49 KI TETZAY(When you go out); Deut. 21:10-25:19; Acts 13-15

[Bruce Bertram]

The remainder of chapter 21 deals with three things: making a captive woman a wife, the inheritance of a first born even though he’s from a wife that is not loved, and the execution of a rebellious son by stoning. A notation is also given for the disposition of the body of an executed person hung on a tree. A captive woman is given time to mourn the loss of her family and goes through a preparation process similar to that of baptism. The son of an unloved wife (in the case of two wives) if he is born first must be given the double portion of inheritance due him even though his mother is unloved. A rebellious son is obviously a grown man who will not listen to sound counsel and indulges in drunkenness and probably other forms of destructive behavior.

Chapter 22 covers for us the concepts of taking care of lost items from other people; helping someone who’s having trouble, specifically with an animal (in this case). There is also to be no cross dressing; no taking of a hen and eggs or chicks at the same time; concern for the safety of persons by making a wall around the roof of one’s house; and no mixing of threads or seed or plow animals, but people should wear tassels on the four corners of a covering garment. Verses 13-30 deal with both a false and a true allegation of lack of virginity in a wife. If the allegation is false it is proved by the parents showing the evidence (a cloth with blood on it made on the wedding night) and the man has to pay a fine and cannot divorce her ever. If true, the wife is stoned to death at the door of her parents house. Continuing with the theme of infidelity, Moses writes that in the case of a man having sex with a married woman both are to die, and in the case of a man having sex with an engaged woman in the city both are also to die (the woman because she didn’t cry out). But Moses also writes that if the engaged woman is out in a field when the man forces himself on her (no one can hear her cry out) then only the man is to die. However, if a man has sex with a girl who is not engaged, he must pay the bride price and marry her and can never divorce her. A man is also not to have sex with his father’s wife at all.

Chapter 23:1-9 gives guidelines for who cannot enter the assembly of the Lord. The list includes males with damaged genitals, a man of illegitimate birth (a bastard, probably meaning no Israeli father or one parent not Israeli) down to his tenth generation, and no Ammonite or Moabite to the tenth generation because of what they did to Israel through Balaam. However, an Edomite after the third generation or an Egyptian may enter. Later in the chapter God tells His people that in a war camp of soldiers a man with a nocturnal emission must go outside the camp until evening and a bath, while each soldier is to bury his excrement outside the camp so that God will not see anything indecent as He is moving about the camp. He also says that an escaped slave shall not be returned to his master, cult prostitution is prohibited, and the wages of harlotry or cult sodomy are not to be brought into the house of the Lord for vows. Interest cannot be charged on a loan between Israelites, and a vow is to be discharged as soon as possible. But it is not sin to avoid vowing. The last two verses of chapter 23 are important, because of the issue with Jesus and His apostles eating on a Sabbath.

24“When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, then you may eat grapes until you are fully satisfied, but you shall not put any in your basket. 25“When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor’s standing grain. (Deuteronomy 23:24-25 NASB95)

Chapter 24 has five verses concerning divorce, specifically that once divorced and remarried a woman may not remarry the previous husband. Then there are laws about not taking millstones for security on a loan, executing a kidnapper, being on guard against leprosy, and more about loans. The loan laws include not entering a man’s house to take a pledge, and not taking a poor man’s garment used as a pledge past the end of the day. Israel is also not to hold back a poor man’s wages past the end of the day, each person should die for his own sin so a child is not executed for a father’s crime or vice versa. This section ends with a little more explanation on leaving part of the harvest for the poor, in that if a sheaf is forgotten it is to be left in the field, olive branches should not be cleaned off completely, and grape vines should likewise not be over-harvested.

Acts 13 recounts the start of the so-called ‘missionary journeys’ of Paul and Barnabas. From Antioch, the Spirit asks the community to set apart these guys for some work, and they get shipped off with prayer and blessing and laying on of hands. First up is Cyprus, and they start at the principle city of Salamis and work their way through the whole island. When they get to Paphos they encounter a Jewish magician working as an aide to the proconsul, who opposes them as they try to teach the proconsul Sergius Paulus. For his trouble Paul commands that he lose his eyesight, which he does, and it so impresses the proconsul that Sergius converts. They move on to Perga where John Mark leaves them, and then go on to Pisidian Antioch where they have great success preaching the gospel. Verses 16-43 give the text of Paul’s first sermon (probably typical of most of his introductory sermons) centering around the promised person of the Messiah realized in Jesus the Christ. The success is so great that the following Sabbath nearly the whole city turns out to hear him again. So many converts are made amongst Jews that they get kicked out of the synagogues and they turn to the Gentiles. But so many Gentiles are also saved that the non-believing Jewish and Gentile elders get together and run them out of the district to Iconium.

