Parasha Mishpatim 5782

Me

Every restaurant I ever worked in I had this really odd habit of becoming a trainer… And generally speaking, this would usually occur within a couple of weeks of me starting there. New servers would get hired and then I’d have the opportunity to mold them into the server that that particular company wanted them to be.

Each restaurant has its own way of doing things. They all have certain things they want done and in certain ways. They all have certain wording they want used, and certain procedures they want followed. And it would be a part of my job to make sure the new servers coming in were equipped and prepared to conform the company’s expectations.

For instance, back in the day I worked for O’Charley’s (which is a vastly different place than when I worked there), and one of the unique things we did there was that we were suppose to take special care of children so that they would fall in love with O’Charley’s and want to come back, and thus drive their parents nuts until they got to come back. So, we’d greet the kids at the table also, not just the parents. We’d give them coloring pages to keep them entertained, we’d bring their food out first so they weren’t sitting there becoming bored, and we’d give them a free desert. Then to top it off, kids always ate free, so when the kids wanted to come back the parents would be a little more willing to acquiesce.

So, as a trainer, I always preferred training new servers who had no experience in restaurants over those who just came from another company, because with a completely green trainee I didn’t have to train old habits out of them, I didn’t have to undue all the procedures they had learned from another restaurant that didn’t work in our company. I got to start with a clean sleight and build them into the server we wanted them to be.

And I’m not going to lie… At times I kind of wish I could have the same experience as a disciple maker… Imagine how much easier it would be to make a disciple of someone who had absolutely no bad habits, no baggage, no worldly tendencies they needed to work through…

We

But, truth be told, as we know all too personally, this will never be the case. In fact, we all come into the Body of Messiah with all kinds of baggage from our old man, from our old ways of life, from what we have done to others and what others have done to us… We all come in broken, with wounds, with trust issues, with old ways and habits that are constantly threatening to poke their heads up and throw our walk with the Lord off track…

As awesome as it would be to have the opportunity to disciple someone whom the world has never had the opportunity to ruin, this side of the Kingdom that will never be a reality. We all have old ways, ungodly ways we have to unlearn—sometimes over and over again, and sometimes painfully—in order to truly become the image bearer of Messiah that we are called to be.

God

This week we read Parasha Mishpatim, Exodus 21:1-24:18, and, interestingly, this parasha alone covers 53 of the 613 Mitzvot of Torah, which is just short of 10% of all the Torah’s commandments. Of those 53 commands, 23 are imperative and 30 are prohibitions. In this list of Mishpatim we find commandments dealing with everything from how to treat a slave should one have one (though I do not believe the Scriptures ever condoned slavery), to how to make restitution if your animal harms another person or damages someone’s field, to how to handle a situation of a thief dying mid-robbery, to not leaving your enemy’s ox or donkey stranded if you find it away from the owner, to how to treat an outsider in the midst of Israel.

Realistically, from Exodus 21 through the first half of 23 what we really see are the Aseret HaDibrot broken down into situational issues. Pretty much everything found in the first three chapters of Parasha Mishpatim are further illustrations of how to live out the Aseret HaDibrot in daily practice.

Exodus 23:14-17 lays out the Shalosh Regalim, the three pilgrimage feasts of Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot. This is followed by Adonai’s promise to lead the way for Israel into the Promised Land and a reminder to be careful to uphold His ways when we are in the Land and not to strive to be like the nations He is dispossessing in front of us.

Exodus 24 is a continuation on what we read at the tail end of Exodus 20 after the Nation of Israel hears the Bat Kol speak forth the Aseret HaDibrot and becomes terrified of God’s voice and demands Moses receive the rest of what He has to say and we will obey Adonai’s word through Moses. So here in chapter 24 the Lord calls Moses to come up into His Presence on the mountain so he can be given the rest of the Covenant. And Moses spends 40 days and 40 nights on the mountain in the Presence of God receiving a divine download of the rest of Torah.

And if we had more time we could literally spend hours upon hours digging through Parasha Mishpatim, especially looking at the correlations between Mishpatim and the Aseret HaDibrot. But, today I want to spend our time focused on a specific reality we find in Mishpatim, one that I think is probably underplayed way more than it should be.

As we dig into this today I want us to keep a very essential principle in mind...

Discipleship is not quick, it is a lifelong process of faithfully walking with the Lord.

(Repeat)

So let’s dig into the Word together...

Exodus 23:20–23 TLV

“Behold, I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way and to bring you into the place that I have prepared. Watch for Him and listen to His voice. Do not rebel against Him because He will not pardon your transgression, for My Name is in Him. But if you listen closely to His voice, and do everything I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. For My angel will go before you, and bring you to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and the Jebusites, and I will cut them off.

