Dr Clifford Denton.
Ki Tetse: Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19
14th September 2024/11 Elul.
When you build a new house, then you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring guilt of bloodshed on your household if anyone falls from it. (Deuteronomy 22:8)
Picture by Helen McNeill.
This week, we will continue to consider how to read Torah in the light of the New Covenant, as Yeshua taught. First, we must be open to its value to Christians. Because of our English translation of the Bible, many Christians approach the Old Testament with caution, especially the five books of Moses. This is because Moses is associated with the law. The word law is used in the New Testament (and the Old Testament) rather than the correct word, Torah. In our vocabulary today, the idea of law is more easily associated with law enforcement, crime and punishment. The word Torah, however, means teaching. It is teaching from the heart of God for the good of His people.
It is true that God does make clear requirements for His people, as we understand from the Ten Commandments. He requires us to love Him with all our heart and our neighbour as ourselves. So, on the one hand, we need to know what pleases God and, on the other hand, how to approach His teaching to attain God’s requirements and have our characters moulded by Him.
The teaching that comes from the books of Torah, needs interpretation for the time in which we live and our personal application. This is where the tension comes in what we read in the New Testament. Yeshua Himself was time and again confronted by the interpreters of the Torah in His days on earth. However, He showed them that in many circumstances, their interpretation put bondage on people. The Sermon on the Mount is full of life, compared with the ritual interpretation of many of the rabbis of His day, yet He was, nevertheless, upholding and interpreting Torah.
It is not so much the written words of Torah that we address as the interpretation of these words to apply to our lives. Because of the New Covenant, following Yeshua’s sacrificial death and His atoning resurrection, this is achievable through of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Jeremiah was given prophetic insight into the better way that Torah would be brought to the heart of God’s people through the New Covenant than in the days following Moses:
“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
Remember, that the word in Hebrew that is translated law in this passage, as elsewhere, is actually Torah, from the Hebrew original of the Tanach (Old Testament). God’s plan was that His teaching would be written into the hearts and minds of His people rather than they be bound by the ritualistic observance prescribed by those who interpreted the teaching into what so easily can become bondage.
The Apostle Paul taught in this way, emphasising, as he did in his letter to the Romans, that the law (torah) is spiritual (Romans 7:14).
We have, therefore, a great and sensitive responsibility, to learn how to study and teach from God’s torah, recognising that it is a matter of the heart – truths that become part of us by the impartation of the Holy Spirit, leading us to desire to do what pleases the Lord.
In this week’s Torah portion, we have a number of themes to consider. A lot of the portion concerns the importance and sanctity of marriage. Yeshua took up this matter in the Sermon on the Mount. We have much to study on this theme throughout the entire Bible, and on which we must meditate, prayerfully, so that we will raise up strong believing families. This has been a central focus for our torah studies this year,
The heart understanding of issues raised in Torah can be illustrated by an example we find in Paul’s writings. The principle of Deuteronomy 25:4, You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain, seems a straightforward literal command until one finds the heart of the teaching at a deeper and more widely applicable level. Many of God’s teachings begin with simple obedience. Through the exercise of the basic instruction, in this case allowing an animal to feed while it’s working, one might find a wider application. Paul used this teaching to show that those who minister should be rewarded: For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it oxen God is concerned about? Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who ploughs should plough in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? (1 Corinthians 9:9-11)
In our family studies, therefore, we have the opportunity, in the manner of Paul, to discover the spiritually imparted heart truths of God’s teaching. One further example will serve to illustrate this.
The simple command of Deuteronomy 22:8 has much wider implication: When you build a new house, then you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring guilt of bloodshed on your household if anyone falls from it.
By being conscious of the need for the safety of visitors to our house, we can begin to find the deeper spiritual truth for which this serves as an example. It is obvious that if someone walks on a flat roof there is danger of falling off if there are no guard rails. But is not this the beginning of the wider principle of care for health and safety of all kinds? God wants us to care for our family and our neighbour. Every factory needs guard rails around its machinery. Every electric switch needs insulation. Every kitchen floor needs to be kept clean to avoid slips and falls. When one sees the general application of the principle of the parapet one applies it to every area of health and safety – fulfilling the command to love our neighbour as ourselves.
Yet, the heart principle goes even further. Consider the call of the watchman in Ezekiel 33. Beginning with the responsibility of the watchman on the walls of a city, God extended its application to the responsibility to deliver any prophetic word of warning to whomever God directs, lest the blood be on the hands of the one who was so commissioned. The Word of God in its entirety is like a protective parapet to our hearts and directs our actions into the safety of God’s protection.
Paul recognised this when he spoke to the Ephesian elders: and indeed, now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. (Acts 20:25-27)
A deep spiritual interpretation of the matter of putting parapets around flat roofs, as well as having wide practical application, concerns the matter of rightly interpreting all of God’s teaching into our lives. So, returning to the theme of our Torah studies this year, we see the importance of our family studies in equipping ourselves and our children with the protecting and lifegiving Word of God. This is primarily the responsibility of parents.