At Iconium, the same thing happens. Paul and Barnabas go into the synagogue, many believe their message, and the leadership gets upset. The non-believing Jews and Gentiles cooperate together to get them out of town, so they go to the surrounding areas and teach. At Lystra a man is healed through Paul and really gets things stirred up, because the locals start calling them gods and name Paul Hermes (because he did most of the public talking) and Barnabas Zeus. As the locals try to get material together to offer sacrifices, Paul and Barnabas tear their clothes and rush out to convince them that they are just men. After great difficulty they get the locals calmed down, but then some Jewish troublemakers from Antioch and Iconium come down to stir things up again. They win over the crowds and Paul is stoned and dragged outside of the city because they thought he was dead. But after a bit he gets up and goes to Derbe, then back around to Lystra and the surrounding towns strengthening the new disciples, reminding them that it is through many trials that one enters the kingdom of heaven, and appointing elders. They go back through Perga and end up in Antioch where they started. There they report how God is opening the door of salvation among the Gentiles.

But then in chapter 15 some men come down from Jerusalem and try to teach the Gentile converts at Antioch that they have to be circumcised to be saved. Paul and Barnabas debate at great length with these men, but after a while the congregation there decides to send them to Jerusalem to settle it. After they get to Jerusalem, there is a meeting with many on both sides of the issue, and Paul and Barnabas report on what they have been doing. Some believing Pharisees get up and present their case that the Gentiles should be circumcised and observe the Law of Moses. Peter reminds the group of the events at the house of Cornelius and how the Spirit fell on the household there (“making no distinction”).

8“And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; 9and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. 10“Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11“But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.” 12All the people kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. (Acts 15:8-12 NASB95)

James speaks about how God is taking from the Gentiles a people for his Name, to which the prophets agree, and that they should not trouble the new converts by requiring things for salvation that are not in the Word. Instead, a few regulations are highlighted that will help with fellowship between Jew and Gentile, and it is observed that Moses is taught in the synagogues every Sabbath. A delegation is chosen, including Paul and Barnabas, to go back to Antioch with a letter outlining four things to abstain from (things sacrificed to idols, blood, things strangled, and fornication). The believers there rejoice because of the encouragement, and Paul and Barnabas continue to teach and preach. After a while Paul wants to go back through the previous towns to encourage those believers too, and Barnabas agrees but wants to take John Mark again. Paul doesn’t because he’s not happy that John Mark left them before, so they get into a disagreement and go separate ways. Barnabas goes back to Cyprus with John Mark, and Paul goes to Cilicia and Syria with Silas who had come down from Jerusalem with them after the council.

Shalom

[Bruce Bertram]

Of the many interesting verses in this section, one sort of popped out to me this time.

25“When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor’s standing grain. (Deuteronomy 23:25 NASB95)

This relates to what Jesus did recorded in Matthew (see also Mark 2:23 and Luke 6:1).
[quote][size=100]1At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. 2But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.â€

[Cindy in Wisconsin]

I just read this Torah portion commentary from First Fruits of Zion and appreciated the connection they make between this Scripture and the Messiah. I had never looked at it in quite this way before. I'll have to remember this.
Love in our Messiah,
Cindy in Wisconsin

[quote]Ki Tetze – כי תצא : “When you goâ€

[Bruce Bertram]

Ki Tetze; Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19; Isaiah 54:1-55:13; Acts 13 through 15

45But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming. 46Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. 47“For so the Lord has commanded us, ‘I HAVE PLACED YOU AS A LIGHT FOR THE GENTILES, THAT YOU MAY BRING SALVATION TO THE END OF THE EARTH.’ ” 48When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. (Acts 13:45-48 NASB95)

