Ex. 21:1–24:18. Num. 28:9-15 Isa. 66:1-24
By Raphael ben Levi
The late Jonathan Sacks tells a story about an ultra-nationalist party in Hungary known as Jobbik which is deeply racist and anti-semitic. Until 2012 one of its leading members was a politician in his late 20s, Csanad Szegedi. But one day Szegedi discovered he was a Jew. His maternal grandparents were Jewish survivors of Auschwitz and half of his family were killed during the Holocaust.
After Auschwitz his grandparents, who had been Orthodox Jews, decided to hide their identity completely. When his mother was 14, her father told her the secret but made her promise not to reveal it to anyone.
What was Szegedi to do about the truth that had been revealed about himself that contradicted all his beliefs he had cherished and fought for? How could he now deal with the deeply rooted anti-Semitism that he so actively promoted? The truth about his Jewish ancestry with the realisation that he was Jewish shattered his life and transformed his understanding of the world.
The Torah emphasises the point time and again: the rabbis said that the command to love the stranger appears 36 times in the Torah. Note that these commands are given shortly after the exodus. Implicit in them is a very radical idea. Caring for the stranger is why the Israelites had to experience exile and slavery before they could enter the Promised Land and build their own society and identity. We cannot succeed in caring for the stranger until we know what it feels like to be a stranger as we are reminded every year at Pesach. Those who forget what it feels like to be a stranger, eventually come to oppress strangers.
This is what happened to Csanad: role reversal. He was a hater of Jews who discovered that he belonged among the hated. What cured him of antisemitism was his role-reversing discovery that he was a Jew that for him was a life-changing event. The Torah tells us that the experience of the Israelites in Egypt was meant to be life-changing as well. Having lived and suffered as strangers, the Jews became the people commanded to care for strangers.
The best way of curing antisemitism is to get people to experience what it feels like to be a Jew. And the best way to cure those who oppose the love of God is for them to experience the love of God firsthand. And He does so most frequently through you and me. God’s love can be tough but it’s also protective as likened to an eagle bearing her young upon her as she soars through the sky. (“I carried you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself.”) She doesn’t carry her young in her claws like other birds but the baby eagles attach themselves to the back of the mother eagle and because of this they are protected. Any arrow from a hunter must pass through the mother eagle before it can touch the eaglets who are perched on her back.
God’s plan for Israel, His special treasure was not merely to be a people with a unique place in His eternal purposes. His plan was for them to experience the fullness of His glory. And this could only be realised by carefully obeying the terms of His promises as reflected in His Word. This was similar to the yearning Paul had for every believer: “17 I pray that the glorious Father, the God of Yeshua the Messiah, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know Him better. 18 Then …you will know the confidence that he calls you to have and the glorious wealth that God’s people will inherit. …the unlimited greatness of his power as it works with might and strength for us as believers.” (Eph1:17-18)
The Israelites were separated from the world, set apart as holy unto God. This has been a work in progress with many ups and downs throughout Jewish history but it will ultimately lead to their salvation. In context, their history of suffering and persecution may appear strange and bizarre – God’s tough love – a mystery sometimes with no apparent meaning. Yet, as we take, for example, the events of October 7th, we can see a glimmer of light though it may be just a flicker that God is using in the current situation in Israel to be melting the hearts of many Israelis from those who were entirely secular to people whose hearts are being softened and turning to God. I do not know why God allowed the Holocaust. Could He not have done something different to gain the attention of the Jewish people? They have been searching agonisingly for answers for over 80 years without discovering a comprehensive explanation. Why did God appear to have abandoned them? Yet out of the ashes of the Holocaust was reborn the nation of Israel – one segment of truth – because even in the midst of the fiery furnace, God is in control. And so with October 7th. And we know that the end has already been written for God is in full control even in the midst of imaginations that defy human understanding, and ultimately it will lead to the moment when “all Israel shall be saved.” So too for us as believers, God will use our plusses and even our minuses – our failings and weaknesses as the Master Potter to mould us into a unique and beautiful vessel for Him, a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” – (2 Tim.2:21)
The Israelites initial response to the words of God and His condition for blessings reverberated with enthusiasm! “Everything Adonai has said, we will do!” (19:7) So too, our initial response to God’s challenges presented to us are often unequivocal, yet our enthusiasm can easily wane when we are confronted in full force with the implications because the cost of discipleship can be very messy, usually inconvenient, and sacrificial demanding our all in every aspect of life. Paul urges us to be a ‘living sacrifice,’ which is our “reasonable service” that we might prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
The Israelites responded with just two Hebrew words; na’aseh v’nishma, literally, “we will do and we will hear” (Ex.24:7) and they said this before they had heard or understood the implications of the terms. They were so enthusiastic that they agreed to His demands before knowing what they were!
