Behar(On the Mountain) and Bechukotai (By my regulations)
Lev 25:1–27:34; Jer 16:19–17:14; Matt 21:33–46
On this Shabbat we are blessed with a double portion that take us to the end of Leviticus.
1. One of the focuses is upon the shabbat of years known as the shemitah, (release), a special year where those in debt or who were enslaved were set free. What a beautiful illustration of Yeshua who sets the captives free! Only He is able to pay our debt of sin. God demonstrated His love for us that while we were yet sinners, Messiah Yeshua died for us!
It is extraordinary that after slavery was abolished in the USA, many slaves chose to remain on the plantations in slavery under the yoke of their slave masters rather than stepping out into freedom because they experienced a measure of security in this which they found hard to release. So too are many believers who walk in chains even though Yeshua has paid the price for their freedom.
Many people choose to live in bondage to a slave mentality for the same reason because it’s more comfortable to do this than allow the pain of God’s surgical knife deliver them from the negative poisons that drain their lives.
Others play the blame game for the mess they find themselves in even though blaming others is the suicide of liberty. It causes one to look away from ourselves and point fingers in the wrong direction. Self-condemnation is equally counter-productive and destructive.
In all these things God sent His Son, Yeshua into the world to set the captive free! In Rom 8, Paul declared that “…there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death… 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Another theme in this week’s parishad concerns the immutability of God’s covenant with Israel (i.e., it is irrevocable). However, His blessings were conditional depending on the choices they made. God told them: “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” (Deut. 30:19)
It is tragic that so much sorrow and suffering of the Jewish people could have been avoided if their hearts had not been hardened. But here is something interesting. The 7-year shemitah, referred to in the parishah, the sabbath of years, was a set period with a beginning and end, and in the same way God takes us through seasons which in the fullness of time reaches a full cycle.
In this period, He will use every situation even the negative parts for His eternal purposes. And so, that good work that He has begun in us He will bring to completion amid both the positives and negatives. Nothing can jeopardise God’s purposes even as with the poor choices Israel made throughout her history.
More about the Shemitah. The Shemitah occurs on a seven-year cycle and seven is a Divine number representing perfection or completion. In the Shemitah year, the land rested so the Israelites didn’t offer tithes of their agricultural offerings to the Lord. According to the rabbis, the Shemitah year only applied to the Jewish inhabitants of Israel because the land belongs to Him and the Divine landlord leases it out to the tenants on His terms alone! Since the Israelites did not offer their tithes on a Shemitah year, it meant they had to prepare in the sixth year to ensure that they had sufficient to live on.They did not prepare themselves in the same way as one would think – I.e., in practical terms. In the continuation of the text we read that in the sixth year the farmers would reap such a rich crop in their fields and vineyards that the land would provide enough to sustain them and for the land to rest in the Sabbatical year and the following year, giving the farmers time to plow and sow seeds or to prune the orchards and vineyards until they would reap the produce in the eighth year: “25:18 “‘Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land. 19 Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety. 20 You may ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?” 21 I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. 22 While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.
This principle holds great spiritual significance for us as types and shadows both in our giving and as custodians of the things God has entrusted to us. Here, the principle of obedience to God’s commands comes into play and we see here how the NT underlines the importance for all believers to surrender no less than 100% of ourselves, body, soul and spirit as reflected in Rom 12:1-3: “…that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
During the Shemita the Israelites took time out away from day-to-day concerns to to devote time to reflect the Lord without the normal kinds of interruptions. And, no-one went hungry. Even the poor could pick the produce that grew without the land being worked and debts were forgiven. For us as believers, we recall our debt of sin that was paid in full by Yeshua.
In addition to the Shemitah was the Year of Jubilee (Yovel) celebrated on the 50th year, an extra-special occasion experienced only once or twice ever in a lifetime. A cycle of seven sets of seven years (49 years) accumulated, followed by the 50th year so during a Jubilee there would be two consecutive years of rest instead of one.
The 50th year (or year of Jubilee) was an extended time of freedom and liberty proclaimed throughout the land with the blowing of the shofar, on the Day of Atonement (Lev 25;9): “You shall sound a ram’s horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land.”
Following the blast of the shofar, Hebrew slaves were freed and debts were forgiven: the land was left uncultivated and hereditary property was returned to its original family even if it had been sold because of misfortune or poverty.
Again, this law was to convey the fact that the Lord is the real owner of Israel’s real estate; therefore, it can never be permanently sold. The Jewish people were simply God’s tenants, and custodians of the land He had leased out to them!(Lev 25:23–24)
No leader, politician or individual — has the right to sell, divide or give away God’s land for any reason. God will not allow His land to be divided because it belongs to Him, and its capital is the city of the great King! “Great is Adonai, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, His holy mountain. 3 Beautiful situation the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on the northern side of the city of the great King. [Ps 48]
2.Lev. 26, clearly specifies the promises of blessing for the Israelites who obeyed His commandments. There are 11 verses speaking about all the good things that would happen to those who kept His commandments. After these blessings come 33 verses of all the bad things that would occur, in stages not all at once, for anyone who chose to disregard them. God is a God of second chances whose grace and mercy far exceeds our own that results in judgement only if we stubbornly pursue our own rebellious ways instead of His righteous pathways.
God clearly set out His terms for living under His covenant. If the Israelites obeyed His commands they would be richly blessed and He would dwell in their midst and set them free from every bondage. God is a bondage breaker but there were conditions attached and it is no different for us as believers. Yeshua said to His disciples in John 14:“If you love me, hold on to my commands”. Another translation: “Loving me empowers you to obey my commands.”
How privileged every believer is to be surrounded by this amazing promise in a world filled with so much evil at a time where truth and integrity has been impoverished and replaced with lies, half truths and deception. Three times in this short passage, Yeshua reiterates: “If you love me hold on to my commandments”.
God holds us accountable for our actions and choices. He made this very clear to Israel in this passage (Lev. 26:14-36). But, even when we may stray from God’s pathway as demonstrated by Israel’s chequered history, God always provides means for return because He is faithful to His Word and covenant promises.
The Jewish race has suffered more than any other people on the face of the earth, but God has preserved them against all odds. The people of Israel live and prosper because… God is faithful to His covenant promises!
Despite global anti-Semitism, Israel is flourishing and continues to be a blessing to the world despite intense hatred towards her since her re-establishment as a sovereign state because…God is faithful to His covenant promises!
Israel is unique among the nations. Its history is not a matter of growth and decline like every other empire through the ages. Instead, it is fully dependent upon the conditions laid out here as detailed in Lev. 26. If Israel stays true to its mission, it will flourish. If not, it will suffer the consequences but never be entirely cast down.
God reminded the Israelites on various occasions that He was their God who brought them out from slavery to freedom. Within the terms set by covenant, the outcome would depend on the choices made.
God promised mercy for the Jewish people even during their exile: “Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking My covenant with them. I am the Lord their God. But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’” (Lev 26:44–45)
Dear chaverim, may each one of us as believers choose to follow in the footsteps of the Master and live in His fullness, learning from the pitfalls of Israel rather than repeating them. Our very lives may depend on it.
Raphael ben Levi
