When You Go Out
Notes
Transcript
When you go out - go out from where?
When you go out - go out from where?
In today’s portion it’s when you leave that place of covering : your home, your community, your city, your country.
An opportunity to do the ‘ right thing ’ and honour your covering or to do the ‘ wrong thing ’ and dishonour your covering.
When you ignore the teaching of scripture you dishonour your covering... Yeshua.
“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?
“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?
BOOK CONTEXT
BOOK CONTEXT
Moses addresses the new generation of Israel to explain the Torah, before the second attempt to enter the land, after wandering for forty years in the wilderness.
For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.”
SECTION CONTEXT:
SECTION CONTEXT:
Laws which seem unrelated and for us, irrelevant.
You might say why scatter laws all over the book?
Why repeat and even at times change a stipulation?
Is this how God presents what He requires of us?
THE LAW
THE LAW
that the law = teaching and instruction .
Christ taught that we follow the SENSE of the law not the LETTER of the law. (Matt 5)
"Do not kill" is the letter of the law, while "do not be angry" is one sense of that law.
God wants us to have sense and not be senseless.
D.L. Moody said "The law tells me how crooked I am. Grace comes along and straightens me out."
Our Gracious God is but a cry away.
When you go out
When you go out
“When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive,
and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your wife,
then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails.
She shall put off the clothes of her captivity, remain in your house, and mourn her father and her mother a full month; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
And it shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall set her free, but you certainly shall not sell her for money; you shall not treat her brutally, because you have humbled her.
… and you see among the captives a beautiful woman,
and desire her and would take her for your wife...
Here we are ... back in the garden again!
… war against your enemies… The enemy within !
“If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and they have borne him children, both the loved and the unloved, and if the firstborn son is of her who is unloved,
then it shall be, on the day he bequeaths his possessions to his sons, that he must not bestow firstborn status on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the unloved, the true firstborn.
But he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.
Disorder in the home equals disorder in the nation
“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them,
then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city.
And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’
Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.
Israel is a rebellious son.
We are rebellious sons.
I am a rebellious son.
The Lord gives us what we want so He can show us what we need.
“A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the Lord your God.
Each time we turn away from His creation intentions, we dishonour Him and His Kingdom.
“You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together.
This is the perfect place to state that: The law is not nullified (it’s power removed) because we do not understand it!
“If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die—the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel.
The defilement of marriage is a broken covenant - it takes wondrous grace to forgive.
“When the army goes out against your enemies, then keep yourself from every wicked thing.
If there is any man among you who becomes unclean by some occurrence in the night, then he shall go outside the camp; he shall not come inside the camp.
But it shall be, when evening comes, that he shall wash with water; and when the sun sets, he may come into the camp.
“Also you shall have a place outside the camp, where you may go out;
and you shall have an implement among your equipment, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuse.
For the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and give your enemies over to you; therefore your camp shall be holy, that He may see no unclean thing among you, and turn away from you.
We can not do battle while we are defiling ourselves with ‘every wicked thing’ .
You will not have the Lord’s help to remove substance abuse while living in an immoral relationship - the Lord will not walk with you ‘to deliver you’ but‘turn away from you’.
“When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin to you.
But if you abstain from vowing, it shall not be sin to you.
That which has gone from your lips you shall keep and perform, for you voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.
“When you come into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes at your pleasure, but you shall not put any in your container.
When you come into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor’s standing grain.
Your good neighbour will accommodate you and your needs but do not take advantage of him and his hospitality.
“When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house,
when she has departed from his house, and goes and becomes another man’s wife,
if the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife,
then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
We have all been found with ‘some uncleaness’ but He has never divorced us!
“Take heed in an outbreak of leprosy, that you carefully observe and do according to all that the priests, the Levites, shall teach you; just as I commanded them, so you shall be careful to do.
Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way when you came out of Egypt!
Leprosy, a symbol of corruption within and a defaming tongue without.
And God said to Miriam ‘ if you don’t like black - how about white’!
“When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.
When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.
And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this thing.
You are blessed - now bless others.
“You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.
Do not withhold such a small portion when you have been blessed with so much!
“Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt,
how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God.
Therefore it shall be, when the Lord your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget.
We began with and end with war
Run the straight race through God’s good grace,
Lift up thine eyes, and seek His face;
Life with its way before us lies,
Christ is the path, and Christ the prize.
Haftarah Isaiah 54:1-10
Haftarah Isaiah 54:1-10
“Sing, O barren, You who have not borne! Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, You who have not labored with child! For more are the children of the desolate Than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.
“Enlarge the place of your tent, And let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; Do not spare; Lengthen your cords, And strengthen your stakes.
For you shall expand to the right and to the left, And your descendants will inherit the nations, And make the desolate cities inhabited.
“Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; Neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; For you will forget the shame of your youth, And will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore.
For your Maker is your husband, The Lord of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth.
For the Lord has called you Like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, Like a youthful wife when you were refused,” Says your God.
“For a mere moment I have forsaken you, But with great mercies I will gather you.
With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; But with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you,” Says the Lord, your Redeemer.
“For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; For as I have sworn That the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, So have I sworn That I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.
For the mountains shall depart And the hills be removed, But My kindness shall not depart from you, Nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,” Says the Lord, who has mercy on you.
Do not despair because of fruitlessness, bareness, but prepare for the future,
‘you will not be put to shame’ ‘neither be disgraced’
Gospel: Matthew 24:29-42
Gospel: Matthew 24:29-42
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
“Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.
So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors!
Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.
But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left.
Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.
Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
We need to be prepared
‘He who overcomes....’ ‘He who has an ear...’
But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’
and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards,
the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of,