“We will do and we will hear.” This is the essence of biblical faith as defined in Heb.11:1: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the reality of things not seen” which Paul undergirds as a pre-requisite for a living relationship with Yeshua (Rom.1:19), “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed in a way that awakens more faith]. As it is written and forever remains written, “THE JUST and UPRIGHT SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” And He qualifies this revelation quoting directly from Hab.2:4 “The Just shall live by faith.” God is challenging us to take a risk and place our full trust in Him even when we may be experiencing the dryness of the wilderness.
The world has these things in reverse and dictates that we must always fully understand what we are committing ourselves to before making any commitment. This may appear true as a life principle but it doesn’t always work that way in the Kingdom of God. Paul said in Rom.11, “Do not allow the world to squeeze you in its mould (do not be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” for as Paul writes in 1Cor.3:19, “… the wisdom of this world is foolishness (absurdity, stupidity) before God.”
It is an easy thing to become resigned to obeying God’s laws instead of delighting in them. In Ps.40:7-8, David declared (something that was also prophetic regarding Yeshua the coming Messiah), “Behold, I come [to the throne]; In the scroll of the book it is written of me.“I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.” The entire 176 verses of Ps.119 are devoted to expressing the psalmist’s delight in God’s Torah as characterised in the opening two verses: “You’re only truly happy when you walk in total integrity, walking in the light of God’s word. What joy overwhelms everyone who keeps the ways of God, those who seek him as their heart’s passion!” Yes indeed, the joy of the Lord is truly our strength!
The Psalmist understood that obeying God’s laws is the greatest thing in life. Paul made clear his ambition to “know Yeshua and the power His resurrection…” and the road map is God’s Word. It begins with choosing to love God with all our heart, mind and strength that overflows into the lives of others, our neighbour, even unto those who are our enemies.
There is no better example of reckless and prodigal love than with the life of Peter whose relationship with Yeshua was exposed as falling far short from the dynamic reality he thought it was prior to Yeshua’s resurrection. Following his denial of Yeshua he was tormented by his failure through the demons who confounded his ability to claw his way back into a place of restoration and redemption? To admit one’s failure is not an easy thing and it takes humility to find redemption in the midst of failure. In the story of the Prodigal Son, the father was seen running to meet his son who he saw returning. This is the only time in Scripture where we see that God is in a hurry! It was considered undignified for an older man to pull up his robes to run. In a spontaneous act of grace and mercy, the father humiliated himself before the community so his son would be spared their harsh judgment. When he got to him, he kissed him repeatedly – a social convention of reconciliation between two disputing parties. The father’s love was so great that he paid no thought to defile himself by reaching out for physical contact with a wayward son smeared with the stench of unclean animals. Here we see the Abba element of God’s love in full display.
Following His resurrection, Yeshua asked Peter three times: “Do you love Me?” Until thus point Peter had failed miserably. Three times he had denied Yeshua so how would he now respond? With deep sorrow, he acknowledged to Yeshua that his love fell far short of what he had presupposed. There is a startling revelation lost in translation when one looks at the Greek words for “love” that appears in this conversation in Jn.21:15–17. Initially, Yeshua asked Peter, “Do you love me?” employing the Greek word agape, meaning unconditional love whose source is Divine. Both times, Peter responded with “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you,” using the Greek word phileo, which refers to brotherly love. Yeshua was gently telling Peter as His disciples he must love Him unconditionally in order to fulfil the destiny and calling upon his life. The third time Yeshua asked Peter, “Do you love me?” And this time He uses the word phileo, and Peter blurted out “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you,” again using phileo. In this short conversation, Yeshua was offered Peter with a new beginning from where he would never look back – to move him from phileo to agape love. What Yeshua asked Peter was not only to question whether he loved Him but how much he loved Him because referencing the command contained in Deut.6:5.
God has provided us with His ‘laser beam’ – His Holy Spirit which is ‘a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.’ We all hate the darkness yet how many times do we beg the Lord not to shine His searchlight too brightly lest it exposes the intents of our hearts and the sin that so easily besets us! How many times have we too squirmed when God has focused our attention with the same question? “How much do you love Me?” It’s something so pivotal as God penetrates our being with His intense gaze awaiting our response. The point is that unless we choose to love God unconditionally albeit imperfectly it may seem, we will never experience His fullness. To love Him with all our heart, soul and strength is a command; to go beyond it is optional!