Israel has just encounter the Presence of God at Mount Sinai and as a community heard the Bat Kol speaking from the mountain. Ultimately the Lord has brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt in order to bring them into the Promised Land so that the promises He has spoken over Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob could become reality for their descendants.

In last week’s Parasha we see Adonai speak audibly to the Nation, then Israel becomes frightened and they demand Moses receive the rest of the Torah on their behalf. They declare that everything Adonai speaks through Moses we will do. But, we all know what is looming right around the corner in Exodus 32, the Egel HaZahav, the Golden Calf—one of the greatest sins Israel could have ever committed.

If you pay close attention to what the Lord says here it may sound somewhat familiar…

Exodus 23:20 TLV

“Behold, I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way and to bring you into the place that I have prepared.

This is not entirely unlike the statement the Lord makes to Moses in Exodus 33, after the Egel HaZahav, when He says that He will send an angel to lead Israel to the Promised Land, but He Himself will not go with them. Then Moses intercedes on Israel’s behalf and the Lord renews His promise to go with them. But, there is one unique aspect that is different between these two accounts: that is that in Exodus 23 Israel has not sinned with the Golden Calf yet, so this mention of an angel leading Israel is not for the expressed purpose of the removal of HaShem’s Presence from Israel. So there must be something else to this discussion of a Malach leading Israel here.

Jewish and Christian traditions have long discussed exactly who this angel mentioned in Exodus 23 could be in reference to. Some have said that this mention of an angel is Adonai alluding to the sin of the Egel HaZahav as a literary tool for cohesiveness in the Torah. Others have said that the Malach (which most literally translates to messenger) was Moses himself who would lead Israel through the wilderness, then the role of Malach was transitioned to Joshua who would actually lead Israel into the Promised Land.

But, Rambam and Or HaChaim held to the belief that the angel spoken of in this verse was not the one with which God threatened after the sin of the Egel HaZahav. Rather, this was the highest of all angels, the one through whom God guided and protected the Patriarchs, and the one upon whom God rests His Name, the highest manifestation of His Presence.

In other words, one might interpret Rambam’s and Or HaChaim’s position as to say that the Angel that HaShem is referring to is the very Shechinah, the Divine Presence of Adonai—that God Himself will lead Israel, which is vastly different from the threat made in Exodus 33. And, to this end, as verse 21 and 22 says…

Exodus 23:21–22 TLV

Watch for Him and listen to His voice. Do not rebel against Him because He will not pardon your transgression, for My Name is in Him. But if you listen closely to His voice, and do everything I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

When we read this in consideration of the Messianic prophecy found in Deuteronomy 18 of a prophet like Moses, Rambam’s and Or HaChaim’s interpretation becomes very interesting...

Deuteronomy 18:15–19 TLV

“Adonai your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst—from your brothers. To him you must listen. This is just what you asked of Adonai your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly when saying, ‘I cannot continue to hear the voice of Adonai my God or see this great fire any more, or I will die.’ “Adonai said to me, ‘They have done well in what they have spoken. I will raise up a prophet like you for them from among their brothers. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will speak to them all that I command him. Now whoever does not listen to My words that this prophet speaks in My Name, I Myself will call him to account.

Notice how similar the directives here are between listening to and obeying the words of the Malach in Exodus 23 and the Navi like Moses in Deuteronomy 18. And with this, the use of the wording of Exodus 23:21 which in Hebrew reads: Hishamer mipanav ush’ma b’kolo al-tameir bo ki lo yisa l’phish’achem ki sh’mi b’kirbo.

Exodus 23:21 TLV

Watch for Him and listen to His voice. Do not rebel against Him because He will not pardon your transgression, for My Name is in Him.

The word translated “watch” is from the root word Shamar, which means “to keep, guard, watch, or preserve”. The word translated “listen” is from the root word shama which means to hear and react. The word translated as “rebel” is interestingly from the root word marar meaning to be bitter (the same root word we use in the Passover Seder for the bitter herbs—like the horseraddish). The Lord is telling Israel to listen to this Angel’s voice and to react by guarding His ways, He tells Israel we are not to make ourselves a bitterness before Him because if we do He will not forgive our transgressions. And you may be asking yourself the question, “Well, if he’s just and angel how can he forgive our sin?” The Lord answers this question with the last part of this verse, ki sh’mi b’pirbo—for My Name is in Him…

I lean heavily toward the thought process of Rambam and Or HaChaim here… I believe this Malach, this messenger, mentioned in Exodus 23 is not the same type of Malach the Lord threatens with in Exodus 33. In fact, I believe this Malach is so much more, I believe He is the very Presence of God seen in the Pillar of Fire and Cloud which leads Israel through the Wilderness, the very same Presence they are seeing upon Mountain Sinai, the very same Presence they later see rest upon the Holy of Holies in the Mishkan. More so, I believe this Malach to be what some might call the preincarnate Yeshua—or the prophetic precursor or foreshadowing of Yeshua.

