 3:23-24
23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.
24 So then, the law was our guardian until Messiah came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
When we let that sink in for a moment, and we fundamentally grasp how perfect and pure Yahweh is, and how imperfect and impure we are. Then we can finally understand why Yahweh hates sin so much, and why He hates the works of the flesh.
And why Yahweh was so pleased with His Son Yeshua. This is why there is no other way to be reconciled back to our Father in Heaven, there is no way to be saved except through His Son Yeshua. Because we are incapable of fundamentally being pure and righteous.
Yochanan (John) 10:9
9 I am The Door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
Now, the key to really understanding this, is that we must look like Yeshua in every aspect of our lives. The problem is that many don’t want to do this. Yahweh had Yeshua bear our curse so that we then could become sons of righteousness, by walking in faith, by walking as Yeshua did.
Qorintim Bet (2 Corinthians) 5:21
21 For our sake He [Yahweh] made Him [Yeshua] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him [Yeshua] we might become the righteousness of Elohim.
And this is why the apostle Paul was so upset with the members of the assembly of Galatia. Starting in verse 1 of chapter 3 we read:
Galatim (Galatians) 3:1-4
1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Yeshua Messiah was publicly portrayed as crucified.
2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the Torah or by hearing with faith?
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?
The reason Paul was so upset was because the Galatians received the promise of Messiah by hearing with faith. And they were initially walking out the commandments according to guidance of The Spirit but now they were trading the gift of The Spirit for the wisdom of their flesh. Therefore, they were rejecting faith, and trying to save themselves by their perfect obedience to the letter of the torah, instead of walking in Yahweh’s precepts the way Yeshua did.
Paul for one never taught that the torah was nullified, rather he taught that we are to keep Yahweh’s torah according to leadership and guidance of Yahweh’s Spirit, not in the power of the flesh, which was common amongst many Jewish religious leaders in the first century.
Paul taught being hung on a tree is the reward for the works of our flesh. And Yeshua bore this curse and was publicly portrayed as crucified so that we can see the reward for our vain attempts to redeem ourselves, according to the power of our flesh. Yeshua was publicly portrayed as crucified so that we would be reminded that if we focus on trying to live our lives according to the power of our flesh, Yahweh hates it. Yahweh hates all the works of our flesh. And Yahweh curses those who try to live by the power of their flesh.
Yahweh hates anything and everything that we do according to our flesh. Because our flesh is innately evil. Even if we are keeping His commandments, but we do so according to the leading of our flesh, and not Yahweh’s Spirit, Yahweh hates it, because ultimately we are not walking in faith.
When we try to do anything in the power of our flesh, we are trying to redeem ourselves according to our own wisdom, instead of simply relying on the guidance of Yahweh’s Spirit to save us. That is what faith is.
And this is evident by the example given with Yeshua healing on Shabbat. Yeshua was doing a good work, He was exemplifying the good nature and righteousness of Yahweh. He was walking according to the precept of the commandments. However, because the religious leaders were so determined to obey Yahweh’s commandments according to the power of their flesh, they never realized they were guilty of doing evil in the sight of Yeshua.
Marquas (Mark 3:4-5)
4 And He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.
5 And He [meaning Yeshua] looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
Yahweh does not want us to be ourselves. Because we are innately evil. Therefore, if we try to keep the commandments in our flesh, we are only doing evil work. Instead, Yahweh wants us to kill our flesh. He wants us to be like His Son Yeshua. Yeshua crucified His flesh. Yeshua walked in The Spirit at all times. Yeshua was obedient to the point of death. Yeshua obeyed His Father perfectly in the precepts of His commandments. Yeshua was in constant connection with His Father. In fact, the only time you could say Yeshua wasn’t connected to His Father was in the very moment before He died, when Yeshua said:
Mattityahu (Matthew) 27:46
26 And about the ninth hour Yeshua cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Yeshua was forsaken by His Father, because of us. Yahweh turned His back on His Son because Yeshua was cursed, for us. Yahweh is so pure, and hates sin so much that He couldn’t even look upon His Son in His dying moments, because Yeshua bore the curse of our sin, for us.
I cannot stress this enough to everyone, we are so innately evil, that the only way to be saved is to have faith in Yeshua. We might be a very disciplined person. We can discipline ourselves to obey Yahweh’s commandments, but discipline in the power of the flesh will get us nowhere. We need to be disciplined in the power of The Spirit, and put our flesh to death. Because the point of obeying Yahweh is to walk in His precepts. Which is to walk according to the leadership of His Spirit. And in order to be connected to Yahweh’s Spirit, we have to crucify our flesh.
The point is to love Yahweh so much that we meditate on His commandments day and night, and that we are constantly connected with Him, that His nature becomes our nature. The Sabbath is a perfect example, nowhere in scripture will you find it said; “thou shall not watch sports on the sabbath” or “thou shall not watch movies for your enjoyment and your own pleasures on the sabbath” or “thou shall not scroll social media endlessly for your enjoyment on the sabbath”
In fact, you won’t find a lot of details like this regarding a lot of Yahweh’s commandments. Because, that is not the point. Yahweh does not want us to run through a checklist. The checklist for every possible scenario and example that the commandments may apply to would be endless. Yahweh wants a connection with us. When we are connected to Him, His Spirit will lead and guide us properly to keep His commandments.
When you love someone so much, that person becomes a part of who you are, that person’s nature becomes part of your nature. This is the mystery of marriage, where husband and wife become one flesh. And when they are a part of your nature, you do not need a checklist in order to understand them properly. This is what Yahweh wants from us in regards to obeying Him. He wants His nature to be our nature. When His nature becomes our nature, then we naturally obey His torah. We naturally keep His commandments, because we become more like Him. We become more pure in the way we live our lives, and this is why it is so important that we kill our flesh and set our mind on the things of The Spirit.
Paul wrote about this revelation to the Romans, Paul said:
Romim (Romans) 8:4-5
4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
Undoubtedly, it’s important that we must keep Yahweh’s commandments, but do not do it in the power of your flesh, as the Pharisees did, and then claim to be spiritually righteous. And do not outright reject the torah as Christians do, and then claim to be spiritually righteous. Instead, keep Yahweh’s commandments by walking in The Spirit, by focusing on Yeshua 24/7, connect with The Father through Yeshua, and, you will walk in a way that is pleasing to The Father.
Shabbat Shalom.