After choosing to love God with all one heart, soul and strength we are faced with loving one’s neighbour as oneself, not an easy thing to do! In fact the impossibility of it becomes all the more complicated when we realise that ones neighbour includes one’s enemy. Yeshua made this abundantly clear in His parable of the Good Samaritan in Lk.10. But we cannot side-step Yeshua’s words: “This is my commandment that you love one another, even (just as) I have loved you so shall you love one another.” (Jn.15:12)
This begs the question what it means to love one’s enemy? We could spend many sessions examining this issue and Yeshua had much to share on this subject but suffice it to say that agape love does not differentiate between people. It’s when we love our enemies and “pray for those who persecute us,” that we truly reveal the lordship of Yeshua who said, “I say to you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which spitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Matt.5:44) This is well illustrated in Ex.23:4,5: “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering off, you must bring it back to him. 5 If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall not leave the man to deal with it [alone]; you must help him release the animal [from its burden].”
By the way, when Yeshua said “You have heard it said, ’love your neighbour and hate your enemy,” he was not quoting directly from Scripture. Yeshua was not twisting the Torah but simply defending what God commanded against the teachings and practices of his day where He was addressing faulty interpretations of the Law.
After commanding us to love our enemies, Yeshua followed with another directive: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (τέλειος) (Matt.5:48). This is utterly impossible for any human being yet, it’s exactly what the Law itself demanded (James 2:10). So why would Yeshua demand the impossible? He later tells us, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matt.19:26). And here is the good news: what is impossible for man becomes possible for those who yield their lives to Yeshua, through the power of the Ruach ha Kodesh who rules and reigns in our hearts.
In closing I want to share a brief thought from Jn.15:15, towards the end of Yeshua’s public ministry. He told His disciples something astounding: “You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning.”
Throughout the NT the word slave, or servant (doulos) is used metaphorically to someone who is absolutely devoted to Yeshua – those who had servant hearts that was entirely “owned” by their Divine Master.
God has given us His Torah and is searching for a broken people who are unreservedly committed to serving Him. In Scripture they are referred to as servants – those with a servant-heart (Abram – Gen. 26:24; Num. 12:7; Joshua – Josh. 24:29; David – 2 Sam. 7:5; and Isaiah – Isai. 20:3. Even Yeshua Himself is referred to as God’s Servant in Isai 53:11. In all cases the term servant carries the idea of one who is yoked to the Master, an old Jewish phrase meaning someone so absolutely devoted that he allows the dust of His Rabbi’s sandals to cover him.It is an expression meaning that you desire to walk so closely behind Him that your footsteps are placed in his footprints on the dusty roads of Israel … so that as his feet kicks up the dust on the pathway, it is caught by the air of his movements and as you walk through it, the dust clings to your clothing.
Paul, Timothy, James, Peter, and Jude all describe themselves as “servants of Yeshua” (Rom; Phil; James 1:1; 2 Pet 1:1; Jude 1:1) in their opening letters.
So when Yeshua spoke to His disciples about friendship in John 14 “I no longer call you servants, but friends,” He shared with them something that was staggering. To be a friend of Yeshua means that He trusts us; He confides in us because friends share secrets. Friendship is greater than servanthood because a servant is compelled to serve but a friend voluntarily lays down his life.
To be a servant of the Living God is to be afforded an honour way beyond our imaginations but runs short of the best He has for our lives. So when Yeshua referred to the possibility of having a higher status above that of a servant, to close friendship, He was saying something staggering. True friends trust one another. We confide in Him and He confides in us because this is what friends do. Do you realise that God regards each one of us as His best friend? I never had a best friend in my life until I met Yeshua but it took me a lifetime to discover the Divine quality of that friendship – one that wraps us up in His infinite embrace – who cares for the smallest details of our lives and always provides us with the very best even though it may sometimes appear disguised. Whenever I reflect upon His friendship it totally wrecks me and I find it unbearable because I know I can never match up to it on my side knowing that He is forever faithful. Even when we are faithless He remains faithful… And yet His love is something I can never live without for even for a moment.
It’s all about “Amazing grace” in the present tense – amazing grace that saved a wretch like me and continues to save me both now and in the future. Only the unimaginable love of God could ever have conceived of such a thing, reaching to the deepest depths of the soul to redeem that which is unredeemable.
We become God’s friend when we simply choose to place Him first in our lives unreservedly and unconditionally. It means embracing the ‘fellowship of His sufferings’ not just His resurrection power; trusting Him with all of our heart not just those parts that are safe and convenient; walking in His ways even in the midst of perplexity when everything is crashing around us.
Yeshua is available as our friend for those who are hungry enough and thirsty for a deeper relationship with Him rather than second best. To be known in eternity as one who counted it worth everything to be known as His friend.