I think this is seen in the realization that Yeshua came in the Name of the Lord, and is why we see a correlation between a tentative reaction to the idea that this Malach can forgive sin and the Pharisees and Sadducees hearing Yeshua tell people their sins are forgiven and being so confused on how a man could forgive sins as though He were God.

And if we consider this possibility that the Malach being mentioned here in Exodus 23 is the Shechinah of Hashem, and more so a precursor or foreshadowing of Messiah, or potentially (as I believe is likely) the preincarnate Yeshua (especially considering Colossians 1:15 says Yeshua is the visible image of the invisible God), then the next several verses begin to make so much more sense. Because not only are these next few verses a foundation for the Blessings and Curses we read in Deuteronomy 28-30, but it is also a roadmap of discipleship both for B’nei Yisrael awaiting entrance to the Promised Land and for you and I, both natural and unnatural branches grafted into Israel through the Blood Atonement of Yeshua.

Exodus 23:21–22 TLV

Watch for Him and listen to His voice. Do not rebel against Him because He will not pardon your transgression, for My Name is in Him. But if you listen closely to His voice, and do everything I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

Then Moses goes on to further explain this from verses 24-33. And for the sake of time, you have all been given a sheet of paper with the correlations of verses 24-33 in various colors. This is roadmap of these verses which shows us the covenant promises and expectations that the Lord is laying out before Israel. You’ll notice each of these verses are laid out with color coding showing how they cover the same concepts working from outside to inside of these verses.

And what I think is so important to grasp here, especially in consideration of the correlation between the covenant promise of the Promised Land and the reality of walking in discipleship in the covenant Promise of Salvation in Israel’s Messiah, is this:

We notice that He says in verse 24 that we are not to bow down to the God’s of the people of Cannan, then in verse 33 He clarifies that this is because they will be a snare for us.

Verse 24 says to utterly dispose of these idols, verse 33 says they are not to be left in the Land because they will cause Israel to sin.

Verse 25 says to serve Adonai alone (which is also the beginning of the Aseret HaDibrot) and verse 32 says to not given into their gods.

Verses 25 and 26 gives us the explanation of what will happen if we are faithful—we will be blessed in the Land, and verse 32 reiterates this idea of blessing by confirming His promised boundaries.

In verse 27 Adonai says he will go before us and miraculously provide victory against our enemies, and in verse 30 He reaffirms this promise but says He will not do it all at once, but rather little by little until we are fruitful.

And finally verse 28 says He will drive out all our enemies from before us, and verse 29 specifies what will be expounded upon in verse 30, that He will not drive them out all at once so that we can have time for our roots to develop and the fruit of our hearts to be cultivated.

In my opinion, this is such a perfect image of discipleship… Our forgiveness and Salvation are instantaneous, but our discipleship is a lifetime of development. It takes work, effort, dependability, personal discipline, and accountability.

Discipleship is not quick, it is a lifelong process of faithfully walking with the Lord.

This is a vital reality to learn, and one we can study through the rise and fall Israel in the Promised Land as a perfect case study. Israel enters into the Promised Land and were gung ho in battle… Then they started to settle and develop the land they had acquired, and eventually they got comfortable and complacent and they didn’t actually rid the land of all the Canaanites… Instead they left some remaining scattered about the Land and sure enough, just as God said would happen, when we compromised on God’s instructions we became complacent and we began to give into the pagan practices of the Canaanites. And we especially see this as we read through the Kings of Judah and Israel in Kings and Chronicles.

Our walk with the Lord is exactly the same. We cannot repent and accept Yeshua’s salvation and then think that that is the end-all-be-all in our faith walk. In fact, there must actually be a walk with forward progress, that begins and continues after. This is where discipleship comes into the picture. Think of Salvation and initial repentance as being equivalent to Israel initially taking control of the Land. And if that’s the case, then our discipleship is equivalent to Israel pressing into taking full control of the Land and ridding it of all of the idols and high places of Canaan, which God told them would not happen overnight but rather would take time and patience.

