KI TISA (When You Take) Ex 30:11–34:35; 1 Kings 18:1–39; Matt 9:35–11:1
All of us make unwise choices from time to time and when this happens we need to make appropriate reconciliation quickly. Sometimes, they are easily resolved and little harm is done but occasionally the consequences and ramifications can be great.
In all of this, God promises to forgive us through Yeshua when we confess our sins and turn away from them in genuine repentance. And even as we are forgiven, we forgive ourselves, and we learn to move on. A fool is not someone who makes mistakes but someone who never learns from them. But sometimes things become complicated when the consequences of our mistakes are devastating and although we receive God’s forgiveness we cannot undo the collateral damage or human suffering we may have caused. How does God respond to these kind of situations?
This week’s Parsha centres around a devastating mistake made by the Israelites which has resounded throughout the millennia and caused untold mourning for the Jewish people. The mistake concerned the creation and worship of the golden calf whilst Moses was communing with God on Mount Sinai, a sin so severe that God threatened to destroy the whole Israelite nation.
Their sin was irreversible and yet ironically, the name of the Torah portion, Ki Tisa, suggests the very opposite. Ki Tisa literally means “when you will lift up.” It refers to a headcount taken of the Israelites when they donated a half-shekel to serve as an “atonement of the soul.” (Ex 30:12) The indirect census of all males over 20 years old taken annually was conducted with the act of making a contribution of half a shekel for the building of the Tabernacle. (Ex30:13) God commanded them that, “…the rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less that half of a shekel … to make an atonement for your souls.”
Every Israelite who qualified had to give exactly one-half shekel. It was a small amount which everyone could afford.
The 10 Commandments were compared to a whole shekel, and the broken commandments to half a shekel, because it is a broken thing. God’s Law, which is perfect and complete, became incomplete in our lives due to sin. It is a beautiful picture of Yeshua who became sin for us (was broken for us by bearing our sin on the Cross) that we might become complete (righteous).
Yet none of us are perfect because we each have little broken commandments somewhere deep down in our lives. Knowledge of this is a great equaliser and keeps us humble but it also spurs us to allow God fuller access into our lives. “Who do I have in Heaven…?”
Most of us happily show our good commandments, but the broken ones we keep concealed. Sometimes, we even try to conceal them from God…
Throughout the 40-year period in the desert God never gave up on the Israelites. Neither did Moses. Even after they broke his heart by worshiping the golden calf, he never ceased beseeching God to forgive them to the point that he cried out, “And if You don’t forgive them, erase me from this book.”
The golden calf was the mascot of the Egyptian goddess “Hathor” who was the most famous goddess of Ancient Egypt. She was called “the Great One of Many Names” because she was the goddess of life, death and prosperity and was depicted as a female figure with a head or a cow.
What the Israelites sought to exchange was the ultimate counterfeit of everything which revealed God’s character. But if God could forgive the Israelites for their blasphemy and rebellion, how much more can He do so for us through the redemptive blood of Yeshua! Nothing is beyond the scope of His forgiveness!
Are we content to remain the same or are we desperate for change? Sameness was a characteristic of the Laodicean church.
This week’s Parsha refers to “Ki tisa et rosh”—“When you will lift up the head.” Our God is the lifter of our heads! Ps.3:3 If God never gives up on us, why would we ever choose to give up on Him?
