Tag: bondservant

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Discussions Jubilee Prophets and Writings Sabbatical Year

What happens when we take Heaven’s mercy for granted (Jeremiah 16–17)

What happens when we take Heaven's mercy for granted (Jeremiah 16-17)

“It’s good to be king!” Except when invaders are about to conquer your kingdom because of your predecessors forgot Who put the crown on their heads and Who gave them the Land they ruled. The closing chapters of the Bible book of Vayiqra (Leviticus) foretell of Israel’s dystopian future, but it didn’t have to be that way. The companion passage to the Torah reading בְּהַר Behar / בְּחֻקֹּתַי Bechukotai (“on the mountain” / “in My statutes,” Leviticus 25–27), shows a moment just before that horror arrived when a king tried to reverse centuries of oppression in the Promised Land, Heaven’s mercy for Israel and the world.

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Discussions Torah

What does the Bible have to say about socialism and racism? (Deuteronomy 11:26–16:17)

What does the Bible have to say about socialism and racism? (Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17)

Socialism and racism are big topics of today’s society. Does the Bible have anything to say about these issues? Torah reading ראה Re’eh (“see,” Deut. 11:26–16:17) gives us Heaven’s insights into these two important matters.

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Discussions Torah

How to live with as much grace as the Torah commands (Exodus 21:1–24:18)

Does the Torah promote vigilantism (taking the law into your own hands)? Some years ago, those who were against Torah would ask facetious questions like, “If I see my neighbor mowing the lawn on the Shabbat, do I have permission to kill him?” This ridiculous line of argument even ended up as an episode plot for a popular show (“The Midterms,” The West Wing, October 2000). 

Are these judgments ignorant and obsolete? For example, in this section of the Torah refers to daughter literally as their father’s silver. Are daughter just the property of their fathers freely passed around and bought and sold?

We just read the “Big 10,” the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). Torah reading מִּשְׁפָּטִים Mishpatim (“judgments,” Ex. 21:1–24:18) covers case law results from the Ten Commandments. It covers how to live them out in a world of idolatry (yes, it’s even a modern problem), cruelty, oppression, selfishness, disrespect for authority, apathy and envy.

Yeshua haMashiakh (Jesus the Christ) taught that God’s second-greatest commandment is “love your neighbor as [you love] yourself” (Matt. 22:39; Mark 12:31; quoting Lev. 19:18).

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Discussions Questions Reflections on Scripture

Genesis 12–17: Abram’s ‘slaves’ aren’t like American slavery

Anti-Slavery Almanac, 1838
Illustration from the Anti-Slavery Almanac, published 1838 (Public Domain photo).

God is not an American. As we study the Torah reading לֶךְ-לְךָ‎ Lech Lecha (“get going!” Genesis 12–17), we should remember that the Bible He divinely inspired should not be interpreted through the lens of American history.

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Discussions Torah

Leviticus 19:19-34: Lessons from rules on bondservants, mixing of cloths and seeds

Richard Agee

Lev. 19:19-34 may seem like a disjointed collection of rules about managing servants, textiles and crops. But when we see that these are used as symbols elsewhere for characteristics of people, we can learn God’s lessons that transcend culture and time.

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Appointments With God Tabernacles

Bond-slaves of the Messiah

What does it mean to be a bond-slave of Yeshua? Both the TaNaK (Torah, Prophets and Writings) and the Apostolic Scriptures tell us repeatedly that we are called to be bond-slaves to God and to His Messiah, Yeshua. In this discussion, we learn a little bit about how to do this and why we should make it our life’s goal to be a bond-slave to Yeshua. The process of being Yeshua’s bond-slave even carries over into our roles during the Millennium reign of Christ and beyond.

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Discussions Torah

Exodus 21-22 — God’s view of justice and mercy on display

Nineteenth-century commentator Adam Clarke said of Exodus 21, “There is so much good sense, feeling, humanity, equity, and justice in the following laws, that they cannot but be admired by every intelligent reader; and they are so very plain as to require very little comment.” The Torah is not difficult for God’s beloved to understand and follow. These next few chapters show us many examples of laws and precepts which carried over directly into the British Common Law as well as American jurisprudence. What do we learn about God through these judgments?