See, we have to be careful and intentional in the same way in our lives as believers today. It is possible to become comfortable and complacent in our Salvation and end up forsaking the rest of the process. Just like God said He wasn’t going to give Israel all the land immediately, but rather little by little, the same is true in our walk with the Lord… It is a little by little process and we must continue daily to press further and further into His Presence. We must continue to not bow down to the gods of the world around us; we must continue to strive not to live like the world around us—to be set apart righteous and holy; we must continue to utterly overthrow the ways of the world in our life and to break down all the high places; we must continue to serve Adonai our God with every ounce of our being day in and day out. And if we are faithful in our discipleship then He will be faithful to rid our lives of everything of this fallen world little by little and He will bless us and our lives and make us fruitful for His Kingdom.

To this end, in Luke 9 we see a powerful call for discipleship from Yeshua for His followers…

Luke 9:23–24 TLV

Then Yeshua was saying to everyone, “If anyone wants to follow Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross every day, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.

Yeshua outlines for us what discipleship should look like: a disciple of Yeshua will deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Yeshua. A disciples does not cleave to the ways of this world or to their old nature, their old man… A disciples is striving through the Ruach to become more and more like Yeshua, to emulate Yeshua. The reason Yeshua says to pick up our cross daily is because this is a lifelong process of sanctification, a lifelong perfecting process. We must be willing to give God complete control, to follow His lead in all things, and to trust that little by little He will rid us of all worldliness… But it is a little by little process, daily we are being recreated more and more in His image and likeness.

Likewise, the author of Hebrews encourages us to walk faithfully in discipleship daily…

Hebrews 3:12–19 TLV

Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you has an evil heart of unbelief that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day by day—as long as it is called “Today”—so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partners of Messiah, if we hold our original conviction firm until the end. As it is said, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” Now which ones heard and rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt with Moses? And with whom was He provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest? Was it not to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter in because of lack of trust.

And he calls us to be a partner in the ministry of Yeshua, to hear His voice and to not harden our hearts against Him.

Listen to me Mishpacha, if we are faithful to remain in Messiah, to strive to emulate Him day in and day out, to allow the Ruach HaKodesh full reign in our hearts, to grow, develop, and mature in our discipleship then we will see much fruit bearing forth for His Kingdom. The world around us will see His work alive and well within us, they will see His power and presence, and they will be drawn to the work of redemption we have experienced.

To this end may we take Paul’s words in Romans 12 to heart as we allow God to tear down all the spiritual strongholds and high places still remaining in our hearts and lives and to form us more and more according to His Will and His ways.

Romans 12:1–2 TLV

I urge you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice—holy, acceptable to God—which is your spiritual service. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Discipleship is not quick, it is a lifelong process of faithfully walking with the Lord.

You

So let me ask you a question today… Looking at you life and your walk with the Lord today, have you become complacent in the progress you’ve made thus far in your walk with the Lord and decided now is the time just kick back, relax, and become comfortable?

Are there areas of your life that have become strongholds and high places that you’ve stopped just short of toppling?

Are you truly serving God fully and allowing Him to steadily rid your heart of your old nature each and every day? Or are you satisfied trying to simply find a way to live with one foot walking with God and one foot trying to stay in the world?

Are you ready to topple the strongholds in your life and to give God full control? To allow His Ruach HaKodesh to truly do a work of recreation in you?

We

If our worship team will make their way back up to the stage. (Unmute the worship team)

I know I say this a lot, but I do so because I believe it to be true… We are living in extraordinary times… I believe we are living in an end-time reality… And our discipleship is so much more important today than you or I could ever imagine. The world around us is spiraling down the toilet, and more rapidly so every single day. We are watching as false teachers are turning people away from Yeshua left and right (just as He warned). We are watching as light turns to darkness, as hearts grow cold, as the world gives into lawlessness, as brother turn against brother, and so much more…

But, in spite of all of this, you and I as followers of Yeshua still have a very important call upon our lives… And it isn’t a call solely for rabbis and pastors, or evangelists, or missionaries—it is a divine call for all who have called upon the Name of Yeshua for Salvation.

Matthew 28:19–20 TLV

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, immersing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Ruach ha-Kodesh, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. And remember! I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

And the same message the Lord spoke to Israel in Exodus 23:20-33 is still being spoken to us today… 2000 years after the ultimate fulfillment of the promise to send Malach and Navi before us who we are to listen to and heed the voice of, who we now recognize to be fulfilled in the person of Yeshua HaMashiach, we are still being called to guard our hearts and our lives and to heed His voice and do everything He says. And to be disciples who make disciples who do the same. I believe this to the the reality of Paul’s words we read earlier from Romans 12...

Romans 12:1–2 TLV

I urge you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice—holy, acceptable to God—which is your spiritual service. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Today is the day for each of us to make the decision to stop trying to walk with one foot in the world and one foot in the Lord… Today is the day to give Him our all and trust in Him to be our All-in-All. Today is the day to answer His call be set apart righteous and holy. Today is the day because we are never promised tomorrow.