In Acts 13 through 15, it seems that a power shift is developing. Up to this point, the Jesus movement, which started in Jerusalem among Jewish people, was being led by the apostles out of Jerusalem. Persecution there had caused many believers to scatter to Samaria and surrounding areas, where the gospel was also preached and the Word was spreading, but the leadership mostly stayed put. Some of the leaders, such as Philip (Acts 8 ), begin preaching and teaching Gentiles, although there were probably many Gentiles in and around Jerusalem who were converting too. Some of these were called ‘God fearers’ and were Gentiles who followed the Word as best they could. Not being Jews would’ve restricted them somewhat, but much of what God commands can be done by anyone anywhere. God continues the evangelizing process with Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10, while Paul and Barnabas get good results with a mixed crowd of Jews and Gentiles in Antioch and Pisidian Antioch (and surrounding areas). But still, control of a sort is exercised from Jerusalem, where most of the disciples seemed to be headquartered. Antioch (in Syria) and surrounding areas (north of Syria), however, was turning into a hot spot for the movement, with an explosion of Gentiles coming to the Lord and work being done with the gospel that couldn’t be under the direct day-to-day control of the brothers in Jerusalem.

So a new leadership center was developing that wasn’t based in Jerusalem, although Jewish people were still in the lead. Into this apparent shifting process came some Jews from Jerusalem who started teaching that circumcision is required for salvation.

1Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” (Acts 15:1 NASB95)

This caused a pretty severe rift, and raised a number of questions. The believers in Antioch decided to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem and the apostles to see if they could straighten out the issue. Jerusalem was still the center or head of the nascent movement, as evidenced by Paul and Barnabas appealing to the leaders there as if appealing to the Supreme Court for a final ruling. When Paul and company arrived in Jerusalem, a group of Pharisees who were believers reiterated the argument.

5But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.” (Acts 15:5 NASB95)

Remember, though, that the Jewish view of the Law of Moses included many things taught by rabbis and priests that were interpretations of the Laws and not solely the Law itself. Jesus had a number of problems with this thinking, such as when He and his disciples plucked grain in a field to eat, or when He did any healing on a Sabbath (none of which was against the Law). Frequently, Jesus and the disciples were accused of breaking ‘the Law’ when in reality they were following the Law explicitly. What they really broke were simply the interpretations that had grown up around The Law of Moses, and were so intertwined in the minds of Jewish people that they were considered one and the same.

One of the main reasons we know this is because the Law never presented circumcision as a requirement for salvation. It was something that was used to mark a person who had already believed. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that circumcision saves people. In addition, the Law itself was never intended for salvation. Salvation has always been by faith through grace, even after the Law was given. Paul gives us a Scriptural reasoning for this in Romans, among other places.

9Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, “FAITH WAS CREDITED TO ABRAHAM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” 10How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; 11and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them, 12and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised. (Romans 4:9-12 NASB95)

As Paul points out, Abraham was credited with righteousness by faith because he believed God and did what He said (the essential meaning of salvation) long before Abraham was circumcised. But circumcision in Jewish circles had come to mean conversion to Judaism, which in their minds was equated to salvation. In other words, through misunderstanding some passages in the Word, they thought that all physical Jews are saved (which isn’t true according to the Word, see for instance Romans 9:6-9), so it seemed obvious to them that a person had to become a Jew in order to participate in salvation.

So, the leaders in Jerusalem deliberated a while, listening to all the arguments and proofs from the witnesses, before they came to a somewhat startling ruling. They decided that they would go against tradition (not the Word, just tradition) and not lay additional burdens on the Gentile believers. All they did was point out a few basic guidelines so that Jews and Gentiles could break bread or fellowship together (all of the rules were from the Law, and three were dietary). But, and this is a big BUT, they were also aware that learning right behavior from the Law would continue.

21“For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.” (Acts 15:21 NASB95)

This assumes regular attendance (at a synagogue, no less) and continued learning.

Well, the power play by the traditionalists didn’t work, and God’s Word won out over man’s opinion. Unfortunately, many people since have tried to reinstate the ‘rule of man’ over the Word by using various interpretations, such as ‘we can’t do the Law’ or ‘the Law is a curse’ or ‘the Law was nullified by Jesus.’ Obviously, if one reads the text this is absolutely not the case at all. People keep trying to pull off more power plays as time goes on, but let us not fall for them. Let us stick with His living oracles (as Stephen called them in Acts 7:38) and, like our forefathers in the faith, resist the pressure to add to or subtract from them by caving in to tradition or interpretation.

Shalom